chesilbeach
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Posts posted by chesilbeach
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I've just had a look on Amazon and it says is a Flavia book.
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I finally finished Hippy Dinners!!!
I really enjoyed it, lots of references I could pick up on from my childhood, and a lovely memoir of an ordinary childhood.Decided to go onto the second of The Gower Street Detective series, The Curse of the House of Foskett by M. R. C. Kasasian.
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*blows cobwebs off thread*
Whoops, it's been a week since I posted in here.
I've finally decided to subscribe to Audible audio books. I've been listening to lots more audio books recently, and have ended up listening to all my Jane Austen ones again as I'd run out of new ones. I've also got a bit fed up with getting my iTunes to sync the audio books to my phone properly, so thought I'd try the 30 day free trial on Audible. The app worked brilliantly, much easier to get the books on my phone, and I got a free book as a trial, so all good. I've set myself up with a wish list with mostly classics from the English Counties challenge, which are good and long, and would be expensive to buy the full versions of, and because they're a decent length (Lorna Doone is almost 26 hours
) they'll last me for the month between credits. There are also some good offers because I have downloaded Kindle editions of the books, and they offer the Whispersync (I think this may be for Prime members only?) which means I can get the audiobooks at a discounted price too. -
I'm halfway through Hippy Dinners by Abbie Ross. I'm enjoying it, but I seem to have been reading it for ages and am still only just past the halfway mark!
And still going … although my Kindle tells me I've got 37 minutes until the end, so I'm hoping I might finish it tonight!
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Brilliant news!
Well done, will you do anything to celebrate? 
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After working two Sundays in a row, plus a couple of late evenings, I'm off for the rest of the week now! I've got to take my car to the garage tomorrow, and need to properly clean some of the house as it's been a slap dash job for a while, but apart from that, I'm going into relaxing mode. I might try and go to the cinema one day, and I really want to make a decent dent in the remaining books on my TBR, which is a single paperback plus ten Kindle books, so looking forward to making some good progress there!
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Thanks for your reply and all the useful info contained therein, Claire.
I will see if I can have a good go at it tomorrow afternoon and maybe that will help. I'm loathe to give up on it after such a short period of time.You're welcome.
Like you, I always try to read at least a good chunk of a book group book if I can, so even if I disliked it, I can at least discuss why, but I would still rather give up part way through than suffer a book needlessly. At least with this one, you can always try the modern day half as well, even if you can't get through the historical section, so it would get a bit of a second chance! -
Black jeans, white long sleeved turtle neck t-shirt.
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You're reading it the same way that I did
In the first half, it's similar to stream of consciousness (I think that's what it's called?) writing, so she's stripped out a lot of the punctuation and grammar and just written it as if you're in Francesco's mind. I can understand why you're finding it difficult, and I have to say, I actually started the book again as I put it aside for a couple of weeks and came back to it and found I needed to go back to the beginning to get back into it, but set aside a chunk of time to get into the right mindset. It's typical of Smith to set aside our conventions of structure and format when it comes to writing, and I find that I just have to immerse myself in it and read long sections at a time. The second half will be set in the modern day and be "normal" in its form, and you'll probably find it much easier to read. The book can actually be read either way around, so if you want, you could go to the modern day section and read that first, then come back to the historical part. Just a note on the Kindle edition, it's actually the same book twice, but the first half is the historical then the modern day, and the second half is the modern day followed by the historical, so you've actually got 12% of the way through, if that makes sense.
A lot of her writing plays with our notions of conventions in language and structure, and I think this is her most ambitious yet. It's definitely not for everyone, and I have to put aside all my preconceptions about writing when I read her books, but for me, it's worth the challenge to my reading experience, as I connect to her stories emotionally. I'm not the cleverest person (I don't have a degree either!) and I don't think that matters. I think it's just something you either enjoy delving into or you don't. I wouldn't blame you for not reading it, even as a book group book, or even just reading the modern day section. -
Wet! Done my chores, so staying inside for the rest of the day to avoid the downpours.
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I read about it in The Guardian. It's incredible that Birmingham has that beautiful central library and yet the whole community of libraries aren't able to purchase new books. I know there must be other areas of the council budget which require attention as well, but it's heartbreaking to see the detrimental effect on libraries which are such valuable resources for many, many people
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The Story of Kullervo, written in 1915, was inspired by 19th-century Finnish poem, and influenced his later novel The Silmarillion and will be published this month.
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I'm halfway through Hippy Dinners by Abbie Ross. I'm enjoying it, but I seem to have been reading it for ages and am still only just past the halfway mark!
Still going ...
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I'm wearing jeans (duh!) and a previously favourite t-shirt, which is navy blue with a design of a yacht on it so it looks like a blueprint drawing. Has been superseded now, but was my fave for a long time
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If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch is on the Kindle Daily Deals today for 99p. This was one of my top reads of the year in 2013 - I read it in more or less a single sitting. It's a YA book but works as a crossover for adults too. Link to my review if you're interested
Blurb from Amazon:
What happens in the woods, stays in the woods. . .
Carey is keeping a terrible secret. If she tells, it could destroy her future. If she doesn't, will she ever be free?
For almost as long as she can remember, Carey has lived in a camper van in the heart of the woods with her drug-addicted mother and six-year-old sister, Jenessa. Her mother routinely disappears for weeks at a time, leaving the girls to cope alone. Survival is Carey's only priority - until strangers arrive and everything changes . . . -
You're so colourful too! My wardrobe is black, grey, white, navy, blue and the odd bit of purple. Nothing bright for me … that might draw attention to me, and I can't be doing that
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I'm halfway through Hippy Dinners by Abbie Ross. I'm enjoying it, but I seem to have been reading it for ages and am still only just past the halfway mark!
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You all sound so smart! I live in jeans and t-shirts, although I do have a proper cotton shirt on today - it's my favourite one which is a white and purple check which gets darker towards the bottom, almost like it's been dipped in the purple dye and it's seeping up the shirt. Other than that, most of my clothes are plain t-shirts (some long sleeves, some short sleeves). I think they modelled Sheldon (from The Big Bang Theory) on my "look" … long sleeve t-shirt with a short sleeve over the top!
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Just got home from work after a full day then an evening of overtime … I'm cream crackered! Don't have to go in tomorrow morning though, so will hopefully get a lie-in, and I might even attempt to bake a cake, as we haven't had one for ages. Looking forward to just reading and relaxing for the next couple of days.
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Athena, I'm not chesil (duh) but I'm sure she meant it as a joke!
The Italian Job... I've never even heard of the movie so it can't be that big of a hit 
Yes, it was a joke … sorry, I thought that the emoticon and the trade mark symbol would have given it away. The Italian Job is a well loved film in the UK - it's one of those (along with The Sound of Music and The Great Escape) that regularly appears on our televisions on Bank Holiday weekends, and would regularly appear in lists of our favourite films - but I did only intend it as a joke.
The newer one with Mark Wahlberg and Edward Norton was great!
Sacrilege!!!!
Actually, although it actually bears very little relation to the original as far as I could see, other than the the cars being Minis, I thought it was enjoyable too. -
I'm sure you probably know, but just in case, thought I'd mention that I've spotted a few tweets about the filming of a new series of Peep Show!
https://twitter.com/sambaintv/status/631004735991119872
I still haven't watched any myself, but I will try it eventually … promise!
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It'll be interesting to see the England team for the final test. Lots of discussion about playing Rashid in preparation for the UAE tests against Pakistan, but seems like too little preparation to me. Since we've already won the series, would quite like to see Clarke do well for his last game.
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Yesterday we watched The Italian Job (from the 1960s). Michael had seen it several times before, but I hadn't. It was nice, not without its flaws but it was enjoyable
."Not without its flaws"
Careful … that film is a British National TreasureTM -
Claire's Book List 2015
in Past Book Logs
Posted
A lot of my favourite podcasts have a summer break, so I run out of things to listen to, and the summer is my peak audio book time. An hour commuting every day soon mounts up!