Ellie's 75 - A most excellent eighth

Here we are again! Thread number eight to celebrate summer's sunny last fling after all these weeks of rain and bluster...

The earlier threads are here:
Thread 1: http://www.librarything.com/topic/79224
Thread 2: http://www.librarything.com/topic/83118
Thread 3: http://www.librarything.com/topic/86416
Thread 4: http://www.librarything.com/topic/90054
Thread 5: http://www.librarything.com/topic/92232
Thread 6: http://www.librarything.com/topic/93876
Thread 7: http://www.librarything.com/topic/95340

Since I've got my new blog to keep up too, I've given up the 1010 Challenge in favour of FREE READING (yay!), but I'm still doing the Books Off The Shelf challenge to see how I'm doing clearing those shelves (links to 'Musings of a Bookshop Girl' and all my threads are on my profile, as always).

I won't use touchstones in the Master List (!) - too much hassle to keep loading and correcting them - but I'll add the message number of each review/comment for quick reference.

BOOKS READ 2010

Thread 1:
1) Sunshine - Robin McKinley
2) Persuasion - Jane Austen
3) Thunderball - Ian Fleming
4) Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science - Mary Roach

Thread 2:
5) North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
6) The Snow Tourist: A Search for the World's Purest, Deepest Snowfall - Charlie English
7) Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything - Elizabeth Gilbert
8) Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
*BONUS READ* (MG): A Winter Solstice Celebration - DiDi LeMay
9) Too Much Anger, Too Many Tears: A Personal Triumph Over Psychiatry - Janet and Paul Gotkin
10) Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris

Thread 3:
11) The Devil's Larder - Jim Crace
12) Madness: A Bipolar Life - Marya Hornbacher
13) Jaws 2 - Hank Searls
14) The Secret Shopper Unwrapped - Kate Harrison
15) Eating Myself - Candida Crewe
16) Message in a Bottle - Nicholas Sparks

Thread 4:
17) Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
18) Crazy as Chocolate - Elisabeth Hyde
19) Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris
20) Teen Valour - Alaric Adair
21) Rococo - Adriana Trigiani
22) Bedlam: London and Its Mad - Catharine Arnold

Thread 5:
23) Never Ever - Helena Pielichaty
24) 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
25) The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - Helene Hanff
*BONUS READ*: The Seventh Door - Norman Leach
26) The Snow Goose / The Small Miracle - Paul Gallico
27) The Bad Mother's Handbook - Kate Long

Thread 6:
28) The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
29) Library Confidential: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library - Don Borchert
30) Green Angel - Alice Hoffman
31) Book Lover, a.k.a. Literacy and Longing in L.A. - Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack

Thread 7:
32) Housewife Up - Alison Penton Harper
33) The Lion Children - Angus, Travers and Maisy McNeice
34) Practical Falconry - James McKay
35) The Silver Linings Play Book - Matthew Quick
36) Beastly - Alex Flinn
37) Dashing Through the Snow - Mary & Carol Higgins Clark
38) I am Legend - Richard Matheson
39) The Island - Victoria Hislop
40) The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer
41) The Weight of Silence - Heather Gudenkauf

This thread:
42) Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side - Beth Fantaskey (post 37)
43) Once in a Blue Moon - Leanna Ellis (post 60)
44) Under My Spell - Deborah Wright (post 105)
45) Glass Houses - Rachel Caine (post 132)
46) Pet Sematary - Stephen King (post 155)
47) See John Run - Kevin Joslin (post 180)
48) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (post 194)

Ah! Stretching room on this thread!

SURPRISE! You know I actually have a system whereby everything is copied and ready for a double-quick 'paste and post', just so as I can beat you to my own thread for those first two set-up messages!
*gets visions of the Eye of Stasia glaring out over LibraryThing like the Eye of Sauron over Mordor, seeing all*

Now, to catch up on what's what for now... Just finished The Weight of Silence and reviewed it at the end of the last thread.

I'm now continuing with See John Run and The World According to Clarkson, my two 'bitesize chunk' books for odd moments. Last night I started two ER books at once... Once in a Blue Moon by Leanna Ellis has opened, rather intriguingly, with an obituary writer riding a G-Force simulator at a NASA event and meeting an old man called Howard who claims that there is a government conspiracy to cover up the fact that when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon there was a crystal palace there. Nope, I don't know where this is going either.

The second, Reclaiming the F Word by Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune, looks to be a feisty British look at modern feminism - the issues that matter to women today, particularly the younger generation, who the leading individuals are and what they are hoping to achieve. Should be interesting...

#4: I like your visions!

Hello Ellie, starred of course! I hope you had a nice weekend. :)

Hello darling!

AAAAARGH! *cowers behind the counter and looks around for sinister LT-ers in cloaks and gauntlets with poisoned swords* Yep, that's the one Stasia...

Hello, sweet Luxx, and hello, dear Stephen... 'Nice' isn't really a word that applies to working in Bakewell on a summer weekend - 'mad', 'hectic', 'noisy' and 'thank God it's over so I can go home for a cup of tea with my book' would be more like it!

Birdie update: Jethro's had another dose of foul-smelling cat food, and although he's still looking forlorn and a bit woozy on his feet, he'd got enough fight in him this time to shake a bit of meaty gunk onto Mum's leg and into a box of children's books next to his box, which is good... James is going to give him a tasty mousy treat when he gets home so maybe we'll email him in the week and see how he's doing. *fingers crossed*

Ellie! *dances about the new thread* It's finally so lovely here that I'm actually sat on my drive in a garden chair basking :P
Oh and I've finished the review for The Knife of Never Letting Go Here it be

aww poor little Jethro so good to hear he's doing slightly better :)

He's gone ominously quiet in there at the moment - especially for such a big falcon - but I'm hoping he's just dozed off in the darkness to rest after his icky meal! I don't even need to READ that review now, because you already got me with your vlog this week. Now you're attacking at multiple angles! I wish I was sitting out in a garden chair basking... :-(

'Nice' isn't really a word that applies to working in Bakewell on a summer weekend - 'mad', 'hectic', 'noisy' and 'thank God it's over so I can go home for a cup of tea with my book' would be more like it!

Well, in that case, errr, I'm happy you survived! *smiles sweetly*

:D

I hope Jethro is ok. :(

Got you starred, hope Jethro recuperates, and would love a picture of him!

*sending healing waves to Jethro* ..... I would cower too if I were you, Ellie ... that is some evil looking eye that Stasia has on your thread.

Poor Jethro. :( Hope he recovers.

The eye may be Stasia watching you, but I feel like your thread is watching me.

The eye may be Stasia watching you, but I feel like your thread is watching me.

Oh, shoot! Be careful everyone, don't visit Ellie's thread without clothes on! :o

>15 Ape: *blushes furiously all over and flees*

#15: Nope, although with me the clothes are generally PJs.

To be fair Stasia, anytime I'm posting from home MY clothes are generally PJs too... or trackie bottoms and one of my comfy new LibraryThing T-shirts! :-)

No word on the sick birdie yet. I've got some pictures of Jethro from his not-sick day on Sunday, so I'll get them off my camera and onto FB so I can post one here. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. Was going to do some tidying tonight - all this dust has blown in through my windows and if I tidy then I can clean round afterwards - but at the moment I'm feeling proper icky so it might be tomorrow! I had a headache, fortunately just an annoying one rather than a 'kill me now' thumper, when I woke up, then my IBS flared up, and now I just feel a bit wibbly and like I want to crawl into bed for the day. It amazes me that something as innocuous as a bit of a headache and IBS can leave me feeling so crap sometimes! *sigh*

Hi Ellie...you're starred!
Hope you and the sick bird are feeling better soon.

Hope the headache is gone by now, Ellie!

Oh yeah, it's all gone. It was only a bit of a headache, it was more my daft stomach playing up again, it makes me feel a bit like I'm coming down with something - a bit wobbly, a bit woozy, a bit tired... We went and got another massive load of books from Mrs H last night and today I'm off, yippee! Reading Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side and being a total lazy biatch, just what I do best! ;-)

Update on Jethro: Mum just called to say that James had popped into the shop this morning to fetch the perch he left behind by mistake on Monday. Jethro had died in his carry box by the time he got him home that evening, that short 20 minutes between Bakewell and the centre. Which was a bit of a shock since he was looking so much better that afternoon. They're going to hold a post-mortem to try and work out what happened, so the problem can be traced back. If the previous owner knew something was wrong James might be able to do something about it, and on a more serious note, the dealer's other birds and now James's might have to be watched closely in case it was some kind of disease or something. It reminded me of when we got our first rabbit, Snowflake, who promptly sickened and died within three weeks of myxomatosis. Very, very sad - even James was a bit choked, and he's used to working with animals and birds so he's seen plenty get old or sicken and die. Poor Jethro, such a beautiful, beautiful bird... :_(

Glad you are feeling better, but very hard to hear that Jethro didn't make it.

Oh, dear. Poor Jethro. :(

Very sad news about Jethro. ((hugs))

I'm sorry to hear about Jethro. :( I hope James is ok, and you too!

My mom had a dog die a similar way awhile back. He was sick for days, and she took off work to take care of him. She couldn't afford to take too many days off though, so after a few days she went back to work. He was alive when she left, I woke up a half-hour later to find he'd died. :( It's like he didn't want anyone to be in the room when he passed. Very sad. :(

:( Poor baby!

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about Jethro! I hope that whatever was wrong was not contagious so the other birds are not affected.

Were on the 8th thread now? *faints* anyways starred as required ;)

Why thank you Miss Jessica...

And hello all... yes, poor Jethro, and poor James. I know he's had hundreds of animals and birds, but to lose one so quickly, when it was such a beautiful species and showing such promise, must be a bit upsetting even so. Particularly when it had been right as rain just hours earlier. I am hoping upon hope that it wasn't anything contagious - what if I lost my beloved Gilbert?! :_(

Apologies if I'm not around as much for a day or two - some STUPID *INSERT RUDE WORD HERE* COMPANY rang us up to try to persuade us to switch our business phone contract, one of these middle-man companies, and when we told them no thanks, THEY WENT AHEAD AND CONTACTED BT ANYWAY. Who then issued a letter informing us that our broadband would be cut off. Well, Mum rang up and set them straight immediately (and there was no record of the exact company who rang up to start this, so we couldn't give them a rollicking, more's the pity), but today our internet was cut off at the shop. Turns out BT then hadn't placed a proper stop on the request when Mum called, so it went ahead anyway. They claimed they couldn't clear the line to get our broadband back up for TWO MONTHS but they've got somebody trying to wiggle round it so we can get it sooner, maybe even tomorrow. So in the meantime, should the 'tomorrow' scenario not work out, no internet searches, no online valuation research, no ABE orders, no emails (and no LibraryThing/blog/Amazon/emails for me either) - except what we can do in the evening from home. And we can't get any new books onto our online ABE sales catalogue either, because that takes a lot of time and happens at work.

And I made my eyes really sleepy by reading ALL DAY at the shop on the quiet counter. And got hooked on my book, the blog-wide phenomenon Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, so scuse me, I'm off to carry on! ;-)

Blimey. I think under those circumstances I'd be inserting lots of rude words in the description. And probably flinging a few at BT as well. What a mess. :( Hope it all gets sorted out relatively painlessly and quickly, Ellie.

Me too, Ellie!

You are now starred!!

No internet back yet... I got a thirty-second call from BT this morning to ask if it was back up and running yet, but I'd only just that second arrived at work so we hadn't even switched the computers on yet. He said he'd call back later... but didn't. So I've been holding fort out front, Mum's been moving books around and doing the crossword from last Saturday's Times Saturday Review section, and we've both been reading and playing Spider Solitaire... It's amazing how knackered you get on a quiet day without the internet to distract you for a bit!

Book review coming in a few minutes - I'm just watching Rupert Penry-Jones on 'Who Do You Think You Are'... ;-)

Rats! Hope it's fixed soon.

(I'm watching that, too.)

Sorry to hear about your internet problems. As you can tell I didn't read every single post in the thread. I am trying to catch up on my threads because I was without internet at home for about 5 days and I wasn't in work until Tuesday and can not spend all day reading these threads.

Now I have my internet at home but still trying to catch up on all these threads. I hope you are up and running soon at work with the internet.

I would be yelling and screaming at BT and telling them that we would be looking for a new internet provider since they don't seem to be able to service their customers correctly or with efficiency. (I have had to deal with my cable company for our internet, tv and phone service and always tell them that and I usually get a deal or they get the problem fixed and sometimes I get a break on the bill.)

Okay bye and happy reading or watching tv!! :)

Poor Jethro. :(

42) Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey



This book has been doing the rounds of the blogosphere for a while, and between the enthuasiastic reviews and the intriguing cover, I thought it was about time I joined the fray and bought a copy!

The novel, one of the YA/adult crossover books that have been so popular of late, is a delicious paranormal romance just begging to be devoured on a rainy day, curled up cosily, looking out at the stormy skies. It is narrated by Jessica Packwood, a seventeen year-old girl who was adopted from Europe as a child and has been living happily on her family's Pennsylvania organic vegan farm ever since. One morning a new 'foreign exchange student', Lucius Vladescu, arrives in town and Jessica is almost positive that she has heard him whispering her 'old name'. When he reveals that he is a Romanian vampire prince and that he has come to claim her, princess of his rival clan, as his betrothed, she is certain that he's insane. Until strange things start happening, and she realises that perhaps Antanasia Dragomir has been dormant inside her all along...

The book is fluffy to be sure, with a definite hint of 'The Princess Diaries' as Jessica is slowly introduced to her heritage, but it also draws heavily on literary tradition. Stoker's 'Dracula' is both utilised and satirised, with the vampires' roots in the Carpathian mountains, in gothic mansions, surrounded by forests populated by howling wolves, offset by the stark contrast of American teenage life, with its carnivals and basketball and school classes. Lucius, the charismatic antihero, tall, dark and handsome, with his devilish mockery, tormented history and supreme arrogance, combines the most enigmatic, dangerous and appealing elements of Heathcliff - something that is picked up directly in the book.

I really enjoyed this novel. There were brief moments when the pace slowed - particularly where Jessica's parents appeared at length - but when Lucius and Jessica were together, the tension sizzled. The romance between them was intense without ever veering into the explicit, and Jessica's wry narrative and the sparky dialogue was often very amusing. It would make a fantastic movie, in fact! I'd recommend it to fans of YA vampire novels, as well as fans of paranormal romance in general - and I've ordered Fantaskey's next book, 'Jekel Loves Hyde', already!

Ok, I am going to go order that one on the Kindle immediately.

You know what puzzles me about all these books? If you were an immortal vampire, would you CHOOSE to inhabit an American high school? Helloooo!

Not at all a book I'd be interested in, but a nice review nonetheless! :)

If you were an immortal vampire, would you CHOOSE to inhabit an American high school?

As far as male vampires go, I can probably imagine a few reasons why the answer would be YES... :(

>39 ronincats: Ah, but see, he doesn't... JESSICA does because she has no idea who she is - LUCIUS just turns up pretending to be an exchange student to claim her because they've been betrothed since birth. He hates it at the high school, finds it incomprehensible and far beneath him compared to his life in his Romanian castle... That's one of the reasons I liked this one, it went further back towards the traditional vampire/Dracula legend.

>40 Ape: - You're excused from this book... AND STOP THINKING ABOUT CHEERLEADERS! I CAN HEAR YOUR FILTHY THOUGHTS FROM HERE!

41: Oooh! Does she forget because she has a brain-degenerating disease, like Huntington's or Lyme Disease!? =P

#42: If she did, Stephen, we would not tell you since that is the only reason you would read the book! :)

#29 The nerve of the *select a rude word* phone company messing with your service when you clearly said no. And the nerve of that *rude word* BT for cutting you off without you folks authorizing it!

I hope it all gets straightened out soon, Ellie!

Mum rang them AGAIN today because we received a huge bill this morning, evidently a 'final bill' for when we supposedly switch companies, paying off the last 9 months of our contract. Which we haven't cancelled anyway. The woman Mum spoke to said that no notes had been placed on our file whatsoever to say that we'd queried this whole thing (several times, with several people, over several weeks), and that someone would call us in 7-14 days. Yep, no internet service for 7-14 DAYS. When we do lots of valuation online, have an email inbox to keep an eye on, and run an online ABE shop. Perfect.

You just don't realise how much you miss it at work until it's gone. I mean, yes, I spend a lot of my time on the counter reading, but I'd kinda taken for granted the number of times something strikes me and I pop onto Google, or my eyes are getting tired from my book so I pop onto LibraryThing or my blog for a break. And that's not counting the quick searches I do when someone can't remember an author or title, and the book search/order service I'm in charge of. Plus my email inbox has rocketed because I hate spending all evening on my laptop! LT and the blog get some attention (naturally) but the emails get ignored...

Sigh. Plus my ER book is soooooo dull, so I'm starting to feel like I did at uni! Shift uncomfortably in my chair, look around, realise there's nothing else to do, and force myself to put my head down and slog through another chapter... I spent a few minutes on my 'Book Journal' (I bought a gorgeous Paperblanks notebook to list every title I read and a line or two about it, just to remind me) and a bit of time playing Spider Solitaire, but that was about it. Even Mum, the 'I must find something to do even when there's no need' woman in the business, was found playing Spider on the office laptop and ploughing through her Terry Goodkind novel.

Anyway, I've got dinner in the oven (fish pie and minted peas, yummy!) and a boring ER book to get reading... I need to hurry up and finish because we have literally run out of paperback biographies and fiction from authors R-Z to restock the shelves, so I need to get through a few of mine, prontissimo!

That must be infuriating. As others have said, I would definitely be having a word or two with the fools at the phone company. How unprofessional of them! >:(

Time for lots more rude words, I think, Ellie. That is completely ridiculous. It's bad enough when they muck domestic customers about like that, but to do it to business customers, who will potentially lose significant amounts of business because of it, and then take so long to fix it, is completely unacceptable.

And the trouble is, whenever you try to fix it you end up talking to a succession of people in call centres who, even if you're lucky and get someone competent, have no idea what's been happening. Oh for the days when one single individual, or at the very least a local office, would be in charge of things. I think I'd be way past the 'complaining to someone higher and putting it in writing' stage by now. Whoever thought it would be wise or acceptable to allow third parties to cancel contracts on behalf of their 'customers'?

Anyway, I hope the fish pie is good, and the boring book is over soon so you can get to something more interesting!

Ellie, so sorry to hear about your frustrations with the internet and everything. I think it is time to contact someone that can either legally do something for you because your business is suffering or to even write a letter to the company about everything that has happened and to seriously look at another company for possibly the future.

I hope you have enjoyed your dinner and that you book improves. Happy reading!!

Mum's writing to BT to file an official complaint, and shopping them to Ofcom for this mess as well. Unfortunately there's no note on the file as to which third-party company (let's face it, there are plenty of them) actually put in that transfer request, so they'll get away with it. And the first guy Mum spoke to admitted that a businessman with fifteen phone/Internet lines had just had his whole business ground to a halt by the same problem. Grrrr!

On the plus side, I'm another book chapter or two down, and the fishie pie was yummy! :-)

Oh my - losing personal service is bad enough, but losing business service for seven to fourteen days is beyond ridiculous.

But hooray for a yummy pie!

Does England have an equivalent of small claims court? Here in the US you could file for damages for a fairly low fee with no lawyer. And you could get BTs attention and move yourself up the queue by threatening such action.

Dunno... It's Sunday tomorrow anyway so nothing'll be happening then (plus I'm working with my sister - not sure how she's going to survive without being able to stream American sitcoms all day in the office!), we'll get things in motion next week...

*yawn* I was going to do a little tidying, have an early night and read, but I've just been sitting here watching comedy programmes on BBC2 and I just realised I haven't even had a DRINK since I got home. Where do these evenings go?! See, this is why I do online stuff at the shop!

Add my commiserations to the rest, Ellie. I am sorry you and your mother are having to go through this mess!

Where do these evenings go?! See, this is why I do online stuff at the shop!

Ha! Indeed, whenever I find a job again (>:|) I'll definitely be in big trouble when it comes to LT. Have a hard time keeping up as it is... :o

Ooo this makes me mad. Without broadband internet access the only business that can now remain IN business is...wait, no, even whores are online now.

There is NO activity that can survive this. How very enraging.

Another day with my book, Spider Solitaire and a book of su doku puzzles. And Hannah (that's my sis, btw), in a simple but ingenious step, brought a DVD box set with her to watch on the 'good' laptop in the office... I'm getting plenty of reading done, but everything online is suffering, big time. Emails, blog, LT, shop orders, everything. :-(

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have another review for you anyway - now, it's nearly midnight, I have an early start tomorrow, I'm absolutely starving, I've spent all night updating my blog AND I just remembered I still have another order, for the new tenants of the flat over the shop, to do before bed. Time to go!

INTERNET!!! Hallelujah! Finally, Mum managed to get through to a competent individual who got onto the internet team and managed to rebuild our account and connection (or some such pseudoblather)... He deserves a medal, whoever is he is!

Now I can get on with my review for 'Once in a Blue Moon' (TS playing up) so I don't have to spend my whole evening on it... again. Watch this space!

I'm happy for you Ellie! :)

43) Once in a Blue Moon by Leanna Ellis



I received this book through the Early Reviewer scheme so I was excited to read it and my hopes were high. In the end, sad to say, the Early Reviewer commitment turned out to be the only reason I continued to the end.

The premise sounded great. On the day of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Bryn's mother died. Since then Bryn, a journalist and obituary writer, has been on a thrill-seeking mission of her own, pushing her limits in more and more reckless ways while keeping other people firmly at bay. Then she meets conspiracy theorist Howard, who knew her mother, and his handsome preacher son Sam, and finally sets about laying her past to rest.

Unfortunately, the book was just... dull. Very dull. At no point during the story did I feel any sense of tension, or any chemistry between Bryn and Sam, or any tugging on the old heartstrings as Bryn explored the death of her mother. And this is from a major emotional-book crier... The conspiracy-theory storyline, which could have been really interesting, never went anywhere, nor did the additional plotline around Bryn's Alzheimer's-afflicted grandmother. In fact, I'm not even sure why she appeared in the book at all.

The novel definitely opened in an intriguing way, managing to be so bizarre and abstract that I really wanted to find out what was going on and where this meeting was going to lead! Ellis has an interesting way with words too, using some unusual imagery that made me wonder how her mind works, with her brilliant associations and flights of imagination. At times, however, this worked against her, as her ideas seemed to run away with her into a chaotic muddle of philosophy, faith and science. Too much is told and not enough left to the imagination, which was a large factor in the book beginning to drag for me.

I'd also say that the religious agenda of the book was rather stronger than I'd expected, and that definitely put me off a bit. It started off quite innocuously, with Sam putting forward a few of his ideas about religion and indulging in some gentle theorising on the nature of belief. But by the end he was swelling into full-on preacher mode, and Bryn's long discourse on finding her faith at the end of the book, combined with Ellis's final 'letter to the reader' on the subject, was starting to feel intrusive rather than reflective.

Ultimately, this wasn't for me. Aside from the religious themes, which might better suit a fan of Christian fiction, the plot just didn't go anywhere, there were some editorial mistakes and a tendency towards far too much trivial detail, and the characters and their 'journeys' fell very flat for me. I'm afraid I'll be moving on from Ellis's writing without looking back.

Yay! Internet connectivity!

Yay for the rare folk on the other end of a phone who can actually help!
Be warned Ellie , there are gonna be a *lot* of books heading your way on Wednesday. Jess has got 3 big bags full and I've got a couple of stacks weeded so far - several are children's books and a couple of non-fiction thingamabobs but I'm not finished yet :P
Ah back to my sorting!

Yippee! *wonders how many bags full her Mum'll let her take home BEFORE they reach the shop shelves*

That's allowed, right? Right? *smiles an enormous Christmas-Is-Coming kinda smile*

Review's up - and a rather lacklustre 2 stars, I'm afraid...

Hooray for competent and helpful people! Glad you've got your internet back, Ellie.

YEAH FOR GETTING YOUR INTERNET BACK!!! I am so happy for you and your mum.

#58 So pleased to hear about the internet connection!

#60 I had the unfortunate privilege of requesting that ER book too Ellie - it was a slog wasn't it?

Ohhh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one that didn't like it! When I went onto the product page its average rating was 4 stars, I was a bit nervous about posting my review!

I hate it when an ER book is no fun.. and you have to make it through :P

#68 I agree wholeheartedly! What a drag!

Ellie, I'm glad you got your internet back! (I was becoming quite indignant for you!)

Glad the internet is back up and running! Kudos to the helpful guy whoever he was.

Hooray for the internet connection!
Boo on the difficult ER book... :(

Ellie, you should still report it to Ofcom, because it happens a LOT and if people don't report it they can't investigate it. We had a similar problem with our gas supply and it took ages to sort out. They really need to crack down on these cowboys and make the system safer.

This used to happen a lot in the US during the 90s and was called "slamming." It was a huge problem finally addressed by legislation, but not before many, many people were out many, many dollars.

Mum's written an official letter of complaint and I think she's sent a copy to Ofcom as well. Shame there's no way of tracking which of the cold-callers was actually the one to go ahead and initiate this false transfer...

Happy tidings: the lovely Jess (JessicaLouise23) and Rachel (LadyViolet) have been to see me again today, yay! There was Bakewell crackle, there was sunshine, there were many books... They both brought books with them and we had a lovely impromptu book swap in the office, with the remainder going straight onto the shop shelves. Their visits just make my week! Next time girls, I'll be prepared and have a little more to add to the table... And hopefully, a settled enough stomach (darn IBS!) to be able to come shopping. I need to go check out the new Penguin Classics cloth hardbacks at the Bakewell Bookshop so I can see the paper quality, font size etc. and decide whether to start buying up the range - starting with Jane Eyre... :-)

OK, I'm taking the plunge and reading my first Stephen King novel. Jess brought a shiny new copy of Pet Sematary with her (amazing how that spelling quickly becomes the one that rolls off the keys!), so I bundled my old scary-looking one off to the shop today and started this copy instead. Honestly, I was terrified before I even opened the cover. King has such a reputation for writing some bloody scary books, especially the earlier ones. And most of the scariest kids' books I ever read involved pets of some description - demonic cats, removing pan lids to find pets stewing inside, that kind of thing. The kind of stuff that makes you queasy just thinking about it. And psychological thrillers do have a tendency to get under my skin rather.

So far this one's been okay - though I did have to hastily put down my pizza when the dying boy was brought to the infirmary in a bloody mess after being hit by a car. I'm now 104 pages in, alternating chapters with magazines and music in the hope that I'll actually sleep tonight... No good being half asleep on a summer holiday weekend! I'll let you know how I get on!

Ah you too are/were a Stephen King virgin. I read him for the first time this year and I chose Dolores Claiborne and I felt it was a very nice and easy read. I have so many of his books I want to read I just don't take the time to read them. My sister loves Stephen King and is always trying to get me to read them. I will be looking at some of his books for either the end of this year or for next year reading. I first need to get through my books I am reading right now. I can't wait to see your review of Pet Sematary.

Getting caught up here...so glad your internet is up and running. That sounded like a real nightmare! As did your ER book. I have backed away from the ER program in the past few months because of a few disappointing books. They sound so good...and then...well, you know from your latest experience.

Misery was my first Stephen King book. I read a few more -- and had a few disappointments -- so I gave up on him. Only to learn that his last few have been pretty good. Must get on with Duma Key, Under the Dome, etc.

I've only read a few King novels, Cell, Delores Claiborne, and Eyes of the Dragon, and The Stand. I need to read some more by him as well...some time...

I have one of his novels waiting for me (Black House) but I need to pick the first book of the series (The Talisman) up from the library first.

I hope you 'enjoy' your first King novel Ellie!! :)

I have a few more waiting for me after this one - The Green Mile, The Stand, Cell, Under the Dome, 'Salem's Lot (which Mum said terrified her and my dad when they saw it on TV) and The Shining (which a lot of people seem to say is the scariest of all?)... I've put it down for the night now and gone back to Under My Spell (a.k.a. Sabrina the Teenage Witch for adults). I might take it to work tomorrow - on the one hand I might HAVE to put it down if gets a bit intense to read while surrounded by customers; on the other hand, I CAN put it down if it gets too scary! I am really, genuinely worried I might scar myself for life with this stuff! Like dabbling with a ouija board or something. Yikes. I figured if it doesn't turn out to be a work read I could get up a bit early in the morning to read it, or read for, say, an hour when I get home, and still have time to watch something nice or read something fluffy to take my mind off it before bed.
Scaredy cat, moi?

I've never read any Stephen King: I am a wimp when it comes to scary books.

Exactly! Me too! But everyone goes on about them so much, and I've never read one... so I thought I'd test the waters a bit. The bloody book hasn't even gotten that scary yet, but I'm feeling that horrible icky feeling in the pit of my stomach like you do when you watch a thrilling movie and you just know it's going to get dicey, you're just not sure when or how... *hides under blanket and briefly wishes she didn't live alone after all*

ETA: Okay, wow, I was right. I did a quick Wikipedia plot scan. I know, I know, it would have ruined the book for me... but I am so completely and utterly not reading any more. I'm an emotionally sensitive young lass living alone, people, I wouldn't have slept for a week and I reaaaaaallllly do not cope well with anything too predatory on the ol' mind. Well, I read 100 pages and that heavy nauseous feeling I was getting about reading further was probably a good indication that maybe this book really isn't for me! The Shining's going back too... any word on the others, King enthusiasts? I'm kinda assuming The Green Mile and Under the Dome might be a little less violently gross, would that be right?

Hmmm...I've been considering reading nothing but horror the entire monht of October this year. Maybe I'll try another Stephen King novel then... :)

I have read several of King's books and they just do nothing for me. I tried another one a couple of years back, got 300 pages in (only halfway through!) and decided I was not enjoying the book, so why continue? I am not going back any time soon.

I decided to read a few more pages of PS this morning. Funny how scaredy-catness seems a whole lot more silly in the cold light of a sunny morning. If I still don't like it after today's attempts, that's that, back to shop it goes. *sigh*
Don't you just love a decisive woman?!

LOL!

I've never been tempted by the horror genre myself (I can't even watch the 10 o' clock news if I want to sleep properly!), but it sounds like you should stick to reading this book during daylight hours only and choose something much more agreeable for bedtime reading. Something Mitford-related perhaps???

I agree with Caty in message 80! :)

I didn't sleep for one solid year after I read The Exorcist years ago. I'd wake up every two hours and check myself to see if I was possessed by demons. The movie, along with "Jaws", scarred me for life. I still won't go into the ocean beyond my ankles, and even that only upon being goaded and screamed at.

You know what, it really isn't sharks I'm scared of in the sea (even after I read Jaws). I'm actually much more freaked out by crabs and jellyfish - one if it gets hold of my toe, the other if it brushes me and I come out in welts. Not that either of those things have ever happened, but childhood fears just linger like that! I don't think I'll be reading The Exorcist though - I watched the movie at a friend's house (not because I wanted to, I arrived just as it was starting and it seemed rude to just leave again!) and I can honestly say that the part where she runs backwards down the stairs like a horrible crabby spider (those crabs again!) was the single most unnerving movie moment I have ever seen. I had to force myself to sit down in the cold light of day and watch that bit over and over on YouTube so I could desensitise myself to get it out of my head...

The good news is that PS has chilled right out again for a while after that first part - OBVIOUSLY lulling me into a false sense of security (*looks around nervously for demonic-looking pets that smell of death*). But it's a lot less freaky reading in a shopful of customers than sitting in my own living room at twilight! I think I'll leave it here tonight, even if I might not get much chance to carry on over the Bank Holiday weekend.

I can honestly say that the part where she runs backwards down the stairs like a horrible crabby spider (those crabs again!) was the single most unnerving movie moment I have ever seen.

I AGREE! Oh man, it's undoubtedly the creepiest scene in any movie I have ever watched in my life. Just the thought of it is scaring me a little... *shudders*

What a horrid movie. I've watched it once. I didn't sleep well afterwards. I'll never watch it again!

And here I thought it would be safe to come back to this thread. Horror films? *Shudder* Don't watch them, either.

Did anyone seen The Ring or the Grudge? There were parts of those movies that scared me so bad I didn't sleep well for a week!

I didn't watch those movies, no waaaay. Even the ads scared me to death, so I thought I'd better not. I think sometimes the movies can be even worse than the books - you can put a book aside, or somehow make things less icky in your head, but a movie you just have to keep watching... Gruesome special effects and all!

92: Oh! Both of those were scary as well. You're spot on there, I don't usually think scary movies are that scary. They usually make me roll my eyes and sigh at how terrible they are. Horror movies just aren't as...psychological as they used to be. To many "BOO!" surprise scares for me. I'm just not interested in them...

But both of those had their scary scenes. In The Grudge, when the lady was in bed...and the noise...and the head coming up through the blankets... ...

...and don't get me started on The Ring Two when she started crawling out of the well!!

The Green Mile and The Stand are not scary. Neither was The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I have skipped some of his earlier scarier stuff. However, I have Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Lisey's Story, and Duma Key coming up in my TBR pile.

I find Stephen King rather verbose and sneaky. Things will be going along fine and dandy in his books and then there will be a subtle hint of scariness, and then things go back to being okay. They tend to play mind games on me rather than really creep me out.

That's not so bad then. Keeping The Green Mile and The Stand... jury's still out on some of the others!

Nope, no horror books or horror films for this gal! I will come back when the thread is nice and peaceful again :)

It's alright Stasia - I'm reading a NICE book too... In fact, I might have to concentrate on the NICE book today, since we are now so ridiculously low on books from the end of the author alphabet that we're having to fill up spaces under W by shuffling everything and filling them at M. That's about seven shelves back. Not good. That's why I picked this book (Under My Spell by Deborah Wright) as my next read in the first place, so I should really hurry up and finish it, small contribution though it may be!

Autumn is definitely in the air today. Which is odd since summer doesn't seem to have appeared at all this year - except for maybe two weeks at the end of May/start of June. I woke up and had to scurry for my dressing gown this morning, for the first time since spring. I'm sitting here with a pashmina scarf round my neck, with the chill breeze and the scent of autumn, of cold air and wet leaves, drifting in through the open door. The summer holidays have flown by and the kids will be back to school in two weeks - which means we're going on holiday, yay! Not a warm sunny holiday this year, but at least it's a week off, in a nice cottage on a big estate a couple of hours west, where I can read and swim and eat things I shouldn't... :-)

Anyway, back to my book! (The nice one!)

Send some chill breezes Texas way would you, Ellie? We can use some!

Not all of his books are scary Ellie definitely stick with The Green Mile and The Stand. I can’t read his more scarier books since the acrophobia years which is exactly why I gave them ones to your shop. I’d really like to get into the truly terrifying ones again some day though as I really did love them back in the day *wistful sigh* But honestly- take it from a wimp that he’s just got some generally good paranormal fiction out there that I don’t really class as horror.

BTW. . In case you all had any desire to see the movie The Last Exorcism. . .keep away! It was pretty scary. :(

Gawd, I saw the ad for that on TV last night - aaaargh! Jess - I read another 50 or so pages of Pet Sematary yesterday and it was better than the chunk I read on Thursday! I'll make sure those two stay firmly on the shelves then, jury's out on the others so I'll see how I get on!

I love scary movies, even though they never freak me out. Though, in Land of the Dead (Romero zombies) there was this finger nail part that I can barely watch!

Hope your 'enjoying' it more now Ellie! and if not I hope you'll try The Green Mile soon because that book is just wow!...and not scary! Promise! :)

44) Under My Spell by Deborah Wright



I really enjoyed this fluffy chick lit offering. It had all the usual elements of a good girlie novel - romance, misunderstandings, friendship, a happy ending - but with a twist: Cara is a witch. Not that she wants to be. She takes a job as a live-in nanny for the Wilkins family, desperate for a normal life away from her boozy mother and her witchy friends. She soon realises, however, that all families have their problems, and as she struggles to persuade little Fred to accept her, and watches Nick and Andie's marriage descending into lies and adultery, she finally turns to her magical roots to help them. The only problem is, she's a little rusty and nothing ever seems to work out quite right, sending matters steadily spiralling into chaos...

This was definitely a fun little novel. It had well-drawn, appealing characters and a delicious sense of humour, which often had me smiling to myself as I turned the pages. It also had some well-observed reflections on the nature of family, marriage, love and what it means to be human, and a strong message about the importance of being yourself and finding your role in the world without changing who you are. The magic element to the plot just added a little extra zest, a little extra humour, a little extra imagination, and it fitted neatly into the story without getting too ridiculous or all-consuming.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of Wright's books to keep on hand for when I fancy a light, sparkling, feel-good read. If you're a fan of Melissa Nathan and Sophie Kinsella, with a dash of Practical Magic and Bewitched, give this novel a try - you won't be disappointed!

Right, on to my next 'R-Z' read (stupid customers - why do they bring thousands of books when we don't need them and nothing at all when we do?!). I picked out The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, but if it carries on in the same vein as the first few pages it might not make it to the shop shelves! It's a bit yummy, in fact...

Oh I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, such a wonderful book. I'm glad your reading it next Ellie.

I'll second Jess - why the heck have you not read it already?!? Honestly!
I'm probably gonna re-read it around early October since I'm gonna do reviews of some of my favourite books of the last few years around the time of my birthday. Twas such a gorgeous book.

*stepping in to wave hello* and to do a happy dance that you're going to read The Guernsey Literary, Ellie.

I am amazed that you have not read Guernsey yet, Ellie. I do hope you enjoy it!

I wouldn't put Guernsey on the shelf. It is just too good.

I bought it for Mum ages ago, and when she was going to offer it up to the bookshelves here I put my foot down and said I needed to read it! It's just one of those books that's been sitting around for a while as others come and go around it, through no fault of its own. It's reminding me of 84, Charing Cross Road already, so it will probably be a keeper after all.

I went round the two cheapest charity shops in town this morning as penance and bought a handful of late-alphabet fiction and a local interest book for the shelves... and, er, one or two for myself! Well, one's just a replacement for mine, Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro, which I made the mistake of picking up in one of those small magazine-freebie editions, with miniscule writing. So I'll be swapping my little copy for this new normal-size edition. Plus I bought a biography of Isaac Newton and one of James Dean, Mutant King by David Dalton. Though I already have one by David Dalton, only bigger and with more photos, so I'll be checking to make sure it isn't just the same text under a different name.

Soooo, if you'll excuse me, I've been 'working' with Hannah today (she's been in the back again, watching That 80's Show and House) and someone's been round and pulled a load of books off the shelves (is it REALLY that difficult to just slot them back into their places? Really?) so I'll go tidy up... A whole free evening of tea, toast and my book ahead of me tonight, yippee!

Not enough time in the day! :(

*ahem*

Hello Ellie darling, you've read another book that's 'not for me' but I must say I love the tags on the book's page. Chick Lit and Witchcraft, it's like chocolate and peanut butter I say! :P

I hope your evening has been nice. And free of whatever creepy crawlies might be lurking in that Stephen King novel of yours. :)

Hello my sweet! My evening has been... mad. It was supposed to be a quiet, long Sunday evening. Starting with 'Stormbreaker' on TV, quickly followed by tea, toast and a couple of hours with a book (NOT THAT ONE!). What actually happened was that I watched the movie, then succumbed to the offer of my stepdad's delicious lasagne. Even though it's very rich and usually sets my IBS off a treat. Which it did. Then I realised I hadn't done today's blog post, my regular Sunday post, because the computer at the shop kept closing the internet every time it caught the scent of a blog loading on the screen. Then my sister and my dad came home from their meal out and ended up in the flat for half an hour before he went home. Then my stomach played up a little more. Now it's half past ten and I haven't finished the cup of coffee I made at about seven o'clock, or read more than three lines of my book. *sigh*

The morals of this message? Eyes bigger than dicky stomach are never a good thing. And don't switch on the laptop when you get home. :-(

Eyes bigger than dicky

Right, yes, I know how that is. :(

*reads rest of sentence*

OH!! Right, *ahem* Sorry to hear that...

*sigh* Eventually I'm going to learn how to not click the 'Post a message' button when I'm thinking these immature thoughts.

Sorry to hear the evening didn't turn out as planned! I definitely know how it feels. I figure I'll just jump online and visit LT real quick or play a quick few minutes in whatever video game I might be playing and the next thing I know the day is over and I haven't read a page! I always go to bed those days feeling guilty. Not sure why, it's not like reading is a requirement or anything but, y'know, it's disappointing all the same.

Oh, poor Stephen, how you make me giggle! I just burst out laughing, on my own in the flat, like a crazy woman. Never let those immature thoughts go to waste, they cheer everybody up so much! I do feel disappointed with myself, letting my reading slide in favour of the internet. Especially when it's been a long evening like this one, just made for lazy bookish indulgence. It's the same on my days off - I feel happier and more productive, somehow, at the end of the day if I've read a book all day and really relaxed, than if I've been watching DVDs or doing chores. Partially, I suspect, because I know that if I get a few quick reads under my belt and very obviously back to the shop (LOOK MUM! LOOK AT THESE BOOKS THAT I'M PUTTING BACK ON THE SHELF! LOOK! *waves books under Mum's nose*), I might not get murdered next time another one arrives in the post... :-)

The Divine Miss is on the warpath about my book-buying again. A friend just sent me a book called The Haunted Vagina. I'm going to leave it on The Divine Miss's pillow with a note: "If *I* don't pick them, *this* is what comes in."

I suspect problem will be solved....

Ellie: Indeed, it's just more satisfying at the end of the day having spent it reading! Even if it's easier to just not do anything at all sometimes.

Richard: Ha! The Haunted Vagina, sounds like when a sex dream turns into a nightmare. Or...the other way around...

I remember coming across Mellicks books on Amazon one day. The cover for The Menstruating Mall still causes me to raise my eyebrow...and I don't even know how!

>116 richardderus: Great, Richard, now you just made me laugh alone in my room like a crazy woman! ROFL
I'm sorry, I don't have anything more to add because every time I put a thought together I start giggling again.

*blink blink blink*

...

I think 'weird' is the word I'm looking for here.

Ah, I come back to Stephen King, horror movies, and The Haunted Vagina. How do I ever leave this thread?!

I've read some King: 'Salem's Lot, Dolores Claiborne, Christine, The Shining, the first four of the Gunslinger series (not horror), and a few collections of short stories. I ... can't stand King. I've only read this much because my father loves him, and keeps throwing King my way because I enjoy horror novels. Thankfully, I moved out over five years ago, and he no longer remembers to loan me books. ;) I also loathe Anne Rice, and he's convinced I love her. *shrug* To each his or her own.

I will say good for you for putting down a book you know will make you unhappy!

Yeah... except, er, well, now I'm on page 218... *looks suitably shamefaced* Well, it's my first King isn't it, and I felt so silly when I got up the next morning and looked out at the sunshine and remembered how scared I'd made myself the day before! I was nervous before I'd even opened the front cover; I think it was King's reputation preceding him and my horror-virgin status (NO, STEPHEN!) that did it. So now I'm reading it at the shop, where I'm surrounded by customers and the sounds of the street are breezing in through the open door, so I don't get too scared! And it's actually dropped in scariness for the time being and I'm just enjoying going with the flow...

my horror-virgin status (NO, STEPHEN!)

Now, Ellie, what on earth would make you think that my perfectly innocent young mind would think of anything dirty about that harmless, innocuous sentence?

I will say, however, that if that Stephen fails to fully take your horror-virginity, I'll be glad to help you out...

...by offering you another horror recommendation! My goodness, why does everyone have to misconstrue what I say. Sheesh. ;)

What is an "one of those small magazine-freebie editions"? I wasn't aware of free books from magazines...do tell me more! :-)

You mentioned Elegance; that's the first time I've heard anyone else mention reading it. It's not my type of book but I was given it as a gift, so I dutifully read it.

Stephen! You are such a naughty boy, honestly... *blushes and tries to look innocent*

I don't know about anywhere else, but come summer most of the women's magazines round here roll out the same line of freebies. At some point during the summer there may be one, some or all of the following going free: body lotion, a bikini, a vest top, a pair of flipflops, a semi-designer beach bag, a patterned notebook, a 'beach read' girlie book... I've got at least two pairs of freebie flip flops in my wardrobe, and a black tie bikini, a couple of bags...

*looks suitably shamefaced* Ha!

Well, if you're unsure about a horror novel, then a brightly lit busy shop is probably the place to read it. I hope you like it!

Is a "vest top" a "tank top" in American?

Um, yes. With thin 'spaghetti straps', not wider ones...

Thank you. One of those things I've occasionally seen written and was never quite certain about...

*blushes and tries to look innocent*

yeah... not so much. Them days are over missy!

Gorgeous pics over at FB.. love your wonderful house.

As for The Haunted Vagina. I once met a demon child, and this could explain it.
The actual vagina in question was kep under cover, and at a distance so I can't be sure....

Ohhh, thank you! It is a beautiful house - and we're about to adopt two new kittens to add to the menagerie as well! Currently Purdy and Mokie (stupid names) so we're renaming them Millie and Cookie. Both little girls, and Millie/Mokie is the ginger one (ginger females are quite unusual and our old girl Marmalade was a ginger tabby, so we had to choose her!). Purdy/Cookie looks like a little ball of mischief!



Mum and Hannah have been shopping for kitten stuff today, and Mum will be popping home tomorrow for the inspector's visit (possibly giving me a hefty lunch break, if I panic too much and can't keep the shop open that long by myself!). The cutest thing is, we'll be buying a big cage thing and bringing them to work with us while they're tiny - shop kittens! They'll be installed in the office each day, so I don't think we'll get much work done!

Review coming up soon, for Glass Houses by Rachel Caine - which was excellent, by the way...

Ellie - I love the kitties ... they're adorable and absolutely beautiful! And I do prefer your new names for them. Purdy and Mokie - really stupid names. Hmm... visiting owls and now shop kittens .. what next? Hamsters or turtles would make some good additions.

45) Glass Houses by Rachel Caine



I can't believe it's taken me so long to discover this series! I picked up 'Glass Houses', the first book, this morning for a day-off read, and devoured it pretty much in one go. It's about a brilliant sixteen year-old girl, Claire Danvers, who takes an early placement at the college in Morganville, Texas, a stepping stone to greater things, only to find that she stands out even more here than she did back at school. And not in a good way. Her dorm is dominated by a tyrannical group of beautiful, sadistic girls, and when she unthinkingly humiliates Monica, their leader, their vengeance is fast and deadly. And so she moves out, stumbling into a house share with three older teens, Michael, Shane and Eve, in the strange old Glass mansion. They reveal Morganville's not-so-secret secret - that the town is run by vampires who see college kids as free food, and warn Claire that she needs to be really careful if she wants to survive in one piece. Who is in league with who? Who is a vampire, and who is simply in a vampire's pocket? And on top of that, is she falling for Shane? And what on earth is going on with Michael?

I must say, when I started the book I expected teen paranormal fluff, and I was very pleasantly surprised. The world of the Morganville Vampires drew me right into the story from the very beginning, and Caine has placed her own twist on vampire legend and the vampire novel. The tenants of the Glass House are both engaging and sympathetic, the villains are deliciously dastardly, and Claire's voice - though the novel is written in the third person - is appealing in its naivety, honesty and humour. Unusually, I never once got to a certain point and thought, 'Right, I need a break from this," or "Okay, okay, let's get back to the good stuff already!" It was fast paced and gripping, and the story flowed well, never getting bogged down in trivia or unnecessary plot sidelines. I finished it by dinner time and needless to say, I'm very pleased to have the rest of the series waiting for me! Highly recommended for fans of YA paranormal fiction.

Paranormal/vampires, Stephen King...Ellie, I think you're developing a dark side on us! ;)

I've seen this in my library's catalogue, but after my dislike of the Vampire Kisses series found there I've been hesitant. It's always checked out though, so I thought: hope? Glad to hear it's good, so I 'll give it a chance and make my way to it eventually :)

Stephen dear, I'm bipolar - believe me, I have a fully fledged dark side! Too dark at times, in fact... (*tries to look suitably menacing and fails miserably*) And the worst of Pet Sematary is yet to arise, tomorrow will be the day I hit the REALLY SCARY part. I know, I checked the plot summary on Wikipedia, just so I didn't traumatise myself too much with this first King!

I thought I'd just 'give this book a try' - but since I've got six of the series in the box that arrived from The Works today, I'm glad I liked it so much! And I've ordered the second one on Amazon because my copy had such a horrible cover compared to the others - and it's a different, smaller edition as well. I know, I know, I'm turning into Rachel, with her craving for matching covers! Fortunately Mum hasn't opened the box yet, because (turn down your bullsh*t detectors folks, this will be loud!) "There's a couple of books for the shop in there and a hardback box set of the Inheritance series, but *cough* I don't know how big the box will be because I've never ordered from there before and I don't know how much they *cough* over-package things, and *cough again* I'll bring the box home to open because I don't want the box set starting to move around and getting bashed..." So, in fact, there are six Caine books in there, the hardback Paolini set, another book for me AND two biographies for the shop... though I'll be swapping one of them for my copy so I get the new one.

Bless me Oh LibraryThing Gods, for I have sinned... again. It has been about thirty seconds since my last confession...

#130 Cute kittens!

I must admit, it doesn't really feel REAL yet. We've only seen those pics of them because they're at a shelter about an hour away, so at the moment they don't feel all that tangible, somehow... I'll make sure I get a pic or two when they arrive - maybe of them at the shop, they'll be so cute! We're even strictly enforcing the no-dogs rule and keeping the door shut so if it's quiet we can take them a little walk round the shop and have a cuddle! It'll certainly make work more interesting, put it that way... Then once they're old enough and ingratiated into the family they can stay at home and Pippa, our little black devil, can start leading them astray... She used to be very good at running up curtains and finding her way onto the top of kitchen units, and she's a darn good mouser too, so we might have our hands full!

Hallo Ellie, just been catching up on your thread and I now have an irrevocable image of Stasia as Sauron overseeing LT whilst black and red pools of hot bubbly stuff roar away in the background...

I'm very sad to hear Jethro died. Poor Jethro. :o( Hope James is OK and he didn't die of anything infectious that might have spread to the other birds?

What a massive pain in the arse with BT! Glad you're all set again now though.

#77 Donna, Misery was my first book by Stephen King too - sounds like I managed to hit on better follow ups than you though...

#79 Ellie, I've read comparatively few Stephen King books, but those I have have been very varied and mostly rather well written - they're definitely not all horror anyway.

Can I heartily recommend Carrie? It's the one I've enjoyed the most - it's just an incredibly affecting story about an outcast, teenage girl (who happens to have telekenesis!) - the film is much scarier than the book in my opinion (unusually!)

#116 The Haunted Vagina?! The mind boggles ;o)

#124 Yes, but I used to get ALL my flip flops from girly magazines (it's the only time I buy them) and I haven't seen any for the last few years - it always seems to be free canvas bags or chick-lit paperbacks now and I really don't need another canvas bag... You'll have to tell me next time you spy a magazine with flip flops on because I've actually had to resort to buying them now. Shock horror!

#130 Oooh, kittens. I go away far too much at the moment to have animals, it'd just be unkind, but one day I'll be a mad cat lady.

...although one of my best mates has forbidden me from getting any until I'm at least 40. Apparently my future mad cat lady status isn't something to aspire to just yet.

#45 Hmmm. I've steared (is that the right spelling anyone, I'm having a word block right now and nothing looks right?) more or less clear of all these vampire books up until this point, but that's such an enthusiastic review, I may just have to investigate...

Flissp: I think you meant "steered?"

Stephen dear, I'm bipolar - believe me, I have a fully fledged dark side!

Right! Sorry. (Note to self: In addition to avoiding getting on Ellie's bad side, it may also be advisable to keep an eye on her dark side!)

#139 Thank you. You see even that looks wrong to me right now.

Does anyone else have word blocks like this ever, where no spelling looks right?

I once spent half a workbook page trying to spell "sword" (I just knew there was a "w" in there somewhere, but couldn't figure out where) - and ended up having to write "dagger" instead, because it just wasn't going to happen.

Please don't say I should have looked it up in a dictionary, because that was a ringing refrain of my childhood - to which my answer was always the same: how on Earth can you look up how to spell a word in a dictionary if you have no idea how to spell it? Yes. My spelling was that bad. Horrendous even. Much better these days, but I still have crises. It's my Granny's fault. She's even worse. ;o) Luckily, these days there is dictionary.com Woo for dictionary.com! (I was just too lazy earlier)

Hahaha! Wow...ok, this is either the most unlikely chance of irony or some weird psychology going on. I was going to respond to your message with "I know exactly how you feel, thank goodness for spellcheck" and couldn't decide it spellcheck was spelled correctly. Space...or no space? *sigh*

140 & 141> I always have problems with restaurant. . . want to spell it restaraunt . . . because that's how it sounds. The au should make the long-ish a like in dinosaur. . . I fight with phonetics sometimes.

But yes, spell-check, dictionary.com, and thesaurus.com save my life (and Stephen, that's what I do when I can't solve the space/no space debate. . . Hyphen!).

Ellie
Your little girls are really cute. I love going into book stores where there are kittens/cats.

To paraphrase Indiana Jones: "Cats. It hadda be cats."

#130: Love the kitties, Ellie! I am glad to see them go to a good home.

#141 Ah, you see I'm broadcasting my eveel word-block vibes all across the world now... I will make the entire planet spell things MY way... Mwah ha ha, Mwah Ha HA, Mwah HA HA HA HAAAA!

#142 It's only the other day that I discovered that I've been spelling "hassle" wrong for years - I don't know why, but I always assumed it should be "hastle" ;o)

Congratulations on the cute kittens, Ellie! By some coincidence, we also acquired two kittens at the weekend. They're lovely, but things like work (I work from home), reading and socialising are falling by the wayside somewhat - all we want to do is to watch them play!

Cute kittens!

I LOVE THE KITTENS!!! I have one cat and would love to get a kitten but don't think she will take kindly to one. I used to have two but one had to be put to sleep due to either health or injury, not quite sure which one. Now I want a kitten...

Fliss - nice to see you back here! I haven't seen James since Jethro died - too many country shows rounding off the summer hols is my guess - but I'm sure we'll find out next time he's here. Monday, maybe. As long as Gilbert and Geoffrey are okay! Yes, I get total mind blocks too, where no spelling looks right and normal words sound really stupid. Especially names, for some reason... Carrie's on my list of ones to read - I watched the trailer the other night when a Sissy Spacek movie on telly reminded me about it, and wow, she's scary! Like a weird bulgy-eyed skeleton, eeek. And check this out - when she keeps turning around with that evil stare thing going on, she bears a spooky resemblance to the Dramatic Gopher (go YouTube it if you don't know what I'm talking about!)



Mum and Hannah are off visiting the baby kittykats right now - Hannah's just rung me to squeal down the phone about how cute they are and how Cookie was chasing her scarf tassles - while I use the opportunity to unload those new books and catalogue them quick, so I can pretend I've had them all along! Mwahahaha... I've had to stop reading Pet Sematary for the night (it was just about to get gruesome again and I hadn't eaten my tea) so I'm back to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for the evening I think. Though ironically, given the King novel, I actually had dreams about being bombed last night after reading Guernsey before bed...

cute cute cute kittens..

150: Haha, there is definitely a strong likeness there! :D

I was just catching up on your blog, Ellie, I had fallen a little behind. I laughed at the story about your fellow King-virgin! Haha, that poor boy, he reminds me much of myself. My mum would always jump at the chance to embarrass me in such a way. Of course, she probably wasn't saying anything that embarrassing and I was just being the way I am...HMMM! Well, regardless, I think that poor young man deserves a big hug if he's in there again, bwahahaha, I'm sure he won't be embarrassed at all! :P

Oh, and...pictures of Jess and Rachel in The Shop = jealous Ape.

Ellie! First off I'm vaguely offended that my ocd for matching book covers should be an embarrassing habit :P
Secondly I WANT THOSE KITTENS!!! *melts at the sight of cuteness* It makes me so mad that my dad doesn't like cats so ergo we can't have gorgeously cute lil' kittehs at home. I have to make do with gooing over my bf's russian blue who is sometimes rather picky with who he snuggles up to. Gah i want a cat so bad!
Glad you liked the first Morganville book now there's only 7 more you need to read before you're caught up :P
I am gonna have a massive cataloguing session shortly when I add the books I brought back from London and the books my parents and sister brought me back from Florida (when they wake up from their naps)

#153: I cannot wait to see what is included in the massive cataloguing session!

Will there be a vlog to go with it? Now I'm your YouTube stalker and all...

Now, a review! I'm making the most of between-painkiller no-headachiness after I woke up with the mother of all headaches this morning. My next task is to start narrowing down my list of books to maybe take away on holiday, which currently runs to 4 double-columned A4 pages. If we go away at all that is, since a certain pair of small fluffy things have captured my sister so much that she wants to get them early and not go away. Mum's starting to follow suit and I think when my stepdad (not so much of a cat fan) comes back from a family gathering today it might all hit the fan, if you know what I mean. Still, even if we stay home I have a week off so I still want a shortlist!

Anyway, back to that review:

46) Pet Sematary by Stephen King



Firstly, I'll hold my hands up and admit that this was my first Stephen King novel. I'll also admit that I'd worked myself into such a nervous frenzy about the whole thing, given King's reputation for delivering serious frights, that I actually put the book down after 100 pages and decided I wasn't reading any more. Well, I changed my mind in the sunny light of the next morning, and I'm so glad I did. It was excellent!

It opens with Louis Creed, a doctor, and his young family moving to a new house and meeting their neighbours, Jud and Norma Crandall. The Crandalls help them settle in, showing them the children's 'Pet Sematary' on the hillside behind their home, providing evenings of beer and conversation, and warning them about the dangers of the main road, where the huge Orinco trucks have claimed many pets over the years.

Things start to go awry when a young man is hit by a car and horrendously maimed, dying in Louis's arms in his university surgery. He begins to dream about the boy and the Pet Sematary, though he dismisses them as mere nightmares. A few months later his daughter's cat is hit by a truck and killed - and Jud finally shows him the town's dark secret: the Native American burial ground beyond the Pet Sematary where a terrible power lurks, watching, waiting, enticing...

Now, to me this all sounded terrifying. And at certain points it is, but not really in the gruesomely horrific way I had expected and feared. Of course it has its moments, but King is a master of weaving mind games, playing reality against hallucination and the world of dreams, using our deepest fears and the terror of what is NOT seen to elicit the chills and thrills for which he is famous. The same principle which makes the old psychological thrillers more haunting then their modern gore-splattered counterparts.

In fact, though it has occasional moments of genuine horror, I actually found this book deeply sad and very insightful. Its overarching theme is death - the fear of death, the acceptance of death, the nature and experience of grief, and the futility of humanity's attempt to cling to life even when nature is screaming for us to let go. The writing was beautiful - much more lyrical and evocative than I had expected - and I turned the last page with a deep chill of delicious dread and a profound sense of having read something far more worthwhile than I could have hoped. Looks like I'll be reading more Stephen King after all!

#155: Nope, not touching that one for love or money.

I'm glad you enjoyed it in the end, Ellie - but I'm still not going anywhere near any Stephen King books.

I agree with Stasia, I ain't touching a King book no matter *how* much you may try to persuade me. There are some things I just won't ever read.
I got a quick question; does the fact that I bought 4 educational books while in London negate the fact that I also bought 4 fiction books? Cos I'm debating which I need to hide before the family wakes up.

Fair enough... It won't be for everyone, and I must admit, I thought that too, but I was impressed. So thoughtful where I'd expected cheap shocks. And you know what, there was a brilliant streak of humour running through it too, which really helped bring things back from 'too scary' and made me laugh just when I needed it. The film trailer looked scarier than the book though, so I think I'll give the adaptation a miss!

#158: Hide the fiction books! lol

Keep a couple of each out Rach - I think that's acceptable...

You're a brave woman, Ellie ... I avoid Stephen King's works because they give me the willies and I get nightmares after reading them. Well, ok, I've only read 1 many years ago, but reading It semi traumatized me and I swore off this author. Then again, I'm not a fan of horror movies either .

Ellie! I'm so happy you not only overcame your fear, but you did it so thoroughly as to have been able to enjoy the book. I'm proud of you! And a great review to boot, a thumbs up from me. :)

Looks like I'll be reading more Stephen King after all!

Oh boy... ;)

I'm glad you liked the King! Some suggestions if you want to read more - Duma Key, The Stand, The Talisman. If you want more scary stuff, and it sounds like maybe you don't, The Shining, Salem's Lot, and Carrie.

I have The Stand, Under the Dome, The Shining, Cell and Salem's Lot at the moment - I'd like to read Carrie I think. I had a copy once but I gave it away, quite thankfully really since I was definitely too young at the time. I'll keep y'all posted!

Great review Ellie! Get's a thumbs up from me! I didn't like Carrie that much - It was good but I prefer others over it. Go for Misery! God I loved that book!

So good to know I'm not alone with the mind blocks!

#150 ahahahahahahahahahahaaa!

#155 & 159 Oh you're going to love Carrie! Great review. Sounds like you had a similar Stephen King experience to me - it was a complete surprise to me how much depth his stuff has...

#166 Ah, Misery... Now that was scary ;o)

I actually loved Cell...but there really are lots of problems with it. The premise is kind of silly, and Mr. King kind of forgot to finish it (it just...ends...without resolving anything) but I still loved it while I read it. *shrug*

Also thought The Stand was great. :)

Ooh. I'd never considered reading Stephen King before, but you have made me begin to consider thinking about the possibility of maybe starting to ponder it, if you catch my drift. Good work!

Really liked your review too :-)

I went looking for Carrie on the market today, but they didn't have it. They had Misery and a few others, but I've got enough to be going on with at the moment - and I couldn't find another book to fill the 2 for £5 deal. And I was dying for the loo.

At the moment I'm trying to choose books to take on holiday. I've managed to narrow it down to two squashed-up sides of A4 (from nearly 4) but it's just so HARD! So many books that would be perfect holiday reading, and a good handful that need to be read away from work so I can get right in there and let myself get swept along... You can't read a really good page-turner at work! At least, not until the snow arrives again and Bakewell empties. *sigh*

And there's so much to do by Saturday! Online grocery shopping to begin so we get an order when we arrive home. A huge collection of books to pick up from a nearby village (400 books, woohoo! All unread, so I'm hoping there might be one or two I've been looking for!). Another visit to Mrs H's to clear some more of her shelves. Dry cleaning and multiple prescriptions to pick up. Packing. BOOK CHOOSING! And my sister's had a tantrum so we're coming home early to get the kittens a few days early...

Still, I'll be off and free to read like a madwoman for EIGHT DAYS! This Saturday to the following Sunday, reopening on Monday. The journey takes a couple of hours, so I'll be taking all my tablets but it's not TOO long. And there'll be a service station stop where I happen to know they have great offers on yummy sweets and a very tempting book section...

Congratulations for having the time off to read like a madwoman, Ellie! I hope you enjoy every single minute!

Your review of Pet Sematary actually has me interested. I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

And congratulations on your newest fur babies.

Choosing books to take on holiday is one of the hardest decisions in ones life! Good fun at the same time though! I always end up taking way more books than I actually need just in case y’know? ;)

Well, Mrs H's is off tomorrow now, because she's having as hectic as week as us, apparently. We've had some vile children (so vile I almost had to ask them to leave) and a revolting woman in the shop, then my stepdad arrived, tried to take apart our glass counter and managed to drop part of it, smashing the rather expensive Harry Potter collectable bust (a Gentle Giant bust of Draco Malfoy) I'd donated to the cause. So he's had to be binned. Which is sh*te.

Then our after-work appointment ran late because Roger From The Cook Shop's wife had to take the dog to the vet's (diagnosis: "just a bit of a cold"), so we had to come home, idle for fifteen minutes, then pick up seven boxes of books in the pouring rain. When we got home, we had to unload seven boxes of books in the pouring rain. One was dropped on my toe. One was a funny shape and I ended up cracking my knuckle on the hall radiator trying to carry it. My arms hurt and my clothes are all cold and soggy.

When we opened the boxes, we found that 'a few duplicates of each book' was the understatement of the century. There are, for example, about 30 copies of Ark Angel, the sixth of Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, about 8 'Practical Jokes' book boxes, 50 (yes, FIFTY) books winningly entitled Planet Patio by some TV gardener, another 25 or so copies of a book called The Virgin: A Novel, no idea what that is, 20 or more copies of an everyday love poetry collection, and A WHOLE HUGE BOX FULL OF HARDBACK COPIES OF BERGDORF BLONDES by Plum Sykes. That's not the half of it. It was so bad that Mum didn't even mind me and my sister plundering a load of the duplicates for our own amusement. Soooooo, I've acquired unread copies of:

Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Skyes (hardcover)
True to Form by Elizabeth Berg
Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz
The Virgin: A Novel by Erik Barmack
You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems for Real Life edited by Mary D. Esselman
Million Dollar Baby by F.X. Toole

... and a used copy of First Daughter by Christa Roberts, the book of the movie.

Then I headed up to the newly-shelved storage area above my flat, and managed to nick a couple I spotted there too! Now that the books are coming out of the boxes, it's easier to see things I want! So I snatched up the hardcover copy of Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink, and two Willa Cathers to try, Lucy Gayheart and A Lost Lady. Now I'm off to find pain au chocolat and coffee and try to salvage some part of the evening! It's 10 o'clock and I've done exactly nothing!

Woooof..you've had an adventuresome day, Ellie. When do you go away for your holiday and where are you going?

The plus side of all those duplicates (I hope there are many budding gardening enthusiasts in Bakewell who will snap up Planet Patio) is that you get yourself a nice haul to take home.

Good luck picking out books to take with you on your trip. I find that the hardest part of packing whenever I have to travel. Everything else goes into the suitcase in about 15 mins, but book selection ... gee, that sometimes takes me 2 days, with multiple last minute changes.

Hello Caro! Yes, the haul made it almost worth while. We'll be taking a load of books to the shop with us tomorrow anyway - copies of the novels and poetry for their shelves and the display stand, and the patio book for the display, window and gardening shelf. Makes us hope we'll still be in business long enough to sell them all! Not sure there's any hope for the Will Young and Gareth Gates biographies though... :-(

We'll be going on holiday on Saturday. It should be for a week, but we'll probably be home on Thursday or Friday to fetch the kittens after my sister threw a hissy fit and decided that she wanted them NOW... This was the compromise, apparently. We're not re-opening the shop until Monday anyway, so plenty of time off, which is the important thing. We're going to a cottage on a manor estate a couple of hours west, right near Hay-on-Wye. (Yes, I said it, HAY-ON-WYE!) The estate has lots of countryside to wander through, a pool and tennis courts (the latter, I suspect, will not be used while we're away!), and I'll be taking a stack of books and stocking up on delicious things that I never eat while I'm at work. Like cheesecake. Lots of cheesecake. And maybe, if my stomach and my nerves behave themselves, I might even make it to the Book Town itself. Though given that even I'm sick of buying books right now (I'm actually in the mood for reading over buying, I think I've overdone it recently!) maybe I'd be better staying away!

The book choosing is not going well. The list is currently sitting at around 130 books, so I suspect Wednesday's day off will largely consist of me surrounded by all the books I've pulled down from my shelves, reading a page here and a blurb there, desperately trying to narrow it down. The final choice will be Friday night/Saturday morning if experience is anything to go by, since I change my mind so much! If anyone's going to miss me just too much while we're away (though we are taking a single laptop with us so we can order groceries for when we get home so I might drop by once or twice) I'll be scheduling a few posts to crop up on my blog over the week:

http://musingsofabookshopgirl.blogspot.com/

The advantage of driving to your holiday is that you have ample room for books .. both the ones you decide to take with you as well as any you inadvertently buy while you're on holiday. :-)

I hope you have a nice time on your trip, Ellie! It sounds like a very relaxing place to stay. :)

You are going to Hay-on-Wye?! Why are you bothering to pack books when you will have a gazillion to choose from there? lol

Safe travels, Ellie!

Thanks all. And Stasia - NEAR Hay-on-Wye, so no guarantees! I'm just looking forward to Not Being At Work... Apparently there's a bit of confusion right now with my stepdad thinking we're staying until Saturday and claiming he'll stay by himself if needs be, and Hannah thinking we're coming home early and sulking already. I don't think Mum will be booking a holiday next year! A week off, sure, but not going away. She'd prefer a hotel holiday so she doesn't have to do so much preparation and housework - so would I, I guess - but sadly just-over-a-year wages from a small bookshop just won't cut it...

Anyway, here's the first of two reviews for the books I finished yesterday:

47) See John Run by Kevin Joslin



Subtitled The Complete Radio 2 Janet & John Marsh Stories, As told by Terry Wogan, these stories will be familiar to fans of Terry's breakfast show. They were an absolute highlight - how they got away with it, no one knows - and here they are, collected for the first time in book form, in aid of Children in Need. How could I resist?

They are basically a very clever, very naughty update of the traditional Janet and John stories that used to be a staple part of the learning-to-read book diet. In this modern take, Janet and John Marsh are a middle-aged couple. Janet is sensible and long-suffering, while John is flamboyant and manages to make the most innocent of days sound VERY rude. Which usually ends up with him suffering a nasty fate at Janet's hands. See John run!

Because they're so short - perfect bitesize nibbles of brilliance - I won't say any more, but will instead illustrate my point with a couple of extracts...

This is the opening to the story entitled 'John Goes Birdwatching':
Today, John is going birdwatching.
Do you know what birding is? John does.
John likes birds but has trouble keeping them off his plums.
John puts on his best birding outfit: a green waxed-cotton catsuit, thigh-length rubber boots and green eyeshadow.
Janet drops John off at the train station, ties a label on his duffel coat and tells him to behave.

And here's the end of 'Janet and John Go to the Market', in which John offers to help Mrs Abercrombie on her fish stall while Janet does her grocery shopping:
John says, "I saw Mrs Abercrombie who told me that the man who usually helps her out was away, so she asked if I could fillet for her. She showed me how she likes the bed arranged. She gave me ten pounds and I left her with a big smile and a red snapper."
Do you know how many chicken drumsticks can fit into a traffic-boy?
Janet does.
Poor John.

Are you smiling? Then you'll love this book! Oh, and there's an even funnier CD compilation full of Terry's infectious giggling as he tries to hold it together and finish each story, which is fantastic!

Hmmm, I've actually never heard of these Janet and John characters...don't know if they ever made it over to the US or not. *shrug*

Stephen, they're books for children learning to read:



...personally, I read "Dick and Jane", but I can't imagine they were very different!



...the BBC has a long history of double entendre in order to get around broadcasting rules...

Ellie, I hope all the holiday timing stress sorts itself out and you have a fantastic holiday. Maybe we can help you with your holiday book shortlist? ;o)

I've never heard of them either, but I love Terry Wogan. He is a national treasure.

Ellie, I hope you have a great time - I love Hay-on-Wye. I haven't been for a while, even though it isn't that far from Bristol.

They are just like 'Dick and Jane', you're right - they're old books now, but my mum and dad had theirs still around our house so I started on them when Mum was teaching me to read as a little girl!

I remember reading "Dick and Jane" when I was learning to read. I have very fond memories of my Dick & Jane books and my dad bought me a yellow toy dog I named Spot even though he looked nothing like Spot in the book, but I used a black marker and colored around one of his eyes ... ta da .. Spot!

Ellie, so glad to hear that you enjoyed the King! Great review!

I didn't have Dick & Jane when I was learning to read. We had Tom, Betty, Flip and Susan (Flip was the dog). I don't think I've ever heard of anybody else being afflicted with that series.

So much for me to catch up on in this thread. Ellie I hope you have a wonderful holiday. I wish I could go with you since I really didn't get one this year. Just a few days here and there but nothing like a week away. Now for your book selections for your holiday, I know when I usually choose books to take with me I usually go for paperback because very rarely did we drive to our destinations. If we drove then I would choose many books just so I could read in the car.

I loved the Dick and Jane books. I don't remember ever owning my own books but I do remember reading them whether it was in school or from the library.

Happy reading all!!!

I used to be able to read in the car - how wonderful that would be now! I seem to have grown into nausea-in-the-car since I was little - not actually throwing up, touch wood, but a good queasy 'I think I'll just sit back with my eyes shut now' kind of feeling. It would make the fear of the journey much easier if I could read all the way there. Sometimes magazines or puzzles aren't so bad, so I might stock up.

Though right now this holiday is looking more doomed by the minute. Hannah wants to come home on Thursday (we're supposed to be away Saturday to Saturday) to get the kittens early. My stepdad, who wasn't at all happy about this, suggested that he could take Hannah back to uni a couple of days later instead, so she could still have time with the kittykats without cutting the holiday short. Hannah and Mum agreed to this - but are now saying that it wasn't part of the compromise, that was just an extra couple of days for Mum to help her pack instead of her doing it all before we go away. They still want to come home on Thursday. Graham complained that he would stay on alone then. We could take two cars. Which puts me right in the middle of the fracas. Do I let Graham drive down on his own or do I have to drive with him to keep him company? (Bearing in mind that my fear of this journey had set the original plan as 'taking lots of pills then trying to sleep on my cuddly Nemo in the back of the car'). Do I come home early with Mum and Hannah and leave someone on holiday ON THEIR OWN, or do I stay an extra two days alone with Graham and then have to drive BACK the other way with him, possibly having to listen to bitter mumblings about kittens all the way? See what I mean...????

So I've formulated a back-up plan, in which I sod the lot of them and stay here myself! Let's face it, with my agoraphobia and IBS it would be much easier for me to say 'fine, I won't go'. Which I think gets overlooked sometimes. They can go in as many cars as they want, eat what they want and where they want, go wherever they like, and come home whenever they choose, either separately or together. I can stay here, do an online shop of nice things for myself, and enjoy my week off in peace. It would be more productive for me to be here anyway. My flat's gotten to the point where I'm itching to get everything out of every cupboard and drawer, go through it all, chuck things out and get things tidy. Then clean the whole place from top to bottom. But I haven't had time for it, working six days a week. You need a couple of days at it really and who wants to do that when that's their whole time off gone? And my garden needs a good going over before the cold sets in, clear all the weeds and dead things. I can read and watch a couple of the DVDs that have been waiting for me forever. And maybe if I fancy it I could go into town...

My stomach, like anyone with IBS, responds to stress and upset and it's been worse over the past couple of days. Who needs the hassle, really? It's my week off too, and if I can extract myself from this disaster zone and have a pleasant, productive week off, with a clean and tidy flat and a pile of finished books at the end of it, then great! *sigh* I am *this* close...

Well, sorry for the rant all, but sometimes you just need a place to spill, y'know? I'm here on my own and there's no family member that isn't tangled up in this spiralled-out-of-control muddle, so here we are... *smiles timidly* You can carry on now... :-)

I hope that you get it sorted out and end up happy with the result..
It might be just the ticket .. for you to try to spend some time on your own..
whatever you decide, my thoughts will be with you :)



and for you !

What Kath said, Ellie!

Hey, I have a suggestion! Don't get the Limbs of Satan at all, and all the problems *pff* disappear!

I get the feeling my stepdad is thinking the exact same thing! I broached the holiday thing with Mum this morning, which resulted in an angry phone call to my stepdad to tell him to stop being difficult. The new proposal is that either we all go and all come back on Thursday, or Hannah and I stay here, get the new kittens, and I do my thing on the side. Which wasn't quite what I had in mind - Hannah and the babies didn't quite feature in the plan.

So we're having a family conference (read: flaming argument in which tears will end up being shed, potentially by everyone at this point) tonight. Something to look forward to. This whole thing is so sour now I really don't see it being clawed back from the void even if we DO go! I can just see it now - Graham wandering out by himself, Mum pretending to bury herself in something else but secretly trying to hold everyone together, Hannah sitting by herself in her room watching TV on her laptop... *sigh*

On the plus side, I have two and a half clean rooms and my dry cleaning done. And I start a week off in two days whatever happens. Think I'll go back to my book now and try to forget about the whole fiasco for a bit! I have Ovaltine and custard creams, so look on the bright side! :-)

48) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows



This is one of those books that will be inevitably be described as 'charming', 'quirky', and 'delightful' by reviewers. For me it was all of those things, though perhaps the profusion of hype about its nostalgic charm ended up ruining my reading experience a little. The perils of being late to the game and having heard so many other people's opinions prior to reading it, I suppose.

It started out wonderfully well. It reminded me very much of one of my favourite books of this year so far, 84, Charing Cross Road. Juliet, the character that links all of the letters in this epistolary novel, is a London writer whose style and sparkling wit could have been lifted directly from Helene Hanff's own letters. Her enthusiastic book chatter and musings on reading cement the similarities even further, particularly in the letters to her publisher and dear friend Sidney. So far, so wonderful!

When she begins to receive letters from various members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, she is intrigued and wonders if she's finally found a subject for a new book. The Society is an impromptu group formed during the German Occupation of the island, hastily invented to get them out of trouble during a clash with a German officer one evening. The members of the Society are wonderfully diverse and eccentric characters, and before long Juliet - and those around her - are eagerly looking forward to every letter. Finally, Juliet begins to wonder if she shouldn't just bite the bullet and go to Guernsey herself...

For me, the beginning and end of the book were the highlights. At the beginning there was plenty of bookish banter, friendly teasing and off-the-cuff reflections on literature which, for a book addict like myself, were very amusing to read. At the end... well, let's just say everything fell into place for Juliet and left this reader with a big smile on her face! Unfortunately I found the middle of the book dragged a little bit - not much, but enough - with some of the letters getting much longer (though not necessarily more interesting) and some of that wonderful wit disappearing for a time.

That said, it remained an easy read and was quite informative and moving regarding life under the Occupation. I was glad when it began to pick up pace again nearer the end so I could close the final page feeling like I'd read a truly lovely book!

#194: I enjoyed that one too, Ellie. I am glad you did as well.

It was lovely! And it's good to finally have read it - usually I buy the book but end up reading it so far behind everyone else...

Looks like the decision may have been made. The kittens may be arriving tonight. My sister and I would stay home with them, with my Nana and Grandad coming too since there's also a third cat, chickens, a duck, a goose and a large house to look after. Mum and Graham would be heading off to the cottage for their holiday on Saturday, hassle-free. Nothing concrete yet until we've all okayed it later, but it seems to be the easiest option all round. I'm disappointed in a way because there's a pool and the cottage looks so nice, but right now the stress and arguments seem to be outweighing the benefits! And it WOULD be nice to get my flat in shape again. It hasn't been properly tidy and clean since I moved in, I don't think! *sigh*

Hmmm, I'm starting to wonder if Richard isn't right about the whole 'kittens are the spawn of Satan' thing. I mean, this is clearly their evil doings!

A week home with no work and no worries and a big pile of books to read sounds like the perfect vacation to me! :)

It could be worse.. a week off is nothing to sneeze at. It will go quickly though to enjoy every minute!

Stephen - I'm going to pretend you didn't say that... I'll be ooohing and aaaaahing over them as much as the next person! :-D

Kath - Exactly. That's why I spoke up today - I've been looking forward to this post-summer week off since the spring and I'll enjoy it, whatever it takes! I'm definitely not wasting it, it's all we get every year except Christmas... And I don't need to worry quite so much about the whole 'choosing books' thing now either - though I'll narrow it down a bit so I don't waste valuable reading time trying to choose from EVERYTHING... *squee!*

#194 I'm glad you enjoyed that one, Ellie - I thought it was very good.

Hope you have a good week off, whatever you end up doing. Or rather, wherever you end up doing your reading.

Haha, well, don't get me wrong...I mean, I'm not anti-kitten or anything. But, I'm definitely seeing a connection here between kittens and wrecked family vacation... ;)

I agree with the "kittens as vehicles of evil & harbingers of doom" thesis. I'm glad you liked the last book too - it reminded me of 84 Charing Cross Road too!

> Stephen - Well, yes, I'll give you that. But it's my sister with a bee in her bonnet ABOUT said kittens that's really set this whole thing in motion... Grrr.

> Now, dear Poke, behave! I love kittens and now everything's straightened out I can enjoy them with in full adoring mode. They have a new scratch-post/climbing platform thingy big enough for ME to climb on, a little bed, some toys, and a puppy cage so we can keep them with us in the office at work while they're tiny... :-)

Anyway, it's sorted. Mum and Graham are going on a romantic holiday for two, albeit in a rather larger cottage than they need without us there! They can eat out more and go out together, which is nice. Hannah and I will stay here, with my grandmother for company, and I'll get my flat and garden sorted. I may go into town and do an enormous seven-charity-shop raid. Or I might just do yet another humungous and ill-advised Amazon order, we'll see. I've started a luxury online grocery shop to arrive on Saturday, involving movie/reading snacks, ingredients for my favourite minced beef and mushroom stroganoff that I never get chance to cook, an ENORMOUS chicken pizza, stuff for smoked salmon and scrambled egg on toast, yummy lunch bits and a tub of ice cream. Chunky Monkey or finest toffee honeycomb, haven't decided yet. The kittens are being collected tonight! AWWWWW! :-)

And you know what, since it's been settled I suddenly feel a whole lot better! My nerves are gone, my stomach's settled, I can't stop smiling, and I suddenly feel very relieved and sleepy (I was awake til 2am last night worrying about it). Hannah's happy with the babies, Mum and Graham get a full week's holiday... all good! If I hadn't stuck a spanner in the works we'd still be arguing about the whole thing, so all's well that ends well!

Well done Ellie! Good to know that Bakewell's not about to descend into civil war!

I was going to offer advice about icecream, but then realised that I can't decide which would be better. I think you should get both.

Toffee honeycomb *swoon*

So glad it's all decided and the solution is giving universal satisfaction. Except, of course, to the kittens...don't walk downstairs with your arms full of medieval armor no matter what. That's their next evil plot.

Don't worry - they'll be safely tucked away in the big living room until they're a bit bigger! Just like Pippa (our little black panther) was when she was little. Less for them to fall off/hide under/get stuck behind in there, and Pippa won't be able to initiate any fights while they're settling in... And they'll be in our office, of course. One lady has already booked a tandem book drop/kitten viewing for post-week off, and my old manager at the MIND charity shop is VERY excited to meet them on our next trip over there. I repeat: AWWWW!

>206 elliepotten: Wrong vowel in that sentence, Ellie dear: EWWWW! is what you meant, of course.

Now you see I am definitely a cat lover and will almost certainly turn into a scary-cat-lady one day, but I'm going to subscribe to the kittens-spawn-of-Satan-evil-harbingers-of-doom theory. That's part of why I like them (evil grin).

Ellie, I'm sorry you've had such strife with all the holiday arrangements, but it sounds like everything has worked out for the best after all, so YAY! To the ice cream. BOTH. Definitely.

...and are we going to have to have words about an English lass' use of "gotten"? ;o)

Great review Ellie and Yay for getting the kittens tonight and being able to indulge yourself at home. Sounds like everything’s turned out well in the end :)

I'm so glad you were able to find a resolution, and that you'll be able to enjoy your holiday. Now it's time to relax!

I'm happy to hear you've worked everything out. I hope you have a nice week off. :)

Whew...I was stressed reading about the holiday complications. It's a good thing you spoke up and helped settle things nicely. Great grocery order, Ellie ... looks like you're well prepped to enjoy your week off.

> Fliss - Huh? What? Me? Where?

The babies are here! They're tiny and gorgeous and very, very playful. We've not had two kittens together before and they're so sweet, chasing after each other and boinking each other on the nose with those tiny paws! And Cookie's had a name change. She's a little bundle of mischief, white, with black spots on her back, so we've called her Domino - for the Bond Girl as well as the game! Playful, dotty, feisty. Millie is sweet, a great climber (a scratchy noise, we all looked round, and a tiny ginger face appeared next to my shoulder, over the back of the sofa...), and much quieter. You pick her up and she starts to nod off. You pick Domino up and she squirms like a wriggly bar of soap. Annnnnd then they went to the litter tray. Together. And tried to help me clean it out. Back to reality. It's gonna be a fun week! Now, Domino was wiggling too much to get a good photo, but here's Mum snuggling Millie!

Ahh, how cute!

Awwwww..... what a cutie! I can't wait for more kitty kat stories and photos as they settle into their new home and the bookstore.

awwwwwwwwwww sweet~~

AWWWWWWW *melts* Can I steal your kitteh?
Now we expect cat stories, shop stories *and* book reviews :P

This piccy was really dark as well, because it was already dark outside and I didn't really want to use the flash when they were just settling in... I got a really cute video of them on my camera though - Hannah bought them a kind of magic wand thingy with a jingly bell on the end and three long dangly ribbons dangling from it and they LOVE IT! It might be our failsafe method for those 'where the hell have they gone?!' moments because every time it jingled they appeared, as if by magic! I'm trying to get the blog to accept the vid but it's not looking good at the mo. I'll work on it tomorrow - OUR LAST DAY AT WORK FOR THE WEEK OFF! YES YES YES!!!

Congratulations on the new 'babies', and have a great week off!

Cute!

Almost there people! One hour, a kitten de-camp and a whole lot of cleaning to go, and we're done for the week! The babies have been in the office all day, alternately playing, jumping on each other's head/tail, chewing each other's head/tail, mewing through the bars and curling up fast asleep like a little yin and yang. We even brought them out earlier for a little walk round the shop... Mum had Domino wiggling around trying to look out the window, and I had Millie cradled in my arms peering round to look at the books (good lass!).

Unfortunately one horrible man had to come in this afternoon to ruin the last day, which is a shame since it has been quite nice the rest of the time. This guy brought in a handful of quite nice books and wanted £10 (I offered him £7). When I mentioned that the Michael Palin book is in local remainder shops for about £4 and that four of his books were children's books anyway, he started quizzing me about what we paid compared to our prices (!), and moaning about the 50p I'd put on his Larsson books 'which his wife reads as if she hasn't touched them' (the spines were creased just like any normal wear!). He wondered if it was even worth bringing them rather than donating them to Oxfam at that price (he got £8.50, for crying out loud!). I ended up snapping at him that we were a second hand bookshop, we may pay less than half of what we sell for, but the profit is still miniscule in real terms! Making £1.50, say, on a book sold, is hardly going to make anyone rich is it?

As Bernard says in Black Books (which, BTW, is even funnier now I actually work in a bookshop), "Hmmm, what shall I do with that extra pound? I know, I'll buy a luxury villa in Italy, or maybe I'll add a few more koi to my piano-shaped pool..." Well, not exactly that, but you get the point...

But, now, deep breaths, WEEK OFF IMMINENT! :-D

Green with envy, Ellie. So want another kitten, but alas it is not in the cards for the present. Have a great vacation. Staying at home with books and kittens sounds by far the better choice. It's the one I always make, but with an old cat not a kitten.

#213 ;o) #189 "My flat's gotten to the point where I'm itching to get everything out of every cupboard and drawer"; #81 "The bloody book hasn't even gotten that scary yet"

The kittens sounds adorable, although... I can't actually make anything apart from a pair of big eyes out in that photo, which is a leeeettle bit disturbing... ;o)

Have fantastic holidays Ellie, sounds like you're ready for them!

I want to steal your kitties! *checks time* You should be all done with work now so…Have a great staycation hun! :) Hope you get lots of reading done and have fun with your new babies :)

Soon the kitties will be old enough to train to growl, hiss and fiercely show their claws at all nasty patrons to your bookstore. But you can kick up your heels now because you are officially ... on VACATION!

226- I never thought of that! Excellent idea. Ellie can train her kitties to be 'attack kitties' and unleash them on the bad customers. I want to see a video of that!

Well, my vacation started with half an hour playing with the kittens when we got home, while my sister was still out at Alton Towers. Millie fell asleep on her back on my knee, and the pair of them were racing around like mad things, chasing each other leaping out from behind furniture. They're like skittish little lambs, bouncing around! When Hannah got back I think she got a bit of Kitten Envy and turned into a bit of a bitch for a few minutes, so I escaped to... clean my bathroom. Well, I figured that'd be the worst bit of cleaning the flat done - now there's just the floor to swab down in there and that's the bathroom sorted! Happy days! Now, I'm just waiting for my photos to upload and I'll post a couple more... :-)

Well, alrighty then. My Facebook photo album's throwing one and the blog uploader is running like a snail, so I've just uploaded a single profile pic instead... here we are:

I've got the cutest video of them playing with their jingly magic wandy ribbon thing too, but it won't upload anywhere! YouTube told me it would take about ten hours to upload and it won't upload to Blogger directly either! I wonder if it would send via email...?? Right, Hannah's finally stopped arsing around and done her shopping for tomorrow (compared to my luxury bagsful I think she's ordered some tiramisu, some tomatoes, maybe some bread, and that seems to be about it! Though Mum did a hell of a lot more shopping than me this week since my grandparents were coming to stay here with the other cat/duck/goose) so I can re-lax. When I went down to the house to see everyone Domino was in the waste paper basket, on its side, rolling it around like she was in one of those rotating-tunnel fairground things, and Millie was in Mum's arms, cradled on her back like a baby, fast asleep and looking like she'd just fallen off a greetings card.

It feels dead weird, sitting here knowing that for eight whole days I can read what I want, when I want; I can actually watch movies; I can eat what I want, when I want (which definitely doesn't happen when IBS meets Working Every Day); I can stay up as late as I want and get up as late as I like; I can nap on my chair without worrying it'll throw my sleep patterns out for work; I don't have to rush home from work thinking, 'well, I need to have a shower now so my hair will dry and I can get X,Y and Z ready for work tomorrow'; I could go for a walk up in the woods; I can watch Sunday trashy telly; I could have a whole day of old Audrey Hepburn and James Dean movies; I could go into town and trawl the charity shops for bargain books; I could finally get my whole house cleared out, tidied up and cleaned so it's a pleasure to come home to... Oh, the possibilities! *squees a little bit through the stifled nearly-midnight yawn* Goodnight all!

The kittens are adorable. Who could accuse them of being evil!? :)

232: Haha, yep, sounds like you're in for a fantastic week. Have a good time and enjoy it dear! :)

Another lovely photo!

(I feel like the one on the left. Domino, right? Why am I here commenting at a quarter to two in the morning?)

Yay for the endless possibilities of the beginning of a holiday!

233 only a very evil person....

The new 'babies' are SOOO cute...

#229 Much better ;o)

Enjoy your book/film/tv/food/time binging!

Enjoy the time off!

Just droppin' in! Let's see - Saturday I washed down every bit of lino flooring in my flat, Mum and Graham left, I cleaned out the babies' litter tray about a million times, I cooked a pizza the size of a small country, the new series of 'Merlin' came on that evening so I watched it up here with my sister, I read some of Blood Price by Tanya Huff, and I rounded off the night with a late-night shower and watching Harrison Ford in Witness until nearly 1am...

Sunday I had breakfast in bed with my book, then spent the entire day in the garden getting the nasty bit of the week over with. Edging, weeding, clearing, mowing, cleaning the windows where my stepdad had flung dirty water at them while he was doing the pointing around them... Finally I staggered wearily back inside, had a hot bath that eased my muscles but made me way too hot and bothered, ate Chunky Monkey and farmhouse toffee ice cream (yep, I got both!) and watched a science programme about the sun in space. With the Northern Lights! I ended the day with a really bad headache and feeling a bit icky, like I might have overdone it under the sun a bit.

Today I had a morning of still feeling icky, but pulled myself together enough to read my book and then pop into Bakewell with Hannah so she could buy yummy things from the supermarket and I could battle through the grannies to the bookshelves in a couple of charity shops. I bought six books, including Small Island, I, Robot and Alias Grace. Back home, I've placed another Amazon order and I'm still deciding between the Marketplace maybes I've got lined up (well, I'm not going to spend my holiday fund anywhere else now, am I?!), made stroganoff with rice and had to race down to shut up the hens/goose/duck without burning the flat down partway through... Now I think I might go get more ice cream!

Well, that's me up to date over here, see you all in a day or two!

Watch out or Domino will end up like Zoe! (see above)

240- Oooh...another book order? What did you get??? :)

Hey, was that show about the Sun on the Discovery Channel, and did it mention Solar Probe, with a demo of the heat shield? If so, that's the spacecraft I'm currently working on. They were in about 3 months ago filming at work for a documentary on the sun. Friends have told me they saw it, but I haven't managed to catch it yet.

Sounds like you have been very productive, Ellie. Minus the headache it sounds like you're having a great time. I hope it continues (the good time, not the headache! =P)

Sounds like you're off to a good start to your holiday (minus the headache), Ellie. Any new tricks the kitty kats have entertained you with?

>241 ronincats: That just makes me want kitteh snorgles! Look at tha belleh!!!!

Ellie, your kittens are adorable, your reading plans sound fantastic, and you have a clean house and time to enjoy it. Sounds perfect to me!

>241 ronincats:: Roni, your Zoe looks so content. That picture gives new meaning to the "ball of fur" kitty description. ;-)

Hey folks, I don't have a clean flat yet... The kitchen and bathroom may be getting there, but the living room still looks like a bomb's hit it. Though starting with the garden seems to have been a good move since it's been chucking it down all morning... :-)

Thus far this week, I've read Tanya Huff's Blood Price (I LOVE my 'Blood Ties' box set), most of Happyslapped by a Jellyfish (the ramblings of Karl Pilkington) and started Eating for England, a quirky foodie book by Nigel Slater.

This week so far, including stuff from our shop, charity shops and the boxful of Amazon books that arrived this morning, I've bagged:
Wait for Me!, the long-awaited memoirs of Deborah Devonshire (THE LAST MITFORD AUTOBIOGRAPHY!)
Halo by Alexandra Adornetto (with the scrumptiousest cover)
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Frida by Hayden Herrera, the biography on which the movie was based
Small Island by Andrea Levy
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
The Hungry Ghosts by Anne Berry
The Fry Chronicles, the new autobiography by Stephen Fry
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (yippee!)
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (now I can finally watch the movie!)
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean
Carrie by Stephen King (for Halloween spookiness)
Blood Trail, the next Vicki Nelson book by Tanya Huff
Stray by Rachel Vincent (the first in the Faythe Sanders series)
Growing Up Amish by Anna Dee Olsen
The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine by Janes le Fanu
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (to replace my trade paperback)
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (to start the series)
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (for Christmas reading)
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (I may already have this...)

There are, actually, quite a few individual Marketplace orders and one more two-book Amazon order to go... *coughs and has the good grace to look slightly ashamed even as she grins happily*

NEW THREAD TIME, since we're getting so close to the dreaded 2-5-0...

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98541

And wouldn't you know, it's been up ten whole seconds already and Stasia hasn't arrived yet?! :-)