poppyshake Posted March 21, 2012 Author Posted March 21, 2012 .. but even so you must still love me Quote
Janet Posted March 22, 2012 Posted March 22, 2012 (edited) Gosh! Well, it's on my 'to read' Kindle list (it was a freebie) so I haven't clicked the spoilers! I'm tempted to do so to find out what you dislike so much, but then it's on the 1001 Books Challenge, so... Anyway, we could never hate you, so you're okay! ETA: Not that I'm ever going to manage all 1001+ books! Edited March 22, 2012 by Janet Quote
julie Posted March 22, 2012 Posted March 22, 2012 Poppy Sorry you had such a dislike to Frankenstein,but your review was PRICELESS. You are such a HOOT . Quote
poppyshake Posted March 22, 2012 Author Posted March 22, 2012 Gosh! Well, it's on my 'to read' Kindle list (it was a freebie) so I haven't clicked the spoilers! I'm tempted to do so to find out what you dislike so much, but then it's on the 1001 Books Challenge, so... It's an important book to read and for that reason I'm glad I've read it. Most people love it so there's no reason to suppose you won't too Anyway, we could never hate you, so you're okay! Thank you Janet but what Steve, Ben and Kylie are going to say I don't know DON'T READ IT GUYS!! ETA: Not that I'm ever going to manage all 1001+ books! Oh me either .. but it's an encouragement isn't it? .. something to aim for .. and I'm more likely to reach it than my ideal weight so who knows Poppy Sorry you had such a dislike to Frankenstein,but your review was PRICELESS. You are such a HOOT . :giggle2: Thanks Julie I was hyperventilating at one point could you tell? Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted March 22, 2012 Posted March 22, 2012 Anyway, we could never hate you, so you're okay! Speak for yerself! Quote
poppyshake Posted March 22, 2012 Author Posted March 22, 2012 Speak for yerself! Awwww and I didn't complain when you dissed Dracula .. I bet Dracula could take Frankenstein's Monster in a fight anyday .. cos he's a shape shifter innit .. the Monster would be doing his usual running away thing but Dracula would fly rings around him .. and then bite him mwah ha ha! Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted March 22, 2012 Posted March 22, 2012 (edited) Awwww and I didn't complain when you dissed Dracula .. To be fair, I didn't say it was because of your review of Frankenstein I bet Dracula could take Frankenstein's Monster in a fight anyday .. cos he's a shape shifter innit .. the Monster would be doing his usual running away thing but Dracula would fly rings around him .. and then bite him mwah ha ha! Yeah, see, cos Dracula cheats, changes shape, uses hypnosis and stuff. He's the lowest of the low, whereas the Monster didn't ask for any of this, he's a tragic character born of man's folly. Or sumfink like that. Actually, I don't think either would win, as this video proves Edited March 22, 2012 by Karsa Orlong Quote
Kylie Posted March 22, 2012 Posted March 22, 2012 It's too late, I read it. You would have enjoyed it so much more if you had just suspended your disbelief! Quote
Chrissy Posted March 22, 2012 Posted March 22, 2012 Wolf Man! Wolf Man! Wolf Man! The big question is Could Wolf Man have survived the flood, whilst making sure that the bat is good and drowned? Quote
poppyshake Posted March 22, 2012 Author Posted March 22, 2012 To be fair, I didn't say it was because of your review of Frankenstein Awww I forgive you .. but I'm not ready to share buns again just yet Yeah, see, cos Dracula cheats, changes shape, uses hypnosis and stuff. He's the lowest of the low, whereas the Monster didn't ask for any of this, he's a tragic character born of man's folly. Or sumfink like that. He's supernatural ... and Frankenstein's monster is not super or natural. He was a tragic character but not in the way you're meaning He ought to have got himself some counselling .. people have to put up with far worse and anyway he wasted his talents ... he could've been an Egghead .. although he doesn't really have a face for TV .. still that hasn't stopped Ann Widdecombe Actually, I don't think either would win, as this video proves Lol love it!! It's more hammy than a bacon sarnie What was the budget for this? .. I've spent more on make-up mind you I have to, would frighten people much more than those three otherwise (and I'm saying it first cos there are some nasty boys here who pull pigtails and stuff ) Quote
poppyshake Posted March 22, 2012 Author Posted March 22, 2012 It's too late, I read it. You would have enjoyed it so much more if you had just suspended your disbelief! I'm sorry Kylie but you know how it is (How I Live Now ) once disbelief crept in I couldn't get rid of it and I saw flaws everywhere. He shouldn't have read Paradise Lost .. it was all over for me then ... but to be fair if he had progressed as far as Second Form at Malory Towers I would still have been incredulous Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted March 23, 2012 Posted March 23, 2012 Wolf Man! Wolf Man! Wolf Man! The big question is Could Wolf Man have survived the flood, whilst making sure that the bat is good and drowned? Hmmmm <<ponders>> If Dracula is the undead, does he need to breathe, so would he drown at all? Quote
Chrissy Posted March 23, 2012 Posted March 23, 2012 But is he as undead in his batty form? Are any of us? Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted March 23, 2012 Posted March 23, 2012 But is he as undead in his batty form? I'm going with "yes!" ... Quote
pickle Posted March 23, 2012 Posted March 23, 2012 (edited) I'm going with "yes!" ... love it, I got called Nora Batty all my childhood with a sirname like Batt its inevitable and open to so many jokes. doesn't this raise the age old question of how to kill a vampire, personally I am going down the beheading and fire, none of this stake through the heart (they don't breathe the don't pump blood how is this going to work????) as for the religious iconography how is an atheist vampire going to care? Edited March 23, 2012 by pickle Quote
poppyshake Posted March 23, 2012 Author Posted March 23, 2012 Had a great time today with lovely Janet and her lovely husband Peter and my lovely husband Alan I was in heaven talking books with Janet and Alan was in heaven talking music with Peter such a lovely sunny day too .. what a pleasure Quote
poppyshake Posted March 23, 2012 Author Posted March 23, 2012 Girl Meets Boy - Ali Smith Waterstones Synopsis: 'Girl Meets Boy' - It's a story as old as time. But what happens when an old story meets a brand new set of circumstances? Ali Smith's re-mix of Ovid's most joyful metamorphosis is a story about the kind of fluidity that can't be bottled and sold.I t is about girls and boys, girls and girls, love and transformation, a story of puns and doubles, reversals and revelations. Funny and fresh, poetic and political, 'Girl Meets Boy' is a myth of metamorphosis for the modern world. Review: This is a rare book. When I began it I wasn't sure if it was my sort of thing but Ali Smith's writing is just wonderful, it sort of weaves it's way into your sub-consciousness and by the end I was hanging on her every word and re-reading bits for pure pleasure. She really does get under the skin of life, love and relationships. It's a modern retelling of the ancient myth of Iphis or a re-exploration of it anyway ... From Wiki: According to Greek mythology and the Roman poet Ovid, who wrote about transformations in his Metamorphoses, Iphis .. or Iphys .. was the daughter of Telethusa and Lictus. Lictus has already threatened to kill his pregnant wife's child if it isn't a boy. Telethusa despairs, but is visited in the middle of the night by the Egyptian goddess Isis, attended by Anubis and Apis, who assures her that all will be well. When Telethusa gives birth to Iphis, she conceals her daughter's sex from her husband and raises her daughter as a boy. Iphis falls in love with another girl, Ianthe. Iphis is deeply in love and prays to Juno to allow her to marry her beloved. When nothing happens, her mother Telethusa brings her to the temple of Isis and prays to the goddess to help her daughter. Isis responds by transforming Iphis into a man. The male Iphis marries Ianthe and the two live happily .. and heterosexually .. ever after. Ali's version takes us to Inverness Scotland where we meet two sisters, Anthea and Imogen (Midge) who live in a house left to them by their rather eccentric grandparents who sailed away to see the world one day and never returned. The chapters flit back and forth between them. Anthea is unconventional, a bit of a risk taker and a dreamer ... '... like that poem I knew, about how you sit and read your way through a book then close the book and put it on the shelf, and maybe, life being so short, you'll die before you ever open that book again and it's pages, the single pages, shut in the book on the shelf, will maybe never see the light of day again, which is why I had to leave the shop, because the man who owned it was looking at me oddly, because I was doing the thing I find myself doing in all bookshops because of that maddening poem - taking a book off the shelf and fanning it open so that each page sees some light ...,' Midge is more serious, more anxious and more ambitious. She manages to pull some strings and secure a job for Anthea as part of the Creative team at 'Pure' a bottled water company where she works but Anthea is unsuited to it and miserable until the day she spies Robin .. dressed in a kilt .. up a ladder spray painting graffiti on the 'Pure' sign .. it's quite literally love at first sight ... 'she was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen'. Midge is outraged and embarrassed 'Oh my God my sister is A GAY ... my little sister is going to grow up into a dissatisfied older predatory totally dried-up abnormal woman like Judi Dench in the film Notes on a Scandal .. Judi Dench plays that sort of person so well, is what I thought when I saw it, but that was when I didn't think my sister was going to maybe be one of them and have such a terrible life with no real love in it.' Whilst the love story is key it's not the main focus .. central to the plot is the developing relationship between the two sisters. It's witty and poetical .. quite stream of consciousness at times, dreamy, clever, inventive, uplifting and very, very romantic. It's one of the Canongate series on myths and legends .. other authors include Jeanette Winterson, AS Byatt and Margaret Atwood .. I might take a look at some of those but I definitely want to read more from Ali Smith. Thanks Claire for recommending it 9/10 Quote
chesilbeach Posted March 24, 2012 Posted March 24, 2012 Great review, and I'm so pleased you enjoyed it I've read the Margaret Atwood book, The Penelopiad, and thought it was very good too. I've only read a few of the series, but there are some more of them on my wishlist. It's fascinating how the different authors each have a different take on their way of re-telling the myths. Quote
Janet Posted March 27, 2012 Posted March 27, 2012 Had a great time today with lovely Janet and her lovely husband Peter and my lovely husband Alan I was in heaven talking books with Janet and Alan was in heaven talking music with Peter such a lovely sunny day too .. what a pleasure Aww, I missed this post! As I said in your Shakedown thread, we had a great time too! We went to Laurie Lee's church after we left you (photos to follow in my thread at some stage) and then Tewkesbury, which we weren't very impressed with, and finally Evesham which we loved. Our hotel on Friday night was amazing! Coventry was great on Saturday too - lots of exploring (and loads of photos!) and then Saturday night we stumbled upon a pub with a band playing covers of heavy rock - they were great! Quote
vodkafan Posted March 27, 2012 Posted March 27, 2012 If you were in Coventry Janet you were only 10 miles away from me! But I was at work saturday anyway.....did you look at the Motor museum? That is pretty good Quote
poppyshake Posted March 27, 2012 Author Posted March 27, 2012 Look forward to seeing the pics Janet I haven't been to Coventry for ages .. since I was about 13 and I went with a friend to stay at her Auntie's ... all the local kids thought we spoke proper funny Quote
vodkafan Posted March 28, 2012 Posted March 28, 2012 all the local kids thought we spoke proper funny No doubt you did! Quote
poppyshake Posted March 28, 2012 Author Posted March 28, 2012 No doubt you did! I thought it was a bit rich actually .. we practically needed a translator to understand them. They had us down as cockneys ... which was funny to us because we were from Berkshire (Bracknell to be precise) but then I was born in Chiswick and spent the first nine years of my life in the suburbs so I guess dropping my aitches came naturally and Bracknell was full of families like ours who were encouraged to move from London and settle in the new towns with the promise of jobs and houses .. the prevailing accent was a London one .. even Alan has a London accent and he was born in Reading and his Dad has a proper Berkshire accent. However maybe I have picked up some of the Berkshire burr because a lady I met in Hay-on-Wye last year said she detected a bit of a 'home counties' accent ... the look on her face told me that .. if I had any sense .. I would get rid of it quick sharp Quote
vodkafan Posted March 28, 2012 Posted March 28, 2012 Hi Poppy similar story ...I was born in Romford and we moved to Daventry when I was 7.... That was one of the new "Expanding towns" created in the 60's..it was filled up with all the overflow from London and Birmingham and (for some reason) quite a few Scots. I grew up speaking such a mish mash of accents that my parents and teachers used to despair, nobody could understand half of what I said. The "original" Daventry people had their own accent too. Later on when I moved to Rugby I came in contact with lots of Punjabi Indians (and married one of course) and picked up bits of that accent too. Quote
Janet Posted March 28, 2012 Posted March 28, 2012 If you were in Coventry Janet you were only 10 miles away from me! But I was at work saturday anyway.....did you look at the Motor museum? That is pretty good We certainly did visit it - very impressed we were too (apart from the weird smell in one section!). We had a cracking night out in Coventry on Saturday too! Coventry is not somewhere I've got the urge to rush back to now I've been once, but it's very up-and-coming and parts of it look really smart. A lot of it looks very shabby, but I think that's getting a make-over too. I really enjoyed the things we did there. We went primarily to visit the old and new cathedrals - I even braved the tower of the old cathedral but it was horrible! What does my accent sound like to you, Kay? Quote
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