poppyshake

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer Waterstones Synopsis: Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father's closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings him ever closer to some kind of peace. Review: I'm really impressed with Jonathan Safran Foer's writing, he's just so creative and innovative - his stories are almost woven not written. This is the tale of Oskar Schell, a very bright nine year old with an enquiring mind whose ambition is to be a great inventor. Oskar's father died in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre and he is having a terribly hard time dealing with it, thinking about it gives him "heavy boots" and he is haunted by the answer phone messages, left by his Father just before he died, which only he has heard. He lives and re-lives the tragedy, and continually thinks up all sorts of imaginary inventions that would help prevent such a disaster happening again .. such as skyscrapers which have deep roots so they could never topple, airbags for skyscrapers and incredibly long ambulances which connect every building to a hospital. Rather like 'Everything is Illuminated' there are several narratives running through the story, Oskar's is the main one but there are also narratives by Oskar's Grandmother and Grandfather (told separately in letter form,) stretching way back to when they were young and living through their own tragedy .. the terrible bombing of Dresden. These are the only bits that can at times seem wearying .. it's a story of lives not lived, voices lost and life stories written up as blank pages ... literally, there are blank pages scattered through the book along with incredibly closely typed pages and pages with just numbers on etc etc but eventually it all melds together to make a beautiful whole. Again, like the last book, this is a noisy chattering story especially where Oskar is concerned, everything he thinks and feels just comes rattling out - along with all his quirks of speech and flights of fancy and this is what makes you get to know him in double quick time. He has found a key in an old vase in the back of his Fathers closet and, believing it to be a quest, sets out to try and find the lock that the key fits (this is one of those impossible quests which only happen in books and one that introduces a lot of oddball characters to the story as Oskar searches the New York boroughs for every family by the name of 'Black' .. the one word written on the envelope which contained the key) hoping that what he finds will help him to make sense of everything. 'The next morning I told Mom I couldn’t go to school again. She asked what was wrong. I told her, “The same thing that’s always wrong.” “You’re sick?” “I’m sad.” “About Dad?” “About everything.” She sat down on the bed next to me, even though I knew she was in a hurry. “What’s everything?” I started counting on my fingers: “The meat and dairy products in our refrigerator, fistfights, car accidents, Larry –“ “Who’s Larry?” “The homeless guy in front of the Museum of Natural History who always says ‘I promise it’s for food’ after he asks for money.” She turned around and zipped her dress while I kept counting. “How you don’t know who Larry is, even though you probably see him all the time, how Buckminster just sleeps and eats and goes to the bathroom and has no raison d’être, the short ugly guy with no neck who takes tickets at the IMAX theatre, how the sun is going to explode one day, how every birthday I always get at least one thing I already have, poor people who get fat because they eat junk food because it’s cheaper. . .” That was when I ran out of fingers, but my list was just getting started, and I wanted it to be long, because I knew she wouldn’t leave while I was still going. “. . . domesticated animals, how I have a domesticated animal, nightmares, Microsoft Windows, old people who sit around all day because no one remembers to spend time with them and they’re embarrassed to ask people to spend time with them, secrets, dial phones, how Chinese waitresses smile even when there’s nothing funny or happy, and also how Chinese people own Mexican restaurants but Mexican people never own Chinese restaurants, mirrors, tape decks, my unpopularity at school, Grandma’s coupons, storage facilities, people who don’t know what the Internet is, bad handwriting, beautiful songs, how there won’t be humans in fifty years –” “Who said there won’t be humans in fifty years?” I asked her, “Are you an optimist or a pessimist?” She looked at her watch and said, “I’m optimistic.” “Then I have some bad news for you, because humans are going to destroy each other as soon as it becomes easy enough to, which will be very soon.” “Why do beautiful songs make you sad?” “Because they aren’t true.” “Never?” “Nothing is beautiful and true.” She smiled, but in a way that wasn’t just happy, and said, “You sound just like Dad.” It's impossible not to snivel your way through most of it as you read about Oskar and his grief over 9/11 and the Dad he has lost (and what a Dad! ... the sort of Dad that makes every day exciting.) He visits foreign websites which show and tell him far more about 9/11 than he has been able to glean from American news footage and he painfully invents and re-invents the details of his Father's death. He picks over all these details and gives himself bruises, he has phobias about tall buildings and the underground. Reading it gave me heavy boots and I ended up with a binful of crumpled soggy tissues. It's true to say that anyone who hated 'Everything is Illuminated' will not like this because they are written in such a similar style but anyone who even vaguely liked it will probably enjoy this one more because it is that little bit easier to read and keep track of the threads, only a little though. It's also true to say that Oskar is perhaps a little bit too advanced and knowing for his age but not unbelievably so (such is his cheek that to gain sympathy on his quest he sometimes gives his age as eight but ups it to twelve if there is any sign of a sexual encounter .. though he knows next to nothing about it ... 'I know lot's about birds and bees but hardly anything about the birds and the bees.') His mum, who herself is suffering but trying to move on, comes in for some pretty harsh treatment at times from her son in that unreasonable way children have of thinking that they are the only ones affected. In the story Oskar keeps a scrapbook entitled 'Stuff That Happened To Me' which is full of pictures and clippings, not of stuff that has happened to him but stuff that is affecting him, like a recurring image of a body falling from the twin towers (which, in order to discover if it's his Dad, he has zoomed in to until all that can be seen is pixels,) and these are scattered throughout the book, somewhat distressingly. Not an easy read, not an escapist comfy cosy read, but a book to make your brain and heart ache. 10/10

Ooh *scribbles it down hastily* I need to read 'Cloudstreet', it just occurred to me that I haven't read many, if any, books set in Australia .. and this being the mistress's favourite book last year, it seems as good a place to start as anywhere I love family saga's. I loved all the one's I've read of your 'other favourites' too so, of course, must make a note of the ones I haven't. Btw Kylie, have you seen the claymation film 'Mary and Max' by the Australian director/animation writer Adam Elliot? It's about a lonely Australian girl who starts writing to an elderly American man from New York. I saw it the other weekend and have since bought it on DVD, it's just so endearing and funny (but not a children's film .. very adult humour.) I just love claymation movies, Wallace & Gromit are among my screen heroes

Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t I could probably list a hundred or more but the one that annoys me the most (in that I'm annoyed I haven't read it) is 'A Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens. I know the story fairly well from movie adaptations and abridged readings but, like with all Dickens books, you have to read it in it's entirety to fully appreciate it. Others include ... 'Uncle Toms Cabin' - Harriet Beecher Stowe 'Dracula' - Bram Stoker 'Frankenstein' - Mary Shelley 'To the Lighthouse' - Virginia Woolf 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' - Muriel Spark 'The Bell Jar' - Sylvia Plath 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' - Ann Radcliffe

Day 22 – Favourite book you own Having said that I don't collect antiquated books, my favourite books are actually antique. Strictly speaking they're not mine, they're my husband's but they are living under my roof and therefore I count it as the same Alan is a massive Dickens fan and over the years he's collected some gorgeous editions. Probably my favourite is a beautiful red cloth copy of David Copperfield which is just lovely with gold embossing and beautiful pictures interleaved with tissue. In the pic I've put a normal size Penguin book next to it to show how large it is (it can give you serious wristache when you pick it up.) Another one that I love is a two volume proof edition of the 'Pickwick Papers'. It's got beautiful hand cut paper and the drawings, which are by Phiz, are engraved (you can feel it if you run your hands across them.) They're an absolute pleasure to look through and breathe in. Another favourite which I've only just acquired this year is my signed copy of Jasper Fforde's 'One of Our Thursday's is Missing', just to have the book signed was wonderful but it's also a great reminder of a lovely evening and a lovely birthday surprise.

Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood I loved Enid's 'Malory Towers' and 'St Clares' book and would have given my eye teeth to have gone to a boarding school (in theory that is .. in practice I used to have a panic attack if my Mum was more than five paces away!) .. the girls always seemed to have such fun and I was just desperate to have a secret midnight feast and fry sausages by moonlight *sigh* ... but the book that I really fell in love with was Mary Norton's 'The Borrowers' .. I was just fascinated by them and used to be very liberal with my toast crumbs, pencil sharpenings and birthday candle stubs. Whenever an odd sock went missing I had visions of a little borrower unravelling it and making blankets for winter. I did look around the house for Borrowers but never saw them .. they're too clever for that of course but I thought I detected signs of them everywhere.

I'm sure I'll like it .. I've had a sort of flick through already Yes, mine has too and I really enjoyed reading it. It seemed like such a magical thing to do to spend a few days on the island that inspired the stories, especially as she was such a fan of the book .. lucky thing.

Despite being practically poleaxed by a carousel full of books in the Red Cross charity shop on Saturday, I did manage to buy four books over the weekend. The Winter Book - Tove Jansson (I'm hoping this will be as good as her 'Summer Book') Love Letters of Great Men (This should be a great, misty eyed, read) Girl Meets Boy - Ali Smith (Thanks Chesil for recommending this one ) The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke (A beautiful charcoal grey/pink copy with it's own slipcase)

Thanks Weave

Thanks Kylie I'm fine now .. maybe even a bit more sensible than before (not difficult I know ) but I must have suffered memory loss because I wrote in blue again I was annoyed with the shop assistants and would have made more fuss if it hadn't been a charity shop, as it was, Alan went in later but only to check that the carousels had been moved away from the doorway and in fact they'd disappeared as if they were never ever there. Yes and it was nice and sunny and so I enjoyed the walk there and I liked browsing about even though most of the books were not really my cup of tea. The whole place had that nice musty old book smell that's quite comforting. They had lot's of lovely antique books, especially the ones with the gorgeously illustrated spines and gold lettering but I thought I'd better not jump on that bandwagon just yet. After all this house isn't exactly Pemberley!

I know ... it get's me every time.

now I'm worried so far he's enjoyed everything, the test will come when he hates a book I've recommended. well, you're right, but it was such a disappointing bookfair, it was only teeny tiny and mostly full of antiquated books and most of those were *shudders* hardbacks!! There didn't, on the surface of things, seem to be anything there for me. After much rootling though I did buy three books ... one that was recommended on here by Chesil a couple of days ago 'Girl Meets Boy' by Ali Smith, a gorgeous edition of 'The Ladies of Grace Adieu' by Susanna Clarke and 'Love Letters of Great Men' which I've wanted to read for a while, so it's true book lovers will search and search until they can come up with something to take home. I had a horrible day the day before though, I went into a charity shop and bought a copy of 'The Winter Book' by Tove Jansson (after we'd just been talking about it ) but on the way out a carousel full of books fell over and hit my head I ended up with a cut and a lump on my forehead like an egg and had to walk ten minutes home with only half vision. The staff there didn't really help me which was annoying as it was because one of them was fiddling with another carousel nearby that the one that hit me fell over. Worse than that was that I had to go to a party last night looking like a battered wife (thank God for fringes but not for windy evenings.) 'The Winter Book' looks very disagreeable to me now ... I'm already ill disposed towards it. Alan asked me later what the prime minister's name was .. I just said ''tw*t'' and he seemed satisfied that I'd remembered that much Watch out for book rage .. I didn't know they could actually launch an attack. none at all ... lie down and take it like a man

Day 20 – Favourite romance book It would be too easy and too predictable to say 'Pride & Prejudice' and in any case, for me, 'Persuasion' was more romantic. Who hasn't blubbed their way through the following passage? "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight and a half years ago. Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W." I melted like a malteser on a sunbed when I read that.

Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie Again I couldn't pick an out and out favourite there are too many. I love the old b&w 'Pride & Prejudice' with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson (didn't like the Keira Knightley one,) the old b&w 'Rebecca', again with Larry and Joan Fontaine. I love 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' with Audrey Hepburn but didn't like the book so that doesn't really count (ditto 'Bridget Jones'.) 'Lord of the Rings' .. I loved both the three books and the three movies. 'I Capture the Castle' with Romola Garai, 'Sense & Sensibility' with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslett, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' with Gregory Peck, The animated 'Coraline', 'The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe' with Tilda Swinton and James McAvoy and nearly every version known to man of 'A Christmas Carol'. I've got an especially soft spot for the Harry Potter movies, the books are far superior to the films but the films are still magical .. and I love the cast. If we can count TV adaptations as movies then there are loads more .. 'Love in a Cold Climate' with Elisabeth Dermot Walsh, Rosamunde Pike, Celia Imrie and Alan Bates, 'Pride & Prejudice' with the gorgeous Colin Firth and the equally gorgeous Jennifer Ehle, 'Wives & Daughters' with Keeley Hawes and Justine Waddell, almost all Dickens adaptations especially 'Martin Chuzzlewitt' (Tom Wilkinson, Julia Sawalha and Paul Schofield,) 'Our Mutual Friend' (Steven Mackintosh, Anna Friel, Keeley Hawes, Paul McGann & David Morrisey,) 'Bleak House' (Anna Maxwell Martin, Carey Mulligan, Gillian Anderson & Johnny Vegas) & 'Little Dorrit' (Claire Foy, Tom Courtenay, Russell Tovey & Matthew Macfadyen.) & 'Poppy Shakespeare' (Anna Maxwell Martin & Naomie Harris.) & 'Jane Eyre' (Ruth Watson) & 'Cranford' (Judy Dench & Dame Eileen Atkins) & 'Sense & Sensibility' (Hattie Morohan) and practically all BBC costume drama's

Day 18 – A book that disappointed you 'Rapture' by Liz Jensen and I was disappointed because normally I love her writing. To me it felt like she had one eye on the movie/TV adaptation. I was annoyed because I quite liked the premise but it started firing off all over the place and not being at all credible. I know books don't have to be credible but sometimes the plot calls for you to be convinced and I wasn't. I didn't like the characters either, one of them in particular needed a good shake, so that didn't help. Another one is 'Phineas Finn' by Anthony Trollope which I've only lately listened to. I love Trollope's writing but this one was just a bit too political for my taste. I got bogged down in all the politics and was constantly wanting to be back listening to details of Phineas's complicated love life.

I want to read it, but I haven't got it .. unless it's at the bookfair tomorrow then I doubt I can join in but I look forward to hearing what you all make of it and bumping it up or down my list Oosh likes it already, that's a good sign.

It's such a good idea to read something informative and positive about dealing with cancer by someone who has been through it. It's not only his dietary advice that's invaluable but his firsthand experience too. It's a great reading choice

Please don't be As Frankie has said and you have said before .. we make our own decisions and if we decide to read a book then it's down to us and if we hate it what does it matter? The sky won't cave in and the ground won't open up and swallow us (will it? ) The charity shop will gain a new book that is all and what's more it's good to step outside the box and try things you never thought you would. Please, whatever you do, don't let him know that. If he thinks he's already in my good books he'll stop trying to get into them My Discworld collection is all on disc! I haven't yet read a single book of his in it's entirety but I have about twenty of his audio's. For a long time I resisted buying his books because the covers were too busy for me (and the book's were too small) .. oh the shame to ignore books because they will mess up your shelves .. it's a wonder I can sleep at night. Well the 1001 certainly backs you up, I think he has about eight books on there which is no mean achievement for a contemporary author ... Pratchett hasn't got any Ok Kylie, I hear and obey Gracious!! .. and I thought I was getting away with it. haha ... Ok then I will at some point stick my 1001 list on my bookblog with all it's random ticks and crosses. Yes, we will owe her bigtime. We may even have to submit to being her slave for alternate months ... but you can go first and then I know what I'm in for Thanks Frankie, I'm sure I will. Alan is weird in that he would rather look for books for me than for himself. He bought ONE book in Hay-on-Wye and I bought fifty something .. and that book was a non fiction book about Van Gogh. He thinks that I must know something after reading so many books and chatting on here for hours (how wrong can you be?) and he's determined to put that knowledge to use. So he looks for books I want, allows me to read them in peace and then asks me which one's I recommend for him. So far his favourite is probably 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' which he is so in love with that he has started a painting of it but he also loved 'City of Thieves' by David Benioff. He doesn't get half as much time as I do to read, he works incredibly long shifts (which is why I get a lot of reading done) but I'm proud of him because he does try to fit in some reading amongst the action movies, formula one and rock music. I don't know if it's a charity bookfair or not, I hope it's not too expensive and I hope I find at least something that's on my list. Imagine coming home from a bookfair ... without books It was bad of you to say that about my poor cousin, very bad indeed, but then again her bookshelves have got ornaments on and no books .. so punish her I say

Great review Peace and I'm so glad because I loved 'the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie' and there's always that worry that they've peaked and it'll all slide backwards. It's on my wishlist at Goodreads but I must bump it up. I love all (or most) of Maeve's books especially the early one's (haven't been so keen on her latest offerings.) Her books are great comfort reads, they make you feel warm and safe somehow. I listen to the audios a lot ... her cousin reads them.

I need to look this up straight away. I'm intrigued by Ali Smith, I have got 'The Accidental' on the shelves waiting to be read but this sounds lovely The fact that you got so attached to the characters is such a sign of a well written book, I felt the same about 'Along the Enchanted Way' also non-fiction and cried buckets over the death of one of the characters... you're right it does make it all the sadder when the characters are real flesh and blood. I must read more by Pym. I've only read one of hers but I enjoyed it. I've not heard of 'Quartet in Autumn' and I have looked her up from time to time and now I look for it I see they haven't given it a new ritzy cover ... so it definitely is underrated.

Thanks Kylie I feel the same about the Bloomsbury books, but not all of them have good write ups so they might not all be gems. Having said that they do look so nice together on the shelf that I probably will get the set (bad reason I know but what can you do I'll wait though and try and find them second hand.) Thanks Frankie you never know, if my ship comes in then I'll be there with bells on .. I'll be sure to give you notice though I love Sally Phillips, she's lately been in the comedy series 'Miranda' and she's just fantastic in it .. look out for it if it comes your way. You need to see 'Blackadder', especially series 2 and 3 ... practically everyone who was anyone in British comedy at that time is in them. I know what you mean about 'Little Britain', we've all seen the episodes so many times .. it does get a bit stale but I do like Matt and David. I loved 'House of Eliot' too, such class and fantastic actors/actresses .. shame there isn't more of that kind of thing on. They religiously put on another Austen adaptation every year (or it seems like it) as if Jane or Dickens are the only writers worth adapting. They have branched out a bit lately and done 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher', 'South Riding' and 'The Crimson Petal & the White' and I think we've got an adaptation of Sarah Waters 'The Night Watch' coming soon so I guess you can't be greedy. Yes, I wasn't keen on Colin in 'Fever Pitch' but I did love him in 'Nanny McPhee', 'The Kings Speech' and 'Bridget Jones' (I thought the whole movie was just fantastic although Sally Phillips was underused in it ... I didn't like the book much though weirdly.) I will look up 'The Weight of Water' both book and film, it sounds great. Yes, but as they say there's a reason why cheddar cheese is so popular (or is it valio oltermanni? ) .. it's because it's wonderful. Maybe it is her most accessible novel .. and the whole plotline with the five sisters is just so engaging. Lizzie is probably the most admirable of Austen heroine's because she's clever and witty, she's good but not a saint, she doesn't suffer fools, she knows her own mind, she's handsome but not the beauty, .. and I mustn't forget those fine eyes She has the most energy and spark of all the Austen heroines. There was nobody to bond with was there?, nobody to like. I thought Lady Bertram's pug had the most character of anyone. Sydney is a definite hero but truth to tell I haven't read 'A Tale of Two Cities' I know the story well from adaptations and abridged audio's but I've never read it in it's entirety so couldn't include him. I have the book on my shelf but Janet pointed out to me that it's abridged and sure enough when I looked at the back it is (it's a Puffin classic) .. I need to get a full copy and soon. They are stretching it the teensiest bit to call it a memoir, it's a fictional story but it is said to be semi auto-biographical and there are striking similarities between the Radlett family and the Mitfords so I guess that's why they've put it under that heading. It is on my 1001 but has since been deleted I think. I hope you like it, not everybody does, it is a bit marmite .. if you love it, it was my recommendation, if you hate it, then it's the fault of 501 books Thanks Frankie, I could say exactly the same for you and Kylie, and I like it cos I love to have books buzzing in my head. I've got lots on my Goodreads to read list which Alan thinks is mad but I like to have books to look forward to .. they're all on bookshelves in my head .. and one day they'll materialise and go on my actual bookshelves. Here's a case in point, I would never have picked up 'The Polysyllabic Spree' if I hadn't read your review ... I didn't even know of it's existence. I loved it and thanks to Nick, and therefore you, I read Stuart : A Life backwards which I loved also. I did know about the drama, but I didn't see it (I think it was on a while ago now). Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alexander (the writer) and he's someone who's very popular here after being sensational as Sherlock Holmes recently. I expect it'll be good. But what a dilemma, to watch it before you've read the book. I've already put it on my LoveFilm list .. I doubt it'll be as good but I'm sure it'll be worth a watch.

Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book This is a bit of a stinker, which favourite book does it mean?, my absolute favourite book? which is the answer to the very last question, my favourite classic?, my favourite book by my favourite writer??? all of them .. none of them ... or am I getting too technical. I don't suppose it matters. This is the one question which may take me some time to answer as I have to rootle about finding the books and looking up the quotes. Pride & Prejudice is an easy one to start with ... I could pick hundreds of quotes but the one's that I like best all have a sense of the ridiculous about them ... "An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." "I like her appearance," said Elizabeth, struck with other ideas. "She looks sickly and cross. Yes, she will do for him very well. She will make him a very proper wife." "Well, my comfort is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart, and then he will be sorry for what he has done." Quotes from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere ... 'Lovely fresh dreams. First class nightmares. We got 'em. Get yer lovely nightmares here.' 'Sir. Might I with due respect remind you that Mister Vandemar and myself burned down the City of Troy? We brought a Black Plague to Flanders. We have assassinated a dozen kings, five popes, half a hundred heroes and two accredited gods. Our last commission before this was the torturing to death of an entire monastery in sixteenth century Tuscany. We are utterly professional.' 'He abused my hospitality' boomed the Earl. 'I swore that ... if he ever again entered my domain I would have him gutted and dried ... like, like something that's been ... um ... gutted, first and then um dried ...''Perchance - a kipper my lord?' suggested the jester. 'Should have followed my idea.' said Mr Vandemar, 'Would have scared her lots more if I'd pulled his head off while she wasn't looking, then put my hand up through his throat and wiggled my fingers about. They always scream,' he confided 'when the eyeballs fall out.'

Oh I'm so glad I hope you enjoy it when you eventually read it. I'm reading it's companion book now .. 'Love in a Cold Climate' but though I love it nearly as much .. 'The Pursuit of Love' is my absolute favourite. Press proceed, press proceed Only joking Pickle, I have to exercise caution at Amazon too, it's so easy to get carried away there. Hope when/if you do get them that you enjoy them as much as I did. Thanks Peace I'm sure you'll love them, they're so readable. I've got a feeling I'm going to love all of the Bloomsbury group books, which is just as well as I have four others on the shelves, I'm sure I'll get the set before too long .. though I really shouldn't .. where will I put them?

Miss Hargreaves - Frank Baker Waterstones Synopsis: When, on the spur of a moment, Norman Huntley and his friend Henry invent an eighty-three year-old woman called Miss Hargreaves, they are inspired to post a letter to their new fictional friend. It is only meant to be a silly, harmless game - until Miss Hargreaves arrives on their doorstep, complete with her cockatoo, her harp and - last but not least - her bath. She is, to Norman's utter disbelief, exactly as he had imagined her: enchanting, eccentric and endlessly astounding. He hadn't imagined, however, how much havoc an imaginary octogenarian could wreak in his sleepy Buckinghamshire home town, Cornford. Norman has some explaining to do, but how will he begin to explain to his friends, family and girlfriend where Miss Hargreaves came from when he hasn't the faintest clue himself? Will his once-ordinary, once-peaceful life ever be the same again? And, what's more, does he want it to? Miss Hargreaves is part of The Bloomsbury Group, a new library of books from the early twentieth-century chosen by readers for readers. Review: This is the second of the Bloomsbury Group novels that I've read, the first being 'Let's Kill Uncle', and I'm glad to say that they are continuing so far to be delightful. It's very Wodehouse in feel, Norman is at times a bit like Bertie in that he's naive and gets himself into scrapes, unfortunately for Norman he hasn't got a Jeeves to sort it all out for him, he tries to manage things for himself and thus ends up in a right old pickle. It's a great premise, Norman and his friend Henry become bored whilst in Ireland on holiday being shown around a decrepit old church and invent a character, the elderly Miss Hargreaves. They give her characteristics and traits and even go so far as to name the book of poems she has had published. As a continuation of the joke they decide to write to her at the hotel in which they have said she is residing and invite her to stay but when Norman returns home, much to his alarm, there is a letter waiting there from her. He is inclined to think that Henry is playing a joke on him but then his father, a bookshop owner, comes home carrying a rather worn copy of her published poems. Henry is more than a little disturbed. Miss Hargreaves has decided to take him up on his offer and comes to stay with him in his hometown. She is everything that he and Henry described and she greets him as one old friend to another. He tries to shun her and tells everyone who will listen that she's not real, she's just a figment of his and Henry's imagination but of course he only ends up looking like a madman and it's true Norman is a bit of a fantasist ... he tells us so in the prologue .. he doesn't even know if we will believe his account of things. 'We dashed into the refreshment room and hurled down double brandies. We couldn't speak. Through the window we watched, our empty glasses trembling in our hands. "Henry," I moaned, "she is exactly as I imagined." Limping slowly along the platform and chatting amiably to the porter, came - well, Miss Hargreaves. Quite obviously it couldn't be anybody else.' This is a novel (rather like 'Let's Kill Uncle') which manages to be both comic and disturbing. Miss Hargreaves seems harmless enough but grows increasingly more sinister as the book progresses. At first she is a friend to Norman but, because of his erratic behaviour towards her, soon becomes a fearsome opponent. This 'Frankenstein's monster' suddenly finds a life force of her own ... she doesn't need her creator anymore. She has practically all of the townspeople eating out of her hand and begins to convince them that Norman is mad and needs help. Norman veers between admiration and disgust .. he's incensed at her nerve but can't help feeling a little proud. As problems mount for him, he ponders on the thought that just as 'creative thought creates', 'destructive thought destroys' and he tries to figure out ways to get rid of her but he soon realises that, just as Henry was in at the conception of Miss Hargreaves, so it needs the both of them to un-imagine her, but can they do it? The only thing that I found a bit tedious were the passages about the church services which did get a little bit involved at times but other than that it's a delight. It's a book to make you laugh, cry and be a little bit spooked. 8/10

The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford Waterstones Synopsis: 'Obsessed with sex!' said Jassy, 'there's nobody so obsessed as you, Linda. Why if I so much as look at a picture you say I'm a pygmalionist'. In the end we got far more information out of a book called "Ducks and Duck Breeding". 'Ducks can only copulate,' said Linda, after studying this for a while, 'in running water. Good luck to them'. Oh the tedium of waiting to grow up! Longing for love, obsessed with weddings and sex, Linda and her sisters and cousin Fanny are on the look out for the perfect lover. But finding Mr Right is much harder than any of the sisters thought. Linda must suffer marriage first to a stuffy Tory MP and then to a handsome and humorousless communist before finding real love in war-torn Paris..."The Pursuit of Love" is one of the funniest, sharpest novels about love and growing up ever written. Review: I only picked this book up for five minutes, I'd just been talking about it to Kylie and I thought I'd flick through the first few pages to reacquaint myself with it and before I knew it I was halfway through. I'm not sure what it is about it that I find just so perfectly right for me, it's probably the humour which is the sort I like best .. observational, biting and a little bit wicked. There's a touch of the Wodehouse's about it and the Waugh's and If Jane Austen had written in the 1940's it wouldn't be far off this. It's said to be semi-autobiographical in that the Radlett family certainly bear more than a passing resemblance to the Mitford's. This is the story of Linda Radlett as told by her cousin Fanny Logan. Linda is beautiful, naive and a hopeless romantic. Not everyone takes to Linda as a character but rather like Fanny, I love her to bits. When the book starts the girls are fourteen and desperate to fall in love, they settle on the most unlikely imaginary suitors (the Prince of Wales for Linda and a fat farmer from the village for Fanny) and have conspiratorial chats in the Hons cupboard (a secret Radlett society which takes place in the warm linen cupboard .. anyone who is admired is a 'Hon' all enemies are 'counter Hons'.) Their great hero is Oscar Wilde ... Fanny : 'but what did he do?' Linda : 'I asked Fa once and he roared at me - goodness it was terrifying. He said "If you mention that sewer's name again in this house I'll thrash you, do you hear damn you?" So I asked Sadie and she looked awfully vague and said "Oh duck, I never really quite knew, but whatever it was was worse than murder, fearfully bad. And darling don't talk about him at meals, will you?" Fanny : 'We must find out' Linda : 'Bob says he will, when he goes to Eton.' A couple of years later at Linda and Fanny's coming-out ball, Linda meets Tony and falls deeply in love with him, she thinks him handsome and glamorous and doesn't look far beyond it. She's in love with love and refuses to listen to the advice of those around her .. when the mist clears and the stars fade she finds herself married to one of the most terrific bores in the country. This leaves her in a bit of a dilemma, Linda needs to love and be loved and it's clear that Tony see's her as little more than a 'trophy wife' on the other hand she doesn't want to turn out like Fanny's mother (a woman who ran away from her men so often that she became known as 'the Bolter'.) The star of the book is definitely Uncle Matthew (Linda's father,) a roaring, rude, ogre of a man with a list of prejudices as long as your arm and an entrenching tool over the fireplace to whack huns with. His bark is invariably worse than his bite and despite his fearsome reputation he is generally beloved by all those that truly know him. Don't take too much notice of the synopsis which has been taken straight from the book blurb. It makes the book sound more like 'Sex and the City' which is misleading. The girls are only obsessed with weddings and sex in the manner of girls who have no inkling about either. They want to know everything but in fact know nothing and their attempts at guessing are hilarious. But for all of it's hilarity the story of Linda's search for love is also incredibly sad. The ending is short and sharp and makes me catch my breath every time. I don't think I've ever agreed with the Daily Mail before but this book is 'utter, utter, bliss' 10/10