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The Sunday Salon

Happy Halloween! I’m not really a Halloween person anymore, but this year I kind of got in the mood for it. Last night I was catching up on CSI episodes; there’s one from a couple of weeks ago where there’s this serial killer that breaks into the homes of do-gooders and kills them for having skeletons in their closet. This was especially scary to me considering I’m at my parents’ house home alone, while they’re on the opposite coast this week! I couldn’t fall asleep, thnk that there might be a man dressed in full-body latex lying under my bed! (where do the writers of CSI come up with these ideas?). Another good reason why I’m eager to move into my new apartment building (which, with any luck, will take place sometime in December)—at least I’ll constantly have people above, around and below me rather than being isolated in the suburbs.

I only read ten books in October but at least one of them was a 700-plus-page chunkster (Penmarric). October was a busy month for me personally; I closed on my new condo and I’m starting to take on more responsibility at work. So lots going on that’s exciting.

Also read this month were The Countess, by Rebecca Johns, The Abyss, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell, Vile Bodies, by Evelyn Waugh, Making Conversation, by Christine Longford, Mary Lavelle, by Kate O’Brien, The Gentlewomen, by Laura Talbot, Dimanche and Other Stories, by Irene Nemirovsky, and Dark Road to Darjeeling, by Deanna Raybourn. I had a lot of luck with my Persephone and Virago reads this month, as well as with the other classics I read and Dark Road to Darjeeling. Least favorite of the books I read this month was The Countess, which sadly didn’t live up to what I expected of it. My current read, which I’m already halfway through, is another chunkster: Lords of the White Castle, by Elizabeth Chadwick. The weather has gotten a bit chillier here recently and I needed a good, thick read to match my mood!

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