Dorothy- birds of a feather...& books, & wisdom & friendship

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.
They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs,
they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.
That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

Harper Lee

headress by Katsuya Kamo (photo from Coutorture by way of Hollister Hovey)

Today is the last of my book posts from new friends and old, this one with a just slight change in the questions.
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Yes to my mind, I've saved the best for last. Dorothy is the dearest, and most elegant of my friends- on this they would all agree.

She grew up on Park Avenue, went to finishing school at Finch, later- married and moved to Boston, summered in West Hyannisport with her family, then returned to New York to work and through all these adventures she read and she continues to...This among many other things we share a passion for, and do we ever talk it. The time we spend together could be more frequent-but I know where she is -She is reading & that connects me to her.

Dorothy what are your first memories of reading?

The OZ books and then of course "The Little Princess" .

I never had my mother read in bed to me...

Winslow Homer " the new novel"

I think my love of books came much later in life when all of a sudden I realized that I was missing a big slice of living so I started to take courses...

Untitled

Jose de Almada Negreiros, 1930

and finally got to "Alice in Wonderland" and "Gulliver's Travels" and in retrospect, I really don't think that either of these are children's books.

Alice illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Dorothy in her own creation

What is your favorite book?

I think Wallace Stegner's "Angle of Repose.


Well- I don't know if she knows- but this is my favorite too- I think- but a very hard decision. I have read Angle twice since Dorothy introduced me to the book. It calls me back and I could sit down to it, drop all others , and read it again with pleasure, bitter-sweet , & melancholy.

“It is something-it can be everything-to have found a fellow bird with whom you can sit among the rafters while the drinking and boasting and reciting and fighting go on below.”
Wallace Stegner

the author

"It's perfectly clear that if every writer is born to write one story, that's my story."
Wallace Stegner

Angle of Repose, winner of the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for fiction is based on the correspondence of the little known 19th writer, Mary Hallock Foote written to her husband and family during the explosion of migration to the West. The main characters are a part of this migration and their lives are altered by way of it.

Some of Mary Hallock Foote's Illustrations:

What are you reading at the moment?

Right now I am reading" Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson a beloved Norwegian writer who also has gotten awards for his book.

( thoughtful, good writing)

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"Olive Kittridge": by Elizabeth Strout deserved the prizes it got.(if you're into psychology- this is it.)

Dorothy,What about the Classics? You know I love to read these and as the genre suggests-we can gain new insights each time we read the beloved books.

I think we do need to occasionally return to the Classics . So I suggest:

"Middlemarch "by George Eliot..

"It is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self--never to be fully possessed by the glory we behold, never to have our consciousness rapturously transformed into the vividness of a thought, the ardor of a passion, the energy of an action, but always to be scholarly and uninspired, ambitious and timid, scrupulous and dim-sighted."

George Eliot

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Maybe a return to "To Kill a Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee.

"In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism." -Joseph Crespino

Two books that are not novels that came out recently that are really good reading.

"The Nine " Jeffrey Toobin (Obviously about the Supreme Court)

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the other "Indian Summer" by Alex Von Tunzelmann-about the era of Ghandi, Montbatten and the take over by India from the British Empire.

In spite of the subjects both these books are chatty and even , at times, gossipy- so they are far from heavy.

Do you have an ongoing LIST?

I do have books that are piled up for future reading...

American Lion by Jon Meacham (Andrew Jackson ) just won the Pulitzer.

the American Lion

The Given Day (because it's about Boston) by Dennis Lehane. Lehane is author of seven novels; including the New York Times bestsellers Gone, Baby, Gone & Mystic River.

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"Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jaime Ford because a friend liked it.

Yes, books are next to the bed..also on the table opposite that I tell myself I will get to ( one is the Encyclopedia of Music and another jokes with asides by Socrates or something like that.... and I could go on and ...

Wisdom begins in wonder.
Socrates

& for me-I could go on listening.

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
Socrates
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The Peak of CHIC- C'est CHIC Summer Reading

C is for CHIC

image posted by the Peak of Chic (click to read the post)

dorothy draper C'est CHIC

Over at the PEAK of CHIC its curator even boasts a second blog called BIBLIO STYLE. To say the least- I wished I'd thought of that. I suspect hordes of Peak of Chic wannabes say the same as they read her fresh, oh so Chic- posts. Ms. Chic , Jennifer Boles, writes almost daily and with gusto.

BiblioStyle C'est Chic (click)

What Books are on your Summer reading list?

“Churchill’s Bunker: The Secret Headquarters at the Heart of Britain’s Victory” by Richard Holmes (What can I say? I was a history major.)

“Rogue’s Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money that Made the Metropolitan Museum” by Michael Gross

Where do you read and When? Does the genre you are reading dictate the place you read- in other words, Do you take just any old book to bed?

My coffee table design books must be read on the sofa or in a chair- too heavy to read in bed. I take my biographies and history books to bed.

"Reading in Bed"

James Whistler

What does your nightstand look like? or your side of the bed, floor, chair?

On my vintage nightstand, I have a small stack of books, fresh flowers, and my radio alarm clock (I’m still a big fan of these radio alarm clocks.) Oh, and of course my glasses so that I can see what I’m reading.

What is you all time Favorite Book for its sense of place?

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen.

vintage classics book cover by megan wilson

(mybookcovers-will weigh in on her picks too)

(dorothy draper room with Empire portrait over mantle)

What is your Security Blanket Book?

Dorothy Draper’s “Decorating is Fun!”

the chic Jennifer Boles of the Peak of Chic

Dorothy Draper strikes a pose

What is your favorite Genre? Why? What is your most recent purchase in this category?

I would have to say that my favorite genre is design because the books are not just informative, they also provide so much inspiration too. Biographies and non-fiction history come in a close second.

& from DOROTHY:

"good showmanship is the answer. the colour of your front door announces your personality to the world" DD

"too much of anything is the beginning of a mess." DD

(Never a truer word said- Unless of course it would too MANY BOOKS!)

What is the seminal book in your field or your passion that you would recommend to young would be(s) of the same?

Same as my security blanket book: Dorothy Draper’s “Decorating is Fun!” While interior design is a serious career, Dorothy put it in perspective. It should be fun and it should enrich one’s life.

READ about Dorothy Draper at the Peak of Chic

Wintergreen Dorothy Draper's Masterpiece

Draper Stripes

Latest Obsession Author, Designer, Photographer?

Miles Redd. We need to have a book of his work published. Mario Buatta deserves this as well.

Miles Redd channeling Draper's Palette & her STRIPES

I went through many of the Peak's posts and she has 34 posts about Mrs. Draper and Mr. Redd. She knows where her passions live.

Book covers can be art- Do you have a favorite cover in your stacks?

Almost all of Cecil Beaton’s books have wonderful cover art.

Going out on a limb here –define LIBRARY in the nontraditional sense?

A library should be a room where books that are actually read reside. It should be a place where you really live, where you read, where you might even take drinks or meals. It should be a room where you go to broaden your horizons. This might sound traditional, but I think we’ve gotten away from the real meaning of a library.

What is Your most CHIC reading material?

Mine would have to be a true indulgence read- I actually got it on Friday- and placed it before all others-meaning I have already violated the code of order in my Summer Reading list- GYPSET Style a fusion of Gypsy and Jetsetter- well- Yes, a bit of a frivolity- but I needed a bit.

As a reward for being a Chic Reader or just A Bit Frivolous- and confiding!- reap the rewards of the BOOK- A PERFECT RED, by Amy Butler Grenfield. it's yours, but you have to tell.