Book Reviews 2017: Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman

**All reviews on Randomness With Rachel are done on a five-star rating system. The reviews are solely my opinion and no one else's. Randomness With Rachel does not receive any incentives or compensations for reviews.**

Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson

Who doesn't love Audrey Hepburn? A friend gave me this book because Audrey is my favorite actress of all time and I adore the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. I've read Truman Capote's book, so I knew his Holly Golightly and the Holly Golightly of the movie were NOT the same. I also knew about all the other differences between the book and the movie. I did find some of the history about the creation of the book and the making of the movie fascinating. It was interesting to see who else they wanted to star in the movie.

Also (I don't think this is really a "spoiler" so I don't think I need to warn you), I was a little sad to hear that Audrey didn't really care for George Peppard (he wasn't a popular person on set with really anyone). It was interesting to hear how the movie could have been so different. The author talked about scenes that were cut or re-written. I wish the alternate ending was somewhere on film (the author said no one knows for sure if the film survived from the cutting room floor). Although in my opinion, I like the actual ending of the movie better. No, I won't tell you what the alternate ending was going to be, you have to read the book. :) 

I didn't realize that Audrey had as many miscarriages as she did. He doesn't go too much into detail about Audrey's personal life (sadly), but he does provide tidbits here and there. He did write a little bit about her slightly troubled marriage to Mel Ferrer.

At the end the author talks about why he wrote the book. Why do people love this movie? It got me wondering why I love it- my answer is because of Audrey. I don't think the movie would have worked with anyone else. Is it the best love story out there? No, not at all. But no matter what, I will always find time to watch it when I'm wanting to have an Audrey marathon.

Oh, at the end of the book after all of the author's notes and references, he talks about his personal conversation with actress Patricia Neal- well worth the read. She seems like she was a hoot! :)

I finished this book on September 15, so it goes towards my 40 by 40 challenge.

XOXO!

Happy 2017!

First of all, HAPPY 2017!! I hope your holidays and New Year were FANTASTIC! I know, I haven't posted in two months. Shame. On. Me. You have probably been wondering what I've been up to lately (okay, you probably couldn't care less, but humor me). I've just been so busy (so you can understand why I've been absent from the blogging world). I know, where are my priorities? Well, as you will see below, a lot of things were more important to me.

I have been hanging out with friends.

I went to San Antonio to see Billy Joel in concert. Shout out to my sweet friend Eric for taking me (it was my Christmas gift). We made the round trip in a day. San Antonio is about 4.5 hours from Dallas, so you can imagine, we got back like at 3:30am. Thanks to Eric for driving the whole trip as well!

I spent the holidays with my family.

My cousin Travis surprised my folks with a visit at Christmas. We hadn't seen him in eight years.  

I saw a handful of my nieces and nephews at Thanksgiving (no, this isn't all of them). Everyone takes a picture with Aunt Rachel (whether they want to or not). Lol.

I went to several Christmas parties.

My Sunday School class Christmas party

My friend invited some of his favorite co-workers (that would include me) to his church's Christmas party (which involves free steak). I won a door prize that included a free set of steak knives and a $100 gift card to a nice steak restaurant. Funny story: It was almost 80 degrees when I went to the party, so I didn't take a coat. A cold front hit during dinner, and it dropped to the 40s. I was quite cold when I left! 

I saw Breakfast At Tiffany's in the theater. Yes, I own it on DVD and have seen it 100 times (not an exaggeration), BUT, it was my first time to see Audrey Hepburn on the big screen. It was awesome!

I spent New Year's Eve with Stan Lee and a bunch of nerds/geeks (I say that lovingly). 

Stan Lee was super nice. He was so full of energy too. I hope I'm like that when I'm 94!

Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen- better known as the voices of Pinky and the Brain (I'm standing by Rob- the voice of Pinky). Fun fact: When I worked for a newspaper, my nickname was Pinky. My friend was The Brain. We still call each other that to this day. When I got my picture signed, I told Rob that my nickname was Pinky, he signed it "From one Pinky to another". 

Peter Mayhew, better known as Chewbacca from Star Wars. Yes, he's tall. He's sitting down (and he's still almost taller than me).

I won an Emmy. Okay, I didn't. BUT, this is a real Emmy. It belongs to Mark Kistler. He's the host of a children's art program on PBS. He let me take a picture with it.

I would like to thank all my fans for making this possible....

I survived the great cold front of 2017. It dropped to temperatures my Texas body cannot handle. It was maybe 12 degrees at one point (all of you up north kindly stop laughing at me). HOW DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS FOR MONTHS??

Okay, I am HOPEFULLY getting back to my What I'm Loving Wednesday post next week. Stay tuned!! :)

XOXO!