Silent movies - "It"

I guess we have all heard the term "it girl". But do you know that the term is 99 years old and was coined after a movie rather loosely based on a serialized novella by Elinor Glyn, a British novelist?
And do you know the original "it girl", Clara Bow?
Today I got the movie "IT" from 1927 for you. Let's find out more, shall we?

The plot (spoilers ahead!).

Waltham's, World's largest store (so modest).
The boss has gone on vacation leaving Waltham's in the hands of his son Cyrus.
Cyrus gets a visit from his friend Monty just when it's time to look over the store. After having read part of Glyn's novella, Monty decides to check which one of the ladies he'll be seeing has the mysterious "IT" which Glyn explains like this: "'IT' is that peculiar quality which some persons possess, which attracts others of the opposite sex. The possessor of 'IT' must be absolutely un-selfconscious, and must have that magnetic "sex appeal" which is irresistible."
Monty has already decided that he has it, Cyrus doesn't, and neither do any of the shopgirls he has seen until Betty Lou Spence catches his eye.

"Hot socks - The new boss!"

And just as smitten as Monty is with Betty, Betty is with Cyrus. She's trying to get his attention, but to no avail, so she's using Monty to get closer to Cyrus although he's dating society lady Adela, and this time it works.
When Cyrus takes Betty home after a date for which she took him to the amusement park, he tries to kiss her and gets himself slapped for it.

Cyrus is enjoying some working class fun.

Then drama strikes. Betty lives together with her sick friend Molly who has a baby (but obviously no baby daddy). Meddling neighbors have alerted welfare workers (official or self-appointed, who knows) who insist on taking Toodles "to the Home" because Molly has no means to support him.
Betty won't let them take the baby, however, she claims it is hers and asks Monty who has come to pick her up to confirm that she has a job.
Monty is so shocked about the baby that he has a few drinks too many and heads over to tell Cyrus who's just writing a letter to Betty asking her forgiveness. To make things worse, the welfare workers turn up as well to have Cyrus confirm that Betty is working at Waltham's.
Of course Betty doesn't know about that, so when she sees Cyrus again, she's confused why he's so aloof at first, but then he confesses he's crazy about her and she says she loves him, too.

The following proposition is not what she has been expecting, though. He offers her diamonds, clothes, everything she wants, but no marriage, and she storms out of his office.
Only when Monty visits her at home carrying baskets with flowers and food, she learns about the reason and being Betty, she plots her revenge right away.
She will accompany Monty on Cyrus's yachting cruise, make Cyrus propose to her properly and refuse him. And Monty will pay for her clothes because he messed things up.
Of course Cyrus isn't happy to see her - as isn't Adela, surprise, surprise - but the plan works out.

I would rather marry your office boy (who's
very much underage, we have met him before)!

Betty finds that refusing the proposal hasn't satisfied her as much as she had expected, rather the opposite.
After having her cry about it on his shoulder, Monty goes to Cyrus to clear things up and Cyrus leaves him at the steering wheel. Big mistake because Monty, distracted by the drama, manages to hit another boat.

Man overboard! Well, actually two ladies.

Betty starts saving the panicking Adela, then Cyrus jumps into the water to help and the yacht crew makes Monty go out in a boat (why does anyone think that's a good idea?).

"Take your girl friend. I had to knock her cold - but
maybe it'll do her good." Not sure about "had to",
there might have been more reasons.

Betty swims off declaring she's going home and Cyrus goes after her when Monty is close enough, leaving Adela to him.
Adela sees them standing on the anchor of the yacht together asking "Monty, I wonder if there's anything between them?" to which he replies smiling "I'm afraid there is."
See for yourself.

From what I read the shopgirl "Cinderella" storyline was very popular at the time - even if in this case the Cinderella doesn't lose her shoe, but throws it on the prince's head to alert him that she's standing on the anchor.
It's rather a light romantic comedy with a bit of social commentary on the side.
I haven't read Glyn's novella, but it doesn't sound as if I would want to read anything of hers. Of her story the film pretty much kept the concept of "it" and not much else it seems. They did give her a cameo in which she's allowed to explain "it" once more. Very unnecessary if you ask me, the blurb from the story would have sufficed. Not that she invented it anyway, by the way.
"'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walk down a street." Kipling in "Mrs. Bathurst" 1904.
Glyn extended that to both women and men.

Carl Sandburg said about the movie: "The interest of the picture is the bright stimulation of looking at Clara, of laughing at the subtitles, which are funny, and looking at Clara again."
No matter if it was flirting, enjoying a fairground ride, being angry, eating an apple, or swimming, Clara looked fresh, natural, and spontaneous during all of it.

Making faces at Toodles.

My favorite scene is actually the one in which she throws out the welfare workers (which features a young Gary Cooper as a reporter, by the way, whom I didn't even recognize, but I have never been a fan). The way she waves them out of the door and tells them off is brilliant.

Again Betty is taking things in her hand
(I don't mean Toodles).

I can see "it" in Betty, but maybe not so much in Cyrus. Of course the role didn't offer much opportunity except maybe in the fairground scenes.
Monty was the more interesting character to me because he was such a curious and silly mix. Other than Cyrus he came back to visit Betty (even though he came to "forgive" her for being the single mother she wasn't). However, he also made a - not very convincing - move on her more than once. When she cried about the marriage proposal, he hugged her, but when she pushed him off, he went straight to Cyrus to tell him the truth about the baby. He actually reminded me more of a gay best friend (with a touch of the confusion of Bertie Wooster), but in the end it was hinted at Adela and him getting together.
Adela wasn't treated very fairly. Of course she wasn't happy about Betty, but all she really did was testing her French once because Cyrus said Monty had met Betty in Paris (as if that would have been a reason to know French).

"We're just a couple of It-less 'ITS'!"

Definitely worth watching for Clara Bow!


Sources and further reading:

1. Fritzi Kramer: It (1927) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, October 27, 2017
2. Stacia Kissick Jones: The White Elephant Blogathon: Clara Bow and It (1927). On: She Blogged By Night, April 1, 2012

Too late

"We're too late."
"We knew it would be tough taking the fawns along, Master Gnome, but hey, it was a nice family trip even if we didn't make it. The thought counts, doesn't it?"

Marsha, they tried to make it in time for your "Style Imitating Art" post, but you know how it is.
"Are we there yet?" "I can't walk anymore." "Can I have an icecream?" "Carry me!"
I wish we'd live closer to each other, we would have had you covered for all your deer needs (even if they are European roe deer).

All roe deer are of course vintage Steiff (no affiliation, I'm just a collector), the gnome was sewn by my deer dear friend Jennifer, I love him so much.

Nostalgia - Slip casting

Did you know I'm a fan of the "Great Pottery Throw Down"? No? (I only mentioned it in this post once, so I'm not surprised.)
Did you know that I always wanted to try pottery throwing, but somehow it never happened? No?
But did you know there was a time when I did a bit of slip casting? Also no? Well, get ready to be surprised.

The story starts with "Kontakt" and "Kontakt" starts with the German-American Friendship Week.
There used to be a US Army base in my town. Once a year they celebrated the Friendship Week in summer which was basically like a giant open house, so people could get to know the base. On the last day there was a big fireworks display.

It was a mix of a small fair with a large beer tent where you got American style food (including tacos and burritos 😉) or could ride a mechanical bull, tours through the buildings on base, but also presentations.
One of those was a make-up demonstration on a stage. My two friends decided that I was the one to go up there. I remember having a veritable Mount Vesuvius on my nose at the time and not feeling up to it, but they insisted (we were all teenagers, you can probably imagine the scene).
While the poor make-up lady did her best to cover my nose and worked with brown mascara and soft rose tones because of my age (why do I still know that and also that I wore a warm jacket I called "The Monk" because of its hood and a loooong hand-knitted scarf despite it being summer?), my friends were addressed by someone from Kontakt. In the end, one of my friends said she'd like to go to a meeting and I went along and we became members (to improve our English, but let me put it that way, we definitely improved our knowledge of cursing in English).

We did all kinds of things, from playing minigolf to outings in the area, Christmas market, barbecues, movies, bake sales, a memorable Halloween that I wish I had pictures of, and more.
And we went to a slip casting course at the rec center which was my favorite.
What is slip casting? In (very) short, you have slip or a clay slurry which is poured into a porous plaster mold. After a layer of clay has formed as the mold absorbs the water, the rest of the slip gets poured out again, and when the clay has firmed up enough, the parts of the mold are removed.
Then of course comes glazing and firing.
I loved it. They had so many molds. Very popular among the Americans were the huge beer steins, but of course we started small. In fact, we never got to the really big pieces which I always regretted although I did not want a stein.

We started with little figurines most of which I gave away and some of which came back to me eventually, such as these little ladies that had been standing in my mother's shelf.
The blonde one must have had a tumble because some glaze came off her hair and she lost half an arm. It really doesn't make sense to keep her around, but for now she still reminds me of the time she stood on my mother's shelf.

The pup and the snail were my very first pieces if I remember right because they were small and the easiest ones. They went to my grandmother.
One club member trained as a porcelain painter back then which you could tell easily as all her pieces looked so much better than those of us others. The snail was my first one and I struggled with painting on the eyes, so after scraping them off more than once, I asked her for help and she gave it that squinty look.

Then there are the Buddhas.
I actually made three of them. One of them went to a friend of the family. I still remember her laughing and saying "At least one man who's smiling at me." I know she kept him on her book shelf for at least a few years.

These two are my own.
The standing one wasn't supposed to be, but as you can see he has a problem.
 

The workshop had big shelves for storing all the pieces during their different stages because of course people couldn't be there every day to do the painting, glazing or even to pick up their work.
One night someone broke into the workshop. They broke the door open so violently that it crashed into one of the shelves. I don't think they ever found out who it was or why they did it. There was nothing of monetary value there unless someone knew of a black market for clay and used molds. It was probably just vandalism.
Some of the pieces like several huge steins were broken completely, sometimes part of them survived, for example one stein lid. We were quite lucky because we didn't have anything big that a lot of work had already gone into, but my Buddha was one of the victims. The workshop manager told me to glue it, probably because she felt sorry for me. The hand was lost, though.

I wish I could also show you the stein lid. It looked like a wizard and I had admired it before, but the mold was in high demand and there was no way for me to just cast the wizard. The lady wanted to make a new stein and asked me if I would like to have the lid. Just the staff had broken off, so of course I accepted.
That was when our club president went back to the US, though, and the club changed a lot with the new one. Unfortunately, we never made it back to the workshop, so the wizard lived in one of my cabinets unfired. To be honest, I don't know where he is now, maybe he broke when we moved, maybe he's hidden away in a safe spot. If I find him, I'll add a picture.

Then there's the cup. I never used it to drink out of because I didn't trust my glaze, but I had pens in it.

It's the one piece that shows my "signature" best. We got assigned numbers to distinguish who made what and I added my trademark cat and my name.

So that was my "career" as a potter.
It being so short is the only excuse I have for having been lousy at it. No matter how hard I tried or how few or many layers of glaze I put on, there were spots where I just failed miserably to get them even.
My tired little lady doesn't have a real neck because glaze has collected under her chin, my snail has the same problem on her house.
I still see myself sitting at the future porcelain painter's house trying to get an even blue on the Buddhas. I was hopelessly in love with the royal blue and hopelessly bad at using it.
I'm sure I could have learned, but it was not to be although you can tell I had already improved a little from one Buddha to the next.
The best pieces colorwise were the cup - I actually wanted the sky to be like that although it surely could have been done better -, the third Buddha (not blue) and (if I remember that right) a pup and a little lady for my other grandmother which didn't make it back to me, so you'll just have to take my word for that! 😉

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 146

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

The other day, I did a small marathon of Alfred Hitchcock movies (not on one day) - The 39 Steps, Rebecca, A Lady Vanishes, Strangers on the Train, Notorious .... (typical for me, all black and white).
It wasn't planned, I just jumped from one to the other and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Are you ready for the weekend? Maybe doing some bingeing of your own?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Musings & Glimpses on Faith, Flavor & Home.

Paula from Musings & Glimpses on Faith, Flavor & Home says: "Hey everyone! Welcome, welcome, welcome to my brand new online space: Musing & Glimpses on Faith, Flavor & Home! ... We're talking about everything that pops up in midlife, like extra doses of encouragement, the joy of small-batch comfort food, the art of apartment and small-space living, clever solutions for everyday life, small-space decorating tips, fun, small-space entertaining ideas, humor, and so much more. And let's not forget my love for nostalgia (Gen X anyone?)! There are so many stories to tell and memories to share. ... So, here we are! A fresh space to explore those extra thoughts, passions, and side trips. ... I'm so glad you're here!"

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

If you want to know how platypus feed their puggles and more, check the "little things" Lydia is sharing.

Jill shows three ways to style an asymmetric dress for spring.

Wanna know what a feagle is? Let Shelbee tell you 🙃

Being still a beginner at embroidery myself, I particularly enjoyed Moois's pictures from an exhibition of Palestine embroidery.


Let's link up!

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Silent movies - The Scarecrow

How about some more Buster Keaton? Today's movie is one of his two-reelers - The Scarecrow from 1920.

Here's the plot (spoiler alert):

Two farmhands live together in a house on a farm. Both of them are in love with the farmer's daughter, but her father (played by Keaton's father Joe) isn't having it and sends her back to the house.

After she has baked a cream pie for him and put it on the window sill for cooling, her mother shows her an article about an dancer, so she shows that she can dance as well.
Buster is shocked to see his beloved in his housemate's arms.

A heart gets broken.

Meanwhile, the dog has eaten the cream pie and when Buster sees him with the cream around his mouth, he thinks the dog is rabid.

That is some good pie!

A wild chase ensues during which Buster loses his clothes, but he and the dog become friends.

Friends in the hay. Such a good boy.

He goes back to the farm where the girl is still dancing, but faints seeing him in his underwear.
Now Buster is being chased by her father. He quickly pretends to be the scarecrow after putting on its clothes. When the father and housemate find out, they both chase him. Then he runs into the girl and seeing him kneel as he ties his shoe, she thinks he's proposing to her and accepts.

Oh Buster, this is so sudden.

They escape from Dad and the other farmhand first by horse, then by motorcycle, and on the way happen to scoop up a reverend who marries them while being chased.

... man and wife!

This was absolutely hilarious.
The film begins with the two farmhands in their tiny house with just one room which has a lot to offer, though. The phonograph is also a stove, the tub is also a couch, the bookcase an icebox.

Put some gas in the "jukebox" to fry the bacon!

Other things like salt and sugar hang on strings from the ceiling and can easily be let down and pulled up again. Just this part would be worth watching the movie, it's like a beautiful choreography.

A game of "Catch the Bottle".

The chase is even funnier, though.
I had a really good loud laugh that I hadn't expected. Then again I hadn't known I would meet a new heartthrob. Douglas, I'm sorry, move over, there's a new kid in town and his name is Luke.
I was so impressed by this dog that I literally squealed with joy a few times. He was amazing!

Up the ladder, down the ladder. I'm in love!

So I looked Luke up and found that the English Bull Terrier (the breed was later acknowledged as American Staffordshire Terrier) was the dog of actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and his wife Minta Durfee who is said to have got him as a six week old puppy as a bonus for a particularly difficult stunt. Arbuckle taught Luke tricks and allegedly he earned $150 a week.
"The Scarecrow" for which Arbuckle lent him to his protégé Keaton was Luke's last film. Durfee got him when she and Arbuckle got a divorce, but her ex-husband got visitation rights ... well, and I like to imagine Luke had a happy life, maybe chasing a squirrel every, now and then, until his death in 1926. He was 13 years old.

You may think you already know the movie now with all the screenshots I shared, but there are so many gags in this fast-paced film that you haven't seen anything. Not in an overwhelming or hectic way, though. Everything is so well planned, yeah, it's really just a joy to watch.
And don't forget, there's Luke.
You know I don't insist on anyone watching silent movies just because I do, but in this case - watch it. Invest those 18 minutes.

Yes, he'll jump. With ease.

Sources:

1. Lea Stans: A Salute to Luke the Dog. On: Silent-ology, July 20, 2017
2. Luke the Dog on Wikipedia

Disappointed!

Please read the title in the voice of Kevin Kline in "A Fish Called Wanda". I can't use the word anymore without thinking of him and I love that there's a video of this moment on YouTube.

The other day I dreamed that I was travelling. I can't tell you the country and also not the first part of the dream because there's just a vague idea left of visiting an older lady.
Anyhow, I went to a beach I didn't recognize and half buried in the sand was a small open cardboard box which contents had spilled out on the sand. There were tumbled rocks, golden chains (not real), charms, a pretty wild mix. It looked as someone got rid of their old jewelry making supplies.
Of course I had to go through the box right away and I took apart clumps of golden chain, I picked some rocks and just enjoyed having a look at everything.
You may wonder why I didn't just take the whole box, but I remember thinking that I should leave some for the next person and indeed another person showed up in the end.

Picture via pxhere

When I woke up, I was a little disappointed for a second and didn't even know why. Then it came to me.

It hadn't been the first time I had a dream like that. I know from other collectors that they had similar ones.
Collectors are weird.
Over the years, a lot of my dreams about all kinds of things or events have been very vivid and I can still remember quite a few of them, also because there are recurring themes or locations.
No worries, I'm not going to tell you all of them now 😉

One of them is the department store dream.
I have obviously gone back in time and am in a huge store in the toy department. I only remember it in black and white. Despite having had dreams in black and white, I think that my memory is deceiving me in this case and I blame two episodes from TV shows for that - "Death at Bargain Prices" from "The Avengers" and "The After Hours" from "The Twilight Zone" both of which are set in a department store and both of which are favorite episodes of mine.
(This was before I watched "Are You Being Served?" or they might have been in color.)

What I definitely still know, however, is that I feel completely overwhelmed by the collection of pristine Steiff animals (pre-war) or Barbie dolls from the 60s - at the prices of that time.
Weirdly, it's always only one or the other. I guess my brain thinks I wouldn't be able to handle both at a time, but actually I can't even handle one.
For some reason, I'm standing there knowing I don't have a means of transportation and can't have them all, but how to choose?
There has never been an ending so far which may be for the better. Possibly it would end with my having to be dragged off the store floor because I'm losing my mind 😂

Other dreams take me to a street round the corner where I used to live as a child, to different antique shops. I have no idea why they are always in that street because there has never been any shop at all there in my time.
Not the one on the corner which has a lot of books, but also a few glass cases with small Steiff animals sitting between jewelry or trinkets. Most of them are not special, but there's always one that catches my eye.
Not the one on the other corner which seems to be a mix of jewelry and antique shop.
And not the one in a basement with some steps leading down (no doubt inspired by two real shops in different streets which had stationery, office supplies, and things like that and which went away decades ago), but with a window on street level where I once saw a row of Steiff wool miniatures sitting, at the original price, the most beautiful pre-war ones ever. I woke up just when I wanted to go inside. That one hit hard because I was so close and it really took me a while to realize it had just been a dream. I almost expected them to sit in my cabinet.

These cuties don't live me with anymore which is
probably for the better given Gundel's history
(I'm of course referring to the Christmas massacre of 2018)

I haven't had one of these dreams in a while. I also haven't been at fleamarkets or fairs in years.
That doesn't mean I have forgotten or never miss the thrill of the hunt which makes up a fair share of the collecting experience. Mind you, I wasn't a very good hunter (I hung around in front of book boxes too much) and maybe that added to the disappointment after waking up from such a dream when I thought I had found something really good? 😉

Have you ever gone thrifting in a dream?

My February books

This is an overview of the books I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and those I have read to the cats (marked with 😸).
I will be adding a short explanation why I chose a book or how I found it and possibly if it's a re-read candidate, but I'm usually not going to add real reviews or ratings (the cats also refuse to give ratings 😉). Should you want a little more information on a book you're interested in, though, just let me know.
Not my best reading month, this. Few highlights.


"Death on the Oxford Road" by E. C. R. Lorac, first published in 1933
(Robert Macdonald 4)

In the middle of the night, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald and his journalist friend Peter Vernon happen to come to a car accident on Oxford Road. Only it wasn't an accident ...

Someone recommended E. C. R. Lorac (one of the pen names of Edith Caroline Rivett) and her books from the Golden Age of Crime in a comment on a friend's blog post in which she had mentioned Allingham and Marsh. More vintage crime for me which is nice since I'm almost running out of Marsh books.

"Grimsdyke" by Walter Unsworth, first published in 1974 😸

England, early 19th century.
After his father's death, 15 year old Kit Standish receives an invitation to Grimsdyke from his Uncle Gideon of whom he knows only that he didn't get along with his father.
It doesn't take long for Kit to learn that his uncle wants to kill him, but why? He escapes from Grimsdyke to find out, luckily he meets new friends who help him.

When I looked for a different book on The Internet Archive, I didn't find it despite a long list of results, but thought this title and cover looked interesting instead.
I wasn't disappointed. Unsworth wrote books about mountain climbing, but also historical novels for young people against the background of the Industrial Revolution, aiming "to strip the gloss from the period". He sure did that in this one and there was one or the other scene I could have done without (with animals for example, no need to say more), but it was still a really good read.
I love random finds like this one.
(It really should have just half a cat because I read it only to dem Dekan, the lady wasn't interested in the Industrial Revolution, I guess.)

"Die Lockett-Kinder" = "August Adventure" by M. E. Atkinson (Mary E. Atkinson in the German translations), first published in 1936

Three siblings, whose parents live in India, have an invitation for the vacations from a yet unknown aunt.
When they get to the aunt's house, though, she isn't there and the Locketts go looking for her together with two new friends.

This was a re-re-re-re-re-....-read of a childhood favorite for a future blog post.

"Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Shelby Van Pelt, first published in 2022

Widowed Tova cleans at the local aquarium. One night she gets acquainted with the giant Pacific octopus Marcellus and a friendship grows which helps unite family.

I got the recommendation from Kym's blog "Just A Second" and although I had no idea what exactly to expect from the book, I absolutely loved it.

"Cats' A. B. C." by Beverley Nichols, first published in 1960 😸

A cat lover tells facts and anecdotes about cats sorted by letters - A for amusements, F for fur, Y for yawn and so on.

I had never read anything by Nichols before, in fact didn't even know him. This was just another of my random finds.
No idea what his other books are like, but while I liked a lot of his stories about the cats, he added too much to them that sounded judgemental to me, and I also minded the jibes against women. It was a short book, though, and had cute illustrations.
There's also a book called "Cats' X. Y. Z.", but I don't think I'll be reading that one. We'll try another adventure story instead 🙂

"The Book Club for Troublesome Women" by Marie Bostwick, first published in 2025

The suburb in the early 60s. Four women start a book club reading "The Feminine Mystique" by feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan which changes first their views on their lives and later their lives in unexpected ways.

I found the book as a new OverDrive entry.

"The Lost Apothecary" by Sarah Penner, first published in 2021

After finding out that her husband has cheated on her, Caroline goes on their anniversary trip to London by herself.
Here she joins a mudlarking tour and finds an empty vial in the Thames mud. The engraved bear leads her on a search of a lost apothecary and serial killings in the late 18th century.

I found the book mentioned on a blog, I think, and the blurb sounded interesting. We have a dual timeline for the apothecary Nella and her young friend Eliza and for Caroline (and her husband).
The book was a quick read. Actually about as quick as Caroline uncovers the more than two century old secret of Nella and Eliza and then goes on to grad school in Cambridge to write a dissertation about Nella within nine months.
She keeps Eliza her personal secret although the truth "could very likely catapult my dissertation work to the front page of academic journals, but I didn't want the renown" ... you gotta be kidding me.
As a librarian at a university, the "research" part was not relatable to me (if it only were that easy) and that's putting it nicely. That wasn't the only problem of the book, though.
At the moment, I don't think I want to give one of the author's other books a try.

"Finchen" by Lisa-Marie Blum, first published in 1960

Finchen is a living doll who belonged to Gabriele and now lives with her granddaughter Ina who is 10. She has a lot of stories tell and there's something she has to do ...

This is a re-read for a future post.

"Martin Crusoe" by Thomas Charles Bridges, first published as a book in 1920 (before that in serialized form between March and October 1919 in "The Children's Newspaper") 😸

The lost civilization adventure novel begins with 17 year old Martin receiving several wireless messages from an island calling for help. After his father's death, he flies there with his plane - into a big adventure (flying is not his only skill 😜).

This is one of my random finds on The Internet Archive. Kids must have loved this. We have descendants of the survivors of Atlantis, we have "monsters", we have betrayal, revolution, and fights, we have gold and a volcano, earthquakes, and more.
I think Ray Harryhausen could have had a field day with it.

"The Blue Castle" by Lucy Maud Montgomery, first published in 1926

Valancy is 29 and unmarried which her strict family never lets forget her. When a doctor tells her she doesn't have long to live, she breaks free from everything that has held her back, determined to enjoy the short rest of her life - and maybe find love.

This was a readalong with Lisa from Boondock Ramblings.

"The Impersonator" by Mary Miley, first published in 2013
(Roaring Twenties Mystery 1)

Leah, a young vaudeville actress, is hired by Oliver Beckett to impersonate his niece. Jessie, who looked just like Leah, has been missing for seven years and Oliver wants to get his hands on her inheritance before she's announced dead.
There's more to the story, however, than Leah bargained for.

I read about one of Miley's books on Fritzi Kramer's silent movie blog and started with the first one in the series. I would actually have liked to read more about vaudeville than the mystery case, but it was good enough to try the second one as well which is set in the silent film industry.
(And no, I haven't read "Brat Farrar" which Miley named as an inspiration, so I didn't get mad (yet?) at the similarities.)

"Death by Petticoat: American History Myths Debunked" by Mary Miley Theobald, first published in 2012

The short book lists 63 myths in American history which "are repeated in museums and historic sites all across America".

Most of these I had never even heard of, but of course I'm not American.
It was a very quick read which isn't surprising as each myth only gets up to a page, sometimes only a few sentences, which includes the myth itself. There are no sources whatsoever, only a list of people in the acknowledgements. I wouldn't recommend it.

"Lebensbilder aus Göppingens Vergangenheit : Gräber im Oberhofenfriedhof" by Peter Herwig, first published as a book in 2001

My town has two cemeteries which we call the old and the new cemetery (although the new one is over 120 years old and officially called Main Cemetery ).
This little book was originally a series in our newspaper - "Gräber erzählen" meaning "Graves Tell Stories" - and was published as a book to forward the proceeds to the Association for the Preservation of the Oberhofenkirche (which is the second oldest building in town).

I'm interested in my town's history and these life stories are a very interesting part of it.


DNF:

"Cold Feet" by Brenda Novak, first published in 2004

Was Madison's father the "Sandpoint Strangler"? When there's another victim, former detective turned true crime writer Caleb suspects Madison knows more than she's saying.
What he hadn't expected was to fall in love with her.

A random OverDrive find. I managed not even half, then I lost interest because of the love story, skipped to the ending and was glad I had and saved time.

"The Case of the Christie Conspiracy" by Kelly Oliver, first published in 2025

Who killed Neville Lively and why? Was it Agatha Christie whom he wanted expelled from the Detection Club? And why did Christie disappear?

I'll admit the cover drew me in. I thought this could be a fun read, but then I noticed after a while how I only read a few pages and then turned to something else until I literally abandoned the book in the middle of a sentence at about half because the protagonist grated on my nerves so much.