Onion Budgie

Awesome! I hope you enjoy them. I love Poirot. Orient Express is slow-paced and thoughtful, but then (as I've discovered!) that's what you get with Christie. I hope you'll let us know what you think of it. I'm almost halfway through my re-read of The Monster Club. It's daft and fun; just right for Halloween.

Note to self: The only problem with buying nibbles well in advance, is the danger of said nibbles being scoffed before time! I couldn't resist the gingerbread cookies. Now I have to replace them. On the plus side, my gift shopping's done. I just need some wrapping paper. To be fair, I don't have that many people to buy for, so it's kinda easy. I have every empathy for those with a partner, kids, grandkids, and family & friends spilling out the sides. It must be a headache!

Tonight it's lentil bolognese, with a heaped side of steamed kale, broccoli and bok choi, and a sliced avocado. All sprinkled with nooch, because nooch (nutritional yeast) is delish.

I've almost finished The Fantastic World of Kamtellar, which has indeed been fantastic. So much so that I want to continue with R. Chetwynd-Hayes and re-read another of his, The Monster Club. Shadmocks and weregoos and vams galore! After that, I have some trade paperbacks lined up: Midnighter and Apollo to begin with, which I'm looking forward to.

Robot Wars is back! This makes me happy. The new "fog" concept is a bit rubbish, though. Still. GO CARBIDE!

Yes, it is. Before this, I was also thinking of picking up We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but I'm not sure that I'll bother now. Don't let me put you off reading The Haunting of Hill House, though, because you might love it. I was just expecting a bit more from a book with "haunting" in the title! I'm still re-reading The Fantastic World of Kamtellar. Vampires! It's all a bit (extremely) odd, and great fun.

Decorations are going up already in London?! That *is* early. My reading is all sorted too, Madeleine. This year it's The Man With a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes, and Tied Up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh. Both are murder mysteries.

I finished The Haunting of Hill House. Ugh, what a huge disappointment it turned out to be. No chills, no scares, no nuthin'! (Apologies for double negative...) 2/5 I posted on another thread about the all-round greatness of The Fantastic World of Kamtellar by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, so that's what I'm going to (re)-read next.

I'm watching Bake Off for the first time ever -- and liking it! Also enjoying Grand Designs. It has a lot of wtf? moments, which is v. entertaining.

Yes! I know it's only mid-October, and there are many of us who might not even be thinking of that time of year yet. But for those of us who are (myself included), here's a space to chat and update. Gifts, decorations, meal & snack ideas, it's all good. We had a few Christmas-themed threads last year, but they all disappeared in the forum update. SO, let's share. Have you started gift shopping? When do you decorate? What are your holiday plans? Are you reading any Christmas-themed novels later this year? I'll chime in later. Just wanted to crack this one open!

It's been years since I've read any vampire stories, even though I was a huge fan of them in my teens and 20s. From memory, these three stood out: Dracula - Bram Stoker (of course!) Nosferatu the Vampyre - Paul Monette The Fantastic World of Kamtellar - R. Chetwynd-Hayes I can't remember much at all about the latter two, but I do still have them on my shelf, so I need to line them up for a re-read!

I'm enjoying it so far! I'm almost halfway through. BUT -- nothing eerie has happened yet. Everything's obviously set to go off in the second half! I'll report back on whether it does or not.

Hi Ecko, welcome to the forum. Here are my top 5: 1. And Then There Were None 2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 3. Lord Edgware Dies 4. Murder on the Orient Express 5. Evil Under the Sun All are Poirot mysteries, except for the first. I'm still reading my way through all of the Poirots (there are 30+), but this is my current listing.

Excellent! It deserves more members. I'm 3/4 of the way through Murder on the Orient Express, and thoroughly enjoying it. I should be done with it by the weekend, and then it's on to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which I'm pretty excited about.

It's a great one to start off with! I hope you enjoy it. I'm loving it so far.

I finished Lord Edgware Dies -- it was one of the best Poirot novels that I've read to date. I correctly half-guessed at some of the twists, but the ending still surprised me. Great stuff. 4/5 Now on to Murder On the Orient Express, which is (of course) another Poirot. I already know the twist in this one, but never mind! It's still going to be a fun ride.

That's a success story! Well done, Alexander.

I'm now a third of the way through Agatha Christie's Lord Edgware Dies, and it's a fun, easy read. I'm enjoying it a lot. Anticipating lots of twisty bits before the end! I may be able to squeeze in one more before my seasonal Halloween reading begins. Not sure which one yet, though. I have a heap!

I'm now past the halfway mark on Days Without End by Sebastian Barry -- which just missed out on making the shortlist for the Man Booker! Booooo! It's ever so good. Once I've finished that, it'll be on to Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie, but that won't be until next week. Something to look forward to, though.

The Man from Primrose Lane by James Renner. The plot of this book is somethin' proper twisty, with a genuinely jaw-dropping moment two-thirds of the way through. There's a particular aspect to the story, however, that reviewers -- and even the blurb itself on the front/back cover -- insist on spoiling without a second thought. This is definitely a book to go into as blindly as possible. That's the first one that springs to mind.

Awesome! I hope Goodreads is around for many more years to come. I use the site pretty much every day -- as my onerous TBR pile here at home can attest to!

"The method of laying out a corpse in Missouri sure took the proverbial cake." Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

I finished A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel. It was gloomy, but I enjoyed it, although some of the dialogue was peculiarly stilted and unconvincing. 3/5 I'm delaying my autumnal murder-mystery binge for Sebastian Barry's Days Without End. It's on this year's Man Booker longlist, and it sounds fantastic. I'm reading it now, because if it does make the shortlist and then goes on to win the thing, I'll be able to nod knowingly and bellow I TOLD YOU SO! at people.

That's awesome! Well done. And the same to everyone else here; you all are doing so well with your individual fitness plans! It takes work, sweat, and determination! As for me, I'm now almost at my ideal weight. It's taken an entire year, because it involved a lifestyle change -- which is the only way to keep off the weight in the long term. Yoyo dieting really is a waste of time; the weight just creeps back on again, you know it. To date, I've lost 36lbs. It's nice to be able to look in the mirror and not recoil! (My blood pressure is still optimal, btw. I'm super happy about that. All hail, potassium!)

Baked orzo frittata, with steamed veg, and a corn on the cob. I would have added an avocado, but they're still ripening and it would take a sledgehammer to get through one!