Hayley

Where the nooks are around the base you could have a little button to press and each one would still play the audiobook of a short Christmas story 😄. I finally got around to putting up Christmas decorations today (though none as cool as the idea above). I’ve been ridiculously busy for the last few weeks and now I think I’m getting a cold, but at least I got to feel festive today! On a related note, I have discovered that I hate doing self-assessment tax returns 🥲.

I decided to do a just-for-fun reread of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for my next challenge read. It’s on the GCSE syllabus, so I use it when I’m tutoring, but I had a student who was really genuinely interested in it and it made me realise that it’s been years since I read it just to enjoy the story. And I really did enjoy it! I’ve also started the In A Glass Darkly collection of short stories by Sheridan Le Fanu.

This would be a great short option for anyone doing the Victorian group read! That’s an interesting point. It was obviously less easy to ‘confine’ a man for having a mental breakdown (either in his own house or in an asylum) because of the way the law worked in terms of legal ownership. In some ways though, the fact that hysteria (and in fact any sort of state considered to be ‘overly emotional’) was perceived as feminine would have made it even more difficult for men. I know there are a few books about Victorian masculinity and I wonder whether it’s dealt with in much detail there. I might dig around and see if I can find anything!

Hi Ran, welcome to the forum! I love Dickens and Tolkien too, but haven’t read very much horror. What games do you play?

Update: I've managed 6... I realised who the 'I love lady C' man in the doorway was!

Yes! I’ve managed 5 and I’m already stuck!

I know there are some John le Carré fans on here; have you seen this? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/10/john-le-carres-son-to-write-new-george-smiley-novel CAN it be as good?

I have a couple of his short stories on my to-read list, including this one. I know it should feature an interesting example of the gothic ‘double’, but your review has given me the impression that the ‘double’ in question might be stranger than I expected!

That’s great news! By next week, you’ll have it all sorted. I hope you’ve got lots of relaxation plans for the days ahead now.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I’ll ask about taking it out during our next update

I finished The Shadow in the North (it was so sad!!) and started The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas. I stayed up way past my bedtime finishing it last night! It’s not a light read (some incredibly horrible things happen to the women in the story) but it’s a very good book.

It is a shame. I don’t have Facebook, but I use Twitter sometimes. I try to avoid all of the drama but it’s hard not to come away feeling annoyed. People seem determined to misunderstand each other. Also increasingly finding that really disturbing images and videos pop up in my ‘recommended’ feed 😕

Ah, that’s a shame. It must have been good though, despite the mistake, if you want to keep going with the author .

Maybe they’ll have an amazing January sale 🤞. Although I remember noticing last year that they didn’t have anywhere near the kinds of reductions they had in the past!

That sounds so lovely. I did wonder whether some of the books were lights! I would like a miniature version for my house