poppyshake

Happy Reading in 2014 Noll!

This is desperation indeed Noll I love the nutty ones .. we could've traded if mine hadn't been long gone

They don't no .. that is you can probably subscribe but he doesn't have anything like that at the moment (though there are a couple of movie channels ... but it's a mix of modern and oldies.) Often he'll find a western on in the afternoon and he'll always watch it but then say .. at the end .. that he's seen it before a million times .. he might add that it's rubbish too Drives Mum up the wall as she's not necessarily a western fan and she's probably been missing some cooking programme or the other but, to be fair, Dad can only sit and watch or listen .. Mum can do lots of things (and she does like an escape opportunity .. even if it's only to the kitchen or to the neighbours for a gossip )

Oh .. that's awful

I never forget a glimpse of Colin He wasn't in it NEARLY enough Totally ... it was ridiculously unreal. I felt the set up to the story was quite chilling .. the threat of menace around the corner and I was still chilled later but not by the ghosts .. it was the children and the governess that were creeping me out. The governess especially. I thought she would definitely turn out to be unreliable as a narrator (and I still think she was) and that the children were at risk from her .. or maybe she was from them .. but though that did .. more or less .. come to pass it wasn't satisfactorily told in the least .. or believably told. Plus it was all too ambiguous. I think I read the last few lines and just went 'what?'

I still love it and listen to it being read quite often The early chapters are perhaps my favourites .. all that stuff about picnics and messing about in boats etc (and I love the Christmassy scene back at Mole's house and Mole being lost in the Wild Wood etc.) It has got THE most wonderful toast quote in it (my favourite one ever) which of course endears it to me though is hopeless as a recommendation to anyone else I think ... out of the four main characters .. all of them bar Toad have good qualites. Toad is vain and selfish but I find him quite funny (and he's a pretty well written character ... wealthy selfish and indulged .. he goes about showing off to all and sundry and changing hobbies as quickly as he changes his very fashionable clothes .. I can think of a few celebs like that) but ultimately I think he does redeem himself. It is a bit old fashioned .. but then I also think it's timeless .. I'm happy to read practically any story in which there's a strong possibility of crumpets being toasted over an open fire I do believe I fell in love with it when Ratty and Mole started talking about the picnic .. ‘Shove that under your feet,’ he observed to the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again. ‘What’s inside it?’ asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity. ‘There’s cold chicken inside it,’ replied the Rat briefly; 'coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwidgespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater––’ ‘O stop, stop,’ cried Mole in ecstasies: ‘This is too much!’ ‘Do you really think so?’ inquired the Rat seriously ‘It’s only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I’m a mean beast and cut it very fine!’ I do remember feeling comfy cosy about it when I was a child so maybe that endears it to me more

Glad you got on with Henry's reading style Claire I couldn't but if the story had been better I probably would have (this time .. I hated everything about The Ambassadors though) .. I was enjoying it until the plot got so improbable that it started to irritate. I couldn't believe in any of the relationships ... as you say they were all formed practically overnight and were ridiculously over the top (or so it seemed to me.) The ghosts in the story were so ambiguous .. I never worked out if they were all in the governess' head or really there. To me ... it didn't work as a ghost story. Look forward to seeing how you get on with him next time

Toast

No .. it will stay on there for all time

Sort of yes and there's a definite connection between the two obviously. I don't want to say too much more as it would spoil the plot. But Gregor had very good reasons to wish to be something other than himself .. and I'm not sure that Silvia could have had any as she was a new bride. Having said that, her maiden name was Fox .. so perhaps she wanted to be a free spirit again Hope you enjoy it Kylie .. it's very quirky and also very lovely to look at Yay!! All you needed was a good book .. and some more time

True Things can only get worse.

No .. she doesn't know anything to be honest .. she doesn't always know me from my sister She thinks he's a harbinger of doom Not so much in these programmes (though she doesn't differentiate .. he's just out and out ... twirly moustache .. wide epaulettes .. evil ) but in the natural world programmes that he does .. where he's always telling us how the sun is going to suck us all up SOONER rather than later (and she says he always grins whilst saying it but I think Brian just grins all the time .. even in his sleep I bet.) I annoy her even more by suggesting he might be a relative (as I was a Cox before marriage )

Well neither they nor I can prove it does/doesn't exist.. but they are chucking more money at it. I just looked at the situation and went 'nah' Another thing that drives me .. further .. up the pole is that they answer nearly every question with 'we don't actually know' It's certainly better than most **** that passes for TV. I love looking at our own solar system ... all the planets and constellations etc .. fascinating. It's when they wander off much further than that and start talking about planets they haven't seen but have an understanding of thanks to data etc .. I just think the money could be better spent on mosquito nets Nearly everything that went before has been discredited .. and some of this stuff will probably be thought of as bunkum in 2050. Whereas .. with the Bake Off ... a cake is always going to be a cake

He does belong to some sort of library which send him audios via the post (for free .. because he's registered disabled) and sometimes he gets cowboy stories but not often. I always keep my eye out for cowboy audios .. he 'read' The Sisters Brothers last year and loved it. But he also likes a bit of Dickens and also biographies and he even enjoyed some short stories by Roald Dahl (for adults) recently so he's quite open to suggestions. He doesn't like it if it's anything chick-litty though

He always confuses me .. I'm there up to a point and then whoosh .. over my head I enjoyed watching Stargazing Live .. or at least most of the time I did .. but there was always lots I didn't understand and then I'd get irritated by their in-jokes about physics etc (they always get so childish and start giggling .. it's just like Springwatch) and get cross and start muttering about how they should be focusing on trying to sort the sh*t out in this world and stop looking for life on other planets which *shouts in a 'the Emperor's new clothes' type way* quite obviously DOES NOT EXIST!!!! My mum says Brian Cox is evil (which creases me up because he's just the sort of guy that most mothers love )

Thanks Julie As always I hope they prove to be your cup of tea I know you like reading about odd folk just as much as me Probably best avoided then Gaia. I'm not the world's best speller and I'm probably among the world's worst punctuators so it probably irritated me less than it would others (probably didn't even notice all of it .. especially the punctuation ) Having said that, her sentences do tend to run into each other (she should have used ellipses ) which can get a bit confusing. I believe Barbara says her poor spelling etc was because her mother was deaf .. not quite sure how that works (because the girls did have governesses) but that's what she believed anyway. The animal cruelty is difficult to read about but sadly it was part of their lives. The girls never set out to be cruel to insects .. often they thought they were helping them but, in hindsight, Barbara can see that it was cruel Far worse to read about is her father's attitude towards the dogs and the gardener's attitude to many of the pets especially the kittens .. and yet he cried when his greenhouse was trashed (I cannot understand how someone could be so attached to plants yet want to harm animals )

Oh wow Anna .. that's amazing. Enjoy spending your vouchers and we'll look forward to seeing what you spent them on

That's a deal (and I know what you mean ... and bless us for trying every single year to do the impossible )

It's not a cop-out at all .. who doesn't love being in a bookshop with a voucher? It's a real treat Goodness, are you thinking about Christmas already Janet? .. that is organised She is a bit of an acquired taste but hopefully you'll like her. You're most welcome to borrow this one (or Our Spoons Came from Woolworths) .. just give me a yell

Sisters By a River by Barbara Comyns Amazon's Synopsis: On the banks of the River Avon, five sisters are born. The seasons come and go, the girls take their lessons under the ash tree, and always there is the sound of water swirling through the weir. Then, unexpectedly, an air of decay descends upon the house: ivy grows unchecked over the windows, angry shouts split the summer air, the milk sours in the larder and their father takes out his gun. Tragedy strikes the family, and before long the furniture is being auctioned off and the sisters dispersed among relatives. In her daring first novel, originally published in 1947, Barbara Comyns' unique young heroine relates the vivid, funny and bittersweet story of a childhood. Review: This is a fictionalised account of Barbara's childhood. It's difficult to say how much of it was drawn from life .. I wasn't really aware that it was semi-autobiographical until I read the intro (by Barbara Trapido) which I didn't do until the end (cos they blab too much ) Barbara (Comyns) wrote it as a means of solace during difficult times and as a memoir for her children to read (Lord!! it must have terrified them ) She certainly didn't expect it to be published. Before it was, it was called The Novel Nobody Will Publish I've read and enjoyed Barbara before (Our Spoons Came from Woolworths) and so knew I was in for something quirky. What I didn't bargain for was the spelling!! At first I thought (because she was recounting very early years) that it was supposed to be a child's spelling but then it became evident it wasn't. I still wonder why the publishers didn't correct it .. it's very off putting to begin with but actually I'm glad they didn't because, after a few pages, I forgot about it and funnily enough it did help to endear this wild, odd, strange, little girl (with all her wild, odd, strange, little sisters) to me. I started off thinking it was a bit affected but ended up feeling it was really honest. I'll just put a badly spelt/punctuated toast quote in so you can see for yourself (this is Barbara talking about her Daddy going on his once monthly business visits to Birmingham) .. it's not one of the worst but it'll give you an idea. 'When he was at last ready, with his silver flask filled with brandy in case he was overcome by the journey, we all had to flock to the door to see him off, and until the carrage had disapeared from sight we had to say Good Luck, Good Luck and then go on saying more Good Lucks. Once I wouldn't say good Luck at all, just went on eating my toast and marmalaid, the grown-ups Granny in particular were horrorfied and I was smacked and locked in the bootroom, usually when I was locked up there I used to eat the galoches, but this time it was too soon after breakfast so I cried until I was sick, they had to let me out after that.' The punctuation etc is pretty slapdash too .. though I probably didn't notice that as much Daddy was a bit of a drunken beast. He and Barbara's Mammy (and Granny) would have terrible rows which often culminated in physical violence .. he was also terribly cruel to their pets (except for the spider monkey which he loved.) Mammy was deaf and a bit of a remote figure and Granny was an absolute killjoy. They seemed to constantly irritate each other to boiling point. 'I woke up and found she (Granny) wasn't in bed but walking up and down the room with her jaw all sticking out muttering to herself, she kept saying "I won't have it, I won't have it" I sat up in bed and said "what won't you have a jam tart" in my imagination I could see a criss cross raspberry one, but she said "Don't be so impertanant" so I didn't like to say anything else, but she kept marching up and down in her long white nighty and it got rather boring, I was almost asleep again, when there was a most frightful din in the room, Daddy, Mammy and Granny were all shouting and moping and mowing, then Mammy and Daddy started to push the poor old thing out of the window, Mammy got a bit frit and started to scream, but it was dreadful to see Daddy pushing and heaving away and Granny getting more and more out of the window, there were awful ghaspings and groanings going on from Granny and her flapping white nighty was all up at the back which seemed to make it worse somehow, Mammy looked quite sad, I guess she felt sorry for her when she was half in and half out like that, then she got stuck, it really was a mercy her hips were so wide and the window rather narrow...Granny did not appear till lunchtime, and everything seemed the same as usual then, her eyes were rather red maybe and she didn't talk quite as much as usual but she eat masses of chicken and it was only boiled, when Daddy said "Have a little more Nance" she handed up her plate quite happily.' There are similarities to Nancy Mitford/Evelyn Waugh/Dodie Smith and Laurie Lee but the voice that comes through here is much more childlike. The similarities mostly lie with the eccentricity of the characters and the love of the local landscape. Barbara's style is to write observations down in a very 'matter of fact' type way .. regardless of whether they're serious, funny or horrific. After a very short while you get used to it and it weaves a sort of spell on you. I do like reading about eccentric people and eccentric families in particular. It won't be for everyone though. Animal lovers in particular will have a hard time reading about the treatment Barbara's father, and their 'odious and cruel' gardener Palmer, meted out to the dogs and cats and the children were also unkind to insects. Not in an intentionally cruel way but in a children experimenting and left to their own devices type way. Barbara regretted this in hindsight. I have another of her books on the wishlist ... Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead and just from the title .. I know I'm going to love it For the longest time I was thinking 'this is a 4/5 book .. it's a really absorbing read but I'm also slightly niggled' but then, as the book wound up, I realised I was loving it and not wanting it to end. 5/5 (and thanks again to Janet for sending me a voucher to spend and thanks to me for knowing what I like )

Well it's not really .. it's rather rude but it's how I felt about them

Sounds like a very sensible plan and what's more achievable (but, all the same, good luck my love ) Have always fancied reading In Search of Lost Time .. but it's just such an undertaking ... I guess the way to do it though would be to get Swann's Way and see how one gets on with it. I saw Marcel's grave when I went to Paris .. I think I remember telling him that I would definitely look into his books one day Hope it's not long before you hear about an available flat in Lahti

I was thinking mainly of Kane and Abel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and First Among Equals (always burned into my head ... thanks to Jasper playing with it for a title ) so all from the 70's/80's as you say (and Kane and Abel got into the BBC's Big Read Top 100.) I just looked up Only Time Will Tell and the reviews look favourable so you'll definitely get the full flavour The story is set in an interesting period in time too so hopefully that will be in it's favour (I'm thinking of you Claire .. rather than Jeffrey )

I'm very sorry to hear about your Dad Samantha Don't be hard on yourself .. we all feel that way. Life is so busy that we rarely get time to think straight and it must be extra stressful with your sisters not there to share the visits etc. It's not that it was a burden it's just that it's burdensome on top of everything else you have to do. I think parents could live to be a hundred plus and it still would be too soon to lose them These last few visits with him will be sad but hopefully special too. Glad you were able to give yourself a little treat. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is a lovely book .. quite sad and very poignant .. especially given your Dad's situation but beautifully written. Hope you enjoy reading all your new books, love and hugs xx

I haven't heard of it .. is it one of his greatest hits? Good luck Claire