poppyshake

Who couldn't love Winnie the Pooh? .. whoever it is don't trust them

What brilliant taste you have .. I think mine was a Slade record She is wonderful .. sang on arguably the best Christmas song too .. but that is hotly contested

Good luck with your 2015 reading Alexander

Yes .. she was a good old egg I've just seen that an author called Pamela Cox is writing sequels .. good heavens!! Is nothing scared

I've already put a bid in on ebay Wish me luck I think I know what the covers were like .. though some are more familiar than others. I have an aversion to the modern covers but only because I want them as I remember them .. to add to the nostalgic feel .. and also all the un-PC bits will be still in Jolly good .. I can cringe as I read

Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann Synopsis: A diary for her innermost thoughts, a china ornament, a ten-shilling note, and a roll of flame-coloured silk for her first evening dress: these are the gifts Olivia Curtis receives for her seventeenth birthday. She anticipates her first dance, the greatest yet most terrifying event of her restricted social life, with tremulous uncertainty and excitement. For her pretty, charming elder sister Kate, the dance is certain to be a triumph, but what will it be for shy, awkward Olivia? Exploring the daydreams and miseries attendant upon even the most innocent of social events, Rosamond Lehmann perfectly captures the emotions of a girl standing poised on the threshold of womanhood. Review: I absolutely loved this .. thank you so much Janet for getting it for me It's quite a simple story really (written in the 1930's.) Olivia has just reached seventeen and has been invited to her first ball, her mother has bought her some lovely flame coloured silk which will be made up into a gown and she's been given some money too which perhaps she can spend on adornments. It's the writing though that makes the story outstanding .. it's just gorgeous and you savour every word. Because of it and because it is mostly written about her, I become so attached to Olivia .. I really thought I had lost a friend when I got to the end of it and was sad not to know how things progressed with her (though I gleaned from the foreword that there is a sequel .. so on the list it goes then ) Though seventeen year old's would normally be champing at the bit at the thought of their first ball, Olivia is full of doubts. She is excited but she's also part dreading it. Even on her birthday morning she is anxious and sees her birthday breakfast as something to be got through. This spoke to me loud and clear as I'm a bit odd (no .. really ) in that sometimes birthdays and Christmas's etc oppress me. I love presents of course .. who doesn't .. but I find it a trial to open things in front of people. When I hear about people opening all their prezzies together .. or particularly opening them one at a time in front of each other .. I want to cry because this sort of thing makes me want to shrivel. My family just laugh at me about it but here was someone in fiction that knew exactly how I felt. We had bonded before the first chapter was finished. There was a bit near the end too .. where Olivia described being agitated and she said 'I get hot from nervousness. I get .. you know .. fussed and then I feel like a boiled lobster' which just cracked me up .. I told Alan and he just nodded and said .. yes .. we'll write that on your gravestone I found it all so touching, all the business about the gown being made (and really ... I just wanted her to get something nice made up but she wasn't assertive enough .. plus she was too trusting, too diffident and too friendly .. it's like at the hairdressers .. they don't take you seriously if you're too friendly .. they take their eye off the ball. Sorry I'm digressing again ) When she does get to the ball there's all that bother about filling up her programme (for these are genteel days) and all the mortification of waiting to be asked to dance or trying to hide so as not to appear a wallflower or being grateful when a totally unsuitable person has asked you. Olivia has a sister who is prettier, more vivacious and perfectly at home at a ball. They are the best of friends .. however .. if she were my sister .. I'd have wanted to shove her in a cupboard until home time I may have made Olivia sound soppy which she isn't at all, she's naive and a little sensitive but very intelligent, very intuitive and a great reader .. so someone to be admired I think Loved the story and adored the writing. Everyone .. even the minor characters .. were brought splendidly to life. It's very witty as well as being deliciously .. but not frighteningly .. stream of conscious. Splendid stuff. Loved it with a very big L!!

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo Synopsis: This is shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013. It is the US National Book Award 5 Under 35. It is the winner of the Etisalat Prize 2014. 'To play the country-game, we have to choose a country. Everybody wants to be the USA and Britain and Canada and Australia and Switzerland and them. Nobody wants to be rags of countries like Congo, like Somalia, like Iraq, like Sudan, like Haiti and not even this one we live in - who wants to be a terrible place of hunger and things falling apart?' Darling and her friends live in a shanty called Paradise, which of course is no such thing. It isn't all bad, though. There's mischief and adventure, games of Find bin Laden, stealing guavas, singing Lady Gaga at the tops of their voices. They dream of the paradises of America, Dubai, Europe, where Madonna and Barack Obama and David Beckham live. For Darling, that dream will come true. But, like the thousands of people all over the world trying to forge new lives far from home, Darling finds this new paradise brings its own set of challenges - for her and also for those she's left behind. Review: A very difficult review to write in hindsight. I remember thinking it was an extraordinary piece of writing but very hard hitting and uncomfortable to read. Written in heavy slang too so it takes a while to get used to the rhythms of the language and to fully understand what's being said. The story is set in Zimbabwe in the late 2000's. It's a desperate place for Darling and her friends and family. AIDs is rife, there's violence and corruption, atrocities against the poor and women in particular, food shortages, crippling poverty, insanitary conditions and just about everything else that could make your homeland a living hell. As a result Darling .. and the other children .. are forced to grow up too soon .. forced to face truths which we as adults would hide from. They do have their games and their dreams though .. and a sort of mental toughness which comes from prolonged suffering. It's a sad story .. tragic in fact .. but never sentimental or self pitying. It's grim and harrowing with very little joy and immense, immense, pain. The synopsis told me that Darling would get to live out her dreams in paradise (in this instance America) and I thought this would happen fairly early on in the novel but it doesn't and when it does happen the story is not as vibrant or as affecting as it was and it's not the ending you were hoping for either .. or I was hoping for .. (the ends were left loose too .. perhaps there will be a sequel) but for all that I still gave it top marks because .. rather like Toni Morrison's novels .. it just hits you like a steam train .. there's so much truth in the writing and it's all so vividly brought to life. Caution though .. proceed with care .. it's a tough book to read. There's not much light and shade and it's the opposite of a feel good book .. it's a feel rotten book 5/5

I'll have to check them out Hope you like them Gaia .. she's great fun Lord!! that looks terrible. I had a cartoon in mind .. never knew they'd done a live action version. This is so bad .. it's bound to be good

I don't mind a bit of cheese Heard this on the radio today .. it's always bitter sweet now to hear Kirsty but glad to be reminded of her gorgeous voice.

Very well said .. I totally agree with you. Hope you have a great reading year in 2015 Andrea

Ooh Malory Towers ... I can't wait to see how you get on with them I wish I still had my old copies .. I'd read with you both. Have they been modernised do you know? I think they may have been a bit .. not sure. I'm sure you'll be raising your eyebrows a bit .. old Enid was such a terrible snob. I did re-read them once and all the girls I'd previously liked seemed like terrible little prigs (good Enid word ) ... the books are so synonymous with my childhood though that I love them despite their faults. Always makes you want to start frying sausages at midnight Perhaps I can get hold of the first one .. let me know when you're starting.

I really hope you like it Kylie. I liked it and have just read the next. I think Flavia is great Just finished Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann which lovely Janet bought me Absolutely gorgeous! .. woofed it up in no time. Carrying on with Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe.

It really should shouldn't it? Again .. you're welcome to read my copy .. it'd like to get out more You're guaranteed coffee and cake then .. during the handover

Hmmm .. perhaps the pot knows best

Hope you'll have a good reading year this year Diane .. and that you'll enjoy the books you read

Brilliant idea .. I might nick it (with your permission) but I'm a bit scared of what it might throw up Happy Reading Brian!

Ha ha .. yes .. brilliant name for a heroine I can put the book on a pile for you Claire .. there's no hurry to read it .. I need to start a new pile for you Ooh .. exciting .. well, fingers crossed then The key is .. finding the right Flavia. Oh .. not to worry .. I knew you were wishing it .. happy to have the cookies though *munch munch*

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres Synopsis: It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious but far from fanatical soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous - and a consumate musician. When the local doctor's daughter's letters to her fiancé - and members of the underground - go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender? Review: This book seems to divide opinion with readers usually falling into the love or hate camp. I think I fell somewhere in the middle though loving it a bit more than hating it. I would have been happier to have spent the whole book in the company of Pelagia, the doctor's daughter. When the plot moved elsewhere I found it dragged and was impatient to be back with her though those chapters .. in the company of Guercio .. were incredibly moving. It was too long as well .. far too long .. and it moved at a snail's pace too at times. Plus I found the ending frustrating and thought it was a poor reward for clinging on for 430 pages. I thought my head would explode I like everything I've read of Louis' so far .. I really like his humour and he reminds me so much of Garcia Marquez .. in a good way (not that there is a bad way .. as far as I'm concerned.) Pelagia is about as feisty a heroine as you're likely to find in any book .. maddeningly stubborn but loyal and with spirit. I thought she deserved a better outcome but a lot of people love the ending in particular and one can't have tailor made endings .. or that snowman would never have melted and then what would we learn? * 4/5 * Interesting aside .. or I thought so anyway ... I was watching The Snowman with my great niece Rosie (who's five) at Christmas and she asked why he was sad when looking at the box of fish fingers or whatever it was in the freezer .. and I said .. because of the pic on the box .. he was homesick .. and she asked what homesick was .. and I said it's missing home. Then he flew off (sorry if this is plot spoiling ) and I said .. see .. he's going home now to see his friends and she said how can he be going home .. the little boy only made him five mins ago I had no answer worthy of giving She was then pontificating that it might all be a dream but then .. no .. it couldn't be because of the scarf .. really .. it was exhausting

Thanks Gaia It might not be for you then Noll .. I enjoyed it from the beginning and I don't think it alters much .. in style that is .. obviously the plot thickens cos that's what plots do Maybe give it another go though .. just to be sure.

Meant to add that I do have the next Flavia de Luce on the shelf. True to form I won't be starting it just yet but hope to get around to it fairly soonish

As you should be You'll inherit the earth after all (but then .. what will you do with it?)

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley Synopsis: 'I was lying dead in the churchyard...' So says eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce - but soon a murder provides a gruesome distraction from her own death. A travelling puppet show arrives in the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey, and everyone gathers to watch a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village hall. But a shadow is cast over proceedings when a shocking murder takes place during the performance - a murder which strangely echoes a tragedy that occurred many years before. For Flavia, undoing the complex knot that ties these strands together will test her precocious powers of deduction to the limit - and throw a revealing light into some of the darker corners of the adult world. Review: I read Alan's first Flavia de Luce mystery a few years ago (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) and really enjoyed it. Would have liked to have read the others but I didn't have them on the shelf and anyway .. I hardly ever do that. For some reason unknown to man .. I like there to be a gap before I continue on with a series. Trouble is the gap always grows and by the time I get around to it I've usually forgotten the characters and set up completely Flavia though stuck in my mind as I was so taken with her the first time. The stories take place in the 1950's so though not written then they have that lovely vintage feel. Flavia is quite unlike anyone I've ever come across .. even in print. She has an incredibly wise head on her shoulders but she's a little bit on the wicked side as well and knows just about all there is to know about poisons .. this has the potential to be disastrous as she's not above seeking revenge on those who cross her (number one candidate .. her sister Ophelia.) Thankfully .. and quite by chance .. a crisis is always somehow averted. Having helped to solve the mystery of the corpse in the cucumber patch Flavia fancies herself as a bit of a detective (for a start she has a very impressive chemistry lab) so when another murder takes place in Bishop's Lacey, she's only too pleased to hop on board her trusty bicycle, Gladys, and go hunting for clues. I loved the first chapter where Flavia is describing being dead in the churchyard .. the incorrigible little minx. The great pleasure of these books is the humour that runs through them .. you won't be guffawing or anything but you'll be smiling constantly. I thought the plot was tight and always interesting but that's not the great attraction for me .. I just love spending time in Flavia's head Would love to see the BBC adapt them one day for TV. If you like Sunday teatime type of detective stories .. you'll love these books for sure. Liked it!! (Really I loved it but .. rather like the Thursday Next's .. I always think there'll be a definitive book in the series .. and so like to leave room for improvement )

Yes .. check the reviews Noll. It is very sweet .. but might not be to everyone's taste. Thanks Gaia Nothing wrong with the expression at all Geek!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman Synopsis: It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac - as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly's wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark. Review: Absolutely magical and so enjoyable. It felt quite old fashioned in lots of ways .. like stories used to be .. and put me in mind of The Dark is Rising which can only be a good thing. A little bit scary but not overly so with plenty of twists and turns. I love Gaiman anyway and think he's a master storyteller and when he turns his hand to children's writing .. he absolutely excels. I think he innately knows what keeps children interested etc. A nice mix of reality and fantasy which works well in his hands .. I'm not always a big fan of that sort of style unless it's seamless and this was. I loved the Hempstocks (the three .. eccentric and other wordly women/girls who live at the end of the lane) particularly young Lettie .. a joy of a character and I love the notion of having a duckpond which is also an ocean. Having said it's not overly scary I did get a little bit terrified towards the end .. but I scare easily Actually I'm not sure if this is a children's book .. certainly older children would love it, it's probably too frightening for littlies .. it's a bit like Coraline and The Graveyard Book (though scarier and more adult than both I think) in that it appeals to all ages. Interestingly the narrator is an adult when he recounts the story .. this always adds authenticity to a tale .. you believe in it straight away ... 'I remember that winter because it had bought the heaviest snows I'd ever seen' ... no .. I'm digressing now If you like Gaiman already then it's a must .. if not .. I'm not sure this would change your mind .. especially if you didn't like The Graveyard Book but I thought it was gorgeous. 5/5

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren Synopsis: Have you performed at the circus? Pippi has! Can you wiggle your toes while you're sleeping? Pippi can! Are you going to be a pirate when you grow up? Pippi is! Pippi lives in a house with a horse, a monkey, a suitcase full of gold and no grown-ups to tell her what to do. She's wild and funny and her crazy ideas are always getting her into trouble! Review: Ah Pippi .. she's a one isn't she? I had to look her up as I was puzzled as to why I hadn't read her as a child .. thought she might have been published slightly later but no .. this one was first published in the 1940's so it's still a mystery as to why I was fobbed off with such weak and watery heroines (such as Anne in Famous Five .. who's only fit to make sandwiches ) Pippi is amazing, she lives on her own with a horse and a monkey and makes short work of obnoxious people such as bullies and burglars. She is after all the strongest girl in the world The neighbouring children Tommy and Annika are what you might call normal children .. more conventional children anyway .. but what a treat for them when Pippi moves in, she soon invites them round and is whipping up pancakes .. not in the usual way though .. no she uses a bath-brush The stories are unusual and very visual .. absolutely perfect for children of all ages. Love her .. she lives by her own rules and is as mad as a box of frogs 4/5