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1. We got Margaret settled into the assisted living facility on Monday, and she's done so well. By the end of that first day, she already had a gaggle of friends she was hanging out with, and they have activities all day long. She's so busy, we all have trouble catching her on the phone.
I think all of us had been waiting on tenterhooks and scared that she'd react poorly, but thankfully she didn't.
One down, one to go!
2. I don't know if y'all remember a few years ago when we hit a bear on the highway and totaled our car. Last week, Fiona and I were driving down the highway, and we saw a little bear cub frolicking on the side of the road at the exact spot where we had the accident. It freaked me out because where baby is, mama is not far behind. But we escaped unscathed this time.
3. I didn't post any real details about this book in the review, but I'd love to discuss this book!
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is absolutely masterful. I love a good Neo-Victorian, and this is the best one I've read maybe ever. The writing is beautiful, the focus on all the details that ground a reader in the 19th century (slang, dress, the grime) is amazing, and the sense of place (London, the asylum, the countryside forty miles from London) are all exquisitely drawn.
I love how twisty and turny this novel is. I don't want to say too much about the plot for fear of ruining it, but there's such an excellent payoff in the third act.
Highly, highly recommended.
View all my reviews
4. I'd love to discuss this one with anyone who's read it, too.
McTeague: A Story Of San Francisco by Frank Norris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a book in which deeply unpleasant things happen to deeply unpleasant people. The characters (and the narrative itself) are racist and sexist; child abuse goes unremarked and treated as a matter of course. Domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and murder feature prominently.
And, yet, Norris is a compelling writer. His descriptions of San Francisco and later of the desert are vividly written. His portrait of an unorthodox romance between two elderly characters is an oasis of sweetness amidst all the horror.
I enjoyed parts of this book but will not read it again.
View all my reviews
I think all of us had been waiting on tenterhooks and scared that she'd react poorly, but thankfully she didn't.
One down, one to go!
2. I don't know if y'all remember a few years ago when we hit a bear on the highway and totaled our car. Last week, Fiona and I were driving down the highway, and we saw a little bear cub frolicking on the side of the road at the exact spot where we had the accident. It freaked me out because where baby is, mama is not far behind. But we escaped unscathed this time.
3. I didn't post any real details about this book in the review, but I'd love to discuss this book!

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is absolutely masterful. I love a good Neo-Victorian, and this is the best one I've read maybe ever. The writing is beautiful, the focus on all the details that ground a reader in the 19th century (slang, dress, the grime) is amazing, and the sense of place (London, the asylum, the countryside forty miles from London) are all exquisitely drawn.
I love how twisty and turny this novel is. I don't want to say too much about the plot for fear of ruining it, but there's such an excellent payoff in the third act.
Highly, highly recommended.
View all my reviews
4. I'd love to discuss this one with anyone who's read it, too.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a book in which deeply unpleasant things happen to deeply unpleasant people. The characters (and the narrative itself) are racist and sexist; child abuse goes unremarked and treated as a matter of course. Domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and murder feature prominently.
And, yet, Norris is a compelling writer. His descriptions of San Francisco and later of the desert are vividly written. His portrait of an unorthodox romance between two elderly characters is an oasis of sweetness amidst all the horror.
I enjoyed parts of this book but will not read it again.
View all my reviews
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Date: 2024-10-27 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-28 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-28 02:55 am (UTC)points upwards This.
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Date: 2024-10-30 10:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-30 10:04 am (UTC)We are apparently going to talk about it today at the book club meeting (I read Fingersmith for the Third Sex reading group of the Victorian Popular Fiction Association); a few days before each meeting, the organizers send out a reading pack that contains info about the writer, scholarly takes on the work, and discussion questions. There were a few pages about this movie.
I'm going to watch it this weekend. I'll report back.
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Date: 2024-10-27 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-30 10:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-27 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-30 10:07 am (UTC)I got the lovely necklace you made. It's going to be a gift for a dear friend who will adore it as much as I do.
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Date: 2024-10-27 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-30 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-28 12:09 am (UTC)I know I read McTeague in a grad school class and I mostly remember the dental horror and the scenes in the desert that seemed like a pre-cursor to a scene I recall from loony toons... The most menorable thing is that I read this for a survey course on realism and at some I commented on how clever it had been for the professor to specifically select books that focused on money and he was like -?? Not on purpose!
Turns out that's just what realism is!
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Date: 2024-10-31 10:12 am (UTC)One of the things I like least about the novel is the way that the two women who are murdered are implicitly blamed for their physical abuse and eventual deaths. McTeague is a terrible person, but his wife's thrift drives him to become worse. Maria's husband marries her because of the stories she tells about golden dishes, but then he kills her when she repudiates those stories.
And in the end, nobody gets the money they were all so keen to possess.
As far as Waters go, I am going to reread Tipping the Velvet next because I have it here, and then I will check out The Paying Guests!
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Date: 2024-10-28 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-31 10:13 am (UTC)Thank you, friend.
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Date: 2024-10-28 01:57 am (UTC)Glad it's working out hon. Your mom in-law should be fine. Bet she will like to play bingo.
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Date: 2024-10-31 10:14 am (UTC)Thank you.
I bet she would, too. They have activities all day long and take the residents on trips. She is certainly not going to be bored.
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Date: 2024-10-28 03:30 am (UTC)Ohhhhhhhhhhh, I can imagine how that started the old heartrate to racing. Glad there wasn't a repeat!
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Date: 2024-10-31 10:14 am (UTC)I always scour the sides of the roads anyway when we drive along that stretch.
Such an unbelievable thing to have happened.
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Date: 2024-10-28 11:17 am (UTC)So happy you just saw cubs, and didn't hit a bear again!
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Date: 2024-10-31 10:17 am (UTC)Oh, I am so glad it was just the cub. It's already unbelievable that we hit the bear in the first place. I don't want to be one of those lucky people for home lightning strikes twice.
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Date: 2024-10-31 12:32 pm (UTC)HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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Date: 2024-11-01 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-01 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-28 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-31 10:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-28 03:31 pm (UTC)And yay for not hitting a bear! o_O *g* (Though I'm sorry it made you anxious.)
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Date: 2024-10-31 10:19 am (UTC)I'm so so relieved.
That whole stretch of road makes me nervous anyway. I'm always on the lookout any time I drive down it now.
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Date: 2024-10-29 12:59 am (UTC)This is so great to hear!
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Date: 2024-10-31 10:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-31 12:45 am (UTC)Ahh, I love Fingersmith! It blew me away when I first read it. It's the type of book that you kind of long for the experience of reading again unspoiled. <33
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Date: 2024-10-31 10:20 am (UTC)Yes! Fingersmith is so good; the way that mystery unfolds and all the twists and turns--that first read of figuring it all out is so so wonderful.
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Date: 2024-11-01 01:38 am (UTC)I've never read anything else quite like it.
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Date: 2024-11-02 12:56 pm (UTC)It's so well-plotted. I love how once you get Maud's perspective, so many things about the previous section from Sue's perspective take on different meaning.
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Date: 2024-11-01 12:03 pm (UTC)WISHING YOU ALL THE BEST
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Date: 2024-11-02 12:58 pm (UTC)She has a room; the dining and all that is communal.
Tom is going to live with her there eventually once we get the house sold. Josh went last week to Jackson to engage a realtor, and he's there this weekend meeting with a guy who's going to run an estate sale this upcoming week and clean out the house. Then the realtor will put the house on the market. Who knows how long it will take to sell, but as soon as it does, we are getting him up there.
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Date: 2024-11-02 01:32 pm (UTC)ALL THE HUGS
In other news, two days in a row now I have exercised and eaten right. Go me!
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Date: 2024-11-04 11:49 am (UTC)That's awesome.