#with her and henry the hoover. so yeah! also i like in this one she's the queen declaring his death bc like how she was the one who outlived

[birthdaysentiment]

hey cille! I have noticed that you reblog a lot of books edits, and I know you have answered this before, but do you have any books that you can recommend and have you added new books to your reading list?

hiii anon! and yes i have. books are my obsession at the moment lol, and i've been reading so many books lately, and it really is the best! i love looking for edits and such here when i've finished one, it's such a nice way to go through the feels just one more time

i've read so many books this past month, and i can recommend all of them! i didn't find any of them boring or as a something i just needed to get through. and these are the books i've read recently:

"ugly love" by colleen hoover || finished reading this yesterday and it's such a fantastic book! it has everything and i'm just in love with her writing. the mix of pov's and time is the best thing!

"we contain multitudes" by sarah henstra || there's this one scene that just broke me in a way i've never been broken before. it's just such a good book! jonathan and adam are my babies!

"the outsiders" by s.e. hinton || i have a personal connection to this book and a poem from it. i've watched the movie many times, but now i finally read the book and it's so good!

"you and me on vacation" by emily henry || one of my absolute favorites! poppy and alex own my heart, i want more of them!

"this winter" by alice oseman || this is one of the novellas in the "heartstopper" serie. it was really cute but idk if it was worth the money since it's only 100 pages and not much is happening

"beach read" by emily henry || another amazing book! it's such a good enemies to lovers story with them having known each other for so long, and yeah it's just such a good summer book

"one last stop" by casey mcquiston || it took me some time to get into it, but once the twist came it got more interesting and her writing is always so good! (and yeah rwrb.... mu beloved!)

"it ends with us" by colleen hoover || this whole book destroyed me, like i've never felt so torn before by a book and it just had me sobbing for hours afterwards. it's just an amazing book!

"boyfriend material" by alexis hall | luc and oliver... my babies! ahh loved this one so much, it's fake dating and british hehe. there's also gonna be a sequel next year, and i'm so excited!

compared to my old reading list i still have "a little life" + "the love hypothesis" + "conversations with friends" (which i'm gonna read next) + "the perks of being a wallflower" + "ziggy, stardust and me" to read, and even though i promised myself i wouldn't order more books until i had read those, i bought these new books today:

"as far as you'll take me" by phil stamper (been wanting to read this for some time now, so i thought... why not buy it hehe"

"heart bones" by colleen hoover (because i want to read all her books, like she's such an amazing writer! i just love her!)

"punk 57" by penelope douglas (it's really popular on tiktok, so i kinda wanted to see what all the fuss was about hehe)

"seven husbands of evelyn hugo" by taylor jenkins reid (also one that's really popular and i've heard some good things about it)

"aristotle and dante dive into the waters of the world" by benjamin alire saenz (ordered this weeks ago but it's been sold out everywhere so it just takes so long, but i'm very excited)

also if you have any book recommendations that you'll like to share please let me know! always on the look for books to read <333

#cille's asks #cille's random book thoughts #another essay no one asked for #book recommendations

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Everything Money Can Buy (2/12)

Summary: The Greatest Store in the World AU. When misfortune strikes and leaves Emma Swan and her son homeless just before Christmas, the ever-resourceful Emma has a ready solution. They’ll move into Mills Department Store, a place they can only dream of affording to buy from. It’s not easy, having to deal with a perpetually grumpy doorman, a nasty assistant manager, and an extremely suspect Santa, but Emma and Henry soon learn that the kindness of strangers is something money can’t buy.

Swan Believer centric, with eventual Swan Queen and background Rumbelle and Dwarf Star.

Rated: G

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[One] [AO3]

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Two

When Emma woke up the next morning, she almost couldn’t remember where she was. It had been a long time since she’d slept in a bed this luxurious – if she ever had. She reached under her pillow to silence the alarm on her phone. As tempting as it was to go for five more minutes, especially under a genuine goose feather duvet and soft wool blankets, the entire reason that they were in such sumptuous surroundings in the first place meant that they were going to have to make a move sharpish, before it became obvious that they had been in there all night.

She sat up and leaned down to the other end of the bed to wake Henry, who groaned and pulled the covers up over this head.

“What time is it?” he mumbled.

“It’s nearly six. Come on, Henry, we have to move.”

“But it’s a Saturday!”

“I know, but the cleaners will be coming in soon and we need to be ready to sneak out with them before the shop opens. Believe me, I’ve cleaned enough shops before opening hours in my time to know how this works.”

Truth be told, Henry had cleaned enough shops to know how it worked too. Well, usually he’d been sitting in a corner on a step stool out of the way whilst she’d done the cleaning, but he’d certainly been around. It was hard enough holding down a job when she had no qualifications and no fixed abode; trying to hold one down with a small child was almost impossible, and Henry had ended up coming to work with her more often than not.

They got up and set the bed back to as pristine a showroom condition as they could manage, and soon enough, the sound of hoovers and the chatter of cleaning staff could be heard on the floors below them. Emma rushed back to the cleaning cupboard that they’d hidden in the previous evening; it had been during that fraught period at closing time that she’d come up with the plan to disguise their exit this morning. She grabbed a roll of bin bags and a pair of rubber gloves, and with Henry’s help, she tossed all of their baggage into a black sack and started dragging it towards the stairs. It was slow going, but at least they weren’t quite as conspicuous as they could have been.

They were almost in the clear when the cleaning team got up to beds and bed linen, and their progress was hindered even further by the appearance of the assistant manager. Emma cursed and shoved the bin bag full of their belongings in a corner, instructing Henry to guard it and not look anyone in the eye. She was going to have to keep up the cleaning façade for a little longer in order to make it look legit. Thank God she had enough experience to know what she was doing.

In all the time that Emma had been perusing the shelves of Mills without any intention of buying anything, the assistant manager, a Miss Zelena West, had been the bane of Emma’s window-shopping happiness. Like Gold the doorman, she was an institution at the department store, but unlike Gold, there was absolutely nothing likeable about her. Gold was scary, but he did at least smile on occasion and his broad Glasgow accent betrayed roots far from the bright lights and luxury of Mills; so, for that reason, Emma trusted him even if she could feel his eyes boring into her sometimes when they were sitting on their bench across the street, watching him.

Zelena, on the other hand, was always annoying and never smiled so much as leered, her eyes never quite matching what her mouth was doing. There were always too many teeth in her smile, and Emma always got the distinct impression that there was more to her than met the eye. If there was one person whom she absolutely did not want to meet whilst attempting to leave the store having been trespassing in it all night, then it was Zelena. She would definitely be the type to haul them both straight off to the owner’s office and get as many charges as possible pressed against them.

What was she doing here so early anyway? Surely no one could be so paranoid about their place of work that they decided to supervise the cleaning staff, but apparently so. She was stalking in and out of all the display racks, hunting for dust in nooks and crannies and finger marks on any and all mirrored surfaces. Emma showed willing with a duster for a bit, and one of the other ladies caught her eye. She could barely have been out of her teens, if that, and she was so pregnant she could barely fit down between the aisles. Emma felt a pang of sympathy; that had been her ten years ago, still working up until her due date because she had no other choice.

The girl grimaced, rubbing her back.

“When’s it due?” Emma asked, coming over to pick up her dropped feather duster and save unnecessary bending down.

“New Year’s Day. Thanks.” The girl took the duster back with a grateful smile. “I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new?”

“Yeah, first day on the job.” She nodded over to Zelena, still on the prowl. “Is she always like that?”

“Yep. Nothing’s ever good enough for the wicked witch.”

Emma had to laugh at the nickname; considering Zelena was almost always dressed in some shade of green, it certainly suited her.

“I’m Ashley, by the way. Just let me know if you need any help finding your way round. It’s a huge place; I got lost in kitchenware on my first day. I thought I was going to be stuck in an endless loop of saucepans and lasagne dishes for the rest of my life.”

“I’m Emma. Thanks for the offer.”

“Hey!” Zelena had noticed them talking, and Emma quickly turned so that the other woman wouldn’t see her face. “Less gossiping and more dusting! These beds won’t clean themselves!”

“It might help if she picked up a duster once in her life,” Ashley muttered. Emma gave a snort and made her excuses to leave Ashley alone, slipping away when Zelena’s back was turned again and making her way back to Henry.

“You were gone ages!” he hissed. “I was getting worried!”

Emma grabbed the bin bag and started banging it down the stairs. “I got trapped by the wicked witch. I’ll explain later,” she added quickly on seeing Henry’s confused expression. “Did anyone see you?”

“No. No one came past except the customer services lady and she didn’t say anything. Maybe bringing your kid to work isn’t so rare after all.”

Emma thought of Ashley, and she wondered what would happen after New Year’s Day.

Down on the ground floor, Emma hit a slight flaw in her plan. She’d spent enough time in Mills over the years to know its layout pretty well, but that was only the parts that the public got to see. They were now in the backstage area, so to speak. Staff only. And she had no idea where to find the exit.

People were coming and going, the cleaners and the regular staff coming in to set up their departments; but no one paid her and Henry any mind. They were cleaners after all, lugging a huge bag of rubbish out to the bins. They came in this way, so they must know their way out again.

Emma pushed Henry down behind the bag and dropped into a crouch beside him as she heard a very familiar and very angry voice.

“If Zelena’s held my coat to ransom in the dry-cleaning cupboard again, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

Gold came down the corridor past them, and Emma had to double take at his appearance. She’d only ever seen him resplendent in his uniform, and to see him now, wearing an obviously hand-knitted jumper with a penguin wearing earmuffs on it, was a jarring reminder that he did have a life outside of the store.

“It’s ok, I rescued it for you.”

Gold stopped at the end of the corridor before he could crash into the lady from the customer services desk. She was new this year; Emma had not seen her working on the desk before. She held up Gold’s uniform coat in its plastic dry-cleaning bag, and Emma couldn’t help but notice the slight little red blush that rose in her cheeks when Gold grabbed it with a smile.

“Belle, you are a lifesaver. What would I do without you?”

“Oh, you’d manage, I’m sure.”

“Mum!”

Henry was gesturing frantically down the corridor to where the other cleaners were taking rubbish bags, and Emma knew that it was time to move on and not watch the sweet little scene taking place between Gold and Belle any longer. She hauled up their bin bag and followed Henry down the corridor and out into the yard, whereupon they ducked behind a bin and grabbed all their luggage.

They were out of the woods, and their night of camping out in the store was over.

“Come on, Henry. Let’s go and get our van back.”

X

Someone wise once said that it never rains but it pours. If they had been a bit wiser still, they would have said that it never rains but it pours and thunders and hails and snows all at the same time, and less than a week before Christmas to boot.

Emma was sitting in the cramped office of the DVLA impound trying very hard not to swear, since Henry was sitting only a foot away, pretending to be absorbed in a newspaper and not paying any attention to what the adults were doing, but in reality, he was taking absolutely everything in and he knew that things were going from bad to worse to even worse with every passing moment.

She also knew that she really couldn’t take it out on the poor clerk who was dealing with her case. When the van had been towed in the first place and she’d made it clear that she wouldn’t be able to pay the fine; he’d offered to try and get her a payment plan of sorts. As it was, Emma had pawned some of her mother’s jewellery to make up the cash; the sentimental value was nothing compared to actually having somewhere to call home that wasn’t a department store’s bed section.

She had come to the impound ready to pay, only for the incredibly apologetic and nervous-looking clerk to tell her that he couldn’t release the van to her because it had failed so many safety inspections that it had been deemed dangerous to drive. He was going through the list of all its failings with her now, and every time he faltered, Emma could tell that there was more bad news to come but that he’d already given her so much that he didn’t have the heart to continue.

Eventually, they came to the end of the list, and he looked up at her with an expression that could only be described as a cringe.

“I’m really sorry,” he said. “But I just can’t let you drive away in it.”

Emma sat back in her chair and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. There was no way that she would be able to afford all the repairs that the agency had said would be needed before the van would be road legal again. She had barely scraped together enough for the fine in the first place. This was just the icing on the cake of a really terrible year. Every year, she was determined that things were going to get better and that they might finally stop living out of a van.

She’d got her wish all right. They were definitely not living out of a van anymore. They weren’t living out of anywhere.

“To be honest, it might be more economical to write it off,” the clerk said. “I’m not sure how much you’d get for its scrap value, but it would be better than nothing.”

Emma nodded. “Yeah. You’re probably right. How do I go about doing that, then?”

“Well, we won’t be able to do anything until after Christmas, I’m afraid. Everywhere is shut down for the holidays.”

Emma threw her hands up in the air and let them drop down to her sides. “Fantastic. Fan-bloody-tastic.”

There was nothing more that she could do here. All she could hope was that the emergency housing office had somewhere available for them.

“Come on, Henry.” She sighed and hefted up their bags again. “Let’s go.”

“We’re not getting the van back, are we?”

“No.”

They walked on through the town in silence. The van was pretty much the only home that Henry had ever known, and now it had been taken from him in a finger snap, and just before Christmas as well. Henry was used to not receiving Christmas presents, but at least he’d never yet had something taken away from him at Christmas. This was the opposite of the Christmas spirit, and his desolation was palpable.

“We’ll find somewhere else,” Emma said, trying to keep his spirits up, but it was clear that Henry didn’t believe her, and she didn’t quite believe herself. “I’m sure that there are other vans out there.” That said, maybe it would be better to put some roots down somewhere and start living between four walls instead of on four wheels. Maybe this would be the year that they stopped living in the van in a good way after all.

The housing office was open this time, but as they walked in, took the slip of paper from the machine with their number on it, and sat down to wait, Emma didn’t hold out much hope. There were at least six other families in front of them, and all of them were more than just a single mum and her son. On the one hand, being just the two of them, they needed less room and would hopefully be easier to place somewhere, but on the other, bigger families with much younger children had much more urgent need of shelter. Emma remembered with a shiver her first couple of homeless years after Henry had been born, a constant fear of losing him to the bitter cold, burying him under so many blankets as she curled up around him in the back of her car that he could barely be seen. As desperate as she and Henry were, she would never wish that on anyone. Besides, she and Henry had a back-up plan if necessary. Living out of Mills wasn’t exactly ideal, but they’d made it work last night. Surely they could make it work again. All they had to do was stay out of Zelena’s way.

The morning wore on, and Emma’s hopes were getting stretched extremely thin by the time her number was called. She had seen the apologetic shakes of the head that all of the other applicants had been getting, and she knew that things weren’t exactly looking great. It came as absolutely no surprise when she was told that there would be no accommodation available until the new year. If she could just find somewhere to stay over the holidays, then everything would be all right, but all resources were stretched at this time of year, et cetera, et cetera. The woman was telling her in all but the most blatant terms that her best bet would be to go to the nuns at the homeless shelter over the Christmas period and to come back in January.

Emma shook her head. No, she would never go back to the shelter, not after she’d nearly come to blows with the Mother Superior after finding the head nun going through all her and Henry’s belongings, looking for items of monetary value as a ‘voluntary donation’ towards their stay at the shelter. No one had believed her when she’d tried to report it to the authorities. Considering that they were nuns who did regular work in the community and Emma had several shoplifting cautions and convictions under her belt, she wasn’t surprised, but the injustice of it all still stung.

“What are we going to do, Mum?” Henry asked. He had been so good about the whole thing, never once complaining or whining about a very boring day spent in various offices, or the fact that for once in her life, Emma didn’t have a cunning plan to get them out of their latest scrape. Her son was old beyond his years, and Emma felt a huge wave of guilt wash over her that his early life had been so hard. She had done the best for him that she could with what little she had, and she loved him more than life itself, but sometimes she wondered what would have happened if she had taken the advice of everyone around her and given him up for adoption when he was born. Maybe he would have had a better life; he might have been adopted and been living in a comfortable house with central heating and proper beds.

Or he might have had a childhood like hers after her parents were killed and she’d been shoved unceremoniously into the foster system; never to be loved and only to be kicked out to fend for herself as soon as she aged out.

She continued in silence, trying to think of an answer to Henry’s question that wouldn’t leave them both in despair, trudging along the street with aching arms from carrying all the bags all day, until the familiar bright lights of Mills came into view. It was tempting fate to spend another night there, but this time Emma had a much better plan.

“We’ll go camping.”

#Swan Believer #Swan Believer Fic #Emma Swan #Henry Swan #OUAT Fanfiction #Fic: Everything Money Can Buy

[hissyreviews]

September Reads!

Sooooo, who’s 12 days late to show all the books I read last month?

This bitch!

So here’s how I decided to do this end of the month wrap ups. I’m going to add a read more, give the back of the book summary, my snap thoughts, and then a rating. That way, if you don’t care for long posts you don’t have to suffer.

You’re welcome.

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

A young FBI trainee. An evil genius locked away for unspeakable crimes. A plunge into the darkest chambers of a psychopath’s mind- in the deadly search for a serial killer. . . .

Thoughts: MMMM yes, this is the good shit. Hell to the bells yes. This is my shit. One of my faves. Top ten books read ever.

Rating: 10/10 would recommend

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road is a profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which a father and his son, “each the other’s world entire”, are sustained by love.

Thoughts: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. This book is rough. This world is absolutely horrifying but the relationship that McCarthy crafts between the father and son is so emotional. I have heard that this is one of McCarthy’s least rough books to read in both emotional trauma and philosophical nihilism. (Also I think there was a Jesus allegory in the son. I don’t know why but it felt like he was the future religion. Look, I was too busy crying. I don’t think I could handle reading another McCarthy, alright?)

Rating: 4/10 I didn’t really like it but I think it’s like Pulp Fiction. Everyone should read it once.

The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan

Wounded and near death, a young Union Army corporal is found in the woods of Virginia during the height of the Civil War and brought to the nearby Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies. Almost immediately he sets about beguiling the three women and five teenage girls stranded in this outpost of Southern gentility, eliciting their love and fear, pity and infatuation, and pitting them against one another in a bid for his freedom. But as the women are revealed for who they really are, a sense of ominous foreboding closes in on the soldier, and the question becomes: Just who is the beguiled?

Thoughts: This is one of those books that I came into with high hopes. The story itself was good. I liked the overall story. I was not fond of the writing style. It’s the 1960′s trying to emulate the 1860′s. Overall, it went over like a lead balloon.

Rating: 5/10 Take it or leave it. You’ll either like it or you wont. (Check it out at the library.)

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

It’s the summer of 1854, and London is seized by a violent outbreak of cholera that no one knows how to stop. As the epidemic spreads, a maverick physicians and a local curate are spurred to action, working to solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time. Ina a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of disease, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a thrilling account of the most intense cholera outbreak to strike Victorian London and a powerful explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in.

Thoughts: I loved this. I know that history can be dry and dull but this had a dynamic way of speaking about the past. The writer is a journalist not a “true” historian so it makes for good reading. No shade, but many historians just write like dust. Sooo dry. Mmm, book good, much education. I feel illuminated.

Rating: 9/10 would recommend

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured cars and lived in mansions.Then one by one, the Osage began to be killed. Mollie Burkhart watched as her family became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. Other Osage were also dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who investigated the crimes were themselves murdered. As the death toll rose, the case was taken up by the newly created FBI and its young, secretive director, J. Edgar Hoover. Struggling to crack the mystery, Hoover turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White, who put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent. They infiltrated this last remnant of the Wild West, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American History.

Thoughts: This is a book that will make your blood boil. It shows the blatant racism with an unapologetic stare. As an Irish Cherokee living in Oklahoma, I was biting my fist in rage throughout this entire book. These crimes, these absolutely disgusting crimes should be taught in history books. If you have no idea what this is about. Read the damn book. If you have an idea of the events. Read the damn book. If you live in Europe. Read the damn book. Events like this should never be forgotten. And God bless Mollie Burkhart. Read the book and you will feel that way too. Just read the book.

Rating: 10/10 read the damn book

The Circle by Dave Eggers

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime - even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

Thoughts: Holy shit. This is why I don’t own a smart phone. Read this book and you will second glance at every piece of technology that you own. In thrillers I try to guess what is going to happen and I was wrong about the ending of this book. Which, to tell the truth, made me happy but I was paranoid about the ending. Like it feels like life is moving towards this kind of universe and I don’t like it. May I just say that I am Mercer.

Rating: 8/10 would recommend

Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich

On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. Voices from Chernobyl is the first book to present personal accounts of the tragedy. Journalist Svetlana Alexievich interviewed hundreds of people affected by the meltdown - from innocent civilians to firefighters to those called in to clean up the disaster - and their stories reveal the fear, anger, and uncertainty with which they still live. Comprised of interviews in monologue form, Voices from Chernobyl is a crucially important work, unforgettable in its emotional power and honesty.

Thoughts: This book  will take you through every possible emotion known to man kind. Alright. Do not read this if you are in an emotionally compromised state. It will make it worse. That said, I truly believe that this is a pivotal piece to understand the Chernobyl disaster from the ground up instead of the top down view that much of the western world understands. Also, with that Chernobyl series this seems an apropos time to read this.

Rating: 9/10 Everyone should read this once.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Every Tuesday mornign for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

Thoughts: You know a book that makes you frustrated with the author when they did something you know that they would regret in the past? I felt that. I won’t spoil it but I did say on multiple occasions “You asked for this!” This book is living proof of the old adage “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Yeah, that’s what I felt and pity. There was some pity going on.

Rating: 8/10 Read it if you are interested in Middle Eastern history or women’s studies. I don’t think it’s everyone’s cup of tea.

The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

Juliette loves Nate. She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline so she can keep a closer eye on him. They are meant to be. The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back. She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants. True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain. . .

Thoughts: This book is an easy read. It’s a day and a half for someone who reads a lot. Easy to get into, easy to understand, but it doesn’t act like it thinks you’re stupid. Creepy in the same way You was creepy. If you liked You you will like this book. If stalkers aren’t your thing avoid this one. I will say that I found the ending underwhelming. It felt like the author was tired of writing and just wanted to end the freaking book. Other than that, it was fine.

Rating: 6/10 Like You? Read this one.

The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson

When Andy and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August of 1892, the arrest of the couple’s daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporter flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone - rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars and laypeople - had an opinion about Lizzie Borden’s guilt or innocence. The popular fascination with the Borden murders and its central, enigmatic character has endured for more than a hundred years, but the legend often outstrips the story. Based on transcripts of the Borden legal proceedings, contemporary newspaper articles, previously withheld lawyer’s journals, unpublished local reports, and recently unearthed letters from Lizzie herself, The Trial of Lizzie Borden is a definitive account fo the Borden murder case and offers a window into America in the Gilded Age, showcasing its most deeply held convictions and its most troubling social anxieties.

Thoughts: I have always been fascinated with this case. It is one of the first nationally publicized cases and as such everyone knew. Can you imagine never being able to go anywhere without being recognized as the one woman who got away with murder? In America we still sing “Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, gave her father forty-one.” No one alive in America doesn’t know who Lizzie Borden is. If you like true crime and history you will like this. I think you probably would even if you aren’t a connoisseur of those genres. P.S. I still think Lizzie did it.

Rating: 9/10 would recommend

Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly

An illuminating reassessment of the life and work of Jane Austen that makes clear how Austen has been misread for the past two centuries and how she intended her books to be read. In Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, Helena Kelly, dazzling Jane Austen authority, looks a the writer and her work in the context of Austen’s own time to reveal this popular, beloved artist as daring, even subversive in reaction to her roiling world and to show, novel by novel, how Austen imbued her books with radical, sometimes revolutionary ideas - on slavery, poverty, feminism and marriage as trapping women, on the Church, and evolution. We see that Austen was writing in a time when revolution was in the air (she was born the year before the American Revolution; the French Revolution began when she was thirteen). England had become a totalitarian state; Britain was at war with France. Habeas corpus had been suspended; treason, redefined, was no longer limited to actively conspiring to overthrow and to kill. It now included thinking, writing, printing, and reading (Tom Paine was convicted of seditious libel in 1792 for ideas considered dangerous to the state), the intention being to pressure writers and publishers to police themselves; those who criticized the government or who turned away from the Church of England were seen as betraying their country in its hour of need. In this revelatory, brilliant book, Kelly discusses each of Austen’s novels in the order in which they were written. Whether writing about the fundamental unfairness of primogeniture in Sense and Sensibility (influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Women) or about property and inheritance, war, revolution, and counterrevolution in Pride and Prejudice (Kelly describes the novel as a revolutionary fairy tale written in response to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France) or about Mansfield Park, with its issues of slavery and the hypocrisy of the Church of England, we see Austen not as someone creating a procession of undifferentiated romances but as someone whose novels reflect back to her readers the world as it is - and was then - complicated, messy, and filled with error and injustice. We see a writer who understood that the novel - seen as mindless “trash” - could be a great art form and who, perhaps more than any other writer up to that time, imbued it with its particular greatness. And finally we see Austen - the writer; the artist; the serious, ambitious, clear-sighted woman “of information” - fully aware of what was going on in the world around her, clear about what she thought of it, and clear that she set out to write about it and to quietly, artfully make her ideas known.

Thoughts: Damn that synopsis. Advice for publishers: create an engaging synopsis in one to three paragraphs. That being said this was a fascinating read. I love Austen so I enjoyed having more context to the stories. Great for women’s studies, english literature and a perspective of slavery rarely mentioned (at least in my readings).

Rating: 9/10 will enjoy if you enjoy Austen

#books #literature #end of the month #jane austen #lizzie borden #chernobyl #cormac mccarthy #thomas harris #clarice starling #hannibal lecter

[locshar]

The White Princess Diaries - Ep 1 Part 2 - no - its still not him...

Ep 1 Part 2

 So – Westminster then – and King Dr Who keeps pulling down all the lovely white rose banners and beautiful murrey and blue boar banners saying “Burn them!” (hmnnn –don’t I remember that line from Ep 2 series 1 about a portrait of Not Margaret of Banjo?)   Now he’s on about burning snow – doesn’t that just make a lot of hot air?  But he is a very lucky king because it is August in England and there is a lot of snow around.  Ask poor old nude Aneur-not who apparently is still laying on Bosworth Field four days later.  

 It is moving in day and Dr Who takes the bouncy kings bed – forgetting the springs will have gone because it once belonged to Ever Ready Eddy and Caitlyn Stark – sorry – Mad Mags - gives herself an upgrade and nicks the penthouse suite….which is apparently ‘just through this passage…”  Exit stage left…

 Meanwhile….Parkin is still hiding in a loft in Yorkshire…..he’s a right pudding – obviously. And still blond.  What I don’t understand is why he couldn’t have gone to court with his mother with a towel round his head.  It worked last time and if anyone asked him he could say he is waiting for his new hair colour to take hold.

 But hey - Lizzie-Mini-ish and Ex-Queen Sisterbeth now arrive in London and have a pool party – at least they all gather around the Pools and it is still snowing believe it or not.   No wonder Parkin is going to Turney – for the weather if nothing else.

 So lets all go see the king – Who?  Oh yes…him. You will recognise him – he wears a crown ALL the time.  Makes him feel important.  And king. Just in case anyone thinks he shouldn’t be there. Or be king.

 Pleasingly, we now have diddly diddly cloisters instead of diddly corridors…and “The Yorks” - as Sisterbeth is now calling herself - all get shown to a Travelodge as Mad Caitlyn has nicked all the best hotel rooms in London so she can invite all her saints to enjoy the coronation.  

 All the family fit into a single room with one bed.   Princess Cecily immediately has a cob on and is walking round with a face like a slapped-arse.  Who knows why? No please – if who knows please tell me!  They are given some women who never speak as ladies-in-waiting who remind me of the ladies who never spoke who were Duchess Isabels ladies-in-waiting.  Remember them? Or even her?  

 Rumours in the city are once again rife -and it would appear that Dr Who may be considering marrying his mother because she’s in the queen’s bedroom and he doesn’t want to marry a horse.  What? Oh a whore!  (sorry the medieval juke box in this tavern is doing my head in and I can’t hear what gossip this bloke in disguise is telling me – I have no idea who he is.  He just said to call him Frank)  Note – this bit may have only happened in my head.

 Dr Who is now flexing his political savvy by revoking all English trade with Burgundy. Er - because the Duchess of York (remember the fleeting shot of her leaving England some episodes ago) was always trying to catch him and execute him.   Which was some mean feat seeing as he was in Brittany and then in France and never went out.

 We then hear a well known saying that I last heard murmured in Dothraki.  The princes are dead.  King Aneurard killed them.

 “It is known!” (wink wink nudge nudge) someone murmurs quietly - hoping they don’t get done by GRR Martin for plagurism.

 The stupendously loyal Earl of Lincoln is presented to Dr Who.  He used to be Richard’s heir – and not his hair obviously, and the good Doctor threatens to take everything he has and says he is hair to nothing – or hair to eternity or something (well not if he shaves that beard off!)  Not to be fooled by such a ploy – King Aneurard’s loyal nephew immediately pledges his allegiance to become Dr Who’s new companion which makes Duchess Dyson suck in deeply!   She is disgusted and reminds all the Puddles that their sister in Burgundy would never stoop so low – but she was quite short when we last saw her so what that means is anyone’s guess.  But Dr Who sneers that who cares because he has revoked all her trading privileges so nah nan a nah nah! This is a man so powerful he can enact laws without parliament.  Yes Henry – you know – Parliament  - it’s a big building on the River Thames!  I keep forgetting you are not from around here.

 Then Grasper Fatboy grabs the old lady and she is hauled off to hoover the tower apartments.  Then up steps Teddy who wants his uncle back – don’t we all I hear you say.   All of this is done underneath a bloody big boar banner – and Dr Who gets a bit uncomfortable when Teddy helpfully points out that one day he will be king instead. Brave boy if not very clever.   As everyone mutters in shock and awe some set dresser rushes on unseen and changes the banner because next thing it is green and Teddy is so confused he is fooled into saying “God save the king.”

 Teddy then loses his lands which he never had because he was under attainder anyway and they are given to the Stanleys for being traitorous bastards at Bosworth.

 Now in private, Dr Who is calling Mini-Lizzie-ish a horse and saying he won’t marry her. Nay Nay I hear you say.    Well – I think this is what he said as the fire in their chamber was crackling very loudly at the time. Either that or the preview audience were all tucking into Werthers Originals – which are much more original than whatever this is we are watching.

 Back at the Travelodge on the A1, Young Cecily is bouncing on the bed as her mother writes a letter.  Oh God not in blood this time please….and if Cecily bounces on that bed much more I am going to christen her Cobby the Castle Elf.

 Relief!  Queen Sisterwitch is only writing a letter to Turney to see if her son got there all on his own at around 10 years old and still in his nightie….she is worried he might not have made it (really? Whatever gives her that idea?)

 Now the diddly diddly cloisters are all wet from the rain so it must be water music.   Oh, I do miss Anne Neville at these moments…I can still hear her clling “Izzy, Izzy –lets get busy” as the music played.)

 Whats this? Queen Woodville is meeting some young stud in the stables – and now sending him to Turney.   She gives him a ring….because he is mobile – God! Could this be Son of Blackenberry?  He has things to communicate!  

His name is Ned – or Nokia Ned to you!  Beware my son – skulking around that woman with that name you are in mortal danger of being bonked to death and not making episode 2.  Unless they bring you back as Cardinal Morton as I haven’t seen him yet.

 On the way back she bumps into Mad Lady Stark and I am really not too sure what she has done to her skirts since she became My Lady the Dr Who’s Mother.  I think she has them stuck in her knickers to expose her saints knees as they are all tucked up at the front!

 As they glare at each other in the musical cloister, they have a Game of Thrones Off – “My sons throne is bigger than your Lizzie-Mini’s throne” Hang on – script written by who?

 Item: The music is very annoying as it is the original soundtrack and I keep looking up in heated anticipation but no – no fetching blue doublets or dancing eyebrows here…shame! I could cry!  The music, the memories, the script….

 Dr Who is now visiting Lizzie-Mini-ish and says she has to dress him – I think. Well he does appear to have put on a Ralph Lauren polo shirt under this doublet and Cecily certainly has her eyes on his Henry Tudors…

 The Werthers are back and above the crackling Dr When wants them to dance for him.  Well I have seen some dancing in my time but this takes the Captain Biscuit.   And now that bloody banjo is back and Lizzie-Mini-ish and Cecily the House Elf they are sort of dancing like Ed Balls and Russell Grant being regaled by buskers on the Pan Pipes.  All together now - Step left, step right, step forward step back, step left step right, step forwards step back…. Shake it all about. You get it…

 Oh that Dr Who King bloke is a smug bastard-  I want to smack him in the Tardis! He gives Lizzie-Mini a motto as he wasn’t there for Christmas and she’s a bit of a cracker.   Humble pie and pestilence…sorry the insane fire crackling may have made me hear that wrong.  

 Dr Who gets angry because he still doesn’t want to marry Lizzie-Mini…yawn – yeah right. Then a man turns up in a rugby hat but I don’t know who he is or where he is from and as he doesn’t introduce himself I take it that he is actually Olympic de la pool….(A friend and I have seen that hat before and on a man eith beard and in a pool!) It’s a sign! Of what I am not quite sure!

 As I said earlier, Dr Who goes EVERYWHERE in his crown and now he is folding his arms and sulking in a corner until his Mad Caitlyn Mother nags – sorry – tells him that he has more divinity than anyone she had ever met.  Divinity?  Div more like and take off that bloody crown for five minutes please  - we get it!  We do! You cheated and you are king! King Dr Who! Or someone…

Ooh we are now in the YewMe garden – where there is a new maze that you can use for jolly japes to lose the silent ladies-in-waiting who follow you around with knowing looks which tell you they are really spies for the Dr.   The maze is not so amazing as in true form they have all had the same clothes on for days – but it is also musical.  Its made out of box hedge – so it is in fact a music box.

 Now the man with bad hair who no one has introduced us to tells Lizzie-Mini she has to meet Dr Who in his bedroom alone – which pleases Cecily no end you can imagine! (Well we know what she is imagining but then she has already proved she is a bit dumb – some character development needed)  Oh – I have just remembered – what has happened to Tom Dorset?  You know – the Queens brother who kept his eyes and ears to the ground before he buggered off and joined Chewdor?  Never mind – am sure he will crop up somewhere – or as some one…

[brianmarshalltampa-blog]

Brian Marshall’s St Petersburg Historic Hotels of Ghosts, Love, and Money

From St Pete Beaches to Downtown Streets, the History of 3 Landmark Hotels

St Petersburg is just across the bridge from Tampa, but some people who live on this side of the Bay think it’s an ordeal to cross it for pretty much anything besides work.

I, on the other hand, love St Pete and don’t mind driving over for something other than a job, like a great restaurant, a cool bar, or the beach…and St Petersburg seems to have all three.

One of the many upsides to living in Tampa Bay is that you can have a staycation at a great hotel near the beach with a short drive. That’s what I enjoy doing with the family when we all have a chance.

For me, three hotels that standout not only for their charm but for their…you guessed it… history, are the Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club, The Don CeSar, and The Cordova Inn. I’m going to take you down the road of each for a lesson in St Pete historic hotels with spook, splendor, and saga.

Vinoy With a View

According to hotel lore (there are different variations of this story), the Vinoy Park Hotel, aka Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club, became a reality all because of a bet between Pennsylvania businessman Aymer Vinoy Laughner and the era’s golf champion Walter Hagen. You see, Laughner had a house on Beach Drive, near this beautiful piece of land. Laughner bet Hagen he couldn’t hit golf balls off the top of his watch without breaking the crystal. Hagen proved him wrong. When Laughner and another guest went to collect the balls Hagen hit from a neighbor’s lawn, the guest told him what a nice site the waterfront home would be for a hotel. The rest, as they say, is hotel history.

So in 1923 Laughner purchased the property on Tampa Bay, hired architect Henry Taylor to design a hotel, and after two years and $3.5 million, the Vinoy Park Hotel opened for business on New Year's Eve 1925. At the time, the Vinoy was the largest construction project in Florida history and the largest and most luxurious of St. Petersburg’s boom-era hotels.

St Pete Native

The Mediterranean Revival style, salmon-colored hotel charged $20 per night (wish it still costs that much) and celebrities, athletes and dignitaries such as Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and James Stewart flocked to the St Pete hotel.

Then the party was over and the US Army converted it into a training school during World War II and later as an R&R facility for the U.S. Maritime Commission. Following the war, the 347-room hotel changed hands again, this time

In 1945, Laughner sold the Vinoy to Charles Alberding, who owned a Chicago-based hotel chain, Alsonett Hotels.

Although Alberding brought back the Vinoy to its glory, it eventually lost steam and in 1972 a 20-year-old offered to buy the hotel. Bob Reynolds was a St. Petersburg native who loved the hotel ever since he was a kiddo. Because Reynolds didn't have the money to buy it, Alberding agreed to lease the hotel with the option to buy for $5 million. Even though Reynolds got some partners to organize a company, commissioned then St Pete mayor Randy Wedding who happened to be an architect to restore it, he wasn't able to raise the funds and in '74, the hotel closed. The hotel reopened a year later, only to reclose again the same year. In '78, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places which gave investors tax breaks. The Vinoy sold most of its contents at auction and remained empty. Its lease changed hands several times and the downtown St Pete area went through growing pains.

The Rennaissance of Vinoy

Then a fine group of men formed the Vinoy Development Corporation, found an equity partner, and Stouffer Hotels and Resorts begun a $93 million restoration in 1990. Two years later, it reopened as the Stouffer Renaissance Vinoy Resort. Four years later (yeah, that’s the hotel biz), another hotel group bought the Stouffer hotel chain and renamed it the Renaissance Hotel Group. Just a year later, Marriott International bought the Renaissance brand name and in 2005, then bought by FelCor Lodging Trust of Dallas, but is still managed by Marriott.

But enough about who owned it…let’s get to the good stuff. Ghosts.

The Baseball Effect

For some reason, visiting major league baseball teams have most frequently reported seeing ghosts. Perhaps they’re trying to scare-off visiting teams? Take Miami Marlins relief pitcher, Scott Ryan Williamson who in 2003 when alone in his room, rolled on his stomach and felt an immediate pressure on his back and couldn’t breathe. When he turned over, the pressure was released, so he rolled back on his stomach again and felt the same pressure. When he turned back over, he noticed a man standing near the curtains wearing a coat.

Freaky? Oh, yeah.

Other guests have said they’ve seen a well-dressed man in a formal suit walking the halls, thinking he’s a concierge at the Vinoy. When they look back to ask him something, they notice he’s disappeared into thin air.

Pink Lady

Another member of the Historic Hotels of America also built in the heyday of the jazz era is The Don CeSar.

A year after the Vinoy was purchased, real estate developer, Thomas Rowe, purchased the property on which The Don CeSar sits and hired architect, Henry H. Dupont to design it.

The story of this hotel and its owner isn’t much about the building, selling, and renovating of the Don CeSar. It’s more about a love story that some say still roams the halls of this historic hotel.

80-year-old St Pete Don CeSar aka The Pink Palace, aka the Pink Lady, aka Loews Resort on St. Pete Beach, aka 'the Don' story starts in 1872 with Rowe while in London attended the performance of Vincent Wallace's light opera 'Maritana'. The leading lady was a stunning Spanish young woman named Lucinda. It was love at first sight for Rowe, so following the performance, he went backstage to meet her.  The feeling was mutual, and so their romance began. But not everyone was thrilled about it, such as Lucinda's parents who were members of the Spanish aristocracy. They didn't want their daughter having anything to do with a poor boy from Massachusetts, so they forbad her to see him.

That didn't stop her and Rowe from continuing to see each other in secret. One of their favorite spots to meet was at night in a closed courtyard with a beautiful fountain. It seemed their budding love mimicked the opera as Lucinda became 'Maritana' and Thomas Rowe 'Don CeSar', another character. On the night of the last performance, they made plans to meet at their beloved fountain and run away together to America.

Love letters between the young couple went back and forth until servents intercepted the last one from Lucinda, discussing their plans. As soon as her parents found out, they immediately took her back to Spain.  

In the meantime, young Rowe was oblivious to this and waited by the fountain, as planned, until sunrise, but Lucinda never appeared.

Heartbroken, he continued writing to her without a response. Rowe finished his studies, went back to the States and then he received a letter addressed to 'My beloved Don CeSar.' There was a clipping of her death in the envelope along with a letter begging Rowe to forgive her parents for taking her away from him and saying, 'We found each other before, and we shall do so again. This life is intermediate. I leave it without regret and travel to a place where the swing of the pendulum does not bring pain. Time is infinite. I will wait for you by our fountain... to share our timeless love, our destiny is time. Forever, Maritana.'

Romantic? Oh, yeah.  

Birth of 'The Don'

In mourning, Rowe fell ill and his doctors recommended a warmer climate to get him away from the dreaded winters. So in 1925, he visited St. Petersburg, Florida found land on the beach, and began to develop one of the most pristine properties in honor of his beloved Lucinda aka 'Maritana'. The Don CeSar was actually styled after the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

With guests such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lou Gehrig, and Al Capone, it would be thee place where people would stay when they wanted to get away from bleak winter weather during peak seasons, January - March.

Rowe never got over the love of his life, Lucinda, and eventually married a companion.

In the lobby of the St. Pete hotel the courtyard and fountain where the two love-birds once met, was replicated. He was known to spend countless hours at this spot wearing a white Panama hat and white tropical suit, most likely reminiscing about his time with Lucinda.

The Great Depression hit, but Rowe had a brilliant idea to keep the Don in business during hard times. He called the Ruperts in New York and they created the first Florida baseball spring training program. The New York Yankees came to Florida for training, stayed at the Don, and began a tradition to this day.

St Pete History Buffs to the Rescue

Rowe died in 1940 leaving the Pink Lady to his wife. She knew nothing about the hospitality industry, made poor decisions, and eventually, the hotel went out of business.

Just like the Vinoy, the U.S. Army purchased the Pink Palace in '42 and it became a convalescent hospital for aviators and pilots of the Second World War. When it became no longer needed by the army and government, it was boarded-up, barricaded, and downright creepy. Soon rumors of bats and ghosts of the dilapidated hotel ran rampant in St Petersburg for years until '72 when a group of history buffs rescued it from being demolished.

The glory of the Don was resurrected and more ways than one.

St Petersburg Ghost Stories

Time passed and the staff began noticing weird things happening at the Pink Palace.

Such as a front desk clerk taking a stroll as sunset with her husband on the beach noticed a man wearing a tropical white suit and Panama hat walking with a can. Does that description sound familiar?

Then there was another hotel staff member who walked through the old kitchen at midnight and turned to see a 1940s nurse dressed in full army medical corps uniform watching him.

And can't forget the time when a new late-night dishwasher took a break from the mounds of dishes. When he returned, all of the dirty dishes were cleaned and stacked neatly in the middle of the kitchen floor. That's really nice of whichever ghost washed them, but the dishwasher did like most of us would...he immediately left and never came back.

Yet another story of a housekeeper while cleaning the 5th floor where Rowe once lived, heard repeated knocking on the door of the room she was cleaning. Becoming annoyed, she opened the door, but no one was there. She left the room, went downstairs thinking it may be another housekeeper knocking, but found everyone was already gone for the day. Needless to say, from that day on, she refused to clean any room on the 5th floor.

Goosebumps? Oh, yeah.

There are more stories to tell of the paranormal activity at the St Petersburg Don CeSar, but you get the picture.  

Love After Life

Following the Don's becoming part of the National Trust for Historic Hotels in America, new stories emerged of a young couple strolling the hotel grounds, as well as the 5th floor, hand in hand at sunset. The man wearing...you guessed it...a tropical white suit and Panama hat and the beautiful young lady with long dark locks wearing a Spanish-style peasant dress.

Were Lucinda and Rowe's forbidden love finally brought together through the Pink Lady in the afterlife?

I'll let your mind wander for a min...

St Pete Local Lore

Another one of my favorite St Pete hotels with a haunted past is The Cordova Inn. Although not as famed as the Don and Vinoy with the same long, rich history, this boutique hotel boasts its own resident ghost.

The Cordova family from Michigan built the hotel 1921, downtown St Peterburg.

The story goes, when the family built the hotel, they sent their personal butler to manage it. This butler ruled the property with an iron fist. He was known to always dress in full uniform and maintained a white-glove reputation for impeccable accommodations, attention to guests, and Euro-style service.

After 20 years, he passed away in the hotel and became somewhat of a legend. It would be nice to put a name to the ghost, but apparently, no one remembers it.

The Cordova family sold the hotel in the 50s and for 50 years, the property changed hands several times, but the name remained the same.

In the early 80s and 90s, St Pete became a less than desirable city to visit and The Cordova closed its doors. While waiting for its fate, schoolboys would break into the hotel after dark and later tell stories of hearing unhappy howling...rumor has it, it was the butler (it's always the butler).

St Pete Sundial

Back when the Sundial was known as BayWalk, new life begun to blossom into downtown St Pete and a local investor saw the potential of The Cordova and purchased it. The hotel was completely renovated...even the water basins in the hall where servants apparently cleaned-up before serving their wealthy employers.

The St Pete Butler

In 2001 the St Petersburg hotel reopened as The Pier Hotel and finally as The Cordova Inn.

Although they say after 2001 no one heard or seen the infamous butler, there are guests to this day who've experienced fans turning off and on by themselves, rooms becoming suddenly freezing cold, hearing heavy footsteps in the halls, and smells of rotting flesh.

Rather tame events compared to the Don and Vinoy, but nevertheless, spooky.

No matter what hotel you stay in St Petersburg, FL, make sure you take note of the history, the charm, the character and of course, the ghosts. ~ Brian Marshall

#hotels #history #ghost #Tampa #Tampa Bay #St Petersburg #st pete beach #Florida