Book Group Whethering Heights

We had a rest from reading for the book group. We had been promised a much trumpeted 'BBQ Summer' as forecast by the Met office. Considering the Met Office is only located a few miles away - as the crow flies - just how could they get it so wrong? And considering they are unable to correctly forecast the near future then just how wrong can they be when warning us all of Global Warming??

Anyway - getting back to our Book Group. As it has been wet windy and cold we are going to read Judith O Reilly's book : 'Wife in the North'. At the beginning of September I'll find out what the rest of the group think of it. I still believe it is funny, touching, sad, funny again but nowhere near as good as her blog. If you happen to be new to Judith's blog be sure and read 'Strife in the North'. It's bestto read each of their posts in chronological order: first WITN then SITN as per these examples from May 2007.

Meme for the Bookish

Merri tagged me the other day. I thought I might have to think up some more truthful, embarrassing or quirky facts about myself and expose them on my blog. But no - this is different, it has a form of randomness to it ... once you've selected the book.

Here are the rules:

Step 1 – take a book from the book shelf.
Step 2 – turn to page 123.
Step 3 – read and write out the 5th sentence.
Step 4 – tag 5 more people.

I have 3 bookcases. So first I had to choose which set of shelves to attack. I discarded all the encyclopedia, the books on 'How to Play Bridge' or any self improvement books such as 'How to Win Friends and Influence Money'. I was left with the choice between a book from all the books purchased but as yet unread or selecting an old favourite.

In the end I chose a very old favourite -

Lord Chesterfield's "Letters to His son and Others" a paperback version published by Dent ISBN 0 460 11823 4

"He sometimes affects hard words by way of ornament, which he always mangles,like a learned woman. A man of fashion never has recourse to proverbs and vulgar aphorisms; uses neither favourite words nor hard words; but takes great care to speak very correctly and grammatically, and to pronounce properly, ..... . "

As you can see from the excerpt which is taken from page 123 beginning with the 5th sentence [along with this page of ' quotes'] these letters were from a very different age; written by a Gentleman.

I now nominate the following to take up this meme and, if they have the time to, run with it:

1. Stinking Billy
2. Merryweather
3. Maggie May
4. Teeni
5. Canon Bass 1

If you call in and read this and want to take part please feel free to do so.

Speaking for Myself

'Speaking for Myself' is the title of Cherie Blair's book which apparently has been rushed out earlier than the planned autumn release date. Perhaps she is worried that by the October no-one will have £18.99 spare cash left to waste on a work of fiction/faction. Speaking for Myself I find the idea of reading 'Speaking for Myself' by Cherie Blair to be a complete waste of time. It sounds as if she is trying to get us to like her and see everything from Tony's point of view. But all it appears to do is highlight how greedy, vulgar and self deceiving the woman is. Cherie must think we are all less than intelligent. Why should we believe any of this? After all she has admitted she is not incapable of telling 'pork pies'. Her husband is also a stranger to the truth. She only confessed to fibbing when 'found out'.

Speaking for Myself I'm also amazed that she was so embarrassed by being found to have a 'contraceptive' device in her luggage that she decided to leave it at home. Why not carry it in her handbag? Being such a devout Catholic female maybe this was the contraceptive device she chose for Tony to use.

At least this latest outing of the B Liars serves to remind us of just how grateful we should be that bungling Gordon 'Prudence' Brown did manage to remove Teflon Tony and the 'Cat Trainer' from office.

Update: 16th May - and who would like to guess just who this eager beaver of a reader and reviewer on the Amazon website is?? Me thinks it is probably a publisher/editor desperate to get the sales up - or maybe even a 'pen' name of Cherry Booth/Blair QC.

I agree with the Judge who thought she should resign as part- time Judge. Imagine standing in court and having this loose mouthed loose morals female pronouncing Judgement on your behaviour! HUH!

Birdsong

If you want to relax and listen to Birdsong then tune in to DAB radio 's Oneword. No it isn't an audio book version of Seb Faulkes Birdsong. It is a lovely soothing peaceful rendition of bird song. Apparently, Oneword closed due to a lack of listeners. The few of us who listened were probably irritated by the fact that half a dozen plays/audio books were repeated several times during 24 hours. However, to have birds' songs playing in the back ground is a different matter. The station now has thousands of listeners tuning in. It is so soothing - especially if you want something to lull you to sleep.

A Lazy Summer Day Reading

Summer should be an opportunity to read a book in the shade from the hot, hot sun. But this year that just seems like a forgotten dream.
I see that Jenny has almost finished reading R F Delderfield's "To Serve Them All My Days". A beautiful tale. A really good read in 1972. I revisited it recently for book club. I found it long and slow. It may be due to the fact I knew the story so well. I also assume that as the pace of life has increased it is harder to slow down to that quieter time in the early 1970's and take in a long leisurely descriptive read. I seem to have lost the knack lately of immersing myself completely in a long tome. I remember in the 1970's talking to an older woman who never read a book a second time "life's too short" and I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't understand how if you have enjoyed a book then why not re-read it and savour it a second time. She would also refuse to finish a book if she was not enjoying it. Again I used to read on all the way to THE END - regardless. But now I've turned into an older woman. I understand exactly what she means. I don't think the books have changed but I have.

Reading Group Homework

I'm still here. I've just been rather busy of late. And now I have to get on and read "A Short History of the Tractors of the Ukrainian" for discussion at the book group meeting on Friday afternoon. I want to appear an intellectual. I don't want to have to bluff. I don't want to appear like a menopausal air head. So I'd better read it. I've just collected our next book this afternoon. "Bookseller of Kabul" and almost started on that instead. I am very undisciplined sometimes.

The Whiteoaks of Jalna

Right - now how many of you remember these books? Did you ever read them? I used to love them as a teen. I think I'll have to get one to read for a trip down memory lane. The author was Mazo de la Roche. I loved books where you had a whole raft of characters that you could meet again and again with each subsequent saga. Just like a soap opera. The whole idea of a family living on an estate in a family house with that whole clan thing going on was the kind of life I always saw as 'perfect'.

I see that her real name was Mazo Roche but that she added the 'de la' . This set me wondering as to what name I would like to be known as an author. Penelope de la Southwell doesn't have quite the right ring to it. How about:

• Canola de la Colyford


• Olive de la Oyl [it does flow off the tongue]


• Corinne de la Beer


• Theresa che Green


• Tabitha de la Ware


• Penelope Deadly

I can see I'll have to give this subject some deep consideration. Until I have a name how can I write a book?

Holidays - Are They Worth It?

Although I do not for a moment regret seeing family and friends, the fact I collected a cold followed by sinus infection does make me wonder whether the break away was really conducive to re-charging my batteries. I've done very little since my return to base. When I was away I had so many fresh ideas I was full of projects I wanted to start upon my return home. But over the last 2 weeks I've been full of anti-histamine, decongestants and pain killers I've done nothing more than droop around doing the basic daily chores. I've now reached the stage that I'm beginning to forget what the projects are that I was once so keen to get on with. My get up and go that was so fired up, during my first week away, has once again got up and gone.

But maybe my long held dream of writing a book and (big day dream this) of actually getting into print should be got under way. As, according to Yahoo my stars for today: -

Pisces
Something is coming to an end concerning the lack of confidence you have in yourself, dear Pisces. You have been hesitating to stand in the spotlight for quite a while now, feeling you are not quite ready. Well, no more excuses! Ready or not, you are going to have to push forward. The only thing you risk losing is your pride, and that is most resilient.

After all, Mary Wesley had her first adult book published when she was 70. So it's not too late!

It's All In the Stars

Are Pisceans in particular attracted to writing - especially blogs. I wonder if there is a statistics site somewhere on the various star signs and the number of bloggers for each. It just seems to me that every time I find a new blog that makes me stop to read it I find out they are Pisceans too. I notice that not many of them put a hint as to their age though.

Now I've just come back from book group - this afternoon. What a waste of time. The woman in charge (well she setup the reading group) seemed half asleep and more dozy than usual. I can't work out whether she is highly intelligent and deep or whether she's an ageing airhead. I'm not even sure that she had read the book. She didn't draw me out enough in the group - I found it difficult to articulate what I felt about the book and it's only now on reflection that I can say: I liked the male characters but the main female left me quite detached and uninterested in her or her fate. I loved Sam. I loved how he sorted out his relationship with his father. Everyone else felt it was a good read and we were all surprised that Rosie Thomas turned out to be a better writer than we imagined. I skipped quite a bit of the mountaineering sections as I'm not keen on heights. I'd be very surprised if I read another of Rosie's books.