Finished Children of the Night, it was very good, very engaging and well-written.
I would write more but I am feeling quite sick right now, bleaugh, serves me right for eating all the chocolate I had put by for Trick or Treaters (who I am now hiding from in the dark :D)

Two bookmooch books today:

Blast From the Past by Ben Elton

High Society by Ben Elton

(am mooching all of his books at once!)

And three books from a charity shop:

The First Wives Club by Olivia Goldsmith - more enjoyable pap

Asylum to Anarchy by Claire Baron - Heavy duty read about mental health issues

The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier - Childrens book about refugees from the Nazis.


I finished The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories -The title story was superb, really well written, atmospheric and unnerving. The other stories were sweet and surprising, I really enjoyed them and will be hanging onto the book.

So I have just these left to read

City of Night (now at about 210 pages)
Plague Year (getting creased in my handbag-no more progress)
Children of Night (only have until the 7th Nov-another 20 or so pages)
Love, Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages (as above- no more progress)
Pride and Prejudice (have the two 'sequels' coming soon and want to reread first-no more progress)

The Child was better today, but my god motherhood is feeling like a bit of an upward battle at the moment.

One book today, post arrived much later than usual. I guess the usual postman is off because it was someone in a fluorescent yellow vest doing his round today.

Gridlock by Ben Elton

Finished the Mitford Sisters on Sunday night and handed it over to mum on Monday. It was a super read, really fascinating. It was also well-written and easy to read, very important when dealing with biographies I think!

The Child has been terribly clingy and stroppy this week, I think because she misses her daddy, who is on experiment and out of contact (no phone, no webcam, limited email, working 18 hour days). We have been keeping our expeditions short and sweet as my nerves and patience are pretty much shredded now, probably not helped by the fact that I am premenstrual. So we have done a lot of reading, lots of cuddling and lots of children's TV (hurrah for Cbeebies!).

Two today:

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner - Dystopian future etc etc

Popcorn by Ben Elton - Slowly working my way through his books, really enjoy his style of writing.

Had to cancel a mooch yesterday, the idiot owner hadnt updated their inventory and no longer had the book. I was told to cancel if I wanted my point back (the 'accepted' procedure is that the owner should reject the mooch so they get the black mark on their record rather than me getting another cancel). I couldnt be bothered to argue so did it and now have 17 cancels for 301 successful mooches which is higher than I would like. 5 or 6 of those are from me waiting patiently for two weeks while the moocher merrily swanned in and out of her account ignoring my mooch requests. The others are from new moochers who abandoned their accounts before sending out any books (or letting their moochers know).

Books I have to read/ are reading and have to finish:

City of Night (30 pages in for too long)
Plague Year (getting creased in my handbag)
Children of Night (only have until the 7th Nov)
Love, Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages (as above)
(finished)The Mitford Girls (My mother is waiting for me to finish this and she is coming to visit on Monday)
Pride and Prejudice (have the two 'sequels' coming soon and want to reread first)
edit-added 26-10-08 The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories (argh got to stop browsing my shelves)

So what am I doing online?

More books today!

Dark Magic by Angus Wells - Book 2 of a fantasy trilogy. It goes without saying that I dont have the other two yet!

The Shadow in the North by Phillip Pullman - I have the Tin Princess, so just two more books to get in this series!

Lots of books today, poor postman! Three bookmooch parcels stuffed with books. The first one had 2 ladybird books in it for The Child on Vikings and Gladiators. The other two were from a regular moocher in America who always stuffs flat rate envelopes with as many books as she can fit in, including some for The Child that are freebies. Today was no exception and there were 5 freebies there for The Child. In addition there were 6 mooched books (as well as 2/3 I mooched for The Child) for me!:

The Next-Doors/The Silver Grill by Joan Tate - Light and fluffy 1960's teen romances.

Bobby's Girl by J.D Austin - About a female soldier from another planet experiencing earth.

The Sword of Winter by Marta Randall - A standalone fantasy novel with a female heroine

The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller - Part one of fantasy duology

The Awakened Mage by Karen Miller - Part Two of a fantasy duology (hurrah!)

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley- Connected to the Blue Sword which I received a few weeks back.


In addition I was lured in by the 20p basket outside ARC again and came home with 8 new books yesterday:

365 Things to Make and Do - big hardback book full of things to do.

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot - Yes, I know, there are now 9 in the series and its light and fluffy teen reading but the book looked like new.

Horrible Histories- Woeful Second World War - Love these.

Horrible Science - Ugly Bugs

Carrie's War by Nina Bawden - Loved this as a child, interested to see if it stands up to a reread.

Horrible Histories - The Measly Middle Ages - Looks brand new

Fergus Crane by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell - An award winning book apparently, looks brand new and I loved the cover, looks like something The Child might like in a few years.

The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy - Another book that looked new

Cant believe I got all of those for £1.60. Just need to work out where to put them all now!

One book today, a glorious new looking hardback book from Bookmooch.

Love Stories from World War II compiled by Larry King- looks like a nice happy book.

I also started and finished The Farthest-Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks, one of my favourites as a child and a recent Bookmooch acquisition. I only intended to read a few pages but ended up finishing it. It isnt often that a book read as a child still has the power to hold my adult attention but this one was just as good as I remembered.

Just one bookmooch book today:

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith - I think I have all the books previous to this one which would naturally be a good point to start reading the series..... except I have no idea where the others are, as they all got separated in the move. The series will have to wait until I have had a really good sort out of all six bookcases which are currently mostly double stacked and in two cases triple stacked...sigh. Just need the time and the motivation!

One bookmooch book today:

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin - A fluffy book for tired eyes and brains.

And one charity shop find:

Piratica by Tanith Lee - First in a series (sigh) about a young female pirate. Hurrah!

Two books today from a 30p rack outside a charity shop in town.

Wyrms by Orson Scott Card - Loved Enchantment. This one looks like a great fantasy with a strong female lead, hurrah!

Femmes Fatale by Tom Kuncl - True stories of the most vicious women on death row. Will be read and then passed on to Ali!

Finished Strangers at last. I wanted to like it, I really did, but I found myself skimming the last 40 or so pages unable to engage any longer with the subject material. Parts were really interesting but Robb crammed so much information in and assumed so much previous knowledge on the part of the reader that I found myself quickly swamped. In addition the lack of evidence for homosexual behaviour in the past means that a lot of the work was highly theoretical and relied on almost listing previous authors and what they have said about the subject.

I have taken refuge in The Mitford Girls and Children of the Night (fourth library book) and will be returning Strangers to the Library asap next week. I have renewed the last few library books so I no longer have to return all three on Monday, I now have untill 7-11-08, phew!

Bumper book day today:

3 Bookmooch books:

The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler - Heard a lot about it, determined to read it.

The Fall of the Shell by Paul Williams - Book 4 of the Pelbar cycle, just 5 more books to go before I have the series!

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay - Have made several unsuccessful attempts at mooching this before, offered extra points to secure it this time. Added to my enormous MUST READ NOW pile, hopefully it will be read before Christmas!


Went out to the shops, wandered past the lovely butcher, grocer and fantastic local produce shop picking up bits to refill our replacement fridge, when I noticed a basket of 20p books outside the ARC charity shop (think its arthritis care). Oh dear. Limited myself to five, three children's books for The Child and two for older children (which I will read and check for suitability for inclusion into The Child's library).

These two were:

The Tin Princess by Phillip Pullman
The Fairy Treasure by Gwyneth Rees - With the sort of cover that makes me wince but I suspect the sort of thing The Child will go for in a couple of years.

One book today - The Time of Dark by Barbara Hambly- Book two in a fantasy trilogy. I have book one, just waiting for book three to become available for mooching!

"Once upon a time there was a witch called Barry"....

was how I was woken up this morning by The Child who gave me a lie-in until 8.41am (hurray!) and then sat next to me 'reading' me stories until I felt human enough to get up. She only currently can recognise about 15 or so words but she can remember quite a lot of her favourite stories, almost verbatim in some cases...and of course she uses her imagination to fill in the gaps. This mornings' example was a leaflet about things to do in Essex that she had found on the floor and was very enamoured with. She is much better this morning and nighttime potty training seems to have 100% worked, we started one week ago and have had only two wet mornings on Wed and Fri, even when she wasnt well she managed to hold on. Really pleased as it saves a fortune on nappies etc.

I got my post brought to me in bed this morning by The Child (who in some ways is very much like a little dog!) who then took the rubbish downstairs to the recycling bin before stripping off her pyjamas and getting clean pants. She also managed to dress herself again (pink longsleeved top and cotton skirt which matched!) all by herself which I was very pleased about. Wont be long before she can do more household tasks (She is 3.4 years old so a while before we can expect cups of tea in bed though!).

She opened my parcel for me which turned out to be a Bookmooch book:

Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey - I havent been very impressed by these 'Once upon a time' retellings and have passed the majority of them on on Bookmooch. This one is based on Sleeping Beauty and came all the way from Australia. Fingers crossed this one is better!

The Child was not well at all in the night, so once I had stripped the bed and sorted her out on the sofa with towels and cuddles I took the opportunity to read and read. I had to stay alert for her so I was able to focus on reading and not my overwhelming desire to sleep (which is still very much there!). I managed to start and finish Firebird by Mercedes Lackey, which was just the ticket to take my mind off everything. A fairytale retelling of The Firebird fairy tale, it is set in Russia and is an interesting interpretation of the original story. I know a lot of people don't rate Lackey but these one off fairy tales are well-written fantasy escapism and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Just one book arrived today:

The Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell - 'The Biography of an Extraordinary Family'. The Mitfords certainly are an interesting family and I will probably start it today, if only for the fact that The Child is awfully clingy and I can't face a prolonged search for anything else (and dont want to take the library books anywhere near her at the moment!)

I am still reading Plague Year (handbag), City of Night (bedside table) and Strangers (living room) so I really need to crack on to finishing them before I feel too overwhelmed

Finished I am Legend. I liked the title story, there was a papable air of tension and terror but I felt it ended badly. The other stories were fine, but I have certainly read much better examples of the genre. I'll hang onto it for now, I think it could benefit from a calmer reread!

Just one again today- I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - The classic collection of stories including the famous title story about vampires!

The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper arrived today. Post-apocalyptic (of course) where society has evolved into male and female. Looks interesting.

Currently reading City of Night, Plague Year (got another few pages in at soft play yesterday) and am now on the third chapter of Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century by Graham Robb which is the third of my five library books.

The blackberry bush at the bottom of the garden produced half a cup of blackberries in the last week. I went and picked them just now and offered them to The Child. They are obviously a bit bitter but she is utterly determined to eat them all. I hope this determination continues to the home made minestrone soup that we are having for tea!

Two parcels, four books this morning!

First parcel yielded:

Wolfking by Bridget Wood - About a post-apocalyptic radioactive (?) Ireland, mixed up with Celtic mythology (or at least thats the impression I get).

and

Warrior Woman by Marion Zimmer Bradley - Short fantasy novel about a female warrior.

So that was a good parcel - post-apocalyptic (not the easiest word to spell repeatedly!) and strong female heroine!

Second parcel contained:

The Portable Dorothy Parker - Poems, stories, play reviews, articles, book reviews etc by Dorothy Parker.

and

Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter - Lovely hardback edition of this classic tale.

Another book posted through the door this morning. I was quite disappointed- I have got used to multiple parcel openings over breakfast. There might be a second delivery later of books that cant fit through the letterbox/are too heavy to be carted around by the postman, finger crossed!

The book that came today was:

The Walls of Air by Barbara Hambly - Book Two of the Darwath Trilogy. I have another one of the books coming, but the third is still to be mooched.

Three books today

Blow Your House Down by Pat Barker - Loved the Regeneration Trilogy and Union Street. Have been waiting for this one to appear on Bookmooch for quite a while.

The Ends of the Circle by Paul Williams - Book Two of the Pelbar Cycle which I think is 6 or 7 books. I just have this one so far! Postapocalyptic etc etc

The Pesthouse by Jim Crace - Another postapocalyptic story, hope it is good. I had to sit and wait for a reserve to expire on Bookmooch before I could get it, refreshing repeatedly!

I finished the escort book, the author failed to redeem herself in the last thirty pages. Having paid off all of her debts bar the mortgage, what did she do? Signed up for more debt in the form of a 7 seater 4x4. Still her children had plenty of hockey sticks, hope they didnt mind too much how their mother paid for them.

Fall of Tartarus has already been mooched and was sent today. I thought it would be sitting for a while, only really expected the 1/10 of a point from adding it. Hope they enjoy it, its certainly not the worst book I have ever read.

Finished the Urban Legends book, glad I read it, it was quite interesting although frustratingly inadequate at debunking, there were lots of undecideds. I would never buy the book though as all the material is drawn from a website, similar but inferior to Snopes.com.

Started the escort library book 'Call me Elizabeth'. Very quick and easy to read, lots of salacious detail about what she actually did but the author irritated me intensely. She became an escort to save her luxurious house and lifestyle and to keep her 6 children in private school after living beyond her means. The whole book seems to be a defense of her lifestyle - eg. her little daughter Victoria had to have £40 shoes, she was would rather her child's feet got squashed in too small shoes rather than buy a cheaper alternative. It is also packed full of exhortations to women to save their husbands from women like her, to tend to their needs and basically ignore any problems in their relationships. Got about 30 pages to go.

Still reading Plague Year and City of Night

Oh dear, four books again today, I am not going to be popular with the postal service here!

Two books from a 5 book series by Doris Lessing - Books One (Martha Quest) and Three (A Ripple From the Storm). Just need to mooch the other three!

The second book from Mercedes Lackey's Obsidian Trilogy - To Light a Candle - I just need to mooch number three now!

Finally Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess - Another dsytopian piece, set in London and telling the story of two rival gangs. I read and enjoyed Junk, although I didnt end up keeping it - its was a bit too simplistic and 'teen-fictiony' (my own special word there) for me.

I started Plague Year on the car journey home, so I broke my only two books at a time rule (also have City of Night and Urban Legends Uncovered on the go, but I think I can be excused as I have almost finished the Urban Legends one)

Just finished Wolf and Iron, what a super book! I honestly couldnt put it down and there is no way this one will be put up for mooching, I will definitely want to read it again. It follows the story of Jeebee, trying to cross America to get to his brother's ranch in the aftermath of the Collapse (a financial event which has reduced the world to the Iron Age). OK OK there were lots of parts where I raised the proverbial eyebrow, but the story was well written, appealed and was very exciting. Definitely not as depressing as The Road, with an ending that made me smile.

One book today:

Daughter of Earth by Agnes Smedley - Virago woman struggles and triumphs!

I am really pushing on with Wolf and Iron and the Urban Legends book so poor old City of Night has been somewhat left behind!

And two more this morning!

Winds of Fury by Mercedes Lackey - Part three of a trilogy. Part two is on its way and part one is yet to be secured! So quick and easy to read but Lackey has created a world that manages to keep me interested and hooked.

500 Recipes for Budget Meals edited by Susan O'Loughlan - Cookbook from the 1990's. Lots of interesting recipes that dont cost a fortune in ingredients. I am buoyed up by my cooking successes thus far including the amazingly quick and easy golden syrup pudding and the healthier minestrone soup! I made bread yesterday by hand, nothing better to get out all frustrations than ten minutes of kneading pliant bread dough.

I also started Wolf and Iron, its very good. I only intended on reading for 15 minutes this morning but ended up reading for almost an hour!

In other news I appear to now be a comfortable UK size 16 in clothes, which is astonishing considering I was close to a 20 less than a month and a half ago. No diet required just an international house move and the removal of artificial hormones (the Implanon implant) from my body. I am now wearing clothes I havent been able to wear for 3.5 years and am even in my size 16 jeans that I stroked longingly for years in Switzerland!

Four Bookmooch books today:

Year Zero by Jeff Long - two thousand year old plague unleashed on the world.
Plague Year by Jeff Carlson - Nanotechnology evolves into a machine plague which wipes out 5 billion people.
The Rift by Walter J. Williams - Massive earthquake causes a rift across America.

(Notice a theme!?)

And finally:

Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper - A sort of time travel, fantasy fairy tale. Looks super.