"I Cannot Endure To Waste Anything So Precious

as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804-1864

I couldn't agree more, but for those moody,  stormy (or should that be Stormy?) Fall days few things can be so nice as curling up with a good mystery - ghost story peppered with a little American history. 

I was utterly delighted shortly after digging into The House of the Seven Gables to discover how appropriately suited the Gothic tale was to the manic moods of my favorite time of year.  I won't bore you with a totally useless book review.  I always thought, if I'm not supposed to judge a book by its cover, then why would I base my decision to read it on someone else's opinion? 

Besides, how many books have you had fully ruined by reading an overly extensive review? I'm talking to you, Amazon.com reviewers -- it's a merchandise review for an online shopping mecca, not your thesis! My disdain for online shopping, and smug book reviewers aside, I really enjoyed this book, but I'm into stories based on actual places that the author had a real history with ... and I dig a guy who can rival me for run-on sentances. By this standard alone, I knew from the first page this would be a match made in Heaven!

I highly recommend this book if you're in the mood for a nice little mystery, and if the oversaturation of woods such as "plebian," and "beseech" will help you purge the airhead vernacular of today's "literature" *cough*LizGilbert*cough* from your brain before it turns to goo!

Next on deck:  Jane Austen's Persuasion, which is said to be Pride and Prejudice's more mature sister ... a book that completely bored me to tears in High School, and coincidentally made me unjustly hate Collin Firth for the better part of his carreer.  It wasn't until adulthood that I figured out Jane Austen was actually funny, ironic, and sarcastic without being overly cynical.  Another triumph of the institution of American education which firmly adhered to the philosophy of force feeding us the teacher's opinion, and cramming us full of facts solely to be regurgitated back as test answers.  I'm excited nonetheless to sink my teeth into this new selection!

Happy reading!

xoxo