Peppermints in the Parlor

This is another Wallace book about an orphan but she does such a good job at it. Emily comes to live at a mansion only it doesn't have the memory she once had of it. She becomes a servant at what is now an old folks home. She and a boy Kipper begin to form friendships with the old folks and yes there is a subplot about peppermints. This wasn't my favorite Wallace book but it was all right. People compare it to A Little Princess a lot on the internet but come on so many books are.

Maurice

I watched the movie when I was a teenager. I also read A Passage to India when I was 14 but it's been a long time since I've read Forster. It's always been something I've been meaning to do. Maurice is crushed when his lover decides to go straight. Eventually Maurice finds happiness in a person of a lower station. E.M. Forster didn't get this book published when he was living. It would have destroyed him but it's one of best homosexual love stories I've read. You can tell that this all probably happened to Forster. The feeling involved hardly seems like fiction. The movie did a good job adapting the book.

Girlfriends, Ghosts, and other Stories

This is a collection of 2-3 page short stories from Robert Walser. They're more of a writing exercise not much happens. When I first attempted Jakob Von Gunten in my twenties I didn't finish it. I didn't care for the book. I tried it in my forties and I liked it. Things change. His dreamy writing style embracing monotony is interesting. I have to give it to New York Review Books for releasing his books. What I really would like to do is read a book about his life.

The Chrysalids

This book about mutants kind of reminded me of the Netflix show I just watched Sweet Tooth. (Sweet Tooth was more sentimental though.) This is a book about a group of mutants who eventually have to run from their community. Nothing stops the hatred of them. Even their own blood turns against them. The book begins with a boy seeing a girl with six toes and then he gradually realizes he has a mutation too except it is one in his mind. His father is a psychotic religious figure and terrorizes even family that breed mutants. Soon he and his friends have to run from the place where they live into the fringes. I felt the book dragged when they went to the fringes. It's a good book but not as good as Wyndham's other books like The Day of the Triffids and especially my favorite Chocky. Wyndham and Theodore Sturgeon are my favorite science fiction writers from the 1950s.

The Book of Mysteries, Magic, and the Unexplained

This was a fun juvenile book with great illustrations. It simply goes over aliens, witchcraft, fairies, Bigfoot, and other unexplained phenomena. It's basically just an introduction to the world of the weird for kids. Still there were somethings I didn't know about and it was a quixk page turner.

Mermaids by Skye Alexander

This was an ok book with some information about mermaids. It was better than the Among the Mermaids book I read earlier. It discusses how mermaids have gone from from the image of being terrifying sirens to sex symbols. I'm still looking for a mermaid book though that isn't new agey.

Dealer's Choice

This is Patrick Marber's first play. He is most known for Closer. It was ok. It deals with Carl, a compulsive gambler who has a debt to play. So he lets Ash, a professional gambler into his father's poker night. The tension is high as a group of men already want to deal physically with Carl. Ultimately this play is about family. I didn't like the use of coarse language involved but then the word of poker is not a friendly one. It was ok for a debut and showed promise.