The Haunting of Bly Manor
8.1
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TV Season Watch
After an au pair’s tragic death, Henry hires a young American nanny to care for his orphaned niece...
Nikki G. (48 KP) rated The Maimie Papers: Letters from an Ex-Prostitute in Books
Sep 2, 2017
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.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2204 KP) rated The 101 Dalmatians (The Hundred and One Dalmatians, #1) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
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>.
Splat the Cat
7.0
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Book
Meet Splat the Cat! An irresistible new character from Rob Scotton, bestselling creator of Russell...
The Longer Bodies
Book
This is a vintage murder mystery. Rediscover Gladys Mitchell - one of the 'Big Three' female crime...
Mr Bean™ - Around the World
Games and Entertainment
App
Uh-oh, silly Mr Bean has done it again! Help Bean escape his landlady Mrs Wicket in his new runner...
Murder on Madison Square
7.0
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Sarah and Frank Malloy must catch a scheming killer in this latest gripping installment of the USA...
ClareR (5726 KP) rated The Other Side of Mrs Wood in Books
Aug 15, 2023
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.
Rickey A. Mossow Jr. (689 KP) rated 365 Days (2020) in Movies
Jul 15, 2020
