chesilbeach

The One and Only

Walk And Talk Like Angels - Toni Childs

Title: Three Men on the Bummel Author: Jerome K. Jerome Publisher: Penguin Rating: 4/5 Synopsis (from Waterstones.com): "Three Men in a Boat" was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and proved so popular that Jerome reunited his now older - but not necessarily wiser - heroes in "Three Men on the Bummel", for a picaresque bicycle tour of Germany. With their benign escapism, authorial discussions and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian 'clerking classes', both novels hilariously capture the spirit of their age. Review: I loved Three Men In A Boat when I read it earlier in the year, and wasn't expecting this sequel to be as good. In fact, I thought it was by far the more entertaining book. This seemed much more like a novel than the first book, where the author had tried to include local history in to the narrative. The three men are now older and decide to take a bicycle ride through Germany, and this time we get their side of the story about how they get on together (or don't) as well as the various escapades they find themselves in along the way of their journey. We learn about the family life (now two of them are married with children) and get a glimpse of to society of the times through their eyes. It was funny! I smiled almost all the way through - there's something about the contemporary language of that era that makes me chuckle anyway, but knowing it was written in that period makes it feel even more real and authentic, and gives it an extra level of humour. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the final chapter. After having seemingly made a very definite decision to make this the story of the three men, the conclusion is an essay on the modern Germany of the time, which was dry and felt a let down after a very funny, very charming story of three friends. Apart from that it was very, very entertaining and great fun.

Prolific

You, Me and Dupree

Withnail and I

You Don't Mess with the Zohan

"Hello." His eyes weren't just light; they were - pale a share of blue so faint it was almost silver. Scary-cool. Glass Houses - Rachel Caine

Boys and Girls - Pixie Lott

Black Hawk Down

Around ...

Read the first of the YA series of Morganville Vampire books, Glass Houses, and I loved it! So glad I got the rest of the series cheaply yesterday, as I'm sure I'll be whizzing through them over the next few weeks Creepy, bad vampires in small town America, and after the ending of book one, I desperately want to know if what happens has actually happened! However, don't want to rush through them too quickly, so going to read something else before starting on book two.

Made of Honor - was expecting it to be dreadful but I actually quite liked it. Gotta love Patrick Dempsey

Ointment

Cake ...

Forks ...

Die Another Day

Soup ...

Will & Grace (don't know why, the only think I like about it is the theme tune )

Kleenex are a definite requirement for watching Father's Day - Paul Cornell wrote that as well as Human Nature/Family of Blood in series three which also made me cry (a lot).

You'll first meet Captain Jack Harkness in the Ecclestone series in a two part story by Steven Moffat called The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (the best story from series one, along with Father's Day) and then in series two you'll hear the origins of Torchwood, but Captain Jack isn't in the second series (as they were shooting the first series of Torchwood at the time). Captain Jack is back for a few episodes in series 3 and 4 but not in series 5. I can't remember if you've seen the Eccleston series, Nollaig, and I can't be bothered to trawl back through the thread, but if you haven't, I think you'll love The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances even if you don't like Barrowman. There are some fantastically brilliant one liners in it my favourite being, "I'm trying to resonate concrete", which doesn't sound like much, but in context makes me laugh out loud just thinking about it now!

Tomorrow Never Dies

Loud ...

Nor me. Never have I ever had a manicure.

Just had a bit of a cull of my TBR list. I've got books that have been there for over 2 years, that I don't want to read any more. Most of them were impulse charity shop buys, so I don't feel too guilty about returning them into the charity shop loop without reading. So 19 books less to be read, plus a bunch of others I've read and don't want to keep. My bookshelves are still spilling over though