I just finished reading this book. There is a reason I don't pick up books as often as I use to. They engross me at times. I have hard time putting it down. I am sure my kids enjoy that I am not annoyed at them interrupting my reading. "Just a couple more pages, please".
This was a hard book for me to read. Julie Andrews has been a big part of our family. Penelope hated the car seat. But whenever we turned on the sound track to Mary Poppins it would calm her down. It was magical music. Nothing else would do it. I always said that it had something to do with the active melody of the music. Sadly it doesn't work with Austyn's dislike of the car seat.
Julie Andrews life was fairly difficult to start. She had a troubled childhood and was an English childhood actor/ performer. Through the beginning of the book I kept telling Russell out loud, "I liked her better in Mary Poppins". To me Julie Andrews was still the nanny that help soothe my daughter through her voice. Soon enough I separated the part she played in one movie from the actress. She opened up in the book about her family, her feelings, her life. It was wonderful to be able to peak inside of her life this way. It intensely saddened me to find out that her first marriage ended. I didn't know that until I was almost done with the book. Though she doesn't go that far in her life in this memoir (only until she is starting rehearsals for Mary Poppins) she doesn't hide the fact. Though there is a part of me that wanted this seemingly wonderful marriage to continue no matter what, I am glad she is happily married.
It is difficult to separate yourself when it is a novel versus a memoir. With a novel the end is the end. If there is no more you can make it more in your head. With a memoir you get a snippet of someones life but Julie Andrew is living a full life. There is so much more to her story. I recommend this book. Especially for anyone who has been raised with her as I have, watching her in the Sound of Music almost every Christmas.
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