~Andrea~

I couldn't get on with Frankenstein at all. I loved Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies. Neither book is particularly cheery though. Either would be great as an essay choice but animal farm is a very quick and easy read. I read it in a day and I'm a slow reader lol I agree about Catch 22 - great book, difficult essay topic, (although I guess in an essay you don't need to pin down exactly what it all means, just speculate and discuss) but it's pretty long. Good luck.

Ahh fabulous! Thanks Weave. Her current name is Jill - but we'd like to change it to something else (trouble is finding something OH and I can both agree on!) Thanks - I definitely will! She was much more relaxed last night actually and sat between us on the sofa, purring while we watched TV. Thank you

Eats Shoots and Leaves is great. I also have Mind the Gaffe - by Penguin, which is pretty good too.

Thanks Kylie. She's about a year old they think. By the way - did you get yourself a pet in the end?

Cracking review Raven. Glad you finally enjoyed it. I enjoyed the hobbit but have yet to read LOTR. It's on my to do list. I loved the films, but was put off the books by having them read to me as a child when I was probably a bit too young (and found them rather heavy going.) I had to tell my dad to give up a third way through book 1!

We brought our new cat home yesterday :-) She is a nervy little thing though and spent most of her first day hiding behind the washing machine - bless.

I really enjoyed Ender's Game. I thought the book had a lot of interesting ideas. One thing I didn't like though - "Buggers" as a name for the alien enemy race! They may as well have been called the "little blighters" or the "pains in the neck". Perhaps bugger isn't a commonly used word in the US though like it is in the UK. Next I've started reading "Great Turning Points of British History" from the BBC History magazine people. So far so good. It seems quite readable and hopefully will prove educational.

We went to the animal shelter yesterday and applied for a cute little black cat called Jill. Can't wait! The animal shelter breaks your heart though. I wish I could take them all :-(

Do it Noll. Unviverze I love that pick of your cat on the laptop. It looks like he wants to dive straight in to another world.

Ditto I thoroughly agree. I thought it was excellent. Can't wait for the next series.

Lovely photos Weave. What handsome cats. We are trying to adopt a cat at the moment. We already had one disappointment when another family adopted the cat I fell in love with at the shelter last weekend before I managed to confirm I had cat sitters for my holiday Hopefully we'll take another look next weekend.

Apartment 16 sounds right up my street Weave. I'll have to add it to the growing wish list. Thanks

Thanks both - I'm certainly enjoying it so far!

Gave up on The Promise of Happiness last week only a few pages in. Started Ender's Game last Thursday and took it away with me to Scotland. Much more engaging. I think I'll emjoy this one

Shade I would love to be able to speak Russian! I think it sounds wonderful, as all eastern European languages do. The alphabet is a bit scary though

Sadly I'm only fluent in my first language of English. I am not bad with Welsh. I've been learning for a good 6 or 7 years or so and can hold a decent but fairly basic conversation. I learned French in school for 3 years and German for 2 years and a bit of German in college and later on my own. So I have a smattering of those two but I have forgotten most of it. I am currently trying to revive my French using the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/ The BBC site actually has some pretty cool resources. I'd like to use it to refresh my German as well eventually and also to start learning Spanish from scratch.

I finished Strangers on a Train on Saturday. I didn't enjoy it as much as some of her other books, the story seemed slower somehow, however it was still an excellent read! I think Patricia Highsmith is becoming a favourite author. She writes very intelligently, creating extremely tense worlds. I loved Bruno's character. Dangerous and Insane though he is, he is one of those characters you just love to watch (or rather read). This was Highsmith's first novel which she wrote at the age of 30 and I find myself incredibly envious of her talent. Last night I started Justin Cartwright's a promise of happiness which I began without much enthusiasm. I only managed a couple of pages and I can't yet tell if it was just my mood, or the book iteslf hindering my enjoyment. (I was extremely fed up and stressed out by the end of yesterday so it was probably just me )

It was in a BBC good food recipe compilation book. I haven't heard of that before. It sounds vile

Steak in orange and mustard sauce. It was disgusting. Steak + orange = yuck!

Welcome to the forum