Hayley

I think this one deserves credit for making us picture a horrific concept before we've even opened the book! I thought The Woman in Black was very good. It was a lot less scary than I expected, but brilliantly atmospheric.

That's a pretty good summary of my weekend actually! Thank you. The only problem is I don't want them to be over now!

Oooh this one sounds intriguing, I might try it! Have you read His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnett? Not quite the same as this but it is also about piecing together clues to a murder and set in Scotland (I think the author has associations with Glasgow but I'm not sure if he's from there). It's quite intense and strange but I thought it was very good!

I got distracted while looking for something earlier and ended up reading all of the short story The Veldt by Ray Bradbury. It's very weird and pretty disturbing - but good!

Best to get it out of the way I suppose She really didn't do anything - she just walked out of the open front door! She prefers breaking in to things... like the bin . My foot is okay, thank you. I expected it to hurt for a lot longer but it's not even sore unless I push it today. I do feel very lucky that it was my heel and not the soft part of my foot! Thank you, I'm alright. The nice things did balance the rubbish bits out. Honestly, my heart when I realised all the doors were open... she got a lot of fusses and treats when she came back in for me!

I'm starting my latest update with an obvious cry for sympathy because I have had a run of bad luck this weekend and I've barely read anything. First, I had a really busy work day yesterday (working from home) and was supposed to have somebody come to replace a window during an hour break in the morning - did he come at the right time? No. Then he left every single door open and let my puppy escape (thankfully she didn't go far and came back when I called her - but beagles are not known for having great recall and she's not even 6 months old yet). Then I stepped on a rolled up mat and a sewing needle went straight into the heel of my foot (and it was really stuck - making me cringe just remembering it). In between time I had to deal with a customer being really rude to me and I managed to stub my toe - hard - on the same foot I stabbed with a needle. Looking on the bright side - I did get to meet my nephew for the first time today, I saw a butterfly for the first time this year and I had hot cross buns for dinner. So, it's not all bad. Now I've gotten that off my chest - review time Syren by Angie Sage 4.5/5 I feel like I'm probably being repetitive with my reviews of the books in this series, but they really are always great escapist adventures. Syren explores a completely new part of the world, a collection of islands which are very different from the settings we've seen so far. I was initially worried that the alternative setting might mean this felt like a side-story, but it's actually linked to the previous books and overall plot perfectly. This book (the fifth in the series) also introduced some interesting character development and I'm looking forward to seeing where Angie Sage is going with those ideas in the next books.

It's definitely an issue here but it's something I hope will improve once we've gotten all of our technical issues sorted - and we have a few things to try out once that happens . Luna - if we manage to discover the secret I'll let you know!

Still (unfortunately!) can’t give a precise date because we need to switch hosts before it can be fixed and we have an ongoing issue with that switch. I’ll definitely update everyone when we have a set time!

Another one for the spring equinox Where am I going? I don't quite know. Down to the stream where the king-cups grow- Up on the hill where the pine-trees blow- Anywhere, anywhere. I don't know. Where am I going? The clouds sail by, Little ones, baby ones, over the sky. Where am I going? The shadows pass, Little ones, baby ones, over the grass. If you were a cloud, and sailed up there, You'd sail on water as blue as air, And you'd see me here in the fields and say: "Doesn't the sky look green today?" Where am I going? The high rooks call: "It's awful fun to be born at all." Where am I going? The ring-doves coo: "We do have beautiful things to do." If you were a bird, and lived on high, You'd lean on the wind when the wind came by, You'd say to the wind when it took you away: "That's where I wanted to go today!" Where am I going? I don't quite know. What does it matter where people go? Down to the wood where the blue-bells grow- Anywhere, anywhere. I don't know. Spring Morning by A A Milne

What did you decide!? I always have to pace myself when I find a great new series. I don't want it to be over too fast . I just finished reading the fifth book in the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage - which is an example of a series I'm pacing myself with. It's also a children's book, so definitely below the intellect level of your last read! Just started Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (which, from the first chapter, seems totally crazy but also very addictive).

Actually a fair point.

Yes, if anybody has thoughts on this just throw them in here! I would like to do that too! Whether in a book club or as a regular readalong, I'd definitely like to set something up for classics.

Oh good idea! My thoughts for chapters 2-5: - I really just like Rohan and Fangorn (and the Entwash just sounds nice). It's an environment that feels full of traditional adventure and, despite the very recent fate of Boromir (which is pretty swiftly moved on from!?) it doesn't feel dark or sad. - The fact that Pippin thinks to leave a trail, knowing that their friends would try to find them, is pretty heart-warming. When he starts to feel like a burden though, and that maybe it would be better for everyone if they didn't try to find him - that's just really sad. - Aragorn seems to be getting more king-like as they get closer to Gondor. - Love the whole concept of the ents. The moment that the tree leans over to warm its branches by the fire feels quite fairy-tale like and I think Tolkien made treebeard himself the perfect representation of what an old tree would be like if it could talk. - Ents are also epically tough. Saruman picked the wrong race to mess with. - The part where the orcs have to work together shows them to be so stupid and selfish, you have to wonder what society would be like if they actually won. - Merry and Pippin really show how brave and hardy they are in these chapters. Especially in the way they recover. I like them even more after that chapter. - Gandalf is brilliant. I think this is the chapter where we realise how special Gandalf is meant to be. - By the end of The White Rider things feel truly hopeful again. I really like that chapter

She still has her account but she doesn't actually use the forum at the moment. She is on twitter and (I think) Facebook though. I do remember you then!! And of course it's okay Oh no, I hope they go soon! Well that sounds good!! Always a good feeling when you find an author you know you're going to love everything by. Yay, it's great to have you back . I hope your shift went okay!

Ah, I forgot to say that I did get past 50% of my book, so a successful one for me too! (Actually finished the book last night )

First of all there's absolutely no need to apologise. You haven't overstepped at all! These are good ideas and you really aren't a newbie anyway, since you were an active member for years . On to the book club idea though: I do think this is a really good idea, as long as enough people are up for being part of it - we would definitely need to have a more focused discussion about how it would all work first though. The closest thing we have to a traditional book club is the 'group reads' section (we're currently doing a Lord of the Rings group read, for example) - how would a book club be different to the group reads? Or would it essentially mean that there is always a 'group read' active? The latter option, I think, is quite easily do-able. Yes, these are both still rules This is something we will be doing. We do archive past blogs but we can tidy other sections in a similar way.

Hi Karen, welcome back! (was your old forum name Karen?? I'm not sure whether I remember you!). I also tried 'Book Twitter' and found there was a lot about it I didn't like. I totally agree that it often feels like you'd be rudely jumping in to other people's conversations! There seemed to be a lot of nastiness and gossip going on in some circles too, which really put me off. Much nicer to be here on the forum . I noticed before I came to post here that you mentioned this in the 'Updates and Improvements' thread, so I'll reply properly there, but I think the short answer is yes! What books have you been enjoying recently?

I haven't taken an OU course myself but I looked at that history course out of curiosity Suzanne and I am super interested in the long nineteenth century, so I'd be very happy to talk about that with you .

Just popping my head in to say I haven't forgotten to post my thoughts on this weeks chapters - I just haven't had time to type them up yet! I have quite a few thoughts for these last chapters too...

Just looked it up and it sounds good! And likely fast paced? Oh well done! I’m glad it made for an enjoyable afternoon too . I went for light and humorous with my book as well. I read for quite a while last night because I couldn’t sleep so I think I’ll get quite far past half way with it today!

Hi Suzanne! You haven’t done anything wrong at all. I just had a look at your account and nothing has been removed - so your thread must not have posted. Could you try posting it again? It sounds like general chat was the right place for it

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield is 99p on kindle today (but I think only in the UK). I would highly recommend it - it’s a very beautifully written book.

Yes! Sorry, I didn’t realise I’d cut the name off! After noticing I have some daffodils coming up (in a spot which was totally overgrown with long grass when I first saw this house last year, so I didn’t know there were any flowers there!) I saw this poem about them earlier: She wore a yellow sun-bonnet, She wore her greenest gown; She turned to the south wind And curtsied up and down. She turned to the sunlight, And shook her yellow head, And whispered to her neighbour 'Winter is dead' A A Milne

Any particular plan or haven’t you decided yet?

That’s a good point. I was about to say maybe he just thought that Frodo looked like Bilbo but he’s also met Gandalf before this hasn’t he? And Gandalf questioned him about the ring - so could that be why he thinks they have it? I suppose when they get out of Moria and Frodo removes his shirt so Aragorn can check his wounds, the ring would have been visible on the chain around his neck - so if Gollum is still watching them that would have confirmed it? Galadriel being tempted by the ring is a LOT more dramatic in the film. She’s actually very chilled about it in the book! Probably but Elrond has a ring of power too and even though he is powerful it doesn’t seem quite the same. Yeah some of the longer ones get a bit… tiring.