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Hi Athena, haven't read the book and also know nothing of Taoism....but I am thinking that with the general run of people who's brains are wired normally, repetitious movements- like controlled breathing does- might serve to switch the brain off thinking about immediate surroundings and into a different mental state. Maybe. Just guessing. Or the whole thing might be a load of mumbo jumbo you just saw straight through! Some things we do must often seem illogical to an autistic person. Thanks for the review.

Aaah yes I see!

I need to pick up the skill of doing a Frankie too I have often felt that would be really useful. I usually have to be content to pick out just one bit of a quote to reply to when I wanted to reply to other bits too.

I haven't seen him around or any of his poems ?

I agree Sadya. I was so surprised when I started doing that, I looked up a title and the whole story just came alive again in my memory. It is a pleasant thing and not a lot of trouble to take.

Good thread StormyAlanna. I never kept a record until I came here. I just use the reading blog facility on here, update it throughout the year and I print off a copy each year and put them in a folder. I have four years worth now with over 300 books on it. I only have to look at the title to remember the whole plot and the emotions it created, which is nice. I also put all my reviews for a year on a word document and print that off too. It is interesting to look back on what I thought about a book but I am very surprised how much my opinion can change with hindsight. This in turn has made me more guarded with my reviews and less gushingly enthusiastic.

BZRK 4/5 Michael Grant I bought this one second hand from Amazon (1p) for Thoughtful Daughter as she really was keen on the same author's Gone series. I dipped into it out of curiosity and was soon hooked. It is a YA book but like all the best of the genre it has a fairly grown up storyline but credible reasons why the main protagonists are teenagers. American sixteen year old Sadie Mclure, heir to a vast fortune has lost her whole family in an act of murderous sabotage. Young British boy Noah's brother has been driven mad and can only shout the word "Berserk". Their stories are of course linked and the teenagers are both quickly separately recruited against their wills into a secret society waging a clandestine war at the nano level. I liked the way Michael Grant writes, I am sure this book will appeal to teenagers and engage their imaginations without patronising them. It was a quick and enjoyable read.

Triple X with Vin Diesel. Seen it before knew it was an action no-brainer so enjoyed it on that level. The acting is fairly atrocious.

We Bought A Zoo ....just a time filler

I find tablets a lot easier to swallow than notebooks ...

To be honest it hasn't been a priority because I have so many books on my TBR. I admit I have not used my library for years I just go to the art gallery and the museum on the floors above it.

It's going to take me ages to get around to reading a new novel from an author as I have to wait until I see it in a charity shop or drops down to a reasonable price on kindle. Still haven't found A Casual Vacancy from JK Rowling yet and that came out ages ago . But good to see Ms. Waters has written something new.

Frozen (ok, not as good as Brave IMO) This Year's Love (an old favourite starrring Douglas Henshaw and Kathy Burke, Jennifer Ehles and others, set in Camden) Scream (original)

RE : The Hobbit : A friend of mine back in my twenties insisted that I must read this book, then the whole of LOTR. I read as far as the sentence which stated it was Bilbo's "Eleventy-oneth" birthday and then I threw it down in disgust as a children's book. What else could it be? I never got to read LOTR and never got further than the first film either. Just not interested in that sort of fantasy.

Set In Stone sounds very good . Yes in POBAW Emma Watson does play Sam. I had forgotten that Sam was a girl and in your review I just assumed Sam and Patrick were both chaps from the names. As I said the film didn't make a huge impression on me....

I was thinking about going to watch Noah but I've changed my mind it looks a bit rubbish......will wait to watch The Raid 2

Hi Clare, welcome...I have always been struck with the similarities between Morris dancing and the Indian Dandiya Raas (stick dance) that they do at weddings....it's good that there are people keeping country traditions alive.

Hi Alexi good reviews. I was particularly interested in your review of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower as I was forced to sit through the film with my daughter and was really bored. But you made the book sound good. Is the girl character (Emma Watson) not in the book?

It's great when you really connect with a book like this and it even helps you. Good find!

Reading The Nether World, another George Gissing but although this is good so far only a couple of the characters evoke sympathy and the remainder are horrible and their surroundings so relentlessly grim; you feel something bad is going to happen all the time and no-one will escape, even the good characters.

The Cloud Walker Edmund Cooper- A lone man constructing a forbidden flying machine in secret against the wishes of the the oppresive Luddite Church The Blue World Jack Vance - Sklar Hast in his heroic fight to kill the sea beast King Kragen, free the people of the Home Floats and win the love of Merril Rohan

I read this at least 3 years back but I can still remember it. It does stay with you. Angury, I didn't see that ending coming either so you are not alone there! I like the fact that the reader has to make his/her own mind up as to why Kevin turned out as he did. There is much real emotional meat in this novel to chew on; it is not superficial.

What did you think to it itsmeagain?

Hi June I just checked and you are right about civil partnerships- which glaringly shows that they were only ever considered second best and "not good enough" for straight couples. I am quite surprised by this.

Hi June I had completely forgot about your particular circumstances. About the civil partnerships nothing legally has changed; they can stay as they are or convert to full marriage. Straight couples have always had the right to have a civil partnership since it was invented. So now there are two ways for everybody to be legally spliced together. I got interested in the whole thing of marriage reform since I started researching Victorian times; this now is only the logical outcome of reforms that really picked up pace from the 1850s. It is quite fascinating really. Women used to be owned by their husbands lock stock and barrel; from the 1850s the idea of marriage as an equal contract for both parties started to gain ground. I wonder where marriage will go? SF writers have for a long time predicted the idea of short fixed- term contract marriages (which could be renewed if both partners wanted). I could see that coming to pass. Islam has a type of contract marriage in some countries where two people are married but they live in different houses, each has their own property rights and they see each other or not as they both see fit. That seems fairly civilised.