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Why Girls Love Sailors (1927)
Why Girls Love Sailors (1927)
1927 | Comedy
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
So-so Laurel and Hardy movie from the days before Laurel and Hardy even existed as an idea. No sign of the usual characterisations, bowler hats, or tit-for-tat; Stan plays Willie the winkle-fisherman whose sweetheart is abducted by the captain of a ship largely crewed by thugs and scoundrels; Ollie plays the unnamed first mate. Stan's plan involves a surprising amount of cross-dressing.


More of a curiosity than anything else, though I'm not sure I'd go as far as those suggesting this once-lost film would have been better off staying that way. It certainly lends weight to the suggestion that Stan was the more gifted comedian but Ollie was a more versatile actor - he still keeps doing those looks to camera, though. In the end, it's not outrageously bad, but mainly of historical interest.
  
    Dear Boy

    Dear Boy

    Emily Berry

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Book

    "Dear Boy" is the dramatic and inventive debut by Emily Berry. These characterful, intelligent and...

Femme Faux Fatale (Dreamspun Desires #70)
Femme Faux Fatale (Dreamspun Desires #70)
Susan Laine | 2018 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
really rather enjoyed this
Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Cain is hired by Ms Astor to find her husband, along with a Rodin statuette. But things don't add up to Cain, and he visits the club she works at to talk to her some more. Lily Lavender is on stage, and she pushes all kinds of buttons that Cain never knew he needed pushing. Riley, the man behind Lily, has a similar reaction to Cain. But Riley is keeping secrets, secrets that have gotten two people killed and Cain needs to know, if they are to get out of this alive.

I really rather enjoyed this!

It's got instant and powerful attraction, it's got steam and passion, it's got a nutty woman, it's got so many levels of secrets! It's deadly too.

Told from both Cain and Riley's point of view, in the third, so we get each and every reaction from both men. Reactions to each other, to the situation around them, to Riley's cross dressing and to Cain very unexpected reaction to that.

Loved Cain's reaction to Riley's cross dressing. It's clear Riley has been treated badly in the past because of that, but Cain is like, AND??? It's part of who Riley is, and Cain just takes it as it is, as Riley is. Cain does, admittedly, rather like Riley in his ladies knickers and stockings, so that helped!

There is a rather long winded conversation between Riley and Cain about pulp fiction and noir films (I think!) bit I got lost with that, mostly because I have no clue what they were talking about, so I glanced over that bit!

I did like the twist as to what was really in the statuettes, and where that led the plot, and just what Ms Astor had, rather that what she THOUGHT she had.

Not quite a one sitting read, but I did stay til after midnight to finish it, when I had a 6am get up!

I've read one other by Ms Laine, I'd like to read some more. She has a way of grabbing you and pulling you in.

4 solid stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
The Boy in the Dress
The Boy in the Dress
David Walliams | 2009 | Children, Young Adult (YA)
10
9.8 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Humour, sensitive and well written (0 more)
Nothing (0 more)
This is a good well rounded book for young folks
I really enjoyed this book. I was sceptical due to the author already being established and thought perhaps his celebrity status helped him sell book but I'll take my hat of to Walliams. This is an enjoyable little read. The language is simple and I enjoyed how current the book is. The book really demonstrates the difference between black and white and colour (colour being different and standing out from the norm).
Uniform is also a main theme in the book and very obviously gender and social acceptance. Walliams does a good job at showing that sexual preference is not linked to dress and that discrimination is wrong. In this book the child is able to experience how ludicrous gender representation by dress is by dressing the full football team up in ladies clothing, this normalises it.
The intrusive narrator who may be Walliams himself, also gives hints throughout the book about his own desire to cross dress.
Good book.