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Showing posts with label Danielle Steel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Danielle Steel. Show all posts

Iconographic DS: 2-48


 (Gianna)
Gianna-as-Danielle
Continuing on with my pledge to read Danielle Steel’s entire works has really exhausted me! Plus, I realized that I didn’t give myself a deadline. I have given it much thought and since Danny doesn’t do signings like Chuck P [Chuck Palahniuk, from my legitimately undertaken reading challenge],  I thought a good deadline would be, say…by the time her next book is published. That should give me about three days.

Not to worry, in the past 48 hours I have finished Going Home, Passion's Promise, Now and forever, The Promise, Golden Moments, Season of Passion, Summer's End, The Ring, Palomino, To Love Again, Remembrance, Loving, Once in a Lifetime, Crossings, A Perfect Stranger, Thurston House, Changes, Full Circle, Family Album, Secrets, Wanderlust, Fine Things, Kaleidoscope, Zoya, Star, heartbeat, No Greater Love, Jewels, Mixed Blessings, Vanished, Accident, The Gift, Wings, Lightning, Five Days in Paris, Malice, Silent Honor, The Ranch, Special Delivery, The Ghost, The Long Road Home, The House, Honor Thyself, Southern Lights, Coming Out (less exciting than it sounds), Legacy, Miracle  and as promised from my previous Steel post, Message from Nam.

Damn paparazzi!
In these novels the main character’s life is shaken to the core, the character must choose between love past, or stay true to her husband of 87 years, and must overcome the desire to travel to Europe during WWII, even though her husband is cheating on her; he a Jewish writer and she a German socialite, and even though this young couple’s disapproving parents are against their marriage, these two are determined to get married in 1994 when cruel twist of fate threatens to separate them forever, when they board the Titanic.  Oh, and sometimes these end happy…other’s bittersweet.

So that’s it, I’ve read forty-eight Danielle Steel books in forty-eight hours. I’ve met so many amazing people. I’ve met several architects, a socialite, social worker, lots of movie stars, teachers, many artists, a daughter of privilege (possibly different than a socialite), photographer, lots of doctors (even one at Ellis Island!), a debutante (possibly different than a socialite and a daughter of privilege), a handful of lawyers, a New York City ADA, an accountant or three, a Nazi cook, a TV producer, a serial killer (different than a socialite, debutante and daughter of privilege), a personal trainer and a hotelier. I wouldn’t trade my time with these amazing people for the world. 

[While we poke fun at Danielle Steel, Gianna and I would like to make a point of stating that we support reading of all kinds, be it romance novel of the week or Jonathan Franzen novel of the decade.  We deliberately try to make this blog fun and, as one colleague told me, sassy, but we never lose sight of the fact that people like Danielle Steel entertain millions of readers, provide a sense of escape, and contribute to the culture of books around the world.  Danielle Steel has sold millions of books over the course of her career, and those are publishing and bookselling jobs saved.  In this age of publishing industry turbulence, that is no insignificant issue.]  

If we shadows have offended,
Don't hate us!
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend;
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck, 
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
--William Shakespeare

Iconographic DS

(Gianna)


Wow, I have been in awe of my very own Liz Sullivan [Gianna's so possessive of me.  I need my space!] reading Chuck Palahniuk’s library (she stopped at 10 books but it should come as no surprise that she is a Class A Quitter…strictly my opinion and I don’t mean quitter in a bad way).  Anyway, I want to hitch my high-end wagon to Liz’s little star (although I feel in the end I will end up shining a bit brighter and soaring a bit higher…and I don’t mean that in a bad way). What complete works by an iconic author should I read? Like Liz it must be someone that I have not read. Icon…I need a good icon…think brain think. James Joyce? Robert Jordan? Jack Canfield? And then it hit me. If you are going to read an icon…read THE ICON.
Don't hate me because I'm beautiful....

I didn’t get an exact count but I believe my icon has written 178 books. Her books can be a little hard to find but I secured one about two hours and forty-five minutes ago. Yes, that’s right, I’ve finished my first Danielle Steel meal and it was delicious.

The Cottagewas a perfect novel to fall into the abyss (and I mean that in a good way…if there is one) of Danny Steel (kids call her Danny and by kids I mean readers in their late fifties) because it contains a character (of the two dimensional type, Danny wasn’t the first to use this writing technique but I would guess she has perfected it), named Liz Sullivan. I know, it's perfect. [Really, Google it. There's a character named 'Liz Sullivan.'  It's my cross to bear.] In one scene Liz Sullivan who is completely heterosexual finds herself in line at an Indigo Girls concert reading the novel The Well of Loneliness--hilarious! Wait…no; sorry, that wasn’t in this book, that is an actual scene from this blog’s co-author. Apologies. [Apologies not accepted.  Humph.]

Nonetheless, this read was excellent. I turned down the corners of the pages that really got my “attention” and soon found that I had many turned down pages. Many. Let me set the plot up for you. An aging Hollywood star, he’s in his early seventies, enjoys dating twenty something ladies (god bless him!). By the way…and I wish I could say this is going to be the most homophobic thing this homo is ever going to write but, for a straight old man…he is incredibly…well, finicky about his clothing and the clothing of the ladies he “dates." I couldn’t get out of my head that at some point this senior citizen was going to come out of the closet. Spoiler alert…he doesn’t. Anyhow, turns out that this Hollywood star lives way beyond his means due to the tailor-made clothes, fancy food, and expensive cars. He ends up having to take in a couple of boarders. Here is the thing about this Hollywood feller…completely unlikable (and I mean that in a bad way).  In the end this spoiled, rich (actually broke) man falls in love with someone only 20 or 30 years his junior proving that people do change. People do change. Oh, by the way, she is rich so it’s a really sweet happy ending.

I really want to be clear about one thing: I couldn’t put this book down. Seriously. I get it.  You win Danny, you win.

Next up: Message from ‘Nam (spoiler alert…it’s ’Nam as in Vietnam)