Madeleine
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Posts posted by Madeleine
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Yep, I saw it in Waterstone's the other day and it's had some good reviews, although I'm always wary of "celebrity" authors, as most of them wouldn't stand a snowflake's chance in hell of getting published if they weren't well-known.
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Sunday Girl - Blondie
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The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry - I finished this last night, and whilst I enjoyed it, I don't think it quite lives up to the hype and praise lavished on it (unlike say, The Miniaturist, which I think did live up to it's reputation). It's set in the late 19th Century, with newly widowed Cora Seaborne moving from London to the Essex village of Aldwinter, on the Blackwater estuary which is haunted by the legend of the titular serpent. The "creature" first surfaced, allegedly, a couple of hundred years previously, and now it's rumoured to be back, and the villagers are convinced it's punishment for their sins, and blame every bad thing that happens eg a crop failure, a dead sheep, a drowning (even though the victim was known to be a heavy drinker) on the serpent. When Cora arrives, accompanied by her strange son Francis (who by today's definition is probably on the autistic/Asperger's spectrum) and maid/companion Martha, people expect a middle-aged, frumpy widow, and instead get a vivacious young woman (who's been freed from a violent, domineering husband) who wanders around the estuary wearing men's trousers and coats, and collecting fossils. She meets the local vicar, William Ransome, who is trying to fight off the superstitious rumours by keeping his parishioners in check with his sermons, and sparks fly between the two, and Cora also befriends his wife, the ailing Stella, and their 3 children. More strange incidents occur, there's an outbreak of mass hysteria, odd things are seen in the local river, and the villagers become even more paranoid. Meanwhile Cora's attachment to William grows, and she's also lusted after by the doctor who tended her husband. It's very Victorian, with shades of "The Crucible" for it's paranoia, and ticks a lot of the standard Victorian gothic boxes, and although I enjoyed most of it, I felt the ending was a bit weak (thinking about it now, it was probably the only way it could have ended, but still feels a bit flat) and I also felt the scenes in London, especially the sub plot about Martha becoming involved with campaigning for better housing, rents etc for poorer people (nothing has changed since!) felt a bit superfluous and unnecessary. Personally I would have preferred it if it had stayed in Essex, but apart from these quibbles I thought it was a good, but not great, read. 8/10
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It actually rained last night! Quite muggy though and not very pleasant.
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Morning has Broken - Cat Stevens
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England (48 counties)
Bedfordshire
Berkshire
Bristol
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Cheshire
City of London
Cornwall (including Isles of Scilly)
Cumbria
Derbyshire
Devon
Dorset
County Durham
East Sussex
Essex - The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Gloucestershire
Greater London (excluding the City of London
Greater Manchester
Hampshire
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire
Isle of Wight
Kent
Lancashire
Leicestershire
Lincolnshire (including North Lincolnshire. and North East Lincolnshire
Merseyside
Norfolk
North Yorkshire (including Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, York, and Stockton-on-Tees south of the River Tees) - Some Veil Did Fall by Kirsty Ferry (set mainly in Whitby)
Northamptonshire
Northumberland
Nottinghamshire
Oxfordshire
Rutland
Shropshire
Somerset - The Trysting Tree by Linda Gillard
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Surrey
Tyne and Wear
Warwickshire
West Midlands
West Sussex
East Riding of Yorkshire (including Kingston-upon-Hull)
South Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
Wales (8 counties)
Clwyd
Dyfed
South Glamorgan
Mid Glamorgan
West Glamorgan
Gwent
Gwynedd
Powys
Scotland (35 counties)
Aberdeen
Aberdeenshire
Angus
Argyll and Bute
Ayrshire and Arran
Banffshire
Berwickshire
Caithness
Clackmannanshire
Dumfries
Dunbartonshire
Dundee
East Lothian
Edinburgh
Fife
Glasgow
Inverness
Kincardineshire
Lanarkshire
Midlothian
Moray
Nairn
Orkney
Perth and Kinross
Renfrewshire
Ross and Cromarty
Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale
Shetland - Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves
Stirling and Falkirk
Sutherland
The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright
Tweeddale
West Lothian
Western Isles
Wigtown
Northern Ireland
Antrim
Armagh
Down
Fermanagh
Londonderry/Derry
Tyrone
Edited just now by Madeleine
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I enjoyed the Snow Child too.
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Just got:
To the Bright edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
The Mangle Street Murders by M R C Kasasian
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sunny so far, and a bit warmer!
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No I think it's just Windows 8 (quite an old laptop!).
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I can't see them at home, so must be an issue with my laptop.
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On the work computer it's set slightly higher (probably 125%) not sure what it is at home, but it worked fine before!
And having just tried to get one, they all appeared
, so it may be an issue with my home PC. Thanks for your help.
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Yes seems to be, I don't use them that much so this is the first time I've noticed it.
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Done all that.
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Let's hope it's better than the abysmal version of Day of The Triffids which they did a few years ago.
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I watched it on Saturday (well most of it) for the first time in ages, I agree it did fall apart at the end a bit, getting soppy. I agree with your theory about who or what is locked up, and it's no secret that a certain character will return. Didn't think much of Bill either way to be honest.
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They disappeared after the upgrade.
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Quite a few things have finished recently - Line of duty, Broadchurch, Big Little Lies, and Person of Interest only has two more to go so not much on now; still Poldark starts in June, hooray! And I have the last few of Timeless and all of Sleepy Hollow stockpiled.
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It's a been a bit odd this weekend - dull at first, then a bit sunny, and then finally getting sunny around 4.30/5.00 - too little too late really!
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This weekend I've bought:
A High Mortality of doves - Kate Ellis
The Hourglass - Tracy Rees
The Secrets of Death - Stephen Booth
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All the emoticons. I'm just on a laptop, worked fine before. I can get the emoticons, it's just that they don't come up as pictures like they did before the upgrade, so I can't always tell which is which until I select one. I get a series of very faint black dots, with the emoticon abbreviation such as a colon and a bracket for
, hope that makes sense.
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Circle in the Sand - Belinda Carlisle
Angury's Reading Diary 2017
in Past Book Logs
Posted · Edited by Madeleine
I agree with you Augury re The Essex Serpent - it was totally hyped and yes it's good and very enjoyable, but.... Waterstone's had it as their book of the year in 2016, but personally I think the Miniaturist, which was their book of the year in 2015, was much better, and deserved the title more.
I did like the characters of Cora and William, but felt some storylines were a bit superfluous, eg Martha's campaigning in London, which didn't really seem to go anywhere. I did think it was well-written and very atmospheric, with a vivid setting (and some great weather) but I would have preferred it if it had stayed in Essex more.