LyzzyBee dysfunction

Well I don’t know how I used to cope with 1 hour 20 commutes in London, I was used to 20 mins in on the bus, 45 mins walk home some nights. This 90 mins each way is a killer. Plus one or 2 days a week I need to do a 8 hour day and cos they close at 5, I have to get there at 8.30. Which means leaving the house at 6.50. Which means getting up before 6 if I am going to get my a*se into gear and be awake to get in!

So – sorry if….

– I don’t answer your posts
– I don’t reply to your answers to my posts
– I dodge out of pretty well all social engagements for the duration
– I don’t answer emails
– I walk past you in the street cos I am actually asleep but with open eyes painted on my eyelids

Cheers chaps. Will try to post book reviews… some time…

Over and zzzzzzzzzz

JILLY COOPER – The Common Years (DNF)

Abought 31 December 2006 – LT Books in Derby

I thought this was going to be a jolly book about nature etc but unfortunately a lot of the first third was about her dog killing cats (she was upset about it) and then what happened to the dog. So I gave up.

DIANA SOUHAMI – Wild Girls: The Love Life of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks

Bought 31 December 2006 – Bookends

A joint biography, well done. The two ladies in question revolved on the edge of the Bloomsbury crowd, hence my interest in the work as it fits in with a major collecting policy (apart from Must Buy All The Books In The World). The footnotes explaining all of the subsidiary characters annoyed me a little, but I need to learn that not everyone knows who these people are!

The little glimpses into ?the writer’s life popped between chapters were interesting and offered a commentary on the main work – a little like the multi-layering in Michael Cunningham’s “The Hours”

DENIS MACKAIL – Greenery Street (Persephone)

25 December 2006 – From Bridget for Christmas

A lovely, lovely book about Ian and Felicity’s first year of married life in the idyllic Greenery Street – little arguments, problems with the servants, money and neighbours, a little like the life of the Provincial Lady but in a novel. Oh, it was just so sweet!

DAVID PEARSON – English Bookbinding Styles 1450-1800

Acquired 21 Dec 2006 – Birmingham University Library

You’d never guess this was a book for work, now, would you!

For my work in Stratford, I have to make notes on the binding of each book – I was recommended this book to help me. It is very good and clear, with lots of examples and a useful appendix. I think I can tell calf from goat from sheep and I know a lot more about marbling now!

It was quite interesting, actually, in a funny sort of way.

CHRISTINE PULLEIN-THOMPSON – Mystery At Black Pony Inn

Acquired via BookCrossing 04 May 2006 from Weebly

An exciting pony adventure with lots of mistaken identities and confusions.

Just slipped under the goalposts to make this month’s Sponsored Read total.

SHARON OWENS – The Tea House on Mulberry Street

Acquired via BookCrossing 20 Feb 2007 – BookRing

I enjoyed this gentle read, very reminiscent of Maeve Binchy in tone, words and content, but none the worse for that. The characters were interwoven nicely but without stretching the bounds of possibility, and there was enough gentle satire to outweigh the sad and romantic bits. I would like to read her next book, though it has amused me that I needed to join a Canadian bookring to find a new Irish writer to enjoy!

SUSIE VEREKER – Pond Land And Paris

Bought 09 Dec 2006 – at the Transita Day (I think)

This was my second Susie Vereker novel and I think I preferred it to An Old-Fashioned Arrangement, simply because it was more about families and people and relationships and less thrillery. I love the way Susie writes her slightly arrogant men, a touch of her acerbic pen makes them all the more believable. Charlotte and Alice were great, and Kiki just on the right side of likeable. The story was interesting and absorbing, and you could feel for the characters. Not everything was tied together neatly at the end, which I also like, and apart from one little thing (the cat… most unTransita!) this was a pleasing and satisfying read.

E.M DELAFIELD – Consequences

25 December 2006 – Christmas present from Heaven-Ali

I was thrilled to open this on Christmas Day, as it completes my collection of (published now) E.M.Delafield novels. It’s an interesting if a little gloomy read. Inspired by a feminist viewpoint, she uses the novel to pour scorn on the fact that, at the turn of the 19th-20th century, a woman of a certain class *had* to snare a husband, or basically be doomed. Her heroine is a careful study of a weak character, and not a particularly likeable one, who lurches from mistake to mistake, ending up in a downward spiral she cannot escape. And her sisters and sister-in-law are, too, trapped in their choices.

Very interesting, and a wonderful character study – a real feel for the era.

ROBB FORMAN DEW – The Evidence Against Her

Acquired via BookCrossing 13 Feb 2007 – BookRing (passed to me by LindyB when I wasn’t even on it!!)

I really enjoyed this tale of life in a small town in America. The characters and their times were woven together skillfully – though you do feel that it IS the first part of a series (are you going to get and ring the others, Audrey? If so – put my name down)

It reminded me of “And Ladies Of The Club”, with a similar love of the town and its life.