Skip to main content

The Sunday Salon


It’s Sunday again! In September 2009, when I went on vacation to London by my lonesome, I got hooked on a British show called Who Do You Think You Are, a BBC show focusing on celebrities who explore their family history. Today I discovered that there’s an American version that recently aired its second season on NBC—so I’ve spent my day glued to my computer screen watching past episodes on hulu. I think the American version is much more interesting—first because I’ve actually heard of the celebrities featured (eg, Vanessa Williams, Tim McGraw), second because these celebrities’ stories are a reflection of larger, American history; and third because they travel to more exotic places. The first season is available on DVD and it’s at the top of my Netflix queue as we speak! I’d love to watch the episodes of the British version I haven’t seen…

Otherwise, it’s been a quiet kind of Sunday—went to the gym, grocery store, the usual Sunday afternoon of a spinster maid! I’m still trying to deal with a recent disappointment, but I’m doing better—until I was faced with it on Thursday. I went out to lunch with my coworker on Thursday and talked about it, so I ended up feeling better about it. I’m the kind of person who internalizes everything and makes mountains out of molehills, so it’s good to talk things out. At the time, though, I just felt as though I’d been punched in the stomach!

How was your week?

Comments

Your Sundays sound like mine... laundry... sweep, mop... lol...

I did not make it to the gym but I did play floor hockey tonight ;)
Rose said…
we Brits used to have an advert (for landlines of all things) that said "It's good to talk" - and for all the inherent cheesiness, it is good to talk, especially if you know you're the kind of person to let things stew inside.
joan.kyler said…
My husband and I love Who Do You Think You Are? I didn't know it was originally a BBC show. It does frustrate me that the celebrities get so much help searching for information. My brief experience doing that resulted in a lot of 'look in that book'.

It does help to talk to good friends about things that are troubling you. But you have to have the right sort of friends. I'm glad you found someone to share with.
Alyce said…
I only got a chance to watch one of the episodes of the first season of the US version of Who Do You Think You Are (and now I have that Jar of Hearts song stuck in my head). I hadn't even thought about getting them from netflix, so I'm thankful for the reminder. :)

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars...

Review: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee

The Piano Teacher is a complicated novel. On the surface, it’s about a love affair between two British ex-patriots in Hong Kong in 1952-3. Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong with her husband Martin at a time when the world is still recovering from WWII; Claire takes up work as a piano teacher for the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, where she meets Will Truesdale, the Chens’ enigmatic chauffeur. The book jumps back in time between the 1950s and the beginning of WWII, when Will is interned in Stanley, a Hong Kong camp for enemies of Japan. On “the outside” is Tudy Liang, Will’s beautiful Eurasian lover. There’s no doubt that Lee’s writing is beautiful. But there’s something lacking in this short, terse novel that I can’t quite put my finger on. First, I think it’s the tenses she uses when taking about each story: that which is set in the 1950s is in the past tense, while the war scenes are talked about in the present tense (confusing, no?) The interpersonal relationships of the m...