Hayley

208 @Little Pixie!? How fast do you get through a book? Please teach me your secret! I've now read 30, which means I'd have to read 20 books in about 50 days to reach my target of 50 books...

Thanks @frankie, that really means a lot . The new ideas are coming very soon, I'm just finalising a few things. I'm excited to tell you about it! My friend is a reader. He listens to audiobooks every day, but didn't think that counted. I'll keep trying to persuade him! He's like the BCF elf at the moment, coming in and fixing things, then disappearing before we can see him! That really made me laugh! I don't think I can change the type of ads that show, but I'll look into it.

I'm at 29, which beats my total last year, but I'd have to get reading really fast to make it to my target of 50!

You may have noticed a few small changes around the forum in the past couple of days (has anybody noticed our little book stack favicon on their internet tab?). These have mainly been carried out by a very good friend of mine, who also helped massively in getting the forum here today. He's a little shy, but we may be able to convince him to join us one day... This morning we were given permission to run advertisement on the forum, which is probably the biggest visual change to be made. I appreciate that not everybody will like to see ads on the site, but due to the costs of hosting and upgrading, I need to find ways to help the forum support itself. For the same reason, it would be very much appreciated if you could disable adblock for this site. There are a few more ideas in progress, which are a bit more exciting... but I don't want to say too much on that yet! If you have any feedback on the changes, good or bad, please use this thread to let me know.

Oh, I misread your review, I thought you were made to read The Tempest at school! Well you enjoyed Hagseed without having read The Tempest then, so I think that's a good sign that I wouldn't really need to read The Tempest first. I actually read the same two plays as you at school and I also sometimes think I should go back to Shakespeare as an adult, but there's so much more I want to read that I just never get round to it.

I love A Christmas Carol and would definitely recommend it. I'm going for a Christmas-themed book too this year with the short story collection Ghosts of Christmas Past. It caught my attention in a charity shop, mainly because Neil Gaiman is one of the authors included. I'm glad you brought up Christmas @Brian., I think that means it's officially time to open all the Christmas discussions for 2018

Wow, your reading has been going well since July! Glad you got so many 4/5's and even multiple 5/5's. I really like the sound of Hagseed but I feel like I might enjoy it more, or maybe appreciate it more, if I read The Tempest first. I also agree that Dracula is brilliant

Update: we now have a new twitter, which you can find here: https://twitter.com/BookclubF Edit: The new twitter is now @bookclubforum once again, thanks to a handle swap with Michelle, so please visit https://twitter.com/Bookclubforum for forum updates and more bookish things

It rained so much here this morning the roads were flooding! Glad I replaced my broken umbrella recently!

Aww thank you everyone for all the thanks! I'm so glad we're all back here! I've had lots of help though, so a really huge thank you to @Michelle, who put a lot of work into transferring everything that makes up the forum and, also, to @Athena, for being brilliant at explaining the technical side of things

Welcome back! I've been hearing a lot of good things about Matt Haig recently and 'The Dead Fathers Club' sounds like a really interesting place to start. Out of interest, what fiction have you read that's related to wine?

I blame you entirely for that thanks! I was so close to choosing The Graveyard Book as my next read! I went for The Devil in the Marshalsea instead because I felt bad about neglecting books I've had since last year. I love Neil Gaiman though and I'm looking forward to it even more now! @muggle not I'm so glad you thought The Girl in the Tower was even better than the first book. I loved The Bear and the Nightingale and have been putting off reading the next book partly because I don't want it to be finished and partly from fear that I wouldn't love it as much as the first! @poppy The Wind in the Willows has been on my shelf for a long time. It was actually a present from my great aunt and I should really get round to reading it, especially as it shouldn't even take that long to read. So many books, not enough time

Great reviews Madeleine. I really enjoyed The Witchfinder's Sister and completely agree that Beth Underdown is an author to look out for. I was really not expecting the ending, but I liked it! I've been looking at The Silent Companions too, but couldn't decide whether it sounded a bit predictable. I don't think I'd mind the OTT Victorian gothic too much (although it does sound like there's a LOT of typical tropes in there) but now I'm not sure about the ambiguous ending... The Travelling Bag has been on my to-read list for a while so I'm glad to see you enjoyed it. Now I wish I'd got it in time for Halloween though

Thanks @muggle not

I'm so excited to be back here!!! I'm not going to post all the reviews I've missed, but I think this would be a good time for an updated list: On My Shelf Aaronovitch, Ben. The Furthest Station Abercrombie, Joe. Best Served Cold Abercrombie, Joe. Half a King Abercrombie, Joe. Half the World Abercrombie, Joe. Red Country Adams, Douglas. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Adams, Douglas. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Adams, Douglas. Life, The Universe and Everything Adams, Douglas. So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace Ballantyne, R.M. The Coral Island Banks, Iain. The Bridge Banks, Iain M. The Algebraist Banks, Iain M. Consider Phlebas Banks Iain M. Excession Banks Iain M. Feersum Endjinn Banks Iain M. Inversions Banks, Iain M. Look to Windward Banks Iain M. Matter Banks Iain M. The Player of Games Banks Iain M. Use of Weapons Barker, Clive. Weaveworld British Myths and Legends vol. 1: Marvels and Magic. ed. Richard Barber British Myths and Legends vol. 2: Heroes and Saints. " British Myths and Legends vol 3. History and Romance. " Brontë, Anne. Agnes Grey Brontë, Anne. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Brontë, Charlotte. The Professor Brontë, Charlotte. Shirley Brontë, Charlotte. Villette Butcher, Jim. Blood Rites Butcher, Jim. Dead Beat Butcher, Jim. Death Masks Butcher, Jim. Proven Guilty Byatt, A.S. The Children's Book Carrell, J.L. The Shakespeare Curse Christie, Agatha. Murder on the Orient Express Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Cogman, Genevieve. The Invisible Library De Muriel, Oscar. Mask of Shadows Dickens, Charles. Nicholas Nickleby Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop Dickens, Charles. The Pickwick Papers Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Sign of Four Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Return of Sherlock Holmes Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Valley of Fear Doyle, Arthur Conan. His Last Bow Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes Dumas, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose Faulks, Sebastian. Birdsong Fforde, Jasper. The Well of Lost Plots Gaiman, Neil. Smoke and Mirrors Galbraith, Robert. The Silkworm Gaylin, Alison. Into the Dark Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows Grossmith, George and Weedon. The Diary of a Nobody Hardie, Titania. The Rose Labyrinth Hardinge, Francis. The Lie Tree Hardy, Thomas. Under the Greenwood Tree Harkness, Deborah. Shadow of Night Hodgson, Antonia. The Devil in the Marshalsea Hoving, Isabel. The Dream Merchant le Carre, John. A Most Wanted Man Marston, Edward. The Excursion Train Marston, Edward. The Iron Horse Marston, Edward. Murder on the Brighton Express Marston, Edward. The Railway Viaduct Miéville, China. Kraken Miéville, China. The Scar More, Thomas. Utopia Morton, Kate. The Distant Hours Mosse, Kate. Citadel Owen, Lauren. The Quick Peake, Mervyn. Titus Groan Peake, Mervyn. Gormenghast Peake, Mervyn. Titus Alone The Penguin Book of English Short Stories Ed. Christopher Dolley Pratchett, Terry. I Shall Wear Midnight Pullman, Phillip. Lyra's Oxford Ruickbie, Leo. The Impossible Zoo: An Encyclopedia of Fabulous Beasts and Mythical Monsters Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men Taylor, Jodi. A Trail Through Time Tolkien, J.R.R. Tree and Leaf, Smith of Wooton Major, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Verne, Jules. Five Weeks in a Balloon Verne, Jules. From the Earth to the Moon Verne, Jules. Round the Moon Verne, Jules. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Wells, H.G. The Time Machine Wells, H.G. The Island of Dr. Moreau Wells, H.G. The War of the Worlds Wells, H.G. The First Men in the Moon Wells, H.G. The Invisible Man Acquired in 2018: Arden, Katherine. The Bear and the Nightingale Arden, Katherine. The Girl in the Tower Brennan, Marie, A Natural History of Dragons Burton, Jessie. The Muse Clarke, Susanna, The Ladies of Grace Adieu Collins, Wilkie. No Name (library) Connolly, John. The Book of Lost Things Dickens, Charles. Christmas Stories Vol. 1 Evans, Claire. The Fourteenth Letter Gaiman, Neil, The Graveyard Book Garber, Stephanie. Caraval Ghosts of Christmas Past, Ed. Tim Martin Hill, Susan. The Woman in Black Jemisin, N.K. The Obelisk Gate Jemisin, N.K. The Stone Sky King, Stephen. Everything's Eventual Lynch, Scott, The Lies of Locke Lamora Mirless, Hope. Lud -n-the-Mist Perry, Sarah, Melmoth Price, Steven, By Gaslight Pinborough, Sarah, Mayhem Purcell, Laura. The Corset Riggs, Ransom. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Russel, Craig. Brother Grimm Setterfield, Diane. The Thirteenth Tale Taylor, Jodi, And the Rest is History Underdown, Beth. The Witchfinder's Sister Vance, Jack, The Blue World Vance, Jack, City of the Chasch Vance, Jack, The Dirdir Vance, Jack, The Dragon Masters Vance, Jack, Emphyrio Vance, Jack, The Eyes of the Overworld Vance, Jack, The Gray Prince Vance, Jack, The Green Pearl Vance, Jack, The Houses of Iszm Vance, Jack, The Languages of Pao Vance, Jack, Lyonesse Vance, Jack, Madouc Vance, Jack, The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph Vance, Jack, Rhialto the MarvellousVance, Jack, Servants of the fiddleh Vance, Jack, Showboat WorldVance, Jack, Son of the Tree Vance, Jack, To Live Forever Vance, Jack, Wyst:Alastor 1716 Zafón, Carlos Ruiz. The Prince of Mist So, I added quite a lot of books to my 'acquired' list... but I have now read, in total, 29 books so far this year. It's a long way from my target of 50, but already more than I managed last year (28). I'm reading two books at the moment, Heroes of Welsh History and The Devil in the Marshalsea, so I'm looking forward to getting back into reviewing with them!

I'm really sad that the forum is closing, there truly is nothing else quite like it. But I'm so glad I got to be part of it for so long, and meet so many lovely people. Thank you @Michelle and all the moderators who made the forum such a wonderful space to interact with other book lovers! I'd love to keep in touch with as many people as possible. I've joined the LibraryThing group as 'HayleyF' (I think it's going to take a while to get used to that site though!) and I've changed my goodreads username to HayleyBCF so that hopefully I'm easier to find on there (if you see a fluffy panda, you're in the right place!).

The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zaphon 2.5 / 5 - I liked it I feel quite mean only giving this 2.5, but I didn't enjoy as much as books I've recently given 3 to. I do think that this is technically a good book, but of all the books I've read by this author, it was my least favourite. This was the first novel Carlos Ruiz Zaphon ever had published and I think that shows in the fact that this plot seemed less adventurous, a little more generic, than any of his future books. There's a horror element at the center of the plot which does sometimes feel scary but at other times, particularly earlier in the book, the scare tactics are so obvious and generic that it takes all the scariness out of them. At the same time though there is still that brilliant, slightly magical atmosphere Zaphon captures in later books, the characters are good, individual, well-written and there's a sad but sweet message behind the plot as a whole about the second world war (although this is also maybe not as subtle as it might have been). It's a good, clever, interesting quick read. I think I just have very high expectations from this author that The Prince of Mist didn't quite live up to. But I also recently read that the fourth book in his 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' series is going to be published in English in September this year! I am very excited

Thank you I thought The Player of Games sounded good actually so I look forward to trying that one! I have quite a few reviews to catch up on again now! I'll go through them in the order they were read... No Name by Wilkie Collins 4/5 - I really liked it Having read The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Collins, this wasn't exactly what I expected. The plot is essentially based on the complete lack of legal power women were allowed in the nineteenth century (which is actually also a big part of The Woman in White). When the two sisters of the novel, Magdalen and Norah, tragically lose both of their parents, they also discover that their parents were not married at the time of their birth. They become nameless, losing their home and everything belonging to their parents. The two have very different personalities though and so, while Norah throws herself into work, Magdalen sets off on a crazy adventure to take back what rightly belongs to her and her sister. Magdalen is a really brilliant character, it's impossible not to really get behind her as she fights to overcome all of the problems that stand in her way. She apparently wasn't quite as popular in the 1860s, when Collins was criticised for the "immorality" of the novel, but I think that just makes me like her more! It's quite an intense novel, although there are some more light hearted moments and characters breaking it up, the sense of serious injustice is always present and at times quite heartbreaking. (Big spoiler relating to the end of the book) I would definitely recommend this. It's the first book I've read in a long time where I was really tempted to skip to the end to find out what would happen.

That's so cute! Maybe he wanted to read Dewey's Nine Lives Hope you enjoy your new books!

Wow, thank you! Mystery solved!

Great pictures! I would love to see a bear with her cubs! I can never take a good picture of the birds in my garden. I only have my phone and it just doesn't focus quickly enough. We have had some lovely birds in the last few days though. My favourites are the robins, blue tits and goldfinches I have a little mystery that it might be worth mentioning here, in case anybody has an idea. A couple of weeks ago I went to the Cotswolds with my boyfriend and a friend of ours. The wildlife there was amazing, we saw a whole herd of deer and a little muntjac deer, I'm not knowledgeable enough to identify all the birds we saw but there were a lot! But we were walking in a forest when my friend stopped and motioned for us to look up a tree. I just saw something dart up the other side of it as I looked but, although we stood watching for quite a while, nothing appeared again. So I asked my friend what we were looking for and he said it looked like a squirrel, but it was black and white! Specifically, he's absolutely sure it had a white section on its tail. He thought it might be some kind of escaped exotic pet, but there was an obvious squirrel nest further up that tree (which is where I assume it disappeared to) so I do think it was a squirrel. I googled black and white squirrel, on the off chance that whatever the thing was might show up and, weirdly, found a story on the mail online about a woman who had seen both a very rare white squirrel and a black squirrel in the same tree, in the Cotswolds! It could be unrelated, but it seemed an odd coincidence. I also wondered if it could be a varied stage of albino. I know this can happen in birds because I remembered seeing a display of blackbirds with varying levels of albinism in the natural history museum on a school trip, some only had patches of white feathers but were otherwise black. So, does anybody have any suggestions on what the 'black and white squirrel' was?

I love the cover of 'A Hiss Before Dying' very cute. These are great, I would love to have room for that many books! They all seem to have incredibly high ceilings though.

There's a book that came out recently called 'Circe' by Madeline Miller. It's the story of Circe, daughter of the sun god Helios, from Greek mythology and it's had very good reviews (although I haven't read it yet personally). The hardback is also very pretty and would make a nice gift (I noticed the other day there are even some signed ones on the Waterstones website). I recently read 'The Bear and the Nightingale' by Katherine Arden which was brilliant. It's heavily based on Russian myth and fairy tale (although probably more fairy tale). Here's a short synopsis: 'Frost-demons have no interest in mortal girls wed to mortal men. In the stories, they only come for the wild maiden. In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church. But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods...' And Neil Gaiman's 'Norse Mythology' is a fairly recent one that's had very good reviews. I'm sure she'll really appreciate the effort to find her the perfect book anyway. Good luck!

thank you! They do all have really pretty covers don't they!? That's why I wanted to take a picture of them that way, rather than just a stack Thanks! The plot sounds like something I would like so I have high hopes! They had quite a lot of Vance books in but the others were all science fiction and I wasn't sure whether some of them were part of a series or not so didn't want to risk it. I'll have to keep a look out for the third Lyonesse. A really quick review of Consider Phlebas, before I forget: Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks 3/5 - I liked it This is the first 'space opera' I've read and, to be honest, I expected there to be a lot more actual space exploration. I was looking forward to descriptions of vastly different worlds and species but it's just not like that. There are a few different places in the book but with the exception of two they're either only briefly mentioned or you only get to see the inside of a building. I do realise it's unfair to judge a book based on what I assumed it would be like, but I would have enjoyed more world exploration. The exploration that did happen didn't feel quite as exciting as I think it should have either. There were scenes that, looking back at the book, were really action packed and should have been very tense, but I just didn't feel like that when I was reading it. Generally though, the characters were interesting and it's easy to get involved with the main character, Horza. The best part of the book actually, in my opinion, was the very clever way Banks gets you to see both people and politics from both sides of the story. Horza is strongly opposed to the group known as the Culture, mostly on the grounds that they've set out to "improve" other races and are heavily involved in the creation and use of artificial intelligence (arguably creating a situation where evolution ends and individual cultures are stamped out). He therefore sides with the Idirans, a race essentially built for war and the only group who seem to able to challenge the Culture. That's the basic background of the book (which you learn in the first few pages, so no spoilers) but gradually throughout the book, while you mostly see things from Horza's perspective, which is very one sided, there are moments that make you question whether there is a 'right' and a 'wrong' side and also the extent to which people can be 'good' or 'bad', or are just doing what they think is best. It's quite a brutal book, emotionally, but it's in that clever, subtle use of science fiction to look at human emotions and choices, both personal and political, that you can see why people rave about Banks as a particularly special author. Since I finished the book I have seen a few reviews that say this is the worst book of the Culture novels and, if that's the case, I really look forward to reading the next one because there's a lot to like here.

Thanks for the link @Little Pixie, it does sound like she's focused on other things now. I suppose there's some chance there might be a third Kate Stanley book in the future still, after the current project is finished maybe. The end of The Shakespeare Curse... And yeah, that is true, a hardback book for £1 is great anyway! It really was so lucky! I didn't even know there were books in there! We've had the loveliest weather in the Midlands for the last couple of days, so yesterday I drove my mom and sister to Astley book farm, which has a really nice café with a garden to sit in (and, you know, books). As well as enjoying the sunshine in the garden, with tea and strawberry tarts, we did inevitably find a few books to take home too. Lyonesse was a book @vodkafan recommended a while ago but it seems to only be available second hand online (which is usually fine but it's always nicer to be able to see the condition of the book for yourself) or in quite expensive special editions, so I was really pleased to spot that as well as the second book (although I think there is a third book too). The others are all books I've looked at before and wanted to try so I was very happy with my new haul! And it made me feel a lot less guilty about my six books when my sister bought ten