I saw this on netgalley and the blurb got my attention because I love classic movies. First: the movie quotes in the books are not just from classic movies.. but from more recent stuff too. The movie quotes come from Wizard of Oz, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Home Alone, The Heiress (I recognized this one!!), Frankenstein, and more. Actually, most of the quotes were from 80s and up. I was a bit bummed about that. And the movie quotes.. well, they don't really tie in to the story. BUT...
It's a good read. It's about this Holland chick who travels to small town Pennsylvania for her summer vacation rather than go with her parents to a nudie colony. She gets a job in a vintage store (where she proceeds to make up cool stories and insinuations about the products being from movie stars), starts a tea corner, meets a young undertaker, and in one month in America learns about a lot of different cultures and DEATH. There's Jewish eating rules, a tribe in Uganda that has a grotesque death custom in which they basically drink the dead body's fluids, Irish handfasting, and Irish funeral fighting. It's really very fascinating. I learned a lot of customs from different cultures and how they deal with death... though it's kinda weird how a story about death ties in with a girl "robot" who "when she hears a word, the weirdest quotes come bubbling right out of her." I can't explain it, but it worked somehow.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I was disappointed with something though.... When Anna gets to go to NYC and visit different movie sites, we don't get the details of that. I was hoping for some fun movie tidbits here. Though I got a great laugh at the story Anna made up about Alfred Hitchcock, blondes, and his cane. (Could be true. Who knows?)
Now, something fun I got from the book (and I'm quoting even though it's an egalley. Pardon me.)
Look up the word ACROSTIC if you don't know what it means and read this gravestone epitaph....
Free your body and soul
Unfold your powerful winds
Climb up the highest mountain
Kick your feet up in the air
You may live forever
Or return to this earth
Unless you feel good where you are
If you got it, you're either laughing or terribly offended. LOL. I laughed. :)
Four stars and I got this from netgalley.
I'm reading this right now and I laughed so much at the part you quoted. But I agree, though the blurb puts emphasis on movie quotes, it's not that prominent like learning about death. I really love this book.
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