chesilbeach

Treated myself to a "me" day today. Went into town and saw Spy in the multiplex and I was the ONLY person in the cinema!!! It was brilliant - no one talking, kicking my chair, noisily eating food or slurping drinks … bliss! I almost had a problem when the house lights didn't go down during the trailers, but managed to find a member of staff who sorted it out before the film started - only just though … by about 30 seconds. Then went for coffee and a read, followed by a nice drive in the sun to come home, with (and I feel no guilt for this pleasure at all) Bananarama on the car stereo. I haven't had such an enjoyable "me" day for ages.

After meeting up with Kay yesterday, I've got nine(!) more books on by TBR list, which now stands at 64 books We don't have any more holidays for a while, so I'm definitely going into no buying mode. I have pre-ordered some books for authors who have books published in the next few months, but I don't think it's more than 5 or 6 books, and I have one book that came out a couple of weeks ago, that I've been trying to find, and will hopefully get today, so once that's done, I'm putting myself on lockdown. I'm not even going to look at the Kindle deals. I need to reduce seriously concentrate of getting this number down. Having said that, Kay has lent me some corkers! The whole of the St Clare series by Enid Blyton Campari for Breakfast by Sara Crowe (have been coveting this one for ages) Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino.

Wolf Hall follow-up series likely… although might be a while yet!

This morning, the sun is out in force, shining on my screen making it difficult to see while I'm typing! Forecast is for a sunny morning with clouds coming in later on, but for the moment, it's lovely.

The magic of libraries

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is just 99p today.

Wow, someone else who loves Etre et Avoir!!! I adore that film, but I don't know many people who've seen it. I'm so glad to see it in your top 10, Marie. I'm hoping to see Some Like It Hot at the cinema in a couple of weeks. The local(ish) art house cinema is showing a James Dean and Marilyn Monroe season, and this one is on soon. I've only ever seen it at home on the television. I also love Now, Voyager - although unusually, I saw it first at the cinema. I can't remember why, but the multiplex was doing a whole series of old films, and my other half said I had to see it, so we went for my birthday, and it was fabulous. Has been one of my favourites ever since. Great selection of films, Marie … I approve!

It's been a while since I stopped calling it chick-lit, as when you think about it, it's a pejorative term ... Marian Keyes: Please can we stop saying 'chick-lit'? These Female Writers Want To Stop “Chick Lit” Being Used To Describe Work By Women (Sorry for going off topic here. )

It was right at the time! Then those Columbians had to go and ruin it and score a goal right at the end of the match

Oh I've just remembered, an older book, but I absolutely adored it - The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin. Again, not set in Rome, but set in an Italian villa in the early twentieth century (1920s).

That's not what I said!!! I thought if I read too many chapters in one go, I *would* get bored, so I made sure I only read one or two at a time to prevent that. The thing with this style of children's book is that they work best if you only read one chapter at a time, probably at bedtime, and like I said, if I had a young child to read it to, I'm sure I would have loved that experience. Some children's books are more linear in their storyline so you can read the whole thing in one go, but this was more a collection of stories just using the same characters, which is why I felt it better to read one or two at a time. I think if her books are all aimed at that younger age range, then I probably wouldn't. Has she written any thing for older children or adults?

Decided to start The Bride That Time Forgot by Paul Magrs this morning. It's the fifth in the Brenda & Effie series, and I'm already about a third of the way through. I love it, I love the characters, and this time around, one of them has gotten themselves into some serious trouble!!!

Just got back from Bath where I met up with poppyshake. The café in the Waterstone's has been converted from a Costa into the Waterstone's own Café W, so we decided to try it out. It was rather warm out, so we had iced coffee and a slice of their home made lemon drizzle cake which had a thin topping of buttercream and some lemon curd swirled over the top … it was gorgeous! Had a bit of a book swap, and a lovely long chinwag, and a great time was had by all (well, I know I had a great time, I hope Kay and Alan did too ). Caught the train back and now need to sort myself out as I need to go and get some shopping for dinner tonight … I'm thinking portabello mushrooms on toast.

I have no inclination to be a writer myself, but found this article by David Nicholls about the research process very interesting, so thought I'd share it here David Nicholls: Google v old-fashioned legwork - how to research a novel

I'm sort of between books at the moment, although I haven't finished my last book jar pick yet - The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams. I put it aside as I was going away and didn't want to take books with my, just my Kindle, but now I don't think I'm in the mood for it, but don't know what else to read either!

I'd forgotten I'd been reviewing the books here. I finished book seven in the series last week. I'm still enjoying them, but I still haven't watched the television series as I wanted to read the books first. Good to see someone else reading and enjoying them too!

In honour of the current score in the Women's World Cup ...

I've just seen this! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33162666 I promise I only saw it after I'd posted above

We've loved watching For the Love of Cars - I guess it might depend on contractual requirements as to whether Glenister would be able to join Top Gear. I don't think May and Hammond should stay either, a new era needs a new line-up as far as I'm concerned. They've both work on other BBC programmes, so I suspect they've got other projects in the pipeline anyway. I do wonder whether this will be another case where the BBC will try to include a woman (as in no more all male panels on quiz show), so it's not another three white middle aged men presenting team. I love Chris Evans as a presenter, so I'm more than happy with the choice so far!

I think I would, although I think you could enjoy it without having read the original, I just think you'll get so much more out of it if you know the source.

It depends on the book. If it's been a long time since I've read it, if I didn't hate it first time around, I'll probably read it again, but if I've read it recently, I'll probably just reread my review and maybe flick through it to remind myself what I thought of it. If it's a book I loved, I'd probably read it again in full.

Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid Synopsis (from amazon.co.uk): Jane Austen in the hands of queen of crime, Val McDermid. Get ready for a very different Northanger Abbey. Seventeen-year-old Catherine ‘Cat’ Morland has led a sheltered existence in rural Dorset, a life entirely bereft of the romance and excitement for which she yearns. So when Cat’s wealthy neighbours, the Allens, invite her to Edinburgh Festival, she is sure adventure beckons. Edinburgh initially offers no such thrills: Susie Allen is obsessed by shopping, Andrew Allen by the Fringe. A Highland Dance class, though, brings Cat a new acquaintance: Henry Tilney, a pale, dark-eyed gentleman whose family home, Northanger Abbey, sounds perfectly thrilling. And an introduction to Bella Thorpe, who shares her passion for supernatural novels, provides Cat with a like-minded friend. But with Bella comes her brother John, an obnoxious banker whose vulgar behaviour seems designed to thwart Cat’s growing fondness for Henry. Happily, rescue is at hand. The rigidly formal General Tilney invites her to stay at Northanger with son Henry and daughter Eleanor. Cat’s imagination runs riot: an ancient abbey, crumbling turrets, secret chambers, ghosts…and Henry! What could be more deliciously romantic? But Cat gets far more than she bargained for in this isolated corner of the Scottish Borders. The real world outside the pages of a novel proves to be altogether more disturbing than the imagined world within… Review: It was with some trepidation I approached McDermid's modern retelling of Northanger Abbey, but I absolutely loved it. It follows the original story very closely, has the same comic tone, with Catherine Morland's over exposure to gothic novels translated into a fondness for YA vampire books. The characterisation is very good, I loved the modern interpretation of Isabella Thorpe, and even better, it's set at the Edinburgh Book Festival … what's not to love! I will probably never read another book by McDermid, but I'm delighted she was chosen for this project, and am actually now looking forward to reading Joanna Trollope's Sense and Sensibility as soon as the book jar throws it out at me. One of the most enjoyable reads of the year so far.

In other celebrations for the 125th anniversary …. Agatha Christie festival to host cookery demonstration with poisonous twist

He is, and looks like he's going to be one of the major characters.

Fair enough! You might want to have a look at the thread when Michele visited the forum, as she talks about her books and style http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/10510-author-chat-michele-gorman/