The Year of the Fox by Merren Tait, a local NZ author

The Year of the Fox: A Good Life novel by Merren Tait

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Really loved it actually, I think they call this kind of book a chick lit read. I've not read books like this for a long time, I read some really challenging books at times, so this was a welcome relief from all the serious stuff.
I bought it at Hamilton book month's Local Authors event and got to meet and chat with the author. Who knew that under that sweet exterior lurked a bit of a sex-pot! This story was laugh out loud funny and very, very steamy, a totally enjoyable read, I'm still smiling.
If you want a light hearted, romantic read set in a NZ south island rural setting, then this is for you, and if like me you were a fan of Tom & Barbara in The Good Life you'll love it all the more.


View all my reviews

Goodreads/Pop sugar 2019 reading challenge - Part 2

Here we go, part 2 for your perusal. I think I can share books read direct from Goodreads, I might try that out each time I finish a book, it'll save big long posts like this...I hope.

A very young woman's first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate...An estate haunted by a beckoning evil.
Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls...
But worse-much worse- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil.
For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.

My Review ★★★
I liked it much more than I thought I would. I sometimes struggle with this Gothic style of writing. The only way I can think of how to describe it, is that it's a bit like driving on a motorway in the dark, the road ahead is clear but then you come across some road works and a contraflow system, you have to slow right down to navigate your way through all of those orange and white cones which don't seem to make sense at first, but if you slow right down it all becomes clear and you are out on the open road again and on your way. A bit like the flow of this book, sometimes it flowed well and then not, I would have to read it over, in fact I read it out loud, that really helped.
A spooky little story which I would think at the time of writing, caused quite a stir.

Challenge: Pop sugar - A ghost story; A book that has inspired a common phrase or idiom (I took a bit of a liberty here with this one, if I find a better book to cover it then I'll change it)

After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he's still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (not to mention a death by elephant).
It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: Not only has he witnessed some of the most important events of the twentieth century, but he has actually played a key role in them. Starting out in munitions as a boy, he somehow finds himself involved in many of the key explosions of the twentieth century and travels the world, sharing meals and more with everyone from Stalin, Churchill, and Truman to Mao, Franco, and de Gaulle. Quirky and utterly unique, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has charmed readers across the world.

My review ★★★★
This was such good fun to read, thoroughly enjoyed it. There were parts where it did get a bit silly and dragged a bit, but take it at what it is, a bit of humorous fun, it's not meant to change the world, although Allan did! 

Challenge: Pop sugar - A book set in Scandinavia 

No sooner had Chris Stewart set eyes on El Valero than he handed over a check. Now all he had to do was explain to Ana, his wife, that they were the proud owners of an isolated sheep farm in the Alpujarra Mountains in Southern Spain. That was the easy part.

Lush with olive, lemon, and almond groves, the farm lacks a few essentials—running water, electricity, an access road. And then there's the problem of rapacious Pedro Romero, the previous owner who refuses to leave. A perpetual optimist, whose skill as a sheepshearer provides an ideal entrée into his new community, Stewart also possesses an unflappable spirit that, we soon learn, nothing can diminish. Wholly enchanted by the rugged terrain of the hillside and the people they meet along the way—among them farmers, including the ever-resourceful Domingo, other expatriates and artists—Chris and Ana Stewart build an enviable life, complete with a child and dogs, in a country far from home.

My Review: ★★★★   
I've read a few books of this genre, this was as enjoyable as the others. Am amusing, easy read.
  
Challenge: Pop sugar - A book written by a musician (Original drummer and founding member of Genesis) 

After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage returns to the small Australian town she was banished from as a child. She plans only to check on her ailing mother and leave. But Tilly decides to stay, and though she is still an outcast, her lush, exquisite dresses prove irresistible to the prim women of Dungatar. Through her fashion business, her friendship with Sergeant Farrat—the town’s only policeman, who harbors an unusual passion for fabrics—and a budding romance with Teddy, the local football star whose family is almost as reviled as hers, she finds a measure of grudging acceptance. But as her dresses begin to arouse competition and envy in town, causing old resentments to surface, it becomes clear that Tilly’s mind is set on a darker design: exacting revenge on those who wronged her, in the most spectacular fashion. 

My review ★★★  
I wasn't sure about this at first. The book is divided into three parts, the first part was a bit confusing, there were so many characters to keep up with. Parts two & Three improved greatly, an enjoyable read. I wasn't particularly invested in any of the characters to be honest, the town they all lived in would be the place to keep driving through, very fast, no matter how much you needed a pee or gas!

 Challenge: Pop sugar - Two books that share the same title

Monsieur Claude Reynaud is famous throughout France for making fabulous clothes. Living in the quiet village of Senlis, he thinks himself too old to change, too old to find love. Then, in a cloud of spring blossom, Mademoiselle Valentine de Verlay arrives on his doorstep.

My review ★ 
Oh dear, this really was awful, a bit like a badly acted play. I only kept reading it because a reading challenge I'm doing required two books of the same title. It had me shout out a few times, I couldn't possibly repeat what those words were!
I usually drop my read books at our village cafe where they have a bookcase full of books to swap. I'm rather reluctant to leave it there, I'm not sure I could put another person through that kind of torture!

Challenge: Pop sugar - Two books that share the same title; A debut novel 

Frank, no ordinary sixteen-year-old, lives with his father outsIde a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly.
The Wasp Factory is a work of horrifying compulsion: horrifying, because it enters a mind whose realities are not our own, whose values of life and death are alien to our society; compulsive, because the humour and compassion of that mind reach out to us all. A novel of extraordinary originality, imagination and comic ferocity.  

My review: ★★★★
Sick, twisted, macabre, brilliant. I went into this thinking the worst and came out the other side rather blown away by it to be honest. Once I'd picked it up I couldn't put it down. Not a lot else got done in the house today, however I did manage to stop to eat, make cups of tea and to pee. And just so it didn't look like I'd been a lazy tart all day, I quickly run the vacuum cleaner around once I'd finished. 

Challenge: BBC big read 

Edwina Spinner has lived in the same house for over fifty years. It used to be a busy, crowded family home but now Edwina lives alone and it has grown too big for her. She has decided to sell it.

The young estate agent who comes to value the house sees potential. Knock down a few walls, add a wet room. 'People like a project.' But as Edwina takes him from room to room, she is transported back to her old life as a young mother. Back to her first husband Ollie and their twins, James and Rowena. Back to lies and dark secrets and to a stepson whose name Edwina cannot even bear to speak aloud.

As Edwina's story unravels she is revealed as a complex and intriguing person. Not just the 'frail old lady' trapped in her dated house, but a woman who has lived an extraordinary life, full of love and tragedy. Why is she now so alone? What happened to Edwina's family all those years ago?

My review: ★★★★
I really, really liked this, our book club choice this month. Well written, great story line and believable characters. 

May's book club choice

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South ― and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred.
One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis of an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country.
A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father ― a crusading local lawyer ― risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

My review: ★★★★★
My second read of this novel, enjoyed it as before, if not more this time. Go set a watchman next.

Challenge: BBC big read; Pop sugar - A book you see someone reading in a movie (Seen in The perks of being a wallflower)

  
Go Set a Watchman is set during the mid-1950s and features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father Atticus. She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand both her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.

My review: ★★★★
This is a re-read, I've given it a 4 star as I did when I read it before. I think I appreciated it better second time around. Also I read it immediately after a re-read of To kill a mockingbird. Go set a watchman was rejected by publishers at the time, I can see why, it wasn't quite there, the characters not so well defined, the plot not as polished as in TKAM. I found it particularly interesting to see that many passages were re-used in TKAM, word for word it seems. So Harper Lee was on to a good thing, it just took a rejection to get it right, if not perfect. Some of GSAW did not tally up with TKAM's story lines, she clearly adapted and improved upon them, for the better I feel. The characters, such as Scout and Atticus in GSAW lacked depth, but in TKAM they were huge. I know that some found the later book somewhat disappointing and I fully understand why, but try reading them one after the other and you'll come to realise, as I do, that they belong together.

Challenge: Pop sugar; I put this as a book published posthumously, but now I realise it wasn't! Bugger! Need to rethink that one..... 

England, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him; the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in Old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Now, as the world lurches towards total war, Banks realises the time has come for him to return to the city of his childhood and at last solve the mystery - that only by his doing so will civilisation be saved from the approaching catastrophe.

Moving between London and Shanghai of the inter-war years, When We Were Orphans is a story of memory, intrigue and the need to return; of a childhood vision of the world surviving deep into adulthood, indelibly shaping and distorting a person's life. 

My review: ★★★★  
Clever book, I wasn't entirely sure of Christopher, never quite trusting his version of events I started to think him a bit of a wally. I did, at one stage, think I was losing the plot and interest, then suddenly the whole thing just made perfect sense. Good book, very well written in what I call, proper, proper English.

June's book club choice
Challenge: Pop sugar; A book author from Asia 

Celia Lashlie, justice reform campaigner and bestselling author , brings her powerful insight to the problems of families trapped in a spiral of crime, poverty and abuse. She points to the reasons behind why New Zealand's rates of imprisonment are so disastrously high, what the politicians and social service organisations could do to improve the plight of children in at risk families and why the system should protect be protecting them. Lashlie uses the case studies of Maka Renata and Bailey Junior Kurariki as examples of institutional neglect. She exposes the environment in which they live and the pedestals upon which the media and society place these people, and , and the negative attitudes of many within our bureaucracy work against the efforts of the children's mother to be the best mother she can. The Power of Mothers is a wake-up call to voter and politician, parent and grandparent, social agency and lobby group alike. We must do more than build prisons to hold the children we fail, now.  

My review: ★★★★  
I selected 4 stars, really liked it, "like" probably isn't the best word to use. It was however a very insightful book, very shocking and upsetting at times. Celia doesn't hold back on her opinions concerning New Zealand's correction facilities and/or Child Youth and family services, as they were known at the time of publishing.
I won 6 copies of this book for our bookclub, it made for some very interesting comments and observations.
It's a must read for anyone working or choosing to work in either of the mentioned services

 I want to come back to this book and dedicate a post to it.

In 1951, a young woman from Baltimore died of cancer. Her death changed medical science for ever. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first 'immortal' human tissue grown in culture, HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta herself remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey in search of Henrietta's story, from the 'coloured' ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live, and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Full of warmth and questing intelligence, astonishing in scope and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences. 

My review: ★★★★★
A truly remarkable book that just about broke my heart. It reads like some kind of horror story but you know that it's all true. It left me feeling raw and very emotional, at times I was just downright bloody angry, I can only imagine how her family felt. Henrietta Lacks, remember her name because you might have treatment one day that saves your life, and there's a good chance that the cure has something to with her cells. The world owes her a huge debt.

June's book club choice, it's also been on my to read list for a long time. I now own a copy. 

 
If you got through the last two posts unscathed then well done, if not then I hope I've cured your insomnia 😁😝

Goodreads 2019 reading challenge

Each year I try to set myself a book reading challenge, last years was quite low. My target last year was to read12 books, I managed 14, not a lot but more than I'd hoped, it was after all a very busy year. I track my progress on Goodreads You might have to sign up if you follow the links below, if you're a reader I can recommend it.
This year  I've set the bar high again, 52 books, one book a week. So far so good, I'm on track. Ten of them will be book club choices, others will be from the BBC's  big read list, and the rest? Well I do have a big book case full of choices
So what have I read so far? I'll tell you 👍😃 I'll start with January's reads.

  

Goodread reviews here

Blurb: Maria Lindsey has secrets to hide. Living on top of a secluded mountain is a good way to hide from the world... until her past begins to track her down. The surprising and intriguing new novel about the astounding secrets we keep from those we love.
Maria Lindsey is content. She spends her solitary days tending her bees and creating delicious honey products to fund orphaned children. A former nun, her life at Honeybee Haven has long been shaped by her self-imposed penance for terrible past events. But the arrival of two letters heralds the shattering of Maria's peaceful existence. Pushing aside the misgivings of her family and friends, Tansy Butterfield, on the eve of her marriage, made a serious deal with her adored husband, Dougal. A deal she'd intended to honour. But, seven years on, Tansy is finding her current feelings difficult to ignore. And on top of those not-really-there feelings, Dougal wants to move to Canada!With captivating characters and an intriguingly tangled mystery, The Beekeeper's Secret celebrates families in all their joys and complications.

I gave it ★★★ out of 5 stars

My thoughts;
I liked it, a nice easy read, although it wasn't what I expected. It covered a tough subject which is very topical at the moment. 

• Random choice from my shelves

Goodread reviews here 

Blurb;  5th January 1800. Alma Whittaker is born into a perfect Philadelphia winter. Her father, Henry Whittaker, is a bold and charismatic botanical explorer whose vast fortune belies his lowly beginnings as a vagrant in Sir Joseph Banks' Kew Gardens and as a deck hand on Captain Cook's HMS Resolution. Alma’s mother, a strict woman from an esteemed Dutch family, is conversant in five living languages (and two dead ones). An independent girl with a thirst for knowledge, it is not long before Alma comes into her own within the world of botany. 

But as Alma’s careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she comes to love draws her in the opposite direction.The Signature of All Things is a big novel, about a big century. It soars across the globe from London to Tasmania, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam. Peopled with extraordinary characters – missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses and the quite mad – most of all it has an unforgettable heroine in Alma Whittaker, a woman of the Enlightened Age who stands defiantly on the cusp of the modern.

I gave it ✶✶✶✶ out of 5 stars

My thoughts;

I did really like this, I would have liked to give a 5 and say it was amazing. Chapter 4 dragged on a bit too long for me, overall I think it could have been about 100 pages less and still have been good

• Random choice from my shelves

 Goodreads reviews here

Blurb (from Amazon);  Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.

I gave it  ✶✶✶ out of 5 stars

My thoughts;

Well it took me 55 years to get around to reading this book, all up I read it in about 6hrs and yet the movie trilogy adds up to at least 9 hours! How can that be? Sir Peter would you care to comment? I have to say though I enjoyed far more than I thought, it's not the kind of genre I usually read. Still not sure about continuing with the LOTR trilogy however.

• Number 25 on the BBC big read list

 Goodread reviews here

Blurb; John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is one of the best loved novellas of all time. Two drifters - small, shrewd George and huge, simple-minded Lennie - get work on a ranch, planning to raise enough money to get a place of their own and live off the land, if George can save his childlike, bull-strong friend from getting into trouble. A powerfully moving story of friendship, Of Mice and Men is a simply told masterpiece. - Of Mice And Men (Popular Penguins) By John Steinbeck

I gave it ✶✶ out if 5 stars

My thoughts;

Cheery little book, said no-one ever. Pretty depressing stuff really.

(I vaguely remember reading it at school, I know it's meant to be a classic but it didn't do it for me)

• Number 52 on the BBC big read list

 Goodread reviews here

Blurb; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Shipping News focuses on Quoyle, a newspaper pressroom worker from upstate New York whose father emigrated from Newfoundland. Shortly after his parents' suicide, and his wife's death, his paternal aunt, Agnis Hamm, convinces him to return to Newfoundland for a new beginning, in their ancestral home on Quoyle's Point.

I gave it ✶✶✶ our of 5 stars

My thoughts;

I've gone for 3 stars"I liked it" mainly because I think I did but I'm not sure. Initially it had me hooked straight away, then somewhere along the way I thought "What the heck am I reading?" There were times when reading some passages I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a spoon! But keep reading I did, kept turning those pages all the way to the end, even with the authors sometimes annoying style of writing. For some hours afterwards I kept thinking about it and I'm not entirely sure why, perhaps the characters grew on me, I don't know. Either way, it's another I can tick off the BBCs Big read list

Number 164 on the BBC big read list

 February books to come, including the first Book Discussion Scheme, book club, choice

Sue

xxx

“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.” ― Louisa May Alcott, Work: A Story of Experience

So today was the day for all things bookery. I was awake at silly o'clock and made myself a cuppa which I drank in bed. I managed to lose an hour somehow doing this and when I checked I realised I should have been up a while ago o'clock. I got up, did all I needed to do and left the house at, for me, unheard of o'clock. I was in town around school run o'clock and had time to call into Fairview motors to book the car in for a service and warrant of fitness,  next Friday at some time in the morning o'clock.
Note how I like to be precise in my timing. After being a good car owner and listener to moaning, darling hubby about doing the aforementioned car thingie, I suddenly felt  free from constraints of tedious chore-y things and sped forthwith to the book fair, which as luck would have it, was just moments away. I felt the wind blowing through my hair, which was odd, as I don't remember opening the car window!
Moments later I arrived at my destination, an elderly gentleman waved his hands at me as I entered the car park, I thought how lovely, such a nice welcome. I realised that he was trying to direct me to a parking space, I think I can manage that on my own, thank you, I thought. I am a grown up after all. I got out of the car and he said thank you to me, I had parked where he wanted me to park and my feelings of wild abandonment dissipated rather quickly. However, my enthusiasm was not dampened as I skipped across the car park, after first asking where the loo's were! Never pass a loo by I say, best to be on the safe side. I had another elderly gentleman offer to take me to the loo, to which I replied, "Whilst I appreciate your very kind offer, I shall not be needing any help in the toileting department, as I have got that business off to a fine art", well almost.

Ablutions dealt with, armed with my trolley and my extensive list, the search began...
Books (actually on my list) found as follows;

Books not on my list but linked to books I have previously read, plus a couple that Sue woman chucked in me trolley!

I reckon I was very restrained, I seem to have my book compulsion in hand....at least until the next fair.

Sue met me at the fair, she had a look, found some books then went home to wait for me, she's only down the road. I dumped the car outside hers, as I got to her gate she was already driving out, I leapt in the car Starsky and Hutch style and we headed to Habitat for Humanity, I was over looking at books, I couldn't see anything by this point, my eyes were bleeding after 3 hours reading book spines.
I did find a selection of quilting project packs, like I don't have enough already. Terrible photo, sorry.

As I mentioned I needed some fabric which required a trip to Spotlight, I don't know how I cope really. Very conveniently situated and right next door to Spotlight, is a new-ish Cafe in which Sue and I had some lunch, very nice it was too, we both opted for a chicken salad with all sorts of delicious goodies in it and a large flat white coffee, extra hot (they never make it hot enough for me). I don't know why but you would think it would be easy to order a Large flat white, it's only three words after all, but I always manage to confuse the order taker by asking for either "A large hot, extra flat please" or I'll have a large flat, extra white". I swear that's not what I'm thinking in my head but it comes out that way, some thing's not quite firing on all cylinders.

So, anyway, after lunch and some goo gooing at a delicious baby with his mum at the next table, we left to go into Spotlight then remembered there was an Op shop just around the corner, so we had a wander in there, it's not my favourite op shop I have to say, same shit, different day.
Enough of that! Spotlight!

Spotlight how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love fabric to the length and width and metre
My arms can't reach, the treasures out of sight
For the ends of Bolts and ideal fat quarters.
I love thee to the end of day's

(I know, it doesn't rhyme, do I look like a give poop)

Who'd have thunked that matching some fabric would be so hard, well it was but in the end I found some, the colours in the photo aren't exactly true, but they're near enough.

I'm not exactly sure just how these came to end up in the bag! Naughty special sale price stash builders!

And that's me for the night, other than to say not only did I have lunch out today, I met Joe at the local pub in Whatawhata and had dinner out too, don't you love it when you don't have to cook? I don't have to cook tomorrow either, what a result. The British Lions are in NZ for a rugby tour at the moment and that's going to be our lives until they bugger off back to Blighty. So a night out in town tomorrow, dinner at The Londoner that sells British Beer and  motel room booked so neither of us have to drive home.

Time to put my feet up, Joe's downstairs with the fire lit because he's a reptile. I sleep every night with one leg out of the covers, it's my heat regulation mechanism that has a tendency to do the Hokey Cokey as it's in out, in out, shake it all about every night.

Have a good weekend ya'all, see you next time, now that is me done.

A 'Chatter' of bloggers.

 

 photo from Google images
 
Apparently there isn't a collective noun for bloggers, I did a Google search and found another blogger (who just so happens to be a Kiwi living in London) who had come up with a 'Click' of bloggers . Which was okay but I felt it didn't really sum up our trio of bloggers who met up for lunch today.

Just recently a Blogger buddy in Canada, Janice, from Jan's Jabber, helloooo Janice, suggested I check out Chris At Diet Coke Rocks.  I did just that, I had a read and had a good laugh and thought, she sounds like fun, lives not too far away from me ( Cambridge) AND quilts. I thought then and there that I needed to meet up with this lady, on Monday I tried to ring Sue to suggest that we should arrange to meet up, I thought it would be a tip top idea. Anyway it turns out Sue had the exact same idea! Great minds and all that, and she had made contact already and was going to be in Cambridge and arranged a meet. Well talk about striking whilst the iron is hot! Sue and Chris hit it off immediately and knowing we would all get on like a house on fire, quickly arranged a lunch date for Friday (yesterday). And that, in a nutshell, is how we found a new friend, it was like we had known each other for ever and the afternoon was filled with laughter, fun and a lot of chatter. So my collective name for a group of Bloggers is a Chatter of Bloggers, which I think sums us all up, it's what we all do isn't it, whether in person or on the computer screen. So hi Chris, so good to meet you yesterday, may there be much Chatter and laughter to come.
Please note that I do realise that the collective noun for budgerigars and other birds is also a chatter, so again it's a very fitting name as we fit the bill for colourful birds!

Here we all are.

We went to the Good Union Pub, good name and very fitting, for lunch which was devine.

Amid all the chatter and laughter Chris was telling us that she had joined Weight Watchers, because she didn't like her face, boobs and bum. You can read her story here . Anyway I told her that I thought she had a beautiful face and that her boobs and arse were magnificent! Just as a young handsome male waiter came to our table! He went away laughing and must have passed the story on to a young lady who was also then also in fits of laughter. I did try to explain that we weren't lesbians, but these days who worries if you are anyway, exactly how it should be. That seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day, and a bloody good day it was too, in fact we're all meeting up again here on Monday. I've told them I shall bake a cake, it is going to be my birthday after all. I decided recently that I wasn't happy being 50 something so I am now counting backwards from 50 and am in fact, getting younger, so I will be 46 on Monday, next year 45 etc, etc. After all they do say we regress as we age, I'll be back in nappies before you know.....uh..oh!

I digress, my lunch.....

Pulled pork on a roti, delish. Oh, and wine, Pinot Gris, New Zealand of course!

 New and pre-loved friends

There was a rather quirky mural on the wall, Sue was particularly taken by it. As we were about to leave it was decided that a selfie was needed, in front of the Mural. One of the staff members offered to take it. She asked, " Do you want me to get the cows in?" "Yes," I replied "and could you get the ones on the wall in too" I thought she was going to faint, anyway she certainly looked like she was choking!

The photo

Both gorgeous ladies and fellow 'Chatterers' have blogged;

Sue's is here

and Chris' is here

Check them out if you haven't already.

And as if all that wasn't excitement enough for one day, before we even met up with Chris we checked out a few Op Shops! Two Suesdays, in two weeks! I hear you gasp. Yep, I know, must be summat in the water.....or wine, who can say. Whatever it is I'm gonna keep taking it.

My finds for the day were all from one shop, the Hospice shop in Cambridge,

 Balls, because quite frankly who doesn't like balls? Unless of course you are one of the aforementioned lesbians who probably don't like balls. At. All.

 3 wee milk bottles, because they are all the rage at the moment and who am I to miss out on all this rageyness!

 I know! I know! I hear ya! Yep more books but at a $1 each ya can't grumble can ya? But I did have a bit of a grumble because the Huckleberry Finn one was $3 which is still good, BUT I already have that bastard book *sob* This one is in better condition, so I shall re-gift the other. 

 Did you know that you can download a Book catalogue app onto your phone?

You scan ALL of your books and it saves them to your phone, this is a great way of NOT buying books you already have. Of course it helps to NOT leave your phone in the car whilst perusing bookshelves in the aforementioned Op Shops.*sigh*

Oh and one last thing, a quilt pattern

Because I don't have enough of those already, what are the chances that I already have this. 

I wonder if there's an app for that...............

See ya next time

So, what have I been reading? With a couple of book challenges thrown in.

As it's the first Book club meeting of 2017, I thought I would do a book post today. You may not have realised it but I love books, really luuuurrrrvve them. No shit Sherlock! I hear you yell. 😄
I finished last years Goodreads reading challenge, you can see what I read here.
This year I've set myself another goal of 36 books and already I have read 11, admittedly the first book was carried over from last year. I still finished it in 2017.  If you want more info on what I've read so far click here. 
The titles include a link to the Goodreads page where you can find further reviews.
Below are just my thoughts....

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres

I gave this ✮✮✮✮, I would have gone for 5 but I got really frustrated with the last few chapters. I had loved it up until then, funny, moving and tragic, the pages drew you in, right up until the end of the war when it, for me, took a bit of a nosedive. I won't say what exactly happened, no spoilers! But I was just frustrated with the outcome, but then I suppose life can be like that sometimes. Read it though it's still a good book.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt

I gave this ✮✮✮✮✮ I really enjoyed this, a bit of a surprise as it wasn't what I expected at all, i.e. a novel, it read like a novel but was in fact a work of nonfiction. What a bunch of characters he met whilst living in Savannah. Worth a read.

Anne of Green Gables; Three volumes in one - Lucy Maud Montgomery

It got ✮✮✮✮✮ how could it not? I've been working my way through each book about Anne Shirley, this volume contains books 1,2 & 5, five being Anne's house of dreams. This and the first, have to be my favourites. There are still more to read, yay!

A Good and Happy Child - Justin Evans

This only got ✮✮ I'm afraid, I couldn't make up my mind whether it was good or not, it left me feeling rather flat by the end. I was hoping for a really good thriller/horror and it didn't fit the bill. But then, I always loved Stephen King, and he takes some beating.

In Moral Danger -  Barbara Biggs

This got ✮✮✮✮✮ a true story of a remarkable woman who overcame a really shit start in life. Horrifying in places really, not for the faint hearted to be honest, it contains some very difficult subjects. 

A Boy in Winter - Maxine Chernoff

This I gave a resounding ✮✮✮✮✮, what an excellent story, I couldn't put it down, I read it in a day. Gripping and tragic, look out for it, I highly recommend it.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of food life - Barbara Kingsolver

Another ✮✮✮✮✮, a very interesting book about a year of living off the land, what they didn't grow themselves or buy locally, they didn't eat. Except for maybe things like coffee, who could give that up.It echoed a little of our lifestyle, especially the growing of food and endless preserving, although we're not in their league. Don't know where your food is coming from? Want to find out? Then read this for starters, it's an eye opener for sure. Scary too really, it did get a bit preachy at times, but I got past that. 

The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian - Sherman Alexie

✮✮✮✮✮ I've been very generous with the 5 stars this year haven't I? Well I've read some really good books so far. This was one of those books that however how tragic life must have been for Arnold AKA Junior, he refused to give up and fought to make a life for himself off the reservation. Brilliant, I loved it and it shouldn't be limited to Young adults. I am of course young at heart but slightly older in other places!

The Color Purple - Alice Walker

✮✮✮✮✮ Brilliant! Read it! Read the book, seen the film, just need the T-shirt! 😝

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

✮✮✮✮✮ Oh. My. Farkin'. God! Never have I been so tense, ever, reading a book! This was great, it'll keep you on the edge of your seat right until the end. Now to see the movie (expecting to be disappointed here) This was the first Book club book of 2017, I think we might have a good discussion about this tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.

And that's all of them so far, so many books so little time. I do have another book that I'm reading alongside the others, mainly because it's boring the tits off me! Why is it that some books, that are supposedly of literary acclaim, so flipping tedious. I shall persevere as it's a book of short stories and when I've finished it, I can tick it off my book challenge list. 

And linking smoothly on....(see what I did there!) to the 2017 Book challenges. these are in addition to the Goodreads challenge, yes I know, MORE challenges! I like a....well...challenge.

One challenge is the Popsugar 2017 reading challenge click here for more info. 

The other is Better World Books reading challenge 2017 click here for more info

The Popsugar challenge is quite a comprehensive list, whereas the BWB's one is less so. Ther aree some repeats on the two lists so I'm ticking of on both when acchieved. I've also managed to tick more than one box after reading The Color Purple. If it covers more than one, then I'm ticking all the relevant boxes, that way I get through the list faster. Should I have time at the end of the year, I can always go back and read more, but that seems unlikely.

Popsugar list - 8 ticked off

BWB's list - 5 ticked off.

Not a bad effort so far. So wanna join me? Go on, you know you want to. Oh and not sure what some of them mean, then Google it. It's going to be a interesting search for some books I reckon.

That'll do for now. Tomorrow is another Suesday, but this one is special, we're going to meet up for lunch with a fellow blogger, Chris from Diet Coke Rocks.    Recently discovered through a recommendation, thanks Janice, I think tomorrow is going to be fun with a lot more fun thrown in.

See ya'all next time.