Mash-Up Reviews

I mentioned a few weeks back that I was reading a biography of the Queen Mother.  I literally had it for NINE weeks but finally finished.  I was actually a little bereft and didn't know what to do with myself when I finished.  Last night I watched 'Love and Other Drugs'.  I thought I'd do a mash-up and review them together.  Hope you don't mind!

{Pictures from www.amazon.com and www.imdb.com}

Love and Other Drugs
Synopsis: Maggie (Hathaway) is an alluring free spirit who won't let anyone - or anything - tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie (Gyllenhaal), whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie's evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love. {www.imdb.com}
Review: This was a cute movie!  Not about to go out and buy it, but I really liked it.  I've always said I am a sucker for romantic comedies, and this was no exception.  The reason I'm reviewing?  I have never been a Jake Gyllenhaal fan (to K Dub's horror).  Today I had to eat crow and admit I jumped on the Jake bandwagon.  He was absolutely adorable!!

The Queen Mother: The Official Biography
Synopsis: With unrestricted access to the queen mother's personal papers, letters and diaries, this respectful, mostly uncritical biography by veteran journalist Shawcross (Sideshow) focuses on the courtship of Elizabeth (1900–2002), the daughter of a Scottish earl, by the future King George VI; the shocking abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson; and WWII, when Elizabeth's narrow escape from a bomb that hit Buckingham Palace helped her commiserate with her subjects during the blitz. Throughout, the queen mother is depicted as vivacious, charming, devout and dutiful, a dedicated protector of the arts if not an intellectual, and socially conservative. {www.amazon.com}
Review: This book was LONG.  943 pages (hence the nine weeks of reading..never mind stopping to read 4 other books along the way).  I became interested in the Queen Mother after seeing 'The King's Speech' - I had no clue who she was before the movie (and reading a biography is a Project 52 goal for the year).  Little by little this book sucked me in.  It was so interesting seeing what the life of a 'royal' was like as well as matching that up with some of the stories we know about (WWII, Princess Diana's death).  When we got to her ultimate death (hope that's not a spoiler - ha), I was sobbing.  Brent was watching the baseball SuperRegionals in bed next to me, and I was so hoping he wouldn't look over and see the massive quantity of tears rolling down my cheeks.  I really fell in love with this woman and was so sad to 'watch' her pass away.  Now that's a good book!

Sorry if this was ridiculously long and uninteresting!  But I am SUCH a book worm and can't help but get excited about ones that mean something to me.

On a silly note, I am now reading a trashy romance novel (no shame here), and I kid you not, the tag line on the cover is 'She hired him to protect her - and wanted him to take her!'  HA!