How are you celebrating Labor Day? We are spending the weekend in San Diego celebrating my husband’s 50th birthday. According to our kids, 50 is when a person officially turns OLD. When I was a kid, I thought 50 years old was like a million years old, so I get where they are coming from. But for what it’s worth, Joe is rocking his old age – running marathons and going to metal concerts with our teenagers. He’s pretty cool.
Did you know that this year is the 25th anniversary of the movie Howard’s End? In case you don’t know this about me, Howard’s End by E.M. Forster is my all-time favorite book. I re-read it once a year and it never fails to delight me. It’s the story of three families: the poor but striving Leonard Bast and his poor but content wife Jacky; the genteel, academic Schlegel sisters, and the wealthy, staid Wilcox family. These three families interact and collide and shed light on culture and class in Edwardian England. It never stops surprising me with its relevance to modern times, and what’s really crazy is that I’ve been reading it for over 25 years and it somehow stays relevant and modern every time. Check out this wonderful article about the anniversary of the movie. The restored movie is showing on the big screen this weekend, but easy to find otherwise. The movie is gorgeous: the house they use for Howard’s End is my dream home, and every single character is so perfectly cast. Emma Thompson as Margaret Schlegel is, in my opinion, one of the most complex and riveting characters ever put on screen. And of course, read the book. That’s obviously the best way to experience it. Only connect!!
I own several copies of the book, but if you have a spare $13,500, by all means do feel free to buy me this first edition copy, which is signed by E.M. Forster to W.H. Auden.
You may have noticed that my website is extra spiffy these days. That is because I hired Ali Cross to class things up around here. She added the ability to buy signed books from me and in general made everything work better. I don’t know why I didn’t just hire her in the first place. Lucky for you, Ali is not only a book marketing and web ninja, but she also happens to write children’s, middle grade, and young adult books that are SO good! I have kids in each of those brackets and they are obsessed. Go check her out.
Enjoy your extra day off, friends! I hope you get some rest, with a good book and a bubbly drink.
“I have sought rest everywhere, and only found it in corners and books.”
-Thomas à Kempis