~Andrea~

I'd like to reduce my TBR. I did quite well last year, and managed not to acquire too many new books (there was a rush at the end of the year with xmas and what with my birthday being in Decemberbut aside from that I only bought a handful of books myself.) I'd like to read more - I managed about 25 or so in 2009. I'd like to break 30 in 2010. I'd also like to read more non-fiction, of which there is plenty on my shelves

What was this like? I like autobiographies. I imagine I would find this one quite interesting. I really enjoyed Daniella Westbrooks autobiog about her cocaine addiction and I really like Drew Barrymore. She seems a lovely person. You have some great books on your TBR list! I'll be interested in your thoughts on these as they are both authors I like. This is on my bookshelf and I am very excited about reading it, hopefully I'll get to it quite soon. I love Highsmith although I suspect a Hitchcock theme in your choices? Are these two: books that the Hitchcock films are based on? If so I'd also be quite intrigued to read them. Both fabulous reads. I hope you enjoy. Watership Down is one of my all time favourite books. Are you a Du Maurier fan?

I'm not sure. An hour at room temperature might do. We freeze them in single portion containers ready chopped and just cook them straight from frozen, either fry or stir into a sauce. Not saying that's the best way to do it though! Hehe I'm not a big fan of tofu either

We quite often freeze chopped onions and peppers and put them straight in the freezer ready to tip into a pasta sauce or something at a later date. For things like cabbage and broccoli (your favourites I'm sure ) they say you need to blanch them in hot water first. I'm not exactly sure why; I have in the back of my mind something about preserving the colour (and hence possibly the nutrients). I'm not sure about price comparisons but you could consider quorn or tofu as possible cheap substitutes for meat. Tofu would work well in a stir fry although it is rather bland. Are you allowed to eat eggs? Some hard boiled eggs in your curry could be another option, to either replace or eke (sp?) out the meat. Re the soup, it's because if you drink the water alongside the solids, the liquid quickly drains out of your stomach, but if it is mixed up with the food then it can't drain away, so the liquid sits in your stomach alongside the solids.Larger volume = fuller feeling. A cunning yet simple diet-busting trick. And good morning by the way

Which ones Mac? I've only read two Koontz so far so it'd be good to look out for the cream

Wow. I'll be lucky if I break the 30 mark! I really liked this. I know some people found it rather slow paced but I enjoyed it. I'll be interested in your thoughts on that one. Wasn't so keen on this though but will be interested to read your review.

Pulses do contain carbs but they are also high in protein and fibre both of which are very good for filling you up. I would imagine pulses in small amounts would probably be ok. How about a curry with meat, whatever vegetables you can bear with some chick peas or lentils to bulk it out a bit? If you make the curry sauce with vegetable oil instead of ghee, and then dry spices, and tineed tomatoes and yoghurt (yoghurt is also high in protein so should help to fill you up) then it would be fairly healthy. As for fibre maybe you could try having a low carb dinner followed by a small bowl of high fibre cereal like weetabix or something. Yes it would have carbs but nowhere near as much as a serving of pasta. They also say that a thick soup will keep you fuller for longer than if you ate the solids in the soup separately with a drink of the same volume of water that made up the soup (am I making sense lol) because of the way your body absorbs it. A thick soup, with some meat and pulses in it would probably be quite filling. I personally think cutting out carbs is too difficult. If it was me I'd maybe halve the portion of pasta but switch to a wholewheat version. Anyway - good luck

I quite liked it, although it wasn't completely true to the book. I would have preferred the opening scenes to be that of the book, where he just wakes up in hospital, much more suspenseful. I thought Eddie Izzard was great. It was enjoyable enough, not earth shattering, but fairly decent.

Hello stranger

I loved this story. And I loved the ambiguous ending too, I'm warped like that Even though the stories are very different in key points, the film The Others is based loosely/inspired by The Turn of the Screw

Dracula - Bram Stoker, definitely!

Ages since I've updated this. Have read King Lear since and some Chekhov short stories. King Lear was hardgoing, enjoyable but not as much as Macbeth. I'd like to see it performed now. Reading plays is a little odd really, since they are meant to be performed. I really like Chekhovs writing style, although the stories are curious, not like modern stories, just short tales really without any particular punchy point or twist, although I suppose Ray Carver is a bit like that too.

I'm enjoying The Magic Cottage so far! Something nice and spooky (although it's not very spooky yet, I'm only a few chapters in) for the gloomy winter months

My 2009 one can be closed now. Thank you http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=337633

I finished this quite recently. I thought it was a lovely story and enjoyed it a lot. Once again the setting is quite lyrical and I was transported to the wilds of Scotland. The blindness of the lead character was very interesting. I don't usually do romance but I liked this one.

Finished the Simpson autobiography last night, so not quite by the end of 2009 but close enough! It was fantastic. Very compelling and utterly fascinating, covering some momentous events:the fall of the berlin wall, the end of apartheid, the gulf war, the seige of sarajevo, and loads more. He's found himself in some pretty hairy situations, and his larger than life, ballsy personality has really got him some great stories over the years. I thoroughly recommend it. Next: The Magic Cottage by James Herbert, in my 2010 thread

Poems/short stories read in 2010 poems Tennyson - The Lady of Shallot Tennyson - The Two voices short stories Guy de Maupassant - On the River " " - Simon's Father Chekhov - Currently reading: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Authors to try: Anthony Horowitz David Baddiel Anne Tyler Kelley Armstrong Tess Gerritson Sam Hayes Jonathon Coe John Updike H P Lovecraft

Wish list: Ambrose, David - Superstition Auel, Jean - The Clan of the Cave Bear Beah, Ishmael - Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Bradbury, Ray - Something Wicked this way comes Bradbury, Ray - The Martian Chronicles Barker, Clive - Weaveworld Challis, Sarah - Footprints in the sand Chesterton, G K - Orthodoxy Conan Doyle, Arthur - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Conran, Shirley - Savages Coupland, Douglas - Microserfs/JPod Du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca Du Maurier, Daphne - The House on the Strand L'Engle, Madeleine - A Wrinkle in Time Greene, Grahame - Brighton Rock Greene, Grahame - The Third Man & The Fallen Idol Haugen, Gary (IJM) - Just Courage Highsmith, Patricia - The Talented Mr Ripley Hinton, Susan- Rumble Fish Hodgson, Burnett Frances - The Secret Garden Keyes, Daniel - Flowers for Algernon Koontz, Dean - The Mask Koontz, Dean - From The Corner Of His Eye Koontz, Dean - False Memory Koontz, Dean - Odd Thomas Kostova, Elizabeth - The Historian London, Jack - White Fang Neville, Adam - Apartment 16 Milne, A. A. Winnie the Pooh - complete short stories and poems Mitchell, Margaret - Gone With the Wind Niffenegger, Audrey - The Time Travellers Wife Pargeter, Edith - The Heaven Tree Rayner, Jay - The Oyster House Siege de Saint-Exupery, Antoine - The Little Prince Tolkein - LOTR Trueman, Terry - Stuck in neutral Trigell, Jonathan - Boy A Wheatley, Dennis - The Haunting of Toby Jugg Wyndham, John - Chocky Wyndham, John - The Kraken awakes Ruiz Zafon, Carlos - The Shadow Of The Wind Ruiz Zafon, Carlos - The Angel's Game Ryan, Carrie - The Forest Of Hands & Teeth Zusak, Markus - The Book Thief

Unread books on the bookshelf: Acquired pre 2009 1 Minnette Walters - The shape of snakes 2 Minnette Walters - Acid Row 3 Logic - A very short introduction 4 Wilkie Collins The Woman in White 5 Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales (modern translation) 6 From the Holy Mountain - William Dalrymple 7 Alice through the looking glass - Lewis Carrol 8 Joanna Trollope - The men and the girls 10 Damaged - Cathy Glass 11 The Essential tales of Chekhov 12 Othello 13 The Merchant of Venice 14 The face - Dean Koontz 15 Julius Caesar 16 Twelfth night 17 A Winter's tale Begin year size: 20 End year size: 16 Acquired 2009 1 The Soldier's return - Melvyn Bragg (June) 2 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge (xmas) 3 Collected works of Tennyson (December) 4 The Secret of Crickely Hall - James Herbert (December) 5 About Time - Paul Davies (December) 6 It - Stephen King (xmas) 7 The Great Turning points of British History (xmas) 8 The Making of Modern Britain - Andrew Marr (xmas) Begin year size: 17 End year size: 8 Books acquired 2010: 1 Arthur C Clarke - A Fall of moondust (Feb) 2 Tess Gerritson - The Apprentice (4 Dec) 3 The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's (11 Dec) 4 The Diary of Blodwen Jones (11 Dec) 5 Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles (16 Dec) 6 Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian (25 Dec) 7 Donna Tartt - The Little Friend (25 Dec) 8 - Why I am Still an Anglican - Caroline Chartres (25 Dec) Begin year size: 0 End year size: 8 Total Begin year size: 38 Max size: 38 Min size: 27 Current Size: 33 End year size:33

Books read 2010: God has a dream - Desmond Tutu (27/12/09 - 31/01/10) The Magic Cottage - James Herbert (4/01/10 - 16/01/10) Quantum - Manjit Kumar (16/01/10 - 19/02/10) E-ffrindiau - (03/02/10 - 19/04/10) Mister God This is Anna (22/02/10 - 06/03/10) Tales of Beedle The Bard - J K Rowling (12/03/10 - 14/03/10) The Seance - John Harwood (16/03/10 - 04/04/10) Man and Boy - Tony Parsons (05/04/10 - unfinished) Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb (11/04/10 - 29/05/10) The Quantum Universe (13/04/10 - 11/07/10) Plot and Structure (19/04/10 - 18/05/10) Pet Sematary - Stephen King (29/05/10 - 20/06/10) Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (21/06/10 - 26/06/10) Strangers on a Train - Patricia Higsmith (11/07/10 - 7/8/10) The Promise of Happiness - Justin Cartwright (8/8/10 - unfinished) Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (12/08/10 - 3/09/10) Great Turning Points of British History - BBC (4/09/10 - ) It's not what you think - Chris Evans (16/09/10 - 8/10/10) Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (17/10/10 - ) Total books completed: 15

Finished Star Gazing today. Very good. I liked it a lot, even thought it's not my usual thing. Just 150 pages or so of John Simpson's book left now!

I think I must be the only person alive who didn't like Avatar. I thought visually it was amazing, 10/10 and it's worth seeing just for that. But I don't really have much else good to say about it. I found the story weak, the characters, especially the baddies, unbeleivable, the dialogue appalling, the message patronising and the whole thing predictable and corny. Oh well.