chesilbeach

Hello!

We all seem to be of a similar opinion … NO to dancing judges NO to comedy videos YES to more training footage I was quite pleased with the first dances. A few good ones (probably a bit too good for week 1) but everyone so far has potential, with possibly the exception of Carol, who will probably stay for a while as she's still dancing with Pasha and he's a favourite pro among the fans. Dance of the week was probably Peter & Janette for me, although for a cha cha I would have expected to see a New Yorker step and some opening outs, so felt a bit out of my comfort zone as a recognisable cha cha. My biggest surprise was from Jay & Aliona - he looked SO nervous before the dance, and a bit of a rabbit caught in the headlights afterwards, but Aliona actually gave him some decent choreography and I thought from a technical point of view, he danced it pretty well. Definitely needs to work on the performance, but bags of promise. Least favourite routine was Iwan & Ola, although I've seen reports that he only had about three days of actual training due to his other work commitments but not sure how true that was. Again, the shoehorning of songs relevant to the celebrities profession or a theme into dance styles that don't match irritates me beyond belief. Give them a proper tango song for goodness sake!!! I love Natalie, but Ainsley was dreadful. The only redeeming feature of the dance was watching Natalie with a huge grin on her face which I can only assume was because she could see the gurning face of Ainsley all the time. Dreadful posture and hold matched with awful facial expressions that was caricature not characterful … urgh. Can't we get them to swap partners and give Nat someone better? Surely it was her turn this year? Of the rest … really liked Georgia & Giovanni, Katie & Anton, Anita & Gleb and Helen & Aljaž, I hope Kirsty and Jamelia will get over their nerves, and everyone else was promising so I'm quite pleased with this years batch on the whole. As for the new professionals, I like them all, but like others have said above, think they've gone over the top with the whole "Gleb is too good looking" thing … Aljaž would get my vote over him every time!

Glad to hear both you and Alan enjoyed The Humans, Kay! …sums it up perfectly for me.

As my TBR pile was looking a bit forlorn I thought I'd better prop it up, so I've had a bit of a splurge over the last week. I've bought the following books on Kindle: The Desirable Duchess by M. C. Beaton The Westerby Sisters by M. C. Beaton A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor No Time Like The Past by Jodi Taylor Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch And, although I rarely buy hardbacks, I just couldn't resist The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell as it's just beautiful and I've heard lots of good things about it, so I thought I'd treat myself. I've also read quite a few books over the last week, as I've got myself engrossed in the St. Mary's Chronicles series by Jodi Taylor and I'm now on book four out of the five I have, and book six was a bit more expensive but now I've started, I don't think I can stop, and I've found a few short stories as well, so I guess they'll be arriving on my Kindle very shortly too!

Hello!

Hi Sorina

I was only missing Foxglove Summer, so I snapped that up. Will probably read it later this week

A bowl of cherry tomatoes

It was definitely the right result for GBBO last night … his time to go. Had to look up what a religieuese à l'ancienne should look like and found some pictures from the French version of Bake Off where they had to do them as a technical challenge, but they looked much worse than our bakers attempts!

I can't believe it was four hours … where did that time go??? Lovely to see you again Janet, roll on next time!

Thanks Kay, it was smashing. Sorry I had to dash off so quickly, but the time had flown by and my car park ticket was about to run out. I'm looking forward to next time already too!

Sounds sensible to me. Nothing worse than looking at the shelves and not having enough choice.

The Tent, The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy. Synopsis: For the 70s child, summer holidays didn't mean the joy of CentreParcs or the sophistication of a Tuscan villa. They meant being crammed into a car with Grandma and heading to the coast. With just a tent for a home and a bucket for the necessities, we would set off on new adventures each year stoically resolving to enjoy ourselves. For Emma Kennedy, and her mum and dad, disaster always came along for the ride no matter where they went. Whether it was being swept away by a force ten gale on the Welsh coast or suffering copious amounts of food poisoning on a brave trip to the south of France, family holidays always left them battered and bruised. But they never gave up. Emma's memoir, The Tent, The Bucket and Me, is a painfully funny reminder of just what it was like to spend your summer holidays cold, damp but with sand between your toes. Review: Another journey back to the 1970s, but this time, it's mostly looking at camping holidays. This really hit the right note for me, as until I was teenager, almost all our family holidays were camping or caravanning, and so many of the stories recounted here rang a bell in my memory. I've read Emma Kennedy's children books (the Wilma Tenderfoot series) which I adored - very funny and charming, but this was the first of her memoirs I've read, and I was absolutely delighted to fall in love with it. Like me, Emma was an only child, which meant I associated even more with her stories, having to make friends with other children to play with, and spending rain-soaked afternoons playing board games with your parents. There will be a television series starting soon on the BBC called The Kennedys which will be loosely based on the book but focusing on Emma's family in general, rather than their holidaying, but I can't wait to see it.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge. Synopsis: Faith's father has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, and as she is searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. The tree only grows healthy and bears fruit if you whisper a lie to it. The fruit of the tree, when eaten, will deliver a hidden truth to the person who consumes it. The bigger the lie, the more people who believe it, the bigger the truth that is uncovered. The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold the key to her father's murder, so she begins to spread untruths far and wide across her small island community. But as her tales spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter . . . Review: Another recommendation from an author on Twitter, I bought this in Waterstone's and got home to find it was actually a signed copy! This YA story is brilliantly set up, incredibly atmospheric, and the story itself was original and compelling. It's historical setting allows the heroine to challenge feminine stereotypes as well as the society rules of the time, and adds an eeriness to the story. I absolutely loved it … a real corker! Will definitely be looking up more of Hardinge's work, especially as Noll has read another of her books recently and rated it very highly.

The Curvy Girls Baby Club by Michele Gorman. Review: No synopsis as it will give away plot points from the first book (The Curvy Girls Club), but this short novella carries on where the first story left off. I'm not normally a fan of romcom writers going into baby writing, but I do like Michele Gorman's books, and it was good to catch up with the characters from the first book and see where life was taking them, and to look at how pregnancy and motherhood can affect womens lives and careers in society today. Not my favourite of hers because of the subject matter, but I still like her writing, and a good follow up to the original book.

Hippy Dinners by Abbie Ross. Synopsis: In 1972 Abbie Ross’s cosmopolitan parents move the family from London to rural North Wales, exchanging a town house in Islington for a remote farmhouse on a hill. Abbie’s Liverpudlian grandparents – dedicated followers of Liberace, sleek in scented mohair and patent leather – are sure they’ve lost their minds. For Abbie, though, the only cloud on the horizon is the nearby hippy commune and its inhabitants. There are worrying signs that this is the sort of ‘better life’ that her parents have in mind. Brilliantly evoking a particular time and place, Abbie’s memoir re-creates a world of dens and pineapple chunks, of John Craven’s Newsround and fishing for sticklebacks – and the joy but also the burning powerlessness of being a child. Disgusted by her father’s ‘yogic flying’ and her mother’s taste for brown bread and billowing cheesecloth (with no bra), Abbie is desperate not to be different. Far better, she thinks, to fit in with shouting, pathologically nosy Sara across the fields,or stay close to Philip next door – paralysingly shy and with a preference for orange food and no trousers (‘nice to have a bit of air’) ... Review: i don't know why, but this book took me ages to read. Set in the 1970s, there were plenty of pop culture references I could pick up on and associate with, and on the whole it was a nice read. It's almost damning with faint praise, which isn't really fair. It was fun to read, a nostalgia piece for those of us of a certain age who remember the period, but for some reason, it just seemed to go on forever! I'm glad I read it, and if you grew up in the UK in the 1970s, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Oddysey by Richard Ayoade. Synopsis: In this book Richard Ayoade - actor, writer, director, and amateur dentist - reflects on his cinematic legacy as only he can: in conversation with himself. Over ten brilliantly insightful and often erotic interviews, Ayoade examines himself fully and without mercy, leading a breathless investigation into this once-in-a-generation visionary. Only Ayoade can appreciate Ayoade's unique methodology. Only Ayoade can recognise Ayoade's talent. Only Ayoade can withstand Ayoade's peculiar scent. Only Ayoade can truly get inside Ayoade. They have called their book Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey. Take the journey, and your life will never be the same again. Ayoade on Ayoade captures the director in his own words: pompous, vain, angry and very, very funny. Review: This book is definitely one for Ayoade fans. If you don't know who he is, or his sense of humour, I think you might wonder what on earth you were reading, and I'm not sure you'd get on with it. On the other hand, if you've heard or seen him talking about the films he's directed, or even like his work on programmes such as Gadget Man, then you'll have an inkling of what to expect, and it's full on Ayoade. It's funny, very, very funny, and I loved it. I don't really know what else to say other than I had to suppress laughter in the office while I was reading it on my lunch break, and when I got home and picked it up again, I guffawed out loud a few times. It's as much about comedy as it is about film, but it is essentially about his work in films, at least in his own idiosyncratic way. Just a note on the format ... I was lucky in that I read in on my Kindle paperwhite, and each footnote is linked with the text, so when you click on them, they appear in a popup window which you close and you're immediately back at the same place. I'm not sure how it works in the paperback version, or on older Kindles, but if you have to keep going forward and backwards, it might become a bit wearing.

The Mangle Street Murders and The Curse of the House of Foskett by M. R. C. Kasasian Synopsis: Funny, fresh and sharply plotted Victorian crime starring a detective duo to rival Holmes and Watson. Gower Street, London, 1882: Sidney Grice, London's most famous personal detective, is expecting a visitor. He drains his fifth pot of morning tea, and glances outside, where a young, plain woman picks her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven's sake - she is wearing brown shoes. Set between the refined buildings of Victorian Bloomsbury and the stinking streets of London's East End, THE MANGLE STREET MURDERS is for those who like their crime original, atmospheric, and very, very funny. Review: I'm going to review the first two books of this series together. I loved the idea of these books, and I wanted to settle down to a new series that I could get my teeth into. I did enjoy the first one, but there's something about both March and Sidney that doesn't quite ring true for me, and I'm not quite sure why. I didn't find myself warming to either of them, and the letters that are gradually revealing March's past don't really seem to be adding anything to my understanding of her character. The problem with Sidney is that, to me, he's already too established as this amazing detective, and yet he seems a bit too arrogant and at times, almost an outsider to the story, rather than being at the forefront, and I feel like I wanted to come into his timeline earlier and find out how he became the masterful detective we meet at the beginning of the first book. The crime stories themselves are good, they kept my interest, and I was happy with how they were resolved by the end. However, after reading the second book, I think this might be the end of the line for me and this series, there's just too much else I'm more interested in reading.

Bit windy and overcast for most of the day, although the sun popped its head out for a while this afternoon, before we had a downpour of rain.

Had a few things to sort out today, so it feels like I've been all over the place! The result, however, is that we now have a fabulous new rug in our living room. The old one was a Turkish style rug, but it was so old, it was threadbare in places and wasn't exactly good at keeping your feet warm. The new one is a lovely contemporary style, with a multicoloured stripe in mostly autumnal colours, so lots of reds, oranges, browns, with the odd blue stripe in amongst them. It's so soft and warm, and it's a bit bigger too, so fits the room better. I love it!

I've read a bit more of Perfect Girl, and hoping to finish it soon, but wish I had more reading time in the bank this week!

Darkmere by Helen Maslin. Synopsis: Kate and her friends are spending the summer at Darkmere Castle in Devon - which she thinks will be a perfect opportunity for her to get together with Leo. But instead, she's drawn into the dark story of a nineteenth-century girl who haunts the tunnels and towers of the house ... and whose curse now hangs over them all. Review: One of my favourite authors raved about this YA book on Twitter after reading it, so when I saw it in an offer in Waterstone's, I couldn't resist. I absolutely loved it. Fantastic story, with teenagers who felt real to me, mixed in with the historical story of how the house came to be cursed thrown into the mix, this ghostly story was nicely creepy and chilling … I'm glad I read it on a bright summers day! Very atmospheric, I could definitely picture the house on the coast in my head, it made for a very satisfying read.

The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera. Synopsis: Prudencia Prim is a young woman of intelligence and achievement, with a deep knowledge of literature and several letters after her name. But when she accepts the post of private librarian in the village of San Ireneo de Arnois, she is unprepared for what she encounters there. Her employer, a book-loving intellectual, is dashing yet contrarian, always ready with a critique of her cherished Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott. The neighbours, too, are capable of charm and eccentricity in equal measure, determined as they are to preserve their singular little community from the modern world outside. Prudencia hoped for friendship in San Ireneo but she didn't suspect that she might find love - nor that the course of her new life would run quite so rocky, would offer challenge and heartache as well as joy, discovery and fireside debate. The Awakening of Miss Prim is a distinctive and delightfully entertaining tale of literature, philosophy and the search for happiness. Review: I asked for this for Christmas as I was intrigued by the title and the synopsis, and the cover of the copy I have is beautiful, so I thought, it had a good shot of being a good read. On the whole, it was pretty good, but as it went on, I began to have doubts about the message it was giving about women and their role in society, and by the end, I was even more doubtful. In fact, the conclusion was wholly unsatisfactory to me, to such an extent that it has actually spoiled the experience of reading of the rest of the book for me. I still wonder if maybe I've not really taken on board something in the text, as I almost can't believe the conclusions I've drawn from it! Maybe I need to re-read it, and see if I've missed something … but then again, maybe not. We'll see.

The Robot in the Garden by Deborah Install. Synopsis: Warm-hearted fable of a stay-at-home husband who learns an important lesson in life when an unusual creature enters his life. Review: A brief synopsis, but that's perfect, as you really don't want to know too much about this story before you start it. All you need to know is that one day, Ben finds a robot in the garden, and it changes his life forever. An absolutely delightful story, beautifully written, and developed to a very convincing and satisfying conclusion. I guarantee that if you read this book, you'll fall in love with a robot. I think I read somewhere that there will be a sequel to the story, but I might just be hoping that's the case … either way, if it appears, I'll be first in the queue to read it!

First Class Murder by Robin Stevens. Synopsis: Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are taking a holiday on the famous Orient Express. From the moment the girls step aboard, it’s clear that everyone in the first-class carriage has something to hide. Then there is a scream from one of the cabins, and a wealthy heiress is found dead. But the killer has vanished – as if into thin air . . . Daisy and Hazel are faced with their first locked-room mystery - and with competition from several other sleuths, who are just as determined to crack the case. Review: I've absolutely loved this series of detective stories from Robin Stevens. This third instalment is her homage to her favourite crime writer, Agatha Christie, and her famous book, Murder on the Orient Express. A cracking caper for our two heroines - perhaps if I'd had such great crime stories for children like this when I was young, I'd be much more of a fan of crime fiction now!