January 12, 2017
by jenniferpuryear
Book Title: The Princess Diarist
I recently finished reading The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher’s account of what went on behind the scenes during the filming of Star Wars. It broke my heart for her – for the girl she was at age 19, in love with Harrison Ford, and for the woman she was at age 59, writing the book. The first and last thirds of the book provide general …
January 11, 2017
by jenniferpuryear
Mixed feelings are so yesterday! Today, we preach. (Thank you, Niki Coffman, Lyn Fairchild Hawks, and Liza Graves.) From Niki Coffman: Two facts converged to influence my naming: I was born in 1984, and I was supposed to be a boy. Sonograms weren’t terribly detailed in the mid-80s, but the Jamaican OB told my mom my heart rate definitely meant I was a boy. Imagine her …
January 10, 2017
by jenniferpuryear
“I was something men and women could agree on. They didn’t like me in the same way, but they liked me with the same intensity, and were all fine with the other sex liking me, too. Isn’t that weird? Think about it. And then stop and ponder something actually important,” Carrie Fisher writes about Princess Leia in The Princess Diarist. You can just hear her laughing! …
January 9, 2017
by jenniferpuryear
Star Wars hit me hard as a kid. (Not alone, I know!) At age 9, I was still firmly rooted in fairy tales and schoolwork and a suburban Southern childhood. Independence took the form of riding my bike to the local Seven Eleven and a nearby park. I was a good girl who tried very hard to be good. Star Wars magnified the story of Good versus Evil – …
January 1, 2017
by jenniferpuryear
Book Title: The Princess Diarist
Whatever you do today – working out, cleaning out, being nicer to your spouse – don’t ruin a good start to the year or a good mood by stopping in at the drugstore. What is sadder than the dregs of Christmas on sale at Walgreens? (Small-scale sad, not Aleppo-level sad.) I almost bought an enormous, poorly made, unwanted teddy bear, which confirms that I’ve read …