Nollaig

I've heard A Little Life mentioned so much - I'm trying to focus on shorter books at the moment to get me back on track with my reading after falling behind, but every time I hear about this book I become more intrigued by it! Definitely gonna check it out at some stage.

Mixed feelings about it. The section heavily featuring a fairytale in the second Peculiar Children book was the one section I outright hated. So while I might like the illusrations, I don't know that I would like it being all fairytales from that world.

Cloudy and grey, but dry.

So glad you enjoyed Fly By Night! There's a sequel to it, too, which I have yet to read. I'm going to reread FBN first, I think!

Community! A friend of mine introduced me to it last weekend and I love it.

Dairy box chocs

I'm reading The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter. Falling behind on my reading so trying to few a few short things. Also gonna check out The 39 Steps by John Buchan, I think.

Very cloudy here too, and cooler than yesterday.

I had the Galaxy S3 mini, and I recently bought the Galaxy Grand Prime. It was around €160, a decent but not snazzy phone. I love it. Big screen, pretty up to date OS, freezes a little sometimes but that could be because I have too much on it.

Yup, same as everyone else here, when I read historical fiction I do so with an interest to read an authentic representation of that time period as much as anything else.

I have his book Drood on my shelf, where its been sitting for years, because like most of his stuff it's giant. I've had The Terror recommended to me too. I've never actually read a full one of his books, so I'll give him a go, but I don't have high hopes.

It was playing in the shop on my way to work, and it's the unofficial theme song for Merlin which I adore, so now its stuck in my head

Yeah that doesn't sound amazing. Dan Simmons seems to be very hit or miss doesn't he?

The Pick Of Destiny. Hadn't seen it, pretty funny.

Gorgeous clear blue skies this morning, now the sky is dotted with fluffy white clouds. Not too warm either. Happy out!

I'm curious what did actually happen - tell me in spoiler tags?

I spotted these while I was in Galway and decided to order a few when I got home. These are only four out of a much bigger collection (called "Pulp! Classics"). There's a Pride & Prejudice one I want too with Colin Firth on, but it was out of stock so I'm just waiting for Book Depository to notify me when it's back in stock! I absolutely love these books though, can't wait to get them! I also went out last night for a few drinks with my housemate, and the guy whose family runs a local chipper (an institution in Cork), was at the bar. Had no idea who he was but got chatting over a book about Cork he had with him and he offered to let me borrow it once I drop it back into the bar within a couple weeks! So kind! Seems really interesting.

Overcast here but the clouds are light and high, so I don't think it's going to rain.

I haven't read anything since Thursday as I was away for the weekend, so I'm still on All The Birds in the Sky. Want to try get that finished asap and get back into reading. It's so easy when I haven't read for a few days to slip out of the habit of doing a bit each day. Goodreads says I'm still one book ahead of schedule which isn't too bad.

Went to Galway this weekend to visit a friend. Haven't really been there before, but had a lovely time. It's unusual in that it doesn't really feel like a city, lot of pedestrianized small streets and old fashioned stone buildings in bright colours. It's also right on the edge of a bay so it actually has small sandy beaches. Bought myself a new Claddagh ring while there as Galway is where they're originally from - they're my favourite kind of ring but I have a tendency to lose rings and lost my last Claddagh back in 2014. Gonna try mind this one a little better! They also have an amazing bookshop there called Charlie Byrne's. It's huge it's just massive stacks and piles of books everywhere. Could spend hours in there. Back to work today, ugh.

Wow you're right - it works out at £205 for the American one! That's crazy!

:exc: :exc:

Cloudy, but with good chunks of blue sky. Seems to be staying dry, fingers crossed I'll have time to go to the shop on my way home without it raining!

County: Antrim Book: Time Present and Time Past - Deirdre Madden Genre: Fiction/Irish Synopsis: Fintan Buckley is a pleasant, rather conventional and unimaginative man, who works as a legal adviser in an import/export firm in Dublin. He lives in Howth and is married to Colette. They have two sons who are at university, and a small daughter. As he goes about his life, working and spending time with his family, Fintan begins to experience states of altered consciousness and auditory hallucinations, which seem to take him out of a linear experience of time. He becomes interested in how we remember or imagine the past, an interest trigged by becoming aware of early photography, particularly early colour photography. Time Present and Time Past, Deirdre Madden's eighth novel for adults, is about time: about how not just daily life and one's own, or one's family's past, intersect with each other. *** Review: I'm afraid I may not have given enough time to this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I feel like if I read it again it may even go up to a four star rating. I read it pretty quickly, easy to read as it was, and it's possible I didn't fully absorb it. There's no real point to this novel, I don't think, beyond an examination of the broader timeline of one's life, past and present, and how the former influences the latter and ultimately, the future. Fintan considers his past, his memories, and how, when revisited, things are not necessarily as we remember them. He also ponders the future, what will become of his children. Essentially, it's one guy feeling a little troubled by the idea of the 'bigger picture', something that seems a little like a mid-life crisis. There's no questions posed about this idea and no answers offered, is it merely stepping outside the box of 'here and now', a contemplation of where a small group of people have come from and where they will end up. The characters are diverse and well-written, believable and typically Irish. It is entirely focused on the relationships between members of an extended family, and set in Ireland just before the economic boom. This 'present', this specific snapshot of typical, day-to-day Irish life is beautifully portrayed, gentle, interesting to read despite being largely unremarkable. I suppose the best way to describe this is a meditation on the concepts of family, memory and time, as experienced through the eyes of one ordinary man. This is the first book I have read by Madden, and I definitely want to read more - though I think I'll take my time with the next one. Rating: ★★★✰✰ (I liked it)

County: Down Book: A Parachute in the Lime Tree - Annemarie Neary Genre: Irish Culture/Historical Fiction Synopsis: April 1941, neutral Ireland. Kitty awakes in remote Dunkerin to find a German parachute caught in one of the trees in her garden. When she discovers Oskar, injured and foraging for food, he becomes a rare and exciting secret. But Ireland during the Emergency is an uneasy place, and news of the parachute soon spreads. *** Review: I wanted so much to love this book, but it fell a bit short for me. Literally, I think being too short was actually the problem. The three main characters didn't really have time to develop and then way too much time was spent giving a detailed epilogue for each of the stories we barely get a glimpse of to begin with. I also found the initial part, set in Germany, a bit of a slog. Once Oskar got to Ireland and Kitty and Elsa became more involved, I began to enjoy both the 'present day' settings and the glimpses into the pasts of Elsa and Oskar. I found Kitty and Elsa to be far more interesting than Oskar, though - while the book is pretty evenly split between three - I feel like he should have been the central focus and strongest character, tying the two girls together. A fourth character, Charlie, was likeable and tied in nicely with Elsa. I'd liked to have seen a lot more about the two of them. I'm honestly not sure what else to say, about it. While it was enjoyable, an easy read, and interesting for the most part, it did little to convey the sense of life in either Ireland or Germany in that time period. I never really felt all that invested in the characters or story. By the end of it, I felt like I had read a broad first draft of a main plotline, before detail and subplots had been added. Haven't been put off trying more by the author, but would love to see something a bit more substantial. Rating: ★★★✰✰ (I liked it)