In Memoriam: Muriel Spark

Novelist Muriel Spark died on Friday. I confess I haven't actually read any of her work, which makes me tres lame for writing this brief obit. Still, I can recommend the film adaptation of her novel, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," which is sort of like a darker, racier, female version of "Dead Poets' Society." Maggie Smith is perfection in the title role of this 1969 classic Brit flick, and she won an Oscar for her efforts. Granted, the "girls" in the movie look about 27 -- still, it's much, much better than watching Julia Roberts in that stupid "Mona Lisa Smiles" garbage from a few years back.

Muriel was a woman after my own heart, spending the last years of her life living in a converted church in Tuscany. I've made a note to borrow her novel, The Girls of Slender Means, on my next trip to the library. Based on the title, at least, it sounds like a book I could relate to. Let me know if you'd recommend any other works from Spark. -- Amy