Chrissy

.......and take your smarties and press them firmly onto the melted chocolate to create a line of 'buttons'...........

What a wonderful room. Is your husband available for hire? And yes, you MUST make efforts to fill in those gaps!

Linda Gillard's 'A Lifetime Burning'.A compelling read. Anthony Burgess' 'Earthly Powers'. A book I would mark as probably one of my favourites, but it may be a bit too epic / vast for what you are seeking.

We are all serious book reading people here Raven, so there would be none of that on here.

I held my breath reading your account of handling the manuscript. Such a wonderful thing to do, and the true meaning of awesome I would imagine.

Hello Madibelle, and welcome to the forum.

University Challenge. I need a brain stretch before watching some random mindless nonsense later.

Thank you all. Your words are much appreciated. We gave a lot of 'bits' to my two sis-in-law yesterday; sacks of food, doggy car ramp, car seat protectors etc. My niece, from whom we got Cap will be getting his new giant dog bed cushion and some toys for her dog. His most favourite toys are going to be washed and kept ~ I couldn't part with them.

Even if the book promoted teenage sex you'd have to ask yourself ~ what influence do these parents feel they have had on their children if they consider 1 book to be so dangerous? Would the 10 - 15 years of moral and social guidance they would purport to have given their offspring be so easily destroyed by a book that mentions sex? Read the book , then as the parent consider it's value, and make your decision about it after that. Don't hear a rumour about a book then hysterically call for it to be banned! Whenever I hear about parents attempting to have a book banned I always hear the vicar's wife in 'The Simpsons' calling out "Will someone please think of the children!"

Thank you for all your kind words. Yesterday was odd as we spent most of it at my sis-in-law's. She has 6 dogs, and my other s-I-l turned up with her 3! Fortunately none are border collies so it wasn't too difficult to bear, the noise and chaos was actually a good distraction. Getting home was tough, but we will get there in time. Our two cats know something has happened and are being doubly needy with us, which is both lovely and awful. I don't know, blooming animals and the way they inveigle themselves into our hearts and lives. Shouldn't be allowed!

Thank you so much. Today is day two without him, and we are still in shock with the added horribleness of anticipating him being here all the time, and momentarily forgetting that he is not. He was like a shadow at home, always nearby. Getting up this morning was hard as we would normally get up, have a cuppa and walk him. Our whole routine is now askew and we don't like it! It's going to take some getting used to.

'The Possession Of Mr Cave' was a slow burner for me too, but by the end I was captivated. That Weave if she wasn't allowed near books she couldn't recommend so many good ones.

'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee'by Dee Brown is a devastating but important read. I thoroughly recommend it.

This morning we had to put our dog, Cap to sleep. His gastroenteritis hadn't properly cleared up, and he was really sluggish for this morning's walk, despite having been full of beans yesterday. The vet did a blood test that strongly suggested a tumour. An x-ray and scan later and it was confirmed, there were a number of them, and they were nasty ones. There was nothing that could be done, so we cuddled him and told hom how much we loved him, and the terrific vet gently injected him. At the moment we are pretty much torn up. The chasm that his sudden loss has created will take a long while to heal. This abused and frightened dog came to live with us 4 1/2 years ago and all these years later he had developed into a social, cheeky and mostly calm (as a Border Collie he was a natural fretter!) dog. We are reassured that he knew in his last years that he was safe and very much loved.

Did you click on it and see the mini video? Bloomin' marvellous.

Oops! I had actually looked up your name when you first signed up, thinking it was probably a quote. I hadn't realised it was part of Anthony Powell's twelve volumes.

I'm a barley fan too! It has to be thoroughly cooked and have absorbed the flavours of the surrounding stew/soup/casserole/hotpot. Cod in strawberry sauce sounds absolutely revolting, but I do understand why you tried it. I would too, just to see for certain that it couldn't possibly work.

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but I had three books arrive from Amazon. I am desperately holding off from buying Terry Pratchett's 'I Shall Wear Midnight', but thought it would be nice to replace the three books that precede this one. Amazon have reprinted them with beautiful covers, very arty and subtle and grown up. I fell in love and bought them. So now, I will have to wait for the paperback of 'I Shall Wear Midnight' to be printed in a cover that matches these three. See? By buying the three I have ensured that I shall wait for the fourth!

'The Time Traveler's Wife' made me cry, as did 'The Subtle Knife' on a number of occasions. I tend to tear up if a situation has become hopeless for a character I have grown to love.

Hello Paul. and welcome to the forum. 8 books on the go at once? I wouldn't go near the 'Lost Reading Mojo' thread anytime soon ~ you might get lynched! I have to ask, Sophie? 'Sophie's World' perhaps?

I've not read any, but I have 'Blacklands' on my shelf. Some of the others do look rather intriguing.

That's was one of my first thoughts, just after I had tried to read the titles of all the books. They look great DecemberJoy, the right combination of reading material and personal bits.

Hello DecemberJoy and welcome to the forum.

Oh I am so jealous! I love this trilogy so much, and to be reading it for the first time......Oh yeah:D .

It wasn't the one I was thinking of though...Oh no, no this is going to really plague me.