Dear Nora Ephron,

Dear Nora Ephron,
   I should have written this sooner. It's hard knowing now that it is too late for this to ever reach you. I have not read your books which is why I did not have you in the mental list of letters to be written but now that you are gone I realize although I did not pick up a novel, I have heard your words over and over in some of my favorite movies. These words and these characters have been my favorites for a long time, just like characters in my books. And I revisit them over and over like my favorite books. I was just too foolish to see this earlier.
   I cannot stop watching once Sleepless in Seattle is on. If it's the very beginning, I know to clear my schedule for 2 hours because I'm not leaving. I just love everything about the movie. Unfortunately, it probably has caused more real life relationship problems than any work of fiction in history. More than just the story, fate bringing two people together, it's the conversations I love. I love Meg Ryan and Rosie O'Donnell mouthing the words from An Affair to Remember and crying together. I love Tom Hanks and Victor Garber making fun of sappy girl movies. Most of all, I love Tom Hanks describing the love of his passed wife. "It was like....magic." I love it, I always have and I always will. I wish I knew what happen to Annie and Sam (and Jonah and Jessica) and hope they live all together in Seattle on the water and forever happy magically in love.
   When Harry Met Sally should come with a waiver, this may happen to you, but probably will not. As Chuck Klosterman wrote, once a woman gets the idea in her head that a her friend who is boy may fall passionately in love with her and then become her boyfriend she will always believe it will happen. There is not a women alive who has not gone through it. Had a guy who was a friend who spent all her time with just waiting for the moment when it finally clicks in his head that yes, he does love her and runs to be with her exclaiming, "I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want to the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." I'm sure, in real life, it had happen and will keep happening in the future, but not for me (although I'm very happy with how my love story is turning out). The best scene is when Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal finally do have sex and you see her, ecstatic and happy and then pan over to him panicked and losing his mind. It's not perfect, it's not even good and it's so real which so many movies just don't do. I still love it because I love the dialogue, I love them talking together and I love how it feels like you and me and every conversation you swear you had but didn't.
    It doesn't stop there, I'm actually rewatching You've Got Mail right now. I love Meg Ryan in this movie and for a long time I really though I just loved Meg Ryan. With no disrespect, I've seen her in other movies and not as impressed. It's the words, Nora Ephron's words, that give her the heart that I love and the words that make her feel like someone I know or could have known.
  Most recently, I have loved Julie and Julia. Now for all honestly, I preferred the Julia part more than Julie but I do confess, I want to do what Julie did. I want to try something for a year and blog about it and have followers that care about it. I want to be transformed by something like she was by food. I have always loved Julia Child. I had no idea what an amazing and interesting person she was. I hope to have half the tenacity, spunk and joy she had, even if it wasn't really real. I need to go buy this movie right now.
  Nora's characters are more real than most. Her woman are not lost or wander. They have careers, they live strong lives in the city. They usually already have a relationship so they are not usual PJ wearing, ice cream eating, crying over Mr. Darcy sad, sad women (no disrespect). I wish I could live in the places these characters live and have the experiences these characters have. Cooking, reading, writing, traveling and laughing through life. The saddest part of all this is there will be no more characters being silly, not perfect and have the ultimate conversations. I hope she had those conversations and I hope I have conversations worth having. You will be missed but you will live in over and over again. I hope more and more girls grow up on these movies and love them like I do. To me, they will always be...magic.

Sincerely,

KT

Dear Stacey Ballis,

Dear Stacey Ballis,
     Thank you for giving me such a fantastic and perfect summer read. Good Enough to Eat is a sweet story with a backbone that shows a characters flaws and makes you love her for it. I had alternatives motives when buying this book, but I have none recommending it.
     Originally I bought this book because of Jen Lancaster. I have loved reading about Bravo nights and trips to the opera. I loved reading about the friendship and the hilarious things that happen. So of course, I knew I'd have to read this book. Ironically, I remember seeing this book in hardcover in Target a while back, before I put two and two together and remember how nice it seemed and how much the cover reminded me of home. So when Bill and I were at the Book Warehouse and I found this book, I snatched it up as fast as I could. The story is fabulous as it seems to begin where a big girl's happily ever after ends. If you are a big girl and then lose all the weight, what happens next? That's what I loved about this story. I have seen so many stories about women losing weight and then in the end they are skinny and they get the guy and everything is great. But it's not that simple. I love that the character has relapses and needs support. I respect the honesty of the what you may look like when all that weight is gone and how that makes you feel too. I love that losing a whole person sometimes means becoming a new person too.
    But there is another side to this, food. I love good food. I always have. I love cooking and baking and that thing you feel feeding others. So when it comes to the food stories in the beginning of each chapter, not only could I relate, I was reminded of my own stories from my family. How my friends thought my mom must be constantly making apple pies because everytime they came over there was a pie there. How we HAD to make raviolis when the Patriots played or they wouldn't win and they tasted so so much better when they won. The first meal I made for Bill. The first things he made for me. My christmas chicken wings that try as I may, I cannot make them taste like my moms. And the best part of this is the memories that we all have with food. How no one makes something as good as mom. How the best times can sometimes have the best food. I have good food memories like many people and it's a nice connection we can all make. In my opinion, you are just fooling yourself if you say you don't have any good food memories.  Lots of people don't want to talk about it, maybe they think that talking about food makes them look weak or unhealthy. Maybe, but food is not something that we can go without so why try to ignore it?
      Besides all the food, I love that Mel doesn't follow the same generic path as you may think. The ending is one that doesn't feel the need to come to a clear and straight conclusion. I feel that some author's aren't brave enough to let the ending be not tidy and not happily ever after. But I do understand how wonderful friends can be in your life and I do feel a strong connection to that.
   I spent the majority of the time reading this book in the sunshine on a boat. It was the perfect way to read this story, but I got so into it, I read it in the car, while everyone else was watching a movie and late into the night. I know that is the showing of a great story. I did not want it to end, but I couldn't stop. Thank you for this story and the strength to say out loud that food is good and so am I.

Sincerely,
KT

Good Enough to EatGood Enough to Eat

Dear Helen Fielding,

Dear Helen Fielding,
 Bridget Jones is the voice of my generation and I'm damn proud to be represented by her. Reading Bridget Jones's Diary for the first time was finding out all those little secrets and idiosyncrasies that you and only you had; everyone had.All the bad choices we make, all the crazy thoughts and feelings and never really growing up, Bridget does it too. She made it fun to be crazy, and as I said before, you can make crazy look good.
  I was looking at my book shelf trying to figure out which book to write about next and saw Bridget Jones. I was just going to read the first few pages and then I couldn't stop. I read the entire thing in two bath tub soakings and a sleepless night. And I have read it over and over again. I know what's going to happen, I know when it's going to happen but I still love it. It's a great story that really connects people.
   Bridget paved the way for all the new women are powerful ideal, like Sex and the City. Bridget showed that you can be necrotic and brave, holding it together and falling apart and not perfect. I love that these women came along when I was in my teens and twenties and I didn't have to think I was alone and strange for thinking and overthinking. That all I was doing was normal and okay.
    Having so much respect for this book,it kills me that people put it down. Why is this chick lit? Why is this not accepted like it should be? Because it has a relationship in the center of the story? Because there is talk of shopping and girl issues? This is a great story and maybe I do connect it because I'm a girl but I think the label chick lit is sometimes viewed as a bad thing. Now I love that most women have taken it up as a badge of honor (especially my girls at Chick Lit Central) but I'm tired of hearing it. I have a minor in English Lit and loved my women lit classes with the serious literature that came along with that. I just feel that stories like Bridget Jones should be taken seriously as well. There is so much good writing out there and just because it's about a girl and a guy doesn't mean it's bad.
  So thank you Helen Fielding. I believe your story has changed so many women's lives and it will continue to live on with the quirky, messy fabulous Bridget.

Sincerely,
KT



Bridget Jones's DiaryBridget Jones's Diary

Dear Kristen Chenoweth,

Dear Kristen Chenoweth,
   I heart you. Years and years ago I saw you on the Rosie O'Donnell show singing the Girl in 14 G and couldn't believe all those parts, Opera, Jazz and Pop song were coming out of one person. As a theater geek, I was enchanted by Wicked, although I only knew your version by soundtrack. By Pushing Daisies and Glee, I was telling Bill, "Oh Kristen Chenoweth, I love her." But now hearing your story and your principles and, just from your writing, seeing what a good, kind person can accomplish, I adore you even more. Your story should be told every time Paris Hilton is on the screen to combat the negative ideals out there for women to absorb. I hope young girls can read your story and see you don't have to do awful terrible things to succeed. You can be yourself and have your faith and still come out on top.
   When I first started reading this memoir, I had some trouble with the flow. I found myself rereading parts to try and get the voice from the story. Then I saw an episode of Pushing Daisies with you talking. From there, I was all set. As long as I could hear that tone of your voice, and how little side comments are said, then the story came alive. I love hearing a real voice in writing, especially since I spend forever trying to get my students to do that in their writing. By the story itself is so wonderful. From down home beginnings to Tony awards, it feels like an "aw-shucks, just little ol' me" tone that you don't hear in most memoirs. I love that. I love that everything is laid out on the table, good and bad. I love that there aren't excuses and no sugar coating. I love the little recipes that make this feel like a conversation. More than anything, I love that happiness, believing in yourself and not giving up in anything, especially your faith take center stage.I was expecting more of a This Is When I Did This Wonderful Thing, and This Is When I Did That Wonderful Thing, story with gory details of Wicked and other shows. I thought I would connect to this story as a theater person, but now I can say anyone can connect to this story just by being a human being.
 That being said, I do have a strong connection to the theater aspect of this story.  I love the theater. I love seeing live shows, but more than anything I love being in live shows. Theater geeks will understand, there is something intoxicating about performing in front of others. The process of putting the show together, watching it build and come together and finally seeing it from start to finish, I and many other performers, have such a sense of pride and accomplishment. I have been in a good amount of shows, nothing too exciting but when I moved to Florida, Aimee introduced me to the Emma Parish theater in Titusville. We did Camelot together first, which was fun but included a whole lot of sitting and waiting backstage. It's a fun costume show and was a great way to introduce myself to the Titusville crew. The next show I did with them was Ragtime. Ragtime was magically. Ragtime was unlike anything I had ever done and most of us felt that way. I remember one music rehearsal, before we did any blocking, we were practicing a song, I think it was Til We Reach that Day, and when we finally sang it all the way through and finished, everyone just sat in silence. It was unbelievable. No one could believe that that noise that come from us. The whole show was like that. Everything was amazing and the music we created was unreal. I was really sad to see it end but so so so grateful for the experience. I did Pirates of Penzance in Cocoa Beach after that. It was such a fantastic cast in a funny, don't take yourself serious experience. That crew was so warm and welcoming that even showing up knowing no one, and having no support, I still felt like a part of something so great. I really needed that in that time in my life and the theater was able to give it to me.
  So with my tiny, insignificant experience in theater, I can't imagine what it was like to be on Broadway and how unbelievable that must feel. I watch the Tonys and drool over the new shows (Doesn't Book of Mormon look UNBELIEVABLE??) and dream of what that could possibly be like. But I know that I am a Central Florida Community Theater Chorus Member through and through. It doesn't mean I love it any less and since moving I miss it very much. I look often to see if there are any shows around here but so far nothing. Someday I know I will get back into it because the theater doesn't leave you. You always want to be part of it whether you just watch it or you get into it. This story makes me want to go back in. If and when I get the opportunity, I will keep the lessons of this book, working hard, putting everything into it, having fun, trying new things, and go out there and give it my all.


Sincerely,
KT


A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages

Dear Laurie Notaro,

Dear Laurie Notaro,
 First let me say, thank god for Idiot Girls. I consider myself a proud member and co-founder of the adjacent club, "I Make Crazy Look Good" with my bff Alison. Thank god for someone else who sees the world like I see it, who lives the way I live it and who thinks the way I do too.Thank God for both of you.
 I am an Idiot Girl. I am kinda messy inside and out. I trip a lot. I make a fool of myself more times than I don't. I have fallen off decks, off the edge of stairwells and off a set on a stage, sober. I miss my co-founder dearly. Together we have visited goats in the night, saved each other from awful dates and sang Karaoke with a guy who hears voices. I may or may not talk her into some crazy ideas from time to time as well. But idiot girls are amazing. We may drink too much, think too much and get ourselves into situations Smart Girls don't get themselves into, but Smart Girls don't have the kind of memories Idiot Girls have.
  I have grown into the series of books as well. I was single when I read The Idiots Girls' Action Adventure Club. And I was the one with the list of dumb ex boyfriends, the crazy late night adventures and hanging out at same shady bars (especially the Free til You Pee night in Merritt Island, just ask my friend Aimee).  Now I'm older and living the married life without being married. But like you, cooking was the key to the man's heart. I too remembered chicken cutlet's to a man whose mother was a health nut will bond this man to you. Baked goods help too. And I couldn't believe that I had found a guy who called when he did and kept showing up, who did sweet things and who didn't have a slew of awful friends. You like what I like and like staying home too? He isn't perfect, but I am very happy with my potential suitor.  Although I'm not planning a wedding anytime soon but I understand Autobiography of a Fat Bride. I will most likely be a fat bride although I do have a mother who does not believe in a traditional wedding so with any luck I'll be married on a beach on an island somewhere and there will be not meatball pyramid because I don't like them. It's nice to know when the time comes, there will be an idiot guide to get me through it.
  Please don't think less of me, but I haven't got through There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell or purchased Spooky Girls. I just found out about Flaming Tantrum of Death and It Looked Different on the Model and can't wait to get both of them. I love all the work, but I just keep going back to Idiot Girls. I laugh out loud at the same parts every time, even when I know there coming. When telling about Idiot Game Jamie, and I know on the bottom of the next page is when her Dutch boyfriend has to carry her over his shoulder out of the family gathering and she pees on him and I start giggling. When alone, no big deal but many of times I've done this in public and many of times I've gotten the let's-get-away-from-the-crazy-lady look. Truthfully, I really don't mind it because I'd rather have people farther than closer, but I'm getting away from the topic.
    I love these books. I love that the crazy brunette is not the side kick she is the star. I may not have the funny Sex and the City story life. I don't go to classy clubs for 14 dollar drinks. My heels don't cost as much as my rent, they're from Payless and in the rare occasion Macy's (only 1 pair, I think). I don't go to art museums or blues clubs, I walk around downtown Disney and Citywalk but don't usually go in anything. I've been to Emeril's once but Moe's plenty of times.  And I am not ashamed. I am proud to be an Idiot Girl and greatful for you to sharing this with me.

Sincerely,
KT

The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life

Dear Sarah Jane Gilman,

Dear Sarah Jane Gilman,
    I wish I could teach a class just with your book. Kiss My Tiara would be my textbook and my curriculum. I love this book and I love it's message.
   First, the story. I am a very emotional, dramatic person. I think in the past few years I have mellowed and overall I am happy. However at 20 and 21 I was not. I was angry and not happy with my choices in life. I was so dramatic and couldn't figure out why these relationships with High School and College boys weren't working out. (now I know it's just High School and College boys) A teenage and twenty something girl is so hormonal and obsessive it's hard to see the forest for the trees. My main education on love and romance was chick flicks.Say Anything, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, Saved, the list goes on and on.  So taking my cues from all the dumb movies where the girl changes everything and gives up everything and magically the guy comes along, I wasn't doing too well. And than I found this book. I would browse the love and relationships sections of my favorite Barnes and Nobel all the time. I never bought anything though. I never felt like it was the right book. I'm not sure if Kiss My Tiara was suppose to be in that section because to me, it's more life lesson than love lessons. It does it all. It helped me see the bigger picture, to relax and to me, it's the guide manual they do not give you.
    Let me show you. Chapter 9 is titled "Every Idiot We Date is One Less Idiot We Risk Marrying." Perfect. I never thought of it that way. I used to think every date, may be the one and I treated it like it could be the one. I tried and worried, I called and messed up. I got my hopes up and watched them go drain. Then I read the first line, Dating Sucks, it changed things. I love the advice. I love the idea that not everything is so serious, not everything needs to be so hard. I like the idea that we don't need to fuss and fight so much. That we can have a sense of humor, and enjoy ourselves in the process. There is so much common sense that we take for granted that needed to be spoken to me. Art Museums beat Vogue, Why are we doing all the work when we have the goods, Don't be Calm, women who eat are sexy, you can't ask for a raise if you can't order dessert, don't believe that all single women are miserable. There is so much that we already know, but we need to hear and hear it again.
   The subtitle of this book is How to Rule the World As a SmartMouth Goddess. I decided the first time reading this, that's exactly what I wanted to be: a SmartMouth Goddess. I want to speak my mind, I want to live life to the fullest and enjoy myself. And I wish that these middle school girls I see day in and day out could know this too. They are 13, 14, 15 and they are so consumed by these boys. They let them say awful things and they break themselves down for these little boys who in five years won't mean much and in ten years won't mean anything at all. If they could only see that if they enjoy themselves, if they don't take it all seriously and if they stop bringing girls down. Things would be so much better.
   Thank you for this book. Thank you for telling women that they are beautiful on the inside, that we really need to stop, take some stock and enjoy themselves. Life is too hard as it is. We shouldn't make it any harder.  Overall the last line says it all, and needs to be my moto  "...Follow our own path, stand tall and don't take any s*it."

Sincerely,
KT

Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a SmartMouth Goddess