bobblybear

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Most of it was interesting, but some chapters didn't grab me as much as others. I hope your mojo comes back soon.....I lost mine for a little while earlier in the year, and it's not nice. It's a strange feeling to not want to read.

I've just topped my dinner off with Rum & Raisin ice cream for dessert, with strawberries on top. Frankie, "grill paws" sounds strange! Is it animal or vegetable?

I think it was a Reading Circle book.....it was on this forum that I first heard of it. I hope you enjoy it when you get around to reading it. It's not a long book - about 280 pages, and such a good story.

The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M Auel This one was another re-read for me (I must have been in the mood for them). I've lost track of how many times I have read it, but it was a fair number of years since my last read. Set during prehistoric times when Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons were living side by side, Ayla is a young girl who loses her tribe during an earthquake. After being mauled by a cave lion, she collapses with exhaustion. A tribe of Neanderthals (the Clan as they call themselves) on the search for a new home come across her and their medicine woman, Iza persuades the chief of the clan to let her save Ayla. Over the next few years, she is raised as one of their own, but still seen by most as an outsider, and hated by some of the Clan. The book covers her life from when she is 6 to about 18. The book is the first of the Earth's Children series, and one of it's best (The Valley of Horses comes a close second). It's a pretty hefty book, and very detailed – obviously well researched. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much this time around, but that is purely because I have read it so many times and virtually remembered everything in it. However, to review it as though I had read it for the first time, I can't find fault with it. It's so in depth about the lives of prehistoric people. Whether it's realistic or not is another matter, but it all seemed fairly credible to me. 6/6

I've just had sausages, mash and peas.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell Iris gets a phone call one day from a psychiatric institution. They have been housing her great aunt for the last 60 years and is about to release her. Not knowing anything about this person, she decides to pay her a visit to find out more details. She is taken aback by how 'normal' Esme is, and rather than putting her in a retirement home decides to let her stay in her home. No-one in Iris' family seems keen to remember Esme or speak of her, so she sets out to find what could possibly have sent this woman away for so many years. Esme's story is told from her early childhood on, where even then it was clear she was unconventional and highly spirited. The book covers multiple viewpoints all woven together from the past and the present, with Iris, Esme and Esme's sister Kitty all giving their narrative. This was a re-read for me. I had remembered sections of the book but forgotten the story as a whole. I loved it as much (maybe more) the second time around and the ending took my breath away. I don't know how I'd managed to forget that ending, but somehow I did. It's not a long book (just under 300 pages) and it's an easy to read story, but the content is pretty heavy going. It was the first Maggie O'Farrell book I read, and since then I have read all of her books and usually buy her new ones upon release. All of her books are remarkable but this one still remains a favourite, both for the entirety of the story but also the shocking ending. Highly recommended. 6/6

The Denial of Death sounds interesting. I've added it to my wishlist.

I've started The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. It's had mixed reviews but I am enjoying it so far.

I loved the ending of The Dark Tower series; I thought it was the perfect way for it to 'finish'. A lot of King's books have weak endings (in my opinion, of course!) but I think with The Dark Tower he got it spot on.

I forgot about this series! I really enjoyed the first book, so will keep an eye out for the sequel coming down in price. I'm about 60% through Last Man In Tower. Good so far....maybe not as good as The White Tiger, but still pretty decent. After this, I'm going to start The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.

I loved A Casual Vacancy. It was so much better than I was expecting. I finished How The Mind Works by Steven Pinker yesterday. Such interesting reading, however even after reading all 500 odd pages I don't think I could sum it up in more than a couple of vague sentences. I'm now reading Last Man In Tower by Aravind Ariga. I liked The White Tiger by him so I have high hopes for this one and so far it's pretty good.

I loved The Blind Assassin. I've read it a couple of times, and will probably read it again at some point. It's one of my favourite Atwood's.

I have Outlander on my Kindle waiting to be read. I've heard so many good things about it, but I'm not sure it's my kind of story. Still, I figure I'll give it a go at some point.

Something extremely plain, like rice. We've both had some kind of gastro bug, so need something bland.

Decaf tea.

I hope you are enjoying it. I read a fiction book alongside it as well, which was quite easy to do as each chapter is about something different, so it's easy to leave time in between reads.

Nice reviews. I wasn't that keen on Bird Box, mainly because

Thanks Pontalba. Still reading loads, but struggling to write reviews!

Oh dear, definitely not!

I watched Revolutionary Road last night. Thought it was a very good adaptation of the book. It was fairly depressing though.

Thanks for posting the series, Gaia. I think it's only the first series you've listed that I have, though I may have some of the short story prequels. I have so many of her books that I can't keep track.

I bought loads from the monthly deals this morning....a really great selection.

I'm still reading How The Mind Works by Steven Pinker. I think I'll be reading it for a while as it's a very lengthy book with loads of information. I bought quite a few Kindle books this morning, from the daily and monthly deals. Here's what I got: Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman Total Recall - Arnold Schwarzenegger Superforecasting: The Art of Science and Prediction - Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardener The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair - Joel Dicker Here I Am - Jonathan Safran Foer The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It - Owen Jones Breakfast Is A Dangerous Meal - Terence Kealey A History of the World - Andrew Marr House of Cards - Michael Dobbs (never watched the series but it's on my Netflix list) Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and The Age of Amazon - Brad Stone Who Rules The World: Reframings - Noam Chomsky The Lost City of Z - David Grann

I've gone back to How The Mind Works by Steven Pinker, which I started earlier this year (or maybe last year?) but put aside for some lighter reads.

Ancestor Stones - Aminatta Forna I've had this book lingering on my Kindle since 2011 so thought it was high time I gave it a go. I can't remember why I bought it, as it doesn't seem like my kind of book...and as it turned out, it wasn't really my kind of book. In London, Abie receives a letter from a lawyer, telling her that a coffee plantation in Africa which belonged to her relatives is now hers. She travels to Africa to see this plantation and realising she knows very little of her ancestors, decides to trace her family line back. She does this by focusing on the lives of four of her aunts. These aunts are all daughters of one man, but from different mothers. Each woman is very different from her sisters with a unique story to tell. Unfortunately for me, none of them managed to hold my interest throughout. I found it to be a very patchy read....perhaps some of that is my fault by reading the book out of obligation rather than desire. I only found a few sections of the book interesting and most of it took a real effort to keep reading. It wasn't poorly written and I can't say there was any fault with it; it just wasn't a story that interested me. 2/6