Lucybird

The Gilmore Girls

Glee I love Lost but have only seen up to series 4, have been getting the DVDs from LoveFilm cause they stopped showing it on 4

Oh yes. I especially liked Helena Bonham Carter- almost stole the show!

Yes I watched it yesterday and agree it was fantastic. Best film I've seen in quite a while.

I finished The Siege today. Feel like I had been reading longer than I should have been. Started Beauty- Robin McKinely

I hope you enjoy it Am reading Beauty now

My review of The Siege (the book I read for bloggers pick) is here

This book was read as my book recommended by another blogger for the Take A Chance Challenge Synopsis (from Amazon) Leningrad, September 1941. German tanks surround the city, imprisoning those who live there. The besieged people of Leningrad face shells, starvation, and the Russian winter. Interweaving two love affairs in two generations, THE SIEGE draws us deep into the Levin's family struggle to stay alive during this terrible winter. It is a story about war and the wounds it inflicts on people's lives. It is also a lyrical and deeply moving celebration of love, life and survival. Review It's been quite a long time since I last read a story based around the second world war, seeing as it's the nearest I get to reading a particular genre it is something I read fairly frequently. I don't think I've read anything set in Russia during this time before (or at least not wholly based in Russia) so I was glad to expand my horizons a little. I must admit just recently I've not had much luck with these types of books, often finding myself disappointed, and I was hoping The Siege would be different. However I can't say I really felt that engaged most of the time. Undoubtedly the writing is good- there is a certain poetry to it, but it does not really feel as though you get under the character's skin. A lot of the time I found the writing kind of detached. The descriptions of what was going on were very good, I could see what was happening in my mind quite clearly, and at times that made it difficult to read. However I never really got a sense of how the characters felt about what was going on- even when there was a sense of feeling it was described in such a detached way that it felt as much like fact as like feeling. If it was purposeful then I suppose it showed the detachment the characters may crave very clearly but for me it felt like that characters were pretty one dementional. As far as being a war novel it didn't really feel like a war novel, there was some speak of the enemy but it felt almost as if it could be set anywhere in Soviet Russia during food shortages. I found the end was very rushed, almost as if Dunmore wasn't sure how to get to the end so decided just to skip a great chunk of time. Similarly I found that anticipated events, while could have really added emotion were skipped over only to be mentioned later so you know they had happened. I found when it ended a little confusing to, but maybe if I had some prior knowledge of the events of the Leningrad siege I would have known what happened next anyway. The ending however was kind of poignant and probably the best section emotionally, it sort of made me want to visit St. Petersberg 3.5/5

Might it be cheaper from Amazon UK? I'm just over halfway through The Siege

Glee

Friends

I agree with everyone who has said 'Tis. You could also try A Monk Swimming by Malachy McCourt (brother of Frank) although I've not read it myself

Synopsis (from Amazon) Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren’t trusted not to steal the silver... There’s Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son’s tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared. Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they’d be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell... Review I first heard about The Help on Channel 4's TV Book Club, I was intregued enough at the time to add it to my wishlist but it wasn't until reading a number of positive reviews from other bloggers that I really wanted to read it. All the same it could still be just sitting on my wishlist if it wasn't for the fact that my sister leant me a copy. It's been quite a long time since I last read a book that I wanted to read above other things that I wanted to do, but The Help was definitely one of these. I really did not want to put it down, but despite that it still took my a while to read. At first I was unsure of Aibileen's voice, it seemed like the way a white person would write a black person's speech, and kind of fake. After a while it either toned down or I got enough into the story for it to cease to matter, I'm not entirely sure which it was. I grew to love the characters. I think Aibileen was my favourite, she wanted to change things, but not so much for herself as for the people she loved. She did it in small ways, like her stories to Mae Mobley but I really respected her for it. I thought Minny was really strong. I respected her for not taking any rubbish, I found it difficult to understand why she stuck with her husband, but I guess there's a realism there that love just isn't that simple. There's obviously some autobiographical element at play. I could see bits of Stockett's own maid (from her childhood, who she speaks about at the end) in Minny, Aibileen and Constantine. Does that make the book a 'cheat' as fiction? No I don't think so, and a certain realism gives more strength to the topic. Skeeter is very undoubtedly based on Stockett herself, I mean even the names are similar! I'm interested to see if she comes outwith anything else as there was so little real fiction in The Help. 5/5

Finished The Help, really enjoyed it. Started The Siege- Helen Dunmore

I have my first book for this now. The Seige, so that will probably be my next read

I don't tend to like fruit but I do like smoothies so I find those a good way to get fruit too. I quite like veg, I'm just lazy about it, so I'm trying to get less lazy

Hey guys. I thought I would share this site. I'm using it to try and get myself to eat more fruit and veg. It turns your health related goals into a game. You set yourself 'tasks' and if you do them you get points, if you don't you loose points, you can add your own reward and punishment too, it's helping me, so far at least

The latest Narnia. I really liked it.

I've only seen the recent version of A Little Princess, it used to make me cry. I hope you like The Secret Garden too, I read them one after the other when I was a teenager, and thought A Little Princess was better.

I'm just looking to see if they've got Everything is Illuminated at the library. If they do I'll get it at some point this week.

Oh I wish I could be reading Harry Potter for the first time

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World can't say I was very impressed, although it was funny it parts

I'm reading The Help and quite enjoying it, despite not being sure at first.

West End Girls- Jenny Colgan Synopsis (from Amazon) The streets of London are paved with gold …allegedly. They may be twin sisters, but Lizzie and Penny Berry are complete opposites – Penny is blonde, thin and outrageous; Lizzie quiet, thoughtful and, well, definitely not thin. The one trait they do share is a desire to DO something with their lives, and as far as they’re concerned, the place to get noticed is London. Out of the blue they discover they have a grandmother living in Chelsea – and when she has to go into hospital, they find themselves flat-sitting on the King’s Road. But, as they discover, it’s not as easy to become It Girls as they’d imagined, and west end boys aren’t at all like Hugh Grant … Review Not much to say about this one, just pretty standard chick-lit fare. Predictable from early on, but strangely satisfying. I read chick-lit to be lazy, and this certainly filled the bill. No great story, no great writting, but an easy comfortable read. 3/5