Kylie

Yes. Yes you are.

I hope you'll let Poppyshake and I convince you to read it, Claire. It's totally worth it! But all credit should go to Paula, who was the first to read and review it a few years back.

Athena, I don't know if this would make any difference, but the book was originally written in German and translated into English. Whenever Moers publishes a new book, there's a long wait for us English readers to get a translated version. Hopefully that means there's a better chance that it has been translated into Dutch?

Watched the newest ep of The Walking Dead. You might enjoy this one a bit more, Karsa. Now I'm watching The Talking Dead, which airs immediately after The Walking Dead and involves interviews with cast/crew and an in-depth discussion of the episode that just aired. It's great for fans!

You could copy the link to your profile page here, and then we can send you friend requests from here. Or you could go through the previous pages in this thread to where other people have linked their profiles and copy their user names or the website address. Here is my profile. You should see an 'add friend' button, or something similar.

That was the first Agatha Christie book I ever read. Unfortunately when I was partway through it, I read a spoiler for the ending on the back of another novel. But it was still a great book! I'm reading a few books at the moment, including Son, which is the fourth book in The Giver quadrilogy.

Wonderful review! I'm so pleased that it rated a 'Loved it!' from you. I dearly hope that Moers will write about Captain Bluebear's other 13 1/2 lives one day!

Emoticons culled. I wish! Sounds like a comfy job. Unless it's those ultra firm mattresses. I would be a mattress tester for soft mattresses only. It is lovely, isn't it? My Mum saw the cover the other day and asked if the book was from the dog's perspective. I said it wasn't and that it was about an alien, but she wouldn't believe me. I offered to read her the synopsis but she refused, so she knew I was right. Luckily she didn't say yes because I re-read the synopsis today and realised it doesn't actually mention an alien! Ooh, that's lovely! Thanks for sharing. Ha! I know just what you mean! I have the first edition of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, below, and it's quite a nice cover in its own right, but of course it doesn't match the cover of my new book, and I can't have that! Also, the cover of the matching edition, to the right, is so very pretty.

Don't you mean that we should deduct the costs from your bank balance? Glad to hear it! I don't know if you read my post in The Giver group read thread, but the stories do start to converge. A couple of characters from The Giver appear in the third book, Messenger, along with characters from Gathering Blue. And I know some questions from the third book are answered in the fourth book, Son. I just looked it up, and characters from the first book do indeed appear in the fourth book. I would strongly encourage you to continue with the series. The second and third books are both excellent (especially the third). I've just started reading Son. Thanks Bobbly! I'm really enjoying The Humans so far. Hmm, I'm not sure how I feel about that title!

I wonder what the average income would be if they didn't count JK Rowling's income? I'm sure she and just a few of the other most successful authors would be enough to skew the average quite a bit!

But it's soooo good, Chesil! Brilliant, in fact. Take our word for it! And Marie, you should definitely read it soon.

Bragger! I was looking forward to finally watching a match on the weekend (first game in a week!) but it was rained out! I think I now have to wait yet another week for the next game.

That's great news! I can't wait for you to get it. I'll be looking forward to your thoughts.

It's a shame you can't get to see the episodes now, but it'll be great to be able to watch them all at once rather than having to wait a week or more between episodes.

Just watched the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory. They did a lovely tribute to Carol Ann Susi (who played the voice of Howard's mother), who passed away last year. I cried. It was so well done. Now I'm watching How to Get Away with Murder.

I'm in love with that bag! And it was designed to fit a 15 inch Macbook, which is what I have, so it would be perfect! (I've moved this to the Literary Gifts thread.)

Excellent review, Ruth! Papillon only recently came to my attention. It sounds intriguing.

Excellent review, Poppyshake. I really need to bump this up my list! I've never noticed before that you match the book cover's colour to the colour of your review title. That's so awesome, and so very 'you'! And I love that you incorporated elements of the checklist into your review. I can't wait to see how I score (although you said that if you're anxious about being a psychopath, then you're not, so I should be OK ).

I finished Messenger by Lois Lowry yesterday, and I've started on The Humans by Matt Haig.

Cool! I hope it gets published on a larger scale one day so we can all read it.

I finished Messenger yesterday. It was very good! It tied parts of The Giver and Gathering Blue together, although I must admit that I didn't even notice because the characters went by different names and I read The Giver so long ago that I didn't recognise them several years on. I only realised when I was reading reviews afterwards. The story was quite powerful, I thought, and I spent a fair bit of time thinking about it afterwards. In Gathering Blue there was a plot point that I saw coming a ways off, but there was one in Messenger that I didn't see coming at all. I had a couple of unanswered questions at the end, but apparently these are answered nicely in The Son, which I'm really looking forward to.

Just as well you're taking The Phantom Tollbooth, missy. Enjoy your doggy sitting!!

YES! Good thinking. Also, I conveniently have it on my TBR pile, so yay!

I want JS&MN too.