poppyshake

Carribean island Rubies or emeralds?

Thanks, it's a great book. I really hope you enjoy it

Colour Prawn crackers or tortilla chips?

I remember reading it on a beach and actually laughing out loud, it's probably the only time a book has made me actually laugh audibly rather than just smile, people gave me strange looks (but then, they might have done that anyway). Great book

Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie read by Lisette Lecat Audible Synopsis: The limits of 15-year-old Kambili's world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive and fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, and more prayer. When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, she discovers life and love - and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family. Review: Another book with a despot, tyrannically religious father, one who's actually worse than Nathan Price in The Poisonwood Bible. I felt incredibly sad for Kambili, she's so withdrawn and serious that her cousins take her for a snob. You feel her fear as she brings home the end of term school test results which reveal that she came second overall. You already know by then that second will not be good enough for her father. A brutal story about a young girl, growing up in Nigeria under the tyrannical rule of her father. A father who can be loving and kind one moment, and a vindictive, spiteful bully the next. She finds some respite during a holiday visit to her aunts and you find yourself wishing she could stay there forever. I loved the character of Kambili's aunt Ifeoma, a wonderfully wise and caring person, very funny too. The author describes fifteen year old Kambili so well, it's a crying shame that this bright, intelligent, polite girl should be so withdrawn and fearful. She doesn't even know how to laugh or participate in sports or games, she has no idea how to interact with people, they take her quietness for snobbery. You will her on to do something that will change the course of events, you almost wish her life away so that she can see how she is being manipulated and make a stand against it. I was hoping against hope that her brother Jaja, who you know is getting more and more resentful, would eventually snap and give the father back some of his own medicine. Again, the author has captured the sights and sounds of Africa wonderfully well. I was disappointed with the narrator though, she just didn't capture Kambili for me .. sounding more like a middle aged white woman (which I imagine she is) than a fifteen year old Nigerian girl. There were sound quality issues too, I could hear her breathing and swallowing a lot which was uncomfortable to listen to. One of the occasions when it would've been better to read rather than listen. 8/10

Ahh well done hubby Hope your Mum enjoys it Janet.

Flowers (for the bee's) Crossword or Sudoku?

That's good to know, I enjoyed The Company of Liars .. the one about the plague and have been thinking about getting The Owl Killers.

I think we're agreed Janet, this book is brilliant My copy was library loaned but I will definitely buy it and put it on my bookcase of favourite books.

Ha , I know what you mean. I think they may be right in this case though. Sorry the review was late, I ran out of daylight yesterday, and sorry it rambles on a bit, the short version is ... I really liked it. Great minds think alike Janet Now that the initial disappointment of the ending has died down, I feel like I should have given it 10/10. It's one of those books you miss when you've finished it.

Exercise Short fingernails or long fingernails?

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver read by Dean Robertson Audible Synopsis: The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them all they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil. This tale of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction, over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa, is set against history's most dramatic political parables. The Poisonwood Bible dances between the darkly comic human failings and inspiring poetic justices of our times. In a compelling exploration of religion, conscience, imperialist arrogance, and the many paths to redemption, Barbara Kingsolver has brought forth her most ambitious work ever. Review: I really loved listening to this one, Dean Robertson's narration was just spot on .. even though she did not alter her voice much for each of the girls, she was totally convincing. Nathan Price is an American baptist preacher who takes his wife, Orleanna, and his four daughters, Rachel, Adah, Leah and Ruth May to the Congo to try and convert the 'tribes of Ham'. Orleanna narrates the first chapter in the present day, she is back home in America, and you can tell that something terrible happened during her time in Africa, something she is struggling to come to terms with. The book is then alternately narrated by Orleanna and the four girls. We are taken right back to their arrival in the fictional village of Kalinga in the Belgian Congo. Whatever their pre-conceived ideas were of life in the Congo, they soon find out that it is much worse than they have been supposing. Disease, sickness and poverty are widespread, and then there's also the stifling heat and mosquitoes. They are fairly stuck in their own ways and at first are reluctant to take advice from the villagers about cooking and planting etc ... they had actually brought Betty Crocker cake mixes with them which failed miserably ... but soon come to realise that their Georgia way of life was not going to work here. Nathan Price is a hellfire and brimstone kind of preacher, he wants to claim the village of Kalinga for Jesus. He's a bully, he accepts no other opinions or viewpoints other than his own and rules over his family with a rod of iron. His particular brand of bible bashing is never going to win over any converts. He has no respect for the Congolese or their ancient beliefs, they are just souls to be saved and he is determined to do it. He's the sort of fanatical religious nutjob that Louis Theroux would want to film a documentary about. Their eldest daughter is Rachel, she's blonde, pretty and materialistic. All she can think about is herself and the life she's left behind. She could be attending dances or going on shopping trips to the mall to look at the latest fashions. Instead she is sweating, sweltering and eating inedible food, probably all to the detriment of her complexion, it fair makes her mad with rage! Like her father she has no respect for the villagers, she looks down on them but for different reasons. As soon as she is able (she's fifteen) she is hotfooting it back to the land of the free. She's a lot like Amy in 'Little Women' only Amy grew out of her selfish little ways. Next in line is fourteen year old Leah, and in a way she's probably the principle narrator of the book, the one we learn most from or perhaps I viewed it that way because she became my favourite. When we are first introduced to Leah she's a bit of a Daddy's girl, she has a kind of idealistic view of him and what he's trying to do and she fervently supports him. It's Leah's compassionate nature that mistakenly leads her to think that her father is doing all he can for the villagers. As time passes, and she observes her father more closely, she starts to question his behaviour and her admiration turns to disgust. She also becomes aware of the political situation between the Congo and the USA as the Congo heads towards independence, as far as she can make out, the truth doesn't reflect well on her homeland and those in office. Adah is Leah's twin, but an accident at birth has left her with a physical disability, she's also mute. She's the reverse of her twin, where Leah is positive, Adah is negative and looks at life backwards. Adah's disability becomes less obvious in the Congo amongst the natives who have more than their fair share of mutilated limbs and disfigurements, where she would be stared at at home her disability is hardly noticed here. She loves words and wordplay, especially palindromes, she likes to repeat the line ... 'live was I ere I saw evil' (repeat it to us that is). She has a poetic way of thinking and her favourite author is Emily Dickinson. Ruth May is the youngest, she is just five years old when they reach the Congo and is lively, confident and playful. She's the one that connects best with the local people, especially the children. Before long she has them all lined up playing 'Mother May I'. She's also the glue that holds the family together during those first few months in the Congo. Because of what amounts to a confession in Orleanna's opening chapter, you know something bad is coming. The book feels like it's building towards some great calamity (if it was a film the cello's would be working overtime). At several points you think that calamity has arrived but no, somehow it's resolved or averted until you finally get to the part where the tragedy takes place. I found this hard to take in, I thought it might be another red herring but sadly it wasn't. The fall out from this tragedy is just as interesting as the build up, the family end up scattered and each has to come to terms, or not, in their own way. I loved listening to it, Barbara Kingsolver has brought all the sights, smells, culture, nature, flora and fauna of life in the Congo alive. I thought all the characters were well fleshed out even Nathan, who never speaks to us directly. Within a very short space of time I knew him well enough to know I hated him! I loved the fact that each of the girls and Orleanna narrated in turn, you got to know them inside out. The one thing I wasn't keen on was, what I thought was overuse of Rachel's malapropisms, at one point they were coming thick and fast with every sentence. But for the most part they did make me laugh .. she talks about Moses coming down from 'Mount Cyanide' for instance. Nathan was too indifferent to learn the Kikongo language properly, he didn't allow for their words to have multiple meanings or for different pronunciations. His biggest disaster, during a sermon, was when instead of saying 'Jesus is precious' he actually said 'Jesus is poisonous' .. hence the book title. Adah points this out to us, her love of language makes her fairly fluent in Kikongo, though non verbally. She looks upon her fathers efforts with amusement and disdain. As always with audiobooks part of the enjoyment is hearing a great story narrated brilliantly. How I would have got on with it had I tried to read it (which I almost did because it came home from the library with me once but I ran out of time) I don't know, I hope I would still have got as much enjoyment from it. 9/10

Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading

Finished Tatty .. really enjoyed it. Read a couple of chapters of The Room of Lost Things by Stella Duffy.

Cream Coconut or Mango?

Tatty - Christine Dwyer Hickey Amazon Synopsis: Hailed by the critics as a masterpiece, Tatty is a devastating, yet hilarious, depiction of a troubled Dublin family told through the lively, charismatic voice of a little girl. With brutal honesty, Tatty tells the story of her life with her beloved, feckless Dad, her tormented Mam, her five siblings and the booze that brings them down. This not just an entertaining tale, but also a heartbreaking account of a disturbed childhood that makes for compulsive reading. Review: I loved this book from the start. The book is narrated by Tatty, a young Irish girl growing up in the 1960's. Tatty's 'voice' is absolutely convincing, she narrates the whole story so the reader is always with her, we know her innermost thoughts, her observations and all her little worries (which get larger). She has a lively, chatty, humorous style but for all that Tatty is incredibly lonely and fearful. I grew so fond of her that it was painful to read about how isolated and sad she becomes. Tatty's real name is Caroline, her nickname comes from the phrase 'tell-tale-tattler' because she is always putting her foot in it and blurting out truths when the people around her would rather keep secrets. She's not malicious she just doesn't always know when to keep quiet. 'You get funny dinners in other people's kitchens. Dinners that don't taste the same as Mam's. It might be the same stuff, but they match it a different way on the plate. The woman who makes you your dinner might ask you your business. And even though Mam always warns her, "Don't be telling those noisy oulones all your business", sometimes she gets mixed up and forgets. And it's hard to know what you're allowed to tell or not, because one minute it's "tell the truth and shame the devil". The next minute it's: "Ah what did you have to go and tell them that for? I could kill you stone dead" Her Aunties are the stuff of Bertie Woosters nightmares, Auntie Winnie is too handy with the sloppy slipper, Auntie Betty has a cane hanging behind the kitchen door that she's itching to use and Aunt June threatens to put mustard on her tongue. Tatty has two older sisters, Jeannie and Deirdre, and three younger brothers, Luke, Brian and Michael. Jeannie is clever, domesticated and has lots of friends, Deirdre is mentally handicapped and suffers frequent fits, she's the 'special child' that 'Holy God sent to us because he loves us so much'. Her little brothers are all typical rough and tumble boys. When she's put into a new school Tatty finds it hard to make friends, in fact she doesn't make any and is unhappy. Her Dad keeps asking her if she has any new pals, she doesn't like to tell him the truth. She needs to make up some names, she can't use the girls name's in her class incase her Dad gets to talking to their Dads, the only thing she can think of is to use the names of the girls in her favourite books ... "Well" she says, "there's Dinah and Lucy-Ann, Georgina .. we call her George. And Daisy, Carlotta, Bobby .. her real name's Roberta. Then there's Hilary, Belinda and let's see Marjorie and, and ... that's all". "My God", dad goes, "they're fancy names, I must say". "Oh", well the twins have plain names". "Twins as well, TWINS! Didn't I tell you you'd make pals' didn't I tell you? And twins, if you don't mind". "Yes, Pat and Isobel O'Sullivan". "Oh, that's very good indeed" She's the apple of her Dad's eye and they're the best of friends, but even he is neglectful of her. Their close relationship is just another source of irritation to her Mam. Mam and Dad are always fighting, he spends most of his time in the pub or at the races and Mam is slowly drowning in booze and becoming swipey. The fights and arguments increase until there is no end or beginning to them, they're just continuous. Tatty lies on her bunk bed listening to them screeching insults and recriminations at one another, her head aching. Her desperation to have a friend leads Tatty to do something deceitful and as a consequence she is sent away from home to boarding school, but things take a turn for the better there, she likes the teachers, she progresses with her schoolwork and she makes some friends at last. The book reminded me a lot of Roddy Doyle's writing, comedy and tragedy all skilfully blended. The story has such an authentic feel that you really could be reading someone's memoirs. I couldn't give it a completely perfect rating because An emotional read, she got under my skin. 9/10

Lettuce Custard Creams or Jammie Dodgers?

Chinese Tracey Emin or Damien Hirst? (you're not allowed to say neither)

Goodness Serena has gone!! This championship is anyone's .. femalely speaking. I guess Rafa will take the title for the men, but I'd like to see someone else win it for a change.

Maeve Binchy is someone I turn to for comfort, especially the audio's of her books read by her cousin Kate Binchy. I must have heard Tara Road, Echoes, The Lilac Bus, Evening Class and Scarlet Feather hundreds of times, likewise Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter (and when my reading mojo goes AWOL then I'm more likely to listen than read). If I'm actually reading then it's probably PG Wodehouse or Nancy Mitford.

The one small bookcase that I've got in my living room only holds about sixty books, and they're all favourites. If I read a book and I love it, it goes on this bookcase, sometimes I have to relegate a book to make room for another (sad times! I can feel the book weeping in shame as I take it towards the stairs). I've got several more in this upstairs room .. laughingly called 'the computer room'. Right in front of me on the wall behind the computer is a three tier bookshelf. It's got books on it that are on my TBR pile, they sit there screaming at me, especially when I come home from the library with another pile. As I look up I can see Rapture, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Robe of Skulls, The Sea, Possession, Crime and Punishment, The Lovely Bones, and Fingersmith amongst others all waiting to be read. Also in this room is an old glass fronted cabinet full of books .. mostly one's that are too big to fit on the shelves or hardbacks. Or books that I liked a lot but not enough to place them on the holy grail of bookshelves downstairs. Behind me is a large bookcase full of reference books and cookery books. The windowsill in here is piled high with library books, I daren't put them anywhere else incase they get lost in the mix. The cubby holes underneath the desk, which are meant for paper etc are stuffed full of charity shop books (one's I've bought rather than one's to go). I've got several cardboard boxes of books in my wardrobe, mostly books yet to be read. There's a little bookcase in the loo full of puffin classics. There's a trillion boxes in the loft, full of mostly penguin classics that have not been unpacked since we temporarily moved here four years ago I'm always looking for ways to put more bookcases/shelves into rooms. We are trying to sell the house (and have been for ages) and so it's difficult. I don't want to clutter up the place and yet if we're destined to stay here then I want to display books. There's a dressing table and mirror thingy in our main bedroom and I never use it, I always use the bathroom mirror for putting make-up on etc and I keep thinking a large bookcase will look just as nice there and maybe I can put a couple of wicker baskets on it to put the make up and hair bits in etc (when I say hair bits I mean scrunchies and bands etc .. not toup

How are you liking Tatty Janet? I'm about three quarters through and I really love it.

I thought the same and was a bit disappointed to find out that they weren't written by Angela, but I haven't got the complete Grimm's or any other fairy tale collection so was glad to have it. If you've already got the complete Grimm's then I wouldn't invest Kylie, because a lot of the tales are bound to be the same or similar. I'm definitely going to get that one and I've also been looking at 'Wise Children' and 'Nights at the Circus'. I really liked 'The Magic Toyshop' and want to read more by her. Thanks for the recommendation Pickle

That's a difficult one Giulia I think I'd say don't buy it. Although the really graphic tales are in the minority, they are fairly shocking. It's a bit like Neil Gaiman's short stories, some you'd be fine with and others not, though I think Neil's are a lot more graphic, these are more coarse than anything. Having said that I think you'd be ok with at least half of the tales if not three quarters, but it is a bit shocking to be reading about wicked stepmothers one minute and ladies private parts, to use a denaturalising phrase, and women of easy virtue, to use another, next.

The Road, it was like the book, harrowing. Thought Viggo and the boy were excellent.