Athena Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 I saw this on Facebook today and for some reason it made me think of you! Haha! My word, you do manage to find the loveliest looking books, Kay! I agree! Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 I keep meaning to take them up on the trial .. my sister has it (Prime) and says it's well worth it. It's well worth it for a free trial - I refuse to pay them £79 a year for it, though. Yeah, I'd get access to tv shows I'd quite like to see, but I'm already paying Sky enough for that sort of thing So I'll stick with Super Saver unless I get another free trial What!?! You should put that right straight away Can't do that, sounds unhealthy Quote
poppyshake Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 Thanks Amazon! NOT!!! My Wednesday is officially ruined Quote
Athena Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 Aaaaarrgrrghhhh that is so annoying, I am so sorry for you !! Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 Good grief What will you do? Get your money back and order it elsewhere? Quote
Kylie Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 Oh my goodness...twice?! That's terrible! I think you'll have to do what Karsa suggested. Maybe a smaller shop will be able to personally order it in for you. You poor thing. Quote
poppyshake Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 Aaaaarrgrrghhhh that is so annoying, I am so sorry for you !! Thanks Good grief What will you do? Get your money back and order it elsewhere? Yes .. they are sending a courier to pick this one up. I'm going to have difficulty I fear I know that Waterstone's have the wrong cover too. Oh my goodness...twice?! That's terrible! I think you'll have to do what Karsa suggested. Maybe a smaller shop will be able to personally order it in for you. You poor thing. I think I'll have to go down the eBay route .. at least then I can ask the seller whether it IS the right cover. The only trouble with that is .. what sort of condition will the book be in? Their idea of excellent and mine doesn't always tally Quote
Nollaig Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 That's so frustrating! Hope you can get a *decent* copy of the cover that you actually want! Quote
chesilbeach Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 No, no, no, no, no!!!! That's ridiculous. I'll have to keep an eye out for all the old covers now whenever I'm out … the last time I looked for the books was in Waterstone's in Oxford last year, and they still had the old covers then. Quote
poppyshake Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 That's so frustrating! Hope you can get a *decent* copy of the cover that you actually want! Thanks Noll No, no, no, no, no!!!! That's ridiculous. I'll have to keep an eye out for all the old covers now whenever I'm out … the last time I looked for the books was in Waterstone's in Oxford last year, and they still had the old covers then. Thanks Claire xx They did have one in Waterstone's .. not sure which one it was now .. I think it was The Diamond Chariot which was way down the list (No. 11 I think) but I might go back and get it. This is going to give me an ulcer .. it's worse than anything Jasper Fforde inflicted Quote
frankie Posted March 5, 2015 Posted March 5, 2015 I know you do xx. I do of course read far too many books without even a hint of toast. All of them though .. without question .. would be improved by some toast. Mr Darcy SHOULD have eaten some and a lot of unpleasantness could doubtless have been avoided if Dracula had had a fondness for it. Mr Darcy and Mrs Bennet and lady Catherine de Bourgh and oh the Bingley sisters and... It's a long list One needs to order a truck load of toast! What a name for a song! Peachy books are quite rare .. or the sort I like are. Pink is the same .. lots of light and fluffy reads that are pink .. nothing wrong with that but it's not my thing. They're a bit shrieky too .. they usually have bold writing and foil blocking and whatnot .. far too loud for my bookcase. That gave me an idea... When you finally listen to all the reasonable people around you and write the books you were meant to write, maybe you could choose pink and/or peachy covers for them But not in a shrieky way. Make them very cool and approachable. You can turn it around for pink! The stories about the work men in your place were horrid. And to imagine that the one bloke didn't even wash his hands (and we can't be sure all the others did!!). Puke! Men are hopeless Received some lovely parcels this week from frankie and opened them today on Friendship/Valentine's day .. which was very fitting. Anyway .. hoorah! .. they contained books! Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie and This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper! You are very welcome! I do hope you shall like them But won't hold it against you if you don't =D Also hubby left me some suspiciously book shaped parcels to open this morning. Not all of them were books however, there were also some Jane Austen postcards and a card game called Marrying Mr Darcy which I will have to play with Alan until I can get one of you lovely people to come and play it with me instead. I think the gist of it is that you acquire accomplishments etc .. (I already have one .. extensive reading) and you become so accomplished and desirable that you eventually are able to nab Mr Darcy .. if you win that is. Possibly the loser gets Mr Wickham .. I'm not sure. Alan always wins at all card/board games so I have no doubt that he will get to marry Mr Darcy more times than me. My book prezzies were .. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped In An Ikea Wardrobe by Romain Puertolas, The Restoration of Otto Laird by Nigel Packer (phew .. it was for me then ) and My Dear Bessie: A Love Story in Letters Edited by Simon Garfield. I love the sound of the card game! We shall have to play it of course when I visit! And tell Alan to keep his mits off Darcy, he's yours! Haha, glad to hear TRoOL was for you. We can all breathe easily again now Coincidentally I saw a copy of the book at the library yesterday and thought of you. I wasn't going to borrow it, but then I read the first few sentences and had to get it. Fair Exchange by Michèle Roberts Okay okay, I guess I have to add it to my wishlist Fandorin is a great character, I really like the fact that he's learning as he goes along so is not wordly wise as it were but he is pretty quick at thinking on his feet and pretty smart. Be interesting to see how he develops. I agree. Not the typical master detective, is he. Makes a nice change. Quote
frankie Posted March 5, 2015 Posted March 5, 2015 (edited) What a great review of The Psychopath Test! Of all the books you wouldn't expect to see a pic of toast in this would be near the top of the list but you'd be wrong .. there is one. I hurriedly looked at the list again to make sure that excessive consumption/obsession of/with toast is not on it .. thankfully it's not. I feel pretty sure that people who, when doing book reviews, try and match their title colours to the book covers SHOULD be on the list .. but they're not .. yet Haha Unfortunately I know that if there are any dogs in the book, they'll have had a sad ending at the hands of a psychopath So I'm not going to be looking forward to coming across dogs in this book!! I grew up within the sound of the 10am Monday morning Broadmoor test siren and can still remember the fear and panic that ensued when it went off at other times .. I was escorted home from school on one occasion but as I was a latchkey kid I had to wait until my parents returned which was not until dark .. and obviously all the time .. in my head .. there was a psychopath waiting in the back garden. I can't imagine having lived close to such a place! I'm pretty sure you kids heard all sorts of rumors about the place. Do you think the parents would sometimes say if they kids didn't behave that 'shut it or the crazies from Broadmoor will come and get you'? I did say at the start of this blog that I was only going to write short reviews and I wasn't going to ramble any more. Item 4: Pathological lying. Item 10: Poor behavioral controls. Item 13: Lack of realistic long term goals Ahahaha You crack me up, you! The Broadmoor Siren is still sounded at 10am every Monday, thankfully in the 14 years we've been living here I've not heard it at any other time! How scary to have been on your own for so long when it happened to you. I've always thought that the clever time to break out of Broadmoor would be 10am on a Monday...... I don't think I knew you lived near the place! Very happy to hear you haven't come across with any 'incidents' involving the place.. And yes, that would be a clever time to break out... I wonder if some have realized it and their escapes have just not been announced to the public They had a couple of very alarming break outs at the beginning of the eighties .. both within a month of each other and one of them (a double murderer) wasn't recaptured for years and years Holy sh*t! Did he behave well on his 'holidays'? (Who was it, are there articles relating to the subject on the internet?) Re: your Birthday pressie (book) haul etc: the wrapping paper Claire wrapped your presents in is adorable And haha, I just knew The Norfolk Mystery book was from her What lovely presents! I have won them Claire. 1974 copies with all the violence left in. They should be winging their way to me soon. For a moment I thought there were 1974 books to the series Edited March 5, 2015 by frankie Quote
frankie Posted March 5, 2015 Posted March 5, 2015 Are you talking to it now?! :lol: That was too funny! Luckily I hadn't yet fetched my cup of coffee, would've ruined the laptop with all the liquidy snorting! I cannot multi-task! With apologies to the jar .. this is its next pick .. The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester Very happy about this .. I only got it last week Well done jar! Oooh what a beautiful book cover. Are you sure you mixed the paper bits thoroughly and didn't just left the title of this one on the top when you added it into the jar?! So sorry to hear about your recurring troubles with the Fandoring novel!! I can only imagine your frustration! Sodding Amazon...... FFS!!! It's only their business, getting the customer the copy they ordered Quote
poppyshake Posted March 5, 2015 Author Posted March 5, 2015 Mr Darcy and Mrs Bennet and lady Catherine de Bourgh and oh the Bingley sisters and... It's a long list. One needs to order a truck load of toast! Could Madame Bov have been improved by toast? .... nah That gave me an idea... When you finally listen to all the reasonable people around you and write the books you were meant to write, maybe you could choose pink and/or peachy covers for them. But not in a shrieky way. Make them very cool and approachable. You can turn it around for pink! That is what I would do .. however, I do wish that Susanna Clarke or Donna Tartt would turn it around for pink instead. I don't think .. however great the cover .. that my book would do pink any favours. The stories about the work men in your place were horrid. And to imagine that the one bloke didn't even wash his hands (and we can't be sure all the others did!!). Puke! Men are hopeless. I know .. a bucket in the outside shed is too good for them I love the sound of the card game! We shall have to play it of course when I visit! And tell Alan to keep his mits off Darcy, he's yours! I stand no chance .. he's determined. The trouble is .. we haven't found enough time yet to begin again, you really need to devote almost a day to it (perhaps because we're playing with just two .. though you do divide the pack in that case so probably not) .. when we've got the hang of it I expect we'll be quicker. It'd be great to play it with you but then perhaps unfair as I'll know all the tricks. It'll be like playing Triv with all those people who own the game and know the questions inside out .. it's almost indecent how fast they fill up their little cheese (is it cheese? .. or is it cake? .. or pie?) container. Slightly related: Alan was reading a bit of The First Term at Malory Towers today (wanting to know what it was all about) and he almost fell on the floor laughing when Darrell was told not to take the card game Snap to the san .. as it was too exciting Haha, glad to hear TRoOL was for you. We can all breathe easily again now. Coincidentally I saw a copy of the book at the library yesterday and thought of you. I wasn't going to borrow it, but then I read the first few sentences and had to get it. It looks as if it'll be good so hope you enjoy it Okay okay, I guess I have to add it to my wishlist. Yay! mission accomplished! I agree. Not the typical master detective, is he. Makes a nice change. I'm going to have to turn detective to get hold of Akunin's books Quote
poppyshake Posted March 5, 2015 Author Posted March 5, 2015 What a great review of The Psychopath Test! Haha Unfortunately I know that if there are any dogs in the book, they'll have had a sad ending at the hands of a psychopath So I'm not going to be looking forward to coming across dogs in this book!! Thankfully nothing upsetting happens to any dogs in the book .. not that I can remember anyway so I hope I'm right in saying that. Apparently though, psychopaths prefer dogs to cats!! Jon also found out that dogs yawn when they're anxious. I didn't know this .. is that right? Holy sh*t! Did he behave well on his 'holidays'? (Who was it, are there articles relating to the subject on the internet?) No .. he went to live in Holland and killed someone else. When they eventually caught up with him he went back to Broadmoor for five months but was released as he wasn't deemed a threat to society http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/9/newsid_2528000/2528595.stm Re: your Birthday pressie (book) haul etc: the wrapping paper Claire wrapped your presents in is adorable. And haha, I just knew The Norfolk Mystery book was from her. What lovely presents! Aren't I lucky? For a moment I thought there were 1974 books to the series I've just read it back .. God I'm an idiot Quote
poppyshake Posted March 5, 2015 Author Posted March 5, 2015 Oooh what a beautiful book cover. Are you sure you mixed the paper bits thoroughly and didn't just left the title of this one on the top when you added it into the jar?! :D I'm absolutely sure .. I gave it a thorough mix this time. I actually held it sideways and did a sort of tombola shuffle So sorry to hear about your recurring troubles with the Fandoring novel!! I can only imagine your frustration! Sodding Amazon...... FFS!!! It's only their business, getting the customer the copy they ordered I know so annoying. So many booksellers use a stock photo and not a photo of the actual book they're selling but I've never experienced it at Amazon before. I need to take some Felix Felicis and then go looking Quote
poppyshake Posted March 5, 2015 Author Posted March 5, 2015 Cat Out of Hell by Lynne TrussSynopsis: For people who both love and hate cats comes the tale of Alec Charlesworth, a librarian who finds himself suddenly alone: he’s lost his job, his beloved wife has just died. Overcome by grief, he searches for clues about her disappearance in a file of interviews between a man called "Wiggy" and a cat, Roger. Who speaks to him. It takes a while for Alec to realize he’s not gone mad from grief, that the cat is actually speaking to Wiggy . . . and that much of what we fear about cats is true. They do think they’re smarter than humans, for one thing. And, well, it seems they are! What’s more, they do have nine lives. Or at least this one does – Roger’s older than Methuselah, and his unblinking stare comes from the fact that he’s seen it all. And he’s got a tale to tell, a tale of shocking local history and dark forces that may link not only the death of Alec’s wife, but also several other local deaths. But will the cat help Alec, or is he one of the dark forces?Review: I didn't know Lynne Truss wrote novels .. I thought she was just the punctuation lady and as such I've always given her a wide berth It's best not to know the full extent of how bad things are This is one of those stories where, if you're a bit of a scaredy cat, you wonder if you'll get to a point where you can't read on. It's so sinister and it builds but then it's also very funny and I'm happy to say that it stayed within my comfort zone .. just The thing is .. it's additionally creepy if you own a cat and are sometimes alone in your house with that cat. My cat .. the entirely lovable and not at all sinister Molly .. has a habit of yowling at night these days. Sometimes she makes a quite unearthly noise. This is not the book to be reading when that happens .. I found that out I did actually pick up a bit of Enid instead on one particularly howling wind, yowling cat, night .. just to break the spell. I also had a stack of Disney DVD's waiting permanently in readiness. What I didn't want Molly to do was .. start talking to me in the voice of Vincent Price This is a preposterous thought of course but this book made me think it could happen Despite all of this I absolutely raced through it .. it is so very readable. Macabre .. definitely but fascinating, witty and intriguing. Fans of horror probably won't find anything to frighten them .. I must admit to having a fairly low fright threshold but most people will feel unsettled at the very least. Unless they have nerves of steel. Cat owners will feel slightly unnerved As soon as I'd read it I gave it to Alan to read as I knew he would love it too. Thanks goes again to Claire for the loan Loved it! Quote
poppyshake Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 Lovely, lovely, lovely, book parcel today Quite good condition, in original slipcase and all for 99p plus postage Take that Amazon .. you ... !! Have just realised, this is going to add six books to mount TBR Oh bother! I will read them pretty quickly but I'm not getting the numbers down Oh well .. I flicked through one of them and straight away came across an illustration of a midnight feast .. woohoo! Quote
poppyshake Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 No good news on The Turkish Gambit Everyone I've asked has got the wrong cover .. even though it's showing the right one Quote
frankie Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 (edited) Could Madame Bov have been improved by toast? .... nah Nope Didn't have to think long! That is what I would do .. however, I do wish that Susanna Clarke or Donna Tartt would turn it around for pink instead. I don't think .. however great the cover .. that my book would do pink any favours. Poppycock! Your book would do all covers all sorts of wonders!! I know .. a bucket in the outside shed is too good for them Just find a hole in the woods and place a sturdy stick on top of it and make them sit on it. I stand no chance .. he's determined. He's determined to win over Mr Darcy? The trouble is .. we haven't found enough time yet to begin again, you really need to devote almost a day to it (perhaps because we're playing with just two .. though you do divide the pack in that case so probably not) .. when we've got the hang of it I expect we'll be quicker. It'd be great to play it with you but then perhaps unfair as I'll know all the tricks. It'll be like playing Triv with all those people who own the game and know the questions inside out .. it's almost indecent how fast they fill up their little cheese (is it cheese? .. or is it cake? .. or pie?) container. Ah, didn't realize it takes so long. And I'm kind of sad to know that with you two I will never have a shot at Darcy Maybe I will not want to play. Maybe we'll play Finnish Scrabble instead Do you mean the Triv containers? Hm... I don't think I've ever really thought about what it might be called. This is going to bug me Might have to buy cake, pie and cheese to resolve the mystery! Edited March 6, 2015 by frankie Quote
frankie Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 (edited) Slightly related: Alan was reading a bit of The First Term at Malory Towers today (wanting to know what it was all about) and he almost fell on the floor laughing when Darrell was told not to take the card game Snap to the san .. as it was too exciting Poor thing, he seems to be falling over a lot of times these days what with laughing so much at things... Thankfully nothing upsetting happens to any dogs in the book .. not that I can remember anyway so I hope I'm right in saying that. Apparently though, psychopaths prefer dogs to cats!! Jon also found out that dogs yawn when they're anxious. I didn't know this .. is that right? I'm very thankful to know no dogs were harmed in the book! But I do hate it that psychopaths prefer dogs to cats If that's okay to say... Obviously, in an ideal world, they'd only resort to harming themselves. And yes, I've heard that dogs yawn when anxious. I would never have realized it had I not heard about it on TV. I think it's rather curious! No .. he went to live in Holland and killed someone else. When they eventually caught up with him he went back to Broadmoor for five months but was released as he wasn't deemed a threat to society http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/9/newsid_2528000/2528595.stm Holy hell Thanks for the link, I'll take a look! :D I'm absolutely sure .. I gave it a thorough mix this time. I actually held it sideways and did a sort of tombola shuffle They'll hire you at the bingo soon! Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss Wonderful review of the book! I've seen it at the library, and like you, I hadn't known Lynne Truss writes novels, and I picked the book up to see what it was about and I was going to take it to the correct non-fiction section, but alas, it was a novel and in its right place! I wasn't interested in the novel before (I do like cats but you know I prefer dogs, personally) but your review has changed my mind! Lovely, lovely, lovely, book parcel today Quite good condition, in original slipcase and all for 99p plus postage Take that Amazon .. you ... Have just realised, this is going to add six books to mount TBR Oh bother! I will read them pretty quickly but I'm not getting the numbers down Oh well .. I flicked through one of them and straight away came across an illustration of a midnight feast .. woohoo! Ooooh, what a great haul! I love the covers And haha, it's well promising to see an illustration of a midnight feast even before you've started reading the book! Hurrah! No good news on The Turkish Gambit Everyone I've asked has got the wrong cover .. even though it's showing the right one That's just rotten luck!!! I took a look at a few Finnish and Nordic sites just in case they would have copies, but nope Edited March 6, 2015 by frankie Quote
Kylie Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 What a bargain for books in such great condition! Yay you! Great review of Cat Out of Hell. I have almost everything Lynne Truss has written, except of course this one, which means it'll be added to my wishlist! Quote
chesilbeach Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 Glad you and Alan enjoyed Cat Out Of Hell, and now everyone else has seen your review, I'm sure there'll be lots more readers of it too! You make it sound much better than I did Quote
poppyshake Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 Glad you and Alan enjoyed Cat Out Of Hell, and now everyone else has seen your review, I'm sure there'll be lots more readers of it too! You make it sound much better than I did Not true at all Claire!! Though I hope lots of people read it .. it's a great book You got so many more people interested in The Dynamite Room than I managed .. you made me want to read it and I'd only just finished it Quote
chesilbeach Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 We'll call it even then! I see my role as the facilitator … I give you the book to read, you write the great review, people buy the book from your review … everybody wins! Quote
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