Marie H

Or any other book by Paulo Coelho.... I've read four of his books. Why the heck did it take me so much reading time, to learn that all of his books were overrated?

Well put poppyshake. We always have our soft spots, and I admit that I am rooting for Kimberley, so I'm not that impartial. I am getting a bit (over)worked up because Paul and Mary seem to be prejudiced towards Ruby. I suppose they're not doing this consciously. It could be a case of them seeing Ruby as little fledgling that has just fallen out of the nest! So cute and helpless... :sarcastic:Bah!

I bought Chatma by the group Tamikrest last week. This will seem a really naff thing to say, but they really rock! Tamikrest are a group of young Touareg musicians from the northern Mali. They sound very much like the band Tinariwen, who are slightly more well known.

Right on poppyshakes! I love Ruby's dress style, but the moaning and dreary voice is grating on me. It's every week now. I suspect that Paul and Mary have fallen under the spell of Ruby's self deprecating routine. They seem to view Ruby in a different light (a pinky sepia, to me) than the other contestants.

Hello catwoman , nice to meet you.

Hello Enyo, and to the forums.

A Void by Georges Perec, up to page 112. The plots thicken, again. Hi frankie, I think that you will be disappointed when I try to review this books - I am pretty cr*p at doing reviews! I can't manage to structure them, and this is turning to be a complicated one.

I'm really glad that you feel that way too pontalba Also, you put it much more succinctly than I did. Well, at least we are not completely alone with this opinion vodkafan, but sadly I still feel that we are a small minority.

The Consolation of Philosophy was a good starting point for me. It's quite light and frothy, more like a self-help book than a serious philosophical book, and I find the pictures rather annoying, but I still enjoyed Alain de Botton's writing.

Plodding through A Void by Georges Perec - a novel without the letter 'e'. Plots and subplots awash the first 72 pages - so pretty hard to follow them.

Oooo, this a thorny, but meaty, subject for me. I read JE when I was in my late teens, after so many (then early teen aged) female friends said that it was such a wonderful romantic story. I was really startled (and disturbed) when I read it, for the same reasons that you mentioned in your spoiler. I had this discussion recently within LibraryThing. When I voiced my opinion that I thought that the Jane/Rochester relationship wasn't a good relationship role model for young female readers, almost all others (female) disagreed with me. All said that they absolutely loved it when they were young, and were happy to recommend it again. I ,then and now, don't understand why girls find the Jane/Rochester relationship as being a wonderfully romantic story. Maybe I have a too serious attitude to life in fiction? I really don't know....

Hello Bizzarebird. Hope you enjoy the forums!

Hi cuppycakes. Thanks, I'm enjoying the forums .Welcome to you, as you are a new member, like me. Yes, it was 'The Body in the Library', with Joan Hickson as Miss M. She is my favourite actress for Marple. I cringe watching recent Miss Marples, as none of them come anywhere near as good actor as Marple, IMHO. I think the series was filmed in the mid 80s, so it was great to watch and spot younger actors/actress who are more well known now. I think I spotted Trudie Styler - Mrs Sting as she is more known to us now - having a role! It was very nostalgic, to watch it again

Just about to go and watch BBC classic Miss Marple, on BBC 4 at 7.00. Then Downton Abbey at 9.00. A whole evening of genteel British old-time drama. Feeling warm and cosy just to think about it

It's a good one .I love Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' album that Lilac Wine is on.Highly recommended. My all time bitter sweet song is Uncertain Smile by The The. It has to be the version off the Soul Mining album, with sublime piano playing by Jools Holland. I'm sure there would be a link with YouTube, but I such a techno-hopeless person I would make a pigs ear is I tried the link

Oh dear, its 'lump in the throat' and "Where's the tissues" time kd's version it wonderful. Plus, who wouldn't kill for that jacket she wore

Enola Gay - OMD I hadn't heard that for yonks. I just wanted to dance to this again, it was like being a teenager in the mid 80s again. But I managed to control by excitement.Maybe not the best time when you're in the fruit and veg aisle of the supermarket

poppy, I agree with you about Leonard Cohen, , but strangely I prefer the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah

Hello vodkafan, thanks for the Andrea Levy recommendation. My global travels in lit. are very vague, so any author/themes/characters etc out of the British Isles are my starting point. I half-read The Long Song for my library reading group this year, but couldn't get into it. Small Island is now on my to read list. I have God of Small Things somewhere in my many bags of books I've found in charity shops. Finding them again is the challenge now!

Thanks, poppyshake I am not alone! I have another soulful song thought - Northern Sky by Nick Drake. Now that is a song that halts me in my tracks.

Oh dear, I'm not sure that I should mention that my sad song is How Soon is Now? by The Smiths. It's so sad to listen the lyrics, but the music is so beautiful. The whole listening experience is wonderfully bittersweet. I am suddenly back to teenage angst....

P G Wodehouse always cheers me up, especially the Jeeves and Wooster novels. Clive James' Unreliable Memoirs always have me in fits of laughter

I need silence to read, otherwise it's impossible to take anything in, and retain it as well. It's always like that for me, being an a only child, it was so peaceful, all the time. Sibling rivalry would have been a hell!