By Any Other Nerd

Title:  Scheherazade the Widow Author:   Henri de Regnier Summary The story picks up at the end of Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights, with Scheherazade now living a life of storytelling at the palace with her husband and Sultan.  She is less enchanted with her position now as the nights have lingered on.  Even more problematic is that the Sultan is not nearly as enthralled with her stories and at times barely listens to her.  She soon discovers that it is in fact because the land is in rebellion and the Sultan is trying to deal with that.  One night, she is awoken by the Grand Vizier who stumbles into the garden covered with blood, explaining there has been a revolt and the sultan was killed.  She is named as Regent, being popular among the common folk and not soon after that, she executes the Grand Vizier claiming he was suspect with regards to the sultan's death.  However, life as a Regent does not seem to make her happy and she finds hers...

Title:  A Kiss in the Night Author:  Lydie Lacaze Summary Jeanine and Marcel randomly meet one another at a salon one day and develop a slow-budding relationship.  Jeanine is emotionally lost from losing her husband in the war and Marcel is emotionally removed from what Jeanine assumes (and what Marcel allows her to continue to assume) is the war as well.  They become friends and visit regularly.  Over time, they both recognize the inklings of stronger feelings, but while Jeanine has known love and can express it, Marcel still withdraws emotionally, even though he does love Jeanine.  When they admit their stronger feelings, Marcel also admits to his lying about his injury.  Initially, Jeanine is put off by this but eventually can accept that.  However, Jeanine will not accept their relationship unless Marcel changes and becomes something rather than the malingering shadow of the man she believes he is.  He agrees and in fact, begins to ...

Title: The Letter Author: Edmond Laloux Summary At seventy five years old, Daniel Kerguiraud knows that death is quickly approaching.  His son and daughter-in-law still visit him and he remained in good health but he knew death was not far away.  His daughter-in-law, Marthe, regularly chats with him and one day asks him if the man feels lonely.  Daniel explains that he doesn't always feel lonely but he has these moments where he forgets who among his friends is alive or dead and he loves at times, among "the society of those I've lost."  In this conversation, it becomes clear that there is a rift between Daniel and his son Abel that Marthe does her best to bridge.  After she has left, Daniel stares out the window and daydreams about a woman from his past that he loved dearly but never married.  He went up to his room, occasionally reflecting upon the past.  He sits down at a desk and writes a letter to the woman, which discuss...

Title:  Count Mortier the Madman Author: Victor Hugo Summary Count Mortier has kidnapped his two children and threatening to kill himself and the two children.  It is clear from his ex-wife and others that he is not of sane mind.  Chancellor Pasquier reads the letter about Mortier's impending murder-suicide and proceeds to the Court's house.  The police and others are there already but the room is barricaded.  Pasquier attempts to use his relationship with Mortier to gain entrance but to no avail.  They call upon a school friend, Delessert to possibly help.  Delessert manages to calm Mortier and even disarm him.  The rest rush into that part of the house to try to find the children. The daughter reveals how she tricked the father into leaving the room and then locked the door from the inside to protect her and her brother.  The narrator explains that on that same day another count, Count Bresson had also slit his own throat. ...

Title:   In the Moonlight Author:  Guy de Maupassant Summary The story introduces us to Abbe Marginan, a priest with an absolute love of the natural world but a serious disdain against women.  He loathed all aspects of women and could barely tolerate nuns.  One day, he learns that his niece has a lover and is angered by the idea.  He also learns that she will be meeting her lover at night.  Marginan plans and sets out at night to catch the two.  However, as he sets forth at night, he is immediately seized and inspired by the various sensory input from nature at night from the smells the sounds to what can be felt and what can be seen in the moonlight.  All of this assaults him and inspires him to the point that as he looks upon the lovers he finds he cannot interfere.  Instead, he observes and reflects on their love as something biblical and beautiful.   Reflection From the moment the priest steps outside, the change is pal...

Title:  La Fontaine's First Fable Author:  Alexandre Dumas Summary When the superintendent of France, Froquet mismanages his finances to the point where he is likely to lose his estate, his friends come together to try to cover the costs.  At the meeting of the friends, Fontaine is asked about his money to put in but unfortunately, his initial chances to gather the money did not pan out.  He explains that all his ideas did not work but he does have one that he will go forward with.  He offers to write and publish poetry in France to get the funds.  The others balk at this as the censorship around spiteful poetry (the kind he proposed) is pretty strong.  They find the idea ridiculous but Fontaine insists.  They continue to count the money there and the superintendent shows himself who is beside himself by the gesture of his friends.  He looks to Fontaine and thanks him for his efforts.  Fontaine swears that if the creditors will jus...

Today, I'm attending a social media conference at UMASS Boston .  I am looking forward to it and figure that it should be a good time with lots of inspirational ideas, some great tools, and a lot of gabbing away on social media ( #UMBSocial ).   While social media is somewhat new ( depending on who you ask ), there are still some clear and consistent things that happen while at an event.  With that in mind, I decided to create and share this Social Media Bingo chart.   Try it out and use it at your next social media conference.  I'm sure it will be easy to get a straight line of Bingo but I wonder how easy will it be to fill them all up.   Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Internati...

Title:  Bababec  Author:  Voltaire Summary The story begins with a Muslim (I assume so; they use the term "Mussulman") visting his Brahman friend in Ganges.  The Muslim notes that there are several sects of Fakirs who have various practices that go beyond the norm.  For instance, when he passes one, the Fakir is angered because of the shadow that was cast upon him by the Muslim.  One group, the Gymnosophists were known for driving nails into their bodies or carrying about chains.  The Brahman brings the Muslim to the most famous of them,Bababec.  The Brahman asks how many lives he must live until he arrives at Brahma.  Bababec asks how many nails the Brahman has driven into himself.  When the Brahman answers none, Bababec tells him he cannot reach higher than the nineteenth heaven.  When asked, Bababec says that he is into the thirty-fifth heaven.  The Brahman then critiques Bababec by saying that his life of sitting ther...

April managed to be a good reading month.  I finished three physical books and 24 books in total for the month.  Given how busy the month was, I'll consider that a win.  The three books were anthologies I've been working through with the 365 Short Stories project and I expect May will also yield at least two or more anthologies. My best pics for the month were on the whole all right.  None of them received too high a rating on my Goodreads list but they were enjoyable reads overall.   The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time edited by Leslie Pockell Overall, this is a solid representation of some great and classic horror authors.  They have Lovecraft, Machen, Stevenson, Stoker, Poe, Le Fanu, Blackwood, and others.  Classics like The Call of Cthulhu, The Great God Pan, and The Willows are perfectly chosen for this collection but then they throw away opportunities for great stories from other authors by offered in up The Bottle Imp by Stevenson ...

Title:  Man With the Golden Brain Author:  Alphonse Daudet Summary The story follows a man born with a golden brain.  Initially, this knowledge is kept from him and others to prevent anyone from taking advantage of him, but his parents eventually tell him about his brain upon his 18th birthday in hopes of being compensated for the care they had provided him.  The young man does so and then goes about living life rather luxuriously--regularly taking the gold of his brain to pay his costs.  Eventually, he decides to stop wasting his golden brain and work hard while living a simple life.  However, even this brings its woes with him as friends occasionally steal gold from his brain. Shortly thereafter, he falls in love with a woman who regularly desires things and he acquiesces to buy them with bits of his gold.  She dies one day and the man spends much of his remaining gold for a lavish funeral for her.  Lost in the aftermath of his w...