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I love you, Grandma
In a post last month, I alluded to some ‘personal problems’ that I’d been having and that I’d blog about it later. I’m not sure I’m quite ready yet, but I think I need to write about it, so here goes.
My grandma passed away at the beginning of February. She’d been in a care home for a while after spending over a month in hospital at the end of last summer, suffering many strokes that left her completely changed from her usual self. Even so, it came as a massive shock and left our entire family devastated.
She was the true matriarch of the family; kind and smart and wonderfully funny – always laughing with an infectious smile. A very tech-savvy pensioner, she loved playing scrabble and solitaire on her PC, and even took herself back to college to learn how to use her PC better! I know everyone says this, but she was the best grandma in the world and I think it’s fair to say that we all miss her very much.
It’s been over 2 months since and I still think about her all the time. The strangest things bring her to the front of my mind, like walking into a room full of cross-stitching at East Riddlesden Hall this weekend, or spending a Saturday afternoon doing the newspaper crossword and some puzzle books with Cameron just like she used to do with my Grandad.
But she’s now reunited with my Grandad after more than ten years apart, and I’m sure she’s being looked after by Grandad, Uncle John and Uncle Geoff.
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Ian Mortimer – The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England
I wasn’t sure what I’d think of this book when my boyfriend bought me it for Christmas, as it’s not really my usual kind of book, but I love learning new things so I was excited to give it a try.If I hadn’t lost the book for about 2 months in the mass of piles of books in my room, I would have finished with it much sooner, although I still wouldn’t call it a fast read. Each page is jam-packed with facts which means that you can’t really skim read any of it for fear of missing something important.
The book starts off with a theoretical tour of Stratford, taking you around the town as it was then as if you’ve just landed back there in your TARDIS. You learn everything from how to brush your teeth, to what to eat for breakfast (wine, beer, fish and bread), to what would happen if you were convicted for a range of crimes. You’ll learn all about how to build your house, how to wash yourself each day, how you’ll store your food without the benefit of electricity and much, much more.
I loved the informal tone of the book and the style that it took, the facts seemed much easier to absorb than a straight fact book and it certainly held my attention for longer at a time. I believe that the author has also written a time traveller’s guide to medieval England too, I think I’ll probably give that a try too, expand my horizons some more!
4/5
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Michael Wallace – The Devil’s Deep
This was book 3 in my ‘9 killer thrillers’ set from Amazon, and it was just as enjoyable as the rest, although unlike anything I’ve read before. The plot was very different to the others in the set, not really having anything to do with the police, and having a very strange set of crimes taking place, none of which seem to fit together until very late in the book. It seemed for a long time that there were two different stories running in parallel, but they seamlessly flowed into one towards the end and everything made perfect sense.
So much happened in the book that I don’t really know how to go about even starting to write about the plot, so I’m not going to try. I think if I did, I’d end up revealing more than I intended to and spoiling the book for any of you that decide you want to read it.
My one little niggle with the book was the end. So much had happened that it was obvious that the author needed to tie up all the loose ends. But the epilogue felt a bit too ‘perfect’, like it was necessary for everyone in the book to live happily ever after. And while I can agree that it’s probably what most people wanted from the book, it just felt like everything was wrapped up in a nice bow, when things would most likely not be quite so perfect in reality.
I was very impressed with the author, and when I’ve caught up on some of my to-read list, I’ll probably have a look at his other books.
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Claude Bouchard – Vigilante
I really didn’t have high hopes for this book, for two reasons. Firstly, it was a part of the ‘9 books for 74p’ bundle that I bought on my kindle. Secondly, the latest reviews on Goodreads seemed to suggest that I should run for the hills and avoid this book like the plague.But I have no idea why, because the book was full on suspense and intrigue and kept me guessing right up until the very end, and I thought it was fabulous!
The book centers around a vigilante serial killer who has so far killed more than twenty people, leaving behind no trace of who he could be and leaving the police utterly baffled with no possible leads. The vigilante only kills people who he feels ‘deserve to die’, people who deal drugs, or have committed crimes in the past. The book opens with the vigilante killing two men who have just dragged a woman into an alleyway. Because of this, the local newspaper reporter tends to write articles which praise rather than condemn the killer, and questioning why the police can’t identify him. But then the vigilante gets brave, and sends an email to the police and the newspaper reporter with details of his latest crime.
From then on, the vigilante continues to send messages taunting the police and giving the reporter tips for new articles. But the messages can’t be traced, and the lead detective decides to enlist the help of a local computer security investigations firm to catch this guy before he kills the entire criminal underworld of the city and moves on to more undeserving prey.
Throughout the book, we switch between the cop, the security investigator and then glimpses of the vigilante preparing for his crimes. But when we’re seeing the vigilante, it’s never revealed who it is, and judging on the clues that you get throughout the book, it looks like it’s going to be one of two possible characters. I thought I had a pretty good idea of who it was, but as usual, I was wrong. I need to get better at this I think!
As I said before, I thought the book was fabulous, I don’t know why the other reviewers seem to have a problem with it, I don’t know if they’ve just read more of this type of book than I have and therefore have more experience of what they are like, but any book that can keep me flipping pages in a desperate need to get to the end is alright in my book!
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M. J. Rose – The Halo Effect
Morgan Snow is a sex therapist. Cleo is a prostitute, catering for high end clients with a lot of money. Cleo has been seeing Morgan for some time, to try and discuss the problems with the relationship with her fiance, and Morgan has broken the first rule of being a therapist: don’t get personally involved with your clients. When Cleo gives Morgan a copy of her tell-all book manuscript, but then doesn’t turn up for her appointment, or her next appointment, Morgan can’t help but call the emergency contact number in Cleo’s file to make sure she is alright. But Gil (her business partner and supposed boyfriend) doesn’t know where she is. And when Morgan finds out that Cleo has another boyfriend, Elias, the one that she talks about in therapy, and that he has reported her missing to the police, Elias begs Morgan to help him find Cleo, since the police don’t seem to care, and even seemed to suggest that he may be suspect number one. Elias is distraught, and Morgan agrees to help.
But Morgan also has other things to worry about. A 12 year old daughter determined to go against her mother and pursue a career on Broadway. And Morgan has underlying issues brought about in part by her divorce and in part from all the things she hears in her day job; it has left her unable to switch off at night when she gets home, and unable to move on with another relationship.
And there’s a reason that the police aren’t pulling out all the stops trying to find Cleo. Firstly, she could just as well have decided that she needed a break and taken herself on holiday. But most importantly, the police are tied up trying to find a sadistic serial killer who is killing prostitutes around the city, leaving them in hotels rooms dressed in a nun’s habit with various terrible things happened to them. In fact, that’s how the book opened, with the first victim being discovered by a poor hotel maid.
Morgan desperately needs to find out if Cleo’s disappearance and the brutal murders are connected, before Cleo becomes the next victim. With the police not really investigating the disappearance, Morgan decides to take matters into her own hands and see if she can figure out if one of the men that Cleo talks about in her book could be involved. Which leads her to Gil’s bar, talking to Cleo’s usual clients and trying to get any information that she can.
But is she looking in the right place? Could the answer be right under her nose? Morgan is sure that there’s something that she’s missing, she just needs to fit the pieces together. But can she do it in time?
I had mixed feelings on and off throughout this book. At times, I felt swept away by the intrigue and mystery, and just as desperate as Morgan to find out the truth. But at other times, I thought the graphic descriptions were just too much for me and I couldn’t enjoy what I was reading. But as soon as I got past that part, I was back and sucked in again, turning page after page.
The book was part of a set of 9 thrillers that I bought on Amazon for 74p, so I didn’t expect the world from the book. I didn’t get the world, but I did find the book enjoyable. I just hope that the next in the set of 9 isn’t quite as graphic as this one!
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Veronica Roth – Allegiant
I don’t think I’ve ever been broken and put together so many times as I have when reading this book. I’ve been left with extremely mixed feelings. Overall, I really liked the book, but I just didn’t feel as compelled to keep reading as I did with Divergent and Insurgent. It took me over a week to read the first 150 pages, because I just couldn’t get into it. I think the main reason for this to start with was the change of character. Throughout Divergent and Insurgent we are used to seeing everything as Tris, her thoughts and feelings and actions. But now the chapters flick back and forth between Tris and Tobias as narrator. It took a long while to get used to that, and to start with I kept having to flick back to the chapter title page to remember who it was we were with now. But after I’d gotten over that and I just decided to buckle down and read, I was riveted by about page 200 and I really just couldn’t bear to stop reading.
Tris and Tobias are now in a world where the factions have been destroyed and it looks like their world is about to fall about with a rebellion on the horizon. Unfortunately for Tobias, his mum is on one side of the rebellion and his dad on the other. But Tris, Tobias and her friends are offered a chance to go beyond the fence and find out why the outside world so desperately needed the Divergent to come out and save them. And what they find is most definitely not what they expected, shaking them to the very core of their existence and leaving them questioning if their lives back in the factions were in fact completely meaningless.
After Tris and Tobias go beyond the fence, they may have been expecting some simple and easy life to await them, but they couldn’t have been more wrong. And so starts my understanding of why Roth used a duel perspective for the story, allowing us to dig in deeper to all parts of what is going on, and to see the conflict that both Tris and Tobias are feeling, to get right in with their emotions and feel very single bit of pain that they feel.
If I’m honest, the book left me feeling empty. Empty and crying alone in my room wondering why a young adult author could leave a book with such an unconventional ending. If you’ve read the book, you’ll know exactly what I mean and you’re probably feeling empty just like me. If you’ve not read the book, I’m not going to say any more and spoil it for you, because you need to feel that heart ripping jolt just like the rest of us, the kind that makes you feel like raw to the bone and makes you want to rewind time back to before you read that moment so you can pretend it never happened.
I would give this book a full 5/5 for the stupendous plot and the way that I could never predict what was going to happen when I turned the page, but since it took me so long to initially get absorbed into the book, I’m going to go for 4/5 instead.
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Bowling and a Trip to the Tetley
We had the day off work today after staying out later for the gig last night, so we decided to make the most of it!
First up was bowling at Hollywood Bowl in Kirkstall. Neither of us had been bowling for ages so it was lots of fun! Cameron tried to tell me he was rubbish at bowling, but he came back from setting the lane up, and he hadn’t put the gutter rails up for himself! Considering pretty much all of my balls would end up in the gutter if I didn’t have the rails up, he was definitely better than me! I managed to win the first game with a strike in the 10th frame, but I think that was definitely more luck than skill! Cameron then won the second game, leaving us at a happy tie for the day!
After we’d finished bowling and drinking our slush puppies like excitable children, we headed to the arcade where we played a racing game (which Cameron won), and air hockey (which Cameron also won due to his violent playing style!).
We then headed to The Tetley in Leeds, a restaurant and art gallery sited on the old Tetley’s brewery site. The food was as I expected, absolutely delicious. We both had fish and chips followed by Sticky Toffee Pudding, and we were full to bursting after we’d finished. Since I wasn’t driving, I washed it down with a pint of Tetley’s Gold, which was the nicest beer I’ve had in a long time.
We then went for a walk around the art gallery. I’m not really an art gallery type person, I prefer a nice painting to some of the things that you see in art galleries, although there was some nice stuff currently on display, including one piece which was getting ready for it’s grand opening later in the day. The building itself was beautifully renovated, keeping the style of the old Brewery but looking modern, open and welcoming. I’ll definitely be heading back there again, if only for some more of that divine pudding!
Bowling at Hollywood Bowl
I win!
Cameron wins!
Cameron’s strike!
Fun in the arcade
Pint of Tetley’s Gold
Fish and Chips at The Tetley
Sticky Toffee Pudding at The Tetley
The Tetley
The Tetley
Art at The Tetley
Me and Cameron at The Tetley -
OneRepublic and Mikky Ekko at the O2 Academy, Leeds
Well for once it wasn’t me dragging Cameron to a gig, but Cameron taking me to see one of his favourite bands. We got there really early to try and make sure we got a seat (yes, we’re getting old), and it was a good job we did, because the queues were huge! When we got there, I’d forgotten I had left my tablet in my handbag, which led to a trip down to the cloakroom in the cellar to check my bag, which was quite convenient as it meant I didn’t have my purse and Cameron had to buy my drinks!
The support act was Mikky Ekko, a guy you may have heard of from his duet with Rihanna last year. I’d not heard anything else by him, and that duet isn’t exactly my favourite song, so I was quite pleasantly surprised with his set, really enjoying it. I wasn’t too sure about the first couple of songs, but I quickly warmed to him and by the end I was loving it. I was just disappointed when i checked Spotify and it doesn’t look like anything he sung at the gig was on there.
Which brings us to OneRepublic. I’d heard their new album, but didn’t expect to really know many of the songs. But I was quite surprised by how many of the songs I knew but just hadn’t realised they were sung by OneRepublic. The crowd (including Cameron) was singing along to all of the songs, giving the packed venue an awesome atmosphere. The lead singer was very energetic, dancing around the stage and jumping up on the speakers and getting the crowd excited. There was also a big video screen at the back of the stage accompanying some of the songs, including footage of Leeds and of us all queuing outside the venue, quite a nice touch!
I loved the gig, even though my ears were ringing by the end from the volume of the screaming and clapping. Definitely a good choice by Cameron, and I would certainly see them again if I could!
OneRepublic at the O2 Academy, Leeds
OneRepublic at the O2 Academy, Leeds
OneRepublic at the O2 Academy, Leeds
OneRepublic at the O2 Academy, Leeds -
Veronica Roth: Insurgent
Wow wow wow. I finished my review of Divergent by saying that I thought this could become the next Hunger Games, and I think I may have been right. Quite often, the second book in a trilogy is a bit lackluster, stuck between the excitement of the first book and the dramatic conclusion of the third, but this book was jam-packed with page after page of action and intrigue.We get to take a closer look at the individual factions in this book as Tris and her friends try to find a safe place to stay following the downfall of Dauntless and Abnegation. I liked this. In Divergent we learn about the factions mostly in the way that Tris has been taught about them, but now we get to see the good and bad sides of each faction, the way that they live and how each faction restricts their members in different ways so that in the end. there are really no individuals.
All the while, Tris is trying to cope with the loss of her parents and the guilt of what happened to Wil. I was happy that we got to see a different side to Tobias, more open and caring as opposed to the hard, aloof mask he wore for much of Divergent. The relationship between Tris and Tobias is going through changes in this book too, not all ones that she would like. I loved the way that the author didn’t shy away from the hard parts of the relationship. Often in books of this sort the relationship runs perfectly and everyone just goes on to live happily ever after, but Roth gave them ups and downs and struggles and hardships that they had to overcome to save their relationship.
Apart from that, I’m not going to give away too much plot. It’d be really hard anyway considering that the book was 525 pages of pure action, so to sum it up here would be damn near impossible. The ending though. Wow. Fair play to Veronica Roth, she knows how to end a book to have you desperate for me. I can’t remember the last time I finished a book and was so unsure about what is coming next. I usually try to predict it before I get there, but I honestly don’t have any idea where this is heading. Bring on Allegiant!
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Fun with Maestro at Golden Acre Park
The weather was so lovely when we got up this morning that we decided to take Maestro for a walk around Golden Acre Park. Unfortunately, a lot of people had the same idea, so it was extremely busy! The sun was rather deceptive as the place was still extremely muddy from all the rain recently, and as I was walking over the grass towards the lake, I ended up on my knees in the mud. I wish I could say that I had been pulled over by Maestro, but Cameron was holding him, I just wasn’t paying attention!
After we got home from the park, Maestro was still full of beans, so we tired him out in the garden playing fetch and making him run around like a loon!
Oops. Should have worn my walking boots!
Maestro at Golden Acre Park
Maestro
Maestro
Maestro
Maestro
Maestro
Louise Douglas
(I've got no) Shelf Control…
Louise Douglas 