Kylie

Me too! (Although I must admit I haven't been able to bring myself to colour them in yet...but I will, one day!)

They sound good, Bobby. I love mandalas. Johanna Basford has two new books coming out this year: Magical Jungle, which will be published in August, and Johanna's Christmas, which will be published in October.

I'm about halfway through MRC Kasasian's Death Descends on Saturn Villa. I'm enjoying it so far. I've also started Wheelmen, which is about Lance Armstrong and doping.

I think it's excellent. Veronica Mars is an awesome character. She's like a cool, modern-day Nancy Drew. She's very sassy and gutsy, and she has a great relationship with her dad. There's a smaller mystery each week (often involving students at Veronica's school) and then larger mysteries that occur over the whole season. I highly recommend it.

Received three books in the mail today: Reed Albergotti & Vanessa O'Connell Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever Laline Paull The Bees (thanks to Kay) Ronald Rosbottom When Paris Went Dark (thanks to Anna)

Ooh, lucky you! It's an awesome show. I've been rewatching Veronica Mars...I'm halfway through the second season. Most recently watched the season finale of Game of Thrones. Epic. Now comes the excruciating wait for the next season!

Lots of great reviews, Poppyshake. I'd been wanting to read The Bees, so I ordered it after reading your review, and it arrived today.

Pretty epic episode yesterday!! Can't believe there's only one episode left.

I'm watching the new series of Orange is the New Black. Such an awesome show.

I finished Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library today.

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. Doesn't get any better.

I was quite busy with work late last week, but I still managed to get some reading done. After pulling an all-nighter to get a few jobs done on Saturday, I headed up the Blue Mountains, where a secondhand bookshop was having a 20% off sale to celebrate the Queen's birthday long weekend (the only good thing about not being a republic ). I bought a small stack of books there. Then I thought I'd make a day of it and head further up the mountains to another secondhand bookshop that I haven't visited in a few years (not sure why—it's an awesome shop!) I wasn't even sure if it would still be in business, but happily it was, and I found a few more books there. Next, I visited a nearby indie bookshop that sells only new books. And when I say 'new', I mean new. They were mostly hardbacks and large format paperbacks. It was unlike other bookshops in that it sold a lot of books I hadn't even heard of before. Usually you see the same types of books in bookshops (new releases, best-sellers), but this one was different, and I loved it for that! They also sold other quirky book-related items. There were some gorgeous book bags with the covers of some of my favourite books. And I found a set of literary postcards that I really wanted...I ended up ringing my mum and suggesting that I buy them for her to give me at Christmas, and she agreed! I bought a book there too. Fiction Earl Derr Biggers A Charlie Chan Omnibus Agatha Christie Curtain: Poirot's Last Case Agatha Christie Mrs McGinty's Dead Arthur C Clarke The Songs of Distant Earth Edmund Crispin Buried for Pleasure Edmund Crispin The Case of the Gilded Fly Patricia Highsmith The Blunderer Françoise Sagan Bonjour Tristesse Dorothy L Sayers Whose Body? Non-Fiction Nick Brownlee Vive Le Tour! Wiggo and the Amazing Tales of The Tour de France Paul Hansford The Tour de France: The Good, the Bad and the Just Plain Weird John Locke Of the Abuse of Words Andrew Ramsey The Wrong Line Simon Winchester The River at the Centre of the World

I've been quite busy lately and haven't had much time for reading, but things are slowing down now, and I've just finished reading Dead Reckoning, having read most of it in the past couple of days. In other book news, I received my beautiful new hardback copy of Jim Kay's illustrated Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It turns out that the website I purchased it from did indeed make a big mistake when they offered the book at a price of $12, but they kindly honoured the price. They sent an email saying that they had been (unsurprisingly) inundated with purchases, so I'd have to wait at least 4 weeks while they received more stock from their supplier. I was quite OK with that, but happily I only had to wait about a week before it arrived. It's gorgeous. Back in February I made a great find at the bookfair in a lovely big hardback called Letters of Note, 'a collection of over one hundred of the world's most entertaining, inspiring and unusual letters'. There is now a second edition, called More Letters of Note, which I found online the other day for just $20 (more than half of what one would usually have to pay for it!) So of course I snapped it up. I'm hoping it'll arrive this week. In non-book news, I finished my stage managing gig for The Sound of Music on the weekend. We sold out for all 10 shows (except the first one, I think, but that was close to sold out). Everyone seemed to love it, and all of the cast and crew had a great time. I don't have too much time to rest, though, because we're holding auditions for our next show, The 39 Steps, this Thursday. I'll be the stage manager and producer for this one, which means I'll be even more heavily involved. I'm really excited to get started on it.

Yay! Congrats on completing the probation. I'm happy that you found a copy of Red Dog! I guess I don't have to send you the copy I bought for you then. (Don't worry, it was a cheap secondhand copy I bought at the bookfair). I hope you have a great read-a-thon. Maybe you can make a dent in the 17 books that you're behind.

Wow, you have such a treat in store! I recently started re-watching True Blood. I'm currently watching the second season.

I totally agree, Raven.

Lovely pics of Thomas Hardy's houses! It's easy to imagine how one might be inspired to write when one grows up in such beautiful surroundings!

I received a few books in the mail today: Alain de Botton The News: A User's Manual I've been wanting this since it came out, but I've never found it at a cheap enough price...until now. It's a lovely little hardback. David Crystal Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation Another hardback. But it was so cheap that I couldn't resist! I love the topics that Crystal writes about. MRC Kasasian Death Descends on Saturn Villa I know other Gower Street fans on this forum didn't enjoy this book very much, but I still have to give it a go myself. On the bright side, I'll be going into it with very low expectations, which means it will take quite a lot to disappoint me! I've also ordered Justin Cronin's The Twelve. I was browsing a local online bookshop the other day, and to my surprise they were selling the illustrated hardback of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for only $12! That's insanely cheap. I think it usually sells for around $50 or something. It's so cheap that I'm wondering if it was an error. I ordered it anyway, but I'm half expecting to receive an email telling me they made a mistake and can't send it to me for that price, as it just seems too good to be true! The book is now listed on the site as unavailable, but they are selling the US version (with 'Sorcerer's Stone' in the title) for $55.50. Tomorrow night I'm going to the inner city to see my favourite band, The Cat Empire. They're playing in my favourite suburb, Newtown, which is a bit of hipster place with lots of good restaurants and, more importantly, bookshops! I'm going to head in a few hours before the concert so I can do some shopping.

Thanks Athena! I do the same thing with books I want (wait for the right-sized paperback to come out before I get it). I've read pretty good things about The Long Earth series, so I have high hopes for it. Yep, it's exactly the same. I guess Adriano just wanted to get his name on it. Mmm, those Zumbarons were delicious.

Great review of The Woman in White! I've had this on my TBR pile for years, and it's one that I'm certain I'll love, but for some reason I keep putting it off!

Then they should make software that people actually want to upgrade to (i.e., software that gets better with each release, not worse!)

Ooh, I loved this! Enjoy!

You too?! I'm a Mac person, but I spoke to my mum earlier and she said the same thing happened to her. She now can't connect to the Internet and will have to ring for help tomorrow. (I'd try to help but I'm too far away and it's very difficult trying to do these things over the phone.) I wasn't sure if she was mistaken when she said it was trying to upgrade to 10 without her permission, but now I know it's true!

I finished Moon Over Soho this morning. I thought about moving straight on to the next book in the series, but instead I've decided to (finally) get back to reading the Sookie Stackhouse series. So I've started reading the ninth book, Dead and Gone.

I finished #20 last night. I'm 2 books ahead of schedule. Just keeping my head above water at the moment.