chesilbeach

Thanks Steve, I'll think about it a bit more. I've got a few weeks to make up my mind yet ...

It's the same at my book group … you can almost guarantee if there's a book that everyone loves, I hate it, or if everyone else dismiss the book, I'll have loved it! We've obviously just got better taste than them, eh Marie?

I'm so pleased you're enjoying The Winter Queen! I finished All Our Worldly Goods today. Another compelling read from Némirovsky, and can't wait to discuss it at my book group this month.

Pointless … I'm addicted!

The Once and Future King is one of the ones I'm tempted by … someone on here recommended it to me a while back, so now might be the time to bite the bullet with it.

What's wrong with people?!

Yes, read most of those, or I don't own them yet … I was just talking about the ones I have already that are in my jar. Those are mostly freebie classics I've downloaded and all seem huuuuuge.

I think it was another of those things that distinguished Enid Blyton's works as for middle and upper classes … I don't know anyone who drank ginger beer when I was little, I don't even remember seeing it for sale. It's got a (adopts frightfully correct RP voice) "lashings of ginger beer" reputation over here, so I've always assumed it was something that only posh people drank! I must try it sometime …

It is only a one-off for the 60th anniversary, but that was my first reaction before I read the article.

I like the white shelves … the shelves in my house are painted, mostly cream, some blue, but in the house in the picture, I think it suits the room. All our rooms are fairly dark, but I'd love to have a house with lots of natural light and I'd accent it with white shelves, especially as the books on it would give it plenty of colour.

Eurovision Song Contest: Australia to compete in 2015

Wow, here's an interesting point of view … why reading a book 100 times is a great idea I particularly like the closing few sentences though … I may never read a book 100 times, but I definitely have one or two that are like family.

I agree, there was definitely a feeling that he personally knew the location well, and I think you're right about the class aspects and people's place in society. Again, glad you enjoyed it so much, it was an excellent book … one of my few 5 star books.

Eggy bread (or french toast if you're feeling posh )

Forgot to say earlier, I started All Our Worldly Goods by Irène Némirovsky today, and it's really good. Came home from work and picked it up again immediately for a half hour read, so I'm already half way through. Nice to have a good book from the library reading group … it can be a bit hit and miss at times!

Lots of classics, and most are quite long … both these things normally put me off, though it's all psychological, as when I do dive in, I usually enjoy them!

I've just remembered, I've also got a couple of bottles of ginger beer in the fridge … I've always wanted to try it because of Enid Blyton, but have never actually tasted it despite buying it to try a little while back … that would be perfect for a Malory Towers inspired midnight feast!

Like it bothers me ... I can't even remember what books I've lent you most of the time, let alone how long you've had them!!! Sometimes you give books back to me and I'd completely forgotten I'd even bought them, let alone that I'd lent them to you. NEVER worry about how long you borrow a book from me.

Well I'm glad you enjoyed it, even if we have very different opinions about it! It's interesting that I like crime capers, so it should have been a good read for me, I just found once the story moved to America, it got too far fetched. I know it was written a long time ago, but the female characters were clichéd and one dimensional, Mortdecai himself was rather nasty, and I struggled to place it in time, sometimes felt like it could have been in the 50s, then at other times it felt more 70s when it was published. Anyway, you're more that welcome to keep it … if it comes back to me, it'll be going straight to the charity shop!

Thanks Sari! I'm sure you'd enjoy The Dynamite Room so fingers crossed the library have a copy for you. Ah, I'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't get into The Rehearsal. I know her second book was well received generally, and even won the Man Booker prize, so I'm not ruling out reading more of her work, but this one just wasn't for me.

Back to work today … plenty to keep me busy, but definitely glad to be home in front of the fire again.

We've still got almost an entire Christmas cake … perfect midnight feast fare!

Of couse you did, Sari! My mind's been addled by too much reading today

It sounds like "term" is a very British concept when it comes to schools and education, so for those of us from here, it's well engrained in our psyche, as we grew up with it! Start of term, half-term, end of term, three terms a year, we're just used to them and don't consider that it might not be known by people who live elsewhere. It's a bit like the US grade system - I've never been able to get my head around that, or what ages children go to which schools, and I would have absolutely no idea about the Finnish system!

Citadel by Kate Mosse Synopsis (from waterstones.com): 1942, Nazi-occupied France. Sandrine, a spirited and courageous nineteen-year-old, finds herself drawn into a Resistance group in Carcassonne - codenamed 'Citadel' - made up of ordinary women who are prepared to risk everything for what is right. And when she meets Raoul, they discover a shared passion for the cause, for their homeland, and for each other. But in a world where the enemy now lies in every shadow - where neighbour informs on neighbour; where friends disappear without warning and often without trace - love can demand the highest price of all... Review: I have to admit, it's been seven(!) years since I read the second book in Kate Mosse's Languedoc trilogy, so while I remember enjoying the first two, I also remember them being books I devoured on holiday and whizzed through them. Not so much with Citadel. It weighs in at a whopping 692 pages, and reading on my Kindle, I'm assuming the pages must have had a very small, closely spaced font, as one page seemed to equate to about five pages on my Kindle! It's taken me a week to read, and that's only because I read just over half of it today on a day off work. Having said all that, I did enjoy it a lot. It was a story I'd not come across before, with a strong head of female characters, a second world war setting in southern France, and I thought it was very interesting to read. As with the other two books, there is a mixing of the historical in among the more contemporary story, this time with the story of a fourth century Christian on a quest, both of which build to bring parallels with each other and converge at the end. I mentioned somewhere else that I read the first book in the trilogy, Labyrinth, not long after a trip to Carcassone, and yet again, I was transported back to the place. Mosse describes the walled city well, and I could picture the setting of some scenes in my head having visited there, and it added to the reading experience for me. I can't remember enough about the first two books with regards to their conclusions, but with Citadel you have to suspend your disbelief at the end, which I'm in two minds about. Generally though, the story was a good read, and the strength of the woman and the Resistance was fascinating, and at times awful, to read about. There are some scenes of interrogation that are quite harrowing, although it's not as graphically described as you think it is, but what it describes paints a far worse picture in your head … at least that's how I felt anyway. If you've read the other books in the series, I think you're going to enjoy the last one, but having seen quite a few people here who gave up on Labyrinth, I can't imagine it's going to appeal to many here! It's a bit of a marathon read, but I did enjoy it and thought it was worth the effort.