A Review of Daddy Long Legs and Dear Enemy

So some dear correspondents of mine suggested I read "Daddy Long Legs" by Jean Webster. It sounded vaguely familiar, so I  dug through the book shelf and unearthed my copy. I am so glad they reminded me of it! I finished the dear book in a day or so! I marked some of my favorite quotes and witticisms, which were scattered like rose petals throughout the book. There is also a little love story, which always makes me happy. :)



As you can see by my beginning, I very much enjoyed the book. It was written in 1912. It is an epistolary book, made up of letters to a certain Daddy Long Legs, the eccentric trustee who decided to give an orphaned Jerusha Abbott a college education. The only requirements he has are these: to train to be an author and to write him a letter once a month, describing her activities and schooling.
And so it begins: Miss Judy goes from the grimy little John Grier home to to a nice all-girls college. And she has so much to write to Daddy Long Legs, as she had dubbed the trustee, about!
There are also some whimsical drawings Miss Judy Abbott sends with her letters. These made me laugh out loud sometimes!


This is supposed to be a picture of the trustee, Daddy Long Legs. Judy christens him that when she sees his shadow at the John Grier Home.


Here is one of Judy's monthly updates! Isn't it funny?





This goes along with a little story Judy was telling about her dorm... Finally, to finish up the little illustrations, I will post Judy's picture of a daddy long legs!
 Judy and her friends have so many little adventures and funny stories to tell. Then there's Julia Pendleton, Judy's frenemy and dorm mate part of the book. She's something else. Her uncle, Jervis, is lovely though and catches Judy's attention....  but that is ALL I will say about that!

Finally, here come the quotations and witticisms:

"Maybe you won't stay rich all your life; lots of very clever men get smashed up in Wall Street. But at least you will stay tall all your life! So I've decided to call you Dear Daddy-Long-Legs. I hope you don't mind. It's just a private pet name we won't tell Mrs. Lippett." (Mrs. Lippett is the strict "jail guard" of the orphanage.)

"I love college and I love you for sending me-I'm very, very happy, and so excited every moment of the time that I can scarcely sleep." Isn't that a nice outlook? I think so. And I must follow up with the rest of it because I like it, "You (Daddy Long Legs) can't imagine how different it is from the John Grier Home. I never dreamed there was such a place in the world. I'm feeling sorry for everybody who isn't a girl and who can't come here; I am sure the college you attended when you were a boy couldn't have been so nice."

"Usually Freshmen can't get singles; they are very scarce, but I got one without even asking. I suppose the registrar didn't think it would be right to ask a properly brought-up girl to room with a foundling. You see there are advantages!" This made me smile. :)

"'I'm so homesick that I simply can't stand it. Do you feel that way?' (said Sallie McBride) I smiled a little and said no; I thought I could pull through. At least homesickness is one disease that I've escaped! I never hear d of anybody being asylum-sick, did you?" And by the way Judy described it, I doubt anyone ever had been.

"Julia and I were born to be enemies." I was glad someone else had felt that way sometime in their life too.

When Judy is talking about not fitting in at school , and wearing the ugly Home dresses, she writes to Daddy Long Legs about the girls who talked and stared. She obviously disliked them, but then she goes on to talk about the others... "And then a few charitable ones would make a point of coming up and saying something polite. I HATED EVERY ONE OF THEM- the charitable ones most of all." Which quite makes sense to me.

"I forgot to post this yesterday, so I will add an indignant postscript. We had a bishop this morning and WHAT DO YOU THINK HE SAID? 'The most beneficent promise made us in the Bible is this, 'The poor ye have always with you.' They were put here in order to keep us charitable.' The poor, please observe, being a sort of useful domestic animal. If I hadn't grown into such a perfect lady, I should have gone up after service and told him what I thought." I'm not saying you should agree, but I thought this was an interesting perspective.

"Julia Pendleton tried for the team, but she didn't get in. Hooray! You see what a mean disposition I have." This made me laugh. Dear Judy! And she follows up with a cheerful little bit about college, showing what a NICE disposition she has. :)

"I look forward all day to evening, and then I put and 'engaged'on the door and get into my nice red bath robe and furry slippers and pile all the cushions behind me on the couch, and light the brass student lamp at my elbow and rad and read; one book isn't enough. I have four going at once." Now that sounds like a kindred spirit, doesn't it?

"It's awfully hard for me not to tell everything I know. I'm a very confiding soul by nature; if I didn't have you to tell things to, I'd burst." Only too true, m'dears.

"P.S. Maybe it isn't proper to send love? If it isn't, please excuse. But I must love somebody and there's only you and Mrs. Lippett to choose between, so you see-you'll have to put up with it, Daddy dear, because I can't love her."

"I might, very usefully, put some time on Latin tonight but, there's no doubt about it, I'm a very languid Latin scholar." I know only too well the trials of the Latin language! Horrid stuff!

"Yesterday evening just towards dark, when I was sitting up in bed looking out at the rain and feeling awfully bored with life in a great institution, the nurse appeared with a long white box addressed to me, and filled with the LOVELIEST pink rosebuds. Ans much nicer still, it contained a card with a very polite message written in a funny little uphill back hand (but which shows a great deal of character). Thank you, Daddy, a thousand times. Your flowers make the first real, true present I ever received in my life. If you want to know what a baby I am I  laid down and cried because I was so happy." Isn't that just bitter-sweet. The poor dear cried!

"The only thing that keeps me from starting a collection (of toads) is that fact that no rule exists against it." hehe

This is VERY IMPORTANT:
"It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh- I really think that requires spirit." Very, very true.

"It seems he glanced at her (Julia) when she was a baby, decided he didn't like her, and has never noticed her since." HAHA dear Uncle Jervis :)

"Oh, I tell you, Daddy, when we women get our rights, you men will have to look alive in order to keep yours.":)

"But Julia hadn't a bit of tact; and men, I find, require a great deal.They purr if you rub them the right way and spit if you don't. (That isn't a very elegant metaphor. I mean it figuratively.)"

"You know, Daddy, I think that the most necessary quality for any person t have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding. It ought to be cultivated in children..... I don't think children ought to know the meaning of the word (duty); it's odious, detestable. They ought to do everything from love."

"It seems to me that a man who can think straight along for forty-seven years without changing a single idea ought to be kept in a cabinet as a curiosity." Hehe ;)

"Mrs. Semple, to tell you the truth, gets rather monotonous. She never lets any ideas interrupt the easy flow of her conversation." Goodness, how I know the feeling!

"The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way."

"To bring a man into line, there are just two methods: one must either coax or be disagreeable."

"Don't you think I'd make an admirable voter if I had my rights? I was twenty-one last week. This is an awfully wasteful country to throw away such an honest, educated, conscientious, intelligent citizen as I would be."

"Whereas a women-whether she is interested in babies or microbes or gardens or Plato or bridge- is fundamentally and always interested in clothes." True!

"The only way I can ever repay you is by turning out to be a Very Useful Citizen (Are women citizens? i don't suppose they are.) Anyway, a Very Useful Person. and when you look at me you can say, 'I gave that Very Useful Person to the world.'"


Now, if you go through all those quotations! I didn't think I had so many. But aren't they nice? Now, on to Dear Enemy. It is by the same author, Jean Webster, but it is about Judy's friend, Sallie McBride. Sallie, now out of college, is a young, naive, belle. She is well off and enjoys dancing and frivolous things. She also has a thing going with a young, outspoken politician.

All this is put to a stop though when Judy begs her friend to be the new caretaker of the John Grier Home! Now Sallie is in charge of 113 youngsters, a. orphanage that needs a makeover, and a short tempered doctor! This book is also epistolary and Dear Enemy refers to the doctor. The letters are to her beau, the politician, Judy, and her "Enemy" the doctor.

Here are some of Sallie's illustrations:
 


 



Here are some of its quotes and witticisms:

"He (the doctor) says he does not wish to be regarded as an enemy. He is not in the least antagonistic-so long as I mold my policy upon his wishes!"

"I don't know yet whether the children are going to love me or not, but they DO love my dog." Ah, that's how it goes.

This was sweet.
"I remain, the ever-distracted mother of 113. S. McB."

"And also, no matter what the doctor wants, so positive and dictatorial is his manner that just out of self-respect one must take the other side. When he states that the world is round, I instantly assert it to be triangular." haha

"Aren't men funny? When the want to pay the greatest complement in their power, they naively tell you that you have a masculine mind. There is one compliment, incidentally, that I shall never be paying him."

"The more I study men, the more I realize that they are nothing in the world but boys grown too spankable." HAHAHA

"I must tell you what happened this morning. Our trustee, who has had a dangerous illness, is now dangerously well again, and dropped in to pay a neighborly call." Haha, that trustee is a cantankerous old windbag!

"The library, though not the most cheerful room I have ever seen, still, for a man's house, is not so bad-books all around from floor to ceiling, with the overflow in piles on floor and table and mantle piece  half a dozen abysmal leather chairs and a rug or so, with another black marble mantle piece  but this time conatining a crackling wood fire." I think it sounds rather nice, don't you? Anything filled with books and a crackling fire would appeal to me though. ;)

"I am glad you liked our doctor. Of course we reserve the right to say anything about him we choose, but our feelings would be awfully hurt if anybody else should make fun of him."

"Isn't it funny how the nicest men often choose the worst wives, and the nicest women the worst husbands? Their very niceness, I suppose, makes them blind and suspicious." How very true.

"You know, the most interesting pursuit in the world is studying character. I believe I was meant to be a novelist; people fascinate me-until I know them thoroughly."

"But finally, as always, it is the gentle, persistent wive who has triumphed, and hard husband has been forced to give in."

"The longer I live, the surer I am that character is the only thing that counts."

"Why must I be supposed to understand everybody's troubles?"

"It's nice to look forward to, isn't it- a life of work and play and little daily adventures side by side with somebody you love? I'm not afraid of the future anymore." So sweet!!!

And that's all for now. This has turned into quite a long blog post! I hope you all enjoyed it though, I know I did. :)

Wives and Daughters

I was first introduced to Elizabeth Gaskell and Wives and Daughters by fellow Blogger, Amy Dashwood from Yet Another Period Drama Blog here. I must admit a very shameful thing: I didn't finish the book. It was Christmas time, school exams were looming their ugly head and Miss Dashwood also was very busy, so everything got put off. I hope to pick it up again soon and finishing it. Because it was good. I have, however seen the delightful Wives and Daughters mini-series. For those of you who don't know what Wives and Daughters in, I'll give you a quick synopsis:
Molly Gibson, a young doctors daughter, suddenly must deal with many changes. Her dear father and her have lived all alone, ever since molly's mother died when Molly was very young. Molly and her father were very close. She was his dear "Goosey." Then her father announces that he is to be married to a Ms. Kirkpatrick, who Molly hardly knows. Molly was perfectly happy and thought her father had been too... So, Ms. Kirkpatrick turns into Mrs. Gibson. Molly tries patiently to adjust and please the new Mrs. Gibson.... but it just doesn't seem to be working. Then, Mrs. Gibson's daughter, young, pretty Miss Cynthia Kirkpatrick comes to stay. Molly and Cynthia are fast friends. Soon though, things get more complicated when Cynthia starts keeping secrets, the townspeople start gossiping, and the young man Molly likes starts falling for Cynthia!
This is all I will tell you; if you'd like to know more, I shall be aggravating and insist you either watch the movie or read the book. ;) I will now start on my view of the interesting characters:

                                                     Molly Gibson
I personally love Molly. She is young, naive, strong, feminine, and mature. All in one. Molly starts out as a young girl, anywhere from eight to ten, I would guess. She is at the annual... for lack of a better word, tour, of the "grand house" of the village. Molly gets tired and falls asleep, the governess, Claire Kirkpatrick finds her and takes her to her room and eats the food provided for Molly. She then promptly forgets about Molly and let's the tour leave without her. This is Molly's first impression of her-soon-to-be-stepmother. Molly is then picked up by her father, and you get to see their close relationship. Molly then is shown as a lovely seventeen. She is reading, in one of the nicest pictures, here, I'll post it for you.

She has her own r.h.y.m as Miss Dashwood pointed out. This Emily of New Moon reference amused me greatly. So, I shall put it in too. Emily is very kind to both young men who are training with her father. She has no idea that that r.h.y.m. is being a very silly coxcomb over her. When her father intercepts a letter by him meant for Molly, he decides Molly should take an extended visit to his friends,the Hamley's. Mrs. Hamley is lovely and Mr. Hamley is a hoot. My favorite line of his is, "I'm not saying she was very silly, but one of us was being silly, and it wasn't me." :) Molly is a very nice house guest  and everyone comes to love her. She is very good friends with them all, especially their sons, Roger and Osborne. Roger helps her through the shocking news of her father's upcoming nuptials. Molly shows her sweetness and perseverance when the exasperating Mrs. Gibson arrives to change everything Molly holds dear. Molly also shows a lovely sisterly bond with Cynthia Kirkpatrick, her new stepsister. She could be envious and sulky, as everyone seems to view Cynthia as a "belle" rather overshadowing poor Molly. (Personally, I think Molly's prettier, but that's just my opinion. Or maybe I'm just being biased, I don't know.) Instead, Molly delights in Cynthia's popularity and beauty, and thinks Cynthia is wonderful. She is rather wonderful in some ways, but not in others... more on her later.

Doctor Gibson

I just love this picture. It shows Dr. Gibson and Molly's lovely relationship. :) Anyway, I was surprised to find that many people don't seem to like Dr. Gibson. They seem to feel he can be "creepy" or that it seems he doesn't seem to love Molly all that much. I think this stems from his way of showing affection. He is not a man to hug all the time and say "I love you." He has other ways of showing affection. He teases and calls Molly "Goosey." He really tries to do the best for Molly. I think some people blame him for not thinking of her when he remarries. I disagree with this entirety. Believe it or not, most of his reason for marrying Ms. Kirkpatrick was for Molly's sake. After the Mr. Cox fiasco, he decided Molly needed a "mother." I cannot excuse his pick of Ms. Kirkpatrick, but sometimes men can be so very dense. ;) Anyway, she wasn't the worst person he could choose. (She was pretty bad, but there are worse people! For some reason though, all the good examples left my head and all I can think of is Cinderella's stepmother...) Dr. Gibson is sometimes awkward, rough, and short tempered, but overall, he has a good heart and loves Molly dearly.

Hyacinth Gibson nee Kirkpatrick

Here she is in all her glory. Hyacinth Kirkpatrick Gibson is vain, silly, and rather thoughtless. I wouldn't say she is cruel. At least, not often. Most things are just.... thoughtless, like I said. Like the time she had Molly's room redone because she was making over Cynthia's new room. She meant it kindly, but Molly liked her room and didn't want it changed. She also was rather a social climber and bothered me with her haughtiness.  Like when dear Mr. Hamley comes and talks of having Molly visit poor Mrs. Hamley. Mrs. Gibson cuts in with her "an engagement is an engagement." ("did I say an engagement was an elephant?!" Sorry, couldn't help myself there.) And her meddling! When she finds out Osborne is *SPOILER* deathly ill, all the sudden Roger is welcome to come by, because he is set to inherit!*END OF SPOILER* So, in my opinion Ms. Gibson is no good. She's not bad, per se, but she is NOT good, if that makes sense. That is all.

Cynthia Kirkpatrick

Ah, now to Cynthia. What to say about Cynthia.... I like her but I don't love her. She can be very nice, funny, and the way she deals with her mother is rather laughable. On the other hand, she uses men very badly, she is flippant, and doesn't seem capable of deep affection in many cases. She plays havoc with several young man's hearts, keeps secrets from Molly, and is sometimes vain and silly. And not the good silly. But I do like her, I do. She is a wonderful sister to Molly and really seems to care about Dr. Gibson. So yeah, I guess that's it.

Roger Hamley

Ah, dear Roger. I liked him from the very beginning. I always love the underdog, and everyone seemed to like Osborne best, so I decided to like Roger. My feelings were justified when Roger came and helped dear Molly through her pain and confusion about her father remarrying. He was like a brother figure, caring for Molly. Which was wonderful... and bothersome. He treated Molly like a young child, when she was seventeen! Other than that though, he was lovely. Also, he and his father had a wonderful relationship. I also love how much he likes science and his job. It's always wonderful to see someone enjoying themselves so much. That's all I can say about Roger without giving too much away.

Osborne Hamley

So we are to Mr. Collins Osborne. That is literally how I thought of him throughout the movie. The idea of Osborne being the handsomest of the brothers, and the smartest, and a poet? No. Still, he did a good job. I liked him, but disliked his choices in life. A wife, with no prospects, no way to take care of her? Especially a wife with child? Bad idea. His love of her though was wonderful. When he spoke of her to Molly, my heart melted. And the way his mother doted on him was sweet. and you could tell how much he loved her. He always seemed to upstage poor Roger though, which made me mad. I was still very sad when *SPOILER* he died*END OF SPOILER* I was also sympathetic to his plight. Not too sympathetic  though, because he made those decisions himself.

Mr. and Mrs. Hamley

Mr. and Mrs. Hamley are an unusual couple, but very much in love, which is lovely to see. Mr. Hamley cracks me up. I've mentioned him several times already, and I love his brash, funny, loving manner. Mrs. Hamley is very ill, but she is almost always happy and she is so loving. She is like a mother figure and when she died, it just broke my heart. 

There are other minor characters, but there are so many it would take a while to go into them, and this post is already rather long.

This movie was a BBC adaptation, and was done well, as always. Trust BBC for accurate, entertaining adaptations of classic literature. There was a wonderful movie soundtrack, and the houses and costumes were lovely. The hairstyles were elaborate, to say the least. Overall, I highly recommend Wives and Daughters. Now, I will leave you with this lovely clip from the series!

A Glimpse into the World of Mysteries

Hey friends! Sorry I haven't posted in a while but all the sudden my life got rather busy. Now that the pace seems to be getting back to normal, I can do a blog post that has been bouncing around in my mind for a while. For around a month now I have had a Miss Marple Mystery binge. For those of you who may not know, they are mystery books written by the infamous Agatha Christie, the "Queen of Mystery." She specializes in murder mysteries, but they aren't gruesome, the books center on suspects and clues, like a whodunit mystery. The Miss Marple series is about a little old woman, living in the small English village of St. Mary Mead. Miss Marple of the white hair and china blue eyes, innocently gossiping and knitting... and solving murder mysteries!

It all started when my aunt (who turned me on to Anne of Green Gables that led to all of my old fashioned obsessions…) recommended them to me. Luckily, she had all the books and knew which ones to start me on.

I actually started with Agatha Christie’s last Miss Marple book: Sleeping Murder. Well, I was hooked. I zipped through that one, and was shocked absolutely shocked at who it turned out to be!

Well, when I told my aunt how much I enjoyed it she casually mentioned there were MISS MARPLE MOVIES TO GO ALONG WITH THEM! She asked if I’d be interested, I, of course, was and I met the dear Joan Hickson, who plays Miss Marple.

They were wonderful adaptations of the books. I would read one Miss Marple, then immediately watch the movie that went along with it. I literally get chills every time I think of the ending to Sleeping Murder!

The next Miss Marple I read was entitled Murder is Announced. It’s about a small town village. The villagers are reading the local newspaper when they come across a strange advertisement. There is a murder to be announced at Miss Letitia Blacklock’s! So, of course, everyone is fascinated. They all come, under false pretences, to see what it was all about. Well, Miss Blacklock didn’t know what it was about! She said she hadn’t put that ad in the paper! Well, then imagine everyone’s surprise when the lights go out and a real murder is announced….

The next book I read was The Mirror Crack’d, which is supposed to allude to Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shallot. “Out flew the web and opened wide, the mirror crack’d from side to side, and the curse has come upon me! Cried the Lady of Shallot.” Which, of course, coincides with a certain red-headed heroine’s novel that we all know and love! Anyway, the book is about an aging film star who buys the mansion in St. Mary Mead, where Miss Marple lives. The actress, Marina Gregg, hosts a garden party. At this party, one of her fans, Mrs. Heather Badcock, is killed when she consumes a poisoned drink supposedly meant for Marina Gregg! Can Miss Marple solve this mystery before there’s yet another murder?

This was a lovely movie adaptation. Marina Gregg isn’t exactly as I pictured her, but she did a great job! Cherry was exactly as I pictured her and did a fantastic job too. The end was tied up very nicely and you could see both sides of the story. A toast to the ingenious Miss Marple!

The third mystery was Murder at the Vicarage. This was actually from first person point of view, which was new, and it was from the point of view of the vicar, who I’d never met before. This is also the first of the novels, that I’d read, where there are outlines of the room and markings to show the body, clues, etc., which was rather nice to see! Anyway, the vicar and his charming young wife are introduced. We go on to see all the cast, and see each of their motives for wanting to get rid of the disagreeable Colonel Protheroe. So, when the Colonel is found dead in the Vicar’s office, he’s the prime suspect! Can the Vicar, with the help of our lovely Miss Marple, clear his name? Find out in Murder at the Vicarage.

The movie was lovely for Murder at the Vicarage. They took out a few minor characters, but the main plot remained unaltered, so I really didn’t mind. Fantastic finish! A must see.

          The next in my reading was The Body in the Library. This centers on a dear friend of Miss Marple’s, a Mrs. Dolly Bantry. Mrs. Bantry wakes up one morning to find her maid screaming something about a body in the library. It can’t be true! Sadly, it’s only too true. A fashionable, bleach blond girl is found lying strangled on the library floor…and no one seems to know who she is! Can Miss Marple get to the bottom of this for her dear friends sake?

          This was a great movie, although one of the more graphic ones. It doesn’t show the head, but it does show the body and describes vividly some unpleasant scenes. Nothing too horrid, though. A very well done movie, as they all are.

          

         What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw seemed rather different than her usual. It is also known as 4:50 from Paddington, one of her more well-known mysteries. Miss Marple’s friend, Mrs. McGillicuddy, was riding over to St. Mary Mead when another train pulled up to her coach, when she witnessed a woman being strangled in the opposite coach! The murderer was facing away from her, so she didn’t see his face. Worst of all, no one seems to believe she saw it; especially since no body was found, but one person believes her…. Miss Marple! And she won’t let it rest until this mystery is brought to light.

          A Caribbean Mystery was one of my more recent reads. Miss Marple is on a relaxing vacation in the Caribbean islands…. That is, until one of her fellow vacationers is found dead! Everyone assumes he died of a heart attack, being an older gentleman, but Miss Marple has her suspicions…. And if her hunch is correct, she needs to get to the bottom of this before another innocent person is murdered!

          The movie to this was very interesting. I especially liked Miss Marple’s accomplice, Mr. Rafiel. J This movie was a nice way to spend the ten hour trip in the car on the way to our spring break destination!

         

A Pocketful of Rye is an intricate and suspenseful mystery…. With a very surprising ending, in my opinion…. And it follows the old nursery rhyme: the King was in his counting house…. The Queen was in the parlor eating bread and honey…. When a blackbird came and pecked her on the nose! There are several murders in this one, alluding to a rather deranged killer. There are many suspicious people, as no one seemed to like the deceased, Rex Fortisque, and many people stood to profit by his death! Find out who is behind this intricate plot in A Pocketful of Rye.

          

The Moving finger was one of the last Miss Marple’s I read. It all starts with some “poison pen notes going around a little English country village. All harmless enough… until it seems a suicide has been committed because of it! But was it suicide? Luckily, Miss Marple is on the scene! Can she figure out who is righting these silly, nasty letters before it’s too late?

          This book was very good, and has a delightful twist at the end. Also some romance is thrown in, which doesn’t usually happen in the Miss Marple novels.

          Nemesis is a sort-of sequel to A Caribbean Mystery. It has overlapping characters, references to the earlier book, etc. So I would recommend reading A Caribbean Mystery first. But you must read Nemesis! It starts out when poor Mr. Rafiel dies, leaving Miss Marple a mysterious post-mortem letter… to solve a mystery! Almost no details are included, just a ticket to an English Garden tour. Even with a lack of information, Miss Marple is hooked, and she won’t stop until Justice is served!

          Murder with Mirrors is the last book I read. Its original British title was They Do it with Mirrors. It all takes place in a mental institute, just crawling with potential suspects! But Miss Marple believes this was an inside job, one of the family. At, first there’s just strange goings-on, but when someone turns up shot, things turn dangerous…. On top of that, it’s thought someone is trying to poison the mistress of the house, who is Miss Marple’s dear childhood friend! Nothing seems to match up, but Miss Marple is determined to get to the bottom of it, for her dear friend Carrie Louis.

There is one last novel, called Bertram’s Hotel. I can’t give you a very good synopsis. I’ll try to do a quick post on it later. My aunt hadn’t found the book until later.

          This was my first glimpse into the world of mysteries, and it is fascinating! I am now reading another series, a bit more modern, called The Tea Shop Mysteries. It’s set in Charleston, South Carolina. Theodosia Browning owns a tea shop in the historic district. Mysteries seem to just throw themselves in Theodosia’s way… with interesting tidbits on tea and delightful mysteries, these books are a rare treat! A modern Miss Marple, if I do say so myself. J I hope y’all enjoyed this post! Sorry that it’s been a little while since I posted. I had spring break and lots of work! I think my schedule should be getting back to normal soon!