Blog alerts

Gosh Morag you will need to tell me what this magic book is. My house is looking very grubby just now, all dust and empty wine bottles...

Just wanted to say if you would like to get email alerts telling you when there is a new post on the book group blog you can go to www.rssfwd.com, enter the web address of the site (http://lerwickbookgroup.blogspot.com) and your email address. This should also work for other blogs you are interested in.

Speed cleaning rules!

Having digested the rules for cleaning your entire house in 15 minutes, (see previous post), I managed to zip through six rooms yesterday evening, and by 7pm I had five hours in front of me to do whatever I wanted! So I finished Lost Horizon (still no answers!) and started Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama. I now feel my reading is getting back on track. This weekend I have to read several European fairytales in preparation for a multi-lingual storytelling session on Monday - Karen,what have you got me into??

Crime fest

Me, I've been up to my eyes reading the 15 authors on this year's CWA Dagger in the Library Award longlist. It's an onerous responsibility, I can tell you. A big variety of writing styles. I'm off to the judging lunch in London next week, and then I have to keep my mouth shut about it for another two months until the winner is announced. I will be very pleased to read something that's not crime-related when this is over. Had no time for Patricia Highsmith yet, which is a pity, though I did previously read The Talented Mr Ripley, which is one of my favourite books.

reading all over the place.....

Yes, I must admit I have been neglecting the blog lately on the grounds that I can't seem to settle to any one book these days. I took a Sophie Konsella with me to Glasgow last month as it wasn't too demanding and it kept me laughing on the plane, even when we hit fairly severe turbulence which would probably have had me screaming otherwise!
My bedtime book at the moment is James Hilton's Lost Horizon. Sadly,the only reason I am reading this is because it's supposed to be the original inspiration for the TV series Lost,so I'm looking for deeper meanings and explanations! So far I haven't found any,but it's actually a really good read and I should finish it this weekend. Then I'll be reading some Patricia Highsmith - I'm not sure which one to choose as I have two set aside,but I'll no doubt find something to speak about at the next Bookgroup meeting. Oh,and I'm also reading a book on how to clean your entire house in 15 minutes -yeah,that'll be right!

Dagger in the Library

Well done Laura for kicking the blog back into life. We had been neglecting it a bit. Thoroughly recommend The Talented Mr Ripley - great book, very tense, strange ammoral central character. Made an excellent film too. I did read one of the follow-ups and wasn't so sure he's the sort of character who should have been followed up! I think Patricia Highsmith is an interesting writer, and hope I get a chance to read some before the next meeting. But until the 21st May I have all my reading mapped out as I plough through 15 authors for the Dagger in the Library award for which I am a judge.
Am really enjoying the process, if not necessarily all the authors. I think me and the other judges may have different tastes so it will be a long hard-fought judges lunch, but I've never been one to complain about a long lunch!

Catching up

Well the last time I sat down to type up a new post on the blog I was going to have a rant about Sacrifice, but then I saw that one or two others really enjoyed it, so I quietly slunk away! Actually it wasn't that bad and as a crime novel it read quite well.
It was great to get back to a book group meeting again after a gap of several months. Unfortunately meetings tend to clash with work on ocassion, but I have to say that I feel mightily privileged that my tardiness has been forgiven and I have been asked to continue as the chair of the group. I hope to make up for past meetings missed by putting in a much better attendance over the coming year.
Having said that, I wont be able to attend the next meeting - Arrgghh! As I shall be away, but I am going to read some Patricia Highsmith and will take one or two of her books to read whilst I am away, and possibly a biography as well as I see there have been several written about her.
I was checking out Patricia Highsmith on Amazon and though I knew she had written a fair few books, I had no idea she was so prolific -and reading the synopsis of various titles, a lot of them look quite good, so hard to choose really, though I shall read the 'Ripley' series. I remember attending a lecture in Bristol a few years ago all about Patricia Highsmith, it was very interesting and she was a pretty eccentric character -kept siamese cats and wrote about those too.

Dead Man's Fingers

Daniel Craig most definitely - I think Ewan McGregor's too pretty though. Who's that guy that played the monk in the Da Vinci Code? He could be a minor baddie.

Reading-wise, I've gone back to finish Death in Breslau after a diversion to read a few other things. Has a strange style but is rather good, kind of jaunty and not as mournfully philosophical as some of the Central European books we read.

I've also just read Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour. In this book he heads off round the world trying local dishes in exotic places (and the UK). Some time ago I read his first book, Kitchen Confidential, a tell-it-like-it-is account of being a chef in New York's kitchens. It struck a chord as I used to be a chef, and his writing is amusing and gritty, his voice (I imagine) is a New York-too-may-cigarettes-snarl. Describing a horrible meal he's forced to eat in France, watched by his apalled brother: "He looked at me as if I was gnawing the flesh off a dead man's fingers and washing it down with urine...".