All posts by Ti

Hi, I'm Ti! I blog about books and life over at http://bookchatter.net
Life

Random Thoughts: Thanksgiving Prep

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  1. Cooking with The Girl is an adventure. It’s a wonder that anything lands in the pot.
  2. Everything tastes better with butter or cream. Everything.
  3. Fine china is too pretty to use just a couple of times a year.
  4. It’s important to have regular meals while cooking all this food because a taste here and a taste there and all of a sudden…you’ve had your Thanksgiving meal. Ugh.
  5. The cornbread dressing did not come close to Momo’s dressing, until I burned it. Now it tastes just like hers!
  6. Wine. Specifically red wine makes me a better cook. Well, it certainly makes me a happier cook. La la la. See how happy I am?

While the pie is in the oven, I am waiting for The Boy to call me so that I can pick him up. He got out of school early and asked if he and his friends could grab a burger next door. His “friends” include a girl that he likes. He wanted to treat her to lunch. I’m not sure my brain is ready to absorb this piece of information but I figured, lunch with friends is innocent enough. Apparently, the winter formal is coming up. Need I say more?

I probably won’t be online tomorrow, so I must tell you all how much you mean to me. Your comments, your emails and your friendship mean the world to me. You make my work day that much brighter and when I am down, all I have to do is open my reader and within minutes, I am feeling so much better. You guys rock!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you. May you find joy in all that you do.

Book Review

Review: Someone at a Distance

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Someone at a Distance Book CoverSomeone at a Distance
By Dorothy Whipple
Persephone Books
September 2008
420pp

The Short of It:

There’s nothing more tragic than a happy marriage, falling apart. BUT, given the subject matter, Someone at a Distance is wickedly good.

The Rest of It:

Ellen is the perfect housewife to Avery, and a doting mother to their two children Hugh and Anne. They live in a gorgeous house in a rural neighborhood just outside of London. Their lives are perfect, until Avery’s mother hires a French girl by the name of Louise to assist her with her day-to-day.

Louise is as venomous as they come. She’s conceited and has such grand ideas of what people think of her, that she considers herself much more than a personal assistant. No, she considers herself a member of the family and when she sets her sights on Avery, things go downhill quickly.

You would have said that there wasn’t a happier family anywhere. Yet disaster was sitting at the table in the form of the French girl. What a queer, chancy thing life was!

Someone at a Distance was a little slow in the beginning, but when Louise sinks her teeth into Avery the story picks up pace and I simply could not put it down. I cannot describe to you how evil Louise is. She’s probably one of the most well-written villains I’ve come across in quite a while.  Perhaps her vile ways were accentuated given the calmness of dear Ellen, the wife, but it’s good storytelling nonetheless.

This is the third Persephone book I’ve read and I have to say, they are quite charming. I tend to read them in bits, here and there as they are just so pleasurable to read but once I got into this story I raced through it.

This would be a lovely book to curl-up with on a rainy day.

Source: Purchased