So this book had been sitting on my TBR shelves for a couple of years now, having had rave reviews, and I was in the mood for something a bit more literary. Unfortunately I really disliked it, in the same way that I disliked Lolita and Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence. It's a narrative about something horrible, by the person who is doing the ( Read more... )

Another lovely day, so I set out to explore a bit more of Cambridgeshire. Again I stayed relatively close to home, but chose a route that followed two pathways that I had wanted to cycle along for a while. I was armed with the largest scale ordnance survey map (or should that be the smallest scale, not sure), and acquired some cycling leggings ( Read more... )

I hadn't seriously been on my bicycle since I broke my collar-bone, which is over 15 months ago now. Curiously the accident didn't put me off driving, but it made me a bit diffident about cycling, as I could only too easly imagine falling off and breaking something again ( Read more... )

Not being fond of having grey hair I've had coloured hair for a while, but I've always been able to rely on professionals to provide it, most lately my excellent hairdresser Ian.  This was my first attempt at DIY, and an exciting adventure for me.  Ian had in fact sent me a note of the shades that he uses, but I suspected I should stay off the ( Read more... )

In case anyone has not read this yet, Amazon have it for 99p today.  It's a hugely entertaining space opera reminiscent of Ann Leckie.  First half of a duology, the sequel is promised later this year.

Got my bike out today for the first time in months to take a trip into town.  Everywhere is very quiet, the few people visiting the few open shops (bike shops, food shops and chemists) enthusiastically practising social distancing.  Some have face masks, others wear gloves.  I have ordered some face masks from Etsy but they haven't arrived yet.  I ( Read more... )

So here we are.  A lot of things have happened since I last posted.  It wasn't a conscious decision to stop, I just never got round to making the next post.  But as we are shut up at home, venturing out to the shops and for our daily state-mandated exercise, I am feeling that I would like to start communicating again ( Read more... )

I missed my usual post last year because of being laid up with a broken collarbone after a car accident.  Somehow it knocked me out of my groove and I haven't got back to posting at all, which is a shame.  I'll try to post more in 2020.

The accident did however mean that I spent Christmas and January mostly lying on the sofa, reading and watching ( Read more... )

This is a public service announcement for anyone who was interested in my review of the above ( Read more... )

I have a list of 125 books that I read last year. Here are the ones I most enjoyed, in order of reading. I've added some brief notes of what I remember about them, but my memories may not be entirely accurate.  I have included some novellas, but not short stories.

SFF

M R Carey - Fellside - a very grim tale of life in a women's prison, but worth it ( Read more... )