Madeleine

That's true Sean, it's easy to be chatty with close friends and family, I was more thinking of talking with strangers. Me too, not at all good with strangers.

I don't remember Lyra's coat! Yes definitely read them in sequence otherwise they won't make any sense at all!

I actually found the 2nd book harder to get into than the first one, the writing style was quite different. Still if you think it's not your thing that's fair enough.

One Step Beyond - Madness

I can think of a few but they're mainly crime, however the main characters do have a disability: C J Sansom's Shardlake series - the main character is a lawyer who has a hunchback (not a very PC term I'm afraid) Robert Galbraith's series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike, who lost a leg in one of the recent Middle East conflicts (haven't read these for a while but I think it was in Afghanistan) - he's a troubled character but essentially decent and then there's Game of Thrones, where one of the main characters is a person of restricted height (again sorry if that's not the correct term) but he is one of the best characters and although he is much maligned (and at one point does do something pretty awful, although he has his reasons) he is highly intelligent, witty and extremely resourceful.

She's the One - Robbie williams

Dancing with tears in my eyes - Ultravox

They really reminded me of the Weeping Angels too!

Looks like we intros are winning! I've never heard of an ambivert either, interesting term. I don't mind being with extroverts but sometimes they can be a bit overpowering - depends on their personality but some people can be domineering, and exhausting to be with after a while! Not such a bad thing, we're all different after all and you have to have a balance of the different types of personality.

Slow - Kylie

Slow Hand - The Pointer Sisters

She was also in Beecham House, which just finished it's first run a few weeks ago in the UK.

31 Dream Street - Lisa Jewell

Run to you - Bryan Adams

Nowhere Man - Beatles

also definitely an introvert. Work is very lively, thanks to an open plan office, there are about 35 or so of us plus various other people who work at the desks in the open area, and sometimes there can be a meeting taking place as well, you can't hear yourself think sometimes. Add to that traffic noise and the racket from the building across the road that's being renovated..... then noisy public transport on the way home - the bus can be a nightmare - and when I do get home I need to recover sometimes! thank goodness it's summer (sort of ) and I can potter about in the garden if it's not raining. I'm also not that mad about large gatherings, I prefer a few friends at a time, otherwise I never get to catch up with anyone as it's too noisy or everyone's too busy talking to everyone else. Everywhere seems so noisy nowadays, sigh.

Been like that here for days, very windy too and feels like it should storm, but nothing happens, although it did drizzle quite heavily for a while yesterday morning.

Depends on how tired I am in the evening, I usually read for half an hour or so before bed, and when I'm on the train to and from work probably about the same, depending in whether I get a seat, and if there are any delays! My concentration also isn't that good at the moment, have definitely got a bit slower.

People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks

Other People's Children - Joanna Trollope

"The Stranger Diaries" by Elly Griffiths - this is a stand-alone novel by the author of the Ruth Galloway, and Stephens & Mephisto crime series, and is set in Sussex. Clare Cassidy teaches English at a nearby school, and also creative writing during the holidays, and at the same time is working on a biography of the author R M Holland, who used to live in the house which now forms part of the school's original premises, and in fact his study is still there, complete with many of his personal possessions. He once wrote a famous Gothic horror short story - The Stranger - which is gradually told throughout the book, but the modern day story which unfolds is just as frightening, when one of the other English teachers, and Clare's one-time closest friend, is murdered in her own home. Initially it's seen as either a break-in gone wrong, or that Clare knew her killer, but when another teacher is murdered, this time at the school itself, the police look more closely at the English department. The story is told in 3 different voices, Clare herself, then the detective sergeant who's in charge of the case - Harbinder Kaur, a likeable British Asian who still lives with her parents, loves her mum's cooking and is coming to terms with being gay, and Clare's daughter Georgia. I found the changes of narrator jarred slightly at first, once I got used to one voice it switched to another, but it was interesting to get a different perspective, although I thought Georgia was the weakest (and least used) narrator. But it was well-written and entertaining, if not quite as involving as the Galloway series, and the setting was good, and it felt like a real tribute to the Gothic genre, although it's bang up to date with references to modern popular culture, including a near obsession with Strictly Come Dancing! And even the dog is a major character, bless him. 7.5/10

26

Just had a week in Devon, looks like we got the best of the weather. Missed the heatwave, thankfully, but it was a very pleasant mid 20s and breezy, and one storm which woke me up in the middle of the night.

cold

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