Sep
30
2010
3

September books

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot is such a lovely and gentle read. This book is the first three books he wrote all combined into one volume. It follows him through getting his job in Darrowby right though to meeting and marrying his wife Helen. Along the way there are so many lovely characters, so many stories which made me giggle – slightly embarrassing when you are sitting on the bus.

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The Coffin Dancer by Jeffrey Deaver is a cracking read. Paraplegic ex-detective Lincoln Rhyme comes up against his old adversary whom he calls the coffin dancer. Percey Clay, pilot of struggling chart service loses nearly everything when her husband dies in a plane crash caused by a bomb explosion. He died because he was a witness in a case and he was being eliminated. Fast-paced and exciting. One of Deaver’s better books.

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Fractured by Karin Slaughter is a crime novel featuring Special Agent Will Trent. A moth arrived home to find her daughter lying dead in a pool of blood in her house, and over her is crouching a young man, who the mother proceeds to strangle. She believes her life is in threat and acts in self-defence. What unravels is a kidnapping and a story of a man targeting attractive. Blonde young women. The detective has a big secret though, he has severe dyslexia which makes it difficult to do his job,, but it also makes him intuitive and helps him to think more creatively. A good book with a pacey story and nice characters. Worth a read.

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to be a nice frothy chick-lit book. It was not. It is about domestic violence and control, and more than that it is about paedophilia. Poppy and Serena are 15 years old when they separately get involved with their history teacher Marcus. He uses and abuses them, and yet they still adore them because psychologically he is very clever and manipulative. However, one day he is stabbed and both the grls are put on trial for murder. Poppy is convicted and Serena is cleared. Fast-forward 20 years when Poppy is released form prison she goes to find Serena to get her to admit the murdering Marcus. Serena’s husband has no idea of her history and the revelation is devastating. A brilliantly written book and definitely worth reading.

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At Risk by Patricia Cornwall is really terrible book, and I never thought I would say that about a Patricia Cornwall book. I still have very little idea what the story was actually about other than there were some forensics in it. the story never really got off the ground and the characters were shallow and not very believable. When I read it I felt that this was a book that was rushed out to make a bit more money, kind of a filler book and not a very good one. It would seem that I am not the only person to think that – it has terrible Amazon reviews!

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8th Confession by James Patterson is a much better example of a crime novel than the last book! A killer is on the loose targeting fit, healthy and extremely wealthy individuals. It would seem that they die in their sleep without and indication of what has killed them. A team of women; a detective, a medical examiner a journalist and an attorney are all involved in the problem-solving around this case. An enjoyable book and I especially liked it because all the characters were women.

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I expected The Fabulously Fashionable Life of Isabel Bookbinder by Holly McQueen to be as good as the Shopaholic series that it has been compared to. What I got was a very poor substitute. I am amazed that anyone could creat a character who is soooo stupid. I expect people to be a little bit ditzy, but to be so naiive is unbelievable. I did quite enjoy the ending but it was a bit of a silly book all in all.

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Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult was a really good read. Delia is a 32-year old mother of a 4-year-old daughter. She lives near her doting and supportive father and believes that her mother died in a car accident. Then she finds out that her father had kidnapped a child, and that child was her. Her father is remanded and put on trial and Delia has to deal with meeting her mother. As the memories come back to her they are not all she expected them to be. This was a good read and I enjoyed the story. I had great sympathy with each of the characters, partly because each chapter is narrated by a different person so you get so many different perspectives on the story. A good novel.

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The Quickie by James Patterson and MIchael Ledwidge is a pretty good read. Lauren Stillwell sees her husband with a pretty blonde woman and jumps to the conculsion that they are having an affair. She feels betrayed then starts her own affair with her work colleague. All is going well until she sees her husband beating her boyfriend to death. What makes this more complicated is that she is put in charge of the investigation to find out who killed him. She spends all her energy trying to prevent anyone knowing that she knows the truth and as a result their lives begin to unravel in multiple ways.

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Things Your Mother Never Told You by Olivia Lichtenstein is a great read. Ros is a middle-aged woman whose life is starting to come apart at the seams. Her marriage of 20 years is collapsing and her 18-year old sons set off on a round-the-world jaunt leaving her in a empty house with just the dog for her company. Her mother died a few months before, a mother who she always felt was rather cold and distant, but when she starts going through her things she finds some rather unexpected information. Her mother was born and brought up in South Africa and was involved with the political movement the ANC. This is a great story because it addresses the issues of family relationships, but also has a fab parallel story set in the past. I really enjoyed it and would like to read her other novels.

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Swimsuit by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is a reasonably good read. A swimsuit model is found dead in a hotel in Hawaii… the scene was dressed and what follows is the tale of a serial killer and his perverted followers who pay for his snuff films. Not a bad book but it was pretty graphic, especially some of the murder scenes. Once again Patterson has about a million chapters in each book. Think it took me about 4 hours to read!

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The Overlook by Michael Connelly is a fairly poor read which is a shame as I think he is quite a good author. Detective Harry Bosch is trying to discover who murdered a chemist and stole a pile of radioactive substances. The books is short, and it would seem that it has been souped up from a newspaper series. It kind of shows. The plot is a bit thin and is quite repetitive. Wasn’t a great read and I finished it in super-fast time… ie. started in bed one night and fnished on the bus the next morning!

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Angels Fall by Nora Roberts is a pretty good read, rather unexpectedly I think! Reece Gillmore is constantly on the move, trying to escape from the memories of a horrifying gun attack which killed several of her friends and left her on life-support. Fortunately her car breaks down in a tiny little town and she ends up getting a job and staying. All is well until she witnesses a murder whilst she is out walking. Things starting getting weird for her, and people start thinking she is going bonkers from post-traumatic-stress. A good read and it took me quite a while to work out who the killer was!

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The Husband by Dean Koontz is one of his less weird books. Landscape gardener Mitchell rafferty is minding his own business when he receives a phone call from an individual saying they have kidnapped his wife and they want a ransom of 2 million dollars. To prove they are in control they shoot a passerby who is walking near him. This is an exciting and fast-paced book, and it was quite interesting to see the main character grow a backbone as the book went on. An easy read!

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Going it Alone by Clare Dowling is about Millie and Andrew, a newly married couple. The only problem is she is 29 with a loudly ticking biological clock. She is faffing about it with ovulation tests etc etc and Andrew suddenly decides he doesn’t want a baby. Millie finds herself with a big decision to make so she resolved to have a baby on her own. I really like this book – possibly because Millie is almost certainly what I would be like at 39 if I still didn’t have any children! A good read with a predictable ending.

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Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
Sep
26
2010
2

The Big Green Food and Craft Festival

We had another fun day out yesterday along with Tom and Anne and the boys and Anne’s parents. We went to Beningborough Hall, a National Trust property which is quite near to York. They were holding their first Big Green Food and Craft Festival.

Fortunately it was a nice day as most of the events were outside. There were various stalls to wander around and things to learn, such as how to make charcoal, how to compost and also lots of events for the kids including icing biscuits and making scarecrows. It was just nice to be at an event where they were promoting organic food and recycling and reusing as much as possible. There was also a tent which had lots of stalls selling crafts and foods. My favourite was one called Quernus Crafts and the woman behind the stall told me that she gave up working as a lawyer to make the cutest little fimo creatures. I particularly fell in love with the cats. they were just so cute, with the sweetest expressions on their faces!

A brilliant day. We ate loads and wandered around, and Anne and I finished up the day with a quick turn around the house. It was very pretty, but we were more interested in the interactive portrait maker, even if I don’t think it looks like us at all!

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Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags:
Sep
16
2010
8

The Young Ones

Over the last three nights the BBC has broadcast a show called The Young Ones. It featured 5 celebrities who are in their 70’s and 80’s… Lionel Blair, Sylvia Syms, Liz Smith, Dickie Bird, Derek Jameson and Kenneth Kendal.

They subjected then to a battery of cognitive and physical testing and then they put them into a house that recreated 1975 in the decor, food they ate and their entertainment. The idea was to return them to a time when they were far more able and in the prime of life. At the end of the week they repeated the tests to see if they had improved.

It was a great show. The celebrities were hilarious and the change in some of them was especially marked. Prior to the show Dickie Bird had been living alone and had a stroke and other major surgery and he also appeared quite depressed. he formed a close friendship with Derek Jameson and by the end of the week his physical abilitiy had improved but more importantly his mental state seemed to have improved massively. I just loved the show and how happy the participants were to be around other people who enjoyed having fun.

I remain unconvinced that taking them back to 1975 was what made the difference to them – I believe it was the friendship, inspiration and challenges that having other people around gave them. It made me think that anyone who runs a nursing home/care home should watch this programme. They could learn a lot about giving older people the opportunity to continue their lives in a productive fashion. Great watch and I am sure you can still catch it on iplayer.

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags:
Sep
12
2010
7

Kirkstall Abbey

Yesterday The Mister and I went for a little wander around Kirkstall Abbey. Two years ago I came up to visit The Mister for the first time and it was one of the places we visited on that weekend. It is a beautiful Cistercian monastery and is so imposing. I still find it incredible that it was built so long ago. It is so close to the centre of Leeds that it always surprises me when I see it on the bus on my way to work. When I was on the bus the other day it was really foggy and the Abbey kind of loomed out of the fog. Very eerie.

It still amazes me that it is two years ago I first came up here. Time has flown by so fast and so much has happened in that time. As I was walking yesterday I realised how grateful I am for the place I am currently in, and how grateful I am for The Mister. I am so fortunate. I live in a beautiful part of the world with a wonderful man, I have a house to live in and food to eat and a job I love. Life is good – it’s very good indeed.

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This picture was taken in the same but I had to take the recent one with my phone because I forgot my camera. Doh!

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,
Sep
03
2010
4

Greenbelt 2010

Well it has taken me a good few days since getting back from Greenbelt to sort out all the camping stuff, do all the washing and go back to work. I have been knackered!!

Anyway, Greenbelt this was awesome as ever. It is strange how different each year is and how differently I feel about it. I went to a few things, and here are my highlights….

1) An interview with James Wood and Tom Hollander, the writer and actor from Rev. Rev has been one of my favourite TV shows this year, funny and moving, I found it both challenging and hilarious. The interview with them was also funny, their stories about researching the show were amusing and hopefully they will be doing a new series.

2) Zic Zazou – a rather brilliant percussion musical act. About 8 Frenchman all appear on stage in blue overalls and create the most amazing music out of their ‘laboratory’. I loved it – so different and so beautiful. Fabulous!!

3) Jars of Clay – they played on the mainstage on Monday night, but they had also played in the Performance Cafe the day before. They were fantastic! Their big set was amazing, but it was their acoustic set that really had me grinning. Their harmonies were perfect and I really loved it. I was such a big fan of their when I was about 15 so I was happy they didn’t disappoint me!

4) Peter Tatchell gave a talk on sexuality in Africa. It was a really well attended session and he spoke brilliantly. I was really impressed with just how good an orator he was. He gave loads of time for questions and responded really well. Apprently there was a bit of kickback from Anglican Mainstream about him being there. His first words were “I would like to begin by paying tribute to Anglican Mainstream, who by their attacks on me and on Greenbelt, have boosted ticket sales and ensured a successful Greenbelt”.

5) Beer and Hymns – always a highlight for me. There is nothing like singing at the top of my voice whilst drinking beer, and it genuinely feeling like worship and not a piss up. Fantastic!

All in all Greenbelt was fabulous. The worst bit of it was arriving at the site on Friday to be told that due to the rain no cars were allowed in site. We had to carry everything onsite… kind of! We walked the tent on and erected that and in the meantime Anne phoned us and said she was in the carpark and had commandeered a Cheltenham Racecourse van and a golf-buggy-taxi. We managed to unload our cars straight into these vehicles and they delivered everything to the site! Hilarious!

It was also really nice to spend some time with my little cousin Sam and his loverly girlfriend Sally. I guess that this is what Greenbelt means to me – spending time with friends and getting to chill out in a creative, spiritual and dynamic environment. I love it and I am already looking forward to next year.

(I know there are two pictures of birdie’s daughter Ginger, but that is because she is just so darn cute!! So also has a bit of a thing for The Mister. As soon as she is let out her her buggy she makes her way over to him and sits next to him, stroking his leg and resting her head on his shoulder… or fist bumping with him. Very, very cute indeed!

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Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,
Sep
03
2010
0

Camping with the sheep and the mud

Well before Greenbelt The Mister and I decided to take a little camping trip with our friend Tom and Anne and their terrible trio of boys, Matthew, Andrew and Mark. We went to the very beautiful campsite of Nantcol Waterfalls in Llanbedr. It was beautiful, if a little soggy. Tom and Anne were there a couple of days before us and they were in a massive downpour and ended up taking all their stuff to the launderette. Anyway, the site was yum and the owners were really helpful!

P1040693.JPGWe did lots of things whilst we were there. We wandered and drank lots of coffee and wine. We took in the beautiful scenery and ate cake. The Mister and Tom walked up Snowdon, whilst Anne and I took the more sensible option with the boys and go the train up. The views are just totally stunning, except when we got to the top and it was foggy! We went to Harlech Castle with Paul’s Mum (Hi Beryl!!) and her friend Doreen who came to visit us for the day. There is so much to do in the area… we could have easily spent 2 weeks there.

P1040870.JPGOne of my favourite things though was going to the local agricultural show. They had lots of horses being shown, including some beautiful Shire Horses and some really dinky ponies with their equally dinky owners. The bestest bit thought was all the sheep!! I love sheep – they have such cute faces, nice flicky tails and are really funny. There was a sheep shearing competition and I ended up standing next to a local woman who gave me a running commentary on what they were doing, but also who was related to who. She was fun and it was amusing to get the gossip about who was who.

Anyway, we had a brilliant holiday… and here are the pics!!!!

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Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,

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