Kell

Thanks, everyone! I'm finally back online so I'll slowly be able to start catching up with everything I've missed during my prolonged absence. We've finally moved into our new place and are getting settled (we moved in the day after Josh was born!), and I'm recovering well from the surgery. Josh is officially the easiest baby in the world - very sweet natured and placid. Xan is the picture of a proud Big Brother - he is utterly besotted and can't stop kissing Josh whenever he gets a chance. Dale is every inch the devoted Daddy and is running around looking after us all. And I'm starting to settle into a routine with breastfeeding, nappy changing, playing with both my boys and getting back to normal again, hence my posting this at almost 5am after a feeding session - LOL! Here's a link to our full birth story: HERE And here's some pics of both my beautiful boys together, and a couple of our newest addition alone...

Moving day for Xan and me today (hubby will follow in a couple of weeks) so I won't be around much for a while as I don't know how often I'll be able to get online, what with moving TWICE and having a new baby coming very soon, but I'll check in when I can. Happy reading, everyone!

Mr Blue Sky by ELO is my favourite happy song. It never fails to bring a smile to anyone's face, and if you feel like giving this theory a test, try playing it at full blast next time you're in the car - make sure the windows are rolled down - and watch how it affects people walking in the street - they suddenly start smiling and get a spring in their step - it's awesome! Works in traffic jams too - people in the vehicles next to you will start smiling and nodding and/or singing along with the song. It must just hit all the happy centres in the brain or something because I've never, ever seen it fail!

September already! The kids are pretty much all back at school (cue the cheers of millions of parents - LOL!) and the weather is beginning to cool down a little (cue the cheers of pregnant women everywhere!). It's going to be a busy time for me - moving house, preparing to move AGAIN, getting Xan settles into a SECOND new school, preparing for the arrival of our new baby - it's exhausting! Good job it's worth it! Hope everyone else is doing well. What are you up to today?

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Um, the default font setting on the forum is Arial. Very few members bother to change it. Unlike yourself - I see you changed it to Times New Roman. If you're going to have a go at established members for using different fonts (which, as I've mentioned, rarely happens), perhaps you should think about not changing the default when YOU post, eh? Also, I'm moving this post OUT of the Reading Circle area and into the general book discussions area, as, if you had bothered to check out the forum at all, you would realise the reading circle area is for discussing books nominated each month by members of the forum. Take a look around, familiarise yourself with the forum and get to know the members, but don't diss them with your first post, OK? it kind of makes you look bad.

Feel better soon - and I hope your mojo comes back quickly! <3

I took part in another blog tour (I LOVE doing those!) for another excellent book. The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth: Review HERE Author interview HERE

The series is good, but the books are WAAAAAYYY better. As is usually the case.

The books and series are partly accurate and partly not. The writer (Philippa Gregory) had to imagine the motives, thoughts and conversations, as well as some of the more intimate situations, obviously, but many of the salient historical facts are present and correct. Gregory's books (and the resulting series) are more a blend of fact and fiction than straight fact.

I've read The Prestige (which is EXCELLENT) and also The Separation (also very good). Both deal with a slightly alternative history to our own but within a believable context, and both use misdirection and imperfect memory to great advantage. Priest is a brilliant writer and I keep meaning to get hold of more of his books. He can be a bit mind bending, but if you just go with it and use your brain, it's an exhilirating ride and well work giving him a try!

Our flat is finally up for sale! It hit the market on Wednesday evening, we had four viewings yesterday (Thursday) and have 3 booked so far for today (Friday). Dead chuffed with the amount of interest so far. Fingers crossed for a good price!

Here's one of me taken on Saturday to show my pregnant bump at 28 weeks. All was going well, but Xan decided to photo bomb me at the very last second which, in my opinion, made the pic much better! We couldn't stop laughing - he's never done anything like that before! Loving all the new pics - it's always lovely to see everyone's faces, both new and established.

I've not read many: FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON Daniel Keyes FRANKENSTEIN Mary Shelley THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Douglas Adams THE INVISIBLE MAN H.G. Wells THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU H.G. Wells THE PRESTIGE Christopher Priest THE TIME MACHINE H. G. Wells THE TIME MACHINE/THE WAR OF THE WORLDS H. G. Wells THE WAR OF THE WORLDS H.G. Wells What's going on with the last three here though? Two books both mentioned twice? And no John Wyndham anywhere on the list? Where's Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos? Both of those, at the very least, deserve to be on a list of best sci-fi. Out of the ones I've read, I highly recommend The Prestige - it's brilliant. Priest's style of writing is just wonderful. And Flowers For Algernon will make you cry. For definite.

We were very lucky in that our son's nightlight doubles as a torch, so it charges on its stand. If it hadn't been for that, we couldn't have found the candles and matches - LOL!

It's OK for latecomers to leave posts too - the thread will stay open indefinitely (as with all the reading circle threads) so that members can comment far into the future. My hubby is like you - we had a power cut of maybe 5 hours one evening about 2 years ago (in the winter) and he was at a complete loss as to what to do without his computer, TV and music for entertainment. Whereas I was quite happily setting up candles and settling down with a god book, thankful for the peace and quiet - LOL! I couldn't live the pioneering lifestyle permanently, but I could certainly do it for a short while, just for the experience. Or at least a pared down version of modern life, with lots of "modern conveniences" removed - I know I could handle it for a week or two without going completely mental - LOL!

Yes, Xan always has a say in what stays ad what goes if it's his things, but he's always been very good about it - toys, books, whatever - if anything is torn or broken, it goes in the bin. if anything is a bit "young" for him, it gets donated - he always says things like "another littler boy or girl can have this now!" and it makes him happy to think of someone else enjoying it. He's such a sweet boy! My sister and I have been donating our books to our old library for a couple of years now. Our old school got knocked down and rebuilt and the school library is now also the public library - still has the same librarian. We both spent a lot of time in there (reading and escaping from bullies) and got very friendly with the librarian, so that place was the one area of school which gave us fond memories. Between us we must have handed over about a thousand books or so over the last 2 or three years, as we regularly have clear-outs and pass books back and forwards between ourselves as well.

Well, just had a MASSIVE clear-out of books prior to moving. We're trying to cut down on the amount of stuff we'll have to pack when we move in September, so I decided to cull both Mount TBR and my permanent collection. I have been ruthless. I still have most of my permanent collection intact, but Mount TBR has suffered greatly - it's now about a third the size it was! Still, my "loss" is to the gain of my sister and the Portlethen Library - I pass on all my books to my sister and then when she's done with them (or if she doesn't fancy them at all) she donates them to the library which hasn't had an acquisitions budget for AGES. It's good knowing my books are going to be read and enjoyed by others if they'll not be staying with me.

It's been a busy weekend. We're still undergoing the process of "tarting up" our flat ready for listing for sale. Appointment with our solicitor on Friday morning to get things sorted that way, so we basically have this week to get it all sorted ready for photos. Xan and I are heading down sans Dale - we'll only preceed him by a couple of weeks - to stay at my Mam's place so we can get Xan settled into a new school and we can look at potential houses to buy. So, first week in September will be my last week of work, then 5 weeks of holiday, then maternity leave! It's all pretty terrifying, but in a good way.

Actually, it's my OLD area - I'm originally from there and we moved to Scotland when I was nearly 11-y-o. Feels good to be moving "back home" again after all this time.

We've set the wheels in motion and are officially moving to Northumberland ASAP. Hubby has secured a transfer and I'm speaking to my bosses tonight about getting a transfer too. We will most likely be moved by the end of the summer, meaning that Button will most likely be born a Geordie rather than a Scot! It's going to be crazy around here while we get everything sorted and the flat on the market, but we're offski - hurrah!

I've read almost all my Discworld novels more than once, and have kept series' by various authors that I feel I will likely read again (Stuart McBride, Simon Scarrow and Christopher Brookmyre to name just a few), but the book I've re-read most often is The Stand by Stephen King. I must have read it at least a dozen times by now and I always find something new in there. It's like visiting old friends as the character appear. I haven't read it in at least 5or 6 years now though, so it's probably due for a re-read some time soon! I don't keep very many books these days though (if I kept everything I read or even everything I even rmotely enjoyed, I'd have ot room to move for books!). Instead, I donate them to a local library which doesn't have an acquisitions budget (and hasn't had for about 5 or 6 years now, which is shocking!). Over the years I must have donated anywhere between 600 and 1000 books to that library (mostly 2nd hand, but many have been brand new too), including some I've never even read as I changed my mind about reading them - sometimes I just go off the idea of reading a book - LOL! It makes me feel good that others can enjoy them after me and that I'm helping out a library which really helped me in my youth. (It's the public library as well as being my old school library - they rebuilt the school a few years back, but it's still "my old school" so I like to help that particular library.)

It's actually a film, so I'm moving it to the appropriate section.