Books

  1. 1. Surely Our Unhappy Marriage Will Be Revived In Paris

    2. Our Marriage Deteriorates Even In Paris

    3. Perhaps If We Were To Try...An Open Marriage

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  2. "If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is never make assertions. That is the moral crime peculiar to our enemies. We do not tell — we show. We do not claim — we prove. It is not your obedience that we seek to win, but your rational conviction. You have seen all the elements of our secret. The conclusion is now yours to draw — we can help you to…

    21 comments
  3. Genesis 32:4-6

    He instructed the ansible: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying at the fastness of Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find shifgrethor in your eyes.’”

    14 comments
  4. The signs Ronbledore has left behind for those who know how to look are not merely in the works of Harry Potter. They are everywhere. You did not see them before you knew how to look; you could not look for them before you were taught how to see.

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  5. You know the dangers of such latitude of plan in any but the best conducted Journal!

    Life is a cup! And what does one do with a cup? ONE DRINKS FROM IT FULL-THROATEDLY AND WITHOUT HESITATION, YOU MOUSE!

    61 comments
  6. The Castle of Otranto And The Failure Of Mortgage-Backed Securities

    For the Term of his Natural Life (He'll Be Renting)

    The Old English Baron Is In Default

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  7. I used to read this book when I was a kid, then forgot it, then thought I'd dreamed it, then found it last night. "The King O' The Cats" pretty well sums up my whole deal, but I recommend the Hobyahs too if you want to crawl inside my past.

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  8. Le cab jaspine, je marronne que la roulotte de Pantin trime dans le sabri, the dog is barking. Le dab est sinve, la dabuge est merloussière, la fée est bative.

    The cab is Jasper's, the marrow will still be good after roulette but Pantin has to trim the savory. Dabbing is sinful, the flood carries mussels, this party is for babies.

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  9. One of the most rewarding parts of reading Jane Eyre as a thirteen-year-old Midwesterner is taking a wild shot in the dark at the meaning of all of the untranslated French passages.

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  10. Sweet-n-Sour Potatoes With Some Hot Fruit

    "A cook in a jacket, a short petticoat and sabots, brought my supper: to wit—some meat, nature unknown, served in an odd and acid, but pleasant sauce; some chopped potatoes, made savoury with, I know not what: vinegar and sugar, I think: a tartine, or slice of bread and butter, and a baked pear."

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  11. While Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) is often discussed alongside other Louisiana writers such as Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, she is not nearly as well known today as they are.

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  12. You discover you have a half-brother. You resent him for being stronger and healthier, and are disgusted when he sings a dirty song with a soldier.

    You think you have had a revelation. In reality, you have gotten yourself in a muddle, and later it makes you miserable.

    If you ever take to living as you play piano, it will be very exciting indeed.

    59 comments
  13. Yesterday Entertainment Weekly ran a piece about debut novels with six-figure advances and why publishers are willing to take big financial risks on (relative) literary unknowns. The answer is, among other things, "because they believe they will make even more money later," but the part that really leapt out at me was this:

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  14. Here is a complete list of the books I was forbidden to read as a child, please add your own in the comments below:

    Flowers in the Attic, V.C. Andrews, age twelve

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  15. N.B. This also applies to characters from the follow-up, "Whatever Happened to Janie?" and the TV adaptation that combined elements from both books starring Kellie Martin.

    Reeve, Janie's stupid handsome helpful boyfriend, who takes every opportunity to ask Janie, "What if we just blew all this off and went to a hotel room and DID IT."

    225 comments