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The King in Yellow (1895) Robert W. Chambers A collection of short stories written in 1895 and having a very distinct Poe influence. There is a vague thread throughout the book relating to a drama called The King in Yellow which has been banned and will apparently send its readers insane. The first few stories give some background to this and are connected by a shared universe where this book exists. But other stories are simply stand-alone pieces with a supernatural element. In truth, it's not very good. The first story is probably the best (madness, jealousy, the king in yellow book as a main feature of the plot) but the others are fairly forgettable. Chambers can certainly write, in a manner that has a literary touch, an educated quality, but he simply doesn't know how to tell a story. He will really drag you through the mill for the sake of a twist ending that feels enormously anticlimactic, providing inane details that offer nothing of value regarding the story or worse, meandering plots that become swamped in uninteresting (and hugely underdeveloped) characters. The book is also dated in the sense that a number of cliches are present. For example, the story 'The Demoiselle d'Ys' is about an American man lost on the Breton moors where he meets a lady falconer who takes him back to her home. They fall in love (very quickly) and in the morning he is bitten by a snake and as he dies he turns around and sees that her home is actually a collection of ruins. Then he falls on a gravestone that reveals her name: DEMOISELLE D'YS WHO DIED FOR THE LOVE OF A STRANGER A.D 1573. All I could think, as I laughed at this, was about that episode of Friends where Joey thinks he's gonna hit the bigtime because he's been cast as the lead in a movie called 'Shutterspeed' about a man who meets a woman and they fall in love. Then when he goes to her house to find her, the old woman there says: 'Betsy's been dead for ten years.' Anyway, I found this highly average to say the least. If you're a fan of short (spooky) stories or the writing of Poe, then you might find this worthy of a look. I found it somewhat dull. 4/10

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propose..oh Johnny you're so ...mysterious..mildly contrary..oh Johnny..' A difficult silence was avoided by the insistent trrreinnnng of the landline. 'Hi . I am Miriam Coveryourback, manager at Wash em and Leave em nursing of Haringey?', she said, the unnecessary upward inflection producing a ludicrous, unanswerable question. 'OK...' 'Yeah hi..errr my head nurse Ms Deborah Snoezelem is in tears right now because of an assault by a ..Mrs... Horrible I think..Rose Horrible..? Any...

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I have not been to church in months, but that is because I have been in Tbilisi, waiting for a passport for my son to arrive. Most the churches around here are Georgian Orthodox. Occasionally I hear singing. They don't have stain glass windows, they have religious paintings and metallic images. I am not sure whether the images are actually in silver and gold, but it looks so. There are no pews, everyone stands up. People appear more religious here than in the UK. Many people cross themselves when they pass a church, even young people. My son was born through surrogacy, which the Georgian Orthodox church is very much against. I saw a clip on YouTube of a priest being interviewed. He was worried the Antichrist would be born via surrogacy. I doubt my son is the Antichrist. If he is then he hides it very well. I am glad you posted Anna, because it reminds me the monthly Unitarian meeting in Reading is this afternoon (I think). I will try to zoom in.

'So she can be near her 'winky dinky super slinky Johnny'? I DON'T THINK SO! OUT ... NOW!' And there was no brooking Rosie in her present mood. All for the best really, I didn't fancy having food snorted all over me again. I never did get the curry stains out of my favourite dicky. 'Darling, you called me your husband. When are you going to ... (Bernadette is wonderful,(love how she can shout just like Howard's mother 😂) as are all the characters. Such a well written and hilarious series. We've been watching it right from the start again. Hope to watch Young Sheldon again soon, it is just as good.)

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"Lord of the Flies" I was a bit disappointed after reading this book. My expectations were different, and as often happens, they weren't met.

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face , so help me I'll...' 'I shall only let Johnny decide..Johnny do inform your wife of how we met..and nothing ever happened..in fact Johnny asked me..over dumpling curry with radishes..if I want a relationship..I laughed soo much I cried..am just..' 'Rosie..we met when Debbie was at a university convention..I was doing mental health, she general...we laughed so much that I went for dinner. ...she laughed at me so I dropped it..and now give her a chance to care for daddy...' [PS .Bernadette is amazing poppy and my OH accused me of having designs on her years ago. 😃 😀 😄 )

piece of serendipity finding each other again like this. It must be meant to be!' 'I'll tell you what's meant to be, you little hussy,' shrieked Rosie, getting into Debbie's face. Well, not exactly her face really, Rosie was on the short side, it was more into Debbie's chest area. But Rosie, once riled, was a veritable little spitfire (think Bernadette from Big Bang Theory) and enough to make the burliest of males quake at the knees. 'You will have nothing further to do with either my father or my husband (a slight departure from the truth, but Debbie wasn't to know, and I intended to make an honest woman of her as soon as possible) Get out! If I ever see your despicable, conniving ...

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Jeepers that performance Wass terrible. Against one of the best who are hosts. I cannot see Scotland getting 3 points currently.

Germany 5 - 1 Scotland You can always rely on Scotland to embarrass themselves.

'The Human Stain' by Somerset Maugham. I enjoy reading Maugham, but it's not my favorite novel.

Currently reading Worth Dying For, Lee Child.

in my care for several years, in particular so I stay in touch with my winky dinky super slinky Johnny here..what a great

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A Song from Dead Lips by William Shaw Here I am sampling another starter in a detective series. I’m a glutton for punishment, but I do like variety. This one is set in London in 1968, the height of swinging London and flower power! Set around a Metropolitan Police squad room which means the inhabitants are racist, homophobic, sexist, misogynist, tribal and probably corrupt. The two protagonists dropped into this loving and caring atmosphere are Cathal Breen and Helen Tozer. Breen is a DS and is Irish: it wasn’t easy being Irish in Britain in the 1960s. Tozer is from Devon and is female, which leads to problems as she wants to work in CID which is a very male domain. The backdrop to the crime being investigated is the music scene in London, particularly a group of young women who follow the Beatles. There are a few brushes with actual history, like Nobby Pilcher’s arrest of John Lennon and Yoko Ono for drug possession. Another historical aspect to this is the Biafran War. The Nigerian community in London plays a significant part in this. Shaw does manage to highlight the British government role in the very bloody war (as you might guess a rather ignoble one). There’s mention of the fascist coup in Greece and Enoch Powell’s views are noted. The details seem to be accurate and I remember most of the technology (or lack of it) and the fact that everyone seemed to smoke. The plotting is pretty good and both of the main characters are suitably flawed. There are twists as you would expect and on the whole it was entertaining. 6 and a half out of 10 Starting Etc Etc Amen by Howard Male