Entries 69
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Restaurant Babylon (Review - Second Entry Today)
My second entry today’s going to be a bit of a short one. Restaurant Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous (384 pages) is twenty four hours in the life of a divorced owner of three food ...
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (248 pages) is a re-read for me, and was one of six books I bought for myself on my birthday a couple of weeks ago. (I’ve already read and reviewed tw...
The Sirens of Titan/The Bell Jar (Reviews)
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (pages: 224) is about Winston Niles Rumfoord and his dog Kazak. The pair flew into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, which means they spend their time as ener...
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (REVIEW)
There may or may not be spoilers in this entry....I loved this book. When Mary Yellan promises her dying mother that she will go and live with her aunt and uncle, she has no idea the danger that ...
Sharp Objects/The Day of the Triffids (REVIEWS)
I’m not sure why I picked up Sharp Objects (Gillian Flynn, 328 pages including acknowledgements and reading notes). The story is about Camille Preaker, who is sent to investigate the disappearanc...
Divorce, divorce
Well, it's raining yet again. I'm thinking of going to the gym this afternoon for a little while. My mother emailed me this morning - to inform me that my brother and sister-in-law have separat...
An exchange
I went and grabbed a coffee and breakfast at a café before I started work yesterday. As I got up and grabbed my bag, I noticed a couple and their daughter (a year or so old) at a table near the d...
Dark Places/Cat's Cradle (REVIEWS)
In Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (Pages: 424, including Acknowledgments), Libby Day has been spending several years drifting since giving damning evidence against her older brother in court as a c...
My father
Just a very quick entry tonight. I want to go and finish my paper journal entry that I started earlier (four pages in, already - a mix of writing up my trip to Malaysia and Vietnam in 2010 and pr...
Mrs Dalloway/Gone Girl (REVIEWS)
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (Pages: 172) is the story of Clarissa Dalloway and some of her acquaintances on the day of her throwing a party. Remembrances of their past and incidents over the c...
Scary Garden Gnomes
Not a good start to today - I managed to lock myself out of the house earlier this morning, and my neighbours weren’t home so I couldn’t ring for a locksmith. So I had to break in to get in, and ...
47mm of rain
Bit of a short entry today. I'm feeling a bit tired at the moment, despite my going to bed uber-early last night. I was awake at 1am to go to the bathroom, then got back to bed and dozed for the ...
Burial Rites/No Fixed Abode (REVIEWS)
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (pages: 338, including Author’s Note and Acknowledgements) is set in Iceland in 1829. Agnes Magnusdottir is sentenced to death for her involvement in the murder of two...
Q and A
Had next to no sleep last night, and have been out of bed since about 4.20 this morning (it’s now nearly 8 am). So, it’s going to be a short entry this morning. All I can remember from my dream o...
Lest we forget
It's ANZAC Day here in Australia. And I couldn't help thinking about one of my ancestors - one of my great-grandfathers on my mother's side. I know very little about my great-grandparents on my...
Queen Emma and the Vikings by Harriet O'Brien (REVIEW)
This is the biography of the woman who was to marry two kings (Aethelred “the Unready” and Cnut/Canute) and is set in eleventh century England. She was great-aunt to William the Conqueror and saw...
Pregnancy dream
A really short entry today. I dreamt of being in a hospital ward as a patient, and getting in a row with the clinical nurse on duty. So much so that I end up writing a note of complaint saying th...
Strange Pilgrims (pages: 188) is a collection of short stories and the first GGM work that I’ve read in a while. A few of these stuck with me long after I turned the last page. The prostitute who...
RIP to another author, and another entry on books
RIP to another author: Firstly, RIP to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Another great author. I read Strange Pilgrims this past week, which I loved. A definite keeper. When I heard the news, I dug out my ...
RIP to two influential (to me) authors
I know it’s a few days late, but I just felt like posting the following. Both Sue Townsend and Doris Pilkington Garimara have passed away. For those who don’t know either, Townsend wrote the Adr...
During the last couple of weeks, I’ve finished three books worth reviewing. The first one is The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon (272 pages, with appendix). The story...
Struggling to continue The Book Thief
I’m really struggling with The Book Thief. Although I like the concept, the writing comes across as very stilted. I’m not sure how I feel about Death narrating, but the asides and “observations” ...
Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom (REVIEW)
In 1540, Matthew Shardlake is trying to keep his legal practice going. He finds himself racing against time to try and solve two cases - he’s the defence lawyer for a girl accused of murdering he...
Brief points on various things
On Books: So I've picked up a few books recently. The one I've just started is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm only about four pages in so far. The other books I've bought today include Rebec...
This is the story of feuding sisters Vera and Nadezhda, who find themselves uniting against a common enemy. Their 84 year old father’s new wife, thirty six year old Valentina, a woman who is noth...
Book Description
Old entries.
