This summer has brought many new friends and surprises through book signings, speaking engagements, Book Group Skypes, email, Facebook and Twitter. One of the great ones has been Emma Roberts. I’m flattered and delighted that she likes Chanel Bonfire. And I’m grateful that she has said so in public on Twitter, in July’s Glamour Magazine and now on BuzzFeed. I am also very impressed that a young person with so much talent and a fanbase that has been growing since before her hit Nick series Zoe 101, has chosen to define herself so thoroughly as a reader. The first part of her extended list on BuzzFeed can be found via the link below — it is deep, rich, eclectic and fun. And I’m proud to have a book on it.
Summers with our dad in Minneapolis meant the simplest joys — bright summer nights of tag and kick-the-can, running over the neighborhood with a pack of kids with no schedules or agendas, wearing clothes we could get dirty and shoes we could wear out, and of course riding bikes.
While many people’s kids have gone back to school and they are already mourning the end of summer, there are some who save vacation for the bitter end–those last, often unbearable hot and muggy days of August before the weather turns. If you still have a summer trip to look forward to, consider passing the hours on the freeway or in the airplane with an audio book. I think being read to is one of the greatest luxuries. It’s a lesson or an entertainment when you’re a child, a necessity when you are very very young or very old, but for me, at any time (not just when I face hours of pavement and tail lights) it is a delight. One of the greatest audio books of all time in my opinion is E.B. White’s reading of his own Charlotte’s Web. We had already read the book to our children a number of times when a friend turned us on to White’s recording. And it is wonderful — full of his intent, sly wit and rolled out in his clipped New York State accent. I read a bit about his choices when recording and the difficulty he had not crying at the end and I thought of it when recording the audio book of Chanel Bonfire for Tantor. If you’re looking for a book to listen to, it is available for download and on CD, at bookstores, booksites and the library.
One of our last summers in Minneapolis with our father. A friend of the family took this amazing series of the three of us in the park. Thanks to the publication of Chanel, they resurfaced as if from a time capsule or the messages Robbie and I stuffed into coke bottles and dropped from the QE2 as our mother sailed us away.
For some time between Mother’s original, orphaned self, Loretta Gronau, and her ultimate self-made self, Georgann Rea, there was the girl above — Georgann Mary Margaret McAdams, St. Teresa’s Academy Class of 1956. She was a pretty, young, intelligent girl rescued from an orphanage and living the life of a princess in the wealthy Plaza section of Kansas City, Missouri. And her life was a fairy tale in the truest sense because her step-mother was evil and the abuse and beatings she suffered inside her very large house went unknown by the outside world. This Georgann was biding her time, dreaming of the next twist in her story, the arrival of the handsome prince and her rescue. And it happened when she met my father. And while she may have grabbed the keys to his white charger and jumped into the driver’s seat, the end result was the same–they went away to their fairy tale life. Only it wasn’t what the now Georgann Lawless had expected… I came across the Fallen Princess series of photographs by Dina Goldstein a photographer based in Vancouver, BC, on Facebook. They are being “shared” and “liked” all over the place. They are, like my mother’s story and my own and most other women in one way or another I suspect, a fascinating expression of the ideas of what it is to be a woman in the last fifty or so years — a sometimes twisted combination of expectation, reality and fantasy fueled by our culture and history. Here’s a link to Dina’s site if you’d like to see more: http://www.fallenprincesses.com/ I suspect as the photos spread even wider, that they will come up in my Book Group Skype sessions. Inevitably, during our discussions of Chanel, readers share some of their own stories or their mothers and their childhoods. And while exact details are always different, there are basic struggles and issues of identity and freedom and frustration that seem common to us all from Betty Friedan who so clearly expressed my own step-mother’s frustrations with marriage and the role of wife that she got a divorce upon finishing her book to now in the responses I hear to Chanel Bonfire. Andrea Dworkin’s book “Women Hating” from the 70s has a very interesting chapter on fairy tales and the lives of women in contemporary society. If your Book Group is reading Chanel, I’d be happy to set up a Skype or FaceTime Q & A with you. Just email me at chanelbonfire@gmail.com. I’m sure we all have lots to talk about!
A BIG SHOUT-OUT to my reader and Twitter buddy, Emma Roberts!
Her terrifically fun, subversive family comedy opened yesterday with sneaks Tuesday night and it is going to blow the roof off the box office this weekend. Everyone should go see it! Last laugh of the summer!
“At graduation, after the diplomas were handed out, my class sang the Beatles song ‘In My Life.’ I’m sure that to the faculty or other students it seemed an appropriate choice of a song for a group of people whose lives were about to change forever, and who had happy times to look back on, but to me, it sounded like a dirge. Mother, decked out in one of her Chanel suits, took my picture in my white cap and gown beside Robbie in the pretty, tree-lined courtyard in front of the school, where the Beaver graduations always took place.”
1975 in the smoking lounge at the American School in London
Yes, we had a smoking lounge! Looking a bit grumpy, clearly not staying off the fish and chips. Thanks to fellow ASLer Janice Evans Manganaro for reading Chanel, tracking me down and sending this snap.
Thanks to The Next Chapter Book Club for a truly fun Saturday night! I can’t tell you how much fun we had and I can’t believe how lucky I am to get to meet so many interesting and thoughtful people. Chanel was our starting point but there was no end to what we could all discuss and share. It couldn’t be easier to set up a Skype or FaceTime Q & A with me. Just email at chanelbonfire@gmail.com. Whether you’re around the corner or around the world, we can get together. Cheers!
Reading Chanel in Texas while waiting at Little League!
I just want to give a shout-out to all the readers who take the time to write reviews on Goodreads or Amazon or send pictures of Chanel like the one above or email me…
Dear Wendy, I finished your book on Sunday and have recommended it to at least 4 people.
Including my own little sister (I’ll have to time her finishing it with arriving with
It is humbling and gratifying to know that the book generates such enthusiasm! I hope everyone is enjoying or surviving their hot and sticky Augusts!
If you get a chance, Tweet me @wendylawless2 , post on the Chanel Bonfire Facebook page or email me at chanelbonfire@gmail.com. And, as always, if your book group is reading Chanel, I’d be happy to set up a Skype Q & A with you. You can look for Chanel on Pinterest and Tumblr as well!
