poppyshake

The last Harry Potter's and Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'

I thought the line-up this year was pretty good, pretty much my ideal line-up although I would've swapped Kasabian for Muse (though I thought Kasabian were good) ... with only one not deserving their place and that was Boy George .. he sounded terrible! Fantastic stage set too, I loved that polar bear. Really, really, really loved Paolo and Dizzee. It's a shame that word got out that it is pre-recorded .. it does take the edge off, but a fantastic way to see in 2010. Happy New Year!!

Ohh let me know if it's good ... I'd like to read some more Gaiman.

'Rule number one: Trust no one.' What I Was - Meg Rosoff

Audiobooks 2010 Company of Liars - Karen Maitland (Unabridged) read by David Thorpe 9/10 Wind In The Willows - Kenneth Grahame read by Alan Bennett 8/10 Winnie The Pooh/House at Pooh Corner - A.A. Milne read by Alan Bennett 8/10 Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll read by Alan Bennett 8/10 Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfield BBC dramatisation 8/10 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky read by Alex Jennings 9/10 Middlemarch - George Eliot read by Harriet Walter 8/10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens read by Hugh Laurie 8/10 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley read by Richard Pasco 8/10 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (Unabridged) read by Trevor White 10/10 The Help - Kathryn Stockett (Unabridged) performed by a cast 10/10 Amenable Women - Mavis Cheek (Unabridged) read by Joanna David 8/10 Inkdeath - Cornelia Funke (Unabridged) read by Allan Corduner 9/10 The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver read by Dean Robertson 9/10 Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie read by Lisette Lecat 8/10 Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (Unabridged) read by Simon Slater 10/10 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire (Unabridged) read by John McDonough 10/10 The Information - Martin Amis (Unabridged) read by Steven Pacey 8/10 The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite - Beatrice Colin (Unabridged) read by Jilly Bond 7/10 At Home: A Short History of Private Life - Bill Bryson (Unabridged) read by Bill Bryson 8/10 Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death - Gyles Brandreth (Unabridged) read by Bill Wallis 10/10 Mr Golightly's Holiday - Sally Vickers (Unabridged) read by Michael Maloney 9/10 A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle read by Roddy Doyle 8/10 The Virgin Suicides - Jeffery Eugenides (Unabridged) read by Nick Landrum 8/10 Snobs - Julian Fellowes (Unabridged) read by Richard Morant 6/10 Labyrinth - Kate Mosse (Unabridged) read by Maggie Mash 6/10 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Unabridged) read by Simon Prebble 8/10 The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club - Charles Dickens (Unabridged) read by Simon Prebble 10/10 Oscar Wilde & the Candlelight Murders - Gyles Brandreth (Unabridged) read by Bill Wallis 10/10 Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde (Unabridged) read by Gareth Armstrong 9/10 Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders - Gyles Brandreth (Unabridged) read by Bill Wallis 10/10 Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson (Unabridged) read by William Roberts 8/10 Half of a yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Unabridged) read by Adjoa Andoh 9/10 TBLT The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (Unabridged) read by Rupert Degas

American Gods - Neil Gaiman Waterstones synopsis: After three years in prison, Shadow has done his time. But as the time until his release ticks away, he can feel a storm brewing. Two days before he gets out, his wife Laura dies in a mysterious car crash, in adulterous circumstances. Dazed, Shadow travels home, only to encounter the bizarre Mr Wednesday claiming to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America. Together they embark on a very strange journey across the States, along the way solving the murders which have occurred every winter in one small American town. But the storm is about to break...Disturbing, gripping and profoundly strange, Gaiman's epic novel sees him on the road to the heart of America. Review: Quite a large book .. over 600 pages long and a bit of a challenge but well worth the effort. Once I had familiarised myself with Gaiman's version of the world I thoroughly enjoyed it. Always intriguing and downright bizarre at times Neil uses mythology, magic and legend and mixes them with modern day themes of consumerism and greed (the new Gods). I thought Shadow was an excellent central character, I didn't start off liking him particularly but ended up quite fond. The only problem with the book that it is a little graphic and crude in places .. otherwise I would have given it 10/10. 9/10

My TBR pile ... so far Leviathan - Phillip Hoare The Outcast - Sadie Jones Away - Amy Bloom The House at Riverton - Kate Morton 9987 - Nik Jones Un Lun Dun - China Mieville Selected Letters of Edith Sitwell - Richard Greene Fingersmith - Sarah Waters Articles of Faith - Russell Brand The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood The Robe of Skulls - Vivian French Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold Brick Lane - Monica Ali Moby Dick - Herman Melville A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens Outside of a Dog - Rick Gekoski Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky The Reader - Bernhard Schlink The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins Speaking for Themselves - the Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill - Mary Soames Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson Hearts and Minds - Amanda Craig The Fry Chronicles - Stephen Fry Booky Wook 2 - Russell Brand My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead - Jeffrey Eugenides The Chapel at the Edge of the World - Kirsten McKenzie Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirlees Along the Enchanted Way - William Blacker Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead - Paula Byrne Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes The Black Prince - Iris Murdoch

June 2010 (5 read) Tatty - Christine Dwyer Hickey 9/10 The Room of Lost Things - Stella Duffy 8/10 The Undrowned Child - Michelle Lovric 8/10 Scottsboro: A Novel - Ellen Feldman 8/10 Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez 9/10 (4 listened to) The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver read by Dean Robertson 9/10 Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie read by Lisette Lecat 8/10 Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (Unabridged) read by Simon Slater 10/10 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire (Unabridged) read by John McDonough 10/10 May 2010 (12 read) Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 9/10 Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides 10/10 Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky 8/10 We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson 9/10 The Way Things Look to Me - Roopa Farooki 7/10 The Road - Cormac McCarthy 10/10 The Wild Things - Dave Eggers 8/10 Brooklyn - Colm Tóibín 8/10 Girl in a Blue Dress - Gaynor Arnold 7/10 Ark Baby - Liz Jensen 9/10 The Colour Purple - Alice Walker 8/10 Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales - Angela Carter 8/10 (3 listened to) The Help - Kathryn Stockett (Unabridged) performed by a cast 10/10 Amenable Women - Mavis Cheek (Unabridged) read by Joanna David 8/10 Inkdeath - Cornelia Funke (Unabridged) read by Allan Corduner 9/10 April 2010 (15 read) A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True - Brigid Pasulka 10/10 review The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway 9/10 review The Woman in Black - Susan Hill 8/10 review The Colour - Rose Tremain 7/10 review The Crowfield Curse - Pat Walsh 8/10 review The City Of Thieves - David Benioff 9/10 review The Red House Mystery - A.A. Milne 8/10 review One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez 9/10 review Temeraire - Naomi Novik 8/10 review Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 6/10 Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve 8/10 A History of the World in 10½ Chapters - Julian Barnes 8/10 The Elephant Keeper - Christopher Nicholson 8/10 The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho 7/10 Set In Stone - Linda Newbery 8/10 (5 listened to) Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky read by Alex Jennings 9/10 Middlemarch - George Eliot read by Harriet Walter 8/10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens read by Hugh Laurie 8/10 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley read by Richard Pasco 8/10 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (Unabridged) read by Trevor White 10/10 review March 2010 (16 read) The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson 7/10 review Gold - Dan Rhodes 10/10 review Stardust - Neil Gaiman 9/10 review One Day - David Nicholls 8/10 review Of Bees and Mist - Erick Setiawan 8/10 review The Ostrich Boys - Keith Gray 7/10 review The Behaviour of Moths - Poppy Adams 8/10 review The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter 8/10 review The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley 9/10 review The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt 7/10 review Timoleon Vieta Come Home - Dan Rhodes 7/10 review Brixton Beach - Roma Tearne 7/10 review Smoke and Mirrors - Neil Gaiman 7/10 review Arthur & George - Julian Barnes 10/10 review The Girls of Slender Means - Muriel Spark 8/10 review The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom 9/10 review (5 listened to) Company of Liars - Karen Maitland (Unabridged) read by David Thorpe 9/10 review Wind In The Willows - Kenneth Grahame read by Alan Bennett 8/10 Winnie The Pooh/House at Pooh Corner - A.A. Milne read by Alan Bennett 8/10 Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll read by Alan Bennett 8/10 Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfield BBC dramatisation 8/10 February 2010 (8 read) Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman 10/10 review Tales of Terror from the Black Ship - Chris Priestley 8/10 review Puppet Master - Joanne Owen 7/10 review The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga 7/10 review Fine Just the Way It Is - Annie Proulx 6/10 review The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters 9/10 review A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon 7/10 review My Favourite People and Me (1978-88) - Alan Davies 6/10 review January 2010 (7 read) American Gods - Neil Gaiman 9/10 review What I Was - Meg Rosoff 7/10 review The Yellow Lighted Bookshop - Lewis Buzzbee 8/10 review The Shipping News - Annie Proulx 10/10 review Look Back in Hunger - Jo Brand 7/10 review December - Elizabeth H. Winthrop 7/10 review Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke 8/10 review

I'm going to carry on with the same system ... Books I love I'll highlight in purple Books that I like a lot ... green Books that I like... blue The rest ... black Books Read 2009 Books Read 2010 December 2010 (6 read plus 2 short stories) Something Special - Iris Murdoch (short story) 8/10 Letter to My Daughter - Maya Angelou 7/10 The Summer Book - Tove Jansson 9/10 The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch 10/10 Giving up the Ghost - Hilary Mantel 9/10 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (re-read) 10/10 Canon Alberic's Scrapbook - M.R. James (short story) 8/10 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving 9/10 November 2010 (9 read plus 2 short stories and 2 plays) A Midsummer Nights Dream - William Shakespeare 9/10 Something Sensational to Read on the Train - Gyles Brandreth 8/10 The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger 9/10 Shakespeare - Bill Bryson 8/10 The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe (short story) 9/10 Howards End is on the Landing - Susan Hill 10/10 Ruby's Spoon - Anna Lawrence Pietroni 10/10 Letters from Father Christmas - J.R.R. Tolkien 10/10 Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare 8/10 Old Filth - Jane Gardam 8/10 The Purloined Letter - Edgar Allan Poe (short story) 8/10 Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde 10/10 The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald 10/10 (2 listened to) Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson read by William Roberts 8/10 Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 9/10 October 2010 (8 read) Good Behaviour - Molly Keane 10/10 The Girl with Glass Feet - Ali Shaw 8/10 The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde 9/10 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 7/10 The Sea - John Banville 9/10 Agnes Grey - Anne Brontë 8/10 The Secret History - Donna Tartt 9/10 The Metamorphosis (and other stories) - Franz Kafka 9/10 (2 listened to) Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders - Gyles Brandreth read by Bill Wallis 10/10 Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde read by Gareth Armstrong 9/10 September 2010 (3 read) Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman 9/10 Little Hands Clapping - Dan Rhodes 9/10 Mr Rosenblum's List - Natasha Solomons 9/10 (2 listened to) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle read by Simon Prebble 8/10 The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club - Charles Dickens read by Simon Prebble 10/10 August 2010 (6 read) The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy 9/10 Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde 9/10 Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 10/10 Cranberry Queen - Kathleen DeMarco 8/10 The Wives of Henry Oades - Johanna Moran 9/10 Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen 9/10 (2 listened to) Snobs - Julian Fellowes read by Richard Morant 6/10 Labyrinth - Kate Mosse read by Maggie Mash 6/10 July 2010 (8 read) The Still Point - Amy Sackville 8/10 Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer 9/10 Buddha Da - Anne Donavan 8/10 The Rapture - Liz Jensen 5/10 Mudbound - Hillary Jordan 8/10 The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam - Lauren Liebenberg 10/10 Gypsy Boy - Mikey Walsh 8/10 Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami 8/10 (7 listened to) The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite - Beatrice Colin read by Jilly Bond 7/10 The Information - Martin Amis read by Steven Pacey 8/10 At Home: A Short History of Private Life - written and read by Bill Bryson 8/10 Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death - Gyles Brandreth read by Bill Wallis 10/10 Mr Golightly's Holiday - Salley Vickers read by Michael Maloney 9/10 A Star Called Henry - written and read by Roddy Doyle 8/10 The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides 8/10

I've read them and enjoyed them .. but as Cassandra destroyed all that were too personal or revealing (and rightly so), you end up not knowing much more than you did before especially if you've read her biogs. However it is still lovely to read her actual words and get a better insight into what life was like for her. The Mitford letters 'Letters between Six Sisters' are fascinating too .. full of wit, humour, outrage, tragedy and deception. The relationship between Unity and Decca being particularly intriguing.

I loved the second part too .. sobbed through most of it ... I thought Ruth Wilson was fantastic as Queenie. I'm looking forward to reading it.

I remember being well and truly hooked on the 'Poldark' books ... and of course 'Harry Potter' and the 'Narnia' books. I've read most of the 'Jeeves and Wooster' books and am into reading Wodehouse's 'Blandings' books now. I do love Marian Keyes books about the Walsh family, they're hilarious .. 'Watermelon', 'Angels' Anybody Out There' and 'Rachels Holiday' ... there's still one to come I hope about the youngest member of the clan Helen. Not forgetting 'Discworld' .. Pratchett is a genius.

Get Myself Arrested - Gomez Pencil Full of Lead - Paolo Nutini Take a Bow - Muse Love Affair - Regina Spektor Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush Lets Spend the Night Together - The Rolling Stones All Good Things Come To An End - Nelly Furtado Going Underground - Jam Club Thing - Yoav Sunny Afternoon - Kinks

Breakfast at Tiffanys but then I do love Audrey. The film didn't stick that closely to the book .. which usually is a crime but in this case I'm glad.

I made a pie out of the Christmas dinner leftovers ... turkey, stuffing, chipolatas, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, carrots, green beans and gravy .. all in a pastry case ... and I cooked some peas to go with it. It was yummy. I actually love turkey sandwiches .. especially with vine tomatoes and black pepper .. and so I don't have a problem eating the leftovers at all.

I did eventually get around to seeing the 3D 'A Christmas Carol' ... it was stunning .. absolutely amazing. My OH want's to see 'Avatar' .. but I'm not sure yet.

I must be the only one who thinks Chris and Ola should not have got through .. nice guy and all that but he can't dance. Ali was a beautiful dancer and although her ballroom was better than her latin both were superior to Chris's. I'm annoyed too that they've bent the rules so that Chris and Ola are allowed to do the Charleston for their latin dance .. it isn't one. Ricky is a beautiful dancer .. I'm sure his dances will be fantastic but he won't win .. unless there is a major vote change .. which I doubt (though my Mum has switched her vote from Cola to him because she got fed up of the excessive bias on the BBC). I hope it's a good final anyway .. we get to see a 'lindy hop' which is new .. that'll be fun.

Yes, and I think the Argentine Tango is going to be so much harder for Ali .. your eye is immediately drawn to the female in the AT ... I was watching Flavia far more than Vincent and she was the one doing all the really tricksy stuff. Ola and Natalie are going to be able to do that with ease .. and I expect if their men can keep with them and basically look the part then they'll be fine .. Ali is the one that keeps getting criticized for not showing enough passion ... two tango's in two weeks ... poor thing.

Thanks, I'm definitely going to read more of hers. Someone recommended 'Jane and Prudence' to me a few days ago.

I wish there would be a three couple final ... it's so drawn out with a two couple final (too many of Bruce's jokes to cope with). It seems likely to be Chris and Ola in the final ... the only uncertainty is whether it will be Ali or Ricky to join him .. and if the past two weeks are anything to go by .. it looks like bye bye Ricky. Shame because he is a very talented dancer .. perhaps one of the best male celebs ever.

Shadow had done three years in prison. 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman

Has anyone read Kate Mosse's 'Winter Ghosts' yet?

I haven't read the book .. but I thought the first part of the drama was fantastic (of course .. not having read it ... I have nothing to compare it with). It made me want to read the book though, which all good dramas do.

Excellent Women - Barbara Pym Waterstones synopsis: Mildred Lathbury is one of those 'excellent women' who is often taken for granted. She is a godsend, 'capable of dealing with most of the stock situations of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble sales, the garden fete spoilt by bad weather'. As such, she often gets herself embroiled in other people's lives - especially those of her glamorous new neighbours, the Napiers, whose marriage seems to be on the rocks. One cannot take sides in these matters, though it is tricky, especially as Mildred, teetering on the edge of spinsterhood, has a soft spot for dashing young Rockingham Napier. This is Barbara Pym's world at its funniest and most touching. Methinks: I really enjoyed this book, it was written in the 1950's and in style was very much like some of the Persephone books (especially 'Miss Buncles Book' by D.E. Stevenson) .. quietly humourous and observational, it's about life during the post (second world) war period for Mildred, a parish spinster whose life becomes more exciting when a glamorous couple move into the flat downstairs. A book to curl up with on a cold winters night .. they really don't write them like this anymore. 8/10