Hayley

Well now I really want to try a snowball, that's not what I was expecting at all! I like condensed milk (although I've only had it with plain biscuits) and I can't imagine what it would be like with syrup and ice! What kind of flavours are popular? Stick of rock is not really as exciting It's basically a long stick of sugar (I think they boil the sugar, so it's hard like a lolly) and it has multicoloured stripes twisted round it. It's traditionally minty but they do loads of different flavours now as well as different colour stripes and sometimes words printed through the centre. They sell them at seaside places which is why they make me think of summer

What are snowballs? We call the mix of advocaat and lemonade a snowball but we have it at Christmas so I'm guessing yours is different! People running to get out the barbecue at the first sign of summer is sort of the running joke here so I guess we like that quite a lot As far as traditional summer meals go I can only really think of strawberries and cream and maybe a 'ploughmans' lunch which is basically a cold lunch of things like salad, cold meat, cheese, pickle and bread. There's usually apple too. Maybe fish and chips sitting on a seaside wall as well. I have to wait for holidays for that though since I don't live anywhere near the sea! Do other countries have stick of rock or is that a UK thing?

I'm really glad you reviewed The Butterfly Garden, I saw it on goodreads and thought the concept looked really interesting but wondered if it was executed well since the reviews were quite mixed! It is a shame though, it was an interesting idea. Is The Lie Tree one of the books you're waiting to review? I don't think I've missed it here have I? Because I'm torn on whether to read that one too

9 ! And they're so cute! Like little balls of fluff with beaks Are you planning to keep them all or will you sell some when they get bigger?

Thanks Chrissy, I just had a look at How the Marquis Got his Coat Back and it's only £1.99 too! I will definitely be getting that I thought Trigger Warning was brilliant so I hope you enjoy it when you do get round to it!

Thank you I think you would like it. I would say it's one of his best that I've read Yeah, I loved The Ocean at the End of the Lane! I've read Stardust, American Gods, Trigger Warning and Good Omens too. Stardust was probably my favourite out of those but they're all good books

Thanks Athena Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - Pure Imagination with Incredible Writing I had really high expectations for this book and it exceeded them. It's so uniquely imaginative and yet so believable. The real world and the fantastical merge seamlessly. Like Trigger Warning, it's a book that feels like an adventure, there's something new to discover on every page and these discoveries are both frightening and beautiful. I love the concept of a fantastical world full of the people who've 'fallen through the cracks'. I loved all the unique characters, all with wonderfully memorable personalities. The only thing I didn't love was finishing it because I just wanted it to keep going! Apparently Neil Gaiman has said in interviews that he would write a sequel to this book so I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed! I'm really not sure what to read next now. I might just close my eyes and pick at random

Aww! How exciting! Can't wait to see the pictures when they start coming out on their own

Ooh I will have a look, thank you

I know I'm a bit late with this but The Erl-King was the story I didn't completely get either... The Tiger Bride was probably my favourite, I really liked the ending I was completely traumatised by the film version of Kestrel for a Knave (I think it might be called Kes) as a child and I'm guessing from your review that not much changes in the book so I am definitely not reading that! I really liked The Scarlet Letter though so I'll be interested to see what you think of that when you get round to it

It definitely would be an interesting subject for a novel! Unfortunately, I don't know of any. I would also be interested to know if there is one though! Have you seen the way they used to use double exposure techniques to make it look as though there was a ghost in the photograph? I think that would make an interesting subject for a novel too.

Ubbe is so cute!! I've never heard of schapendoes but now I want one We've had really warm weather here for the last couple of days and Oscar isn't impressed. We've had his fur cut short for the summer but he's spending most of his time sprawled out across the kitchen tiles where its cool. My sister went on holiday with her dog recently and found a sea-side ice cream shop that sold dog ice cream, I think he needs some of that!

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher - Gritty and Gripping And when I say gripping, I literally read it until past 2am yesterday, even though it was absolutely my intention to put it down and go to sleep at about 11.30. I liked this better than the first book, for a start. With the first book I felt like I knew exactly what was going to happen at the end very early on and there were no real surprises, but there were a lot of things that kept me guessing in this case. I also felt like it did a really good job of integrating the magical world into the normal criminal world this time. It had the feeling, as a whole, of building up to something more, which is exciting because I know other people have said this series really gets good after the third book. It wasn't perfect. I think there were a couple of things that didn't make absolute sense. They didn't harm the plot, I'm just still not sure why they were there even now that I've finished it. (These really are big spoilers to the plot so don't read it if you haven't read the book!) Overall though I enjoyed reading it, it had great suspense and it made me look forward to getting the next one

I'm in London - I think - things got complicated - (Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman) (is it just me or does this make you want to read everybody else's books? )

It does sound good! Also off to look at it

Well, mystery sort of solved, it seems there is no official release date. Ben Aaronovitch tweeted a Hanging Tree announcement saying 'release date currently in flux - it's totally my fault and I will give a definite date as soon as I have one.'

I definitely want to read the sequel. I don't think it really needed a sequel but if it's as good as the first book I'm not complaining! Thank you I'm a bit behind now, I finished reading The Woman in White a few days ago but just haven't had time to post yet! I sent a big chunk of my work off this morning though so I can actually do some none-work related writing at last. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Multi-layered Mystery It was actually really hard to think of a short description to do this book justice. I went with the thing I liked most about the book and that was the depth of the mystery. There are so many secrets to be revealed throughout the book but it remains so intense and focused. It's so well crafted that everything just intertwines in a really intriguing way. This is helped by the fact that, like The Moonstone by Collins (which I also loved), the story is partly told through the diaries and accounts of different people who all experience the story in a different way. If I had one small criticism it would be that there was a fairly small section near the beginning where it felt a bit slow but it more than makes up for that when it picks up again. It was literally one of those books I couldn't put down, I sat up until 2 in the morning reading it because I just had to find out what happened next. There's also so much more to this book than just the mystery. It actually deals quite a lot with gender inequality at the time and I really think one of the characters, Marian Halcombe, is the best example of female strength and independence I've ever read in a Victorian novel. As well as this though, and without giving anything away, there are also themes of mental illness, questions of social class ... I want to say more but some of the things don't appear until later and I don't want to give anyone a clue to the mystery. I would definitely recommend it, particularly if you like a good mystery! I think I'm going to start reading Fool Moon now, the second 'Dresden Files' book. I enjoyed the first one but there were a few things that I did have reservations about so I'm interested to see whether I'll like this one more

I chose to update mine early to Windows 10, I didn't realise it would just do it automatically anyway, that does seem wrong! I didn't have any problems with mine opening multiple folders or dragging and dropping though - I'm fairly sure all that stayed the same for me. The only thing I did work out is that the new default internet browser, microsoft edge, doesn't work properly with quite a few things (including this website!) but I just installed google chrome and used that instead. Maybe you could contact windows support and see if something is making yours act weird?

I love finding interesting old books! This definitely was an intriguing find and so nice that it belonged to your Grandmother! I don't know anything about the book or author but I think the writing on the left of the date you said you can't read says 'Ex Libris' (meaning the person the book belonged to) and the name looks like 'Hoslop' to me. I don't know if you already know this as well but the 3/6 in pencil on the front cover suggests it was sold, at some point, for 'three and six' - which I think was three and a half shillings. Which I know because, funnily enough, I have a book with exactly the same number in (much more recent than yours though, from 1836) and my mom (who remembers the old currency) told me that's what it was! Good luck finding more information

Does anyone know if the release date for The Hanging Tree has changed? I'm sure amazon used to have a date in June but it now says August for the hardback, so does WHSmith's website and Waterstones' website just says 'coming soon.'

I haven't really had time to play with this yet but the concept looks really good I'm on there as HhayleyFly I just worked out how to add you Kylie

Will be interested to see what you think of The Bloody Chamber, I've definitely never read anything else quite like it! (Also you were right about Fly By Night, it's a beautiful book ) I've started The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, which is really good so far, but I'm starting to wish I picked something a bit shorter since I'm so behind on the reading I wanted to do this month! There should be an extra hour in the day just for reading

I've seen Body Work a few times recently but I don't think I've ever read a graphic novel either, I don't particularly like reading in that format so I don't know whether to try it. I do really want more story though, I can't wait for The Hanging Tree!

Thank you, I really enjoyed all of them so I hope you do too when you get to them! I actually finished Fly by Night a few days ago but just haven't had time to review it yet (or to start a new book, which is terrible!) Fly By Night by Francis Hardinge - An Orwellian Fairy Tale The first thing I thought when I started reading this book is it's just so pretty! The writing often gives the scenes a very fairy tale feel. For example, this was a bit I liked: 'There was no escaping the sound of water. It had many voices. The clearest sounded like someone shaking glass beads in a sieve. The waterfall spray beat the leaves with a noise like paper children applauding. From the ravines rose a sound like the chuckle of granite throated goblins.' There are other parts, and characters, just as nicely written in a fairy tale style but I really don't want to give anything away because this book also has a very gripping mystery at its heart. I thought when I started this book that it was about a world in which books were banned but it's actually a lot more complicated than that. What it's really about is censorship and freedom, as well as government control and the impact of fear and lack of education, which is why I decided to give this book the summary title of an Orwellian fairy tale. These subjects aren't brushed over either, they're dealt with in quite a complex way, but never a way that's complicated to read. That might come from the fact that, although written in the third person, Hardinge constantly points to the main character's view of the action around her and this character (Mosca) is only twelve years old. If I had one criticism (and this is something I now know a few people picked up on) it's that there are some parts near the end when things are explained in a very obvious way. And those parts sort of jolt you away from the subtlety of the message in the rest of the book. I do understand that, as a young adult novel, the author has to be aware that a younger audience might feel the need for an overarching explanation when so many themes have been dealt with and it doesn't spoil the book by any means, it's just a picky thing. Every other thing about the book would have worked perfectly as an adult novel in my opinion (but then, I often don't really get how they're categorised anyway!). I would absolutely recommend other people to try this book. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it and the mystery had me (literally) accidentally losing about two hours of time I was meant to be working because I couldn't put it down. I'm thinking of either reading The Woman in White or Fool Moon (the second Dresden Files book, which I found in a charity shop a few days ago... not doing very well at not buying books ) next.

Exciting news about new books and adaptations - and a nice article too http://www.thebookseller.com/news/pratchett-memorial-327142