My sister's boys have been big fans of Lloyd Alexander's works ever since I loaned them my copies of The Chronicles of Prydain, as well as the Westmark trilogy to the eldest. They've since picked up several of his other books and my sister messaged a couple weeks ago to say she had found a copy of The Town Cat & Other Tales, a collection of short stories by Alexander, while she was in a thrift shop. They are currently reading it aloud. Then, this past Saturday, I stopped by a thrift store after doing my grocery shopping to peruse the selection of books, movies, and LPs. I found a copy of another book by Lloyd Alexander which I had never heard of before: The El Dorado Adventure, which is apparently also part of a series. I bought it and gave it to the nephews after church on Sunday to add to their growing collection. I also found a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped in perfect condition so also picked that up. Of course I already own it- it was actually one of the books I took with me when I spent three weeks hiking in the Scottish Highlands- but it's always good to have an extra copy around to gift to a nephew or niece. After all, it's a great tale of shipwreck and sword fighting, scheming relatives and charming rogues, and a young lad on the run, pursued by both criminals and the law. For myself, I picked up this record to add to my as yet rather meagre collection: the original cast recording of My Fair Lady. For my money, Julie Andrews was far and away the best Eliza Doolittle to ever have that part in the musical- that I've heard, anyway. The film version doesn't count of course as it wasn't even Audrey Hepburn singing... it was the always reliable Marnie Nixon. Rex Harrison was nothing to write home about as Henry Higgins- vocally, that is; his acting is fine but he can't sing. Here's Julie Andrews appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show as Eliza:
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We had a good time sledding last weekend with some of the nephews & nieces after the first major snowstorm of the new year: Poppy had a lot of fun, racing the sleds down the hill: Though there was a near collision when she decided to veer into the path of the oncoming toboggan: During the storm, one of my sisters posted this song on Facebook, asking if anyone else broke into singing it every time it started snowing- Snow, from Irving Berlin's 1954 movie White Christmas.
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About MeI'm a lover of good books, classic movies, and well-written shows (as well as some pretty cheesy ones, to be completely honest). Categories
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