|
Aug 2020
10:03pm, 28 Aug 2020
20,199 posts
|
Columba
I had an aunt, born in 1909 and never married - who was enraged when she was trying to buy a house and was told she had to have a man to vouch for her. No husband, ok, but then a father or a brother? - Same period, women automatically disadvantaged.
|
|
Aug 2020
10:20pm, 28 Aug 2020
46,707 posts
|
McGoohan
*Loads gun*
*Takes self outside*
So... me... do I have anything I'd like to say before the sentence is carried out?
Er... I meant it was a discrete, i.e. separate, veil unconnected to anything else.
(Think anyone's buying that?)
|
|
Aug 2020
10:26pm, 28 Aug 2020
20,203 posts
|
Columba
I knew you'd think of something.
|
|
Aug 2020
10:27pm, 28 Aug 2020
40,188 posts
|
LindsD
We looked up the stitches in an old book of Mum's, Columba
|
|
Aug 2020
8:50pm, 29 Aug 2020
669 posts
|
Peregrinator
A Single Thread
A former boss of mine used to make needlepoint hassocks for their local church. As she wasn't religious, I didn't know quite why, but never got round to asking. Perhaps I now know more about what might motivate making them.
I'm guessing there is not a positive correlation between liking High-Rise and liking A Single Thread. I enjoyed reading this: quite amenable to reading of the lives of people in a familiar part of the world, and what happens to them. My main objection to the book was that it felt like the Author was trying so hard to write it in the style of a book from the 1930's. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with the story. Was I being set up to make some equation of value judgements of single mothers and same sex couples from the point of view of society in the 1930's? When the Author feels the need to inform you that "I used many resources for this book" and has two pages listing "some of them", they are trying too hard. Interesting to think what Somerset Maugham would have done with a similar set of characters, something rather darker I would guess.
So, would I pull A Single Thread out of a heap of burning books, probably not. Glad to have read it, yes. And something to ask my ex-boss about, next time I'm in contact.
Off on Tuesday to the Library's Check-point Charlie to swap three books that I had pre-lock-down (including The Immortalists) for Disgusted. Good exchange? Time will tell.
|
|
Aug 2020
9:52pm, 29 Aug 2020
20,209 posts
|
Columba
I looked up the stitches on the internet (YouTube, even showed me how they’re done). But a page of embroidery pictures would have enhanced the text. And I suppose added to the costs of production.
Whatsapped the children to see if any of them wants the book. Elder Daughter snapped it up.
|
|
Aug 2020
10:00pm, 29 Aug 2020
40,226 posts
|
LindsD
Yes, that would have been a good idea.
|
|
Oct 2020
9:32am, 5 Oct 2020
19,206 posts
|
Serendippily
I’m sneery about this particular author. Remember that high horse rant McGoohan had over the perfectly readable small and angry planet? Well I gave this a 7 and that an 8, when this was better written. And I enjoyed the needlework bits. But it felt like romance dressed up as historical fiction. Good to have a book that’s easy to read just not to my taste
|
|
Oct 2020
9:38am, 5 Oct 2020
19,207 posts
|
Serendippily
Reading back - yes Columba, I didn’t believe in any of them
|
|
Oct 2020
2:56pm, 5 Oct 2020
41,309 posts
|
LindsD
I know what you mean. Although I liked Girl with a Pearl Earring.
|
Book Group
Dec 2024