P&PS

Pictured : Nightmare Gallery, Bookstore on Derby Square, View from the House of Seven Gables, Customs House, Derby House Garden, Harry Potter Shop Sunday was a slow day meant for cooking and hanging out, but Monday was a rush of hurry up and get out the door so we could spend the afternoon in Salem.  I had been to Salem once before and had been liking forward to going back for awhile. We didn't have any definitive plans, so we wandered around through the shops and historic houses, picking out landmarks to visit as we came across them.  My memories of Salem vary widely from the ones I made on Monday.  I had expected a bit of a repeat performance, I wouldn't have minded that, but I'm glad I was able to see something different. Number of times the gps has been wrong: 5 Number of ants stuck in my shoe: 3

The weather here has been a bit of a disappointment: rain, more rain, and a rather chilly wind.  It's put a bit of a damper on our plans, no swan boats at the Commons this weekend, but it's still been great to spend some time with my family. Yesterday, we spent most of the day cooking a turkey, but today we ventured out into the elements. I spent I most of the day curled up in the MIT COOP reading The Other Boleyn Girl while everyone else did some serious bargain hunting. The COOP is one of those places I would go Christmas shopping if I won the lottery. I might, in fact, buy everything in the place.  There's a little bit of everything, something for everyone, and it seems, somehow, that one thing you were looking for. Had I not started The Other Boleyn Girl the other night, I probably would have spent an hour or two settling on a book to read. Later tonight we're headed out for half price burgers at The Pourhouse.  It seems only fitting after a day didn't

I recently read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon for the CAF bookclub . Apart from being a really great read (I know it's long, but I promise it's a fast read), it got me thinking. I know a fair bit of English history, and quite a bit about the time the book is set in, but I hardly know anything about what was going on in the rest of UK, then, or at any point in time predating the first World War. It's a rather disquieting thought, particularly given how much I love history. While most of my education dealt with modern history, the US, or European monarchies, I had thought my reading was a bit more well rounded. Needless to say, I'm feeling a bit traumatized by this realization. Couple it with the fact I'm going to be in Scotland in a few short months and I'm I'm dire need of way to fix this. Stat. I'm thinking maybe of trying to get my hands on a copy of 'A Brief History of Great Britain' or perhaps I should check out 'A History of Britai

Classics Retold works like this: stare agonized at the list of awesome books you could choose from because coming up with something on your own could potentially kill you, complain to all your friends that this is worse than playing 'Last Book Standing', take the plunge, pick a book, sign up before you can change your mind. After that, it's easy, read the book, then read or watch as many adaptions and as much related material as possible, and post reviews and thoughts throughout the month of September. Sign ups are open through the 25th of May *wink wink nudge nudge* I'm planning on doing a post covering a couple of the books I didn't pick because there's too many amazing books on the list not to mention at least a few of them. This post though, it's all about The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde . I picked Jekyll and Hyde for a couple of reasons, primarily because it's on my TBR list for this year, but also because while I'm somewhat