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The Maimie Papers: Letters from an Ex-Prostitute
Maimie Pinzer | 1977 | Biography
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was fascinating. I love reading letters and journals from real, everyday people, as I feel they can whole a sense of place and time like no history book ever could.

Maimie Pinzer was a prostitute at the beginning of the twentieth century, and had become addicted to morphine after losing one of her eyes. She must have cut an unusual figure with her eye patch. The charity workers gave her the name of one Mrs. Howe to write to, a society lady with philanthropic interests. What developed was a lifelong friendship. Unfortunately, Mrs. Howe's letters are no longer extant, but Maimie stands on her own, and you can watch her shyness in letters begin to blossom and become a most admirable character, especially considering all of the adversity she faced.
  
Pongo and Missis are settling into their new married life with their newly wed pets - Mr. and Mrs. Dearly. Missis is expecting puppies, but these puppies have caught the eye of their neighbor and Mrs. Dearly's schoolmate Cruella de Vil. What will she do to get her hands on the puppies?

This is the book that inspired the Disney animation classic, and it is a lot of fun. The basic story is the same, but there are lots of changes along the way, plus more about the de Vil family. The humor is much more subtle than the film, but it still made me laugh and smile. Definitely a charming, fun read.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2014/07/book-review-101-dalmatians-by-dodie.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
The Other Side of Mrs Wood
The Other Side of Mrs Wood
Lucy Barker | 2023 | Fiction & Poetry, Paranormal
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I’ve read a couple of books recently with mediums front and centre, and I really enjoyed The Other Side of Mrs Wood.

Mrs Violet Wood is one of the best known mediums in London, if not the whole country. People come to her for solace and pure entertainment, and the local Mediums meet up regularly to practice their skills on one another. Feeling her age (bearing in mind she’s not 40 yet - and this really got my goat, if I’m completely honest!), Mrs Wood agrees to take on an apprentice who has been standing outside her seances, hoping to be noticed. Emmie Finch is a very keen pupil. Or is she?

We all know that seances are pure showmanship, and highly unlikely to actually make contact with the dead, but these women really believe what they’re doing - even as they set up the room to cheat those who were paying for their services. The seances where the mediums are there on their own would make anyone think that they believed 100% in what they were doing. Clearly they had their own moral codes, and no one appeared to be cheated out of money (but if you have someone paying you regularly for work that isn’t genuine, are you cheating them?!).

I did feel for Mrs Wood as she was pushed out of her position by the upstart Emmie, and could understand how she worried about losing her livelihood and her house. Mrs Wood descends into a bad place and pushes all of her friends away for a time. This seems out of character, but she’s being pushed to her limit. She doesn’t have the backstop of a husband to save her if everything goes wrong. Self-sufficient women of means were probably few and far between at this time, and if you lost everything it was a long fall.

I read this with The Pigeonhole, who again helped me with my NetGalley reads (I do like reading along with everyone else on there, it really adds a different perspective to the books I read). Many thanks to the author, Lucy Barker, Fourth Estate and to The Pigeonhole for serialising this fascinating book.
  
365 Days (2020)
365 Days (2020)
2020 | Drama, International
1
1.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Beauty and the Beast 2020: a Lifetime/Law & Order: SVU/Pornhub production. Had to watch this because the Mrs. had heard it was good. What a waste of 2 hours of my life. The movie is everything we're supposed to hate about male/female relationships these days. And the acting, if you can call it that, makes Lifetime movies look Oscar worthy.
  
40x40

Guy Maddin recommended Day Of Wrath (2006) in Movies (curated)

 
Day Of Wrath (2006)
Day Of Wrath (2006)
2006 | Action, Drama, Mystery
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Best Lutheran melodrama I’ve ever seen! Fantastically restrained love triangle involving a pastor, his young bride, and his son. Throw in cauldrons full of witchcraft and a mother more sexually suspicious than Mrs. Bates, and you’ve got perfection. The costumes and the performers inhabiting them are more rigid and austere than an unbuttered slice of Danish toast. Uneasily funny, chilling, and timeless."

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