Category: Uncategorized

The 4 of Hearts came up for the first Deal Me In Challenge of the year.  I had not heard of this story by Charles Dickens.

This short story had the Penguin and I visiting a ghost. I have not read a ghost tale since those scary tales by Edgar Allan Poe in Grade 12. It is not a genre I am drawn to.

The characters in this short story are few: The Narrator (a man), The Signal Man who works on the railroad and the ghost.

The Narrator is out walking one day. He looks down at the railroad tracks and sees the Signal man along the tracks. He calls out, ” Halloa! Below!”. The Narrator wants to go below and visit the Signal Man.  The Signal Man freezes but finally talks the Narrator down the zig zagged track below.

He is a very nervous Signal-man. Why?  Because he believes he has seen a ghost by the tunnel near where he is standing.  The ghost has said that very same phrase to him, “Halloa! Below!”  while wildly gesticulating, waving his arms. It is a warning.  He has see this a couple of times and there have been deaths related to the train after each appearance.  He hasn’t told anyone about these experiences.

At first the Signal Man doesn’t say much to the narrator because he is nervous of him. He is not sure he is a real man instead of a ghost.

When the Narrator asks if he can visit a second time the Signal Man reluctantly agrees. But he tells the Narrator to not call out upon his arrival.  Just show up, no announcement.  The Narrator doesn’t yet know the greeting he used before is the one the ghost uses.

On the next visit the Highway man, after much small talk in front of the fire in his shed, finally discusses what he has seen with the Narrator. He finally explains why he was reticent the night before to talk to him.

“One moonlight night,” said the man, “I was sitting here, when I heard a voice cry ‘Halloa! Below there!’  I started up, looked from that door and saw this Someone else standing by the red light near the tunnel, waving as I just now showed you. The voice seemed hoarse with shouting, and it cried, ‘Look out! Look out!’ And then again, ‘Halloa! Below there! Look out!” I caught up my lamp, turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, ‘What’s wrong? What has happened? Where?’ It stood just outside the blackness of the tunnel. I advanced so close upon it that I wondered at its keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it, and had my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it was gone.” 

The story continues and it becomes clear the Signal Man knows he has seen a ghost. The Narrator does not believe in ghosts at all and is very sceptical. He thinks the Signal Man may be losing his mind and wonders if he is safe to work for the railroad. He thinks about reporting the incident to his superiors but he holds off. He wants to meet with the Signal Man again before making a decision.

In researching this story it appears the themes around it are do we only, as humans, believe in what our five senses tell us or is there another plane where things happen that can’t be explained.  There are people who believe in the supernatural completely while others shun it all together. Personally I don’t believe in much that can’t be seen, felt, smelled, heard or tasted. I am a complete sceptic though every once in awhile I have had experiences that I cannot explain. So who knows.

Read on only if you want to know how this story continues as it is a spoiler. You can read the full story here if you’d like. I really enjoyed it and was delighted to have found it. When I think of Dickens I don’t think of him with his short stories.  I will stay tuned in the future for more I might come across.

But…….-S P O I L E R   A L E R T-  here:

(The Penguin leaves the room)

I remain to see what happens.

The story continues…

Continue reading “The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens” →

This book was so much fun.  I bought a pressure cooker several months ago. I do not have a lot of recipes and I haven’t a history of using one.  I was talking to a friend about my purchase and she had just read a review on this book.  Our State Library had it so I checked it out. Oddly enough it is my first book of 2018.  I started it last year but put it down to read Orwell and then picked it up again when finished.  The State Library summary of the book is as follows:

 

When Juanita Phillips stumbled on an old pressure cooker in an op shop, it changed her life. As a frantically busy working mother, she was desperate for solutions to that modern dilemma: how to juggle kids, career, housework and marriage. The pressure cooker helped her solve one of the biggest problems – preparing daily healthy meals – but that was just the beginning. She and her husband decided to transform their chaotic life in other ways too, and where it led them was surprising. This candid confession of a failed supermum offers practical tips for anyone searching for a calmer, simpler, healthier life. Includes: The Amazing 7-Minute Risotto and other pressure cooker recipes How to find more than 24 hours in a day, role reversal: the pros and cons of house-husbandry. This is the guilt-free guide to cutting housework.  (Tasmania State Library Summary)

Juanita Phillips, the author, was working as a newsreader for ABC broadcasting in Sydney., Australia she had over an hour commute to work, two small children at home, a busy husband and was working full time.  She had a nervous breakdown on air and knew she had to do something to change her life.

There is a lot of discussion in this book wondering if women can in fact ‘have it all’.  It is biographical in nature. She focuses on succeeding in a busy profession, feeding her kids, how to achieve sharing household duties with her husband more fairly and the general problems they had coming to terms with running a household fairly. Quite a bit had to change and she discusses it at length.

She discusses the history of women’s issues going back to the 1950’s and their role in marriage, employment and raising children.  This isn’t usually the type of book I go for but I really enjoyed it. One of the more pleasant aspects of this book is it is a big book with whole pages devoted to illustrations from the past. When I say a ‘big book’, I mean the pages are big. The print is large. It is fun.

Unfortunately I had to take this book back to the library and did not remember to photograph these pages. There are advertisements from the 50’s and 60’s and posters of women that have been published over the years along with pages of quotations scattered amongst pages of text.

There are some recipes but one would not buy this book as a recipe book.  She does talk about how she learned to use her pressure cooker. It was great in fixing multiple meals to later take to work for lunches and to feed her young children during the week.  She made lots of meals, popped them into the freezer and then had them available when getting home late from work.

There was an interesting chapter or two on the different ways her husband cared for the children on his days home as compared to hers and how she had to get used it.  She spends a bit of time talking about the differences between men and women raising children.

There is a good bibliography, the book is Australian and Juanita is a good writer.  I think people who like recipes, household management, time management and have a family would enjoy this book.

I am not a big recipe hound, I don’t have a large household, my time management has always been very good but I barely need it now I’m retired and I really enjoyed reading about the practical application of so many skills in this.

As for using the pressure cooker in my own home, I just got this book in the post today

and look forward to looking at it. It is an American book, chock a block with recipes for pressure cookers and I look forward to learning to use this contraption without jumping six feet in the air and running out of the kitchen when I release the pressure at the end of a cooking cycle.   The downside of this book is being American the measurements are all pounds and ounces.  Having been in Australia now 30 years I am more accustomed to using metric measurements which I LOVE as it is so much easier to do conversions.  But I do have apps on my tablet and conversion tables on my fridge so it will only be a minor annoyance.

Do any of you use a pressure cooker? Do any of you read books about them?  (chuckle here).

This book counts for 2010 in the Century of Challenges.

 

Jay of  bibliophilica blog is once again hosting the Deal Me In Challenge for 2018.  I got into this in the past too late to complete it so am starting afresh.

The short stories from four books I am choosing from are as follows below. I am dividing the selections between male and female authors as evenly as I can from these books.

The idea is each week you pick a card from a deck of cards and read the short story that matches the list below.

Spades

 

I found this old book of Australian Short Stories in the Red Cross Op Shop. First printed in 1951. I have chosen eight female and five male authors.

1. (Ace) Molly Skinner: The Hand (From the Adelphi, London, 1924)
2. Tom Collins: The Jeweller’s Shop (from Steel Rudd’s Magazine 1905
3. Barbara Baynton: Scrammy ‘And (From Bush Studies, 1902)
4. Henry Lawson: Send Round the Hat (From Send Round the Hat 1907)
5. Steele Rudd: The Night We Watched for Wallabies from Kate’s Wedding (from Our       Selection 1899)
6. Cecil Mann: The Pelican (From The River, and Other Stories
   1945)
7. Don Edwards: He Walks Home with his Wife (From High Hill at
   Midnight, 1944)
8. Katharine Susannah Prichard: The Grey Horse (From Kiss on the
   Lips, and Other Stories, 1932)
9. Marjorie Barnard: Dry Spell (From the Persimmon Tree, 1942)
10. Dorothy Sanders: Seed Among Thorns (From the Sydney Morning Herald) No date but probably 1st half 1900s.
11. (Jack)  Margaret Trist: Twenty Strong (From What Else is There? 1946)
12. (Queen) Ernestine Hill: End of an Idol (From the A.B.C. Weekly) early 1900’s
13. (King)  Henry Handel Richardson: And Women Must Weep from End of a Childhood 1934)

The hearts will choose stories from That Glimpse of Truth: 100 of the Finest Short Stories Ever Written published 2014

Hearts

1. (Ace)    Aesop:  The Hare and the Tortoise
2. Miguel de Cervantes:  The Deceitful Marriage
3. Hans Christian Anderson:  The Red Shoes
4. Charles Dickens:  The Signal-Man
5. Joseph Conrad: The Lagoon
6. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:  A Scandal in Bohemia
7. Henry Lawson: The Loaded Dog
8. Virginia Woolf:  Solid Objects
9. Katherine Mansfield: A Married Man’s Story
10. Elizabeth Bowen:  Sunday Afternoon
11. (Jack)  Eudora Welty:  Petrified Man
12. (Queen)  Elizabeth Taylor: The Blush
13. (King)   Penelope Fitzgerald: The Red-Haired Girl

The clubs stories will be chosen from the book England and Other Stories by Graham Swift. I picked up this 2014 published book not long ago. I have travelled pretty much throughout the UK and may be going back to do yet one more road trip.  I find English stories to be quite calming and cozy so will look forward to what may pop up here. It appears to be a book about the various characters with their varied personalities who make up this great country. It looks like a lot of fun.

Clubs 

1. (Ace) Going Up in the World
2. Sha Ding:  The Magnet
3. Wonders Will Never Cease
4. People Are Life
5. Haematology
6. Remember This
7. The Best Days
8. Half a Loaf
9. Saving Grace
10. Tragedy, Tragedy
11. (Jack) As Much Love as Possible
12. (Queen) Yorkshire
13. (King) Holly and Polly

The final book of short stories are Buddhist themed. I’ve had a strong interest for quite a long time and this is another sad little TBR languishing on my shelves.

Stories From Beyond the Clouds: An Anthology of Tibetan Folk Tales by Clifford Thurlow

Diamonds

1. (Ace) Footprints in the Snow
2. The Rainmaker
3. Brother Long Spring Day
4. Siruk Khabuk
5. The Statue and the Jewel
6. Paper Flowers
7. The Three Sisters
8. A Little Fish Laughed
9. The Corpse
10. The King and the Thief
11. (Jack) The Dream
12. (Queen) Free Choice from another Buddhist Book I have- Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart
13. (King) Free Choice from another Buddhist Book I have- Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart

I am really looking forward to reading this diverse collection of stories. I hope you enjoy hearing about them.