The Thirteenth Tale

It is not very often when I discover a modern novel which I find absolutely intriguing.

So, when my best friend, Jenn, recommended The Thirteenth Tale to me, I didn't get my hopes up.

It turns out, I was pleasantly surprised after reading it.



The Thirteenth Tale, written by Diane Setterfield, is one of the most captivating and stimulating novels to be released in the past decade.

This gothic suspense novel revolves around the reclusive and magnificent best-selling British author, Vida Winter, who randomly approaches Margaret Lea, a simple book store clerk, to write her biography. Margaret slowly unfolds Miss Winter's dark secrets from her mysterious and troubled past. The truth about this author's life lurks at every corner and the shockingly strange clues collected on the journey leave the reader hungrily turning the pages for more.

It is a book that delves into the complicated world of identical twins. It looks into the psyche of identical twins and the enviable bond they share which non-twins cannot even fathom.

The novel is also an ode to British literature in general, giving shout-outs to classic literature, such as The Woman in White and Middlemarch.

If you love deliciously haunting novels and British literature, you should definitely read The Thirteenth Tale.

This novel especially increased my fascination with identical twins.



We live in a world where twins are not a big deal. After all, a lot of couples who use fertility pills have multiples.

But we also live in a world where identical twins are a rare phenomenon. They are incredibly uncommon.

I mean, not even Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are identical twins. They are fraternal.



Most twins in this world are created because two fertilized eggs are implanted on the uterus wall at the same time. Identical twins, however, are created when one egg is fertilized, but then divides.



It is a common theory, even amongst a lot of identical twins themselves, that they are bound to each other because they were supposed to be the same person.

They can finish each other's sentences. They have the same thoughts. Their instincts and mannerisms are very similar.



Oddly enough, sometimes identical twins can display opposite behavior, which, if you put the twins together, would make a well-rounded person. For example, one twin could be extremely outgoing and likable, while the other twin is quiet and a loner. Or, one twin could be really kind and generous, while the other twin is mean-spirited and cold.



While scientists cannot prove this theory, it has been a common theme among identical twins throughout history.

It reminds me of an episode of the Tyra Banks talk show I saw a few months ago, where she interviewed these identical twins who were so obsessed with being identical (same clothes, hair style, etc.) that they even admitted they wanted to be sewn together, like Siamese twins.

That steel bond, that intense craving to be the same person, was so powerful inside of these girls, it startled me.

I can't imagine what it would be like to not feel...whole. Mentally and physically.

Do you have an identical twin? If not, do you wish you had one?

Stylish Blogger Award!

My talented friend Katie recently gave me the Stylish Blogger Award. I'm very honored and thankful for the gesture. I highly recommend checking out Katie's blog because her illustrations are phenomenal!

Here is the award:



With this award, you are supposed to divulge seven unknown facts about yourself and then pass the award on to seven more stylish bloggers.

Here we go:

1. My favorite dessert is bananas smothered in peanut butter.

2. I called my neighbor the wrong name for two years and he never corrected me.

3. I hate snow.

4. I collect Marilyn Monroe wine.

5. I don't think James Franco is cute anymore.

6. My biggest fear in life is ending up alone. It's slowly coming true.

7. I only have two real friends and they both live four hours away from me in opposite directions.

The following seven bloggers (in no particular order) I am passing this award on to:

1. Cactus and Cucumber
2. The Black Label
3. Amber's Mouthwash
4. Fashion.MakeUp.Lifestyle
5. The Fabulous Life of Not-So-Rich and Infamous
6. Glam Kitten's Litter Box
7. Absofuckinglutely

My Guest Post

If you love me, you'll check out my fabulous guest post over at Amber's Mouthwash. Click here: http://ambersmouthwash.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-said-dont-stop-do-punk-rock-by.html

Polish Movie Posters

Most movie posters in the United States are downright boring.

They show the movie stars and share a cheesy catch-phrase or perhaps a one-liner from a movie reviewer.

The brilliant people in Poland, however, do things a little more fabulously.

Movie posters in Eastern Europe are artwork. The creators put so much heart and soul and hard work into them, the results are astounding.

They create movie posters which belong in art museums, much less movie theaters.

Some of the movie posters are obvious and others are conceptual, illustrating the soul of the film as a puzzle which needs to be carefully unraveled.

I recently stumbled upon the website, Polish Posters Shop, which features hundreds of these phenomenal treasures. I think they would make perfect decoration for any home or office.

Here are my favorites:



















There were many posters which I found perplexing, yet stunning. A simple glance at the poster does not reveal which film is being portrayed.

Can you guess the movie?












The answers are:

Weekend at Bernie's
Fatal Attraction
Flipper
Breakfast at Tiffany's


Did you get any of those right? Do you prefer these movie posters over American posters?

Driving Lessons

I have a secret very few people know:

I almost had a nervous breakdown when I learned how to drive.

You see, when I was 16, I enrolled in the wrong Driver's Education course. I entered a program created for male high school athletes that was intended to curb the state's number of rising drunk driving accidents. (I did not know this at the time.)

The program consisted of 12 classes and 10 one-on-one driving lessons. I was the only girl in class.

The instructor was Dave, a retired college football coach. His face was red, like a strawberry, and he always wore a scowl on his face.

When I had my first driving lesson with Coach Dave, I was incredibly nervous. I didn't really know what I was doing and Dave kept grumbling under his breath, which made me even more nervous.

We drove around for 30 minutes and his grumbling got louder and louder. At one point he told me to pick up my speed because I was driving like a little girl.

As soon as I turned right onto a busy street, Dave shouted at me, "PUT ON YOUR GODDAMN TURN SIGNAL! ALWAYS PUT ON YOUR TURN SIGNAL!"

I had never had a person scream at me in such a monstrous way before and I burst into tears. I had to pull over on the side of the road because I was sobbing so hard.

Coach Dave was silent while I gathered myself together.

"I'm sorry," he said, gruffly. "I'm not used to dealing with young ladies. I was harsh on you."

He instructed me to pull through a McDonald's drive-thru and he bought me a chocolate ice cream cone as a peace offering. I'm not going to lie, it cheered me up.

From then on, the driving lessons were somewhat endurable. His voice raised on several occasions and his face would turn bright red, but I could tell that he was trying to make an effort not to erupt on me like before.

The classes, however, were a different story.



Since the class was based on preventing reckless driving amongst male teenage athletes, it based its importance on shock value. We were shown real footage of burning wrecks, with charred bodies and blood in the street.

We were also shown "this could be you" mini-movies, with plots like:

-A group of jocks were driving in a convertible along a highway, drinking beer and laughing about "smokin' hot chicks." All of the sudden, the driver realizes that he's driving off a cliff! They die.

-A handsome football player and his girlfriend were driving along a highway, drinking beer and cuddling. He leans over to stick his tongue in her mouth and accidentally drives his pick-up truck right into a tree. They die.

-A group of jocks were yelling "yeah, baby, yeah!" while drinking beer and driving along a highway. They smash into a semi. They die.

And each mini-movie was incredibly graphic. Blood, guts, and fire. And it always ended with a sobbing mother, leaning against her husband, saying, "if only our son hadn't been driving so recklessly!"

I was horrified. I had never been so affected by anything before in my life. The videos gave me nightmares. I couldn't sleep. Every time I was behind the wheel, I imagined myself driving into a semi or plunging off a cliff.

When the classes ended and I passed my driving test, my parents' proudly gave me a Nissan Altima to call my own. But I gave them the keys back with my own bad news: I was never going to drive again.

They were stunned. I continued to ride the bus to school. My parents begged me to drive the car. I flat out refused. I didn't want to die.

Finally, my second semester of 11th grade, I started seeing a therapist to deal with my problem. After a few months of therapy, I still had no desire to drive.

Plus, my boyfriend had just been given a brand new BMW for his birthday. He drove me everywhere I wanted to go! Life was peachy.

Finally, my parents got fed up. They wanted to use me as their servant and I couldn't be one unless I drove my car to go run their errands. So, they told me I was only allowed to hang out with my boyfriend if I drove to see him. He was no longer allowed to pick me up. By using a boy as bait, my parents did what four months of therapy could not do: I drove.

And by being forced to drive every day so I could see the object of my affection, I gained confidence. The gruesome mini-movie images slowly faded out of my head. By the time senior year came around, I was zooming all over town!

So if you learn anything from this story, let it be: sometimes you have to throw a baby in water to teach it how to swim.*


*Disclaimer: I would never actually throw a newborn or infant into a body of water without a flotation device.

This Charming Man

Since most of my past boyfriends have all turned out to be flamboyantly homosexual, I thought I would profile the fabulous Richard Chamberlain in today's post.



Call it an ode to handsome gay men, if you will.

Because let's face it, if I had been around 40 years ago, I probably would have dated Richard "Delicious" Chamberlain too.

In 1964, he was my type: hot.



You may remember Richard from my previous post about The Thorn Birds mini-series. I was actually first introduced to the Hollywood hunk a couple years ago when I saw the 1960s delight, Petulia. He's yummy in that film too!



Richard was born and raised in Beverly Hills. Growing up, he loved to paint and harbored dreams of being an artist. While in college, however, he developed a passion for acting and ended up co-founding a Los Angeles-based theater group, Company of Angels.



Upon graduating college, Paramount Studios wanted to sign him for a contract, but the government got in the way. Richard was forced to serve in the Korean War for over a year.



As soon as the brave soldier returned home, he was immediately offered the role as the main character in the Dr. Kildare television series.



He became an overnight sensation. Teenage girls had his poster on their walls and worshipped him from afar. Everywhere he went, women fawned over him. Although Richard was grateful for the female attention, he also found it disturbing and haunting.



"When I grew up, being gay, being a sissy or anything like that was verboten. I disliked myself intensely and feared this part of myself intensely and had to hide it and became 'Perfect Richard, All-American Boy' as a place to hide."
-Richard Chamberlain



During the 1960s, he also made some extraordinary films, such as Petulia (with Julie Christie) and The Madwoman of Challiot (with Katharine Hepburn).

Since he was finally getting recognized for his acting ability, rather than his Ivy League good looks, Richard decided to take full advantage of this new turn in his career. He moved to England to star in plays.



He even ventured into a brief, albeit successful, singing career!



The 1970s were kind to the handsome movie star.

He met the love of his life, actor-writer-producer Martin Rabbett, and the two moved to Hawaii together.


(This was their actual house)

He was also the leading man in several major films and starred in many well known television mini-series, such as The Thorn Birds.

In the past decade, he has kept busy by guest-starring on television shows such as Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.



In 2003, at the age of 69, Richard came out with his autobiography, "Shattered Love," which chronicles his anguish of hiding his homosexuality while being a Hollywood teen idol. I have not read the book, but it looks like an interesting read.

He also continues to be very vocal and active in environmental issues, which he had always been known for since the beginning of his career.

He lived with his partner, Martin, in Hawaii for 40 years until moving back to Hollywood last year. Despite the change in location, the two are still together.



During my research, I discovered that Richard has recently taken up painting again! He has a website of his work which you can find here: Richard Chamberlain Art Works. I browsed through the paintings and they are remarkably good. I suggest checking out his work and renting a couple of his best films, such as Petulia and The Thorn Birds!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

The Thorn Birds

Rian and I recently finished watching the epic television mini-series, The Thorn Birds.



The 1983 mini-series is based on the best-selling novel of the same name. It focuses on three generations of an Australian family from 1920-1962. A forbidden romance between a beautiful young woman and a Catholic priest is the heart of the plot.



This television series was a huge deal when it hit the small screen 28 years ago. When the book was released in 1977, it was a worldwide sensation. Everyone was talking about this phenomenal love story.



Every young actress in Hollywood, from Michelle Pfeiffer to Jane Seymour, wanted to play the main character, Meggie Cleary. The role eventually went to Rachel Ward.

Even Audrey Hepburn almost received a role in the movie, but that part eventually went to legendary movie star Barbara Stanwyck.



In my opinion, The Thorn Birds is one of the best mini-series in American television history. It is not simply a movie, it is an experience.

The acting, especially channeled through Richard Chamberlain, is incredibly powerful. The message is inspiring.

I'll be honest, the first half of the series is a tad slow, because it is mostly character development. The second half picks up pace immediately.



Growing up, I had always heard that The Thorn Birds novel was a must-read. Now that I have seen the mini-series, I simply have to pick up the novel at my local bookstore.

After all, I'm a sucker for romance.

While watching this mini-series, I became drawn to the main actress, Rachel Ward. She is incredibly beautiful and flawlessly played the role of Meggie.



Rachel's biography fascinates me.

She was born into British aristocracy in 1957. As a teenager living in London, she modeled and dated David Kennedy, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

After modeling, Rachel ventured into acting.



Although her first major acting role in The Thorn Birds secured a fairly successful career for Rachel, she acknowledges that she was disappointed with her treatment in Hollywood.

Rachel was a beautiful girl who was treated as a beautiful girl, rather than an actress. Directors always encouraged her to show more cleavage, rather than show more talent. So, as a young woman, acting was a bittersweet journey.



While on set of The Thorn Birds, Rachel met her soulmate, the Australian actor Bryan Brown. They quickly married the same year the mini-series was released on television.

Rachel moved out to Australia with her new husband and made it her home.



While Rachel still acts occasionally, she also participates in the behind-the-scene aspects of filmmaking.



In 2005, she was was made a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to raising awareness of social justice through lobbying, mentoring and advocacy for the rights of disadvantaged and at-risk young people, and support for the Australian film and television industry."

She also is a director and screenwriter.



On a personal note, Rachel and her husband, Bryan, are still happily married after 28 years. They have three children.

I have never seen Rachel in any other film before. Have you?

If you find this mini-series at your local library or stumble upon it while browsing Netflix, I highly recommend you check it out.

It may make your heart race.