The Must List, August 25

Read, watch, chew, post pictures!! 

1. The Hands of Isis by Jo Graham
What a wonderful novel about the beautiful, passionate, and tragic tale of Queen Cleopatra. Told by one of the handmaidens, The Hands of Isis is seeped in detail, romance, beauty, and breathtaking wonders of the ancient world. Cleopatra's tragic love affairs are told with brutal honesty and Charmain's own love story turns out for the best in a way completely unexpected. I am now a huge Jo Graham fan.

2. TwitPic
I'm into Twitter again, and I've started regularly posting my pictures via TwitPic. This is a spin-off of the Twitter social networking website that allows users to post their pictures with the same privacy rights as Twitter. I'm not an Instagram person... I don't have the app. And, I've never liked the layout of Photobucket. So, TwitPic is my go-to for posting pictures on Twitter. It has my Twitter name on there so my accounts are linked perfectly together. All of my photos show up in a feed or I can switch the view to "gallery" to see them laid out side-by-side. If you click "Home," you can see what everyone else is taking pictures of.

3. "White Collar" television series
This is my new favorite show (now that I'm saving the last few episodes of "Lost" because I don't want it to end). Neil Caffery, played by the beautiful, blue-eyed actor Matt Bomer, is a suave, charming con artist whose list of crimes extends to bond forgery, art thief, and art forgery. Caught by FBI agent Peter Burke, he strikes a deal with Peter to wear a tracking anklet and help the FBI in white collar cases for the remainder of his prison sentence. This is after he broke out of jail, of course, and went searching his true love, Kate. Kate, however, had other plans and seems to be manipulated and cornered by a different FBI agent. While solving crimes with Peter, Neil secretly tries to find out what has happened to Kate. The show is clean, low of cuss words, and is quite funny.

4.  We Bought a Zoo DVD
Who wouldn't want to buy a zoo? Seriously!!? Who wouldn't want to grow up in a zoo? Matt Damon plays a widow raising a son and young daughter, and he decides to uproot his family to a new home in order to start afresh. He happens to buy a house that comes with a zoo - lions, tigers, porcupines, peacocks... yes, they have them all! Damon's character then realizes afterwards that the zoo is in a severe state of disrepair and must fix up the place in order to reopen it for the sake of the animals and his oddball staff. Can he do it in time before the official inspection... will his son ever forgive him... will he fall in love with the boyish, no make-up-wearing Scarlett Johansson... does he even have enough money????

5. "Chewtublar" hamster toy
This thing is groovy, man! A giant tube for your hamster to chew on, PLUS it has non-toxic, brightly-colored bedding inside that your little friend can bury in or take out and put whenever he/she wants. It is a great toy for their teeth, and it provides comfort and warmth. My hamster Nutmeg instantly took to it.

6. Nerds plush toy
Yes, you can eat the candy all day long, but have you ever hugged a Nerd candy before? I'm not talking about the pillows shaped like the candy boxes and bars. I'm talking about the little cartoon caricature of a Nerd candy drawn on the box. Yes, they exist!! And yes, Stuart worked long and hard to find one for me after I told him that getting one for me for Christmas would mean I would love him forever. And he did. He went to several different websites, tracking the toy from one link to another until finally he found and bought me a Willy Wonka Nerd plush... without the backpack clip-on!!! Best Christmas present EVER!

23. Furious Love

Book 23: Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century by Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger (A+)

Wow! What a book!!

Cleopatra

I actually read this biography of the great marriages of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as research. I'm writing my second fiction novel and as I've always been captivated by the Taylor/Burton romance as seen in Cleopatra, I am basing the two main characters' love affair off events and circumstances from the "Liz-n-Dick Show." Theirs (Taylor and Burton's) is a duo romance, a real love between Elizabeth and Richard and the public persona and dog-and-pony show of Liz and Dick. It is a beautiful, raw, but tragic heartbreaking romance that would have survived except for fame, paparazzi, and booze!
Written because of Taylor's worry "that Richard Burton's name and legacy were in danger of being forgotten..." after a theatre major told the authors she was shocked to know that Elizabeth Taylor had been married to the eccentric director Tim Burton (439)! ...Um, no dear! Go back to school!

The beginning of "Le Scandale"

The story begins with the 1960's classic epic Cleopatra, a film that was doomed from the moment Elizabeth Taylor signed on to the picture. Taylor's never-ending health issues halted production, causing the her two main co-stars playing Cesaer and Mark Antony to be recast due to scheduling conflicts.
In came Richard Burton, the Welsh man who drank like his own soul was dying of thirst yet who could recite Shakespeare in his epic voice even though he was completely sloshed. Who could have known that by the newcomer Burton signing onto the motion picture would change celebrity and fame forever?! Their love affair shocked the world, had fans clawing for them in surging mobs, and was even condemned by the Vatican!
The sadness of it all is Burton's constant downfall. His battle with alcohol never ended no matter how many doctors told him he'd kill himself with the drinking he was doing every day starting after breakfast. Taylor's constant ailing health was such a strain on their marriages and his heart because, as you read, he truly loved her. Then, he held himself responsible for his favored brother's accident that left the older brother-turned-father-role-model paralyzed and eventually led to his death. Add on top of all that the constant hounding of fans, paparazzi, and shutterbugs who couldn't get enough of the couple. Arguably one of the greatest actors, particularly because of his resounding Welsh voice, drank himself to death because of personal guilt and an overwhelming lifestyle that eventually even he couldn't top.
The book is a sincere and truthful account from various sources, including the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor herself, about the affair, the marriage, the divorce, the second marriage, and the second divorce. It is filled with much detail and interesting facts that never leave the reader bored... but how could one be reading about the never not exciting Taylor/Burton romance??
If you enjoy biographies, check out Furious Love. It is an eye-opening account of Hollywood's first mega couple!

Works Cited:

Kasner, Sam & Schoenberger, Nancy. Furious Love: 

Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century. 

New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2010. Print