Kylie

Aha! So I can blame you three as well. I love being able to blame my weakness on others. Yep, Chesil, Poppyshake has a lot to answer for! (Thank her for me the next time you see her, will you? ) Athena, I can't remember...have you read The Martian? If not, I hope I haven't put you off reading it. Once you get past the style (and I know it's not a problem for most people), it's really, really good!

A literary poster in the form of the Periodic Table.

Bahahaha! I love it! Nollaig, Roxi and Holly are so cute! They look very cuddly.

On Goodreads, The Martian has a rating of 4.36 from nearly 70,000 ratings. That's really impressive; I rarely see books rated that well on GR. I'm a little surprised that the technical aspects didn't put more people off. I guess it goes to show how good the plot is! I was so excited by Poppyshake's discussion of the Marrying Mr Darcy card game that I may have just ordered it online. And because the website had a flat postage fee no matter how many things you ordered, I figured I should make use of it and order a few books as well. I usually don't post about books until I actually receive them, but I'm so excited by my order that I have to announce it now: Alan Bradley The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag Matt Haig The Humans MRC Kasasian The Mangle Street Murders Now, I know that multiple people have recommended these books, but I can't help but notice that all four items I have just ordered have one person in particular in common: Poppyshake! (OK, you haven't read The Humans yet, but it's on your TBR pile, so I'm counting it ). You have a lot to answer for, woman! I was also going to buy the expansion pack for the card game, but it wasn't in stock and I didn't want it holding up the rest of my order.

This was my first thought as well. I would totally buy this book—I picture it as a nice little hardback with some lovely illustrations. I love the ones you've both already come up with! I love love love the sound of the Marrying Mr Darcy card game! I want it!!! ETA: Squeee! I found an Australian store that sells it! (Even better, it's an awesome independent bookseller in Sydney.) I don't even have an 'Alan' to play it with, but that won't stop me buying it! Ooh, did you know there's an Undead Expansion Pack for the game? I guess it's based on P&P&Zombies.

*stop pacing and wringing hands and starts bouncing around in glee* I've started reading Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry.

I just didn't buy that such a smart man would use such informal language, especially knowing that his writing would be historically important in the future. Come to think of it, I don't think I ever see any men write like that anywhere, even on Facebook. Early in the book, I wondered if I'd be able to get past it, or whether I'd have to abandon it (and I never abandon books). It was that bad. Weir is lucky he had a damn good plot to keep me going. I've started reading Gathering Blue, the second book in The Giver quartet. Only read a couple of chapters so far, but it's off to an interesting and disturbing start.

Cool. People certainly go to a lot of effort to do creative things, don't they? Lucky for us.

So, after getting off to a really slow start with The Martian, I flew through most of the book in 48 hours. It was a riveting page turner indeed, and I couldn't put it down, despite having a big workload at the moment. I had a problem with the writing style throughout (in terms of Mark's silly asides, like 'yay!' and 'boo') but eventually I kind of got used to it and even smiled at some of his silly jokes. It's impressively technical. Sometimes it was a bit much and I just wanted him to get on with it, but at the same time the science was interesting, so I was happy to read the details (a bit contradictory, I know). Andy Weir is obviously a very clever chap. I don't know how plausible any of it is—I'm no scientist or engineer, obviously—but it certainly sounded impressive! Looking forward to seeing the movie. 8/10 (points lost for Mark's/Andy's annoying writing style).

Finished The Martian! Thoughts will be posted in my reading log.

This video is awesome. 'The Seattle Public Library launched the 2013 Summer Reading Program by setting a new world record for the longest book domino chain!'

Frankie, would you believe that I had BLINI yesterday?! When Mum and I had our high tea, the server explained what each type of food was. On the second tier there were sandwiches and a couple of other morsels. And one was blini with smoked salmon! I couldn't believe my ears when she said blini. You can't see it very well in the photo I posted on FB, but it's on the left side in the second tier, at the front (closest to the camera). Unfortunately I don't really like smoked salmon. I'd only tried it once before and thought it was totally gross, but I decided to give it another chance yesterday. It was OK, but I only got about halfway before I gave up, which means I didn't eat all the blini either. In hindsight, I should have at least taken the salmon off so I could eat the blini, but I didn't think of that at the time. And I was so focused on the salmon that I didn't much notice the taste of the blini. But I can still say that I've eaten it! Oh, and one of the sandwiches did indeed have cucumber! It also had mascarpone and dill, and it was quite nice.

Blasphemy! Having just finished watching Dollhouse again, I'd like to see it brought back. And Firefly of course.

Nearly halfway through The Martian.

Ohmigod yay! Bless you, book jar! I am beyond excited! ...and oh so terrified in case you don't like it. I'll be spending the weekend pacing up and down and wringing my hands anxiously. Go Captain Bluebear, you cutie-pie!

Yeah, I love how they're always so casual about it! I also liked it when Tyreese went to the front door of a house, and as he was looking inside, you could see Noah reflected in a small shard of glass. I love how they pay attention to small details...And then afterwards, you find online articles with titles like '287,345 things you missed in The Walking Dead', and you realise how much you managed to miss, and it blows your mind. One thing I haven't seen mentioned though...

! You defaced our BCF picture!

Another good reason to use your local library. You never know what you might find!

And so we should be in it! We shouldn't be discriminated against just because we're not European. I suggested on FB that it should be renamed to EurOzvision. Frankie: ha! I wonder what would happen if we did indeed win? Probably not worth thinking about. Any points we win would be purely because of the novelty aspect of being part of it. I wonder if we'll be allowed to vote? (It probably mentions it in the article...haven't read it yet.)

It probably wouldn't have been much different to reading the play, but I had the book on my shelf already, so... *shrug*

No word on Depp, but Samuel L Jackson has been cast (to be honest, I can't even remember his character, Barron, from the book ). Eva Green will be Miss Peregrine. Asa Butterfield, who I know as Ender in Ender's Game and Bruno in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, will be Jacob. Ella Purnell has been cast as Emma. I don't think I've seen her in anything before, but apparently she's been in Maleficent. That's about it for the casting so far.

Well, I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly as the others I've read, but it was good. I'd probably recommend reading it after all of her other stuff. Novelisations should always come last.

I finished reading Black Coffee yesterday. Good read, but you can tell it's been adapted from a play.

Frankie, Marieke Hardy loves the Mortdecai books. It was her recommendation in an early episode of the First Tuesday Book Club that made me buy it. She also mentioned it again recently when she found out the movie was coming out. She made an impassioned plea to viewers to avoid the movie at all costs and just read the book. And that was before the movie had even been seen or reviewed!

Great reviews, Kay! Looks like I'll be adding The Mangle Street Murders to my wish list.