Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher

A very funny lady indeed is Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Hollywood Royalty...Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, her most famous stepmother was Elizabeth Taylor and her most famous roll as an actress was Princess Leia in the original Star Wars.
Fisher has had a great deal of experience with Drug Addiction and Mental Illness and she spares know expense in sharing her many and varied issues and experiences in her fabulous books.She is a very honest lady and a very talented one too.
This book started a little slowly for me but once it picked up pace it took of. Electro-Convulsive  Shock Treatment of which she has a great fondness for, Michael Jackson, Teddy Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor, healing and reconciliation with the man she calls Edwin Puff Daddy Fisher, her daddy who spent most of her life absent from her until she got rich and famous, step dad Harry Karl who took all her Mother`s money but according to Carrie could have done worse, weight loss aided by Jenny Craig and her famous parents some what Hollywood contrived marriage...wrapped up with the most amazing array of pictures and captions that are worth the price of this book alone. Her free style people descriptor rocket is unparalled, it packs such a generous punch that those who are touched by her pen come alive in entirely new ways, with Carrie you can throw out all the old aspersions...imagine Elizabeth Taylor pushing you into her swimming pool or Debbie swearing like a trooper the older she gets.
As Carrie says Sanity has come at a heavy price for her but the wisdom and honesty she shows in her writing make it a price the reader is glad the writer has paid, although one wouldn`t wish some of her experiences on their worst enemy and there are people out there who wish she would actually shut up and lose what remains of her shakey memory. All Carrie Fisher`s books are worth reading, if you haven`t read one you should.

Endless Blue Sky Candy Floss...

What a cracker of a week we have had in Auckland, cold but sunny and beautiful.
John Travolta's secret life is exposed...but his marriage will survive!
Kim Kardashian's big day today...lets see how this goes!
Gypsy dressmaker saved by going to jail...the sight of some of those Wedding Dresses would be likely to get you in jail!
Prince Andrew has a new girlfriend...
Peggy Bourne shares that she is now ready to marry again, 8 years after Possums death....you go girl!
Hilary Duff is pregnant...
Toni Street's amazing weight loss...
Pippa's latest love interest or not...
Mark Todd single and starting over...
Manu Feidel is looking for love....
Heidi and Seal take the kids to the beach... having a cool time by the looks of it!
Kate shows us baby Bing.
Harry....the Playboy Prince, hot hookups and secret trysts...
Keisha's learning from her mistakes... time will tell.
Petra and Corins tough year....people don't like them much on Breakfast.
Party Girls...Political parties that is!
4 Hollywood lovelies photographed in the exact same stripey dress...times are tough!
Twilight returns...
Halle Berry hits 45.
Ashton Kutcher starts his new day job.
Bridget Jones will be back for # 3...could be interesting.
Tara Reid gets married...
Ian Grant shares.....How to be a fantastic father, lots of great recipes, fashion updates and makeovers and a lovely interview in the Womans Weekly with Joe Rokocoko and his wife as he finishes up his NZ career and heads of to France, thanks for all those wonderful sporting memories and for being a first class gentlemen and a role model for all youngsters,

A Widows Story by Joyce Carol Oates

Many people don`t like Joyce Carol Oates, too dark, too Gothic they would say and they are right, she is dark and she is Gothic but I love her.
Her last major book My Sister, My Love which is apparently not about a really famous child murder case is one of my all time greatest reads, from the disclaimer on the first page to the very last page, it was terrific!
The unexpected death of her husband on whom she was much dependent was not terrific and her sense of loss, bewilderment and grief is heart-breaking yet I would imagine it would resonate with anyone who has experienced a sudden death in the family. What appeared to be a simple illness had killed her husband Raymond Smith within a week.
To say that Joyce Carol floundered would be understating things greatly and yet she works through it all and unconsciously sees the humour in the death industry while struggling with the complexities of a life, where the partner had taken care of all those everyday things so as the wife was freed to write. The hand of friendship and everyday kindness was extended to Joyce Carol in a way that gave her a strength that enabled her to forge a path ahead, even if she often found peoples attempts at comfort rather absurd. She writes so honestly and beautifully about the situation she found herself in, she paints such a vivid picture in your mind with the beautiful words she uses that you can feel her feelings, you can feel the pain, confusion and bewilderment, you feel as if you have almost stepped into her life,the cold of the hospital was chilling,her unawareness of what was actually going on was stunning...I was touched by her sharing of letters she received and by how fragile she seems in everyday life and yet the strength of her writing is amazing and solid as.
A remarkable book, from a remarkable writer. She mentions Joan Didion`s book The Year of Magical Thinking another remarkable memoir of loss, people might find reading about it dark but it happens everyday and books can and do give you great comfort.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Patti Smith has the distinction of being the only poet I can stand! And look at what she did with Bruce Springsteen's Because the Night...in this sparse, lyrical, loving and moving memoir of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe she manages to honour both Mapplethorpe and herself, yet she is unstinting in her critique, doesn't bow to convention and forgives on a scale that most of us can only imagine.
Her rendering of New York in the 80's is a delight and takes you places you can only dream about. There were parts of this book that were not an easy read, parts make you squeamish but it is the type of book that is so searingly honest that only tears will allow you to release the emotions that are invoked, tears of both anger and pity and topped with a dose of love especially for the doomed Robert and the now revered Patti. This book is in every Top Ten List so far and last week won the Non-Fiction category of The National Book Awards, an amazing achievement by a woman who for many years described herself as a Detroit Wife and Mother, she certainly knows the meaning of the words love and loss.