Booklover - Jennifer Ward-Lealand

Jennifer Ward-Lealand (left - photo imdb) is performing in Rita And Douglas  from November 22^nd at the Auckland Town Hall.

  

The book I love most is....I have read Middlemarch by George Eliot three times and am always impressed by her brilliant writing of character - especially the loathsome clergyman Casaubon. The book explores the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. A great read.

The book I'm reading right now is....Bligh by Anne Salmond. I really enjoyed Aphrodite's Island (by the same author) and am finally getting to learn more about the quick-tempered Bligh - and how his mood swings were the undoing of him.


 The book I want to read next is....Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down: How One Generation Of British Actors Changed The World by Robert Sellers. We think of the 60s as a time of culturalrevolution but in the theatre and film industry it began in the early 50s with the arrival of a new wave of actors who tore down the establishment and put real people and their lives onto the stage. Luminaries such as Peter O'Toole, Albert Finney, Terence Stamp and Julie Christie. 



My favourite bookshop is....dependent on where I am and how desperately I want the book. If I was in town it would be Unity; for close to home, The Women's Bookshop, or if I didn't mind waiting, online.


 The book that changed me is....A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. I finally understood the caste system and the misery that has stemmed from it. 


The book I wish I'd never read is....If I hated a book that much I wouldn't finish it. 

First published in the Herald on Sunday, 13 November 2011