Madeleine

Hi Sazza and welcome, I'm sure you'll get plenty of reading ideas here.

Cold and drizzly here, was so cold last night I put on a second pair of socks! Can't believe I'm still wearing an anorak at the beginning of June....

Hope you're feeling better now Nollaig, don't worry about the laptop, when I got mine I took it back 2 or 3 times...it was a nightmare to set up. And now I have a disk stuck in the disk bit! What a lovely surprise from the author, that's very kind of him.

We got all that rain this morning, it was horrendous going to work, especially as my useless train company had problems so we were all kept hanging around outside the station for ages, then when they let us in had to wait nearly 20 mins for a train. Stopped now but still drizzly and cold. At least it wasn't bad over the weekend, quite sunny (eventually) on Sunday and on Saturday evening, but very dull and windy yesterday. Did want to go to the garden centre but it was so miserable I just went shopping instead!

I've read "Midnight Texas" and enjoyed it, the 2nd book is now out too.

Yep it's been a long week, but at last it's Friday

Oh yes Imelda Staunton was fabulous in Cranford.

Amazon is now saying October.

yes 8 series is s pretty good run.

Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones (from the 3rd book onwards) Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre

I'm glad Sleepy Hollow's been renewed too, it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. We were looking after a friend's spaniel a few weeks ago when they showed the episode with the Banshee, and she was absolutely petrified by the Banshee screaming. Which proves what they say about dogs' hearing being more sensitive than ours - I had to hit the mute button every time the Banshee came on after that!

Just read today that Castle has been cancelled, although Sleepy Hollow has been renewed for a 4th series, and inexplicably Grey's Anatomy has also been renewed - I gave up on that years ago, can't believe they're still churning it out. CSI Cyber is also a goner, but I watched a couple and thought it was quite boring so I'm not surprised.

the sites I looked at yesterday said August.

I've almost finished Little Paris Bookshop, it's quite a nice read, very whimsical, and set mostly on a book barge, although it's more about books than an actual shop, in fact the way he trades I can't believe he would make enough money to keep going! But the setting is lovely, I can almost see the scenery drifting by....

I usually give a book til about halfway through, although I ditched the Suspicions of Mr Whicher after about 120 pages as I was that bored But if I was only about 50 pages from the end, I'd probably speed read last few dozen pages.

Not bad for the last 2 days but still the cold wind, and it's rained for most of today so far, think it's stopped for now but still pretty grey and damp out.

Kylie, sorry to nit-pick but do you mean the 2nd wife from "Rebecca" rather than Rebecca herself, as the second wife is more like the character you describe? I go for escapism during holidays, maybe something nice and summery or something that's easy to read and yes, the Sookie Stackhouse books are perfect, although I've read them all now so might read something similar, or maybe a fast-paced thriller.

I read Tulip Fever years ago and enjoyed it, I think a movie was planned back then but fell through. I can't stand CD either, there are plenty of actresses out there desperate for roles

I love The Chase, I think it's the best of the quizzes at the moment, although I missed last Sunday. Pointless is also quite good. On the drama front. I love Hinterland, but Marcella is a huge disappointment, zzzz.

I just had a similar experience coming home on the train reading one of Jodi Taylor's books, had to try not laugh too much.

I've almost finished reading JE now, and whilst it seems much more wordy than I remember it, I'm still enjoying the main story. Mr R is still my favourite literary character (beats Darcy by a mile, although North and South's John Thornton comes quite close ) and I know much has been written about his treatment of his first wife I think he did the best for her that he could under the circumstances ie he made sure she was kept as safe as she could be, was looked after and fed, rather than being shoved away in some awful asylum. I do think he was a bit naïve in thinking that he could get away with a bigamous marriage though, and he under-estimated Jane there - a man having a mistress was one thing, but he hadn't counted on her scruples. I agree that there is perhaps a slight air of martyrdom about Jane, and the weak spot is probably the coincidence that she should find out she's related to the Rivers (an instant family!) and then inherits all that money (20K, a lot of money back then) - that does seem very contrived. But St John Rivers, what a nightmare of a man - a true religious fanatic and sociopath, he sounds awful, worse than I remembered him . Just gearing up for the ending now....

Started raining around 4.00 and has hardly stopped, got soaked when I left work, my stuff is still drying out. Hopefully the weekend wasn't the best weather we'll get this summer!

Sorry to hear that, Nollaig, but we had a glorious weekend! Well Saturday started and finished nicely, but was quite overcast during the afternoon, but yesterday was lovely. I managed to pot up most of the plants I bought over the Bank Holiday weekend. If it's any consolation, the weather's meant to change this week though, so maybe you'll get the good weather when we're getting rained on!

The village in the Peak District is called Eyam and they have an information board and small museum about the plague. I haven't heard of the Hampstead Vale of Health though, despite having visited the area quite often!

I went through a phase of reading his books, but tired of them fairly quickly, I don't mind a fast-paced read but they're just too bitty for me, and I also gave up on the WMC series after the 4th one. But I've heard he does a lot for independent bookshops, including in the UK, so fair play to him for giving something back to the book industry.