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Farenheit 451 is one of those magical books, the kind that you read as a kid and remember forever. Since the sad news broke yesterday that Ray Bradbury has passed away at the age of 91, I’ve been inspired by his love of writing and his hard work. I’ve learned more about him since reading tributes such as this one, beautifully written by Neil Gaiman:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/06/ray-bradbury-neil-gaiman-appreciation

Here’s a sweet story from that article that includes some great advice about the writing life:

“Last week, at dinner, a friend told me that when he was a boy of 11 or 12 he met Ray Bradbury. When Bradbury found out that he wanted to be a writer, he invited him to his office and spent half a day telling him the important stuff: if you want to be a writer, you have to write. Every day. Whether you feel like it or not. That you can’t write one book and stop. That it’s work, but the best kind of work. My friend grew up to be a writer, the kind who writes and supports himself through writing. Ray Bradbury was the kind of person who would give half a day to a kid who wanted to be a writer when he grew up.”

That really is the only way to be a writer — to totally devote your life to it, and to keep at it, no matter what.

Sophie Dahl has taught me how to cook. Her first cookbook, Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights, has an amazing chicken curry recipe, among many others, and her new book, Very Fond of Food, doesn’t disappoint. Sophie’s recipes tell a story. Whether she’s explaining how to create some ambience around a meal, for example making mushrooms on toast with a poached egg for an easy Sunday night dinner “watching a good old costume drama” (page 15) or dedicating a Gooseberry yogurt recipe to her aunt who happily discovered the fruit at an Amsterdam restaurant, Sophie’s recipes evoke a world of simple beauty. Sophie herself wears vintage style clothes and has wispy blonde hair and a charming attitude. She makes you really want to cook. I love her recipes because they are incredibly easy yet incredibly sophisticated. Last weekend, some friends came over for dinner and I made her coconut shrimp curry (from her first cookbook) which took all of fifteen minutes but looked impressive. Best of all, Sophie divides her recipes by season. And who doesn’t want a cookbook that comes with gorgeous photos and family stories?

I discovered the book series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor about a girl named Alice when I was nine years old in a bookstore in London, England, and I’ve been addicted to the magic of this series ever since. Alice is not your typical young girl and yet she has felt pretty plain her whole life – at least compared to her dramatic and wild best friend Pamela and her impossibly beautiful other best friend, Elizabeth. There are twenty-five books in all (including three prequels) and the latest, Alice on Board, follows Alice and her friends as they embark on their last summer together before college – working on a cruise ship.

The final installment in the series, Always Alice, will be published in Spring 2013 and will chart Alice’s life from 18 to 60. It’s hard to imagine this amazing series ever coming to an end. My friend Rebecca and I spent about twenty minutes texting about Alice yesterday until she finally said, “Do we collectively know too much about a fictional character?”

To which I replied, “She’s not fiction! She’s real!”

And she is. Alice is one of those characters that will always seem completely, totally real.

A group of women at an eating disorder clinic. Kids and teens thinking about and spending money. A wealthy couple building their dream house. These people may not on the surface have a lot in common, but what they do have in common is this: their lives have been documented on film by the photographer Lauren Greenfield, in the documentaries Thin, Kids + Money, and The Queen of Versailles, respectively.

I went to a screening of The Queen of Versailles on Friday May 4^th as part of the Hot Docs festival here in Toronto, and the film was  powerful, interesting, intelligent, and beautifully shot.

The film follows David and Jackie Siegel and their wish to build the largest single-family home in America. David is a real estate mogul who lives in a mansion in Florida and has decided to build his dream house – a replica of Versailles. But then Wall Street crashes and his dreams tumble down along with it. Lauren met Jackie when photographing Donatella Versace for Elle magazine, and was invited to stay with Jackie. The two became friends and Lauren soon found her story. It’s a story of dreams, money, love, work, and family. The Queen of Versailles is definitely a film worth seeing.

This isn’t your usual celebrity memoir, because Diane Keaton isn’t your usual celebrity.

In fact, using the term “celebrity” feels wrong, somehow. Because Diane has written this book as a way to connect with her mother, who passed away recently, by writing her own story and also in the process writing her mother’s story, too. It’s a beautiful, touching, inspiring read that proves Diane Keaton is so much more than the quirky, menswear fashion icon seen in Annie Hall.

There’s some Woody Allen dish in the book, along with some words about Diane’s other lovers, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino, but the focus of this memoir is the family that Diane grew up in and the family that she has now created, a single mother of two adopted children.

What I loved the most about Then Again is learning about Diane’s mother Dorothy Hall – Woody based the Hall family on Diane’s, although the resemblance ends at the last name – and Dorothy’s struggles to express herself and remain creative. It’s impossible for a reader not to get emotional when Diane often intersperses her own journal entries with Dorothy’s – both mother and daughter have dabbled in art projects such as collages, and both have tried to figure out a way to be themselves while raising a family.

I dare you not to tear up at Diane’s words, a passage which becomes an explanation of the title: “One more thing, Mom. How does it all so soon become then? …It’s weird, but I think you’ll understand. As I’ve written our memoir – your words with my words – sometimes I feel like it’s Again without the Then” (page 256).

It’s also inspiring to read about a woman who defines herself by her creativity and her creative work, and that’s why Diane Keaton is a huge inspiration to me.