Thes – Old English for "this", neuter of thes, of West Germanic origin: Mediolanum – old name for Milan: Lif – Old English for "life", of Germanic origin; related to Dutch lijf, German Leib 'body'
The Mistletoe Bride was good. A selection of short ghost stories and one play, the stories were interesting and well-written. It almost matched Stone Matress.
I finished it the day before yesterday. Yesterday we went to Portovenere – but, like posts about some restaurants, I shall tell you about that when I’m in front of a proper keyboard – so no reading yesterday.
This morning I’ve started The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro.
But it seems the books I enjoyed most this summer were the books of short stories, which I wouldn’t have expected.
A “Sunday Times bestseller” is highlighted at the bottom. “A wildly funny novel” is prominent elsewhere.
But did they apply this to the wrong book? For this was neither wildly nor funny in any sense. It will be the very top of my list to give away to a Jumble sale.
A story of the old wealth and upper classes divisions in the UK, it seemed to try to sway me that all was ok with the typical English social games. Neither that nor the lack of sympathy for any of the characters went to make this a “must read” book. Indeed, I would further add that I won’t read anything by the author again.
That was Snobs and now onto the second Kate Mosse book for this summer – The Mistletoe Bride – a selection of short stories by her.
When I was a kid I had and read all the “Mystery” books by Enid Blyton. I loved them. Then, as I got older, Agatha Christie and, I guess, I was pretty sated with detective books by then.
And that hasn’t really changed. But, by pure chance, this year’s summer books seems to be mostly “detective”.
Alchemy was a couple of stories rolled into one. It was ok but the connection between the stories seemed quite weak to me. Not the “special” book for the summer.
Then, over the last 36 hours there’s been The Risk Of Darkness by Susan Hill. She is very “readable” but it’s not a “wow” book.
And now to Snobs by Julian Fellowes. A book I’ve had for ages and ages (second hand, I’m sure) and it doesn’t really appeal but I’m determined to get it out of the way.
Well, as I suspected, I had read Fatal Voyage before. It was ok but, if I’m honest, really not worth the second read. But it is annoying in that I could have been reading something new!
So, onto new. The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith. Now I understand he’s popular as he’s certainly been at Hay but I’m not really sure why. Ok, so it was a readable book but I kept thinking it was a cheap version of an Agatha Christie novel. With AC you get clues (even if they’re not usable clues) but with this story you didn’t much. Plus the “detective” seemed, in the main, bloody useless and only solved the case by accident. Still, light enough and easy to read.
And then on to Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Another bloody detective! However this was thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve looked it up and there are more Maisie Dobbs novels and I just might be persuaded to read another.
Just one thing – for a book set in England between the wars, the spelling of the American “theater” instead of the English “theatre” really angered me. Especially as she had gone to all the trouble of spelling Cockney English correctly!
And now to Alchemy by Maureen Duffy. At least I’m getting through them at a decent rate now and I have a stack of them (finished) to take back home in a week’s time!
I am, to put it mildly, fucking stuffed (I feel I can use “fucking” now, having read Holy Sh*t – see a previous post – without being overly worried).
I feel like this in the morning when I wake up, when I get dressed, when we get to the beach, when we have our “breakfast” (a small cannellone and coffee), all the time we’re on the beach, when we go home and, especially when we go out – which is every evening except one.
It’s a food fest. As normal. But this year I seem to feel it worse.
So, I sit here, writing this feeling like I’ve just had a 5-course dinner.
Plus, my belly seems to be growing daily and that’s NOT good :'(
And it’s getting harder to fit everything in! Now, we’re already booking into next week!
I think, when I get Home, I won’t have to eat for a month!!
After finishing Holy Sh*t yesterday I treated myself to the Margaret Atwood book I got last year.
Holy Sh*t was really interesting. Detailing swearing from Roman times to the present day (English – US and UK) but this wasn’t a ¡novel, of course, being more of a history book. Great fun though and I learnt a lot.
But on to Margaret Atwood. There’s something about her writing. I feel that I could just read only her work, forever, if only she would write more – much, much more.
This was a collection of 9 short “tales”, each one different in almost every sense except one – they were about old people, more or less.
I’ve always liked “old people” things. Drawings, paintings, films, etc. The older the people, the better. And so, this was a wonderful book with wonderful tales.
This year I didn’t bring The Blind Assassin, my favourite book of all time – and now I wish I had.
Instead, I’ve started Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs – another book I think I’ve read before. Another one I probably didn’t put in the “books I’ve read” cupboard. *sigh*
The Various Haunts Of Men (Susan Hill) was from last year – but I can’t stop reading a book once it’s started. It took me a little over 2 days.
Next up was So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. A good book to do with our current desire to humiliate And shame people through Social Media.
And On to Holy Sh*t by Melissa Mohr – a study on the history of swearing (therefore of particular interest to me since I swear a lot). More Importantly, it seems I’m back to my usual pace which makes me much happier.
Well, I finished it but not at my normal rate. Sure, it was a thicker book than most but also because a) Best Mate is here and b) the book didn’t race along until about halfway through and, then again, towards the end.
Anyway, it was quite good but I doubt if it will be the number 1 book of the summer for me.
Now I’m on to The Various Haunts Of Men by Susan Hill who, I’ve discovered, comes from my neck of the woods. Except, I think, I read this last summer!
Vary sadly, The Bookstore.co.uk, from where I have been buying my books (not wanting to grace Amazon with my custom) has ceased trading.
So, I went on the hunt for another bookshop to buy from. It’s not easy. At first I tried Hay on Wye but the only bookshop that had what I needed priced everything in US dollars and I couldn’t find a way to change it to either Euro or Pounds.
They had all the books I wanted (from my “saved list” at Bookstore.co.uk) and so I entered them and, to try it out, bought 3 books. In theory, they will be with me when I come back with Best Mate from our holiday.
Still, Bookstore were truly great and I shall miss them. I’m sorry that I couldn’t buy more (if that would have helped to keep them alive). Further, it’s a shame that another independent bookseller has hit the dust.
He texts me to say that the dogs were exhausted (destroyed, as he says) when he left for work.
He had taken them out for a walk and he lets them play, even in the extreme temperatures that we’ve been having (up to 36° with a “feel like” of the low 40s). But he had taken them out early, so it wasn’t so hot (still, it was 30° at 7.30).
He said they were so exhausted that they didn’t even say hello to him before he left for work.
Italians have a bit of a problem with “hello” and “goodbye” since they don’t differentiate. Salutare, ciao, salve, etc. are used for both hello and goodbye. They don’t really quite get (I’m SURE Chiara does ) when is the right time to use “hello” or “goodbye”.
As a default “hello” is used.
I try and explain, in a reply text that he should have said “goodbye” and not “hello” as “hello” is used when first meeting/seeing someone and “goodbye” is used when leaving.
However, F is a stubborn barsteward sometimes. He replied that he understood but that, if the dogs don’t see him for 2 seconds it is like the first time they have met. Which is, of course, kind of true.
And it made me laugh. And that’s why I love him.
I replied that he is the only person that will argue with me if I try to correct bad English – and I don’t often do it with him!
But the argument did have a point, as those of you with dogs will know.
The video of Hello Goodbye by The Beatles was the obvious choice
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) when is the right time to use “hello” or “goodbye”.