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This is a rather old PBS documentary on the development of Derek Jacobi's 1989 stage production of Shakespeare's Hamlet starring Kenneth Branagh. Jacobi establishes his approach to the play, and the actors learn their parts in a span of four weeks. Several of the other actors involved will be familiar to anyone who has seen Branagh's film versions of Much Ado About Nothing or Henry V. This documentary is worth watching for Jacobi's unique interpretations (having Hamlet's To Be Or Not To Be soliloquy delivered to Ophelia) and his fabulous sweaters!
Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
Henry, a retired bank manager, meets his aunt Augusta (his mother's sister) again for the first time since his childhood at his mother's funeral only to have her tell him that his mother is not his birth mother. He is then swept up into his eccentric aunt's life, abandoning his quiet, boring existence colored only by his love of cultivating dahlias. During his travels, he learns snippets of his aunt's rather shady past. When he returns home he misses his aunt's stories and traveling. He also finds an old photograph of Augusta in one of his father's books and begins to suspect that she is his real mother. When she sends for his help, he gives up his settled life and joins her in her wild pursuit of life. The novel is delightfully funny.
Howard's End by E. M. Forster
I had seen the movie but wanted to read the novel.
Sea of Lost Love by Santa Montefiore
A novel of family secrets and hidden identities. See my post.
The Miller's Dance by Winston Graham
I am continuing my reading of the Poldark series for my Cornwall challenge and filling in the gaps in my own collection with library check-outs.
Bella Poldark by Winston Graham
The last novel in the Poldark series. If you haven't read the novels, they are excellent.
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
I've seen this on several blogs lately and wanted to read it for myself. It is the story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, and others with high aspirations who left for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900. As David McCullough writes, "Not all pioneers went west."
