![]() 1 party ended up with a dead housemate and 5 keeping secrets. Surprisingly, not all 6 housemates loved the parties. End of semester, beginning of a semester, end of exam week, the house on Caldwell could always be counted on for parties. ![]() ![]() There was always an excuse to hold a party. The house was known for its huge parties. There were 6 housemates at Caldwell street. They are given one choice: confess to their crimes or die. ![]() Trapped inside with no way out and no signal to the outside world, the now forty-somethings fight each other-and the unknown mastermind behind their gathering-as they confront the role they played in their housemate’s death. Twenty years later, all five of them arrive-lured separately under various pretenses-at Wolfheather House, a crumbling, secluded mansion on the Scottish isle of Doon. The remaining five all knew it wasn’t, and though they went on with their lives, the truth of what happened to their sixth housemate couldn’t stay buried forever. ![]() His death was ruled an accident by the police. In 1995, six university students moved into the house at 215 Caldwell Street. Months later, one of them was found dead on the sofa the morning after their end-of-year party. ![]()
0 Comments
![]() If all that sounds journalistically observant, that’s because Panter-Downes was a journalist – she wrote 850 or so pieces for The New Yorker magazine. ![]() ‘It was the little patch of England that each exile discovered it to be’. She discovered a road junction called Charing Cross, houses called Kenilworth, Bleak House, Westward Ho! and Lupin Cottage, a social calendar that included races, dog and flower shows, days out hunting on the downs and evenings gossiping at the (still very exclusive) club. She found ‘terracotta buildings, Victorian gables and a house with turrets that might be in Wimbledon’. The book described the last Brits who ‘stayed on’ in Ooty after Indian Independence, and the places where they lived. Browsing through the wide-ranging collection of books – everything from heavy academic texts through business manuals to Agatha Christie’s Murder in the Vicarage – I found Ooty Preserved, her 1967 account of ‘A Victorian Hill Station in India’. ![]() I first came across the writer Mollie Panter-Downes in India, in Higginbothams Bookshop in Ootacamund – known in British Raj days as ‘Snooty Ooty’. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And all along the high wall either side of the gate are embedded shards of glass. Along the top of the gate, I notice, is a bristle of anti-climb spikes. ![]() The metal gate in front of me has a brass lion’s head knocker: the fat metal ring held between snarling teeth. I know journalists probably earn more than bartenders, but not by this much. I suppose it only makes sense that he’s charmed his way into a place like this. But then Ben’s always managed to fall on his feet. He said a mate helped sort him out with it, someone he knew from his student days. I still can’t quite believe this swanky apartment building is where Ben’s been living. If I crane my neck I can see what might be a roof garden on the top, the spiky shapes of the trees and shrubs black cut-outs against the night sky. A big sprawl of ivy growing all over the front of it which looks like a creeping dark stain. Five or six stories, huge windows, all with wrought-iron balconies. It’s set back from the road behind a big gate with a high wall on either side, concealing what must be some sort of garden or courtyard. The others on this street are beautiful, but this one knocks spots off them all. ![]() ![]() Plus, we’ve included information on reading time to help you choose stories that suit your nightly routine. Each selection has been carefully chosen to captivate young minds, encourage curiosity, and inspire a lifelong love of reading. To help you discover the perfect bedtime stories for your child, we’ve meticulously curated a list of the most popular stories, thoughtfully grouped by age. We also provide valuable read-aloud tips to ensure your storytelling sessions are engaging and enjoyable for both you and your little one. ![]() Our guide delves into the benefits of bedtime stories, revealing how these cherished moments can enhance language development, emotional intelligence, and parent-child bonding. ![]() This comprehensive guide is designed to help you navigate the enchanting world of free online bedtime stories, offering a wealth of resources, tips, and recommendations to make your storytelling experience truly magical. Welcome to Ririro’s Ultimate Bedtime Stories Guide! Here at Ririro, we understand the importance of bedtime stories in fostering a child’s imagination, nurturing their love for reading, and creating cherished memories with loved ones. ![]() ![]() ![]() It is the answer to both her greatest hopes and her deepest nightmares. What lies ahead in the harsh labyrinth of canyons and slickrock desert is more than she could ever have expected. Supported by the head of a well-funded archaeological institute, Nora will take a team up Lake Powell to the mouth of Serpentine Canyon. Written sixteen years before by her father, who vanished without a trace in the remote desert, the letter points to a mythical place hidden in the redrock canyon country of southwestern Utah: Quivira, a city of gold and wonder, the lost city of the Anasazi Indians.Ĭonvinced that her father found Quivira before he disappeared, Nora puts together an expedition. Archaeologist Nora Kelly is adrift in her career and her personal life when a violent, inexplicable incident leaves her in possession of a mysterious letter. ![]() ![]()
![]() ![]() Madge is right back at the Imperial with its great coffee and depraved cast, where things only get worse for her adopted greasy-spoon family while her career as a cartoonist starts to take off. Outrageous and loving tributes and takedowns of her co-workers and satellites of the Imperial Cafe create a snapshot of a time in Madge's life where she encounters who she is, and who she is not.Įmploying the same brash yet earnest style as her previous memoir Over Easy, Pond's storytelling gifts have never been stronger than in this epic, comedic, standalone graphic novel. Oakland in the late seventies is a cheap and quirky haven for eccentrics, and Mimi Pond folds the tales of the fascinating sleazeball characters that surround young Madge into her workaday waitressing life. ![]() ![]() The Customer is Always Wrong is the saga of a young naive artist named Madge working in a restaurant of charming drunks, junkies, thieves, and creeps. A young woman's art career begins to lift off as those around her succumb to addiction and alcoholism ![]() ![]() And yet, she has written a completely compelling book about a precarious march from sticky gin-soaked floors toward stability. (Her collection of essays, The Empathy Exams, can most succinctly, if glibly, be described as a book about pain.) “Difficulty is our most reliable narrative engine,” she told me. I spoke with Leslie about the inspiration here and more broadly. Part memoir, part cultural-literary history, it is also a book that beautifully blends and merges genres. ![]() It is also a book about the way that new identities can emerge, both in intoxication and sobriety. The Recovering is a book about identities that are hidden, to others and to ourselves. ![]() ![]() I didn’t know the Leslie described early on in this book: uncertain, insecure, and sometimes, blackout drunk. There’s a passage in Leslie Jamison’s new book, The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, in which she describes the shabbily glamorous headquarters of her college literary magazine: “perpetually sticky hardwood floor and a cluster of ratty velvet couches with stuffing and springs thrusting up through rips in their fabric.” I met Leslie in those offices, where she seemed to me the preternaturally composed and incisive overseer of the fiction committee, presiding over printed-out submissions, dark wine in plastic cups, and plates of soft cheese. ![]() ![]() How is this so?įirst, there are passages that are visually gorgeous. It is an “island of joy” for me: a work of art that evokes Sehnsucht and trumpets the heraldry of heavenin my soul’s hearing. It is weird, very, very weird, but it is also largely comprehensible and filled with startling beauty. The Place of the Lion is perhaps the work that most evenly balances CW’s oddity with his greatest appeal. I wrote about it once before on my old blog about the arts and faith, so some of the material below is recycled. ![]() But I’m attempting to go diligently through each of his works in chronological order, providing a summary of the plot, themes, and importance of each, and today we have reached The Place of the Lion, so I’m not going to skip over it! Besides, it may be my favorite of all CW’s works, and it’s the first I ever read, so it occupies a special place in my memory. ![]() After all, I had that 8-post series of guest writers on this novel, and it features heavily in my Readers’ Guide for Beginners. I have already posted so much about The Place of the Lion here on this blog that you may wonder why I am writing on it again. ![]() ![]() ![]() To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. ![]() Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. ![]() You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. ![]() This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. ![]() |