As you, who have followed me for a while now, know I love crime/thrillers as my book of choice but being a Gemini I also love fantasy books, historical books, the very occasional romance book and novels too! So you could say any book. However it has to be the right book!!
What do I mean by the right book? Well, although they say “do not judge a book by its cover” I do. If the cover does not look right or I don’t like it then generally I don’t like the book itself. I know that is perhaps shallow but it has stood me in good stead with my choice of books. This is part of what I am going to tell you about. Audio books. The App I am using, and it has been very good, is BookBeat. They have varying Memberships and depending upon how much you want to use the App depends upon the cost. I am on the top amount because I am using it quite a bit but they do a try out for 30 days free. I tend to listen to the Books when I am at Eldest’s working there and it has been really good and I also listen to them on the drive home tool
Now this was the book I was reading and listening to on our October Friday Book Club and I had just started it. Well It was a little slow to start with but I thought it would pick up when Liv got to the Library and then meeting Evar. It didn’t! It was dreadful, it was boring, the characters were flat and they never seemed to get anywhere. The story was just about them being in the Library and doing well not a lot. Mr Lawrence kept referring to things but nothing ever happened. So I got to page 480 out of 576 and then DNF’d it! The worse part; it is Book One of a trilogy and I also have the other two books and all three are now in my donate pile! Can I tell you what a huge disappointment this was and I loved the cover!
This is my next book that I am reading, not listening to. Now this book is another story in a series of The Dahlia Stories, which I have not read before., so I will be able to go back and read the others. Rosalind, Caro & Posy are used to playing the part of Dahlia Lively Detective in films but they have discovered a talent for investigating real life crimes. They are all invited, with their partners, to a high society wedding at Christmas in a Scottish Castle and no sooner have they arrived when a dead body is found on the beach beneath the castle wearing a very expensive diamond necklace and a wedding dress! Will the wedding be called off or can the three lady “detectives” solve it and help the bride and groom?
I have only just started this but so far it is giving very cosy, blanket and cup of tea vibes, not forgetting Coco curled up next to me.
Now I listened to this over two days and gave it five stars! However if you are not in the mood for a trial, especially based in the British legal system then you may find this borning. However as it is the field I worked in for ten years it brought back so many memories and I could follow all the ins and outs of it.
A retired teacher leaves his home on New Year’s Eve to buy a bottle of champagne for him and his wife to toast the New Year in as their original plans were cancelled due to the weather. Whilst he is out he comes across three male 17 year olds who attack him and he loses his life. All three are charged with Murder and the three Defence Barristers are busy trying to defend their Clients whilst blaming the other two for the murder. The Preosecuting Barrister is busy trying to prove that all three did it but the evidence starts to show a different story. Over the course of the chapters we get to hear from all the defendents and their back stories until we get to the conclusion of the case and the Jury retire to consider their verdict. There are a few twists at the end of the book.
I really enjoyed it but as I say a few people have said that they found it boring and basically too much talking!
Finally I come to “His and Hers” by Alice Feeney whose books I have seen around but never read any of them. Again I listenend to this one and began it on October 12th and finished it on the 15th. I did give it five stars as I did think the story was good and the narration of the male parts was done by Richard Armitage. Now if you don’t know who he is, he played Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbitt and he does have a very distinctive voice!
Anna Andrews is a newsreader for the BBC News Lunchtime programme, a job she has been doing since the previous news anchor went on maternity leave and then got pregnant straight away after the first baby. So Anna has enjoyed a few years in the top spot. This has been her salvation after a traumatic few years when her marriage to Jack ended in divorce. He was busy with his job as a DCI in the Police and then there was their daughter. Her colleague comes back to work and Anna is transferred back to being a roving reporter and her first assignment is back in her childhood village of Blackdown and where all her problems started. A woman is found dead in the woods and as Anna begins to report on it she discovers it is an old school friend of hers and Jacks and then Jack is suspected of knowing something about the death. Can they prove tht he had nothing to do with it and find out who the actual killer is?
My only complaint of this book, and I was talking to DH about this, is that I guessed who the baddy was by the middle of the book! Now is this because I have read so many thriller/crime books over the years that I have become so habituated to these stories? I got to the end of it and although I did enjoy it, I also felt a little flat when the ending came with a sort of shrug of the shoulder! What I am also concerned about is, is it because I am listening to these books instead of reading them? Do you not gain the same enjoyment listening to a book as you do from actually holding the book and reading it? I am going to see how this goes with the book I am currently reading as opposed to the one I am currently listening to!
I am going to get some reading done this weekend, along with my quilting and a few other home jobs which need finishing too. The weather is forecast to be not very nice with a possible storm coming through on Sunday, but Coco and I will be tucked up at home and DH will be at the swimming pool. Hopefully it will have passed over by the time he needs to pack all the equipment up!
I am sure I am missing days somewhere! No I am not drinking and I certainly don’t have blackouts but I cannot believe that it is Thursday again! Wednesday flew by and I really think I stood still and like a train going through a station and not stopping, that was my Wednesday, I blinked and missed it!
My whole week this week has been thrown into chaos as I went to Eldest’s work on Tuesday because yesterday they were coming to fit a new gas meter to our home. Apparently the new meters have a battery in them which then sends the data to its hub for them to produce our bills. Sounds simple enough but when the batteries run out they cannot just replace the battery the whole thing has to be replaced. Now who came up with that idea? Normally I would be at Eldest’s on a Wednesday so that completely threw me. It does not take a lot these days for me to be completely confused! It is like when we have a long weekend, the next week just does not feel right.
So if Tuesday was Wednesday and Wednesday should have been Thursday then today should be Friday or should it be Monday again? Who knows.
Madam has decided that as it is dark most mornings we are getting up now, staying in bed is definitely the best idea! She is not happy when I move her to make it.
Everyone at the moment seems to have this bad cold/flu thing going around including Fiancé who I have not seen because, like Jayne, she is being extremely kind to me and not wanting to give it to me before I go in on Tuesday for my Op and I am very grateful to them. I have told DH that he is not to catch it either otherwise he and Coco will be sleeping outside if they do. I don’t mind afterwards if I catch it just not before.
Today is home jobs day. I have managed to get our work and Eldest’s work up to date. I also have some washing and a basket of ironing to do and then I am all set. This weekend DH is at the swimming event both days, so I am going to spend some time in my sewing room quilting and also reading. I won’t be able to show you what I am working on as they are for presents but will keep them in my file for when they have been given out. I am also going to pack my bag for Tuesday. I already have a few things sorted and I have chosen my books which I am taking in with me which I will show you tomorrow.
As it is #TBT (I think?) I thought I would show you these. Always on Birthdays the Boys used to come in our room to open their presents from us first thing inthe morning. So the first picture is from 2022 when they were both living at home again. Eldest is 27 and Youngest is 23 and it is DH’s Birthday. I am still in bed but DH and the Boys are up and dressed and ready to go to work, but they still came in to our room for DH to open his presents!
So the two pictures below, they are both Boys 10th Birthdays, the first one is Eldest and Youngest is six and in the second one Eldest is 14.
I love seeing pictures from the past. DH’s Birthday is coming up at the end of October and then we are busy with events too. There are the Carnival fireworks to conclude the 100 years of Carnival in the village, DH also has the usual Halloween Swimming Event and also the men are coming to trim the trees in our back garden as well, so it is going to be a very busy few weeks as always.
Have awonderful Thursday you lovely lot and I will see you back here tomorrow for Book Club Friday.
It is the time of year that I love when I run in and out of the all the leaves that are on the ground, although Dad picked them all up at the weekend.
Mom says this is a better picture of me after my Spa Day although Mom says I do not stay this clean for very long!
It is starting to get dark earlier in the day now and I am enjoying being back in my various beds for snoozing purposes. Here I am going upstairs to pick a bed for my afternoon siesta!
Mom and Dad have also got their Winter bedding out and I do love it because it is very warm and snuggly. It is getting cooler each day now and Mom even put the heating on the other day when it was cold and raining.
This was the sunset the other evening when it was very cold and the sky was really pretty but the next day was when we had the fog.
I am helping Mom with lots of jobs this week so we are very busy. I hope you are having a wonderful Woofy Week.
2025 is turning into a poor year for losing our Greats and on the 11th the great Diane Keaton passed. Her films were varied but she shone in all of them, my favourites being “The First Wives Club” which also stared the late great Dame Maggie Smith. “Father of the Bride” and of course “Annie Hall”.
Last week and the weekend were hectic as always with work, home jobs etc. At the weekend DH had a swimming event on Friday evening and then all day Sunday with set up on Saturday night! We did manage to get a few jobs done around it but I did get a little bit of sorting out done in the sewing room and some reading too.
This week is very much trying to get all the jobs sorted out including work, Eldest’s work, home jobs etc before next Tuesday. Everyone I know seems to have a bad cold/flu at the moment including jayne, who has cancelled our luncheon tomorrow. I am actively staying away from everyone at the moment in the hope that I will not catch anything before Tuesday and my Op.
DH managed to get our lawn mown over the weekend and picked up a lot of the leaves which have come down in the last week. Mind you no sooner had he put the mower away the lawn was covered again in leaves! It is one of those never ending jobs until all the leaves have come off the trees! The weather is getting cooler here and although we have seen the sun a few days it has also been quite dark and misty too. In fact the other morning it was foggy again!
This coming weekend Friday morning DH and I are going out for breakfast and then I have to drop my car with Eldest who is going to use it while I am out of action as he needs to do a repair on his and it will save him having to rush it. Then Friday evening DH is setting up the swimming event again for both days this weekend and whilst he is there I will be in the sewing room getting a few jobs done. Monday will be a day of ensuring everything is done before I have to be at the hospital at 6.30am on Tuesday!
This is now out on Amazon Prime Premier and I have watched it again and I just love it, it really is a great series and with the wonderful Dame Maggie Smith, she really does have the best lines of all.
Welcome to Susie’s Friday Book Club for October! It has been a busy month since our last Book Club Friday for my reading and also Jayne’s and my Book Club Book too.
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This was Jayne’s pick for our Book Club for September. When we went for lunch Jayne was telling me that it took her a while to get into the book but when she did she loved it and the ending and she liked all the characters. I completely disappointed her by my review; I absolutely hated it!!!! She was mortified but I said no this is the whole point of a book club, you are not going to like every choice and she may not like my Choice for October!
I started to read this but found it heavy going from the start, so I swapped to listening to it but still found it heavy going. I did not get into the characters at all and in fact did not like them very much either. The fact that she was left completely on her own as a young child to fend for herself and then when she made some money with her drawings into books and finally got back with the man who, as a boy, had helped her and then she died! No not my cup of tea at all. I did think this when it was first published but I did finish it for Jayne, but is it not a book I would pick for myself.
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I also read this in September, “The Countdown Killer”. A killer is tracking people down and killing them and making a DVD about it, one of which finds its way into the hands of DCI Cara Elliott. The murdered man is found and they work out that there is 48 hours between the time of abduction and the death and so far the victims have gotten away with various crimes by being found not guilty in court, so is this revenge? When the killer finds out he is being investigated he kidnaps a police officer on the team, who now have to race the 48 hours to find him and get him back and find the killer before he kills again.
The story was good, but the ending was a little flat! I read and listened to this but the audio, the Narrator was doing all the voices and the men came across as either sounding like they had a heavy cold or stupid, which really put me off the audio! In the end I gave this three stars!
This is my next book I have just started to read. I love books about books or bookshops or anything to do with books so this was definitely coming home with me!
It is a fantasy book where Evar has been trapped within the vast library which is older than Empires and larger than cities. Livina has always lived in a tiny settlement on the Dust but both their lives collide in the Library where Evar thinks he will never be free and Liv wants to be there forever! Can they make it work?
I have read the first 50 pages and it has been a slow start although now that Liv is at the Library it is picking up a bit. This is the first of three books so it may be that Mr Lawrence is building the characters and stories, but I will wait and see how I feel when I have finished this book!
Finally this was my Pick for September for Jayne’s and ,my Book Club book and I will tell you all about it next Friday after Jayne and I have had lunch on Tuesday!
I hope you have had a great week, good weekend to come and you can find some time to read, whatever else you are up to.
How are the “Ber” Months treating you so far? Here in the UK we have had one storm come through but not too much damage, but we have had a lot of rain, to make up for all the dry summer we had. I am so glad that we got our roof looked at and repaired otherwise we would have had another leak into the bedroom that we have only just painted!! There is always something! However despite the dry summer and now all the rain the leaves are only just beginning to fall from the trees, I thought they would have shed them a lot sooner than this, although the colours are not as striking as usual.
As it is Thursday today I will show up a couple of #TBT pictures of the Boys when they were little. In the UK we have what are called “Half Terms” where the schools have a week’s holiday generally at the end of the month this time October and around Halloween and DH’s Birthday. Jayne and I used to take her two and my two out for a trip and then they used to come round for the afternoon and evening and we would do Halloween games and I would read a Ghost story, it was good fun and my two still remember doing it.
DH & I took The Boys to London at Half Term in October 2005. We took them on a boat trip on the Thames down to The Tower of London
Here they are with a Beefeater at The Tower
How can these pictures be twenty years old? Eldest was ten and Youngest was six! Then for a couple of years DH and I have been down in London, once for his Birthday and once for our Anniversary which is November but we went at the end of October.
We went to the Charles Dickens Museum which was really interesting
We also went to the Greenwich Observatory which has a commanding view of London
Obviously we won’t be going to London this year with my Op etc so again hoping that we will be able to book for next year. We are having the trees in our garden trimmed in two weeks so I should be able to show you some pictures of the garden then. Also have some bedding plants to put in my pots for over winter and also the Spring Bulbs to plant. I am hoping that the weather is going to be kind for a couple of days to get these jobs done.
I love that song! In fact I love a lot of the “old” Christmas songs, as well as those that are played every year at Christmas! Usually at this time of year I start playing Christmas songs in my vehicle when I am out and about on my own. DH and The Boys moan at me but I just think that it is so short a time if you only play the songs in December. Of course I do not go out and about so don’t hear the same songs all the time in shops etc so that is probably why I play them earlier than most!
I have not put my tree up yet though, unlike some people I have seen who have artificial ones and have put them up now!!!! We, as a family, have always had real trees because I just love the smell of them so we won’t get that until the first week of December!
The Christmas tickets for Chatsworth House have been released and some dates are booked already. I know that I may be okay by Christmas after my Op but in a bit of not tempting fate I have not booked anything just in case. However I will be definitely booking for next year! I am so looking forward to not being in this state next year!
I have already done a bit of Christmas shopping and bought a few things for the children etc and have also got my Christmas cards ready to write. I can probably do those whilst I am recovering! I have already got my Chirstmas planner out and started making notes in it, the way the weeks are flying by it will soon be here!
We are planning a weekend in Nottingham with the six of us and Little Man during a Saturday in December for everyone to do a bit of shopping and get a couple of things sorted and then have dinner and of course see the lights! Am really looking forward to that.
I absolutely love this time of year and the run up to Christmas.
I had a lovely Spa Day last Friday and my Sister/Cousin, Honey, came with me. I had to tell her how to do things and we were sat next to each other whilst we were waiting for our turn in the bath and on the table for me to be cut and for Honey to be de-shedded. We both looked amazing when we came out but Mom always says it only takes about two minutes for us to look like we have never been for a bath ever! Mom also washed all of my beds and the cover over my crate, as well as all my soft toys and the hard chewy toys she put through the dishwasher. You can say that I smell very clean!
Honey after her Spa Day!
Mom is not going to be here for a few days whilst she is having her hip done. At least when she has recovered she and Dad will be able to take me out walking again, especially as it is a great time of year with cool nights for a walk. I have a new collar which lights up in the dark which I cannot wait to try out.
Although our days are still quite warm during the middle of the day, first thing in the morning and at night it is dropping very cool. Mom says she will have to look out my coat for walking when it is very cold or wet as it was over the weekend. Mom also says I need to start thinking about Christmas and what I would like Santa Paws to bring me for Christmas!!! I have a list already started and as you know I am a huge fan of squeaky balls. She also has to buy for Honey & Star, Blaze and now Gordon too. She is also hoping to get their quilts made for Christmas as well! It won’t be long now.
I hope you are having a wonderful Woofy Week. Coco xx
The days and weeks are flying by and we are now in October! Don’t know where September went to!!!
It was the annual Goose Fair in Nottingham last weekend, where DH and I had our very first date 39 years ago!!! We did not go because of my hip and it was pouring with rain on Friday here with another storm which came through. Someone else commented that ever since we have been naming these storms here in the UK they have gotten worse!!!
Speaking of things, I saw an Instagram post the other day which said that since 2020 the World has been on the wrong path, you know how some believe that there are parralell Worlds going in the same direction but things are slightly different? Well some believe that we are on the wrong path which is why everything just feels slightly off at the moment? How we get back to the right path if this is the case I don’t know? It is very much like an Isaac Asimov story!!!!!
Anyway back to Friday we took Coco and Honey for them both to have a spa day. Coco needed it as she was again very floofy and Honey needed to be de-shedded. She is a very long legged golden labrador, very soft and typically goofy. We had them in their crates in DH’s truck so they could see and talk to each other but not running around like lunatics which they do at home! They were both very good, the only thing Honey did not like was the drying cabinet, perhaps she thought it was an Harry Potter Vanishing cabinet! Both of them then spent the rest of the day fast asleep. However DH and I got soaked getting them in and out of the truck. We had a long day getting errands done and managed to fit in a nice breakfast too but by the time we got home it was late, we were both tired and so we did not even go and drive round Goose Fair.
Saturday was again busy and DH had a swimming competition in the afternoon. The bed quilt I have been trying to finish I have given up trying to quilt it on my machine. It is far too big and heavy and I have ended up with skipped stitches so it is going to the shop I use for it to be completed on their long arm quilting machine. I have decided I can do single bed size quilts on my machine, but nothing bigger. It is a gift for my best friend. Jayne, her daughter but I am sure she won’t mind it being a little late.
Jayne and I were ladies who lunched on September 23rd at The Farmhouse near us and the food was really good as usual. I will show you on Friday for Book Club Jayne’s pick for her book last month and my pick for this month. I have really loved our little Book Club and the books we have read and am so glad we embarked on this journey together.
I am seeing Jayne for lunch next week, at The Rose & Crown, just before I go in to Hospital the following week and it is Jayne’s choice so I will be able to take the book in with me. I have also got about another six books I am going to put in my bag, well you never know I might finish Jayne’s book or need to read something else. I always want to take too many rather than have not enough!
I am also trying to get my home jobs all done and some other things I want to sort out before I go in on the 21st! I am up to date with work here and at Eldest’s and I have also managed to get the Membership data all sorted for swimming. We had a new database and the data was transferred from the old one but of course it did not come across properly and it was one of those jobs that I kept meaning to do and had done some of it but have spent several days getting it all up to date! The Swimming Club AGM is at the beginning of November so at least I know that all the data is correct for the renewals then and before we have to renew everyone at Swim England!
I am hoping this week to be back and blogging every day, last week just ended up flying by no sooner was it Monday, it was Friday and the week had gone! I hope you lovely lot had a great weekend and a good week to come.
Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx
Flloofy!
De-Floofed!
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