poppyshake

Look at how happy he is in his new home ... it would be a tragedy if he had to go back

Lovely happy pics. Congratulations to you both

Signed too .. poor Raju .. this must not happen.

Haha .. I've never been in the library after a few drinks either .. who knows what one might come out with? (both as in comments and books! ) Very wise to wait until you're ... sober Glad you're settling in well and that Espoo is so friendly .. you'll be comfy and at home in no time xx Very happy you're happpyyyyyyyy!

The paperback version of The Luminaries .. stunning (but grrrr .. for the sticker )

Good .. I'm fairly confident about this one bobbs Too right .. I remember falling to the ground crying 'why?' when I heard about it

Arghh I lost my font Watch out for it Sari .. you know how it likes to b*gger up everything

Good luck lovely Hope the move goes well xx The time will probably race by for that first month .. so much to do and discover and then you'll be able to see your friend again Hope the bouncy rock is helping to motivate

I wasn't keen .. but it's early days.

Hello Gorgeous! Not to worry at all .. it's just me wittering on as usual and I know you've had a busy, busy time of it. I'm always very happy to see you when you do come =) Not at all .. you don't want to get regimented about it .. that's for toast eating etc (and I'm fairly relaxed about that too except .. it has to be done at some point during the day =D ) Never let a toast craving accumulate =D There is a time for nattering and a time to get down to business! =D Wish I had learnt that .. I could have been someone! Thank you =) I hope you enjoy them when and if you get around to procuring them. I think you'll particularly enjoy Look Who's Back .. it's clever and also thought provoking. I must read the sequel to Titus Groan or else I will have forgotten it .. it's so involved .. not sure I haven't forgotten at least half of it already Oh bother! I really should have just gone from one to the other but I rarely do that .. it would help enormously with the Thursday Next's too .. but I am determined to make life hard. Well done me! Isn't it the most exciting thing about moving? .. you have a new library to explore I have exhausted all the books in my horrible library .. there weren't many to begin with and I swear they're all the same ones as when I moved in four years ago. Bit drastic to move just to be near a better library but if it wasn't for the fact that the Swindon libraries are not far away then I would definitely consider it Paperboy is well worth seeking out .. I'm happy to send my copy once you get to Espoo but don't want to overcrowd you with stuff five mins after you've moved in. Let me know anyhow. Yes .. another good one =) (and the cover didn't let me down this time =D ) I've lent it to Claire .. hope she likes it too. I love your responses, whether they're clear and concise, fuzzy and rambling or anything in between. We talk the same language (well of course .. officially we don't .. well you do .. but I have not a hope in hell of speaking yours .. it's as complicated as they come and I have a terrible memory. I learnt a few rabbit words when reading Watership Down .. just the basics .. but blow me if I can remember the word they used when coming up from the burrow to stuff food .. I know there was one but I've not used it and it's gone I tried to recollect it the other day when in the supermarket. What is the opposite of a retentive memory? =D Of course, the problem is that I've never had an occasion to converse with a rabbit .. shame =D ) Yes .. what were we saying about clear and concise responses?

The Misinterpretation Of Tara Jupp by Eva Rice Synopsis: Country girl Tara is whisked off to Sixties London to become a pop star; there she is dressed, she is shown off at Chelsea parties, photographed by the best. She meets songwriters, singers, designers, and records her song, and falls in love. But behind the buzz and excitement of her success, concern about her beautiful, wild sister Lucy and the bitter relationship with their friend Matilda haunts Tara. Their past friendship is broken, and among the deceptions and the strangeness of both their marriages, the buried secrets keep on reappearing. The brilliant new world of fashion and music, of mini skirts and rock 'n' roll, of the Marquee Club and The Palladium, is also one of love and heartache. Review: I really, really, wanted to love this. I liked the title a lot and the cover (not so crucial here as I listened to it but if all had gone well then a paper copy would be on the wishlist) and these things are important to me as you know and I also firmly believe that I can spot a 'me' book a million miles away .. this alas was one of the occasions where such wisdom fell flat on it's face I hated it!! .. and if it wasn't for the beginning few chapters (the bit before the plot really got going) which I was really rather enjoying I would give it a 1 (solely for the cover) because to me it was unoriginal, predictable and cliched (so there! ) Tara narrates and she is likeable enough. She tells us all about her life in Cornwall, she comes from a big family of brothers and sisters, her father is a vicar, her mother is sadly dead .. she died in childbirth a few years before this story starts. Her older sister Lucy is very beautiful ... an absolute stunner who has all the local boys in a tizz. Tara is a brilliant singer, she can impersonate all the jazz greats which is a bit of a rarity for a teenage girl from the West Country. It's not long before she's spotted and whisked off to to the bright lights of London with her sister. Tara is set to become a pop star! It's here where the story fell apart for me .. maybe it's because I don't get along with too much excitement but then I didn't find it exciting I just found it unconvincing. There's a man Tara likes .. Inigo Wallace .. now a famous songwriter but at one time just a boy she had a crush on. He doesn't remember her from that time (and she's loath to remind him because of an embarrassing incident connected with it). He's lived in America for many years and has had enormous success (his nickname is .... wait for it ... Father Hitmas ) .. and has now been asked to write some hits for Tara (or shall we call her Cherry Merrywell because .. that's what she's been renamed) and, make no mistake, they will be hits .. and that was one of the problems. Everyone in the story seemed to become an overnight success .. you're an aspiring singer/model/art historian/novelist/ ... then sure as eggs are eggs you will be famous by the time you get up tomorrow and the whole nation will be talking about you. In fact not only will your book be amazingly popular but they will be talking about the films rights about ten secs after you've posted off the manuscript. There was never any struggle (there was even a mention of a child of five serving aces who they hoped would be Wimbledon bound .. thankfully he was still five when the book finished so I didn't have to hear about him lifting the trophy ). There were a few heart stopping moments, moments where disaster was imminent but by the time they occurred you were well aware that there was not the slightest chance of you getting anywhere near the edge of your seat. Total anti-climaxes. A man is dangling over the edge of a precipice with only one finger clinging on to terra firma .. then that man will be saved ... possibly by our heroine riding bare back with a convenient lasso clenched between her teeth (this didn't happen by the way ) I didn't mind it with Lassie but I must have grown cynical since. Anyhow Inigo is not that impressed .. Tara overhears him making a disparaging remark about her and from that moment on they are a bit cool with one another .. not to say downright snotty .. leaving the reader in no doubt that they will of course end up head over heels in love. There is a lot more to the story but most of it fell on deaf ears as after I got halfway I was just willing for it to be over (and as the book is 592 pages long I had a long wait ). It was like candy floss .. it looked nice and was quite sweet but there was no substance. I thought it was ridiculously OTT too. What I will say though is read the blurb and if you like the sound of it then read other reviews because it is universally loved as far as I can see so perhaps my reaction to it is a very personal one and subject to my unique set of prejudices. All I can say is that it made me want to chew my own arm off so that I couldn't press play .. that's how much I hated it. 2/5 (generous )

He was practicing Claire I didn't really have any expectations so they weren't dashed. I enjoyed it in a cup of tea, slice of toast, comfy slippers type way. Like a sit-com that doesn't make you roar but does make you smile often. I'm quite happy with that at the moment .. it suits my present abilities

Heading Out To Wonderful by Robert Goolrick Amazon's Synopsis: It is the summer of 1948 when a handsome, charismatic stranger, Charlie Beale, back from war in Europe, shows up in the sleepy town of Brownsburg, Virginia. All he has with him are two suitcases: one contains a fine set of butcher knives; the other is full of money. Charlie should have turned around and walked back the other way, for what follows - the most passionate and tragic story of a forbidden love affair - will threaten to destroy everything and everyone in its path. Told through the eyes of Sam, a young boy in the town whose world is changed forever by the events of that single year, Heading Out to Wonderful is a suspenseful masterpiece, a haunting, heart-stopping novel of obsession and love gone terribly wrong in a place where once upon a time such things could happen. Review: I really enjoyed this, it had that same sense of anticipation and drama that you get from reading Steinbeck (I've only read one but this put me in mind of it). Everything so well described that you can see it, smell it and taste it. The tension almost suffocates you. Charlie is a loner, a new man in town. He's unconventional, preferring to sleep under the stars .. beds and sheets and even houses feel restrictive. He's a skilled butcher and persuades local business man Will Haislett to hire him in his butcher's shop which is how he meets the narrator of this story .. five year old Sam who is Mr Haislett's son. It's also where he first sets eyes on the beautiful Sylvan and from that moment onwards, Charlie is on a collision course with disaster. You know within two pages that it's not going to end well Sylvan is also fairly new to town. Her husband (possibly one of the world's fattest, meanest and most obnoxious men) Boaty Glass, has literally bought her. He rode around the countryside looking for a suitable wife (his preference being for a fourteen/fifteen year old girl .. Sylvan at seventeen is a little old for his tastes but she is beautiful and her family don't immediately threaten murder so it's a definite improvement) after his attempts to get one in the usual way failed miserably. In exchange for their daughter's hand in marriage, Boaty will buy their farm from them .. in cash .. and they can continue to live there tax free. But Sylvan must stay married to him, if she leaves or divorces him then he will throw them out. They do have some pangs about it I'm glad to say. They are incredibly poor but still they have scruples and one of these is that Sylvan herself must agree to it. As it turns out she's not as anti as you might suppose .. she is desperate to escape and so offers herself up pretty willingly all things considered. One of the first things Boaty introduces her to (well .. perhaps the second thing ) is the cinema and from that moment on Sylvan is hooked. Now she has money she enlists the help of local seamstress Claudie and is soon wearing exact replicas of the costumes worn by her favourite screen goddesses .. a temptation for any man .. and a deadly one for Charlie. For Sylvan, Charlie is a dead ringer for one of her matinee idols. For Charlie, she is the sun, moon and stars. There is not much 'will she/won't she' about their love affair .. considering the probable consequences they both seem to almost rush into it headlong and with very little discretion. Sam, who has become Charlie's constant and doting companion, is ever present during these clandestine meetings. They attempt to occupy him with crayons and picture books whilst they hurry away to another room. It confuses him, he knows something is going on .. he's not sure what .. though curiosity gets the better of him and he does go looking .. and what he finds devastates him. Charlie is penitent but he doesn't alter his behaviour ... the pull of Sylvan is too strong. He exacts a promise from Sam that he will never tell a soul (though the town folk miss nothing and they're not fooled now). Charlie is someone the reader grows to like pretty much from the beginning (though we know hardly anything about him previous to this story starting) but he tests this somewhat over his failure to properly look after Sam .. whose young mind is in turmoil from the things he's seen, the secrets he's keeping and the things he's imagining. Sylvan is a difficult one, not sure the reader ever gets anywhere near to understanding her but then she's a mystery to herself let alone anyone else. The heat between the couple rises and the tension builds on the page .. the reader is aware that it's all going to explode sooner or later but the writer has some surprises in store. A great page turner. I see I've given it 4/5 .. which is the same rating as some other books that I didn't enjoy half as well. This is a 4 heading out towards a 5 though and they were going the other way

Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley Amazon's Synopsis: All the qualities that readers praised in The London Train are present in Clever Girl, Tessa Hadley's brilliant new novel. It follows the story of Stella, from her childhood as the daughter of a single mother in a Bristol bedsit in the 1960s into the mysterious shallows of her middle age. The story is full of drama - violent deaths, an abrupt end to Stella's schooldays, two sons by different fathers who aren't around to see the boys grow up - but as ever it is her observation of ordinary lives, of the way men and women think and feel and relate to one another, that dazzles. Yes, you think. This is how it is. Review: I'm not sure I do think this is how it is but it's a fairly good stab at it I suppose Stella is a bit of a frustrating character, we're told she's a 'clever girl' but she doesn't exactly demonstrate it, falling into one trap after the other. As is most often the case, her problems begin when she discovers love and the opposite sex .. for a smart girl she makes some pretty rubbish decisions. Thankfully, the people she surrounds herself with are, for the most part, kind and compassionate so disastrous situations are made more bearable by their kindnesses. You couldn't call her life happy and so her story does feel like a bit of a trudge and a dreary one at that. The reader is forever waiting for her to buck up and sort herself out (though she's not in the least pathetic .. determinedly stubborn more like). All the same, I do think she was well written .. some passages in particular were brilliant. I'm not sure I liked her particularly .. I never could quite get under her skin .. but I did find her interesting and was always keen to pick the book up and see how she was faring. I particularly enjoyed her childhood days and would have happily stayed there .. there was a real authenticity to those chapters that made them stand out. She claims to be a book reader (claiming to have chosen books over men) and so, of course, I bonded with her over that but there wasn't enough about books and there was perhaps too much about men .. though could there ever be too much about men? ... well these are unsuitable men for the most part so yes 4/5

Mrs Ames by E.F. Benson Amazon's Synopsis: Reigning over a social merry-go-round of dinners and parties, Mrs Ames is the undisputed queen bee of Riseborough. That is, until vivacious new villager Mrs Evans catches the eye of both her son and her husband. Not content with captivating the men in her life, 'that wonderful creature' Mrs Evans becomes not just rival to Mrs Ames' marriage, but rival to her village throne. When the whole of Riseborough is invited to Mrs Evans' masked costume party, action must be taken. As the date looms, the irrepressible Mrs Ames resolves to seize the chance to win back her position, and thus, her man. Review: This is one of the Bloomsbury Group books and as such was written in gentler days for gentler people As the blurb states, it's all about the inhabitants of a little village called Riseborough. They're a sociable bunch but also pretty competitive and judgmental. Dinner parties are given and invites are sent out .. but there is always somebody slighted or passed over. There's a perpetual jostling of position .. in particular between Mrs Ames, Mrs Altham and Mrs Evans .. all of whom aspire to be Queen Bee. Mrs Ames hits upon the idea of asking wives to dinner without their husbands and vice versa which seems as shocking to the villagers as if they'd been asked to throw their car keys into a bowl .. however her plan to bring some excitement and innovation to the boring dinner party scene backfires somewhat when the lovely and ever youthful Mrs Evans comes to dinner without her husband and captivates both Mr Ames and his son Harry. It's not long before Mr Ames is finding excuses to call on Mrs Evans during his daily walks to and from his club. Mrs Ames is at first worried but then embarks upon a beauty regime (it seems it's nothing new for women to fall prey to the outrageous claims of the miracle skin cream advertisements etc) which she feels sure will lure him back to the fold again. He doesn't notice however (and really .. Mrs Ames is up against it because she's described here as having a face like a toad ) and so more drastic action is needed, possibly she can gain his admiration at the forthcoming masked ball. She'd better be quick about it though as Mr Ames and Mrs Evans' friendship is threatening to turn into something more. Obviously the plot is a fairly simple one, it leaves you a bit sad really that these women have really nothing better to offer life (but then I've only got cake so ) but it is often very funny so not a dreary read at all and what might be mundane ordinarily is made entertaining here by the quality of the writing. I particularly enjoyed the observations of perennial curtain twitcher, Mrs Altham, who lives for gossip and likes nothing better than to discuss the latest outrage with her husband though both pretend to be perfectly disinterested. It's not among the best of the Bloomsbury books and I imagine Benson wrote better books (the Mapp and Lucia series for a start) but very enjoyable all the same. 3/5

I am terrible when trying to read in cafes or public places etc .. I just want to yell SHUT UP!! I read the same sentence over and over. Consequently this does a brilliant job of covering the distraction .. but yes .. I'm sure there are lots of people that would find it in itself a distraction. Oh .. we're all different .. some people put baked beans in their shepherd's pie Janet Good Hope you enjoy it Alexi .. definitely something a bit different. It's brilliant Claire but it's in San Francisco .. so unfair because I want to visit it. To me .. seeing books arranged like that .. is like looking at beautiful art Yes ... they must have a system (or perhaps the staff are just super knowledgeable about spine colours ) or nobody would find a thing but then it's interesting .. perhaps people look at books they wouldn't normally .. maybe they are suddenly drawn to read a yellow book

I'm stuck in the 70's

The last time Kate was in concert. Note the mic she had specially made so that she could move and sing .. people use it all the time now and mime but back then it was an innovation.

The king of cool!

Ron was just so cool .. I can't tell you how he freaked us out back in the 70's We'd never seen anything like it.

Lucy Worsley's The History of the Home. I'm a bit obsessed by Lucy .. she fascinates me I've been catching up with all her programmes recently. Endlessly interesting and I like the way she presents.

I really liked it .. great story telling .. kept me gripped throughout

Do you know I've not read it .. I'm ashamed really as it's my Mum's favourite book I do have a copy so must get around to it soon.

Enjoying it so far Claire Looking forward to seeing where it takes me. I like her writing style too. Weirdly I am enjoying this one less as the story gets more dynamic .. but I am still liking it. Tara herself is a very likeable character .. I just wish she hadn't gone to London to be a pop star If I'm honest, the first audio I had of it was an old cassette that was read by Sir John Gielgud and it was abridged .. which made it even more difficult to make sense of what is a fairly complicated and involved story. Years later I saw the excellent TV adaptation and that made me pick up the book .. it was all plain sailing then and it's probably my favourite Dickens book now I don't usually like watching TV or film adaptations before I've read the books but with Dickens I've made an exception .. more than once .. and it helped enormously.