On The Eve Of My Trial Run at NaNoWriMo

As promised to myself, tomorrow I will begin my NaNoWriMo trial.  I have what I believe, to be a fabulous storyline connected to a place I know and love. I don't think I have ever read anything like it, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is an original.  All I can tell you is that it is a children's book. 

I have written quick chapter notes to give myself an idea where the story is going and I am absolutely certain of how I want it to end.

I am going to spend today working on character outlines and fleshing out the chapters a bit more, as well as drawing a map of  the location. If I can get that all done in preparation for tomorrow, then I will feel a lot more confident about actually achieving my goal.

Once I am prepared for this month's trial run, I hope to spend some time preparing for the real NaNoWriMo,which I do have a story idea for, but I need to flesh it out more.

So wish me luck in my adventure this month. I wonder if I might be taking a fall before I start, as I have arranged to have my carpets cleaned tomorrow and then I have scrap day all Saturday. Mmmm, may have to get up early to get a head start.

I shall let you know each week how I get on and fingers crossed I may be able to celebrate with you at the end of the month, with a first draft completed.
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Reading Groups - A Matter of Mind Picking.

I am hoping for a little help from you guys today as I have been a very brave girl and stepped into the world of reading groups and decided to set up my own one. I have put the feelers out to my local friends and they have all jumped aboard The Dacosta Book Wagon in anticipation. The invitations for first meeting have been sent out for Thursday 7th October and I hope to be able to organise the back bone of the groups future by then.

What I am hoping for from my lovely book bloggers is some hints and tips on how to run a meeting like this.If you don't actually attend one, then I would be interested in  hearing how you would you run one. Every one's opinions are valuable and will be taken into account.

So here are a few questions that I would like answered if possible, though I don't expect everyone to answer them all.
Where do you hold your book groups?
Do you change the location regularly?
How often do you meet?
How do you begin discussing books?
Does someone summarize the book first and then do you all get a say about what you think?
Who decides which books you read?
Who hosts the meeting?
Do you look outside of your usual genres?

As you can see, I am a real beginner in this unknown territory, so as much advice as possible please.
Thank you in advance for all your words of wisdom.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Pages - 289
Published in 2008 by Bloomsbury Publishing.

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.
The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.

When I first started blogging, all I ever read was how wonderful Neil Gaiman was and to be honest, I felt a little bit intimidated by him.  I felt like I was in the presence of a fantasy hero or a literary God and I found myself cowering in subordination.  I had read American Gods and enjoyed it, though looking back I am not sure if I understood it properly. However over the last few months I have tentatively tiptoed in Gaiman's world through his graphic novels and  his children's books and I feel like I have come home and I am searching around my property for everything Gaiman.

The Graveyard Book is utterly awesome. Sad, I mean, Kleenex tissue sad by the end, but utterly awesome.

The story begins with the murder of  a little boy's family. The murders are dealt with with the least amount of gore by Gaiman, so that even though you are perfectly aware of what has occurred, you are  not  imagining blood and guts.  The little boy escapes being murdered by crawling out of the house and into the local graveyard, where he is taken in by the kindly Owens. This sounds normal, until you learn that the Owens are ghosts. Yep, the little boy is to be raised by ghosts and a rather unusual man called Silas, who frequents the graveyard.  The boy who is named Nobody Owens, is given the Freedom of the Graveyard, which allows him to perform actions that no other human would be able to attempt. The book follows Bod's life up until the age of sixteen, as he deals with loneliness, individuality and danger.

Gaiman makes this  storyline believable and from the first line I was sucked into the book and couldn't put it down. I love anything paranormal and this book was right up my street.  The darkness of the beginning reminded me of the first Batman movie, when Bruce's parents were killed.  I loved Bod completely, but I was in tears by the end.  I am not going to give away any spoilers,but the ending left me with a sense of loss and loneliness, that I felt Bod would feel and wouldn't be able to curb until his own demise. I was left wanting more, I wanted to know what became of Bod, all alone in the world and I felt like petitioning Neil Gaiman personally, demanding a continuation of the story in order to give me closure.

If you haven't read this book, then I would highly recommend you do.  This is an ideal book to begin your journey with into the dark and wild world of Neil Gaiman.

Other reviews of The Graveyard Book

Stainless Steel Droppings

The Life and Times of a 'New' New Yorker

Monday Mail

Usually I like to show you my mailbox with the actual photos of my books, but for some reason Blogger won't let me download them. Blogger has completely changed the way the posts can be designed and me, suffering with a severe case of techno phobia has struggled to load anything up.

Three brand spanking new books entered my house this week and two of them I have been drooling over for months whilst waiting for them to be released.

1) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins -the final part of The Hunger Games trilogy. Need I say more?



2) The Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare - this is the first part of her new series The Infernal Devices. Yes I know, I still haven't finished the other series, but I just couldn't resist this one.  This is a prequel to The Mortal Instruments series, but it doesn't matter which you read first.

3) The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova - I am presently reading her first novel, The Historian, and although it is rather chunky, I have to say I am loving it. I am quite happy reading about Vlad the Impaler/Dracula! I feel like I am hobnobbing with the creme de la creme of vampires. I do hope it is as good.

As mentioned above I am happily ploughing through The Historian and I have just started Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan. I managed to finish The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman on Saturday evening. I did enjoy it, but I found the ending rather sad. More on that later in the week. 

Let me know what lovely books came to your house this week.

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 written a Friday Finds in months, so I knew I just had to write one for this month. You will have to excuse the change in format for this post, as Blogger have updated their editor and I am struggling to work out how to use it.

1) Dear Mr Bigelow by Frances Woodsford

I found this one in Sussex Stationers before I went on holiday and never got around to purchasing it. If you loved 84 Charing Cross Road and  The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society then you will love this.

Here is the blurb from Amazon.

Dear Mr Bigelow is an enchanting selection of weekly ‘pen-pal’ letters written between 1949 and 1961 from an unmarried woman working at the Pier Approach Baths in Bournemouth, to a wealthy American widower, living on Long Island, New York. Frances Woodsford and Commodore Paul Bigelow never met, and there was no romance – she was in her forties when he died aged ninety-seven – yet their epistolary friendship was her lifeline. The ‘Saturday Specials’ as Frances dubbed them, are brilliantly-packed missives, sparked with comic genius, from post-war England. We follow her travails at the Baths (and her ghastly boss Mr Bond); the hilarious weekly Civil Defence classes as the Cold War advances; her attempts to shake off Dr Russell, an unwanted suitor; life at home with Mother, and Mac, her charming ne’er-do-well brother; and escapades in their jointly-owned car, a 1934 Ford 8 called Hesperus. Most importantly, we get to know Frances – and her deep affection for Mr Bigelow. She started to write to him as a way of thanking his daughter for the clothes and food parcels she sent. But what had begun as a good turn offered Frances the chance to escape a trying job, and to expound with elegance, wit and verve on topical subjects from home and abroad, bringing us a beady commentary on her life and times that leaps vividly from the page. Her letters to Mr Bigelow during his final illness are a tender and moving farewell, a touching conclusion to a unique record.

2) Passion by Jude Morgan

I am not sure where I found this book, so if you reviewed it please let me know. 

Here is the blurb from Amazon.

The attempted suicide of Mary Wollstonecraft opens this carefully researched, deeply imagined and gorgeously written novel about the Romantic poets, as seen by the women who loved them: Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter, Mary Shelley, who fell scandalously in love with then-married Percy Bysshe Shelley and wrote Frankenstein at age 19; the passionate but untethered Lady Caroline Lamb, who never got over her love for Lord Byron; charming Fanny Brawne, devoted to her consumptive fiancé, Keats; and Augusta Leigh, half-sister to Byron, notorious for her incestuous affair with him. Dense, empathetic, detailed portraits of each woman lift them above their iconography; even Byron, in all his famous charm, is convincingly rendered. The poets, of course, are doomed—Byron, fighting in the Greek war of independence, dies of fever; Shelley perishes in a boating accident; and Keats succumbs to consumption. Morgan concludes with a series of carefully crafted plateaus that evocatively capture the women in varied states of acceptance, ambivalence and longing after their losses.

 

3) Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

I found this over at Ladybug's blog 'Escape In A Book'.

Here is the blurb from Wikipedia

Nothing much happens in the sleepy town of Venus Cove. But everything changes when three angels are sent from heaven to protect the town against the gathering forces of darkness: Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. They work hard to conceal their true identity and, most of all, their wings. But the mission is threatened when the youngest angel, Bethany, is sent to high school and falls in love with the handsome school captain, Xavier Woods. Will she defy the laws of Heaven by loving him? Things come to a head when the angels realize they are not the only supernatural power in Venus Cove. There′s a new kid in town and he′s charming, seductive and deadly. Worst of all, he′s after Beth

4) Banish by Gretchen McNeil

I found this one over at Ladybug's site too. Here is the blurb from her post.

Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her overprotective mom, by the hunky son of the police officer who got her father killed, and by the eerie voices which she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Turns out the voices are demons - the Biblical kind, not the Buffy kind - and Bridget possesses the rare ability to banish them.

San Francisco's senior exorcist and his newly assigned partner from the Vatican enlist Bridget's help with increasingly bizarre and dangerous cases of demonic possession. But when one of Bridget's oldest friends turns up dead in a ritualistic sacrifice that mirrors her father's murder, Bridget realizes she can't trust anyone. An interview with her father's murderer reveals a link between Bridget and the Emim: a race of part-demons intent on raising their forefathers to the earth in human form. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the Emim's plan before someone else close to her winds up dead, or worse - the human vessel for a Demon King.

Is it too early to put these books on my Christmas list. Hmmm!

Wacky Wales

Warning - this post is rather picture heavy!

I have been meaning to show you photos from our trip to Wales for ages, so apologies for my delay.
During the summer holidays, the girls and I accompanied my parents to visit my family in South Wales. My parents go twice a year to see them, but this is the first time I have been back in eleven years. How bad is that! My family have been up to see us a few times, but I have been very slack at visiting them.
My family live in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales. The picture below shows part of the valley.
South Wales is one of the most beautiful places to visit. During our whirlwind tour, my uncle took us out to admire the scenery. We had a picnic lunch by this beautiful lake. I wish I had got the names of these places, but we travelled around at such a pace I forgot to ask.
The house below painted orange was the house where my mother was born. This is the first time I have ever seen it and it seemed surreal stepping back in time. My mother lived there with her brother, parents and grandparents. In those days, the whole extended family lived together. My grandfather was a coal miner, as were the rest of the men in the family. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away when my mother was young, so I never got to meet him.

The picture below is of my uncle and all the children. My uncle has never grown up and the kids absolutely adore him. Whilst near a river full of barges, he spent most of his time jumping on and off the decks with the kids, pretending the barges belonged to him.

I love the picture below. It is rather breathtaking. I would love to have a house overlooking this, where my writing desk faced onto the water.

As you can from the picture below, we did an awful lot of hill climbing. I thought I would have an asthma attack at the top, but luckily I didn't.

My wacky welsh family. That' s my mum in the blue. My dad is not in it as he was taking the photo.

The building below was the last coal pit to close in South Wales. I believe it has been turned into a museum now. A lot of the land where the pits were has now been replanted, so that all you see now is lush green hills.

I hope to get back a little more regularly to Wales in the future, as leaving it eleven years is far too long. Have any of you ever visited Wales?

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Pages - 414

Published in 2009 by Tor Books.

In the aftermath of the Drill Engine's astonishing trail of destruction, a peculiar illness afflicted the reconstruction workers nearest the wreckage of the bank blocks. By all reports this illness was eventually traced to the Drill Engine tunnels, and to a gas which came from them. At first, this gas appeared odorless and colorless, but over time it built up to such an extent that it could be discerned by the human eye, if spied through a bit of polarized glass.

I coveted this book from the moment I laid eyes on it. I knew that I had to have it before all others and Father Christmas kindly answered my wishes and placed it under my tree wrapped in pretty paper and sparkling ribbon. I fell in love with the cover and imagined this book would be the one that would be read over and over again in the future. Oh how I wanted this book to be all I imagined. Alas, it was not to be! To me, this book was a complete disappointment. I am now ducking very quickly as all the fans of this book throw things at me in disgust. All I can do is apologise but I really did not enjoy this book at all.

The book sets the scene with a fictionalised chapter from a history book, explaining the reason for the invention of the Boneshaker machine by Leviticus Blue. Russian prospectors had commissioned him to create a machine that could mine through the ice. Unfortunately on it's trial run it destroyed large parts of Seattle and opened an underground cavern which allowed a deadly gas to invade the city which turned the inhabitants into zombies if they breathed it in. A wall was quickly built to keep the gas from spreading any further through the country.

The book then moves forward sixteen years to life outside the walled city. The story focuses on Blue's widow Briar and their teenage son, Ezekiel. Ezekiel is desperate to clear his father's name and decides to enter the gas ridden city to rewrite history. Once Briar discovers his quest, she follows him to try and bring him back alive.

The story line appealed to me so much, yet as I read it I found I had no enthusiasm or excitement for the story. I found the storyline took forever to get going and I really was bored with the book. It actually took me weeks to read it and I just kept plodding on. All the action seemed to occur at the end of the book. I didn't connect with any of the characters, as I just kept thinking they were daft to enter such a dangerous area, especially as there seemed no love lost from them for Levictus Blue.

After having a few weeks to think over the book, I just think that steam punk and zombies are just not for me. It is a genre that doesn't rattle my cage! I know a lot of other bloggers loved this book and I would highly recommend others to read it, but personally it just wasn't for me and I couldn't see what everybody else loved about it. I will be steering clear of steam punk for the foreseeable future.

Other reviews of this book.

Stainless Steel Droppings

Karin's Book Nook

Library Loot

I have been good and stayed away from the library all summer as I tried to read my own books. However, after needing a couple of research books, which I could only get from the library, I found that I couldn't just walk out with out looking around and before I knew my arms were laden with a stack of goodies.

1) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman has been on my TBR list since it came out, but I have resisted the urge to buy it. Then I walk into the library and find it staring out at me from the shelf.

2) The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin - I loved Brooklyn, which I read early this year and was desperate to get my hands on another Toibin book. This book is set in Ireland during the 1990's and looks at a family who come together to support a dying loved one.

3) Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne - this was one of the books chosen for the TV Book Club and is about a young girl who moves from Sri Lanka to London and happens to be there on July 7th 2005 (also known as 7/7) when the London bombings occurred.

4) The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey was shortlisted for the Orange Prize this year. This book follows the story of an English couple who move to Trinidad and how over the years their lives alter.

5) Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan was one of the TV Book Club's summer reads and it caught my eye because the story reminds me of Brooklyn by Colm Toiben.

6) Lookin Best of the 80's is rather a nostalgic read for me. During the 80's Lookin was a weekly comic sold at 15p, which featured lots of famous stars of the decade in comic strips. My nan used to buy it for me every week and I kept the originals for many years, but alas ,they are long gone now.

7) Life in the Victorian Times is a research book that I was interested in reading, as are the two books below.

8) Victorian Village Life by Neil Philip

9) This Year You Will Write a Novel by Walter Mosley

I have started reading The Graveyard Book already as I just couldn't wait. Off now to immerse myself in books. What books did you get this week?

I have taken the plunge!

Yes, I have signed up for NaNoWriMo for 2010. OK, I am a little bit early, but who cares I am showing commitment. For anyone who has is not book obsessed and dreams of holding a book with their name on ( no, I don't mean a personalised diary) and has never heard of NaNoWrMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and it happens every year throughout the month of November. The aim is to write a novel of 50,000 words between the 1st November and the 30th November; that works out to 1,667 words a day.


Now many of you know that I had planned to write a book last year and the year before and to be fair I have produced two nearly finished first drafts. Unfortunately that just isn't good enough and I need to get off my behind and actually produce a finished manuscript that I can send off to be published. Hubby believes I can do it, and I am fed up of letting him down. I believe I can do it, I am just too damn good at procrastinating.

So in order to make up for the last two years of procrastination, I intend to produce two first drafts. Not at the same time, because that just wouldn't work for me. What I want to do is have a trial run of NaNoWriMo during October to see how I get on. Anyone care to join me in this mad adventure?

I don't want to waste time anymore and I plan to spend the rest of September finishing the first two unfinished drafts I have and plan the next two. I am setting myself some serious deadlines, but I feel that if I don't I may as well give up my dream and go back to teaching. I want this year to be make or break with my dream of novel writing.

I know quite a few of my fellow bloggers have attempted this before, so any helpful tips would be much appreciated. I am also looking for a word count widget to add to my blog, anyone know where I can get one?


I am really excited and really scared, but I am hoping many of you will come along for the ride and support me when the going gets tough.

Here's to a productive Autumn.

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Pages - 270

Published in 2005 by Corgi

In the city of Ember, the sky was always dark. The only light came from great flood lamps mounted on the buildings and at the tops of poles in the middle of the larger squares. When the lights were on, they cast a yellowish glow over the streets; people walking by threw long shadows that shortened an then stretched out again. When the lights were off, as they wre between nine at night and six in the morning, the city was so dark that people might as well have been wearing blindfolds.

I loved this book!


How it slipped under my radar, I will never know, but thank you Fiona for bringing it to my attention. Fiona is a teacher from my girl's school and a good scrapping friend, who often checks out the books I am reading on my blog. She found this gem, hidden in the school library and thought it might be something I would enjoy reading and how right she was.

The City of Ember is a post apocalyptic story. The City was created two hundred years ago to contain everything needed for human survival. For two hundred years it worked as it was supposed to, but now it is beginning to fall apart. Everything is breaking down and the food storerooms are almost empty. Corruption has set in within the community and now the lights are beginning to fail. Soon darkness will engulf Ember and what will become of it's inhabitants.

The future of Ember lies in the hands of two children, Lina and Doon, who after discovering fragments of an ancient document, begin to wonder if they have found a way out of Ember.


There is a prologue before the book begins which makes you aware that something is not quite right with Ember. It sets you up with a certain amount of knowledge that the characters are unaware of.



This book had me engulfed in it's story from the first paragraph. The story was original and spellbinding. I could not put it down. The pacing was perfect and the story did not feel rushed or slow in any way at all. The world building was wonderful, I actually felt like I could walk down the streets of Ember and name the properties on each side. To me, the book felt real and very believable.

There was only one tiny niggly bit within the book, that wound me up. When Lina's grandmother died, it was dealt with rather swiftly and almost forgotten about by the next day. Now Lina, had lived with her grandmother nearly all her life, so I would have imagined a little more grief to be shown. I understand that she had suffered loss before when her parents died, but I don't think having experienced death, it makes you blase about it when it happens to someone else you love. Now I know that is really quite a big niggle, but I didn't let it spoil the rest of the book for me, in fact I do think that it should have been something picked up during the editing process. Other than that I loved it.


I have just discovered that it was made into a film in 2008 starring Bill Murray and Tim Robbins. How did I miss it completely. Here is a trailer for the film. This book is also the first one in a series, so I will definitely look out for the next one. I have just passed this one onto one of my girls to read and she seems to be enjoying it as much as I did.


NOTE: Sorry folks, but I am real issues with my Google Reader at the moment, it seems to be permanently stuck and I can't empty the blooming inbox. Is this a universal issue, or am I doing something wrong? Any advice would be fantastic. Please don't think I am ignoring your blogs, I just can't access them.

Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes.

Pages - 190

Published by Persephone in as a Persephone Classic in 2008

The Red Cross sewing party met twice a week in Mrs Ramsay's dining-room to stitch pyjamas, drink a dish of tea, and talk about their menfolk. Mrs Ramsay found pretty soon that she was in possession of all sorts of unsuspected facts about the husbands of the village.

If I ever spot a Persephone book in the library now, I don't think twice about not picking it up. It is almost an instant reaction now.

This book is made up of short stories which were among the collection of stories Mollie Panter Downes wrote for The New Yorker during the Second World War. The stories are bookended by two letters, one signalling the beginning of the war and one acknowledging the end of the war. This book consists of 21 of the stories that were published and quite frankly, that wasn't enough for me. I long to see more of these stories published.

Now you know I don't normally read short stories, but this book really opened my eyes. I absolutely loved this collection. The book was just fantastic. As the stories progress,you get a real feel of how the war changed the people enduring it. You watch as the characters in the stories move from uncertainty,to quiet and solemn victory. I don't think I have really read many books about the Second World War, but this book left me with a thirst for more.

I think the feeling that got me most during the book was the feeling of sheer loneliness. I never considered how young couples and families felt during those long years of separation. I can't imagine how I would have felt if my husband had been sent away for so many years. It must have been so hard on the women left behind and the men returning after such a long absence.

One of my favourite stories within the book is the one the book is named after. Good Evening, Mrs Craven tells the story of an affair. The couple met regularly before the war, one night a week, where they would dine at Porters before returning to the mistresses apartment. The relationship progresses over a period of time, until the war separates them. The mistress realises that she will never know if he is killed in the war, as she isn't his wife. This story gives you a real sense of the loneliness that war caused and the time wasted by families putting their lives on hold until the war ended.

I really enjoyed this book and found it gave me a real sense of how people reacted and felt during the war. How time didn't stand still whilst the war was raging and how life changed so dramatically for all concerned by the end of it.

Another wonderful book by Persephone. Can't wait to get my hands on the next one.

Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Shroeder

Pages - 412

Released by Simon Pulse in January 2010

This book is reviewed as part of The International Book Tours blog.

One year ago today

I lost my boyfriend, Lucca.

He was

an artist

like me,

a dreamer

like me,

a nature lover

like me.

I don't tend to review books as soon as I have read them, as I usually like to dwell a little on them first. However, this book really got to me. It has a recent familiar theme that seems to be appearing more and more in young adult books recently; it deals with the death of a loved one. Unlike the other books, this one is very special, as it is written completely in verse, which to me, brings out the real emotions that lie within the story. The wording is sparse, but the meaning is very clear and heartwrenching.

At over 400 pages, I read this book with ease in one sitting and got completely lost within the story of Brooklyn and Nicco. The story is set out in diary format and begins a year after the death of Lucca, who was Brooklyn's boyfriend and Nicco's brother. The story alternates between the two view points as they move from seperate lives full of loss and hurt, to a united new beginning.

This book shows you that you can move on when someone dies; there is light at the end of the tunnel and life will go on. It doesn't mean that loved ones should be forgotten, as they will always be a strong part of your life, but you can learn to live and love again.

A beautiful, poignant read that would appeal to reluctant teenage readers as well as adults. I could feel the pain of loss that came across in the book quite strongly, regardless of it being teenage love and loss. Loss is universal and any book that can help you through the grieving process is worth a read.

Lisa Shroeder has two more books out written in a similar style and they will definitely be on my list of books to read.

Monday Mail from Book Blogging Pals

I have to share some of the wonderful books that came my way during the summer from a couple of my blogging pals.

Firstly Carmen from Whoopidoo...ings sent me the first two lovely books.

Carmen knew I wanted to read The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale and sent it on to me when she had finished it. This is very much a fairy tale with a twist, think Rumplestiltskin. She also won two copies of Dark Life by Kat Falls and kindly let me have her second copy. This is very much a dystopian novel where everyone now lives under the ocean. Can't wait to read it.

Trish from Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity was having a bit of a book clearout and kindly sent me these two books all the way from the USA. Knowing I am a fledgling Hoffman fan in the making, she sent me Here on Earth, a dark romantic tale. Trish also let me have Charming Billy by Alice McDermott,which is set in then Bronx and deals with the loss of Billy.
So thank you ladies for sending me such wonderful books. Anyone else having a clearout?LOL.

I also purchased three brand new books in the holidays, two of which I am really itching to read.

Before I Fall caught my eye in June and I was over the moon to see it selling in Sainsbury's during the holidays. This book is a bit like Ground Hog day but with the main character living her last day over and over again.

Now the next one I hope will have Naida cheering in her seat. Naida is a big Stephen King fan and always writing such wonderful reviews about his books. So when I saw this I couldn't help but think of her. Under The Dome is about a small town in Maine, which is suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. No one can get in and no one can get out. Scary huh?

The last book I bought was Coming Home by Melanie Rose. I reviewed her first book Could It Be Magic? here, and really enjoyed it. I found her style similar to Cecilia Aherne, where a little bit of magical realism is inserted into every day life. This one is about a woman who has an accident and loses her identity.

Quite a mixture of books from a range of genres, but I do like a good mixture. Now I just need more hours in the day to read them all.

Tales From Outer Surburbia by Shaun Tan

Pages - 91

Published by Templar in 2009

When I was a kid, there was a big water buffalo living in the vacant lot at the end of our street, the one with the grass that no one ever mowed. He slept most of the time, and ignored everybody who walked past,unless we happened to stop and ask him for advice. Then he would come up to us slowly, raise his left hoof and literally point us in the right direction.

I am a little unsure how to actually review this book. It is classified as a graphic book, but to me, it appeared more as a short story book with pictures. The stories are beautiful and poignant and full of meaning. Not that I always really understood the moral of each story, but they were very interesting to read, with such beautiful graphics to look at.

I actually think that Shaun Tan describes his book much better than I could possibly imagine. So I have taken a snippet from his website to allow him to explain this book better.

Tales from Outer Suburbia is an anthology of fifteen very short illustrated stories. Each one is about a strange situation or event that occurs in an otherwise familiar suburban world; a visit from a nut-sized foreign exchange student, a sea creature on someone’s front lawn, a new room discovered in a family home, a sinister machine installed in a park, a wise buffalo that lives in a vacant lot. The real subject of each story is how ordinary people react to these incidents, and how their significance is discovered, ignored or simply misunderstood.

I hope that makes it clearer for you, it definitely made it clearer for me. How I wish I had read that passage before I read the book. It actually makes me want to go back and read it again, with that passage in mind. I do feel that that passage should be written in the front of the book to aid the reader before their journey through the stories.

The best description I can give you of this book is surreal but interesting and beautifully illustrated. Definitely a book that deserves a peep.

All Glammed Up

I had to laugh at the comments on my last post. It never crossed my mind to put up pictures of me all glam. I think it is because I speak to so many of you on Facebook, that I presumed you had all seen my holiday pictures. Apologies for posting twice today.

So for those who haven't seen my pics - this is me!

Posh Nails and Holiday Books

Before we went on holiday this year, I decided I was going to go away glamorous. Every year, I go away in a rush and look like Old Mother Hubbard. Not this year, I was utterly determined. I had a bit of splurge and threw out all my old summer clothes which were all too big and had been around for centuries and went trendy with the lovely maxi dresses that were in. Then off to the hairdressers, to turn my dowdy locks golden. Armed with my new wardrobe and new hair, I realised my glam transformation was not finished. So I ventured very timidly into the fake tan department. I was very wary as I have never had a fake tan in my life, but I was so fed up of being the only pale and interesting one in a hot country. I am surrounded by brown people in my family and I have a hubby who goes so dark, due to his Portuguese background. So I knew it had to be done. I have to admit to feeling rather intimidated, standing nearly naked in front of a girl I had never met before, whilst she sprayed me with freezing cold brown goo. The tan had to be left on all night and by bedtime, I looked black, which is really scary when you are normally whiter than chalk. Thankfully it eased off next day, when I could shower it off, but for a minute I was scared!

After the tanning session, I ventured into the world of fake nails. My nails are always short and stubby, which makes my fingers look horrible, so I had some acrylics put on. I was rather pleased with the result and three weeks later, they are still going strong.
The nail technician was a bit of an artist, so she painted on some lovely flowers and then added some diamantes. Who doesn't love a bit of bling. The picture below makes my hands look really old, but I think it was the fake tan enhancing it. Fake tan does nothing for your wrinkles girls!

The best bit about going on holiday for me, (once the Diazapan has calmed my fears of flying), is buying my reading material for holiday. I just love visiting the duty free book shop once we have checked in.

I had one book with me when I arrived, as I had previously bought Linger to take away with me. I thought it was a fitting choice as I read Shiver at the same hotel last year.

As you can see a bit of a mixed choice for the rest of the books. Barbara Erskine used to be my favourite authors back in the Nineties when I was still single, but somewhere over the years, my connection with her books disappeared, so after hearing lots of good comments about her new book, I was determined to pick it up at the airport. I have to say it really is very good and I can't wait to finish it. The other three books I picked sat in my holiday apartment, in a darkened corner, collecting dust for the whole two weeks. I have no idea how that happened, but my holiday was so active I found I couldn't settle to read. Even lounging around the pool, turned into games with the kids in the water. Now the kids are back at school, I have a whole lot of reading to catch up on.

Another little snippet - please send get well wishes to my beautiful dog Jake. He had to have an operation yesterday as his nether regions had swollen whilst we were away. The vet thought it might be trauma, or there is the possibility of testicular cancer. It was a very stressful day in our house yesterday as they kept him waiting until late afternoon. He eventually came home around 4pm. He was woozy and feeling very sorry for himself. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the results of his tests come back OK. Love you Jakey.