chaliepud

Will do Sofia

No, but I've put it on my Amazon wish list, it doesn't get as good reviews as Therapy but I think I'll definitely give it a try at some point.. I've started I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak, I'm not expecting it to be as good as The Book Thief (is that possible?) but I'm hoping it will be at least a 4/5...

5. Call The Midwife - Jennifer Worth Amazon synopsis - Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction. Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained. Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer's stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s. This is a wonderful book, it was so interesting to read about how midwifery began and how it was evolving through the 1950's. I have to admit there were a few crossed legs moments when the detail got a little too much and reminded me of some not so pleasant moments in my own life, and there were even more moments where I thanked my lucky stars I had my children in the 90's/00's!

4. Me Before You - Jojo Moyes Amazon synopsis - Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time. This book gets 214/250 five star reviews on Amazon, the rest are mainly 4 star. I bought it on the strength of the reviews, half expecting it to be just another chick lit. I was so so wrong, this was a fabulous read, Lou is a magnificent character, she is sweet, insecure and funny, independent, caring and full of life.. I don't want to give away any of the story but she ends up spending a lot of time with Will, trying to inject some of her lust for life into him, in sometimes funny, sometimes sad ways. Me Before you will make you laugh, cry and just feel so many emotions, I'm so glad I gave it a chance. 4.5/5

Ostentatious

3. Witch Child - Celia Rees Amazon synopsis - She was locked in the keep for more than a week. First they walked her up and down, up and down between them, for a day and a night until she could no longer hobble, her feet all bloody and swollen. She would not confess. So they set about to prove she was a witch... Mary's grandmother is executed for witchcraft, and Mary is forced to leave her home to avoid the same fate. At first she flees to the English countryside, but when the atmosphere of superstition and suspicion becomes all consuming she leaves on a boat for America in the hope that she can start over and forget her past. But during the journey, she realises that the past is not so easy to escape. Witch Child is a complex, absorbing novel, told in the form of pages from a journal found loosely sewn into an old quilt many years later. From the moment the story begins, the tension is tangible, and the reader is drawn into a world of mistrust and uncertainty that shakes to the core. All this is cleverly conveyed through the eyes of Mary, whose first sense of wide-eyed wonder gradually develops a mature understanding of her situation, drawing the reader in to a dark and dangerous world where the tiniest slip could mean death. I did enjoy this, but I felt it lacked depth, perhaps due to it being a YA read, though I don't normally find YA novels to be overly simplistic. I was disappointed that the book didn't spend a huge amount of team focussing on the fact that Mary was a witch, it was more about her being an outsider to the group and the witchy side of things was only touched on. That said, I'm pleased I read it as it was nicely written and I'm sure my daughter will read it in a couple of years. 3/5

2. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern Amazon synopsis - In 1886, a mysterious travelling circus becomes an international sensation. Open only at night, constructed entirely in black and white, Le Cirque des Rêves delights all who wander its circular paths and warm themselves at its bonfire. Although there are acrobats, fortune-tellers and contortionists, the Circus of Dreams is no conventional spectacle. Some tents contain clouds, some ice. The circus seems almost to cast a spell over its aficionados, who call themselves the rêveurs - the dreamers. At the heart of the story is the tangled relationship between two young magicians, Celia, the enchanter's daughter, and Marco, the sorcerer's apprentice. At the behest of their shadowy masters, they find themselves locked in a deadly contest, forced to test the very limits of the imagination, and of their love... It took me a loooong while to get into this book, in fact it took two attempts over a month apart. It definitely didn't grab me from the start, or even from the middle for that matter! I felt it waffled a lot and took far too long to get to the interesting part of the story. That said, the last 100 pages were fantastic and I couldn't put it down as I was so eager to see what happened to the circus, to Marco and Celia and especially to the twins Poppet and Widget, who I fell in love with the moment they were introduced to the story. 4/5

Cream

1. The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories - Angela Carter Amazon synopsis - From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories. Although I'm not a fan of short stories - to me they never seem to have enough substantiality to make a decent story and they are always over before they have really started - I was hoping I may find Angela Carter's book different as she is a writer that tells such a descriptive story (I loved The Magic Toyshop), I thought maybe she could pack more story into a shorter package... but, for me, sadly not. Though her vocabulary and therefore her descriptions are wonderful I felt that was all there was to them. In The Magic Toyshop, the descriptions came second to the story, in The Bloody Chamber I felt the story came second to the descriptions. I do have Nights at the Circus on my TBR shelf but I'm not sure I'll be in awful hurry to read it now. 1/5

Oh dear, I bought this at the charity shop this week, is there any hope that I'll have a different opinion of the book to my jif buddy?.........

Tip

Well, that's my 10th book of the year finished which sets me well on target to achieve 50 books read this year. I have a post on the first page that lists the books read so far this year but I really must write down a few thoughts on them before I totally forget what they were about! Life just seems to keep getting in the way!

I read The Night Circus in two separate attempts and as I said before I only really enjoyed the last 100 or so pages. I agree with Karsa, life is too short to read something you're not enjoying, you may need to jump start your mojo before you try it again!

Started and finished Therapy by Sebastian Fitzek in 24 hours, very unusual for me as I don't normally ignore jobs that need doing but hey ho it was gripping and I wanted to find out how it ended! I actually had figured some of the answers by the end but I still enjoyed it very much and it certainly had enough twists and turns to keep me interested. :-))

Pistachio

Robot

Hi hush_hush, and welcome to BCF! What type of book are you writing?

To be fair the mouse was still alive though a little dazed... I bet that never happened to Stuart Little, he'll have lots of stories to tell his grandmice!

I've now finished A Land of Decoration by Grace McLeen. This was a beautiful book in my opinion, written from the perspective if a 10 year old girl brought up in a strictly religious way, who is bullied by her peers yet finds solace in building a miniature world in her bedroom, The Land of Decoration... I think this could be a book that stays with me for a while, in turns it was sad, haunting, positive, frightening...a very simple book but one I would highly recommend.

The Forgotten Garden was a lovely read, as was The House at Riverton, though I have to say I found The Distant Hours disappointing, it could easily have been 200 pages shorter..

Mmmmm, I had bananas, chopped nuts and green and blacks vanilla ice cream.. My daughter had nutella and hundreds and thousands, I had a nibble, it was surprisingly lovely!

Distracted and disturbed in equal measures usually! Thanks frankie, it can be hard, especially on days like today when the car mechanic failed to turn up to collect my car, my (nearly new) Magimix blew when I was trying to make pancakes, the cat brought in a mouse which then Obi swallowed whole, then promptly threw it up again.... still alive But on a normal day we rub along just fine, the kids are generally great and have matured a lot since Steve went away, and my fur babies are always up for a cuddle.. well maybe not Candyfloss, she can be a very unsociable kitty..

Princes of the Universe - Queen.

Oops too late, ours have all gone, broke my Magimix too!!! :-(( They look lovely Inver, where are the toppings? :-)

VF, that looks like an Cattle Dog and a big ball, they make mega ball and frisbee dogs, in fact anything that involves jumping, catching etc... Obi loves to play with footballs, though my boys aren't always so happy about that! You don't want to be between Obi and something he is chasing, they can be very obsessive but uckily I can generally stop Obi with one command as an out of control Cattle Dog is no ones idea of fun. Sadly Obi was born with elbow dysplasia and needed a major operation at 6 months old to correct it, this has left him with osteoarthritis which has meant we have had to limit his activities, no agility or flyball for him. We were told we would be lucky for him to reach 8 years old but with medical advances and good care he is still doing amazingly well and loves his walks, so fingers crossed may that be the case for a few more years yet. The oldest dog in the Guiness Book of Records was a Cattle Dog called Bluey who reached 29 (I think) , so who knows!!