poppyshake

For the fact that it gave us David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Bob Marley, Queen and Kate Bush I'd have to say the 70's. I loved soul/disco too with Earth Wind & Fire, Chic, Emotions, The Jacksons, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder ... some of Stevie's best songs were from the 70's 'Superstition', 'Living for the City, 'Misstra Know It All', 'Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing', 'I Wish' and 'Sir Duke' (but there were loads). I'm not averse to a bit of glam rock either as long as it doesn't involve Gary Glitter (what else would we sing at Christmas?) and then the dawning of Elvis Costello, The Jam, The Specials, Madness, The Clash, The Police, The Damned and Squeeze. The 60's were fantastic too .. you only have to say The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and Motown to know how fantastic they were.

I haven't read it but hubby did and he wasn't overwhelmed. I saw the film though and liked it a lot (but then it was James McAvoy so I might not have been paying proper attention ) I really enjoyed 'One Day' though by the same author so perhaps I should have given 'Starter for Ten' a go.

So do I, I'm never happy than when rummaging amongst my books. I'm quite anal about it though, I start doing things like putting matching coloured spines together and all that shenanigans. I don't like shiny writing on spines either .. shiny writing gives me the mean reds! I mean Inkheart and Inkspell were perfect and then came along horribly shiny metallic Inkdeath .. ruined my shelves completely Just started reading Brooklyn by Colm T

Can't wait to hear what you think of 'Catcher in the Rye' .. I haven't read it but people seem to be divided about it, it's a bit of a Marmite book. It's a book I want to read because it's regarded as a classic, and therefore should be read, but I haven't got around to it yet ... other books just keep getting in the way. Hope you enjoy it Ruth

The Wild Things - Dave Eggers Waterstones Synopsis: Seven-year-old Max likes to make noise, get dirty, ride his bike without a helmet and howl like a wolf. In any other era, he would be considered a boy. In 2007, he is considered willful and deranged. His home life is problematic. His parents are divorced; his father, immature and romantic, lives in the city. His mother has taken up with a younger man who steals quarters from the change bowl in the foyer. Driven by a series of pressures internal and external, Max leaves home, jumps in a boat and sails across the ocean to a strange island where giant beasts reign. The "Wild Things" is from Maurice Sendak's visionary classic. This is an all-ages adventure, full of wit and soul, that explores the chaos of youth while Max explores the chaos of the world around him. Review: Although I loved 'The Road' I wanted my next read to be something light hearted and fun and this fitted the bill perfectly. This book is an adaptation of Spike Jonze's film, 'Where the Wild Things Are', which itself was an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic book of the same name. I haven't seen the film or read the original picture book, so I came to this new adaptation without any pre-conceived ideas. It's about Max who's seven, he lives with his Mum and sister Claire. His parents are divorced, and his Dad lives in an apartment in the city. His Mum has a boyfriend called Gary, Max does his best to get rid of Gary, he plays tricks on him, hides his coffee and replaces his muffins with stale one's, but Gary is not very quick on the uptake, and is not at all suspicious, in fact he thinks that Max is his friend. Max is feeling pretty frustrated with life, his sister's friends have tried to kill him during a snowball fight, and his subsequent revenge (which involved buckets of water and Claire's pretty pink and powder blue bedroom) has made his Mum angry with him. And then there's frog faced Gary, lounging about, taking coins from the dish in the foyer, and calling Max 'bud' It's more than a seven year old can stand, and after another huge row late in the evening, Max, dressed in his beloved furry wolf suit, runs out of the door (with Gary in pursuit) and into the night. He soon outstrips Gary and reaches the woods, where he finds a small boat, at the edge of a vast lake. Max climbs in and decides that he can sail the boat northwards, until he reaches the city and his Dad's apartment. But although at first he can see the twinkling lights of the city, they seem to be getting farther and farther away, until he appears to be sailing in the open sea. Eventually Max's boat finds an island, a very strange island with brown and yellow striped earth (like peanut butter and cinnamon) and rocks that have embroidery like red moss clinging to them. He hears a strange mix of sounds, crashing, destructive noises but laughter too. He follows the noises, and comes across some four inch high cat's which is very odd, but they aren't making the noise so what is?. A hundred yards later he finds out. Huge animals, ten or twelve feet high, four hundred pound each or more, like enormous bears but bears with the quickness of deer or small monkey's, and they are all different too, one has a horn, one has string hair and one looks like a goat etc. Thus we are introduced to Douglas, Carol, Judith, Ira, Alex, Bull and Katherine, seven incredibly wild things. In order to avoid having his flesh and brains devoured, Max persuades them that he is their king. They have a celebration and he's given a crown. The beast's look at him expectantly and Max says the first thing that comes into his head 'Let the wild rumpus begin!' I found the first two thirds of the book really easy to read and extremely funny in places, but it did seem to lose it's way a bit and the final outcome seemed rushed. It was throroughly enjoyable though, the 'wild things' themselves were endearingly odd and funny. I must put the film on my rental list now. 8/10

The Help - Kathryn Stockett read by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer & Cassandra Campbell Audible Synopsis: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid, Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her 17th white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. Review: I loved this book, it is absolutely perfectly read especially by the three women voicing Skeeter, Minny and Aibileen. Set in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960's when the civil rights movement was in it's infancy, it tells the tale of two black maids Aibileen and Minny. They've worked for white families as 'the help' for most of their lives, looking after their children as if they were their own and putting up with the sly remarks, insults and prejudice of the women they cook and clean for. Miss Skeeter wants to be a writer, she has a job working for the local newspaper writing cleaning tips (as she still lives at home with her Mum and Dad, cleaning and household management is something she knows next to nothing about, but she asks Aibileen, her friend Elizabeth's maid, to help her). Skeeter feels uncomfortable over the way her friends treat 'the help' and she hits upon the idea of writing a book, that will tell the story of what it's like to be a black maid working for a white family. She needs to get as many of the maids as she can to tell her about their experiences, she will give them pseudonym's of course and she will write it anonymously. When she approaches Aibileen with this idea Aibileen is skeptical, infact she's adamant she won't do it and neither will any of the other maids, people have been lynched for less .. black people that is. Skeeter persists and eventually they make a start on the book. But it's not just a dangerous time for the maids, it's a very dangerous time for Skeeter. Full of the flavours of the deep south, it's a book to make you smile a lot but also to make you ashamed of those white ladies and their polite faced racism. The irony of them having one of their do-gooding fund raisers for the 'poor people of Africa', whilst treating their own maids like dirt was completely lost on them. The only downside to it was it made me permanently hungry with it's constant talk of chicken pot and lemon chiffon pie's, angel cake's and hush puppies mmm mm. I stretched it out for as long as I could, it was such an enjoyable listen. 10/10

You've got the best Harry Potter next (imo) ... 'Goblet of Fire' .. lucky, lucky you

Thanks for the tips Pickle, I shall definitely have a go, coriander is probably my favourite herb so it seems silly not to try and grow it.

I do try and make an effort but am not always successful .. I think of it as little steps as opposed to giant one's, hopefully they'll become larger. I bought my own 'bags for life' so that I never have to use plastic bags again but I have the shopping delivered now and I feel like I've taken a step backwards as not only is it delivered in plastic bags, it's delivered in LOTS of plastic bags, some of them only have three or four items in so that's bad ... for a couple of years now the flouresecent lighting in shops (supermarkets in particular because of the length of time you spend in them) has made me feel dizzy and headachey (hubby did enquire and the supermarkets apparently changed their lighting to be more energy efficient a couple of years ago and for some reason it doesn't agree with me). But interestingly we have spent much less on food since I've been having it delivered, we plan meals better and don't get sidetracked. Where my cousin lives in Gloucestershire they have a recycling bin for food waste .. I'd love to have that. But I'm an avid bird feeder and any stale bread, crumbs, chips, bits of cheese, old apples, currants etc .. even crushed up old yorkshire pudding .. get's put out on the birdtable for them. I do try and put a cardigan on now rather than just automatically put the heating on, even in the winter I try and tough it out until the afternoon/evening and I'm pretty good at not leaving lights on anymore (I used to always have lamps on all over the house). My Mum grows all her own bedding plants and she keeps me supplied with those .... I must try and encourage her to grow veggies! I do grow my own herbs, only the perennial one's at the moment like Rosemary, Mint and Thyme .. I'd love to grow Coriander cos I use it a lot but I heard it was notoriously difficult and runs quickly to seed if you're not careful (and I'm not careful). We did have a look at our finances a while back and decided that we eat out too much so we've cut back drastically on that (including takeaways) and I try not to buy as many books (which is a BIG sacrifice). I joined two more libraries last month making three in total and that's made a big difference to my book spending habits. We used to buy lot's of DVD's but after having a huge clearout, we decided not to do that anymore and I rent them from lovefilm, I get two rentals a month now for

That's exactly the same as me, although at the moment, my reading has been dictated more by my library books than my shelves, but I try to alternate between the two (depending on time). Once I start a book, even if I don't like it much, I usually plod on with it.

It's definitely worth it, it's one of those books you can't put down. Hope you enjoy it Joe Ooh Ooshie

The Road - Cormac McCarthy Waterstones Synopsis: 'The first great masterpiece of the globally warmed generation. Here is an American classic which, at a stroke, makes McCarthy a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature' - Andrew O'Hagan. A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food - and each other. 'McCarthy conjures from this pitiless flight the miracle of unswerving humanity. Gripping beyond belief' - Chris Cleave, "Sunday Telegraph". 'One of the most shocking and harrowing but ultimately redemptive books I have read. It is an intensely intimate story. It is also a warning' - Kirsty Wark, "Observer Books of the Year". 'A work of such terrible beauty that you will struggle to look away. It will knock the breath from your lungs' - Tom Gatti, "The Times". 'You will read on, absolutely convinced, thrilled, mesmerized. All the modern novel can do is done here' - Alan Warner, "Guardian". 'A masterpiece that will soon be considered a classic' - "Herald". 'McCarthy shows that he is one of the greatest American writers alive' - "Times Literary Supplement". Review: It doesn't get much bleaker than this, a truly tragic tale of a man and his son trying to find their way to the coast in post apocalyptic America (well, the country's not actually named but I took it to be America because of one or two slight references, though it could be anywhere). The writing has been pared to the bone, there is hardly any dialogue and in that respect it felt rather like reading Hemingway. There are no chapters, just fairly short paragraphs of either description or dialogue, every word is weighed and measured. The man and the boy exchange a few short sentences every now and then, the boy seeking understanding or comfort and the man trying to reassure and instill hope or else relaying simple instructions. But for all that it's not overly descriptive or wordy, it's so beautifully written that you can clearly see that ash ridden, bleak and desolate landscape and feel the desperation of the man and boy. When you think about a landscape devoid of animals, devoid even of rats to feed on corpses, devoid of plant life and sunlight it's utterly unendurable, and the writer makes you feel the loss of these things yourself as you read. We're not told why this catastrophe happened, which makes it all a bit more terrifying because when a reason is given you can usually find a way of persuading yourself that the chances of it really happening are so slim as to be negligible. We just know that everything, and practically everyone, is dead, and the world has been thrown into perpetual winter. It felt right that there weren't any chapters, there was nothing to break the spell, no obvious resting places. I had to tear myself away from the book from time to time, in order to try and lighten my mood, but really, from the moment I read that their aim was to find their way to the coast, I was so anxious that they should get there that I just kept reading on and on. Although it's not what you'd call an action-packed book, there are some pretty horrific scenes, and also some times when their relentless slow trudge across the scorched earth turns into a desperate flight for survival. There are only a few people left on earth, how many is not known, but among them are some pretty terrifying people, people who will do everything and anything to ensure their survival. People with nothing to lose. All you are hoping for, is that the man and the boy reach the coast and some sort of safety, you celebrate every small piece of good fortune that comes their way and you feel fear whenever they see or meet anyone on the road. I can see that not everybody would like it, it's pretty harrowing stuff. There isn't any light relief or jokes (I imagine they're dead like everything else) but it's compelling and powerful. I was truly terrified by it, an incredible piece of writing. 10/10

I loved it ('Middlesex') ... one of my favourite reads this year easily I've got a review of 'A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True' somewhere on my blog .. but here's the Waterstones synopsis anyway: Winner of the 2010 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished first book of fiction, A Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True is a grand love story and a wonderfully warm-hearted debut about a young woman and her country on the cusp of change.On the eve of World War II in a place called Half-Village, a man nicknamed the Pigeon falls in love with a girl fabled for her angelic looks. Using his 'golden hands' he decides to turn her family's modest hut into a beautiful home, and build his way into her heart.But war arrives, cutting short their charming courtship and bringing with it terrible events.Fifty years on, young Baba Yaga leaves her village to make a new life in Krakow. What she finds is not the city of her grandmother's tales but a place struggling in the aftermath of communism's fall, where opportunity seems reserved for the lucky few. Then tragedy strikes and the past reaches out an unexpected hand to her.What Louis de Bernieres did for Kefalonia, Brigid Pasulka does for Poland, weaving together the two strands of her story with a deftly magical touch into a witty, wise and heartbreaking love story that will enchant you to the very end. Although the main plotline is not similar to 'Middlesex', the back story of Pigeon and Anielica reminded me a lot of Lefty and Desdemona, they both had to flee from war and settle in a new area, also the story alternates between present day and the past in a similar way and the writing is pretty similar too. I think 'Middlesex' is the better of the two but 'A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True' was also very good.

'Fantastic Mr Fox' .. strange but good

It's so difficult to whittle it down to five, but after much contemplation .. and in no order. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke Wuthering Heights - Emily Bront� I can't believe I haven't got a Dickens or an Austen in there .. I'll probably regret it tomorrow.

I must read this, as soon as the library get's a copy in, it's coming home with me

I'm sure you'd enjoy We Have Always Lived in the Castle Kylie. It gave me the shivers, and it's probably the oddest book I've read this year ... it would be between that and the The Magic Toyshop anyway, but it was odd in a good way

I'm glad Rose and I hope you enjoy it, I'm sure you will

You're welcome Frankie , both you and Kylie gave it a five star rating on 'Goodreads' .. so I knew it was going to be good, and it was, it was brilliant, so thanks

Just finished Roopa Farooki's The Way Things Look To Me and though I liked it, it didn't absorb me in the same way as the last four books I've read. I felt the quality of writing/story telling had dipped a bit. Started The Road by Cormac McCarthy .. the quality has gone up again

You must read 'Middlesex' Rose .. it's such a great book. I love Neil Gaiman, I haven't read all of his books yet, but I've read 'Stardust', 'Neverwhere', American Gods', Fragile Things', 'The Graveyard Book' and 'Smoke and Mirrors'. I loved them all (sometimes the short stories are hit and miss but on the whole I liked them ... my fave one in 'Fragile Things' was 'Harlequin Valentine') ... the book I loved best was 'Neverwhere' but they were all brilliant to be honest.

The Way Things Look To Me - Roopa Farooki Waterstones Synopsis: At 23, Asif is less than he wanted to be. His mother's sudden death forced him back home to look after his youngest sister, Yasmin, and he leads a frustrating life, ruled by her exacting need for routine. Everyone tells Asif that he's a good boy, but he isn't so sure. Lila has escaped from home, abandoning Asif to be the sole carer of their difficult sister. Damaged by a childhood of uneven treatment, as Yasmin's needs always came first, she leads a wayward existence, drifting between jobs and men, obsessed with her looks and certain that her value is only skin deep. And then there is Yasmin, who has no idea of the resentment she has caused. Who sees music in colour and remembers so much that sometimes her head hurts. Who doesn't feel happy, but who knows that she is special. Who has a devastating plan. "The Way Things Look To Me" is an affecting, comically tender portrayal of a family in crisis, caught between duty and love in a tangled relationship both bitter and bittersweet. Review: I liked this story but I didn't love it, it didn't seem to hold my interest. The story centres around Yasmin who has Aspergers and her two older siblings, Asif and Lila. Since their parents death it has become Asif's job to look after Yasmin. This he does with extreme care and tenderness. Lila on the other hand is more resentful, calling Yasmin 's*dding Raingirl' and embracing her with bear-hugs which she knows will make her uncomfortable (she also wears a t-shirt with a slogan that is mis-spelt knowing it upset's Yasmin's organised brain). Lila doesn't live at the family home anymore, she lives in a squalid flat which resembles a rubbish tip (a reaction to the tidy and ordered life that Yasmin has imposed on everybody at home). She has an untidy love-life and debilitating eczema. Both Lila and Asif are resentful that their Mother lavished so much time and attention on making sure Yas was ok, that she seemed to overlook their wants and needs. They both have inferiority complexes, Asif feels unworthy to be loved and Lila self harms. Yasmin, unaware of any of this, is living a life so scheduled and organised that the slightest change causes her extreme anguish. She eats only yellow food for breakfast, she watches DVD's of 'The Simpsons' continually and plays 'Doom' on her computer, she always wins at 'Scrabble' because she knows all the correct high scoring two letter words and when she hears music she see's it expressed in colour. She's not happy though and she doesn't feel hopeful. A TV production wants to film a documentary about Yasmin, Lila is totally against it, Asif is worried about it, but Yasmin, unpredictably, want's to do it. Although a lot of the book is humorous, Yasmin's story is sad and I felt moved to tears by it towards the end of the book. Just reading simple things like the fact that she has to repeat to herself 'one Mississippi, two Mississippi' to remind herself of how long to keep eye contact for, when someone's talking to her, and how she had to have circles drawn for her on the lawn, to represent different people's 'personal space' ... differentiating between family, friends, acquaintances and strangers. I wasn't so keen on Asif and Lila's stories, the bit's that didn't involve Yasmin ... Lila's especially. It seemed a bit lightweight and predictable .. she seemed a little bit of a cliche. .. these were the bit's where I lost interest a little. I didn't know how Yasmin's story was going to pan out and found I was more interested in her than the other's. 7/10

Yes it's been quite satisfying seeing the 'nelly-know-it-alls' go home. They would never be voted for by the public anyway, so they might as well go now.

Puppets (though both freak me out!) Toast or Cereal?

Hope you're feeling better Ooshie and hope your Mum will soon be feeling better after her operation tomorrow