~Andrea~

Yaaaay!!!! So glad you tried it and loved it

I hardly did any reading on the weekend I'm afraid so I'm only a few pages further on. I'm hopeful I'll be able to stick with it, and will probably enjoy discussing it, even if it's just to have a rant

Ah that's good to hear Kay. I hope it does start to make sense eventually as I feel like a lot of it is going over my head at the moment

Murakami is someone I really feel I should read one day. Those last sentences make me want to read him all the more. Oh why are there so many books and so little time.

Well not so far but ... ... I'm not far in at all. About 50 pages so far. Poppyshake I totally agree with you, I'm finding Renee hard work and also the prose is quite verbose. Frankie thank you, that's good to know - I will keep going and hope I get into it. I am a little intrigued by the other character, Paloma the young girl, so maybe that's a good sign.

As far as TB goes I think it's a lot more niche than Sherlock. Sherlock is a really accessible. And pooh - who would be alienated? In any case you don't have to TELL anyone you've seen it *chants and claps* Watch it, watch it, watch it

It's sooo good Frankie, I would definitely say watch it. It's better than (and very different to) True Blood. If you watch it and hate it you can gloat about how right you were to be sceptical and if you watch it and love it then you'll have allowed something wonderful into your life. It's a total win win

Well, I definitely think it'll be interesting to see how her strengths and weaknesses as a writer come into play in a totally different genre. And that's partly what intrigues me I suppose.

Not a great writer, but good enough, and a cracking storyteller. That's why I'll be reading.

Welcome back Raven!

Last night I finished Hen's Reunited and started on The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Hen's wasn't so bad in the end, and the spoiler on the blurb wasn't quite what I thought it was. It's not her best novel but overall I enjoyed it. There was only one character I really liked, Alice; the other two were not so well drawn, and of those one, Georgia, was pretty unlikeable (to start with). It was a bit predictable and some of the writing a bit laboured and repetitive but I stuck with it and will probably read more by the same author. (She has one more chance lol!) Not sure about Elegance so far, it's a bit strange.

Take care Julie

That would be great! Thanks Poppy.

It sounds great. I read all the quotes. I'm adding to my wish list right now.

That's a book I've been wanting to read for a while.

Lol - it's terrible. Glad the novel was better.

lol Thanks both. It's for the August reading circle book I'm looking forward to it.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog was waiting for me at work when I arrived back after my holiday. Looking forward to reading that once I've finished Hen's Reunited.

Ooh I'm loving the sound of it more by the minute!

The Glass Guardian sounds really good. I guess it's only available on the Kindle though.

The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals sounds good. I hadn't heard of it before but the amazon reviews look good too. It's not often I come across books set in Wales. Think I'll be adding this to the wish list

I hate having loads of books in my TBR so I am really strict in buying new ones. I add books I want to a list which I give out (to those who ask ) near my birthday and xmas and other than that try not to buy any books at all the rest of the year, though usually I do buy one or two. My problem is I'm such a slow reader and get through less than 20 books a year. If I bought everything I ever wanted to read I'd just be overwhelmed. My TBR is quite small (compared to some people's here) It's less than 50 but (for me) it's still over 2 years worth of books.

That's a great (and sobering) excerpt. Thanks for sharing it.

Well Lucy Diamond's Hen's Reunited is off to a slow start. I'm not finding it as good as her other two. There is one character I find particullarly annoying and one character I quite like, but the description and characterisation of the not very in-depth characters is a bit repetitive. Also the blurb on the back has given too much away. I can see the hooks in the story but I already know what the reveal is from the back cover. Smart move publishers I'm happy to keep reading - so far. I'm off to North Wales in a few days so I'm going to start reading some welsh learners fiction tonight to try and brush up on my welsh. The gogs are a lot friendlier if you throw a bit of welsh in with your English Today I ordered The Elegance of the Hedgehog for the August reading circle

I finished More than Matter last night. Review: More than Matter is Keith's Ward's attack on the philosophical idea of materialism (the matter is ultimately all that there is) and defence of idealism (the idea that reality is mind-like rather than matter-like). It specifically addresses Gilbert Ryle's critique of Descaarte's mind-body dualism (Gilbert Ryle famously coined the phrase 'the ghost in the machine' in his attack on Cartesian dualism in The Concept of Mind). Idealism is a philosophy rather than a religion but supports the idea of God as found in many religions, be they theistic or deistic, or simply the idea that the universe itself is a kind of intelligence.But this is first and foremost a philosophy book and defends idealism on purely philosophical grounds, arguing for example for the irreducability of consciousness. It does breifly touch in religion, mostly at the very end. I found it an interesting and engaging read, but did struggle to keep up with/understand some of the philosophical concepts and to follow his arguments in all cases. I do like Wards writing style though; he covers quite serious, often potentially dry topics, but peppered with such dry humour that I can almost imagine his eyes twinkling with mischief as he speaks, and I found myself chuckling along frequently.