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Text of the page (random words):
and innocence she s absolutely dirty in his eyes for basically doing once what he s been doing with unapologetically casual abandon all along apparently it s different for her patricia pleads her case peter scorns her every word patricia wants a reconciliation peter absolutely doesn t the marriage falls irrevocably apart though years will pass before a divorce happens with peter resurfacing now and then to repeat his cutting critiques and knock patricia out of whatever equilibrium she has attained patricia emotionally devastated looks about for ways to dull her pain and finds them in casual sexual encounters with many willing partners in her success at her job in relishing the material rewards of her work in dressing well dining out and dancing and and drinking drinking drinking it doesn t seem enough though and ultimately it isn t does this all sound too dreary for words initially i thought it might be but i very soon became absolutely enthralled by patricia s navigation of her unwanted situation while staying very aware that most of her issues were at least partly self imposed i soon found myself truly liking her her voice is by turns sad angry self loathing and absolutely cynical but it s also exceedingly self aware and genuinely humorous as she muses on the inexplicable realities of being an unwilling ex wife and everything that goes along with that designation trigger warnings this book contains frank but not overly explicit depictions of abortion rape and physical and mental abuse it s pretty tame stuff in comparison to what a lot of current bestsellers casually contain but it was outspoken for its time i felt that parrott pulled off the tricky task of describing these experiences without crossing the line into needless titillation my rating 9 5 10 the half point is deducted because the ending felt a bit uneven to me i wanted a different resolution though i m not sure what that could have looked like an absolutely engaging story and the characters came to life for me sketched out and enlarged upon by a very competent writer the internet is abundant with elaborations on the life she really lived though you might want to read ex wife yourself before you drop down that particular rabbit hole the afterword by ursula parrott s son marc is a bonus of the mcnally edition in real life the baby did not die as the fictionalized child does that said the real life tale of parrot s mothering is not exactly admirable marc pragmatically relates some aspects of his mother s life and character with carefully balanced assessment and appears to hold no grudges posted in 1920s century of books 2025 parrott ursula 6 comments journey round the kingdom the search for delicious by natalie babbitt 1969 january 23 2024 by leavesandpages the search for delicious by natalie babbitt 1969 this edition farrar straus and giroux 1969 hardcover 159 pages this book is a treasured survivor from my childhood bookshelf and i hold it in very fond regard it s a short and efficiently written morality tale of sorts and is saved from preachiness by its charm and wry humour some time ago in a small imaginary kingdom the prime minister is writing a dictionary everything is going swimmingly until it suddenly isn t the prime minister returns to his rooms after showing his progress to the king and relates what has just happened to his twelve year old adopted son gaylen i went down you see to show the king how far i ve gone with my dictionary he was pleased with the first part he liked affectionate is your dog and annoying is a loose boot in a muddy place and so on and he smiled at bulky is a big bag of boxes as a matter of fact there was no trouble with any of the a s or b s and the c s were fine too especially calamitous is saying no to the king but then we got to delicious is fried fish and he said no i d have to change that he doesn t care for fried fish the general of the armies was standing there and he said that as far as he was concerned delicious is a mug of beer and the queen said no delicious is a christmas pudding and then the king said nonsense everyone knew the most delicious thing is an apple and they all began quarreling not just the three of them the whole court this seems like a minor episode and gaylen laughs it off but the prime minister isn t so optimistic and he s right the court is soon in an uproar and the ripples are spreading throughout the kingdom there s even talk of a civil war boosted along by the queen s wicked brother hemlock one thing leads to another as things tend to do in fairy tales and gaylen finds himself tasked with undertaking a survey of the entire kingdom visiting every dweller there within to record each individual s choice for delicious he sets off on his trusty steed marrow and it s all a lovely adventure until he discovers that hemlock is out on a mission of his own stirring up dissent and spreading false tales of the king s motivation for asking gaylen to record everyone s choices this is a fast moving story and babbitt packs a lot into it with characters ranging from the optimistic gaylen and his fellow human countrymen to an assortment of almost forgotten creatures such as the dwarfs in the mountains woldwellers in the forests mermaids in the lakes and winds in the air gaylen s journey round the kingdom turns dark and dangerous and disaster looms but in proper fairy tale tradition his kind and fair minded actions and reactions are rewarded though not without some close calls this is a fantastic story to read aloud to your young people or perhaps to enjoy for yourself on days when you might need cheering up from the woes of the real world never mind that it s classified as a juvenile it s a well crafted tale and that is always worthy of appreciation and the adult reader will enjoy what babbitt has done here my rating a staunch 10 10 and if you do find yourself in possession of this little book i hope it s a version that includes all of babbitt s original pen and ink illustrations in the chapter headings they are delightful posted in 1960s babbitt natalie century of books 2025 1 comment the virgin mary takes an interest catalina by w somerset maugham 1948 january 14 2024 by leavesandpages catalina by w somerset maugham 1948 this edition pan 1978 paperback 239 pages i ve dipped into maugham s more mainstream novels over the years the painted veil and the moon and sixpence spring to mind but this rather frou frou satire set in spain during the years of the inquisition was certainly not what i had expected our young heroine catalina a sixteen year old beauty unfortunately crippled after being run over by a bull prays incessantly to the virgin mary to heal her for when she lost the use of her leg she also lost her handsome lover lo and behold a vision of the virgin appears to her with a promise that she can be healed if the right person gets involved says mary the son of juan suarez de valero who has best served god has it in his power to heal you he will lay his hands upon you in the name of the father the son and the holy ghost bid you throw away your crutch and walk you will throw down your crutch and you will walk catalina hobbles home and tells her mother of the vision but the response is dismissive probably just a dream and it is also not wise to draw too much attention to oneself in regards to claiming divine visitations what with it being the height of the inquisition and all it s even more sobering to consider that one of the sons of de valero referenced by the virgin the saintly bishop don blasco de valero is a chief inquisitor there are three de valero brothers don blasco the priest don manuel the prominent military man and don martin the humble baker when catalina s vision inevitably becomes a topic of public discussion everyone assumes that don blasco will be the one to pull off the miraculous cure but things go a bit awry maugham pads out his tale with many long digressions many concentrating on don blasco s back story and his current crisis of faith don blasco s saga is mirrored with that of another prominent member of the spanish religious elite doña beatriz de san domingo prioress of a carmelite convent doña beatriz s ears perk up when she hears catalina s story and ever quick to grasp opportunities to enhance the status of her nunnery attempts to lay claim to the miracle about to happen as the vision of the virgin took place upon the steps of the carmelites church there are quite a number of surprises in store for the protagonists of this novel and some for the reader too i was intrigued by maugham s mixture of satire and seriousness there were passages of true emotional appeal here and there that caught at one s heartstrings but as the novel progressed these became more elusive as the farcical elements took over catalina s eventual fate is not as predictable as one would initially think and the virgin pops up again to oversee catalina s wellbeing i thought for the first few chapters that i might have found something of a hidden gem with this one but unfortunately i can t award it that status it s more of a curiousity read and i suspect it will be relegated to the read once don t think i ll read it again stacks the last published full length work by w somerset maugham catalina is available on project gutenberg and is relatively cheap and easy to source as a printed version through all the usual online book places for those wishing to round out their collection of this author s work it s tough to give a numerical rating as i truly enjoyed substantial parts of catalina but now that ten days or so have passed after my reading i look back on the overall experience and sadly must settle on a modest 6 10 posted in 1940s century of books 2025 maugham w somerset tagged w somerset maugham 1 comment older posts header image after the solstice waiting for spring search for follow blog via email enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email email address follow these reviews and ratings i am merely a reader a consumer of books for amusement and personal instruction not a professional reviewer and that is indeed a worthy profession an important literary craft so these posts are merely meant to be one person s reading responses not scholarly reviews early on in this blog i began rating the books i talked about on a 1 to 10 scale it was meant to be a quick way to communicate my personal degree of satisfaction pleasure or the opposite in each reading experience to emphasize these are very personal completely arbitrary ratings these are merely meant to be a measure of the book s success in meeting my hopes and expectations as a reader 5 higher are what i consider as keepers in various degrees a 10 indicates that i can think of no possible improvement ratings under 5 are rare i struggle with giving those but in all honesty sometimes feel them appropriate for again undeniably arbitrary and very personal reasons each book is rated in its own context not in comparison to the entire range of literature which would of course be an impossible task recent posts ontario gothic morgan s castle by jan hilliard 1964 mistaken identities the goodbye look by ross macdonald 1969 pan takes a trip mrs demming and the mythical beast by faith sullivan 1985 cowtown interlude never shoot a stampede queen by mark leiren young 2008 young adulting in the boondocks british columbiana a millennial in a gold rush town by josie teed 2023 archives january 2025 5 december 2024 1 february 2024 2 january 2024 4 february 2022 8 january 2022 9 november 2021 1 april 2021 1 may 2020 1 december 2019 2 march 2019 1 january 2019 1 november 2018 11 october 2018 27 september 2018 6 july 2018 1 may 2018 4 april 2018 3 march 2018 5 february 2018 11 january 2018 20 december 2017 1 november 2017 1 october 2017 5 september 2017 2 august 2017 2 july 2017 3 april 2017 4 march 2017 5 february 2017 14 january 2017 7 december 2016 1 november 2016 7 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