Janet

Hehe - thanks! I used to play a really simple interactive Hobbit game years ago on some old game console at a friend's house! Instruction: Throw sandwich You throw your sandwich at the dragon. It glances off his head...

Finished Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce. I'm not sure what I fancy next...

Finished Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce this morning. I shall write some proper thoughts down but for now I'll just say that although my childhood memories might be rose-tinting this, I loved it! 10/10 Remaining: 1990s - Children's book 1980s - Children's book ...........Non-fiction 1970s - Fiction ...........Non-fiction 1960s - Fiction ...........Children's book ...........Non-fiction 1950s - Non-fiction 1940s - Non-fiction 1930s - Children's book 1920s - Non-fiction 1910s - Fiction ...........Children's book ...........Non-fiction 1900s - Children's book ...........Non-fiction 13 books read 17 to go

Just a bit! WoW? LotRO? (Lord of the Rings something, presumably), PvE?

I haven't read the book (although it's on my Amazon wish list), but how about doing some Mississippi themed food? I just Googled this: Mississippi Oven-fried chicken This is an easy oven-fried chicken, baked in oil in a hot oven. Ingredients: * 4 chicken quarters (or you could use 4 breasts if you don't like bones) * 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs * 2 teaspoons salt * 1 teaspoon paprika * 1/4 teaspoon pepper * 1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter Preparation: Wash chicken pieces; pat dry. Combine bread crumbs, salt, paprika and pepper. Brush each piece of chicken with vegetable oil or melted butter, and then roll in crumb mixture. Place coated chicken pieces in shallow lightly oiled baking pan, skin side up. Bake at 450

Has anyone read Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs? I bought it for my husband to try (he likes Tess Gerritson and on the cover of the one he's just read it mentions Ms Reichs so I thought he might like those too) but it appears to be number 8 of a series. I'm not sure if the order matters much or not?

These were the results of our poll here: The winner voted for by BBC Radio 2 listeners was The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson - which polled zero votes on here!

Thanks for the recommendations, Sue. I shall keep a look out for them.

Just started Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce as part of my 'Reading Through the Decades' challenge (1950s children's book - it was first published in 1958). I read the book as a child and also have fond memories of the 1974 BBC drama - I haven't seen the more-recent film version.

Yes, definitely. I'd like to read more of J&W, but also to try some of his other titles. There is a short excerpt of Full Moon, a Blandings Novel, in the back, which sound good. I think Something Fresh is the first in that series. I've been perusing wodehouse.co.uk - I had no idea he was so prolific!

I made another post at the same time and nearly missed this! I hope you enjoy them. I really enjoyed my first outing with them so shall definitely look for more. I'm pretty certain Kylie is a big fan too.

I forgot to say that I finished The Woman in Black by Susan Hill on Saturday. It's the first ghost story I've read (well, apart from a children's book called... The Ghosts!) and I really enjoyed it.

CARRY ON, JEEVES by P G WODEHOUSE Carry On, Jeeves by P G Wodehouse The ‘blurb’ These marvellous stories introduce us to Jeeves, whose first ever duty is to cure Bertie’s raging hangover (‘if you would drink this, Sir… it is a little preparation of my own invention. It is the Worcester Sauce that gives it its colour. The raw egg makes it nutritious. The red pepper gives it its bite. Gentlemen have told me they have found it extremely invigorating after a late evening.’) And from that moment, one of the funniest, sharpest and most touching partnerships in English literature never looks back… I used to love Fry and Laurie in ITV’s series Jeeves and Wooster but had never read any of the books before. I was pleased to find this, the first one written about them, in a charity shop recently. I’m not usually a fan of short stories and I didn’t realise that rather than being one story, it was going to be a series of adventures which aren’t really linked, although there are references to other adventures in some of them, but that didn’t matter a jot! It’s rather formulaic writing but that didn’t matter a jot! Of course, having loved the TV series I was unable to read this without picturing Fry and Laurie but… you’ve guessed it… that didn’t matter a jot either, and the stories made me laugh out loud in places. There are 10 mini-adventures in total in this book. Number 10 was unique in this collection in that it is told from Jeeves’ perspective instead of Bertie’s which came as a nice surprise.

My choice for our Bookworms group in November and it really did not disappoint. Susan Hill's writing is so good - she's very convincing writing from a man's perspective. Never once did I feel I was reading a woman pretending to be male. The characterisation is excellent as is the story itself. The book gets off to a quick start and the suspense builds and builds towards its conclusion which although inevitable still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! I've never read a ghost story before but this has given me a good taster of the genre so I shall be on the look out for more. I really recommend this.

A Child Called It is harrowing, but compulsive, reading. I read it quite quickly, despite having to stop several times to compose myself.

I made this yesterday - it was rather nice (if I say so myself) - very moist and dead simple. APPLE CAKE Serves 6. 110g/4ozs butter or soft margarine 110g/4ozs caster sugar 175g/6ozs self-raising flour 175g/6ozs peeled chopped Bramley apples 2 medium eggs Grease and line a 20cm/8inch cake tin and preheat oven to 180

I'm glad you enjoyed it - I loved it! If you haven't already read it, you might like The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent - which is about the Salem trials too. I really enjoyed that one.

I tried The Age of Innocence a while ago but couldn't get into it. It's a shame as it sounds really good. I guess it might just be that I wasn't in the right frame of mind. I hope you enjoy it - you'll have to post your thoughts and let me know what you thought of it! Welcome to the forum, btw.

I voted for Winnie-The-Pooh (as I also did in the first round) as I have such fond memories of this as one of my favourite ever children's book - together with its sequel, The House at Pooh Corner.

I posted the long-list of 32 books in this thread a few weeks ago. The 32 have now been short-listed to the final 8 thanks to everyone who voted online. I can't add a poll to that thread, so this one is for you to vote for your favourite of the 8 short-listed. Clearly your favourite from last time might not be here. The books are listed in alphabetical order by title.