Madeleine

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

water

Time Clock of the Heart - Culture Club

I must admit I didn't like the Fiennes/Binoche version of Wuthering Heights, it did stay faithful to the book but I couldn't handle Juliette speaking with a French accent - nothing against the French or Binoche but WH is so much a "Yorkshire" book that it just didn't work for me!

Cragside by L J Ross - this is the 6th in the DCI Ryan series, and now that the story arc featuring serial killer The Hacker has finally come to an end, Ryan and his team are trying to get back to normal. Ryan and his fiancée Anna had both their homes either destroyed or desecrated in the previous book, so whilst they find somewhere else to live they're staying in a cottage on the real life Cragside estate, a National Trust property with a huge eccentric house perched on a hillside. Ryan and Anna are invited to a murder mystery evening at the house, and as often happens with these events, suddenly everyone is plunged into darkness and when the lights come back on, the owner's elderly valet is found dead at the bottom of the basement stairs, where he'd gone to check the fusebox. At first it's thought to be an accident, but then a young art restorer who'd been working at the house is found dead in a ravine on the estate, and not surprisingly the police get very suspicious. Old secrets and grievances start to come out, and when another staff member meets a violent end, Ryan and his team have a race against time to find the culprit before anyone else is killed. Another enjoyable read, with a great setting, and also a new story arc set up in the form of someone from Ryan's old career in the Metropolitan Police in London, who gets the job of Superintendent, meaning that she's his boss, and these two have a history. 7.5/10

I saw the film of Inkheart a few years ago (on TV) and it was the same, a great idea but basically they get captured, escape, get captured, escape etc. I think it's a trilogy but I don't think they made any more films.

A Friend of the Family - Lisa Jewell

Rainy Days and Mondays - The Carpenters

I had a library too, not many customers though. The reading seeds were obviously sown early for us! i even stuck little pockets in some books for the tickets to go in for when people took the book out on loan.

Yay, new series (series 3 for the UK) starts next Wednesday on More 4, Culloden here we come!

Yes it's funny how school can put you off reading the classics isn't it, or put someone off reading altogether! Not sure about the empathy bit, again real life is so different to books, and sometimes I find it hard to empathise with someone whose situation is entirely of their own making, although I do obviously empathise, or should that be sympathise, with people who are in difficult situations which aren't their fault or are having a bad time for whatever reason. I do agree with bookmonkey re history books, I read quite a bit of historical fiction and that definitely can spark an interest in a particular period or person from the era I'm reading about, eg Elizabeth Chadwick and William Marshal, who I'd never heard of before I read her books.

Lollipop Shoes - Joanne Harris

Yes it is, I'm glad we don't have that heat here!

I didn't realise there were so many spin off books to this series. I'd also like to find out more about Molly too!

I must admit I don't tend to read very serious books, because I read mainly for escapism. And maybe because I know it's fiction, perhaps that's why I don't think books have influenced my personality that much, except perhaps I live too much in my own head! I can certainly empathise with characters in books, or love them or hate them, or wonder why they did something which seems really silly, and therefore annoys me (similar to shouting at the TV when someone, usually a female, goes into a dark building all alone and never turns the light on!) but above all I know it's not real, however good a book is. However, I do read some historical fiction which features real events, so that does make me think about how different things were in the past, and in some cases how much luckier we are now, but apart from that I don't think it influences my personality at all. it's just an opinion.

Well after sweltering on Saturday it's now much cooler and breezier, bit chilly in the shade but lovely in the sun.

Happy birthday!

Would love to find out more about Nightingale's background.

She's definitely a new favourite author.

I think it's the World Cup, the Olympics are next year (and do you mean 2nd July?)! Good to see England doing well at something for once, but apart from that I've got no interest in football at all - used to vaguely follow West Ham as they were the closest thing to a local team in what was then just the League Division - they were in the First Division for quite a while , then got relegated, but did manage to win the FA Cup in 1980, but my interest wavered after a while, and I would never go to a game.

The Lost Man by Jane Harper - this is the 3rd novel by this author and is a stand-alone in that it doesn't feature investigator Aaron Falk, and although I enjoyed this book, I did miss him! LIke the other books it's also set in an isolated part of Australia, in this case a farm, and the main character is Nathan Bright, who's summoned back to his family home from his own, almost as isolated farm, after his younger brother Cameron is found dead in the middle of nowhere, which is strange, as Cam, like the whole family, grew up in the area, and his car is found, several miles from his body, but well stocked with emergency supplies of food and water in case of a breakdown. But the car is fine, so how did Cam, who doesn't have any sign of violence on him, get separated from his car? Nathan, like Falk in "The Dry", has also been ostracised from his community for something he did, or rather didn't do, many years ago, so he has many awkward encounters, plus it's nearly Christmas and his son from his broken marriage has come to stay, so the situation is fraught with tension, as well as dealing with his own grief, comforting his family - mother, plus Cam's wife and 2 daughters, and trying to find out what really happened. But once his brother's funeral has taken place, old secrets start to be revealed, and he discovers a whole side to his brother which he never knew existed, although some clues were there. I found this an enjoyable, engrossing read, with the author's familiar themes of isolation and someone being a social outcast very much in evidence, and the characters were all vividly drawn, and the sense of desolation and yes, the heat, was also well described. An excellent author, with a great setting as well. 8/10

Really interesting theme, however I'm not sure if books have influenced me that much, I mainly read for escapism - always have done- and have always been aware that books are, after all, fiction, which is why I've never really bought into the claims that some books are bad influences - fairy tales for example, are exactly that - stories!

Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols

Fatal Pursuit - Martin Walker

Yes I think The Last Hours is her first historical novel.