Excuse my absence

Sorry guys, but it looks like I might have to take a few days away from the computer.

Unfortunately our satellite TV has gone completely kaput and the only way anyone can watch any television is by using my computer to play BBC and ITV Player. So until the satellite is fixed, my computer has been taken over and I cannot get any internet time.

I am hoping that it will be fixed tomorrow, but not sure at the moment. I hope to catch up with you all soon.

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at You Should Be Reading and you can find it here. MizB does a fantastic job with this meme every week, so do pop over and pay her a visit.

Firstly before I start, I want to wish all my American friends, a happy Thanksgiving. As you know, we don't celebrate it over here, so I forgot all about it yesterday, so my apologies. I hope you are all enjoying your four day weekend and have scheduled in plenty of reading time.

1) The House of Lost Souls by F.G. Cottam

This book attracted me because it was described on Amazon as 'a brilliant and chilling novel . . . will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page.'

Here is the blurb from Fantastic Fiction.
The Fischer House was the scene of a vicious crime in the 1920s - a crime which still resonates as the century turns. At its heart was a beautiful, enigmatic woman called Pandora Gibson-Hoare, a photographer of genius whose only legacy is a handful of photographs and the clues to a mystery. Paul Seaton was lured to the house ten years ago and escaped, a damaged man. Now three students will die unless he dares to go back. But this time he has Nick Mason at his side, and maybe Mason's military skills and visceral courage will be enough.

2) Cover the Mirrors by Fay L. Booth
I fell for the charms of this book, because it is set in the Victorian period and has that Gothic feel I just love.

Here is the blurb from Amazon.
It is 1856 and Spiritualism is at the height of its popularity. Molly Pinner has left behind her childhood in the Preston slums and inherited her late aunt Florrie’s mantle as Preston’s most successful medium. It soon becomes clear that her aunt was something far more cunning than a magnet for the spirits of the dead, but Molly puts aside her qualms and takes well to her new trade.
Molly’s relationship with her oldest friend, Jenny, is jeopardized when she begins a passionate affair with local businessman William Hamilton. Before she knows it, Molly finds herself married to a man she cannot love, and pregnant with a child she does not want. In desperation, she makes a decision that will cast her relationship with William in a completely new light.
Trapped and traumatized, and longing to regain her friendship with Jenny, Molly is about to receive a blow that will turn her life upside down. It seems Aunt Florrie lied about more than just her ability to commune with the dead: a truth hidden for years is about to emerge, and it will threaten not only Molly’s livelihood, but her very life.
Cover The Mirrors is a dark and zesty historical novel of distorted truths and suppressed Victorian desires.

3) Beastly by Alex Finn

This book is described as a must for fairy tale fans. It has taken the fantastic old story of Beauty and the Beast and brought it into the present.

Here is the blurb from Amazon.
I am a beast.
A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright—a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.
You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll stay this way forever—ruined—unless I can break the spell.
Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly . . . beastly.

Doesn't it sound fabulous.

So there are my fabulous finds this week. I shall have to wait until after Christmas to attempt to buy them, as I am now on a book ban until January. What books did you find this week?

Dress Circle by Laurie Graham

Pages 218

Published by Black Swan in 1998

I was lucky enough to be lent this book by my friend Fiona. She had loved it and thought I would enjoy it. I love to read books that have been recommended by others and this one was no exception.

Bob and Barbara are the main characters of the book. They are a couple in their mature years and enjoying the rewards of their business. They are surrounded by a loving family, grandchildren and friends. Everything seems positively rosy as they prepare for their daughter's wedding.

However Bob is not as settled as Barbara thought he was and Barbara starts to worry what he is keeping from her. What is his secret?

Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert.

Bob has a big secret, he likes to dress in women's clothing. He has lived with this secret all his life and he can no longer live a lie. He wants to be able to wear women's clothes out in public. All hell breaks lose within the family. Barbara struggles to cope with living with Bob dressed as a woman. His children freeze him out and his friends are not sure what which to turn.

This book deals with some life changing events, yet all the characters work hard to pull through these situations and they definitely see the brighter side of life. In fact, whilst reading I felt myself humming, Monty Python's ' Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life'. This book makes you realise that you can overcome the worst things that happen in life and eventually you will move on.

Bob's cross dressing is dealt with very well, the mixed reactions from his family are completely believable. Bob's son actually punches his dad and accuses him of being a paedophile. I would imagine that this could be a common misconception for cross dressers and I find that really sad. Unfortunately society in general, finds this a difficult choice to understand and it is seen as being socially unacceptable. Bob takes the criticism well as he just wants to live his life without lies. You can only hope that eventually his son overcomes his animosity.

I loved this book. It was sad, yet so funny as well . The characters were full of hilarious eccentricities. I felt like I knew them all. They came across as characters from a very English show I used to love to watch called 'Keeping Up Appearances', which had a comical character called Hyacinth Bouquet in. The characters in the book have typically Essex traits and being a former Essex girl, I felt like I had stepped back in time to my Essex roots. I grew up surrounded by families like this, where everyone had to have the latest technology, the latest designer clothes and so forth.

This book is British humour at its best. If you enjoy watching typical British comedies such as Only Fools and Horses and The Office, you will love this. I read it in one sitting as I just couldn't put it down. I would advise that you don't read it in public places, as you end up looking really daft when you either get a fit of the giggles or tears of sadness.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brook

Pages - 310

Published by Harper Collins in 2002

Challenges - Fall Into Reading and A to Z Title.

This book revolves around the year of 1666, when the plague had reached a quiet little town in Derbyshire called Eyam. As the plague begins to take root within Eyam, the villagers make a difficult and extraordinary decision. The whole village decides to isolate itself completely from the rest of the world, keeping the plague contained within.

The story of their year in quarantine is told through the eyes of Anna , an eighteen year old girl already widowed and left with two children. The saying, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger', could have been written purely for Anna. What this young girl experiences in one year would finish the strongest person off. Anna endures watching both her own children die of the plague, as well as witnessing her family die and her close friends. Anna emerges at the end of the book with a strong will to survive and make something of her life and her self imposed exile abroad to a new life, would probably never have occurred if she had not suffered as she did. At the beginning of the book, Anna is very wary of the healing women within the town and a little afraid, yet by the end of the book she has taken on their role and has become someone to be relied on by the families who are suffering.

The characters in this book are really well written. They all stand out in my memory. Anys, the herbal women who is later accused of being a witch, really stood out. She was expected to help all the sick people, yet when they died, she was accused of cursing them and bringing on the plague. Mr Monpellion, the town's priest appeared to be a wonderful character to begin with. With the help of his wife Elinor and Anna, they attended to every person within the town who were suffering with the plague. They went from bed to bed, without taking rest for themselves. Yet by the end, Mr Monpellion revealed his true colours and they way he treated his wife was appalling. All the characters in the book show that they are not perfect and they show their failings through the book, which gives you a different opinion of their characters.

The female characters in the book are very strong and I felt that this would be an ideal read for the Women Unbound challenge. Within the book, the women take charge, during a time when it would have been frowned upon. The men often appear weak and don't help the women at all. In one scene, Anna and Elinor, go down a mine to help a young girl bring out a dish of lead, so that she can keep the mine. This is not a job for women, yet no man in the town will help them, so both women work with great effort and manage to save the mine for the girl.

This book appears to be a very detailed account of how the plague affected the country. Brooks writes beautiful prose, that shows the atmosphere of a town suffering. You get a real feel as to how the people suffered and how quickly the plague spread. The way in which each family were slowly worn down by the constant loss and suffering is constantly shown.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely, even though it was such a horrific subject to read about. I feel that I have come away from more knowledgeable about what happened during the years of the plague. Definitely a read I would recommend.

Sharp North by Patrick Cave

Pages - 421.

Published in 2004 by Simon & Schuster.

Challenges - Fall Into Reading.

This book had been on my TBR list for ages, after I chose it as one of my Friday Finds at the beginning of the year. I was lucky enough to find it in the library in the YA section and picked it up quick. It is quite a big and bulky book, so it did take me a little while to actually read it.

The story revolves around a teenage girl called Mira, who lives a quiet and secluded life in a remote Scottish village. She is happy with her life until she witnesses a stranger running through the woods, who is shot and killed. The body is quickly removed and all that is left of her is a crumpled piece of paper. On this crumbled piece of paper, Mira discovers a list of names, which includes her own name as well as the name of her good friend Gil, who is apparently her 'watcher'. Mira is shocked by what she finds and becomes very suspicious of the whole village. Filled with lots of questions, Mira embarks on a dangerous journey to find out the truth.

The first fifty pages of this book were really a drag. The story got off to such a slow start that I really toyed with the idea of abandoning the book. Then the story took a different turn and I was completely hooked. The description for the book really doesn't give any indication of what the book is really about. It is only as I got past the first fifty pages, that I realised what the book was really about.

The reality of this book lies within human cloning and the future destruction of Earth as we know it, due to global warming. You begin to realise that the book is set in the future, but there is no indication beforehand. It was like reading a prophecy of the future, that is completely possible if we continue with the route that science and global warming is presently taking.

The book became fast paced as the story progressed and I became completely gripped in Mira's quest for the truth. When she discovered the truth, I was more gobsmacked than Mira's character appeared to be. I was completely shocked by the twists and turns that occurred in this book.

I loved Mira. She was an unbelievably strong character for someone so young. You would think that coming from a secluded little village, she would not be able to achieve all that she does, until you realise that her genes have been genetically modified and she is the best of the few who have survived.

I really enjoyed this book, once I got into it. I would suggest struggling through the first fifty odd pages, where you will swiftly move onto a completely different story. I found the story fast paced and original and I look forward to reading the second book in the series 'Blown Away'.

Have you had a good weekend?

Hi everyone.

I am sorry I have been absent all weekend. It was one of those weekends when life just took over and I felt like my feet didn't touch the carpet in my house. On Friday, I went to see New Moon with my friend and I have to say it was absolutely fabulous. I actually thought it was better than Twilight. The film was a lot more action packed and the arrival of the pack of wolves really added a new dimension to the story. I think I may have moved my alliances from Team Edward to Team Jacob, as Edward looks so pasty and puny in comparison to Jacob.
My friend and I watched the film amongst a hoard of hormonal teenagers, not a wise move. Every time either Jacob or Edward took their shirts off, the audience went into a frenzy.
At the beginning they showed a preview of the new Sherlock film with Robert Downey Jnr and I have to say it looked out of this world. Being a lover, of Victorian Gothic, I just can't wait to go and see it.

After the film, my friend and I went to Nando's for some serious spices. I just love Nando's, I drown all my food in their extra hot sauce and then spend the next day wondering why my stomach hurts so bad. The food was extremely delicious; we had chicken wings, olives, corn on the cob followed by white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. Yum!

Saturday was spent back in Essex, helping my husband's family empty my father in law's house. It was a very long day and very sad. It is awful to think that when we go all our possessions need to be redistributed so quickly. A very sad day.

We had really terrible storms through Saturday night, to the point where the rain was so heavy it woke the whole family up. I have never seen weather so bad in England, it was actually quite frightening.

Yesterday was a lovely day though, as my whole family went out for dinner for my mother's 70th birthday. We went for a Sunday roast at a local carvery and it was really lovely to spend time with my brother and his family, as well as my parents.

So, you see, I have been very busy and as you can imagine the reading has gone out of the window. I am even struggling to read in my normal evening slot, as I have become addicted to I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. I normally hate reality TV, but I just love watching these so called celebrities suffering.

I am really behind in my reviews, so I hope to catch up with them this week.
I hope you had a good weekend and I hope to get around to every one's blog throughout this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at You Should Be Reading and you can find it here. MizB does a fantastic job with this meme every week, so do pop over and pay her a visit.

I haven't found as many books as I usually do throughout the week, but I do think that is a good thing for both my bank balance and my TBR list.

1) Wife of The Gods by Kwei Quartey

Eva over at A Striped Armchair is definitely having a bad effect on my TBR list this week, as she features twice. Eva is the type of person I would call a voracious reader, as she devours so many books in a week. I am completely jealous about her reading ability.

This book is the first of a new mystery series set in Africa. What attracted me to this story was the main character Inspector Dawson, who has anger management issues.
Here is the blurb from Amazon.
In a shady grove outside the small town of Ketanu, a young woman—a promising med student—has been found dead under suspicious circumstances. Eager to close the case, the local police have arrested a poor, enamored teenage boy and charged him with murder. Needless to say, they are less than thrilled when an outside force arrives from the big city to lead an inquiry into the baffling case.
Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, fluent in Ketanu’s indigenous language, is the right man for the job, but he hates the idea of leaving his loving wife and young son, a plucky kid with a defective heart. Pressured by his cantankerous boss, Dawson agrees to travel to Ketanu, sort through the evidence, and tie up the loose ends as quickly and as efficiently as possible. But for Dawson, this sleepy corner of Ghana is rife with emotional land mines: an estranged relationship with the family he left behind twenty-five years earlier and the painful memory of his own mother’s sudden, inexplicable disappearance. Dawson is armed with remarkable insight and a healthy dose of skepticism, but these gifts, sometimes overshadowed by his mercurial temper, may not be enough to solve this haunting mystery. In Ketanu, he finds that his cosmopolitan sensibilities clash with age-old customs, including a disturbing practice in which teenage girls are offered by their families to fetish priests as trokosi, or Wives of the Gods.

2) Hardboiled and Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto.
This is another one that I found over at Eva's blog.

Eva has been participating in the Novella Challenge and this she read this book as one of her choices. It contains two novellas which have a ghostly feel to them.

Here is the blurb from Book List.
In her seventh book of spare, piercing fiction, Japanese writer Yoshimoto once again portrays strong-minded young women coping with heartbreak, traumatic family fissures, drastic illness, and fatalities. This sounds grim, but Yoshimoto is tenderly ironic and keenly attuned to nature's beauty and the mystic dimension of life, and her characters' ability to tough their way through painful predicaments infuses her elegantly insightful stories with hope. Here two novellas portray two self-possessed yet besieged young women. In "Hardboiled," the narrator is on a solo journey that begins as a simple mountain trek and turns into an intense confrontation with otherworldly forces, including a ghost in a hotel and overwhelming memories of a lost lover and her terrible demise. In "Hard Luck," a tale all the more poignant in the wake of Terry Shiavo, the narrator's sister lies in a coma as her family struggles to find a way to say good-bye.

3) After by Amy Efaw
I found this one over at Alyce's blog At Home With Books.

This comes across as a harrowing look at unwanted teenage pregnancy and is written in the present tense, so you get a sense of immediacy.
Here is the blurb from Fantastic Fiction.
An infant left in the trash to die. A teenage mother who never knew she was pregnant . . .Before That Morning, these were the words most often used to describe straight-A student and star soccer player Devon Davenport: responsible, hardworking, mature. But all that changes when the police find Devon home sick from school as they investigate the case of an abandoned baby. Soon the connection is made - Devon has just given birth; the baby in the trash is hers. After That Morning, there's only one way to define Devon: attempted murderer.And yet gifted author Amy Efaw does the impossible - she turns Devon into an empathetic character, a girl who was in such deep denial that she refused to believe she was pregnant. Through airtight writing and fast-paced, gripping storytelling, Ms. Efaw takes the reader on Devon's unforgettable journey toward clarity, acceptance, and redemption.


4) The Carnivore by Mark Sinnet

I found this one yesterday over at Nicole's blog 'Linus's Blanket'.

The reason I was attracted to this book is that it deals with the events surrounding a hurricane in 1954 and it looks at the consequences of the main characters actions for himself and the people surrounding him.

Here is the blurb from Amazon.

When Hurricane Hazel tore through Toronto on October 15, 1954, it left its mark on both the city and its inhabitants. In the aftermath, a young cop named Ray Townes emerges as a hero—numerous accounts detail the way he battled the raging Humber River to save those trapped in their homes—and his story is featured prominently in the newspapers, thrusting him into the spotlight as a local celebrity. Meanwhile, his wife Mary is wrestling with doubts about her husband’s heroism. While performing her own miracles the night of the storm as a nurse at a mud-filled, overcrowded emergency room, Mary met a woman—disoriented and near death—with a disturbingly peculiar recollection of events. While Mary tries to shake her suspicions about Ray as they rebuild their life in the shell-shocked city, she can't help but wonder about her husband and that fateful night. When a reporter comes knocking 50 years later to revisit that horrendous night, the truth begins to surface and threatens to destroy them.

Two New Challenges For 2010

Here is me, panicking about finishing all my challenges for the end of the year, knowing full well I probably won't complete them and yet again I find myself jumping into more challenges for next year. What can I say, I just can't resist them! So here are two I am joining for next year.

This challenge is hosted by Aarti over at BookLust

Here is the information from the challenge from Aarti's post.

The Flashback Challenge will run from January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2010.

You can sign up for the following levels:
Bookworm - Up to three books
Scholar - Four to six books
Literati - Over six books

I am going to go for Literati and I actually intend to re-read the following nine books.

1) Dear Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster
2) Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
3) The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston
4) Moonacre by Elizabeth Goudge
5) Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
6) Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
7) Ballet Shoes by Noel Steatfield
8) The Wind In the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
9) The Borrowers by Mary Norton.

I am really excited by this one, as I get to re-read lots of books I have loved.
The GLBT Challenge is hosted by the lovely Amanda over at The Zen Leaf. Now I missed out on this challenge this year, so I am eager to join in for next year.

Here is the information from the challenge site.

The Challenge runs from 1st January to 31st December 2010.

The basic idea of this challenge is to read books about GLBT topics and/or by GLBT authors.The challenge runs year-round, and there will be three levels of participation:
Lambda Level: Read 4 books.
Pink Triangle Level: Read 8 books.
Rainbow Level: Read 12 or more books.

As this is a new genre for me, I am going to start with the easy one first, I will do the Lambda level to read 4 books.

I have chosen my four books for this challenge already and they are as follows:

1) Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
2) Wicked by Gregory Maguire
3) The Painted Veil by W.Somerset Maughan
4) Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

If you want to join either challenge, then click on the pictures which will take you right to the challenge page.

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

Pages 307

Published by Penguin in 2007

Challenges - Fall Into Reading.

I decided to read this book because I was desperate for a light read last week, after such a harrowing week with my father -in-laws funeral. This book definitely filled that category, although I did find an underlying current of sadness within the book, which I wasn't aware of in the reviews of it.

If you haven't heard of this book which has now been made into a movie, then you must have had your television stolen!

This is the true story of Julie Powell, a temp in an office, who feels her life is going nowhere. She wants children, but has been told she may never have them. She is completely unfulfilled in her job and wants to find her future path.

On a whim, she decides to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's legendary cook book 'Mastering The Art of French Cooking'. This book has 524 recipes in, which Julie decides to complete within a year and blog about each recipe. From her blog, this book was born.

I found it a fascinating story as you read Julie's life in parallel with Julia Child's. Both women find their way in life through French cooking. Julie Child takes up French cooking as a hobby and becomes a very famous chef with a line in books and programmes. Julie, by following Julie Child's cookbook finds a new career as a writer. It is amazing to think that French cooking managed to changed both of their lives so dramatically. Near to the end of the book, you are told about Julia Child's reaction to Julie's blogging project and she wasn't very happy about it. It seems so sad, as you would have thought they would have had a really strong connection to each other.

Now I mentioned earlier, about an undercurrent of sadness within the book. Julie worked for the government agency in charge of building a memorial for 9/11. Her office overlooked Ground Zero and the book begins several months after 9/11. You are told about how the staff deal with the grieving relatives and friends, especially in the run up to the first anniversary. I found this so sad to read about and you cannot help but wonder if the events of 9/11 had an unconscious effect on Julie which set her on her road to discovery.

I enjoyed this book a lot, I found it to be a really easy read. I did find that occasionally the story went off on a tangent and I got a little confused as to what was going on, but other than that it was good. I know a lot of people were offended by the language in the book, but I didn't feel that it was overbearing at all. I felt you were just witnessing Julie letting off steam. I found it funny and definitely very entertaining. I could see elements of me in Julie, with her high maintenance attitude and leanings towards high drama.

I would definitely recommend reading this book, if you love cooking, laughing and being a voyeur in somebody else's life.

The Day I Met Kate Mosse!

I warn you now, this post is definitely photo heavy, but I couldn't not share with you.
On Saturday my friend and I went Christmas shopping at a local museum. Now this is not an ordinary museum - this is an open air museum that houses lots of very old buildings dating back to the 18th Century and probably before. Every year, they hold a Christmas market selling lots of interesting goodies that you can buy as presents.
This year, they also had a special guest signing copies of her latest book. It was none other than Kate Mosse, of Labyrinth and Sepulchre fame! I was determined to go and as soon as we arrived my friend and I queued up to get her to sign her new book 'The Winter Ghosts,' which I showed you yesterday.
My friend and I were the only two people in the queue! I found this really hard to believe and I don't think it was publicised very well. Anyway, my friend and I are chatting away, when a lady comes up behind us and starts joining in with our conversation. We turned around to find Kate Mosse, chatting away to us.


I have to say Kate Mosse was absolutely lovely. She was happy to chat for ages with us. It turns out that she lives locally and that she also runs a writing course with her husband at one of the local colleges.
Excuse my cheesy grin, but I was really excited.

Here is my lovely book signed. What a fabulous day.

After the book signing, we went around the market to buy some presents.

I felt like I had stepped back in time to the Victorian era. All the staff were in period costume.

The weather was absolutely atrocious. We had gale force winds and heavy rain, yet we refused to go home.

It was so nice to watch the staff at work. They make lots of food in this old kitchen which they sell the next day. Whilst we were at the market, we indulged ourselves in hog roast, hot chestnuts and hot toddies.

Whilst walking around we were entertained by lots of musicians dressed in period costumes.

This is just to show you how bad the weather was. This is not a stream, this is just the heavy rain trying to find somewhere to go.

So even though the weather was awful, we didn't let it spoil our day. We had a fabulous time and getting to meet Kate Mosse was the icing on the cake.

Monday Mailbox and Library Loot

I have given up even attempting to stop buying books. I will no longer make excuses for it either. Here are the books that I purchased this week. They were nearly all from the charity shops and I always delight in finding ones I have been after for a while.

1) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - I have been after this biblical story for quite some time. It retells the story of Dinah, which is found in the Biblical book of Genesis. I have heard such great things about it.
2) Pompeii by Robert Harris - Robert Harris takes the actual event of the destruction of Pompeii and weaves historical facts with a fictional story.
3) The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox by Maggie O' Farrell. This is the story of a daughter put into an asylum purely because she didn't see eye to eye with her mother.


4) Dress Circle by Laurie Graham. My friend Fiona lent me this one. She said it was hilarious and I could do with a light hearted book at the moment.
5) The Haunting by Margaret Mahy - after reading Ana's review on Things That Mean A Lot, I was desperate to get my hands on this one and managed to book mooch it.
6) Footsteps by Rose McMahon. Last year I read The Rose Of Sebastapol and absolutely loved it, so I was glad to get my hands on this book by the same author.
7) Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier - I have yet to read any of Chevalier's books but my friend Fiona adores them, so I intend to find out why she likes her so much.


8) Haunted House Stories - a book full of ghost stories with authors such as James Herbert, Joan Aiken and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
9) The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse. More on this book later in the week.
10) Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. This is a book that played a big part of my childhood and I was desperate to get hold of a copy. I managed to get this through Book Mooch.


I wanted to share this lovely bookmark I received from Ana over at Things That Mean A Lot, which I won recently. Ana also sent me some postcards of Portugal, after noticing my Portuguese surname, which nobody ever really notices. Thanks Ana, a lovely gift.


Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.


Now I had no reason to get more books out of the library as I have so many of my own to read. However, I went in to pick up some books for the Christmas reading challenge and then noticed it was pouring with rain outside. I would seriously have drowned, if I had taken one step out there. I had no intention of going out in it, so I spent a little time perusing the shelves and before I knew it, I had checked out eight books!

1) After Dark by Haruki Murakami - a Japanese author who seems to be very popular within the book blogging world. Now you know I hate to be left out of things, so I had to read one.
2) How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff - another author whose name keeps cropping up. Rosoff is a YA author and I can't wait to read this.
3) The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson. How could I resist reading an adult book by the legendary Tove Jansson, who created my all time favourites The Moomins.



Here are the two books I went in to pick up for the Christmas Reading Challenge.
4) The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans - this is meant to be one of those feel good books that make you appreciate life more afterwards.
5) Santaland Diaries - David Sedaris - six sarcastic short Christmas stories!


6) They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple - another Persephone book! You know a couple of months ago, I had never heard of Persephone books, I now own two and picked this one up from the library.
7) Unvited by Amanda Marrone - a creepy YA novel.
8) White is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. I reviewed Oyeyemi's book 'The Icarus Girl', on Friday and loved it, so I was really pleased to find her latest book in the library.


So there you have it. I am now inundated with books this week and I have left hubby on the other computer, desperately trying to contact Ikea for two more Billy bookcases, as he is scared he may be suffocated by books in the night!


Have you read any of these wonderful books? What books did you get this week? Is my book buying getting out of hand?!!! Does your husband curse quietly under his breath at your obsessive habit?

Have a fabulous day. Love and hugs.

Saturday Scrapping

I am desperately trying to get my Christmas cards made ready to send out in December. So Saturday was spent sticking, cutting and colouring. I managed to spend most of my scrap day, producing the pictures for my cards. The picture doesn't really do them justice, as they are covered with lots of glitter. The pictures were actually outline stickers from Little Claire Designs. I just love their designs, they are just so girlie.

I also managed to cover my cards with pearlised paper and then inked around the edges.

My daughters were so impressed when I got home from scrap club, that they insisted that they made their cards too. Luckily I had bought a couple of stamps from Little Claire's designs too, so they were happy to use these to make their pictures. So on Sunday, our house was a hive of activity as the girls got stuck in to their card making.

I found that I had to help them with the glitter as they managed to get it everywhere.
Our cat was determined to join in all the fun and nearly ended up leaving his paw prints on all the cards.

Here are their finished designs. Don't they look great? I am really pleased with how well they worked and I may just let them help me with my scrapbooking in the future. I have to admit to feeling quite festive by the end of the day and vowed to find them some nice Christmas crafts to do in the run up to Christmas. So watch this space!

I am taking Sunday off from blogging and checking blogs, as I feel a few Sundays are needed for just family time in the run up to Christmas. I need to spend time with my family and stay off the computer a whole day, so I apologise in advance for not visiting your blogs on next few Sundays, please don't post anything too good!

Have a fabulous weekend.

The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi

Pages - 322

Published in 2006 by Bloomsbury

Challenges - Fall Into Reading and Reliquiae.

Apologies first, if you came looking for Friday Finds, I have abandoned it this week as I am a little behind in my reviews. I promise it will be back next week.

Isn't it wonderful, when you come across a book by chance and end up absolutely loving it. I feel that I have found a new author to love in Helen Oyeyemi. Especially, when I read that this book was written by Helen when she was still at school studying her A levels. As you read through the book, you just can't quite believe someone so young can be such a talented writer.

This book follows the story of Jessamy Harrison, an eight year old girl, who is seen as being rather odd by the other children at school. Jess has a very powerful imagination and is prone to screaming fits. Jess has mixed parentage, her father is English and her mother is Nigerian. Her parents work really hard to help her embrace both cultures. During a rather bad bout of illness, Jess's parents take her to Nigeria to spend some time with her maternal family. Whilst there, Jess meets a little girl called Titiola, who wants to become her friend. Up until this point, no one has ever wanted to be Jess's friend, so Jess throws herself into the new found friendship. As time passes, Jess begins to realise that her friendship with Titiola is rather dangerous and it begins to cause harm to the people she loves. Jess starts to worry and becomes desperate to rid herself of her supposed friend.

I just loved this book. It was so well written. The book is written completely from the viewpoint of Jess and I felt that she was a very convincing eight year old ( bearing in mind I have two who are now nine to compare them with). Jess is full of the woes expected in a child of that age and yet she also has more which make her stand out and appear different to the other children. You cannot help but feel sorry for her. Her mother really doesn't understand her and can appear very strict with her. Their relationship is very fractured, as neither one really understands the other. Jess really does seem alone and you can see why she was eager to rush into a friendship with Titiola.

Titiola appears so innocent to begin with, yet as the story progresses you realise she has ulterior motives and her evil streak becomes very apparent. All her characters appear so real in the book. I loved Jess's grandfather, a rather stern man, who appears to be the only person who can see what is happening to Jess.

The book is a real page turner. I could not put it down. I was desperate to find out what would happen and I had no indication of how the story would end.

You can tell that Helen really took to the idea of writing what you know. She was born in Nigeria and you can tell from the descriptions that she knows what she is talking about.

This book is very dark and probably one of the best ghost books I have read this year. By the end, you are never really quite sure what Titiola actually is, all you know is that she is very sinister.

If you love good ghost stories, then I would highly recommend this one.
Helen has two other books out, one of which I had on my Friday Finds a few months back (White is For Witching), which I am now desperate to read.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Before, I start my review, I just want to apologise for not visiting as many sites in the last week, especially yesterday. As you know my father in law had been ill for quite some time. Well he passed away last week and yesterday was his funeral. I wasn' t ready to share this information, but I found that I was flagging a little in the blogging world and I really wanted to be honest with you and let you know why I am a little absent at the moment. So please bear with me and I hope to be back to normal soon.

Pages - 253

Published in 1986 by Marshall Cavandish

Challenges - 1% Well Read Challenge and Fall Into Reading.

When I was a teenager in the throes of my A levels and really studying hard for my English Literature exam, my wonderful mother began to purchase a weekly magazine called The Great Writers; with each magazine devoted to a different author, you also received a hard bound book by the author. Nearly twenty years on and owning the full the set of books, this is the first one I have read. I think that is atrocious and I aim to read a lot more of them. So the cover shown here, is not the one I actually own, but I couldn't find a picture of it. Does anyone else own the Great Writers series of books? I would imagine it was only available in England.

For anyone not familiar with the story of Dorian Gray, here is a quick run down. Dorian is beautiful, absolutely stunning , so stunning that the artist Basil Hallward, begs him to model for him. Basil creates a wonderful portrait of Dorian, which shows how lovely Dorian is. However the portrait leaves Dorian miserable. He wishes that the portrait would age and show the sins of his life and that he would remain young. Little did he know that his wish would come true. Dorian never ages, but the years passing and the sins of his life appear in the portrait.

The first thing I noticed about this book whilst reading it, was that Oscar Wilde found the transition from playwright to novelist very tricky. I understand that this was his only venture into novels and I can see why. This book is full to the brim of dialogue. There is hardly any descriptions within the book and after a while I became quite exhausted by all these long and drawn out conversations. I love descriptive passages where I can lose myself in the atmosphere of the book and this just didn't have any.

The characters were very two dimensional and I didn't warm to any of them. Dorian was a very vain character who ended up leading a very questionable life. I did not feel sorry for his character at all.

I found the book very sexist towards women. I could feel myself getting angrier with each passage I read. Here is a piece of dialogue where Lord Henry is discussing women.

' I am afraid that women appreciate cruelty, downright cruelty, more than anything else. They have wonderfully primitive instincts. We have emancipated them, but they remain slaves looking for their masters, all the same. They love being dominated.'

Doesn't that just make you so angry. I know women were treated less equally during Oscar Wilde's years, but this is ridiculous.

Did I enjoy this book? Not really. I loved the story and I would like to see it re written, so that it appears less like a play. I actually feel bad, criticising such a legendary figure in the literary world, but I am afraid this book left me cold and underwhelmed.

Christmas Reading Challenge/ Book Blogger Holiday Swap

Another challenge has caught my eye. With the festive season approaching, I am in desperate need of some seasonal reads, so joining The Christmas Reading Challenge is a must. This one is organised by The True Book Addict.

Here are the rules

• will run from Thanksgiving Day, November 26 through New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009
• you can choose 1 - 3 books...I know it seems a small amount, but it's a busy time of year and the challenge is only a little over a month.
• These must be Christmas novels, books about Christmas lore or a book of Christmas short stories (sorry, no children's books, but YA novel is okay).

I am going to go for three books as I just love Christmas.

Here are a few options that I have collected over the year.

1) The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

2) The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

3) Recipes for Easy Living by Curtiss Ann Matlock

4) His Winter Bride by Debbie Macomber

5) Christmas Box by R.P. Evans

6) Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

7) Santaland Diaries by D. Sedaris

I just don't know which three to choose. I probably won't start reading them until I have put my Christmas tree up. In our house that won't be too far away. I like to get the max out of my trees!

I have also joined the Book Blogger Holiday Swap which can be found here. This is my first time taking part in this and it is like Secret Santa but with a book blogging buddy. The closing date to join this is tomorrow, so if you want to take part, then be quick. I might even end up being your Secret Santa!