Date with a Career by Jan Nickerson

Like many of the books I enjoyed growing up, Date with a Career is about a girl starting school in a new place; however, it is also about her determination to become a fashion designer. Saphronia Adams has spent most of her life in Manhattan with her mother, a successful actress, but now her mother is performing in Australia, so Saphronia has is spending her senior year in New England with the grandmother for whom she was named. 

Spring Dream by Rosamund Hunt

Carolyn Chandler is an attractive young woman (auburn hair, creamy skin, green eyes) who lives in Manhattan with her widowed mother, Vivian. Vivian’s life is a round of parties and it has been up to Carolyn to manage their home and finances since she was 16. Now, although Vivian is reluctant to leave her social life and Carolyn does not want to leave handsome Whit Dryden, her new beau, they travel 200 miles north when they get the news that Vivian’s sister, Blanche Storrow, had been hospitalized.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild - who is your favorite Fossil?

Title: Ballet Shoes
Author: Noel Streatfeild
Illustrator: Richard Floethe
Publication: Random House, hardcover, 1937 (originally published in 1936)
Genre: Children’s fiction

The 1936 Club is hosted by Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings.

Plot: Great Uncle Matthew (known as Gum) was a noted collector of fossils and lived in a large house on London’s Cromwell Road with his niece Sylvia, and her childhood nurse, Nana. One day he brings home an orphaned baby who Sylvia and Nana name Pauline. Soon there are two more, Petrova and Posy.  

Skating Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (Book Review)

Title: Skating Shoes (UK title: White Boots)
Author: Noel Streatfeild
Illustrator: Richard Floethe
Publication: Random House, Hardcover, 1951 (currently available in pb)
Genre: Juvenile fiction Setting: London

Description: Harriet Johnson has been ill and her doctor is concerned about her slow recovery so recommends ice skating. The Johnson family is delightful but impoverished: father George makes an inadequate living running a London shop in which he sells random produce etc. sent up from the country by his brother, mother Olivia manages meals for six out of the merchandise no one will purchase, and Harriet’s brothers immediately come up with a plan to subsidize her skating.

Can't Blame This on the Post Office

Today I got a rejection letter for a job I didn't remember applying for with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts! Given that I have not updated my resume or applied for a job in a year, I was puzzled. I kept on reading and the letter helpfully told me the job had been posted on the Commonwealth's website in December 2008 and they had received my resume promptly! It continued:

"Please be advised that the Department has determined that the posting for this position will be rescinded. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

Happily, I had not put my life on hold waiting for an interview so was not inconvenienced, thank you.

Forget about hiring lawyers, I think Massachusetts had better hire some more sophisticated/competent Human Resources personnel. After all, if you are going to wait 14 months to get back to your applicants, wouldn't it be more cost efficient not to waste $.44 on a stamp at this point? By then, they are not expecting to hear from you. Those stamps are coming out of my taxes, and I would rather you spent that money on the Commonwealth's health care plan.