Marie H
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Posts posted by Marie H
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Google damn quick, frankie!not knowing Nick Drake?
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Have you read the sequel, Swede Thursday? I started it but didn't get very far, I had other books with a deadline to read. But I loved it how the sequal started with
no, I didn't you know that there was a sequel
but that's another for my 'to read' list!.Phil Rickman is also a big fan of Nick Drake, and he drops a lot of l his lyrics/references to Nick in his Merrily Watkins books. (Don't tell me you don't know any Nick Drake song lyrics?)
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Greenery Street by Denis Mackail
Synopsis: Greenery Street can be read on two levels – it is a touching description of a young couple's first year together in London, but it is also a homage – something rare in fiction - to happy married life. Ian and Felicity are shown as they arrive at 23 Greenery Street, an undisguised Walpole Street in Chelsea. Their uneventful but always interesting everyday life is the main subject of a novel that evokes the charmingly contented and timeless while managing to be both funny and profound about human relations.
Review: This was a Persephone read .. I've got a small number waiting on the shelves to be read (and I'm hoping they might grow up one day to be a big number
) and it's always a pleasure and a joy to read them because they're so uncomplicated and gentle (but usually .. as is the case here .. they're also full of razor sharp insight). This is probably where the germ of the idea for the Nov reading circle came from because the street, and in this case the house, plays an important part in the story. The sad thing about Greenery Street (or probably it's a good thing) is that the couples who fall in love with the houses only stay until the first pitter patter of tiny feet and then they find that, though they never thought it before, the hall's too poky and the stairs are too steep .. meaning that there is an almost constant turn around, but while they are there, the couples love living in Greenery Street.I enjoyed your Greenery Street review poppyshake
I'm a fan of Persephone Books too, both for their themes, and the look and feel of their books. I only buy them second-hand copies, and they are rare to find. It seems most people keep them after they have read then, but are reluctant to give them away - they are so beautiful! Saplings by Noel Streatfield was my first Persephone read, it's a wonderful book.
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Hurrah! Go Steinbeck
Cannery Row is really good frankie!
Very gritty realism. I've read The Wine of Angels, it being the first of the Merrily Watkins series. It's quite good in a spooky way, but I've haven't bothered to read any others in the series. -
Wheee! Just downloaded Morrissey's Autobiography
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Elyne Road by Toumani Diabate
Toumani is the King of the Kora, for me
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P G Wodehouse is my love-lit. His work is the pick-me-up remedy to all mental anguish.
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Yes, I agree wholeheartedly Kylie
I love reading The Moomins, and it's only in this year that I first read Winnie the Pooh! I've got an audiobook of Winnie the Pooh, read by Alan Bennett. The best person to read them, I think.
I know how you feel, Marie. I missed out on reading a lot of children's classics when I was a kid. I certainly enjoy reading them now, but I also wish I had read them first when I was younger.
The Moomin book reminds me a bit of Winnie the Pooh in terms of the philosophy elements and the cute, charming adventures.
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Just finished Georges Perec's A Void.
Working on the review for the book.
2nd book for Marie H's World Tour of Fiction will be The Shooting Party by Anton Chekhov
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Hello Athena. Thanks very much for your post this morning
, and also it's nice to know that I can send you a PM too 
I've just read your review of The Mind Gym - good review! I know how you feel about not being 'on the autopilot' – but it's very difficult to explain other people that walking and talking at the same time is incredibly difficult, as I have this problem
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Aw, but what about Romero's original The Night of the Living Dead?! I haven't seen the sequels yet, but I love the original. Especially the ending.
Haha! I wouldn't have picked that theme. I love Psycho too. Chillingly brilliant. Have you seen the new(ish) show called Bates Motel, which is sort of based on Psycho? It's a really good show (in my opinion).
Yep, Psycho has that wonderful chilliness about it.
I haven't seen Bates Motel, but it looks good from TV reviews - it has a Twin Peak-ness, and I loved Twin Peaks
. TP hardly gets repeated, but it really should shown more often. -
Thanks Athena
Life has been limited since I had the brain haemorrhage. I have my mobility, so I can get abound independently, but can only manage stairs with handrails, so many buildings are no go areas for me. It really pi**es me off that in these modern days, that so few buildings have disability access
.I've always been a socially awkward person, so I'm quite happy in my own company, usually with books. I'm sure that with you having HFA, you get fed up with people thinking that they might be on the spectrum. I just had a gnawing feeling that I have something that explains the way I feel and act. I feel that I think differently from most of the world i.e. neuro-typicals.
Also,I feel a bit uneasy discussing these things online. But thanks a lot Athena
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Uummm, none that I think off the top of my head, (I always need time to think about things
) . I'll just tell you something about my disability first. I have right side hemiplegia, and aphasia, after I had a left-side brain haemorrhage 22 years ago, so I have short term memory problems, and speech and language problems. Plus, I've always thought I might be somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but I have not been diagnosed as on the spectrum.
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Psycho and Some Like It Hot are my favourite films.
Two very different themes, but then someone pointed out to me that both have men cross-dressing in them....
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I agree with you muggle not, a good meal is not quite right without wine.
But I find that I like to have a slurp or two of my wine before eating, especially when I'm doing the cooking
. I have "issues" with many recommendations of food with the wine, on the label. It might be my palate, but quite often I find the wine is better either before or after the meal, not with it. -
I'm a red wine gal myself. I'm no expert or anything (I tend to just buy whatever's on offer in the supermarket) but at the moment I've been drinking Shiraz, which is very nice.
I can't stand drinking white or rose wine, though - bleh!
I'm another red wine gal, and it must be something about my Dad's Scottish gene pool, as I never,ever buy wine unless it's on a very good offer in the supermarket
Shiraz, Merlot and Cab Sauv are my preferred grape varieties. I'm certainly not a wine snob or expert, I just drink wines that I enjoy. And at a bargain price of below £10 per bottle.
Most of the wine I drink come from the Southern Hemisphere, as I find the wines more mellow.
I do like a rose or a nice Aussie Chardonnay, on a hot summer day, with food. Sadly that will be a lot time away...
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Wow, Athena!
You did go a bit mad with the free ebook downloading! Hope you have fun and success with the cookbooks. Browsing through the Information section of your free ebooks, I could find some help from tips myself
Something tells me that you and me could have quite similar personality traits -
Congrats on your 5001 posts poppyshakes!
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I managed to spend the afternoon reading a good chunk of Georges Perec's A Void. Just another 100 pages to go.
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I can assure you you are not the only one! I very much enjoyed TDVC!
I don't think it was badly written at all. No grammatical errors or typos, and it was very great, fast paced, great thriller! That's just my humble opinion Edit: And I agree on Coelho! Although Veronica Decided To Die wasn't as bad as The Alchemist.
Hee hee, frankie, but my least overrated one was The Alchemist
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It makes me emotional too .. Sting's own version is gorgeous but this was something more
I do like Sting's version but Eva could make anything sound beautiful .. I'm sure she could sing Firestarter and make it sound beautiful .. could have I should have said 
I remember hearing Somewhere over the Rainbow by her for the first time and it literally stopped me in my tracks. I didn't think anyone could sing it more emotionally than Judy but somehow Eva did .. love her version of Songbird too.
Talking of beautiful songs .. (however it almost kills me to listen to it
)and the sublime ...
Two geniuses at work together (but I was shocked to hear that Peter had Dolly Parton in mind for the duet to start with .. I can't see that working the same but anyway I'm glad Kate agreed to do it .. Dolly turned it down apparently
) I love the video .. so simple but so beautiful.Recently I heard Peter Gabriel say that Dolly Parton was his first choice for Don't Give Up!
Quite a surreal thought, to me. 
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My everyday fave fruit is banana. Then as seasonal fruits, I love fresh apricots, fresh figs and the Japanese variety of persimmons. They are a longer bodied fruit than the usual sharron fruit, and when they are ripe they feel so soft, like a raw egg without the hard shell. They taste divine, difficult to describe - mango-ish with a hint of 'boiled fruit sweet' hint. Only find these persimmons in a local whole-food shop, and their season is very short.
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I finished Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson and recently started The Dirt by Neil Strauss & Motley Crue.
That was the first Moomin book I ever read of the series! Loved it. Since then Snufkin has been my hero
.I wish that I had the opportunity to read the Moomin books as a child, but it was lovely reading them for the first time, in my 40s. :smile:Great philosophical reading for adults, as well as great reading for children.
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Thinking of Sting, brought back the awful memories of his version of Fields of Gold. Loathed that song, for years.
Until I heard of Eva Cassidy's version - oh my, it's so beautiful!
Frankie reads 2013
in Past Book Logs
Posted
P.S. I should let you know that Nick Drake was a very,very tortured soul, and very much a 'shoe gazing' person. I recommend that you hear Northern Sky as his most wonderful track, off Bryter Layter album.I get a lump in my throat every time I hear it
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