Wordless Wednesday: Drops on a Car in the Rain

26 Books: A Book Recommended by a Friend

This would have been  number 4: 'A book your friend loves.'

'Americana' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (J):
(read May 2015)

Splendid! The third of Adichie's I've read, and the first to listen to as an audiobook more than reading (using whispersync, which was only partially successful in terms of synching).
What was it about? Lots! Primarily the difficult moral world we all live in, and the many ways we deal with it. Taking place in Nigeria, the US and London from the late eighties to about 2010, and seen mostly through the eyes of Ifemelu, who is a mid teenager when we first meet her, and Obinze, her contemporary and soul-mate (though I don't think that phrase is ever used). It is also very good on the complex subject of race and racism in modern America.
That all sounds rather dry, and I didn't find it so at all. There are lots of lovely characters who I cared about (maybe too many) and I feel as if I learned a lot about places and ways of life I know nothing of through the lives I'm shown.
And although whispersync was a bit graunchy, it was read by a wonderful voice who did all the accents, adding tremendously to my enjoyment. 

J

'Stolen' by Lucy Christopher (E):

(read June 2015)

Written as a letter to her captor, Stolen encapsulates the journey of Gemma and her captor, Ty, who takes her from Bangkok Airport after an argument with her parents, drugged her and takes her to the Australian outback. Literally in the middle of absolutely nowhere, there is no way Gemma can escape, no way to call for help, no way to communicate with anyone besides Ty. But as the days go by, their relationship begins to change. Is Ty as awful as Gemma thinks?

I was a little disappointed with this book; people have really raved about how brilliant it is. Don't get me wrong: it is a good book, but it isn't revolutionary. It's the writing I had an issue with, it felt banal and not very well thought through. The plot was really interesting though, and gave me a real insight to how an individual can become attached to their captor. Ty's obsession reaches the absolute height of creepiness, but Gemma's response to him was actually believable. I wanted to read on after the ending.

So, a very good premise and plot, let down by, what often seemed like, sloppy writing. It feels like Christopher may have needed more help from her editor, but I seem to be in a minority thinking this.

E

Book Review: Tell the Wind and Fire

When I saw that there was an ARC for something by Sarah Rees Brennan possibly up for grabs - I had to request it. Honestly? I didn't even read the blurb. I liked the Daemon's Lexicon trilogy so so much

The Lady herself

(though didn't get on with the Lyndburn Legacy) that it was a must.

Tell the Wind and Fire is set in a New York that has been split into two cities: the light and the dark. The light have their own magic, and the dark's is much weaker, but the clinch is that when a light wizard uses a lot of magic, a dark magician is needed to drain their blood to stop them getting a sort of 'magic overload' as I think. This is the story of Lucie, born in the dark, child of the light, darling of the poster boy of the light who becomes, not entirely through her own choice in a historic battle between the two cities. There's witty humour, swords, pretty gems, secret hiding places, lies, plots and characters being unexpected. Ooh, and there's dopplegangers.

Now, I found out that this book is based on Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, which I've read, and I had no idea. So, either: I have completely forgotten how that story goes, or this is a very loose adaptation. I can see the doppleganger idea with people looking alike and (wait for it...) the fact there are two cities. Please someone else enlighten me. To be fair, I haven't AToTT since I was about eight, so maybe I have just forgotten.

It was an enjoyable read. It did not remotely hit the spot of Dameon's Lexicon, nor was it as (in my opinion) poor as the Lyndburn series. It was told as first person from Lucie, but in a lot of ways I feel we still didn't really know here that well by the end. And we certainly didn't know any other character, bar Carywen. Makes sense because she's with him so much, but other characters are mentioned in a way that made me feel I should have the exact idea of who she's talking about, which is a little unnerving. 

To be published in early April

Unfortunately, there was a lot of information (no 'show don't tell') when describing the world at the beginning. Now, I really don't know how fantasy/sci-fi writers get past this because readers do need to know a lot before any action begins. It works better in other novels: e.g. Daemon's Lexicon, as opposed to Cecelia Ahern's Flawed I recently read, where it was horribly stilted. This was somewhere in the middle - and I really wouldn't know how to get it right!

Towards the end, where Carywn has little speech out about him not being 'good' and how he is still 'selfish' and that Lucie 'treated him like a was a real person'... Didn't work for me. A little OoC and a lot too cheesy.

Basically- I enjoyed it! At the end, Brennan said it can be a stand alone from A Tale of Two Cities. But surely this isn't a stand-alone novel in itself. There must be sequels!

PS Does anyone know has Carwyn is supposed to pronounced?

Wordless Wednesday: Evening's End

Wordless Wednesday: W49th Street, not Winscombe and apparently the coldest for 100 years

A Book You Chose Just for Its Cover

Bringing Up Burns 2015, would've been Number 3 for Bringing Up Burns

'Etta and Otto and Russel and James' by Emma Hooper (A):

(read April 2015)

This was my book bought for its cover without actually opening it and peeking at all! It's a beautiful cover - what I thought was a golden dog with three wise men below him and interestingly naive lettering. The inside was not quite as good as the cover - the dog was a wolf andwas great - a coyote called James and the three very elderly people in the shape of his legs had a story involving snapshots of their convoluted history together and a set of journeys. It was ultimately a sad or sentimental read about aging, different conceptions of the past, famines and childhood, as well as of determined travelling.

A






'Vixen' by Rosie Garland (J):
(read April 2015)

** spoiler alert ** I had no expectations of this book, as I bought it on the basis of its beautiful cover, which several other people commented on while I was reading it, so WELL DONE LINDSEY CARR, it did the trick. Then I noticed that the front cover's critic's comment was about Rosie Garland's "lush prose" and I started to have expectations. These were soon dashed: I found her writing jangly, spare and harsh, but this was in contrast to David Mitchell's in The 1,000 Autumns... which I had just finished, so that was a tough comparison. I realised after a while that some of the time Rosie Garland is attempting to write an English meant to represent what might have been spoken in 14th century North Devon. This is a very hard thing to do, and something I often find myself
critical of, both on screen and in books. It's not possible to do correctly for an era as distant as 14th century England: we wouldn't understand it if it was genuine, and to write in current colloquial English would also sound wrong. However, I find some authors more convincing in this than I found in Vixen. By the end of the book I had become used to the style so I wasn't jarred or irritated. Oh dear.

The story was oddly thin. Odd, because the basic themes were interesting and the sort of thing I expect to enjoy: history (the Black Death), relationships (men and women in that era, specifically a good speculation about what supposedly celibate priests and their housekeepers might have been like), a place I vaguely know (Barnstaple and nearby) and yet I wanted more to make me believe.
So, sorry Rosie Garland, I won't be coming back to you, but keep using Lindsey Carr for your covers, and you'll sell anyway!

J

'Weathering' by Lucy Wood (E):
(read in March 2015)

So,  I seem to have struck lucky with the pretty cover one! I chose Weathering because the skeleton leaf is just beautiful, and I love the font too. Never heard of Lucy Wood before last year, and I just spotted this in a book shop. (Mr B's actually!) It's a fantastic book; I love Wood's writing. The book hinges on her writing, in that sense it is very literary. A lot of the book was 'scene setting' which seemed more important than the characters in a way. I would go as far as to say that the place is actually a character in  the novel itself. The story is second to the place it's set in . Weathering is an apt title - the weather is so important, and beautifully described that no other title would have fitted. I don't know whether Lucy Wood has written anything since 2015, but I'd be interested to read it (along with the 500 other books on my TBR pile...)

Give it a go - it's more than just a pretty face!

E

26 Books: A Book That Was Made Into A Movie

This would have number three: 'A Book That Was Made into a Movie.

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
(read March 2015)

I've never seen the film, although I have vaguely heard of it and knew that it was renowned to be one of those creepy-edge-of-your-seat-I'm-not-sure-I-really-want-to-watch-this films. I think this is the beset position to be in when reading books made into films; books are (of course) highly superior to films, and if you see the film first, it spoils it. So, not having seen the film, and not knowing the plot, I chose this for my 'book that was made into a movie.'

I'm not a big horror reader. Not because I get easily spooked and get nightmares; more because I don't often see the point. Why would you want to scare yourself? It's like gratuitous violence - if there's a point in it, that's fine, but I don't want to be exposed to violence for violence's sake. I suppose that was my attitude to horror as well. But, I stepped out of my comfort zone and went for this one.

I'm glad I did. Levin is a good storyteller. It's not high prose, or remarkable, but it is compelling, with good strong characters and a forceful plot. Some reviews I have read claim that this book 'isn't really that scary.' I disagree; a sense of menace permeates the novel from the very beginning...

Rosemary Woodhouse is a typical sixties housewife. Everything her husband does is his business and she doesn't question it much. She is there to cook Guy's dinner, reassure him when his failing acting career gets him down, and look good to please him. At the start of the novel, they move into Bramford, a place renowned for murders, witchcraft and general nastiness, but the flat is so desirable they ignore all this. The first creepy occurrence is when the recovering drug addict taken in by their neighbours, Minnie and Roman Castevet, commits suicide, much to Rosemary's shock. Events continue with Guy becoming more friendly with the Castevets, to Rosemary's slight bewilderment, and Guy's sudden change of heart in wanting a child. He has a huge breakthrough in his career when his rival goes blind out of the blue. Slightly weird, but enough to ignore. After all, what her husband does is his business.

There's a horrible scene where Rosemary, sedated by drink (or is it the strange dessert that Minnie made her eat...?) is, to put it bluntly, raped by Guy. But rape? No, of course not, not in the sixties by your own husband! What a suggestion! 'I didn't want to miss Baby Night!' Guy says in his defence.

Throughout her pregnancy, things get weirder. Her mentor dies. She is persuaded not to use a conventional doctor. Her new doctor wants to see her at least once a week, and prescribes a strange Tannin root tea. Minnie and Roman become more and more involved. Rosemary is incapacitated by pain. Her mentor dies. Guy throws away a book that had been a present from him. Guy gets bigger roles. She becomes suspicious of the Castevets' motives. But when she voices her fears, she is told she is crazy. Pre-netal, rather than post-natal, psychosis, or something of the sort. She has no one to turn to...

It's creepy, no doubt about it. And you know what the end is long before you get there. But it is, in a strange way, enjoyable. It's not something I would go back to again, but it was a good read and I didn't want to put it down. Maybe I could try the film now...

E

Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin
(read March 2015)

I don't generally read biography, so when this was suggested as our next book club read I set out with not much enthusiasm, alleviated a bit by the fact that I like reading Dickens. It was (mostly) wonderful! I thought CT got the right balance of telling a story and laying out the REAMS of information that she clearly had about this man. I have visions of her writing with boxes marked with the years of his life piled
about her, each stuffed with letters, train tickets, party guest lists and play bills, knowing that she had to put all that information in without slowing down the narrative. And mostly she does, though I did develop the trick of skimming when I got to yet another drunken rowdy play-acting party by most of mid-Victorian Britain's literary and social crusading people were. Dickens knew EVERYONE, and so of of them seemed to like him, or at least find him fascinating. Even his family, whom he was impossibly awful to, in the cruellest self-deluding way, tended to make excuses for him.

Not really a man, more of a monster, totally taken up with his own ongoing invention of himself as a madly energetic putter-to-rights of the world, pushing ever onwards without looking either to right or left with all his next projects at once, and at the same time running from..? Presumably from the spectres of much that he was writing about, the work house, the debtors prison, family rejection.

So I don't think I'm going to start reading biography as a choice, but if one of Claire Tomalin's others is given me, I will be pleased rather than sigh.

J

Book Review: Gut by Giulia Enders

Let's get this blog going with a few more posts... or at least try, until life catches up with us all.



I had been recommended this book by family therapist, my psychiatrist and then my father as well as GoodReads and Amazon about a million times (how did they know?) so I thought I'd better do that.

'A publishing sensation that... sets out to free toilet talk from its taboo' (The Times)

Well, I guess it does that. It's a... weird book. I'm not quite sure how else to describe it. To begin with you feel slightly giggly, but then it is actually interesting. Don't get me wrong: it's not really deep science. Oh no, people, this is popular science. I suppose it's the equivalent of my A2 Biology with more information on very, very specifics. But that doesn't make it uninteresting to read. 

Giulia Enders had done brilliantly because of this book - it's been something of a viral sensation! I'm not sure how she managed that (good marketing?) because a lot of books just slip through the net, and this book, though good, was not amazing. 

There were a few things that interested me particularly (they would interest me, and I'd probably be told off by anyone I know). 

If you have any ongoing pain, then it is actually better to consume vegetable than animal fats; so drinking milk, which, incidentally, 90% of the world are not intolerant to, is much worse than olive oil. Milk and other animal dairy products are really not that good for you.
What is called lactose intolerance is not actually an intolerance or allergy, but a deficiency. "Every human being has the genes to needed to digest lactose" apart from a very few cases. The genes just become slightly less useful as we grow older, and with no practice (in many Asian countries, lactose is not a normal constituent of a traditional diet) means they will experience more of this deficiency. Lactose 'intolerance' doesn't mean you cannot consume lactose, it just means that you can have a limited amount: experiment!

The next thing I found particularly interesting was the whole thing about being fat being a genetic thing. This is generally scoffed at, mocking people who struggle with their weight. But in this book there are three very convincing theories about how bacteriacan make us fat. So maybe we need to slightly more open minded.

The third thing of interest was to do with IBS and the use of antibiotics; unfortunately a course of

antibiotics can upset your gut flora permanently. This is pretty depressing from my point of view. It also alarmed me that in Germany most people are put on antibiotics on average twice a year! That is just unreal!

Okay, instead of saying the interesting bits of the book, I should also talk about how it is written. There are some rather odd diagrams, which aren't really that useful, and a few even stranger illustrations. Although not useful, they were good fun. 

Guilia Enders' list of references was very extensive, so it's obvious she's worked very hard with researching in this book (stupid thing stay to say: every writer puts everything into a book). It's well written, very readable, easy to understand, enough anecdotes to be fun without patronising... It's good.

But remember: it's popular science, so don't expect anything life challenging!

E

Summing Up Sunday: 17th January 2016

These are the cool new fire cones that J's mum got for us as Christmas present that makes the flames go blue! How cool!

Quiet week. Took photos of the sheep for their pedigrees:

Shrew in the middle

Greedy Teasel!

Bit grumpy looking Cappuccino.

And the only photo at all we managed to get of Amy.

So, there've been lots of bits and bobs going in throughout the week - some good, some bad - so I will just leave you my current favourite song (I haven't even heard the original), and I hope you'll agree with me that this is beautiful. (If you don't agree, don't mention tit)

Happy Sunday everyone! Not much more to say, sorry about that. An uninspired, gloomy, horrible January week. April is not the cruelest month; I've always thought it's January. Let the next week be better.

The Sheep with the Gold Earring

Link up yours here!

26 Books: A Book You Own But Haven't Read

So, we totally failed at our 26 books in 2015. We didn't do a single post. Absolutely pitiful. HOWEVER, we did actually (between us) read one book from each category, so here we are going to present them this year. These are the 26 books from specified categories that we read last year. Better late than never, eh?

This would have been number one: 'A Book You Haven't Read' in 2015 books for last week.

'Sea of Poppies' By Amitav Gosh (J): 

Sea of Poppies is the first of Amitrav Ghosh's trilogy on mid 19th century India and the opium trade, and probably the best. I was excited by it, most of all by his lovely use of language(s). I know, and thoroughly enjoy that English is contributed to by many many other languages, and perhaps because I have a colonial background myself, I particularly enjoy the relatively recent imports from Hindi, Cantonese and other ex-Empire languages. Ghosh adds to this by having his characters use many words and phrases in their languages of origin. Sometimes I guess this is to show that they wouldn't have been speaking English, and often I think it is just for the joy of different sounds and possible meanings.

He also imparts a lot of history, big and small scale, as his characters move from their villages of origin into the big world, down mighty rivers, across oceans, and meeting up in later generations and far from home. So now when I meet someone from Mauritius I have a sense of the multiple cultural and linguistic inputs there have been to that little island.

This makes it sound a bit like a textbook, which it most definitely is not. The characters are alive, believable, often wild and always vivid. 

Read it, and go on to read the others!

J

'The Tiny Wife' by Andrew Kaufman (E):
(read May 2015)

This is a novella (?) that has been languishing on my Kindle shelves for a while, and I couldn't remember anything about it. To be honest, I didn't expect much.

Actually, 'The Tiny Wife' was a revelation to me.

I have always disliked short stories. There it is, out there. It's a genre that I enjoy to write, but reading them has never been enjoyable. They generally feel unsatisfactory, an inferior form to novels, drama and poetry, not enough depth, not enough character development. Yet, I selfishly write them because I enjoy the writing process. A form that is more enjoyable for the writer than the reader: a narcissistic pleasure.

Oh, how wrong I was. This was different. This, was fantastic. I think, technically, it is a novella - but it still not novel length, and I actually enjoyed it. Thoroughly enjoyed it in fact. Completely different than any short story (novella?) I have read before.

It is wonderfully bizarre. Crazily, exuberantly bizarre. The opening is fairly innocuous. It opens with a bank robbery; not for money - the robber asks for each person to present him with their most treasured possession. The first man gives him a wad of notes, but the robber knows he is lying. Treasured possession, money? No, there is something more than money in his life. The items they give him are various: photos of family, heirlooms, items that have been with them at significant life events. These are the things they give up.

Then it gets weird. Each person who was at the robbery starts to experience something completely unbelievable in their lives: a baby that shits money, a lion tattoo coming to life and stalking, being turned into chocolate, shrinking bit by bit each day.

Brilliant, engrossing book. Loved it from start to finish. I have had another Andrew Kauffman languishing away on my Kindle shelves for a couple of years ('The Waterproof Bible') but I've never got round to reading it. Well, that will change.

As has my opinion on short stories. Done well, they can be excellent. Thank you for challenging my prejudices, Kauffman.

E

Summing up Sunday 3rd January 2016

That was a bit of a gap: sorry to all our multitudinous followers :)

We have been doing Christmas and New Year (nough said).

E and J went to Lyme Regis on Weds 30th Dec, substituting for the traditional New Year's Day visit which hasn't happened for a few years.

It was wet and windy:

and then today we scanned our ewes:

                     

Look! That's a baby lamb. 

Very exciting.

Tune in for another picture of this lamb when it's fluffy in March:))

Summing up [Sunday] Sale!

So, this is why we haven't been consistently writing for a while...

EVERYTHING HAS BEEN HAPPENING!

(this may or may not be hyperbole)

I'll talk you through things. First, remember that crochet baby blanket that I started, er, in February or something? Z was born healthy and happy about four months ago. But I still hadn't finished the blanket. FINALLY, when I had finished they got invited over for lunch (unfortunately very brief) and I got to meet mummy for the first time, and little Z. So cute!

All the ends cut off after being sewn in - what an achievement!

Mapping out the blanket - took a long time as it was really hard to colour match properly.

                                  

                                         Doing four more lines of border

The TA-DA picture will have to wait until I can get it off A, I'm afraid, but they seemed very pleased. It was my first go, so a lot of mistakes and pretty messy, but they seemed to appreciate it. Just hope it gets used!

Okay, so big thing NUMBER TWO has been taking up A LOT of time. We (as a family) have decided to raise £1500 over the year for The Hope Project, which is a branch of The Dogs' Trust. It specifically helps dogs whose owners are in housing crises, as a lot of shelters will not accept dogs, and there isn't a lot of veterinary support for them. Dogs are vitally important to some people: a friend, protection, warmth... We'll have another post more on the fundraising in the future with lots more details, and in case anyone wants to be involved.

SO, we left it all a bit late, so by the time we'd booked our stall at a local school's PTA craft fair, we only had four weeks to make everything for it. Here's some shots of our work in progress:

Sequin ball-balls - would you believe that we spent £18 on pins alone?? We didn't know that, and certainly made no  money!

Felty decorations (there were also stockings and snowmen)

Cutting out the tops for A's 'Luxury mincemeat' and 'Christmas Apple and Cranberry Chutney.' They both sold very well.

Stall putting up in action - great way to display things between canes with sticks.

And here is our stall! I won't bore you with pictures of everything we made, but I can do a list, can't I? Mini bunting, big bunting (both sold well), hot chocolate sticks, Christmas cards, glittery baubles, reindeer baubles, mini and larger glittery stars, printed wrapping paper, a scarf, beautiful paper stars made marvellously by Alison (we had 30 or so and only FOUR left), little felt critters made by a generous woman from A's work, salt dough decorations, willow stars, willow bird feeders (all went quickly), Christmas cushion, Christmas flannel... I think that was it, but it would've been really easy to miss something out. What a great stall.

And look how much went! The top bunting was reserved already, but everything else went.  A few bits and bobs left for sale TWO (yes, I know we're mad, but it's a little stall this time).

Good idea for next year - cinnamon sticks wrapped up nicely. So easy!

I had to show these. They may be very cute, but they are made from books. As in entire books. One book = one hedgehog. I just couldn't do it.

These were our very nice next-stall neighbours. Apparently, this was a really bad selling year, but we did all right!

Few other bits and bobs - a lot of chocolates, big raffle, jewellery, nick nacks, pens, wreaths, glass work, loads of cards, clothes, scarves, accessories... A real mix. Not much time to get round, but looked like a great a sale.

So, onto other things. We had our very last family therapy session with J and S. It was hard, and heartening, and humorous and sad. We've been with them for a long time, and it seems so alien that they won't be journeying with us anymore. We will be travelling in a different way.

Our memory book - one for each of them

And not to forget Joyce's 93rd birthday! A nice evening at Sewell house with two cakes (a homemade Victoria sponge and a shop-bought chocolate cake) and alcohol! Only one person got drunk, so that's not too bad!

Joe, Susan, and Joyce

That's about all, folks! Well, a lot of other things have happened as well,  but it's a quick run-down. Hopefully, we'll get into a schedule again, but no promises.

(No Guardian Quizzes - no time!)

Wordless Wednesday 25th November: Sheep in the Frost

A [not quite] Wordless [Wednesday] Thursday

A [Not quite] Wordless Wednesday Thursday

Long time no post!

Jacob and his ladies!

Amazing how a kind gesture can brighten a miserable day.

Lots of crafts ready for our Christmas Sale - here's a sneaky peak! (More about that later).

Busy busy! Not liking the wind and cold today, looking forward to a fire this evening.