Bekka's 2013 challenge...

Thought I'd start with one of my favourite kiddy-book pics of 2012.

Anyway, I didn't make 75 books in 2012 (unless I manage to cram in 15 in the next 8 days...hmmmm) but I am very happy with the ones I read - some brilliant books. Highlights include The Moonstone, The Player of Games and The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. As usual I will be focusing on 1,001 books since I love the surprises I come across in books I wouldn't normally have read. Mixing in a good dollop of fantasy as well of course.

Looking forward to it all :)

Hi Bekka! I have hat envy :-) Good luck with your challenge for 2013.

Hey there Miss Bekka and faGawdsake no more Pamela-type tomes or you'll never make it!

*smooch*

Hi Bekka!

Hi Bekka, what a gorgeous photo to start your first thread of the year.

Welcome back! 1001 books is a great way to find new-to-me stuff.

#2 + #5 Ta guys! I think they are cuteys (most...well some of the time!)

#3 Richard I Know I know! But somehow I just can't seem to help myself...

#4 Hiya Cushla

#6 Hola - and yes, it's great - makes me at least stretch my brain a little bit.

I had't started Starring in the 2013 group yet, made a start now.

1001 Books is a good list, I used to source quite a few of my reads from there in the initial couple of years, the percentage of intentional picks from the list has dropped, but quite a few books I read are in that list anyways.

How many have you read till now and as per which version of the list?

Hiya Piyush. I'm doing the combo 1,294+ or whatever the hell we are up to after the 2012 update...I may be losing track. I'm up to around 269 - need to double check my year end stats. I may have a way to go...

I think it is 1305 or something now, after the 2012 version. Wish there was a spreadsheet with all the titles listed, I would have probably restarted tracking my reads too.

I have also been a member of the 1001 Books to Read for a few years now, just never made a thread there.

It's frustrating - I have arukiyomi's fabulous spreadsheet but he's had to take that off his blog so I can't get a 2012 update :/

I've checked my no.s and with the one I finished today I am at 271. Hope to get well into the 300's next year.

These are the 12 books which have been added to the 1001 List:-

Here’s the 12 books that have been added to the 2012 version:

Julian Barnes: The Sense of an Ending
Arthur Golden: Memoirs of a Geisha (was on the 2006 list but got taken of for the 2008 list – now it’s back on)
Jennifer Egan: A Visit from the Goon Squad
Jeffrey Eugenides: The Marriage Plot
Jonathan Franzen: Freedom
Chad Harbach: The Art of Fielding
Nicole Krauss: The History of Love
Lorrie Moore: A Gate at the Stairs
Haruki Murakami: 1Q84
Philip Roth: Nemesis
José Saramago: Cain
Ali Smith: There but for the

The books which have been removed to make space for the above are as follows:-

Edward St. Aubyn: Mothers Milk
Paul Auster: Invisible
Paul Auster: The Music of Chance
Pat Barker: The Ghost Road
Peter Carey: Jack Maggs
Don DeLillo: Falling Man
Ian McEwan: Enduring Love
Haruki Murakami: Kafka on the Shore
Ardal O’Hanlan: The Talk of the Town
Ricardo Piglia: Money To Burn
Ali Smith: The Accidental
William Trevor: Felicia’s Journey

Ta Piyush - and Enduring Love definitely deserved to go (IMO). My prob is that the spreadsheet has imbedded formula and I don't have excel on my system (just some cheapy spreadsheet thingy) so I can't update it. Luckily my hubby does stuff like that for a living so I think I'm giong to make his next project to build me a new one :). I DO like a good spreadsheet.

Have you read any of the new ones? I've read - and loved, Memoirs of a Geisha and had already planned to read Freedom and IQ84 but haven't touched any of the others.

Hi Bekka, great pic for your topper. Kids and books- what a combo.
Great to see you back and in for a year of great reading ahead!

Yes, the Arukiyomi spreadsheet has a few Macros and formulas, but they are all very easy to replicate.

I have only read Memoirs of a Geisha and quite liked it too. 1Q84 has anyways been on my TBR, I haven't yet decided though if I will read it in 2013.

Bekka - wishing you a happy new year over on the new thread to bookend the old.

Thanks Paul - and a very Happy New Year to everyone.

Last year I didn't hit 75 books but I honestly don't care (honest!) - I had a brilliant reading year. In the end I read 60 books with an average of 435 pages (pulled up by the massive Clarissa which weighes in at a whopping 1,536 pages) per book and a total of 25,685 pages for the year. 33 of the books were off the 1,001 list. 8 were re-reads.

Favourites included;
Tipping the Velvet
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The Grapes of Wrath
The Player of Games
The Collector
The Moonstone

And I also loved these...
The Song of Achilles
Cannery Row
The French Lieutenant's Woman
The Life and Times of Michael K
The Inferno
Wild Swans
The Long Earth

Plus in 2012 I discovered Trudi Canavan - I read 6 of her fantasy novels this year and really enjoyed her world.

Least favourites included the appalling Play it as it Lays and the rather dull Tinker, Tailor. Solider, Spy and the terribly dull Solaris.

All in all the goods totally outweighed the bads - fingers crossed I can say the same this time next year.

Couple of pics to start the year off - this is Will reading Hard Times;



And this was the shirt that my lovely hubby gave me for Christmas...

Great pictures! Happy New Year, Bekka!

Will seems to be concentrating very hard, and on a book with no pictures! Love the shirt :-)

Love the pictures of your little ones! Dropping a star on your thread so I can keep up with you this year. :)

#18 Well, I am reading Hard Times too :)

Haha.. I love the tshirt, Bekka. What a lovely gift.

Thanks guys - I love that pic! And my hubby did very well with the shirt.

#1 Carrie - Stephen King

Randomly picked up in a charity shop yesterday afternoon when I had forgotten my book and had a few hours off (neither circumstance happens often, believe me!). Started whilst sitting outside a pub drinking a glass of wine and watching the rain, finished in bed later the same day.

My first King! And there will be many many more methinks - I loved the various view points and different narratives that he pieces together, I loved the characters and above all I loved King's effortless writing style.

Well done on your first finish! You might like his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft which I read a few years ago. It's an excellent read.

What's next in the queue for you?

Hmmm - I'm part way through LOTS - I got a bit carried away with the 'new year new books' thing. Carrie was accidental but good :)

Current reads are The Red and the Black, The Girl who circumnavigated Fairyland in a ship of her own making, At the Mountains of Madness, Hard Times and The Wellspring of Chaos. Oh and The Golden Notebook is still sitting in the bathroom, quarter read and staring at me gloomily.

Bekka - Just stopping by to wish you a wonderful weekend - hope that sleeping is no problem having probably scared yourself half to death with the Stephen King.

LOL - Carrie wasn't really scary, but oddly enough since I read it I have been having nightmares about zombies! So random since I've not watched/read anything with any in! Silly brain.

I don't have such problems having SWMBO to cuddle up to........she would scare off all the zombies for sure!

I'll admit to having had to wake my Hubby to protect me from my own imaginings. Poor guy!

Aaargh... yours is another thread I haven't visited yet, I'm so sorry!!
Happy New Year once again, Bekka! Lovely kiddy-book pic!

I loved Carrie when I first read it, but that was so many years ago that I don't want to risk a reread, I fear I might like it less now.

Hiya Nathalie - and no worries, just nice to see you :)

Kiddies and I have bobbed around all day including a very chilly January visit to the beach - exceedingly foggy but lots of fun. Up until Cassie made us paddle (in wellies) and the sea rather 'got' Will. Ooops! Plus a nummy chicken roast for the family, I am rather replete. Good Sunday all told.

Not much reading done - hopefully make up for that in a bit once they are in bed. Emphatically NOT looking forward to a full 5 day week next week. It'll be the first in a while. I wonde rif I can get the Friday off for hubbies b'day....hmmm...

Yes, the thought of five days in a row is a bit much, isn't it?! I hope it isn't too awful and you find something fun to read in the evenings, at least.

If you liked Carrie, you should try The Green Mile next, not scary that one either. If you want something scary, read my favourite King book - The Shining

#34 Far too many - 5 days weeks should be banned. I have too many books on the go at the moment - even for me! I seem to be reading a chapter of each of 4 books at bedtime. Enjoyable though :)

I do have The Shining waiting - it's just a bit of a brick! Once I've got a couple of things out of the way though I'm going to try it. I'm a bit of a scaredy cat though...

I'm tempted by a lot of things at the moment too. I blame LT! So many suggestions on so many threads. And the library across the road has two chunksters that I've seen recommended on more than one thread. I am weakening...

#2 The Girl who circumnavigated Fairyland in a ship of her own making - Catherynne Valente

First off - thank you for the review Richard because I hadn't heard of this before. And it is brilliant. Alice in Wonderland meets Jasper Fforde but with a lightness of touch that is all Valente's own. It is a classic fairytale (young girl gets taken to Fairyland adventures ensue) but Valente has a creative flair and her characters are wonderful and truly varied. Plus there is an edge to her writing (she doesn't stint hurting her characters) that possibly should move this off of the junior fiction shelf.

Anyway I want more and I'm off to find out if there are any...

Happy weekend, Bekka!

#38: I really want to read that one! I am glad to see you enjoyed it so much, Bekka.

Thanks Diana - you too.

#40 You SO should - it's really rather good. The copy I took out the lib had only been out two times which is a travesty - I will be touting it to the librarians (who know me well!) when I take it back.

Went to see the Hobbit last night for hubby's birthday - that is he'd alredy seen it but I let him take me since I very very rarely go to the cinema. My first ever 3d film and whilst the 3d I could take or leave, the film itself was awesome! Next instalment please!

Glad you enjoyed the Hobbit Bekka. I enjoyed it too but not sufficiently to not be irked by them cashing in on the story to make it a trilogy. Have a lovely weekend.

I'll admit I had my issues with that aspect of it. But I found that the three hours went so fast that I don't really mind having another two to come :)

#42: Some of the best things I've seen have been things I've gone to with True Fan friends. I think my expectations are lower, so it's more likely that I'm going to enjoy them, if that doesn't sound too weird.

I know the feeling - I watched various comic book films with my big geek hubby and he's sitting there going on about continuity whilst I just enjoy it :)

A friend of mine had a little party last night - just six or so Mum friends. I've got sinusitis and on lots of drugs, so I just planned on popping over and dropping off some cupcakes I'd made for her. I knew I shouldn't have done it - I knew it was a bad idea... 1 o'clock this morning I fell through the door and passed out. Hangover from hell.

Good night though.

Tonight will be much more chilled - me and a book in bed from about 8!

Oh dear :-)

I hope you can get to bed early tonight. I'm a bit read-out today so I haven't read much. I've been watching some of the things I taped over Christmas but, like the books, I acquire them faster than I can watch them...

Know that feeling too! But then my Sky Plus box is pretty much filled with kids programmes at the moment.

I need to get some books finished - mainly because my lovely hubby got me an e copy of the brand new Wheel of Time final volume and I've promised myself I wouldn't start it till I've finished other things. But I so want to read it NOW!

drive-by *smooch*

#49 Right back atcha my dear.

Little online stress venting coming up... after about 9 months of stress and back and forth my department at my work has finally been sold to another company. It's been bloody hard work and there is a massive amount of work to do. We've been assured there are no layoffs but that's never set in stone these days - plus since my role was supposed to be a sort of assistant manager but ended up manager... I may yet be demoted which is a bit of a blow to ones pride.

On the plus side we've loathed the US company that bought us 3 years ago (sorry US people) and I will NOT be sorry to see the back of them. Plus hopefully it means we can take on some new business and actually get some meaty cases in.

Anyway I can't really discuss too much with people over here - plus everyone is at work. So I am stressing in the privacy of my thread :)

With wine...and yes, for anyone who checks, it is only 3.30 here...

If you can't stress in your own thread, where can you? I know it is always stressful when there is change, but hang in there. If they have said there won't be layoffs, that is better than them saying nothing at all and leaving the issue open, so that is positive. Just imagine how demotivated the staff would be if they said there wouldn't be any, and then there were.

True and very true. It's just one of those things where you've been working towards something for ages then it suddenly arrives and you realise you are actually terrified about it!

Plus we've found out that certain people are 'out of scope' and will be left behind - none of my team thankfully but some lovely people who I've worked with for years.

Meh - I'm sure it'll all work out. Well... I hope it'll all work out anyway.

Bekka I'm catching up here at last. Love te photo of Will reading and love the t shirt too!! The work situation sounds hard to handle. I hope the new owners are an improvement on the last ones and the transition goes ok.

#48 Oh, oh! You are a Wheel of Time fan too! And The Hobbit!

#54 Yup - big fantasy geek me :)

Are you joining in with Fantasy February? I may start the Jordan before then but it's def going to be one of my Fantasy Feb reads.

*there there, pat pat* A happy and swift resolution to work stress for you, me deario.

Ugh, work stress is no fun. Hope things settle down for you soon!

Thanks guys - uncertainty is stressful but I'm sure it'll be better in the long run. Say 93% sure...

I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to finish another book... I seem stuck in the middle of about 5. At the Moutains of Mountains is seriously dull - which is annoying because I was expecting/hoping to like Lovecraft. Bummocks.

Maybe you could switch to something else for a few days, and that might let you (a) finish something else or (b) miss the book you're stuck on, and want to read it again. It's no fun struggling through something if you're not in the mood (*looks hard at giant Clarissa volume*...)

Hi BekkaJo- I love your photos! Will reading so intently is adorable. I also love that T-shirt. I need one of those.

>58 BekkaJo: When I read that, I was surprised by how dull it was. I mean, isn't it supposed to be all horror and weird creatures and whatever? But instead it's "I saw something so terrible that even now, I can't bring myself to talk about it."

#55 I generally read around 20 Fantasy books (not to be confused with Sci-Fi which also I read) a year, no rule, just an indicative number, I am not sure if I qualify to be in the fantasy geek category, with just a little over 100 Fantasy books read, probably not :)

I didn't see a Fantastic February thread this year, I have not joined the thread in previous years, even if I am reading some Fantasy book in the month, which is usually the case - well, it looks too disjointed a thread with nothing connecting the books but a broad genre.

#59 Heartily agree - switching to nice easy fantasy :) oh and Hard Times which I'm enjoying.

#60 Ta Mark. They are both already book addicts which Mummy loves. It was supposed to be a pic of the t-shirt on by the way, but my hubby slightly underestimated my mass so it's a bit snug - at least for photos anyway ;)

#61 I am so so glad you wrote that. That's exactly my thought - and I'm halfway through. Please tell me that something nasty actually befalls them? I feel like I'm missing something...

#62 You probably have me beat on the numbers - I read a lot less fantasy than I used to, but it's still my comfort reading and I still go back to my favourites time and time again (witness last year's Julian May re-read!). I like the fantasy feb thread - it's nice to chat about fantasy without having to go outside of 75ers - plus it's lovely when you find people reading things for the first time that you've loved for years. Gives me the warm fuzzies.

Well, something eventually befalls the person/people in all of Lovecraft's stories. But he does like to string it out for quite a while before it happens.

Hmmm - he'd better do something nasty to them with this much build up is all I can say!

Breaking news for Jersey - we have SNOW! Nigh on unheard of these days - and a fairly decent covering so far as well. Yay!

Yay for the snow! It is just starting to get snowy/sleety in east London - not long now!

Bekka - I have a few fantasy novels tucked away safely on the shelves but it is not - Tolkein aside - my favourite of genres.
Interested to see that you have a pattering of snow in lush Jersey. I was there almost 30 years on a family holiday and hope to take the tribe there too one snow-free day.
Have a lovely weekend.

Piyush- I will be starting a Fantasy Feb Thread. Probably over the weekend. Hope you can stop by.

#69 Hi Mark. Thanks, I surely will.

#67 It's all turned to slush now :( Killed me yesterday though - we'd had a load by morning, but Will's nursery was open. So off trudges Mummy, two miles to drop him off. New snow, quite thick, stroller wheels. Eep! Took me twice as long as normal and I was dead on my feet by the time I got there - Will was none too happy either since it was still snowing and he couldn't see out of his rain cover (which he hastes anyway) and his ankles/hands were icy. Poor brat. Hope you're not too bad - looked pretty awful on the news? Plus I was on a conf call with one of our guys in London who was supposed to be flying back yesterday - he said it was coming down in bucket loads at that point (about 11).

#68 Hi Paul - but fantasy is so much fun :) I'm gonna blame my Mum for my fantasy fetish - she always enjoyed it so introduced us to C.S Lewis and Tolkein early on. It went from there. I remember her and a family friend betting me £1 at age 11 that I couldn't read The Silmarillion... I got my pound :)

#3 Wellspring of Chaos - L.E Modesitt

After a stressful week I just put everything else on the back burner and enjoyed this Modesitt. Another tale of Order (which I prefer to the chaos novels within the same series) about a cooper who gets embroiled in local politics by trying to help people. He loses everything and it's really a novel about finding the strength inside to lose everything but not be lost - and to realise that sometimes you are more than you have ever believed.

Now I MUST finish a 1,001 next!

#71: Oh, that sounds like an awful morning! We didn't get much where I was. At Canary Wharf it was blowing around but it didn't settle, but it looked bad along the Embankment from pictures I saw on the news, and I think it was generally worse west of us. It is quite funny to look out of the office window, though, and see the Canary Wharf people leaping into battle against it - they should buy Heathrow, and then the planes would all fly :-) I think we are getting more tomorrow. The forecast was a bit vague, but by this morning showed a white cloud of snow moving in from Europe over the east of the country - yikes. Currently it is just grey and drizzly.

Yay for snow (not so yay for slush...). Again the snow managed to avoid the place where I live and instead came down in the more Southern parts of Italy, we here only got the storms.

I hope that the changes at the office will work out for you and that there are less stressful times ahead. Have a lovely weekend!

#73 Uh oh - hopefully it stays light. I don't think we are due any more. It was a pretty dodgy morning and equally grotty trudge home, but it still can't put me off. I love snow!

#74 Thanks Nathalie - contracts look okay, though I have to be much 'smarter' at the new offices - read suit there... sigh. I hate suits! I am just too big to look good in them. Hope the storms aren't causing you too much hassle.

#4 Hard Times Charles Dickens

Right so finally a 1,001 done. And a great 1,001. The triumph of childhood imagination and emotion over the tyranny of graft and facts, though the actual result of the action was painful for all involved. Anyway, loved it - though Mr Sleary's lisp drove me batty trying to interpret what the hell he was saying!

So gonna read more Dickens this year.

Apart from his Christmas books, probably the shortest of Charlie's classics but a densely dour and difficult read nonetheless. Gradgrind is a wonderfully named creation. What's next?

#77 I think Tale of Two Cities which I meant to read last year (that is if you mean what Dickens next...).

See I didn't think it that dour - I felt like there was a lightness to it despite the unrelenting gloom. A lightness of touch if not subject matter - which I guess is what one should expect from Dickens.

A Tale of Two Cities is quite simply, amazing! It is easily my favourite Dickens till date, though this one is not so easy to read as Hard Times or say Oliver Twist.

I agree with Piyush, it is my favourite too. I like it a smidgen more than Great Expectations which I narrowly prefer to David Copperfield.

Ooh - now I'm looking forward to it more. My favourite so far is David Copperfield, though Great Expectations has a soft spot with me since it was the first one I read and studied at 17.

Also, Piyush you'll appreciate this, I've just read the prologue (all 70 pages of it!) to the new Wheel of Time - tonight I get to start the first chapter. Early bed time to read methinks!

I'm still looking for my 2013 Dickens, maybe I should try Hard Times.
I read Tale of Two Cities as GR in December. There are 3 threads for it, maybe interesting for you when you get to it? As Piyush said it is a bit of a challenging read, I had some problems in the first half, but in the end it was extremely rewarding. Quite different from the other Dickens(es) I read so far.

Hi Bekka - nice to read about your snow (even though I can imagine that walk to nursery would have been long). A Tale of Two Cities was my first Dickens, in December for the Group Read, and I really loved it. I think I might have downloaded Hard Times onto my Kindle already but I'm not going near another long book till I'm finished with Anna Karenina!

#82 I'll deinfitely have a gander at them - I think it'll be a bit later in the year when I get to it, but I am looking forward to it.

#83 Hi Cushla - horrible day but I still love snow! Can't help myself :) Hard Times is really short - only about 220 pages - unlike the chunksters David Copperfield and Bleak House (though they are both excellent).

Paul & Bekka - I still haven't read either of those two Dickens, but am looking forward to them.

Bekka, I am currently reading A Memory of Light too, should be able to finish it by this weekend, made my friend shut up on Twitter when he started discussing characters :D

Nathalie, I will not discourage you from reading Hard Times, you may like it, there were parts of book I quite enjoyed too. And I agree with your assessment of A Tale of Two Cities, different, tough to get into, yet extremely rewarding at the end.

Cushla, like Bekka said, Hard Times is not a tome, quite unlike most of the other Dickens.

Don't blame you Piyush - no spoilers on this one, it's been too long in the making. I'm at about 15% after two nights but I don't expect to get too much read tonight so I really doubt I'll finish by the weekend. So woe betide you if you spoil! :)

#5 The Red and the Black - Stendhal

I did a long review of this... usual sods law...got collared by child, lost review. In retrospect I now realise that I was basically writing a precis of the entire 1200 page novel for which quite frankly you'd be more accurate going to Wikipedia...

That aside and very much in brief, Julian Sorel is a wood cutters son in provincial France (it's set 1826-31). Hop out of kin he is slender, pale and interesting. And, in my opinion, a complete knob. He's read too many of the wrong sort of novels and naively believes in his honour above all else. Through dint of his prodigious memory (he has the whole bible memorised in latin) he gains a position as a tutor in the house of the local Mayor. Who has a very attractive wife... you can see where this is going? When that later blows up he ends up in a seminary and then as attache to a nobleman in Paris. Who has a very attractive daughter... once again you see where we are leading?

I just re-read that and I sound terribly sarcastic. But actually I really enjoyed this. The ending took a complete shift during the last 200 pages which I hadn't really expected. Plus this is very much an impression of the age and a discussion of the nature of French social structure.

And Julian kind of grows on you. He is so young at the beginning and so cold, but he gets so far only...nope, no spoilers... but a thumbs up from me.

Hi Bekka, wishing you happy birthday with your daughter. I hope she will get well soon!

Thanks Diana - just tucked her up in our bed on the second floor to avoid the attentions of my two year old. Means she can at least watch a film in peace! I just don't like the glazed fevery look she has going. I am now going to be running up and down two flights of stairs for the next two hours!

Warning, overproud Mum moment coming up :)

Found out at school that kids are supposed to have a level 5 reading level by the time they leave reception (random scale so don't really know what it equates to in reality!) in July. Cass is now level 7. Go my girlie. Might be something to do with the fact that you can't move around the house without falling over a pile of books :/

Cass is up and seems somewhat better than yesterday but I think it may be a bit of a false dawn. She has had less than half a slice of toast and has gone pale on me again.

*Selfish Mummy wail* But I'm supposed to be going to the spa and for afternoon tea today for my friends birthday!

Isn't it great Bekka when the kids do well at something - especially something we care so much about ourselves. Our own youngest Belle adores reading and is rarely without a book in her hand. Glasses at 8 (I was 10) chipped tooth at 9 (yesterday had a disaster with a make-up case she got in the way of thrown by the clumsy big sister) I chipped mine at 11. I think I know which one will inherit my books!

Go Cass as you said and I trust that she is already eating two slices and is fully recovered.

Hi Paul - poor Belle! Baby tooth or big one?

I worry about the glasses with my two - my eyesight is dreadful and hubby wears glasses too. So far they seem to be fine but I got my first lot at 9 so it definitely concerns me. I guess it's not the same any more with the much nicer kids glasses but I got bullied for years for my horrendous thick plastic framed monstrosities.

Sorry - that got away from me - somewhat grump and stressed today. Cass is still not well and hubby has man flu.

On the plus side I started Sword in the Stone today and loved the first chapter :)

I have The Sword in the Stone in my TBR pile, supposed to be read this year...Good to know it has started well!

Sorry to hear about Cass (and your husband). There are so many bugs going round right now.

Unfortunately Bekka it is the big one and a front one too. Only a little bit of a chip but one nonetheless. Poor girl, poor dad too with the dental bills.

#93 Thanks Susan - it's very different to how I expected (in some respects). Much more humour to it and some odd touchs to Merlyn. I accidentally downloaded the audio book not the e-book some time ago and thought I'd try it since I had it... but of hell no! It had to go back - the MOST boring narrator I have ever heard. Put me off actually picking up the book till now.

#94 Oh poor Belle! And definitely poor Daddy too - having heard some bill related horror stories I do, at times, pray to the whole wide universe at large that my two won't need orthodontic treatment!

I am relieved to say that Cass is finally back to herself. A big relief, if somewhat exhausting to have my little whirlwind back. However 16 of her class are now off with it too - nasty bugs.

Latest favourite quote from Sword in the Stone (reading about a chapter a day since I'm still spending most of my spare time reading Memory of Light)

"The Wart did not know what Merlyn was talking about, but he liked him to talk. He did not like the grown-ups who talked down to him, but the ones who went on talking in their usual way, leaving him to leap along in their wake, jumping at meanings, guessing, clutching at known words, and chuckling at complicated jokes as they suddenly dawned. He had the glee of the porpoise then, pouring and leaping through strange seas."

Bekka, I found my copy in the TBR pile, and I think it will be third next on my list. I really need to get back to the TBR pile!

How is the Memory of Light reading coming along?

So cool - loving it so much! My brother-in-law is reading it as well and we keep texting each other as things happen - for example, him to me at midnight yesterday 'Doomseer!'. I'm well into the massive 'Last Battle' Chapter - about 200 pages to go.

I have read all of 2 pages today, due to having the kids party. I am 100% wiped out. 2 hours felt like 20 and my back had officially gone. But they enjoyed and it all went okay - and lots of people liked my cake :)

I hope you've managed a bit of quiet time today, Bekka. But it sounds like the party was a big success!

Not sure about a big success, but it's done for another year at least :)

#6 A Memory of Light - Jordan/Sanderson

So so so awesome! Though having just finished I feel incredibly bereaved like I've lost a close friend. I can't really even comment on it without major spoilerage as well... yes, there were loose ends that I wish he'd closed out, but all in all I'm pretty satisfied with what he did. I knew there would be a serious head count - but ultimately he didn't kill off all my favourite characters so I'm pretty happy. Okay I'm going away now before I spread spoilers all across my thread...

Today has been immeasurably improved by coming in to work to find a big doughnut on my desk :)

Apparently it's 'Fat Thursday' - the Polish equivalent of Shrove Tuesday and my Polish colleague bought us all doughnuts. Nommmmmmm...

So Happy Fat Thursday everyone!

Here it's 'unsinniger' (nonsensical) Thursday with the kids running around in costumes. Back in Germany it was 'women's Thursday' and we were allowed to cut off the men's ties. Most of the Germans in my office were killjoys and didn't wear ties that day, but for some of my foreign colleages this tradition was a bad surprise. At least they got a kiss together with the ruin of their tie. I heard they give warnings for businessmen on international flights to Frankfurt/ Cologne/ Duesseldorf that day.

Fat Thursday seems the nicest of those varieties, especially with the whole fasting thing starting on Wednesday. I'm craving for a doughnut now. Enjoy!

Hmmm, I'm looking around the office for any Polish people with a Krispy Kreme box. No luck yet, though!

Nathalie, that is so funny about the ties!

#103 Love it! I don't think it would go down well over here, but I'd love to see the guys faces!

#104 Good luck... maybe a visit to the bakery at lunch time :) My sugary jam dude was very very yummy... I made it all the way to 10.30 before I devoured him!

#7 At the Mountains of Madness - Lovecraft.

I wanted to love this. I really really did. It seemed like it should tick all the boxes for me. BUt not since Solaris last year have I been so frustrated and bored by a book. I get that this is supposed ot be a slow build up but come on! Maybe I'm jaded by modernity? Given a lot of the stuff I read and love I don't think this is the case.

At only 92 pages it's a very slender novel - but if you'd told me I'd waded through 920 pages I would not have been surprised. Big thumbs down from me and it'll be a long time before I touch any more Lovecraft.

#101 Congratulations on finishing the book and congratulations on not spilling spoilers :D

#106 Thanks Piyush - just trying to restrain myself from going back to the beginning and starting again!

#8 The Sword in the Stone - T.H White

Right... so I'm kinda cheating by counting this as one whole novel since it's merely one of 4 within The Once and Future King. But I don't care so it's all okay :)

Anyway that aside, I loved this. I mean everyone knows the story - the whole Wart and his tutor Merlyn etc etc. Most people probably form the saccarhine Disney version. But this is totally in a different league. Yes, the story is essetially the same but this book had a fabulous humour - a wit that had me laughing out loud. And that almost never happens! I just loved the nods to modernity in the archaic setting - and Merlyn is just wonderfully depicted. If anyone has seen the recent Hobbit film, then think Radagast the Brown - totally my new image of Merlyn since it tracks so well with the description in the tale.

Awesome and I'm off to read the next one...

Also - Pancake day! Hope you all had your pancakes :) Alex and Cass are in the UK at his parents for half term, but I accidentally made the same amount I usually would. Oh darn - now I have pancakes for tomorrow too :)

Yay! That sounds like an excellent read, Bekka. I'm looking forward to it. Currently I'm reading a YA title that suffers when compared against the excellent writing of the Rosemary Sutcliffs I've just finished and this one sounds like it will be similarly old-skool fabulous. I've got to confess that I don't know the story that well, although I did read a great Helen Hollick trilogy a few years ago. However, it started later in time. Ooh, I think now I saw the first one of the Merlin series that was on TV, so I guess I know that much :-)

No pancakes for me, as they were so overpriced in the work canteen, but it's good that you made too many as they are becoming about the only safe thing to eat...

#9 Less than Zero - Brett Easton Ellis

Someone over on the 1,001 thread told me when I said that I was reading this, that it should come with a warning label. She was so so right. It's essentially a first person narrative of a spoilt rich uni student home for the Christmas break in LA. So you can't help but expect a lot of drugs and sex. I'm not great on drugs in my literature or my films but there is somethign about the railway pace matter of factness about them in this one that aneasthetised me.

This book doesn't walk, it doesn't drag, it runs and you have to go with it - all the while the feeling growing that some horrendous massacre, some awful thing is going to explode. Then suddenly it's finished and you realise that the horror was there all along and that you've become numb to it, that the disgust at the exceedingly nasty penultimate scenes is nowhere near as shocking as it should be. Incredibly crafted, revolting and very very disturbing.

Hmmmm, I'm not *sure* you've convinced me to read it :-) But it sounds like quite a read. And another one from your 1001 list, so that's good.

Well it does depend if you are in the mood for a traumatising whirlwhind of drugs, sex and violence... I'm definitely going to read more of his but I need a decided break - so much so that I picked up The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling last night in reaction (and yes, I know, lots of sex in that one too).

BekkaJo- I remember reading Less than Zero back in the late 80s, just after it came out. You described it well. I wonder how it would hold up for me. I think Bright Lights, Big City came out around the same time and I liked that one too!

Hm... I don't know if I'll ever be ready to face another book by BEE. American Psycho had some of those frantic drug-dazed chapters (without killings) which I found brillantly written, so I got an idea what you mean. Well, there's enough other drug literature on my shelf I've been avoiding for years (Trainspotting, Money), so I am in no hurry to get to this one.

I counted all 5 books of The Once and Future King as single works here, although on the 1,001 list they only count as collection. I'm doing the same with the Dance to a Music of Time series. They were published separately in different years, so they are separate books.

Missed the pancakes on Tuesday, but got one on Wednesday. They fill them with pureed sweet chestnut here with a little rum in the mix. Quite delicious.
Wow, I see you're making your own! Is that difficult?

swooping through on my broom, trailing smooches

#112 Hmmm - not one I've read either... *wanders away to check her voluminous e-book files*

#113 Not really looking forward to American Psycho or...well I sort of am - but the fact that I am is rather disturbing in and of itself. Not sure about sweet chesnut - don't think I've ever tasted it - but rum always makes things great :) Making your own is really simple - the sort of standard british ones anyway. Not in the league of any crepes or anything, but they do the trick.

#114 And masses of smoochies right back atcha - careful you don't fall of the broom :)

Just googled for recipes and saw that the carnival pancakes are in fact real pancakes, no deep-fried donut varieties. The German 'Pfannkuchen' can mean both and it's the donut type that's widely eaten here and there on carnival.
The chestnut is not as sweet as jam and therefore my preferred filling for the local (deep-fried) pancakes.
Very hungry now...

*waving* at Bekka

I have never read Less than Zero and I am not sure if I ever will, despite the accolades the book has gotten. I think it is a little too far out of my comfort zone for me.

I really enjoyed the movie of Less than Zero when it came out in the 80's. I can't believe I was permitted to watch it! I remember being very sad for the lead character. I'm going to have to add this one to the wish list.

Wah! What happened to my post from last night? Oh grrrr!

Anyway it essentially said...

#116 Nom nom nom... hungry myself now! I love all the varieties - my portugeuse colleague bought us the Portugeuse version of doughnuts on Tuesday as well (love that this is our new thing!) and they are really odd - like a light hollow ball that really tastes more like a deep fried pancake ball than a heavy doughnut. Yummy but I did naughtily say I wanted mine filled with confectioners cream ;)

#117 Hi Stasia! I've lost you - oh no! Will come and find you soon. Re Less than Zero, I have a feeling that if this in your comfort zone then that is exceedingly disturbing in and of itself!

#118 Hi Tina - there's a movie? I have a feeling that must be truly horrific - I don't think I'd want the images that ran through my head actually out there on the screen. It's definitely worth a read - just with big red warning labels pasted all over it!

I decided it'd been a while since I'd posted some kiddie pics - in particular since they've each had a birthday in the last month. So...

Their joint Dinosaur/Fairy garden cake:



Cassie in her new headphones:



Will on his birthday:

LOL ! Well it does depend if you are in the mood for a traumatising whirlwhind of drugs, sex and violence Me , not so much! Currently I'm reading a humourous book just for a bit of a break.

Such cute children! Since I have a son named William, I am very partial to that name! My son only likes to be called William though - and he's nearly 23 , so I guess that how it will be.

Its a good name :) Will does tend to say 'illam' when looking at pics of himself, so I guess he likes the full version too!

What great pictures, Bekka! I *love* their cake, especially the dinosaur crossing over into fairyland.

Awww thanks Susan :) I managed to forget my camera for the birthday party and my friend who was coming to take photos cried off with a migraine so I ended up frantically trying to get some snaps with my friends phones!

There was also supposed to be a volcano... I ran out of time somewhat on that one!

Edited to add on a booky note... What's Less than Zero done to me??? I can't settle on any one book - I've read bits of about 6 today. :/

I had a very unsatisfactory reading weekend too, Bekka. I finished something I hated, and then read a short romance, but the book I had planned to read didn't even get opened. Of course I had the Rage about the neighbours on Saturday, but yesterday was quiet and I have no excuse :-)

Hope you've found something good now? The one I picked up in a fit of pique ended up being brilliant - not that I expect less of a Murakami...

#10 Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami

I love Murakami - he's so thoroughly and delightfully weird! This is (in the most part) a first person narrative by an un-named Japanese man talking of his friendship with a female wanna-be author a few years his junior. Despite his love for her being unreciprocated they are exceedingly close friends. Then she falls head over heels in love (with a married woman no less - but don't expect any raunchy lesbian action, not the novel for that) and the weirdness starts. And when I say weirdness I mean it - Murakami is in a league of his own!

There are lots of themes in the novel but I think the one that really touched me was about the disconnect between what we think we are and how we are perceived - the eternal and infuriating question of who am I? What am I - and what am I for? He also goes into the fracturing of self that can occur - the knowledge that some events/actions touch so deeply that you know you will wake up tomorrow and be a different person.

Needless to say it touched me deeply - even though I'm still not quite sure what the last 4 or so lines were all about!

#11 The Queen of Air and Darkness - T.H White

Second volume of The Once and Future King down! And this one is shorter but doesn't go with quite such a swing as the first - it feels more stop gap and jagged. Essentially it covers the section from Arthur assuming the throne to fighting off the Gaels in order to set up the round table. It also introduces a few essential characters (Morgause and her children Gareth, Gawaine etc - Lancelot also has a tiny cameo), setting the scene for later - and the end? Well the end is a snappy reminder of an event I had forgotten (though in retrospect I don't know how!).

Basically it suffers middle book syndrome :)

Two good finishes there :-) I have started the book I meant to read over the weekend and it's a pretty fast read so I am making progress. But now have to read bits of The Iliad and The Odyssey for a course, so Arthur is going to have to wait...

I'll stick with the old White. Murakami makes me itch.

#128 Arthur is starting to wear a little - def slowed down since vol 1. I keep meaning to read The Iliad and The Odyssey - I really should have :/

#129 Hmmm... I'd not thought of it, but I guess he's prob not your cup of tea? Or rather should I say coffee ;)

On the coffee subject, just hook me up and gimme intravenous (sp?). I can't sleep. Work is still appalling (so I wake at 2am and that's it) as we try to get through this sale - I am dealing with morons all day and trying to ram in my normal work around it. Exhausted. I just want to scream into a pillow till it's all over.

Well my evening has been immeasurably cheered by my hubby insisting on me listening to a library based song on one of his audio plays. Please, please view this youtube vid - only 3 mins or so but so so funny and brilliant :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUlENgXzbiI

Very good!

Sorry to hear about work - hope the sale goes through soon so you can get back to normal.

Read a Murakami too this week, somehow me and Murakami's short stories don't go so well together :/

#132 I think so :) Work is just stuck in the back of my head - I'm dreading tomorrow :/ But just gotta keep telling myeslf it'll get better once we're through.

#133 I haven't tried his short ones - I kinda doubt I'd like them either. I'm not a short story fan at the best of times, plus I think the thing about Murakami is his juxtaposition of normal and weird - I just don't think there'd be time for him to develop that fully in a short story.

the thing about Murakami is his juxtaposition of normal and weird - I just don't think there'd be time for him to develop that fully in a short story

You have hit the nail on its head I think. He loves to write short stories, because to him, they are so very clear. Quite a few of his novels are actually built up on some short of his or other, and they are all fantastic! which I think further proves the point.

#12 The Ill-made Knight - White

3rd in the series, this one deals with Lancelot and his always disastrous love affair with Guenever. For the first half of this Lancelot irritated me, for the second Guenever did. Still, fun to read - though I prefer the questy bits. I felt very sad towards the end, watching everythign Arthur had worked for ultimately rotting from the inside out. A novel that essentially shows that trying to do what is right is incredibly hard at times.

BekkaJo- I'm glad you loved the Murakami. I have at least 3 or 4 on the TBR shelves but not that one. I'll have to keep an eye out.

Hi Mark - it is very good. I think I'm going to read Kafka on the Shore for my next one - and I'm pretty sure I have another one hidden in a pile somewhere...

I love that my daughter is now old enough to have 'real' books at bedtime. We are currently reading Gerald Durrell's Fantastic Flying Journey which was one of my absolute favourites as a child. It's an A4 format but a good length for all that. Dated yes, but lovely all the same - I am so going to count it towards this years total (if I manage to keep her interest in it till the end).

Returning the visit, Bekka. Does look like we have some tastes in common so I'll probably half-lurk around here. :)

#13 The Candle in the Wind - White

Slight confusion when I got to the end of this only to find there was another volume in me ebook. Apparently the fifth book (The Book of Merlyn) was published posthumously but is now often considered part of the volume.

Anyway, this basically deals with with the fall of Lancelot and Guenever and the ultimately inevitable fall of Arthur's ideals. Parts of this made me so sad.

But it's another one to count! I hope the series ends well, even if it's sad.

Thanks Susan - I've started the last one but you can definitely see that it wasn't exactly part of the original series. Merlyn is back (which I didn't think was supposed to happen till later) and he keeps referring to the reader which is rather offputting to me. Different stylistically from the others.

We went to the big hospice shop up on the north of the island yesterday - massive barn that the hospice have and use as a shop for all the donations. Great place - whole wall of books (Lters would love it!). Disastrous place to take the kids - I left with a big bag of books for them when I was trying my hardest not to buy any more. I also picked up a couple for myself but restricted myself to tiny ones - Heaney's Death of a Naturalist, Jonathan Livingston Seagull and a Noel Streatfield that missed my Streatfield blitz the other year.

Unfortunately this has made me look at what I have picked up this year so fa :/ Luckily most are ebooks...
Divergent - Veronica Roth
Insurgent - Veronica Roth
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Among Others - Jo Walton
Crash - JG Ballard
The House of Doctor Dee - Peter Ackroyd
The Girl who fell beneath Fairyland and led the revels there - Catherynne Valente

Ooops...

Stopping by to say hi, Bekka! What darling children you have! I recall reading Noel Streatfield in my childhood. My mom was very keen on British books - or perhaps that was all the book story carried here in my city back in the day. Enid Blyton and Joan Aiken were favourite authors of mine.

#143: Oooh, new things! Those all look really good (although I thought Flowers for Algernon was a picture book - I wonder what picture book I'm actually thinking of...I've read Divergent, which is a pretty quick read, so shouldn't add too much to your TBR list :-)

I thoroughly approve of all the books you've acquired so far. :)

#144 Hiya - and thank you - when they are good they are lovely ;) I loved Joan Aiken and Blyton too - I still do to be honest. Just getting to the point that I can start reading 'proper' books to Cass so I'm looking forward to getting to read Blyton etc again.

#145 My bank balance doesn't look so good though! LT has been mean to me lately - I can normally ignore most of the book bullets but people have been reading things I want lately.

#146 Why thank you :) I'll blame the second Fairlyand one on you - I'd sort of pushed it to the back of my mind until I spotted it on your thread.

Oh shoot and darn - just picked up the Streatfield only to find that I have actually read it after all - there are just two alternates on the title. Huff.

LOVE those pictures of the kiddos and cake! Such cuties! :)

Thanks Tina - proud of both kiddies and cake :)

#14 The Book of Merlyn - White

(Spoiler-ish...)

Well this was a weird one. I can see why it isn't considered to fit with the other four volumes of The Once and Future King. Whilst it basically picks up form where Candle in the Wind lets off - that is on the battlefield in London with Arthur about to attack Mordred who is besieging Guenever in the tower, it goes somewhere very odd.

Instead of continuing the story, Merlyn re-appears and takes an exhausted and disilusioned Arther off to visit with the animals of his youth. After a long and basically philosophical discussion on the nature of humanity Arthur goes back to the ants and Wild Geese that he originally visited in The Sword in the Stone. At this point I think White might have just started copy and pasting... In fact I'm sure of it - I can understand the reasoning i.e revisiting past experiences but it's two huge chunks which I found frustrating!

I actually found this book a bit disturbing in places - made me think more than I wanted to at the time! Lots of little titbits like..
"Liberty, Equality and Fraternity..." began the badger.

"Liberty, Brutality and Obscenity," rejoined the magician promptly. "You should try living in some of the revolutions which use that slogan. First they proclaim it: then they announce that the aristos must be liquidated, on high moral grounds, in order to purge the party or to prune the commune or to make the world safe for democracy; and then they rape and murder everybody they can lay their hands on, more in sorrow than in anger, or crucify them, or torture them in ways which I do not care to mention. You should have tried the Spanish Civil War. Yes, that is the equality of man. Slaughter anybody who is better than you are, and then we shall be equal soon enough. All equally dead."

And then last night I also read the Introduction - which in my volume was at the end of the book and IMO much better placed there. I also thought the Introduction was very good - it spoke of White's life, of his overwhelming fear and paranoia. It also, very correctly, explained how unfinished The Book of Merlyn really was and how closely Merlyn's rants reflected White's own personality an his fear of the war (since he wrote the Bookf of Merlyn during World War II).

Another quote about White - "Notably free from fearing God, he was basically afraid of the human race.". I think that this is what comes out relaly strongly in the book - I hesitate to say novel.

Thought provoking anyway. And I may have to read a biography of White at some point.

#15 Ordermaster - LE Modesitt

Modesitt sort of disappointed me on this one. It follows directly on from The Wellspring of Chaos which I read earlier in the year and really enjoyed. But got kind of carried away with this one - the first half is all fighting (and pretty much always in the same manner). The second half is better as Kharl returns to his old city of Brysta to face his past and all that he left behind - but it feels a little too obvious and a little too easy. Overall, just a bit meh and not one of his best.

Since Modesitt's novels are in no way chronological I'm looking forward to the next one but I think I'll give it a break for a while.

Fly-by wave *waves hello*

Hi Diana - hope all is going well with you :)

#16 Sula - Toni Morrison.

Well it's been a while since I last read a Morisson (Beloved at Uni) and I loved it. Why on earth have I left it so long to read another? This is exquisitly written as one would expect from Morrison - and as always she does not shy away from the big issues. Race, sexuality, gender, war, poverty, self and other... I could go on. The novel covers about a 40 year period in the ealry 1900s and focuses mainly on Sula and Nel, two black girls growing up in the black part of Medallion. But really its hard to precis because a) it's not that linear and b) peripheral characters are always massively important in Morrison's work.

Not to everyone's taste I'd imagine but I loved it.

Bekka, you've definitely convinced me to give Toni Morrison a try with the Beloved discussion on my thread, but it's good to hear there are others. New authors! Yay!

Good - she is well worth a read. Amazing talent - she really makes you feel and touch and smell...

Wow - my island made the big boy news! We have a blizzard. Very random. And irritating - they've just confirmed that all the schools will be closed tomorrow as well. Sigh - I took Cass in today for about 3 hours but I'm not sure I can do that two days running. Pain in the rear - and I'm worried about my parents into the bargain. Trees have come down all over the island and they are without power.

Bekka, yes, I saw it on Sky News - Jersey airport shut, and then someone had sent in a photo from Jersey which looked incredibly snowy. It's bad in Kent too, I understand, but London seems to have escaped it apart from a few snow showers. Freezing cold, though - the Sky News journalist outside Southwark Crown Court covering the Huhne/Pryce hearing looks as though he has hypothermia.

It looked like it was calming off but then started going mental again about half an hour ago. My husband is going to look like a snowman by the time he walks home!

Edited to add - a) he totally did! and b) we really did make the bib boy papers (http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/worst-weather-for-30-years-jersey-blizzards-prompt-potato-fears-8529842.html) but purely cos people want our potatos!

Bekka- Kafka was my first Murakami and still remains my favorite. Enjoy. Nice book haul. Some very fine titles. I liked the Divergent books. They are big hits in my family. I also recently finished Locke Lamora, which was long but a lot of fun.

Well to be honest I am blaming you for the Locke Lamora book bullet Mark :)

Couple more pics cos I'm stuck at home and the kids are not really letting me concentrate on work :/

I've probably said before but... I love how Will tilts his feet when he's reading!


SNOW! And this pic doesn't even do it justice (fyi the grey mass at the far end of the pic beyond the yellow van is the sea!)


Daddy and Will on our abortive effort to get Will to nursery (got there to find they were sending anyone away who could manage to not go to work - result is me working from home. Supposedly).

Wow, that is serious snow! (And I wouldn't have identified the grey mass as the sea if you hadn't pointed it out). The tilted feet are very cute :-)

London is still freezing, but blue skies and sunny. I've just been talked into going out for a walk at lunchtime, which I am already regretting. I think it's a two-scarf walk, plus hat and gloves.

Oh man, wet snow is the worst. Upside to living in a landlocked province is that we may get a lot of snow but it's more often the fluffy kind. :)

Hope you're keeping warm!

"I am blaming you for the Locke Lamora book bullet Mark"! Say that real fast, 3 or 4 times. LOL.

#161 Ta Susan - he is very cute when he takes himself off to 'read'. Supposedly it's going to warm up later in the week - so hopefully London will warm up for you too. And yes serious snow - our most serious since 1979! Schools are closed again tomorrow which sucks so much.

#162 It is kinda fluffy - or rather it would be if we all left it alone ;) It's rapidly turning into mud because we're all obsessed with it.

#163 You just know I did try to as well...

How did that work out? LOL.

#165 Sort of fool thing I should have had a drink in my hand to be trying!

#17 Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell

I loved this! So sweet and innocent yet I feel (and many probably disagree) that this avoids becomming sacharinne. Written from the point of a first person, being a young woman who visits frequently with the old women of Cranford, spinsters and widows in the minority. Most very poor but struggling to maintain their image of gentility despite this. I love the characters (though in real life I think they would drive me crazy in seconds) and whilst it's not a laugh out loud book it did keep me chuckling quietly. Anything more the opposite of, for example, Less than Zero I cannot imagine.

Ah, I love Elizabeth Gaskell! Cranford is lovely. Have you read any others, or shall I recommend Wives and Daughters and North and South? :-) (Also both excellent TV series).

Cranford sounds great! Added to wish list! :)

Read North and South earlier this year and will definitely be getting to Cranford at some point in the future.

I read North and South a few years ago - but it obviously didn't make a massive impact since I just had to go and read the synopsis to check I had read it! I remember enjoying it but it's not really stuck - maybe I need to revisit :/

Edited to add: Just checked and I read it in March 09 - which, albeit over a year after my daughters birth... I was still rather fuzzy headed and only just getting back into reading anything at all. Def needs another read!

>170 BekkaJo: What you need is to watch the miniseries with Richard Armitage. Sa-woon! Then you'll never forget it. ;)

*Potters off to google Richard Armitage*

Back - and okay, yes, that I will watch! Though I'll admit I preferred him all hairy and beardy as Thorin in the new Hobbit film...

Believe me, once you see him undo the top of his shirt... sorry, lost my track of thought. ;)

Oh, I've got Cranford sitting on my kitchen table - but as yet, I have not gotten to it. Glad you enjoyed it!

#173 *snarf!* FYI that is the sound of me accidentally snorting my coffee...

#174 Hope you enjoy it :)

>175 BekkaJo: You're welcome. *chortles*

Yet another kiddy pic, just cos I can :) She's dressed as Bat Girl for Comic Relief.

Bekka, she's a great Bat Girl! Love the mask, and the general superheroine demeanour :-)

Richard Armitage *bubble machine clicks on high speed*

#178 Thanks Susan - I've been told by her comic fiend godfather that the wings are not cannon...

#179 Agreed!!!

OOooh - just watched the trailer for the next season of Dr.Who (starts end of the month) - it looks AMAZING! V v excited.

#18 The Girl who fell beneath Fairyland and led the Revels there - Valente

Right so originally I didn't think this was as good as the first - but having finished and let it percolate for a day I'm now not so sure... in this second volume a year passes as September waits and waits to return to Fairyland... and then finally she does. And almost at once gets plunged into an adventure in Fairyland-Below as she struggles to rectify the damage caused by her shadow (which got snipped off in the first book). I loved the idea of our shadows being our wild and impetuous side but at some points this felt a bit too much of a good thing... I'm not sure if that was her idea - the wildness and revels spiralling through the book and the twisty path through the book replicating the labyrinth idea that you happen upon.

Anymore would be spoilerish and I wouldn't want to do that :) It is good and I hope that Valente does do another one.

#19 The Fantastic Flying Journey - Gerald Durrell

I don't normally count the books I read to the kids - but now that Cass is getting older and I am reading her longer books... occasionally I'm gonna have to. This one, because it is just awesome. I read it as a kid and loved it - I loved it even more sharing it with Cassie. It's an A4 (ish) format but about 150 pages long. Gorgeous pencil colour pictures on each page (but a good chunck of text as well). Written by Gerald Durrell - amazing man who travelled the world saving endangered species, founded the wonderful Jersey Zoo and wrote some excellent books.

Anyway it's the story of Great-Uncle Lancelot who arrives one day in his hot air balloon with whicker house underneath and whisks the Dollybut children off on an amazing adventure around the world in search of his missing brother Percival. He has electric eels that provide electricity and silk worms that provide ropes and a magic potion that allows the children to speak to animals. Who could want more! They follow rumours of Percival all round the world and meet all sorts of animals.

Great fun and lots for kids to learn. Looking forward to reading the next one with Cassie (bought off Amazon recently) The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure.

Arrgh I still haven't read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, but... I really, really should. I've heard plenty of mixed reviews on that second book, but I'm very glad to hear that ultimately it was worthwhile. Makes me more eager to get going on that first one. :)

I hope you enjoy it :)

having finished and let it percolate for a day

Love that phrase! Valente's series is already on my to read list and every review nudges me to move it further up the list. Not sure it will happen this year, but it will happen!

Ta - it is one of my favourite phrases :)

Valente's novels are pretty quick reads - ideal for sliding in between big scary books!

Such cute kids and so much snow!!!! I'm so glad that I live in more or less no snow zone -but we do get a lot of rain!

#177 Love the costume Bekka!

#181 Glad you enjoyed book 2 of the Fairyland series - I'm still hoping to get to the first book this month.

#186 Thank you :) We are supposed to be the 'warmest place in the British Isles'! Generally we get very little snow so the whole island falls over when we get some - and that was the most we've had in the last 30 years apparently!

#187 Ta! She was very cute. Enjoy fairyland - I'm on a fairytale high at the mo - reading A Wrinkle in Time since Richard was raving about it a few months ago and it 'fell' into my hand at a sale for a whopping 20p...

Must read Fairyland!! I keep hearing such good things!

#189 Do Tina, do!

I have, officially, had a BITCH of a day and it's nowhere near over. But surely it's getting closer to the time when I can curl into a hot bath with a good book and large toddy of the excellent spiced rum we bought the other day. Surely?

It had better be. I am having a similar day and cannot currently talk to anyone because I would start SHOUTING at them, and get fired. Which would be unfair, as it is not me who is refusing to do MY job. I have just bought two extra lines of EuroMillions for tomorrow night (do you have that in Jersey?). And tomorrow I have to be on a train from Paddington at 7.50. I live maybe 30 mins from Paddington if the tubes are all running fine, but I have to allow at least an hour. Maybe I just shouldn't go to bed tonight!

No Euromillions for me :(

Hope you are now home and calmer (and therefore not running the risk of losing it and screaming at someone). I demonstrated what I would refer to as inhumane restraint in not shrieking at one of our clients today over the phone. God knows what I would have done in person! I'm also pretty close to throttling our trainee.

Thank everything it is Friday tomorrow!

#20 Grace Harlowe: Plebe year at High School

Okay... that might take some explaining...

I was messing around on Project Gutenburg and looked on the children's fiction section... low and behold 'Plebe year'. How could I not? A fluffy read of the fluffiest most appalling type! Fun (ish) all the same. Plus read it in bits at work so it probably kept me from hatchetty-murdering some of my colleagues.

Not recommended - though it did have a sort of charm about it. Sort of...

I need to finish a grown up book!

That does sound like a guilty pleasure! I looked it up on LT and saw The Bobbsey Twins in the similar books list, so I now have the first one of those downloaded as well...I *loved* the Bobbsey Twins when I was a kid!

Are you getting more of the awful weather? It's very wet and freezing cold in London (wind coming in from the east - brrr). But I finished my horrible week, took myself to Wagamama for lunch and then came home. I lay down on the sofa to read for a while, and somehow lost an hour...And now I'm wasting time playing Gardens of Time.

I adored the Bobbsey twins too... ooooh may have to go find... Cass might like those soon so I may be able to hide my guilty pleasure by making her read them ;)

Weather is... WET! Yesterday and today - not that cold at all but so so soggy. Ick. But as you say - horrible week done. I'm only in for three days next week and off the week after with Cass for the first week of the Easter hols. The Jersey Heritage guys usually have some activities on at the museums/castles (plus we have a family membership) so I'm looking forward to that. Which just means I have to get through three days next week without killing any lawyers. That's do-able, right?

Enjoy Gardens of Time - Alex is putting Will down so I'm going to kill somethign on Skyrim whilst watching Masterchef:New Zealand and drinking a vodka slim-line.

Killing lawyers, you say? Hmmmm :-) Poor, misunderstood people...

Cass might also like the books about the twins in various countries - look up Lucy Fitch Perkins. Each story is about boy/girl twins in different countries - endlessly entertaining, at least in NZ in the 70s...Your Easter sounds like fun!

Specific lawyers of course... mean corporate lawyers (*crosses fingers and hopes*)...

Just downloaded the first few to refresh my memories - Cass does still ike some pics at the mo so I'm not sure I can sell her on these. Still usefull to have on my e-reader in case we get stuck somehwere!

So you had snow, too! I wonder if spring will ever come this year or if we'll jump right into summer.

I'm glad you liked the Arthur series better than I did. I had the audio version last year and I remember I really lost my patience with the 5th book (though 'antland, antland ueber alles' was almost a funny idea).

I guess I should read some Toni Morrison.

Happy short Easter week to you!

Hi Nathalie - luckily no more snow but it's still pretty grotty :/

I think I said last year (can't remember!) but the first time I tried to download OaFK was when you were reading it last year and I accidentally ended up with the audio which, after two minutes, decided was the dullest thing EVER! Thank Fantasy February for making me give it another try :)

And a happy short week to you too :)

My week will be long... when I moved here I was surprised to learn that Good Friday is not a holiday in Catholic Italy. :-(
Many people here fast strictly, but they go to work. The day seems to have a higher priority in Protestant countries. We have Maria's Ascension instead and even Maria's Conception.

And yes, the audio was super-dull! Some books just don't work on audio.

Oh no! I would totally have not realised that! I'm agnostic but not looking a four day weekend gift horse in the eye!

Though with how whingy Cass has been lately I'm looking forward to the following week off with her less than I normally would be. It feels like the kids are never in school with all the hols, but this time round I can actually see that she needs a break. She concentrates really hard, bless her, and the strain is showing on her poor little 5 year old self.

Hey Bekka -- Hope you are more relaxed and less in a "killing" mode today! :)

Thanks Tina - if it had been yesterday I'd have said yes... today I'm just back to GRRRRRRRR! Saying that yesterday I had a highly stressful family thing - turned out better than I expected but family always know how to hurt don't they?

Still, due to feeling completely fired I went to bed early with a hot water bottle last night and finally finished a book that has been hanging around for ages.

#21 People of the Wolf - Kathleen O'Neal Gear

Review in a few mins once the kids stop covering me in toys...

I forgot to edit and add... so in brief. I was looking for somethign to replace Auel since she's finsihed her series... thought I'd try this. Started by hating it - really painfully urghhhhh. Luckily it survived the pearl rule adn I carried on cos after about halfway through I got into it. Will be reading the next one.

Darn books making me cry again...

Life of Pi quote = (mild spoilerage)

To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures to people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you.

>204 BekkaJo: Well, that wasn't my experience of family...so I say a profound "pfui" to that dratted book.

It's probably not for me either - but it's how I'd like it to be (though it makes me feel like an appalling parent since it's unlikely!). I'm getting towards halfway through and I do love the book rather a lot so far.

Well, don't listen to me, whatever you do. I was tempted to burn the damned thing. When it left the house, I felt safer from the Dark Side of my nature...which it brought out.

LOL - I know the feeling (not in relation to this one I hasten to add). That feeling of Ahhhhhhhhhhh.... when the evil is summarily ejected out of your house.

My dark side is usually stirred by excessively twee romance or people ruining plt lines that could be so good, or daring to take up characters they had no right touching or...

Oooh. Unintentional rage. More rum needed. But it's okay cos I am officially on holiday. Yay!

*clink* Yo ho ho! Pass the bottle.

My bottle....

Oh okay then... spiced rum all round.

#205 ROFL

Slightly random book acquisition day... went to the Zoo for the Easter scavenger hunt (find letter clues round the library) and found these in the library book hut/cupboard for 50p each (all good condition paperbacks);

The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan
Death in Summer - William Trevor
When Hitler stole pink rabbit - Judith Kerr

The last is a kids book that I remember my big sis loved but I don't remember ever reading it - so I figured it was about time!

I loved When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. I hope you do too. What was the prize for the scavenger hunt, and did you win it? :-)

Looking forward to it extra now :)

Just a chocy egg - all charity related - £1 to do it and a small choc egg but lots of fun. Shame it was only about 2 degrees! Will did well though - well over 2 miles of walking and not a whinge in sight.

I also read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. as a kid and liked it a lot. I read the sequel as well, set in London and called Warten bis der Frieden kommt (Lt links the German title to "The Other Way Round"), but enjoyed it less, probably because I was just too young for it then. I believe there are even more sequels.

The Cement Garden ... I can't say I 'enjoyed' it, but that's difficult with McEwan anyway. His writing always impresses me and I give him high ratings, but so far I never wanted to reread one of his books. Not exactly feelgood material.

Happy Easter Holidays!

Happy Easter, Bekka! Enjoy your weekend.

I remember When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit from when I was a kid, too. I know I read it, but I don't remember much about it.

#215 Hi Nathalie - I didn't know there was a sequel - will have to look out for it/them after! I'm not a great McEwan fan either - I can't believe there are so many on the 1,001. Just grabbed this cos I figure I have to get through some more soon.

Happy Easter to you too - and to you too Mark :)

#217 Yeah I have a feeling I did read it but I just can't decide if I have! Probably be one of those books that I get halfway through then realise I have read it after all.

Just checking in Bekka... Hope you have a very blessed Easter!

Thank you Tina and wishing you a wondeful Easter also. Min is so far so good with another very chilly egg hunt round my parents gardens yesterday. Cass went completely insane!

I feel cheated by our hour going on though - it's now 7.45 when it should be 6.45 (and therefore complainably early!). But we've just stopped my son having dummies and he's waking up a lot earlier than usual. Grrrr...coffee o'clock then!

Coffee o'clock is simply "when consciousness has returned enough to enable manipulation of the machine" around here.

Love the phrase.

See this is why I love my dolce gusto machine. So so quick at providing me with my necessary quota of black americano. Nom.

Another one you say? Why I think I might just.

I'm trying to wait until a respectable time to have lunch, even though I wanted it at midday, which is really only 11am. It's like a Pavlovian response to that magic number...

Happy Easter!

LOl - we went our for lunch with the kdis so that was our excuse to eat early ;)

Unfortunately I've just thrown my nice lunch up. Ughhh. Hope that passes and is just a one off!

#22 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Unexpectedly excellent. There's been enough about this without me going on about it so I'll leave it at that!

#23 A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

There'd been a lot of discussion about this so when i saw thiw at a charity sale I had to buy it. And I'm very glad I did. I loved it, right up till the ending when I got really cranky at the abrupt conclusion. The end felt way more junior than the rest of the novel. Grrrr.

Okay - last pics for the thread, I promise!

Just loved this one of Will at the Zoo last week - man meets monkey :)



And... our sawn off arm chair has basically disintegrated under the pressure of the children so we replaced it...



Now ignoring the fact that this is so much too large for our tiny living room and looks utterly ridiculous, it is officially the MOST comfortable reading chair. Ever.

That's a cute picture of Will! As for the chair, if you've only just got it then it should shrink down as you look at it over the next few days until it looks quite normal. It probably just looks big because it's new and different :-) (This worked for my friend with her new TV, if it's any help. And also me with a dresser I bought years ago. Biggest thing EVER! Now it looks like every other dresser.)

#24 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Ok, I'm blaming Nathalie for this (I think? Too tired to go check...) after her comments on it earlier in the year.

This is one of the weirdest 1,001 I have read so far - just totally surreal. The novel tracks the protagonist Ignatious Reilly who is quite frankly revolting but intriguing at the same time. He's a fat layabout who's Mother has coddled him through life - a disturbing representation of education without focus, without intellect without any sort of moral compass! So Toole starts with Reilly and spirals out looking at how messed up everything around him gets. And the whole twisted non-story is as disturbing as Reilly himself.

I think I am too tired to decide anything on this one.

#227 I'm not sure it's shrinking :/ Still love it though! Plus Cass can curl up in it which is really cute.

>204 BekkaJo:
:_(

sad quote, and nice too.

>228 BekkaJo: One of the cruelest books I've ever read. I loved it years ago. I think I won't re-read it.

#230 The whole book has that feel to me - painful but beautiful. RD does NOT agree!

#231 And that sums it up perfectly - thank you.

Book news: I am really struggling with Carl Sagan's Contact - so so dull :( But I'm loving Alias Grace - my first April Atwood.

Home news: my parents live on the Island aged around 60. They know how hard I damn well work. And every time we arrange (and I don't ask often) for Mum to have one of the kids (I never ask her to have both) even just for an afternoon, she is ill. Her health is not the best I am painfully aware of that - but she's just been on hols for 2 weeks and was fine when I saw her on Monday. But no. This morning I have a crying little girl because she can't go and stay with Nanny. I can count the number of times they have had Cass/Will in the last two years on one hand without raising most of the fingers.

Sorry - just needed a vent :/

Plus it means that I don't get to finish painting the darn internal doors which was why I'd asked her to have Cass in the first place when I am off (which I would never normally do).

I need another coffee.

Coffee with a sticky bun of some sort, I hope. Sorry your plans for today aren't going to work out. But check the Kindle Daily Deal over your coffee - they have three fantasy novels for 99p each and one of them is Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw which is supposed to be excellent. I may have just bought it myself...

#232 I liked Contact, apart from the good enough ploy, it was also very informative. It was slow, but I never felt bored while reading it.

#233 MMmm buns... and ta for the tip off :)

#234 I'm still hoping it grows on me :/

Darn you Library Thing... my scattered reading is once again out of control since I've added 1Q84 to my list of 'In Process' reads. That list is now...

Contact - about halfway through
The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling - 1/4 though ish
Alias Grace
Un Lun Dun
1Q84
The Golden Notebook

Yes. I know. I lack focus.

So sorry about the mom issues. Don't do that to Cass when she has kids.

Don't make me cry Richard - I'm petrified of doing just that :/ I'm pretty afraid I've ruined her already -fairly often I have to try and get a hold of myself and say Oi...Bekka... she's 5 for goodness sake! Parenting is a minefield.

Still - check out the Fbook photos I just posted of her at the top of the 45 foot inflatable slide. She is my crazy baby :)

Edited to add... Hubby just came down from doing her stories - in one of which there was a lumberjack. At which point Cass started singing Monty Python's Lumberjack song. Either I have completely ruined her or she's just totally awesome - the jury is out for now!

She's five. She's awesome. Relax!

Believe me, you will be appalled at the number of times your mother will come right out your mouth during the next 40 years. Saying things you swore to yourself you'd never say. Making rules that made you so damn mad. And you know what? She did the same things, said the same things, and by gawd it was *her* mother comin' right out.

Just keep a handle on the ones that really did not do good things for you. I told my sister (older than me, had her first kid when my last one was four) that your kids will hate you, you only get to pick what they'll hate you for.

*Hugs*

You are very right. And I know I do it. I just want to be a different mother to a) my mother or b) my mother-in-law (aghhhhhh). My Sis is 3 years older than me and her first little one will be 1 in July - and I think she realised from my experiences that she wasn't going to get parental support.

The thing I try and try and try (and probably fail) are the body things. Srtictness has probably done me good (and I am strict with mine) but the body things - the feeling that me being fat is an appalling disgusting thing - that is what I don't want to pass on.

On the plus side I've passed on some love of reading so we'll just have to grow off that!

And on that I'm off to watch Dr Who and drink a glass of wine!

Doctor Who and wine and a good sleep. Tomorrow will feel so good after that! See you then.

FYI - Dr Who was awesome. Although now all I want to do is listen to choral music...

Wow I was feeling sorry for myself last night. Sorry people.

#25 The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure - Gerald Durrell

Forgot to post when I finished this with Cass on Friday. Excellent sequel to the Fantastic Flying Journey - excellent but nowhere near as good as the first one. In Durrell's Dinosaur adventure Lancelot takes the children back in time chasing the evil hunter Jasper Collywobble who has stolen Lancelot's time machine and used it to go back in time to hunt Dinosaurs. High jinks ensue. Lots of fun and lovely pics - and lots of nearly unpronounceable Dinosaur names!

Favourite quote of the day comes from Un Lun Dun... re Giraffes...
The whole bus looked up at Jones’s laugh. “They’ve done a good job making people believe that those hippy refugees in the zoo are normal giraffes. Next you’ll tell me that they’ve got long necks so they can reach high leaves! Nothing to do with waving the bloody skins of their victims like flags, of course."

Edited to add... just for Richard (though I heartily agree...):
“There’s a lot of animals very good at that sort of disinformation. There are no cats in UnLondon, for example, because they’re not magic and mysterious at all, they’re idiots.

Edited further to add - yay! My friend just had her baby - welcome to the world April Violet. X

I listened to Contact once upon a time, and did NOT like it. I barely finished listening. Sorry you are having a hard time too.

Hi Bekka- Looks like you are juggling a few books there. Be careful, don't get hit on the head. I liked A Confederacy of Dunces but I wasn't as crazy about it, as some readers.
Glad you are enjoying Alias Grace. I will be getting to that one too!

I hope you are feeling better Bekka! Sorry to hear about the lack of parental support. Hugs!

#245 Hi Tina - yeah, Contact is irritating! Some of the chapters are okay then others are so SO slow. I still have about 140 pages left to go!

#246 Hi Mark - Alias Grace is rather good, though I think I fall in the camp of several others on LT who like Grace's chapters better than the interlocking ones. It is going rather slowly aslo though due to the excessive juggling (which will no doubt result in a severly bumped head one of these days). I can't remember - have you read 1Q84? Plunges you into the weird earlier than most Murakamis!

#247 Thanks Deb - and I'm sorry about my parental rant. I know I could be far worse off and I'm lucky to have them, I just get frustrated :/ I also feel a terrible Mum right now since I just put my daughter to bed without...shock horror...any stories, since she shouted at me (a lot). She's just about stopped crying...

*smoochings*

Lashings of snooches back atcha Richard. *Muaaaah*

Book sit rep... :/ I really need to focus and finish a book!
Life sit rep... heinous hangover due to consuming a stupid amount of Port and Cheese with some friends last night. Bleugghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Ow, sorry to hear about the hangover. Maybe you need something nice and simple to read, like a - no, I promised I wouldn't. I'll take the parrot and go...

We now have torrential rain. Lovely. This morning was sunny but as soon as I left the house it clouded over and froze up on me. Grrrr.

LOL - I'm still not converted I'm afraid ;)

Yup - don't think it's stopped raining all day. I took my hangover and my son to the Zoo to see the brand new baby orangutan though which is possibly one of the cutest things ever.

Ooooh, envious of seeing baby orangutan. They are super adorable.

He is - his name is Jantho. The mother was just so tender with him - she was nursing him when we were there and just reached and held his tiny hand whilst he was feeding. I remember doing exactly the same thing with both of mine.

We are having somewhat of a great ape breeding explosion at the Durrell Zoo - there was a baby gorilla late last year, another baby gorilla last week/week before and then baby Jantho. Plus another orangutan due in a couple of weeks. Haven't seen the tiny gorilla yet since they've closed the inside of the gorilla walkthrough off to the public since she's a first time mother and was getting stressed out.

Sorry - waffling about baby animals :)

Books... I didn't read at all yesterday. Not one single page. I think there is something wrong with that - it feels like it might be a cardinal sin or something of that variety :(

Nope. Sometimes you need a break even from the good things. :)

Sadly I've just read that the latest baby gorilla died - so much for my happy baby ape news :( Horrible.

#255 In reaction I had a late night reading session last night after I finally (at about 2/3 through) got into Contact. On that note...

#26 Contact - Carl Sagan

This was published in 1985 and basically centres around Ellie - Dr Arroway, who is a physicist running a massive pannel of space telescopes looking for life on other planets. Then one day there is the message... and the message eventually sends them the blueprints for a Machine. Which the duly build. Y'know it's pretty hard to talk about this one without spoilers since the above is the first two thirds of the book... which I really didn't like.

Then I got going on the end and I found I really enjoyed it. In particular the last paragraph to be honest. Sagan does a lot of thinking about science and God and whether they can exist within the same ideology.

So part really dull (just too much detail on the science) and for once I found th bits I really enjoyed were those about the world and God and science etc. I'm an agnostic and Ellie's opinions meshed with mine pretty much to a t.

It suffers also from being read now - in that the science has sped forward so much faster in some areas than sci-fi writers expected. For example they are faxing etc and also living on space stations. Also I found the US and USSR odd since this was before my time.

I've waffled on now and I didn't intend to - basically if you like science, go for it!

Yes, I have read and loved 1Q84. We had a Group Read on it, last year, which was a perfect forum for it. I plan on getting to alias Grace later in the week.

I thought you had but I wasn't sure - the 1,001-ers are doing a group read on this at the mo, but I think a lot of people are not finding it their cup of tea. I'm only dipping in in short bursts at the moment but I do like it.

Loving Alias Grace - it's excellent.

#27 Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach

I haven't read anything in a long time that I tagged up as much. So many of his lines are beautiful. I mean I don't really care if he was going for a thinly veiled jesus metaphor or if it really was just about the abandonment of self to find self - it's quite frankly beautiful.

And this from the woman who hates seagulls - they are a menace where I live!

Oh dear Contact was sooo cutting-edge back then it can't have aged well at all...and I see that it didn't.

Oh me oh my. JLS. Ooof. Dearie-me-lass, go find the movie. You will never again in life hear the name without laughing fit to piddle your pants.

I remember my mom playing the JLS movie for us when I was a small kid. I stared at her, mouth agape, ready to beat my head against a wall if she didn't turn it off!

Yeah - can't see it translating well. Plus I googled the book (as I often do after finishing a book) - and the comments on the film were memorable!

I think I'll avoid, ta! I stand by the novella having some beautiful lines though.

I'd admire you for reading/ attempting to read IQ84 - far too difficult for me. JLS :) I remember reading that somewhere in my teens. It was the " thing " for teens / young adults to read. I'm not sure I remember much about it .

Darn and I do try and avoid the 'thing'! ;) At least I hate it when I like them...

I love Murakami's works that I have read so far - I've read The Wind up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart and enjoyed all of them, though Wind up Bird is by far the best IMO. His stuff is so delightfully weird. I'm enjoying this one so far, though I'm mostly focusing on Alias Grace. If you haven't tried Murakami I really would say go for it - his writing isn't really difficult, in fact I find it grabs you and runs away with you - just sometimes he goes to very odd places.

Mothering, its a minefield alright. I have serial panics that I have raised a problem-child, then I am reminded that I have a 4 year old :)
It was the best thing that I ever heard when the practice nurse at the GPs answered all my stresses with "he's 4". :)

People definitely don't warn you about the major and constant guilt that comes with being a Mum!

I also keep repeating to myself, she's 5, he's 2... get over it. But it's so not that easy.

Still, major proud Mum moment - my daughter is in the top three of her class for reading and they have now finished all the reception books and therefore have to go to year 1 to get books. Notwithstanding my pride in that, I love that she was terribly proud of herself about it :)

Ah, that's great news for Cass! I wonder what the Year 1 collection holds.

I remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull being the "thing" as well, so I avoided it, as I avoid "things" today for the most part.

Actually one of her Friday books was far simpler than normal so I'm now sort of irritated! Ah well...

Just checked the JLS publication date and I've figured why I missed it being the 'thing' ;)

Maybe the Year 1s get some easy weeks :-) I remember making my way through the levels of books at primary - so exciting to keep moving up!

I've just had a giant scotch pancake (about the size of a saucer) with golden syrup, and I thought of you :-) It was your crumpet suggestion a while ago that made me consider golden syrup instead of jam, and I found the giant sized pancakes at Asda by accident when I was looking for something healthy, of course. The boast on the packet - toaster-sized!

MMMMmmmmmmmmmmm... I do love syrup. And pancakes. And crumpets... Darn it - I'm going out for a very fancy dinner tonight and not eating till then. I'm NOT.

*chews off own fingers*

Do you have the Canderel ad on the radio over there, where the lady gets rung up by a smooth-sounding devil who says his name is Cake? It ends with "Look into my i-cing", and it makes me laugh every time.

Enjoy the fancy dinner! I'm having that new M&S thing which is the macaroni cheese over beef ragu - totally awesome. Not as nice as a fancy dinner, though :-)

I don't think I've heard that one - I'll listen out!

And your dinner sounds good to me - the food will, I'm sure, be amazing tonight... but... We are going for my Mother-in-law's 60th birthday - she's never been to a Michelin star restaurant so we are all going (they've come over to the island for a long weekend =v v stressed out me). We are having a 6 course taster menu which looks amazing, but it's exceedingly expensive and I have to be smart.

I may implode.

Wow, that sounds lovely! Don't implode or you'll never be able to tell us about it :-)

Will try and post pics later/tomorrow - my 5 year old has recently got addicted to Masterchef (of all things!) so I've already promised her I'll take pics of all the courses!

Already rather stressed and just added to it by finding another patch of stress aloepecia (sp?) - thankfully only about 20p sized and at the bottom back of my head (unlike last time which was a big old 50p size on my right temple). But it's still worrying and NOT what I needed tonight.

I am going to go and read some Alias Grace (I'm on to the last 80pages and thoroughly addicted) to calm down whilst the kids have their bedtime programme.

Food was amazing but unbelievably expensive (ergo I can't help but resent it). Weekend has left me feeling beaten, exhausted and wretched. Sorry in-laws but please please please could you go home now?

#28 Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

I love Atwood - Happy Atwood April everyone!

So this is based upon the reports that Atwood read of a notorious couple who murdered their Master and his housekeeper in Canada in 1843 . Atwood takes the story and fills in the gaps - plays with the character of Grace until you really don't know what to believe about her, what is real, what happened. Atwood's writing is, as always, amazing and her characterisation impeccable.

My only quibble is the ending - I wanted some resolution, some clarity, some decisions! Instead it's pretty much left open and you never know whether she is lying or ... I can't say any more without extreme spoilerage. If you haven't read it, go do so immediately!

Sorry to hear about the weekend - it sounds like time for the in-laws to go home! I hope you feel better once you have your house/life back.

Re #273, one of my friends was in Masterchef a few years ago and it is *beyond crazy*. Probably even crazier now. She did really well and had challenge after challenge - I would have been standing at my station weeping, I think. Or, more likely, trying to smuggle in M&S and posh it up without getting caught :-)

So cool (and well done her!) - I would love to give it a go but I'm pretty sure I'd crash and burn in the first challenge. I love the idea of the invention test - I'm as bad as a sports fan, sitting there yelling at people for making silly things ;)

In-laws go back this evening so I just have to get through this afternoon...

You can get through the afternoon! Make sure you have a treat lined up for when it's all over - maybe something frivolous from the TBR pile, or something involving golden syrup :-)

You were so tempted to write Romance there weren't you ;)

Bekka- Glad you enjoyed Alias Grace. I still have about 200 pages left. Hope you had a nice weekend.

#278: Yeah, kinda :-) But I really mean whatever will cheer you up - a nice fun read.

#279 Hi Mark - enjoy, it really is good. I'm so sad I finished it! I want to jump straight into another Atwood but I must control myself and finish 1Q84 (and some other bits) first. Weekend could def have been better (I think I'm going to take a while to recover from it)! But we at least got a few hours on the beach on Sunday - chilly but beautiful and lots of fun.

#280 Lol - I know, just teasing :) I do have a few fantasy lined up that I can't wait to start but, as above, MUST finish off some things first. I do have Un Lun Dun on the go - only about 60 pages in, but that is YA and fantasy + Mieville, so right in my ball park. I'm enjoying it but it does feel a little young so far.

Edited to correct some of my terrible typing...

Just busily uploading photos and just couldn't resist sharing these two...

Great pictures! And I love Will's jumper.

I know what you mean about Un Lun Dun being a bit young - I did enjoy it when I read it least year but I don't read much YA so I wasn't sure how young it was supposed to be. What an amazing imagination he has, though.

He really does - his only other work I have read is The City and the City which is just amazing. Very dark but just an incredible idea and stunningly executed.

And ta re the pics :)

#29 Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel

I loved this. A lot of people have said that there isn't enough in it - in particular to be on the 1,001, and maybe they are right. But I, excuse the pun, devoured it. Something about food and love really speaks to me and Esquivel's descriptions have that 'something'. I want to eat her food, but also I love her magic realism.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

>285 BekkaJo: Well, those nay-sayers are WRONG! That's an excellent book. Glad you're one of the elect who sees that.

*smoochings* for you and the adorables!

Smoochings back atcha - and it really is excellent. I could easily sit down and read it again straight away.

Instead, having been a bit under the weather, I have picked up another Modesitt to sate some fantasy cravings :)

#30 Natural Order Mage - Modesitt

Yup, comfort reading :) Another Recluce novel - and a good one. Mixture of being pissed at the main character for being a whinge-bag and kinda agreeing with him. Anyway lots of fun and I want the next one which is waiting so bye.....

>269 BekkaJo: LOL

>285 BekkaJo: I really liked it too, which is odd, as I cant really do fantasy or magic stuff. I think it helped that I didnt know it was "that" before I read it, so I held no preconceptions.

oh, and the pics, dont kids just love the beach! Mine can spend hours and hours just pottering there. Great photo ops too, as you have proven.

Hi Megan - come on over to the dark side - see fantasy/magic is fun :) And ta re the kiddies - it was the first proper play on the beach this year - before that it's been big coats wellies and icy winds. Cass may have taken it to extremes cos it most definitely wasn't as warm as she makes it look!

Just dropping by to say hello, Bekka. Is it a Bank Holiday in Jersey this weekend too? (sorry for the moronic question but I'm not sure!). If so, have a great time! And I hope you get some reading in even if it isn't.

Hi Susan - yup we have it too and after last week at work I emphatically deserve it! We also have the 9th May off - it's our Liberation day so it's a nice short week next week. Hope you enjoy your long weekend :)

I seem to have ended up in another reading slump which is annoying (again!). Nothing is really appealing. Hopefully something will 'take' soon.

Hot, hot beautiful day. Lots of fun with the bairns and a really nice family BBQ with some awesome sausages. Can't ask much more of a bank holiday really!

It's a nice change of pace to be honest - last week was horrendous so hopefully this bodes better for this week. Last week my son was finally diagnosed with asthma after just being sent away with steroids about 6 times in the last year for chest infections (interesting watching the doc get visibly angry as he read Will's file). Hopefully we might be able to work against all the infections now. Last Monday Will gave us a terrifying night so it's been a relief to get something done. Add in a very very stressful week at work, my daughter playing up (boundary pushing to the extreme) and hubby working late 3 nights a weeks with a youth project he does...

= stressed me - ergo little LT (though quite a bit of lurking) and unfortunately very little reading.

Yay for a lovely day! It didn't quite live up to the forecasters' promises here, but I haven't had the heater on :-)

That's good news that Will is finally diagnosed. I hope the right medicine helps him, and I hope this week is better than last week!

Thanks Susan - it is both upsetting (cos he get's it from me) and a relief.

Today was scorching - work is going to be full of crispy fried people tomorrow! I have an important board meeting so I spent the day trying really hard not to get burnt. I think (fingers crossed) I may have succeeded. It was so hot that we got the paddling pool (actually an 8foot dinghy) out at my parents and filled it for the kids. Bore hole water was pretty icy but they seemed to enjoy it :) My Dad took some pics and I hope they come out cos my Sis was there with her little one as well and the three of them were exceedingly cute.

#293 Glad to hear you had a nice day today although sorry to hear it came after such a stressful week for you all. Hope Will's health improves now he has the correct diagnosis.

#31 The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan

I'm trying to break through my McEwan distaste. And I'll admit I preferred this to his other works that I have read. But I think that says a lot about me because frankly...

This is flipping weird!

The history of Jersey’s Liberation Day is well known to all. In June 1944, the Normandy landings marked the initiation of 'Operation Overlord', the invasion of northwest Europe by the Allied forces. On 8th May, the front page of the Jersey Evening Post carried news of the Allies’ victory in Europe, and crowds began to gather to hear the announcement that would declare their liberation.

At 15:00 Winston Churchill crackled onto the airwaves to give, perhaps, the most famous speech of his esteemed oratory career. The Prime Minister’s words announced the end to the war in Europe and amidst great cheers across the Island, he confirmed to an elated Jersey that their liberation was finally to become a reality."Our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today" - (Winston Churchill, 15:00, May 8th, 1945)

All around the Island flags and decorations sprang up and celebrations continued into the night. On 9th May HMS Bulldog and Beagle arrived in Jersey anchored in St Aubin’s Bay and at 14:00 the German Island Commander signed the surrender documents.

Happy Liberation Day everyone!

Liberation Day! W00t! and *smooch*

Happy Liberation Day, Bekka! I hope you can celebrate by getting a bit of reading in, or are there events to go to?

Woot indeed, thank you Richard and Susan. :)

It's been fun - we went to the annual steam fayre which they do each lib day and went on the big and little steam trains (FYI we have no real trains in Jersey so this is a big treat). Then we've just had a massive roast of which I have eaten far too much and feel rather vomm-worthy. Not much reading done and I've got a friend coming over this evening so that I can test her on her study (final 3 advocacy exams) whilst hubby goes to watch the new Trek film. Still, one can't ask for everything :)

Well, I for one, didn't know the history of Jersey's liberation day, so thanks for sharing this! And many congratulations as well.

And then, there is Jersey Shore, so I guess its not all perfect there :D

Thanks Piyush! And thank the lord that that is not my Jersey *shudders*. I'm afraid that's a brand of person I want to run and hide from!

Hi, BekkaJo! I found you! I, too, read Alias Grace in April, and really liked it. I'm looking forward to reading more Atwood--I've read only handful so far. Have you read Oryx and Crake and/or The Year of the Flood? They are the first two in a series, and a third (MaddAddam will coming out this fall. Can't wait!

Karen O.

Hi Karen - thank you for finding me :) I've not read the Oryx and Crake set - the only other Atwood's I have read are Handmaid's Tale which I loved and Surfacing which I was more conflicted about but definitely enjoyed more than most seem to!

I do want to read at least one more Atwood this year but I don't know whether to read the Oryx ones or to read Cat's Eye so that I can read the series in one go... decisions, decisions!

#32 UnLunDun - Mieville

Now I can't remember who's thread I saw this on but it book bulletted me right away. And in the beginning I was disappointed. It felt young even for YA and I wasn't really feeling it. Then I got into it and it swung round and there was a twist and...I was hooked. So I finished this in one great gluttunous gulp over the last few days. And what can I say? Giraffes really are scary.

UnLunDun follows a well worn path really - it's about an under London, an 'abcity' as Mievelle puts it, inhabited by weird and wonderful characters. Un LunDun is under threat from the Smog - basically smog that has become so thick it's become alive. And the Chosen one must save it... but there are some lovely touches (my favourite character being Skool, when you find out what it really is). Deeba's slang irritated the hell out of me but that aside the characters were excellent. Plus I loved the little black line drawings - sometimes you needed them!

Anyway it's reminded me how much I love Mieville's writing and pushed Perdido Street Station up the TBR hill somewhat.