Chrissy

I'm listening to the rain lashing at the window. Mother Nature's own kind of music.

How can I resist throwing a pic up here, when some of it's components are known as Blobs? Here are Space Blobs! The notes that appear with this shot taken by the Hubble Telescope say this... It's hard to believe that these are photographs and not an illustration from a Science Fiction story. Ain't the universe wonderful?

Around The World ~ Red Hot Chilli Peppers

What A Wonderful World ~ Louis Armstrong

You To Me Are Everything ~ The Real Thing

'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger. Plenty of heart ache and angst all wrapped up in an original and compelling story.

Calm Before The Storm ~ Fall Out Boy (I have my own broom thank you - I have no need to snitch them! )

That does sound fascinating Mona. The little I 'knew' about Schumann was mainly about his mental and physical illnesss alongside hs music, so to read a well researched biography would be really good.

Four books accidentally fell into my shopping basket yesterday; two for husband on local history, one of which I wil be reading too, 'The Little Book Of Sussex' by David Arscott, and two for me, from the combined pens (keyboards) that are Nicci French I have 'Blue Monday', and 'Love You More' by Lisa Gardner. I also nabbed a Kindle Daily Deal book that is unikely ever to be a paperback - Londoners: The Days and Nights of London as Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Long for It, Have Left It and Everything Inbetween by Craig Taylor.

Poppy's got boney elbows! Sorry muggle not, I haven't been feeling musically inspired of late, but I will follow the advice of 'Fake it 'til you make it'! Shelter From The Storm ~ Mr. Bob Dylan

I have just started 'I Capture The Castle' by Dodie Smith. in preparation for next month's Reading Circle read. So far I am really enjoying it.

I always love reading your reviews, and many a book has been added to my pile / wishlist because of them.

6. Ben’s first words were ‘I want cake’. What do you make of that? I thought this showed that he observed others until he felt ready to employ the 'skill' he had mastered, in this instant it was expresing a very direct desire for cake (a desire I can fully empathise with! ). What I found surprising was the response of Harriet to the event, Harriet did not even notice, at first, that he was talking. Then she did, and told everyone. If she was so focussed on this anomalous child, and 'his voice was heavy and uncertain', how could she not have noticed? The other side to this for me was the sweetness of his siblings as they try to encourage his speaking by chatting with him.

14) Ben In The World by Doris Lessing This book is the sequel to Doris Lessing's 'The Fifth Child', a story of a child born into a family that sees it as a destructive changeling of sorts. 'Ben, In The World' starts from when Ben is 18 years old, and follows the trials he undergoes attempting to exist in an often cruel and uncompromising world. He encounters kindness along the way, most often from other socially dispossesed people; an elderly lonely woman, a prostitute and a former prostitute from destitute beginnings In each case they take the time to get to know Ben, and attempt to guide him through life. The story takes Ben first to France, ad then onto South America. His loneliness and need to find out where he truly belongs is palpable within the pages and touches on the every human's desire to know our origins and find out our place in the world. It is another short read, but equally as affecting as it's prequel.

I started and finished Doris Lessing's 'Ben, In The World', a sequel to this month's Reading Circle read ' The Fifth Child'. Another short but powerful book from the author, and although the book travelled wildly (UK, France and South America) the emotional aspects were constant and ache inducing.

*mutter, mutter* I was merely putting the thought out there....although.....maybe.......

Looks to be £10 at the moment in places. Should be interesting to see how low the major supermarkets go with it nearer the publishing date.

I think I feel a Book Ring Group coming on! That would sure be a way of keeping the costs down. *wanders over to amazon to check the price and publish date*

Where is the library? It does look lovely.

I had deep fried hunks of sweet potato with two dips (harissa and sour cream) recently- more delicious than I can adequately describe. I love them roasted, also baked (as in jacket potatoes) with some vegemite on them.

The Jodi Picoult is now on my wishlist and 'The Child Who' looks to be a brilliant read. I will keep my eye on what you think of it.

I agree Mau. Ben is constantly perceived to be this animalistic lump, yet he is also given these extraordinary power of malicious plotting. My perception of Neanderthal is very unsophisticated, purely an instinctive unthinking being. Ben may have Neanderthal aspects, but he definitely had greater mental development than the accepted opinion of such a being.

Although I agree that things were difficult for Harriet, I saw her and David's inaction regarding help for Ben and /or the family as their greatest failing. So much damage to so many people, including Ben. Even when she the once sought help, she just accepted defeat in the sae way she had when she had initially fet something wrong during the pregnancy.

5. What are your feelings about Ben? One of the aspects of the book that really gripped me was that I wasn't certain whether Ben was truly a neanderthal throwback / goblin / troll, or if he had physical and behavioural issues or whether all the problems were given to him via the behaviour of others toward him. I'm still not certain, despite reading Ooshie's spoiler bit. This suits me though, as this makes the book to me as much a commentary on misunderstood youth and familial reponsibility as it was a creepy story of the wrong baby. I felt so very sorry for all the children of the Lovatt family and thought they had been badly let down by their parents. I felt especially sorry for Ben though who had no voice and no-one fighting his corner for him. Even when Harriet had 'rescued' him from the nightmare he had been placed into, she still did nothing for him except threaten him, lock him away and then send him away with the teenage John. Where were the trail of experts that Harriet and David should have worked their way through to get their son help? When did the research take place to look for solutions for their clearly struggling and miserable youngest son? My heart ached for Ben when it was described how he watched his siblings watching television so that he could learn how to react, as he did not have that facility within himself. There were so many steps between "I think we have a problem child." and abandoned naked child in a straitjacket.

4. What do you think about David and Harriet’s marriage? Initially I thought they were tremendously well matched, with a shared vision of their future. It slipped somewhat when they had unprotected sex in their new house that first time which they both knew would lead to pregnancy. This was depsite knowing they could not afford to take on this house with one wage alone. After that I developed a more critical view of them, with their grapsing take from their parents, the superior attitude they maintained over their siblings and their ignorance and neglect of not only Ben, but his abandoned brothers and sisters. As has been said here, as soon as their marriage experienced a genuine problem their supposed unity fell apart. Throughout her last pregnancy Harriet felt rejected by David,and later David's solution to the family's problems is to spend more time away from the house and all his children.