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Kylie

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Posts posted by Kylie

  1. Ooh, fab choices, Kylie! :smile2:

     

    You're absolutely right about poppyshake … she makes everything good she reads sound unmissable.  Fortunately, she bought me the Alan Bradley book for Christmas, and I've already read The Humans, so it's just The Mangle Street Murders that will make it's way on to my Kindle from her your list. :giggle2:  Hope you enjoy them all :D

     

     

    Yes indeed, The Human and The Mangle Street Murders are excellent! Good haul there Kylie  :smile:

     

     

    I'm glad you liked The Martian, though it's a shame about the annoying style.

     

    I hope you enjoy your new books when they get there :)! I loved The Humans, such a brilliant book.

     

    Aha! So I can blame you three as well. :P I love being able to blame my weakness on others.  :giggle2:

     

    Yep, Chesil, Poppyshake has a lot to answer for! (Thank her for me the next time you see her, will you? :giggle:)

     

    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!

  2. 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.  :blush2: 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.  :blush2: 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  :giggle2:). You have a lot to answer for, woman! :P

     

    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. :)

  3. OMG … this is a book that NEEDS to be published! What's number 1?

     

    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!!! :D

     

    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. :D

  4. Read 200 pages plus of my Captain Bluebear book .. think I am on life six (out of his thirteen and a half lives) .. thoroughly entertaining. These 700 pages are going to whizz by  :smile: I'm entranced.

     

    *stop pacing and wringing hands and starts bouncing around in glee*

     

    :exc:  :exc:  :exc:

     

     

    I've started reading Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry.

  5. 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. :banghead: 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.

  6. 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).

  7. Frankie, would you believe that I had BLINI yesterday?! :D

     

    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. :D 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.  :doh: 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. :)

  8.  

    The Walking Dead - some brilliant direction in that episode, I thought . . .

     

     

    Particularly the shot of Rick on the walkie-talkie with Michonne wandering around in the background lopping off zombie heads :giggle2: 

     

     

    Yeah, I love how they're always so casual about it! :D

     

    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. :D

     

    One thing I haven't seen mentioned though...

    Why were the bodies in the town cut in half? First they found the legs, and then when Rick was driving away, he crashed into the truck, which opened up and spilled out all the top halves. What happened there? Did I miss something?

     

  9. And so we should be in it! :P We shouldn't be discriminated against just because we're not European. :P I suggested on FB that it should be renamed to EurOzvision. :D
     

    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.)

  10. 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 :blush2:). 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.

  11. 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.  :giggle2:  And that was before the movie had even been seen or reviewed!

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