December

THE BRUTAL TELLING: LOUISE PENNY

Chaos is coming, old son.

With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. As families prepare to head back to the city and children say goodbye to summer, a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies, exposing both treasures and rancid secrets buried in the wilderness.

Set in Quebec, Canada this is the latest in the series by Penny. I am now going back and starting with the first. Well written, interesting story, humour and dialogue add to the enjoyment.

MIDNIGHT FUGUE: REGINALD HILL

Product Description
The highly anticipated return of Dalziel and Pascoe starts with a phone call to Superintendent Dalziel from an old friend asking for help. But where it ends is a very different story. Gina Wolfe has come to Mid-Yorkshire in search of her missing husband, believed dead. Her fiance, Commander Mick Purdy of the Met, thinks Dalziel should be able to take care of the job. What none of them realize is how events set in motion decades ago will come to a violent head on this otherwise ordinary summer's day. A Welsh tabloid journalist senses the story he's been chasing for years may have finally landed in his lap. A Tory MP's secretary suspects her boss's father has an unsavoury history that could taint his prime ministerial ambitions. The ruthless entrepreneur in question sends two henchmen out to make sure the past stays in the past. And the lethal pair dispatched have some awkward secrets of their own. Four stories, two mismatched detectives trying to figure it all out, and 24 hours in which to do it: Dalziel and Pascoe are about to learn the hard way exactly just how much difference a day makes!

Waiting for the next one and still catching up on the earlier books. Hill stays on my reading list.

THICKER THAN WATER: ANTHEA FRASER

James Markham's family are shocked when he jilts his fiancee for a woman about whom he appears to know very little. When they meet Abigail they are swayed by her beauty and charm, but puzzled by the aura of mystery that surrounds her, and her reluctance to answer questions about her past.Callum Firbank is successful, with a loving family and a comfortable home. But he has always been evasive about his childhood, and his wife realizes she knows little about her husband's upbringing or family.Jill Irving runs a hotel in Dorset with her third husband Douglas. She has everything she could wish for: plenty of money, a leisurely lifestyle and opportunity for occasional illicit encounters. But she, too, has secrets in her past, and the facade she presents to the world masks a woman who lives in fear of discovery.What links these three very different people, and who is the mysterious stranger whose appearance in their lives seems to cause such terror?

An unknown when I picked it from the shelf well worth turning the pages til the end. I checked out the others books by this author and found them wanting....didn't read.

A COLD TREACHERY: CHARLES TODD

Called out by Scotland Yard into the teeth of a violent blizzard, Inspector Ian Rutledge finds himself confronted with one of the most savage murders he has ever encountered. Rutledge might have expected such unspeakable carnage on the World War I battlefields, where he’d lost much of his soul—and his sanity—but not in an otherwise peaceful farm kitchen in remote Urskdale.

Someone has murdered the Elcott family at their table without the least sign of struggle. Was the killer someone the young family knew and trusted? When the victims are tallied the local police are in for another shock: One of the Elcotts’ children, a boy named Josh, is missing.

A LONG SHADOW: CHARLES TODD ( no cover )

A long shadow finds Rutledge turned from hunter to prey when a mysterious stalker forces the Inspector to revisit painful memories from the war and confront unfinished business there.

Rutledge first encounters his unknown and unseen adversary after a dinner at the home of mutual friends on New Year’s Eve, 1919. Leaving before the other guests, he finds a brass machine gun cartridge casing on the doorstep. It’s like countless others he’s seen in the trenches—but what is it doing on a quiet London street, far from France? And this one has been engraved. Disturbed and intrigued, he pockets it.

Soon after, Rutledge is sent to the southern coast of England to help the local police capture a murderer. Work done, on a whim he drives to the cliffs high about the sea and walks out to the headland. Returning to his car, on the driver’s seat he discovers another engraved cartridge casing, the death’s heads on it marking it as a companion to the one he’d found in London. Rutledge is being followed—and to stay alive in the face of a dangerous, anonymous foe, he is pressed to the limits of his investigative skills. But there’s little time to protect himself, for he must look into a vicious attack on a village constable in the north, a crime with roots deep in the past.

Or is he being lured there for the coup de grace?

A FALSE MIRROR: CHARLES TODD

Hampton Regis, a small harbor town on the southern coast of England, is a most unlikely place for violence. Yet, one spring morning, a man is found on the strand so severely beaten that he slips in and out of consciousness. The prime suspect? His wife’s jilted lover, who served with Rutledge in the recently ended Great War—but who left the Front under a cloud. Badly wounded, yes, but did someone also cover up cowardice?

Rutledge is called on to prove the innocence of a man he dislikes and distrusts. But the deadly triangle also stirs up memories of the woman Rutledge himself loved and lost when he went to France to fight. His doubts about the accused and himself only deepen when the victim of the beating mysteriously disappears, with no body to be found.

As the brilliant yet tormented detective discovers that he’s not the only person seeing a reflection of tumultuous emotions in this case, he must confront the demons that threaten to overwhelm him and search out the truth. For in Hampton Regis hides a vicious killer who intends to let nothing—and no one—stand in the way.

6 books
Year end total....115

November final

INCONTINENT ON THE CONTINENT: JANE CHRISTMAS non fiction

Product Description
Since the beginning of time, mothers and daughters have had notoriously fraught relationships. “Show me a mother who says she has a good or great relationship with her daughter,” Jane Christmas writes, “and I’ll show you a daughter who is in therapy trying to understand how it all went so horribly wrong.”

To smooth over five decades of constant clashing, Christmas takes her arthritic, incontinent, and domineering mother, Valeria—a cross between Queen Victoria and Hyacinth Bucket of the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances—on a tour of Italy.

Neither has been to Italy before, but both are fans of ancient art, architecture, and history. Will gazing at the fruits of the Italian Renaissance be enough to spark a renaissance in their relationship? As they wander along the winding Amalfi Coast, traverse St. Peter’s Square in Rome, and sample the wines of Tuscany—walkers, biscuits, shawls, and medications in tow—they revisit the bickering and bitterness of years past and reassess who they are and how they might reconcile their differences.

Unflinching and frequently hilarious, this book will speak to all women who have tried to make friends with their mothers.

SEAWEED ON THE ROCKS: STANLEY EVANS

Product Description
In this fourth mystery of the "Seaweed" series, Victoria neighbourhood cop Silas Seaweed is as always sensitive to his Coast Salish culture, but when he's confronted by a ten-foot-tall bear on a marsh on the city's outskirts, he suspects that this is no creature from the unknown world but someone out to con him. And Silas is right, but his attempts to unmask the bear lead him into a labyrinth of blackmail and murder. Along the way he investigates a homeless people's sit-in at Beacon Hill Park, a burglary in the office of hypnotherapist Dr. Lawrence Trew, and the barely legal world of small-time hood Titus Silverman. And whenever Silas is not busy finding corpses, he's on the lookout for a missing artist and two eight-year-old runaways.

THE MURDER STONE: CHARLES TODD

How well do we really know the people we love? Maybe never well enough, to judge by the example of Francesca Hatton, the young British heiress around whom Charles Todd constructs his first standalone historical suspense tale, The Murder Stone. Leaving London and her volunteer work with wounded World War I soldiers, Francesca--"the last of the Hattons ... a long and distinguished line"--returns in 1916 to River's End, the rural estate where her powerful and beloved grandfather is dying of a stroke. Francis Hatton's passing hits Francesca hard, especially coming so soon after the demise of her five male cousins, all of them "mown down with their dreams of glory" in battle. But her mourning is interrupted by multiple mysteries. Why did Francis insist in his will that the Murder Stone, a large and cryptically named white rock in his garden, be moved to the farthest corner of Scotland? Why had he concealed his ownership of two other, distant estates? And could there be any truth in the charge, leveled by an invalided soldier, that Francis long ago "abducted and killed his mother, then buried the body where it couldn't be found"? Forced by new revelations to rebalance her faith in the man who'd taken her in as an orphaned child, while simultaneously contending with a random sniper who's invaded the neighborhood of River's End, Francesca struggles to build a new future, even as her trust in the "facts" of her past crumbles.

WATCHERS OF TIME: CHARLES TODD

From Library Journal
The cliffhanger ending of Todd's Legacy of the Dead (LJ 8/00) left Inspector Ian Rutledge on the brink of death. In this follow-up, Rutledge is recovering from his gunshot wound while trying to investigate the murder of a parish priest in the small town of Osterley. Rutledge is skeptical that Father James's death is a simple case of robbery gone wrong. Was he murdered because of something he knew or had seen? Rutledge's inquiries are hampered both by the local authorities and by townsfolk unwilling to talk. With the ever-present voice of Hamish, a dead Scottish soldier, in his head, Rutledge must set aside his own problems to find out the truth. A gifted writer, Todd has once again created an intriguing mystery peopled with memorably unique characters. The depth of emotion that he expresses is truly remarkable. Highly recommended for all libraries.

A FEARSOME DOUBT: CHARLES TODD

From Publishers Weekly
This brilliant and gripping whodunit may well be the best of Todd's six Rutledge novels (Watchers of Time, etc.). Featuring as its protagonist a Scotland Yard inspector who is among the walking wounded after his WWI traumas, the series has always been compelling. This time, Todd ratchets up the psychological pressures by raising doubts about the one aspect of Rutledge's life that he has felt secure about: his prewar accomplishments as a policeman. The widow of a convicted killer, who went to the gallows for preying on the infirm elderly, confronts him with a missing jewelry piece found in a neighbor's possession, suggesting that Rutledge helped execute an innocent man. Reopening the inquiry requires caution not only because of the soul-searching it provokes, which threatens to shatter the inspector's tenuous grasp on sanity, but also because the case contributed to his superior's promotion. This old mystery becomes only one of the puzzles Rutledge must resolve when he's ordered to investigate the poisoning deaths of three disabled soldiers. The solutions to both sets of crimes are logical, satisfying and unexpected, but it is the character of Rutledge himself-intuitive, exquisitely sensitive to mood, the emotions of others and the significance of what is left unsaid-that makes this both an outstanding historical mystery and literate period fiction.


5 books

month end: 10
to date: 109

More October - month end tally

FEDERATIONS : edited by JOSEPH ADAMS

Product Description
Edited by John Joseph Adams, editor of Wastelands and The Living Dead. From Star Trek to Star Wars, from Dune to Foundation, science fiction has a rich history of exploring the idea of vast intergalactic societies, and the challenges facing those living in or trying to manage such societies. The stories in Federations will continue that tradition, and herein you will find a mix of all-new, original fiction, alongside selected reprints from authors whose work exemplifies what interstellar SF is capable of, including Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, George R.R. Martin, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Alastair Reynolds, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Silverberg and Harry Turtledove. Additional authors: Alan Dean Foster, Kevin J. Anderson, Doug Beason, John C. Wright, Allen Steele, James Alan Gardner, Catherynne M. Valente

I read a good 2/3 of this collection. Short stories are not my favourite reading but this collection featured many of the authors I like and the stories chosen were quite good.

SEAWEED ON ICE: STANLEY EVANS

Product Description
Coast Salish street cop Silas Seaweed has his hands full. An elderly Jewish immigrant has disappeared. An old blind woman has been murdered. Valuable art stolen from German Jews during the Second World War has begun to show up for sale in Victoria's auction houses, and the word on the street is that collectors are planning to loot a priceless aboriginal archaeological site.

Another find from the newspaper reviews of Canadian mystery writers. This is the second in the series, the library does not have the first. Short, enjoyable and fun remembering all the streets we walked and places we visited in Victoria in 2008.

SEAWEED UNDER WATER: STANLEY EVANS

Coast Salish investigator Silas Seaweed is back in another suspenseful pageturner. What begins as a missingperson investigation takes a nasty turn when party girl Jane Colby is found drowned, strangulation marks around her neck. Silas soon discovers that some of Jane's friends would benefit by her death. Tackling the case with his usual intelligence, wit and compassion, he sets out to find Jane's killer. His search leads him to a dangerous family with disturbing secrets.

RETURN OF THE CRIMSON GUARD: IAN ESSLEMONT

Product Description
This is the second epic fantasy novel from the co-creator of the Steven Erikson world of Malaz.
The return of the mercenary company the Crimson Guard could not have come at a worse time for the Malazan Empire. Driven by constant warfare, weakened by betrayal and rivalries, many see the grip of Empress Laseen beginning to weaken as conquered kingdoms and principalities test their old independence.
Into this gathering civil war on Quon Tali, the Empire’s homeland comes the Guard. And with their return comes the memory of their hundred-year-old vow — undying opposition to the existence of the Empire. Yet rivalries and betrayals stalk the Guard as well; elements of its elite, the Avowed, scheme to open paths to even greater power, and ancient potent entities, Ascendants, also lend a hand exploiting all sides to further their own arcane ends.

Still hooked on the whole Malazan story so I'll continue reading until they get boring.

HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY: AUDREY NIFFENEGGER

Product Description
Another brilliant, original and moving novel from the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers — normal, at least, for identical “mirror” twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her amazing flat in a building by Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin … but they have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the OCD-suffering crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the mother of the girls — her own twin — and who can’t even seem to quite leave her flat….

At times I wanted to rush because I really did want to see how it all ended but I managed to hold myself back. This is a good one!

5 books
Month end - 8
To date - 99

Movies:
Nausicaa anime
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time anime
My Neighbor Totoro anime
Whispers of the Heart anime
The Brothers Bloom .... the best con movie ever

Last for September

THE MARRIAGE HEARSE: KATE ELLIS

Product Description
When Kirsten Harbourn is found strangled and naked on her wedding day, DI Wesley Peterson makes some alarming discoveries. Kirsten was being pursued by an obsessed stalker and she had dark secrets her doting fiance, Peter, knew nothing about. But Kirsten's wasn't the only wedding planned to take place that July day in South Devon. At Morbay register office a terrified young girl makes her wedding vows. And a few days later her bridegroom is found dead in a seedy seaside hotel. As Wesley investigates he suspects that his death and his bride's subsequent disappearance might be linked to Kirsten's murder. Meanwhile the skeleton of a young female is found buried in a farmer's field - a field that once belonged to the family of Ralph Strong, an Elizabethan playwright whose play, "The Fair Wife of Padua" is to be performed for the first time in four hundred years. Is this bloodthirsty play a confession to a murder committed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1? Or does it tell another story, one that might cast light on recent mysteries?

Last title my library has so this finishes the series for me.

TEST OF WILLS: CHARLES TODD

From Library Journal
Inspector Ian Rutledge, a British veteran of the Great War secretly still suffering from shell-shock, returns to his Scotland Yard job in hopes of exorcizing his private demons. However, a devious higher-up has learned of his Achilles heel and gets Ian assigned to a potentially explosive and career-damaging case,a murder involving a decorated war hero, a beautiful ward, and a shell-shocked witness. Strong, elegant prose; detailed surroundings; and sound plotting characterize this debut historical.

A new series found. Well plotted, good characters. I have the next one on reserve.

TILL THERE WAS YOU: LYNN KURLAND

Product Description
Zachary Smith is finished with high-maintenance women, impossible clients, and paranormal adventures. But when he walks through a doorway into a different century—and meets Mary de Piaget—he knows his life isn't going to turn out quite the way he planned.

One of the few "romance" novels I still read. I like the time travel aspect and I like the intertwining of main families throughout the series.

books:3

MOVIES:
State of Play... oh hum. The BBC mini series it based itself on was far superior in acting and story development.

Duplicity .. Julia Roberts, Clive Owen. Oh dear. Thankfully we got it free.

Xmen Origins Wolverine ... mindless fun.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button .. a tad long but better than I had expected from the previews

Lost In Austin ... delightful.


Month End: 13
To date : 91

Month End - August

THE BONE GARDEN: KATE ELLIS

From Booklist
Past and present come together in Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson's latest case. In the course of restoring the gardens at historic Earlsacre Hall, three skeletons are uncovered. The bones appear to be centuries old, but they hold an interest for Peterson, whose degree is in archaeology. But despite the attraction of the skeletons, Peterson has more pressing concerns. A decomposing body with multiple stab wounds is found at a local campsite, and shortly afterward, the body of a local lawyer is discovered, his head bashed in by a cricket bat. Peterson's intuition tells him the two murders are connected, and he also suspects a link with Earlsacre, but he has no evidence to back up his hunches.

I finally get into sequence only to find the library does not own the next one and jumps some of the later ones as well. Pity, but I will read the ones they have. Not tired of them yet.

1 book
..........................

Month End :13

To Date : 78

Movies:
The Soloist - DVD .. I had my doubts about a film about a homeless man playing classical music after seeing the trailers but the film itself delivered much much more. Solid acting, good story line and not at all preachy.

The Hurt Locker -- theatre .. loved it. The hand held camera shake bothered me a little but the story and the character portrayal was intense enough to make up for it.

Race to Witch Mountain - DVD .. Entertaining fun with some good lines. It always amazes my how good an actor The Rock is.

Caprica -- DVD .. Seeing as I followed B Galactica on TV I figured I should see this. Not bad. Could turn into an interesting series,

Fast and Furious --DVD .. Lots of cars, lots of crashes. Mindless entertainment but don't watch the extras on making of. Ruins all the stunts.

I Could Never Be Your Woman--DVD .. Got it from the library only because I like Michelle Pfeiffer. Lots of laughs thanks to a decent script. Hubby didn't cringe in horror so not totally a chickflick.


The International--DVD .. Again one that was better than the trailers led me to believe. Fantastic use of architecture, colours and cinematography. Finally a thriller without the lead actors having an affair. Smart script. Directed by Tom Tykwer.

Month End - July

Month end: 10

To Date: 65

July DVD
The Bank Job
Rebus 3
Knowing
Push
Doubt
Watchmen
Rumor Has It

FLYING TOO HIGH: KERRY GREENWOOD

Walking the wings of a Tiger Moth plane in full flight would be more than enough excitement for most people, but not for Phryne-amateur detective and woman of mystery, as delectable as the finest chocolate and as sharp as razor blades. Here the 1920s' most talented and glamorous detective flies even higher, handling a murder, a kidnapping, and the usual array of beautiful young men with style and consummate ease-and all before it's time to adjourn to the Queenscliff Hotel for breakfast. Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series was called "the best Australian import since Nicole Kidman" in Booklist's starred review of Away With the Fairies. Kerry Greenwood is the author of 38 novels and six non-fiction books.

Perfect reading for a hot summer day. I'll be checking out more of her adventures and hopefully finally figure out how to pronounce her first name.


IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND: H.V. MORTON .. non-fiction

From the travel writer whom Jan Morris has called "the much-loved master of the genre, often imitated but never matched." H. V. Morton peerlessly evokes the sights, the splendors, and the drama of history for tourists and armchair travelers alike.

Currently in its 40th printing with its original publisher in the UK, this is the book that one British newspaper has called "travel writing at its best. Bill Bryson must weep when he reads it." Whether describing ruined gothic arches at Glastonbury or hilarious encounters with the inhabitants of Norfolk, Morton recalls a way of life far from gone even at the beginning of a new century.
First published in 1927 this book is like a time machine. I had a great fun looking up terms and words and I checked websites to see how things compared today. My library doesn't have all his books but I will be reading as many as I can find. Great fun!




THE CROSSING PLACES: ELLY GRIFFITHS

Dr Ruth Galloway is in her late 30s. When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, she lectures at a university in Norfolk. She lives, alone but happily so, in a bleak, marshy area called Saltmarsh overlooking the sea and Norfolk's vast skies with her cats and Radio 4 for company. She's a salty character - quirky.
When a child's bones are found in the marshes, near a dig that Ruth and her former boyfriend Peter worked on ten years before, Ruth is called upon to date them. They turn out to be bronze-age bones and DCI Harry Nelson, who called on Ruth for help, is disappointed. He had hoped they would be the bones of a child called Lucy who's been missing, presumed dead, for ten years. He has been getting letters about her ever since - odd letters with references to ritual and sacrifice, and including quotes from the Bible and Shakespeare. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson gets another letter - like the ones about Lucy. Is it the same killer? Is it a ritual murder, linked in some way to the site near Ruth's remote home? Then one of Ruth's cats is killed and clearly she's in danger from a killer who knows that her expert knowledge is being used to help the police with their enquiries -

Another one of those lucky finds that was worth opening the cover. I'm going to be waiting for the next one.

.................................
3 books
month end: 8
to date: 65

June DVD:
Music and Lyrics
The Reader
Ghost Town
He's Just Not That Into You
No Reservations
Changeling
Revolutionary Road
Defiance
Bolt
Gran Torino
Owning Mahoney
Bottle Shock
Inkheart

Terminator Salvation..theatre

FINAL MAY

THE LAST GOOD DAY

Joanne Kilbourn is on holiday at a cottage borrowed from a lawyer friend, one of a cluster of summer homes owned by lawyers from the same prestigious firm. When one of them kills himself the night after a long talk with Joanne, she is pushed into investigating just what her neighbours are involved with, an investigation that has startling – and fatal – consequences.

Bowen’s depiction of this community of lawyers, each in his or her way now divorced from the ideals of justice and mercy that once motivated them all, is both compassionate and hard-nosed. There is Zack, the charming but controlling paraplegic; Blake and Lily, whose daughter, Gracie, struggles to keep her dignity as her parents’ marriage falls apart; Noah, who would rather practise carpentry than the law, and his wife, Delia, who is consumed by worry about the firm. The mounting stress among these lawyers is palpable as Joanne delves into their lives. And Joanne faces her own personal anxieties too when she discovers that her former lover, Inspector Alex Kequahtooway, is mixed up in what seems to be some very sordid legal business.



THE ENDLESS KNOT

When journalist Kathryn Morrissey’s sensational book on the lives of thirteen adult children of prominent Canadians is published, one of the parents, Sam Parker, is furious enough to take a pot shot at the author, grazing her shoulder. Charges are laid, and Joanne’s new beau, Zack Shreve, is hired by Parker as his defence counsel. On the day of the verdict, Morrissey is brutally murdered, and Joanne’s investigation quickly has her trying to unravel the endless knot of the relationship between parent and child.








THE BRUTAL HEART

With a general election just weeks away, Joanne Kilbourn is following the campaign of Ginny Monaghan, a woman who has her eyes set on the leadership of the federal Conservative Party and whose success depends, not so much on the election-day poll, but on the outcome of a custody battle she’s fighting with her ex. Joanne thinks this is perfect material for a TV program she’s putting together on women and party politics. Happy to be back in the political fray that used to be her life during her first marriage, Joanne is soon also glad of the distraction it provides. A local call girl has been murdered — a woman whose regular clientele included several of Regina’s most prominent lawyers, including — until he met Joanne — her own husband, Zach Shreve.

Her new marriage creaking under the strain of this revelation, Joanne throws herself into her project — and into finding out why the dead woman had started to threaten her clients with blackmail, an investigation that leads to the truth — and to death.

Finally up to date with all the Gail Bowen novels. I felt compelled to finish before moving on to any other titles. Only fault I can find is with some continutity in the last novels. Minor points but certainly noticeable when you read them back to back. I will be watching to see if any new stories hit the shelves.



May DVD:
Marley and Me
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
The Secret Life of Bees
Fever Pitch
Valkyrie
Frost/Nixon
PS I love you
Midnight at the Museum
Theatre:
Star Trek

3 books
Month end: 12
To date: 57

FALL OF OSSARD: COLIN TABER

Ossard is falling... Juvela is different. Growing up in a city of Merchant Princes, she discovers that she can see what others can't: The very currents of the celestial are open to her, and that includes the dark truths they hide. Has Juvela been cursed with Witches' Kiss - or perhaps something worse? Yet, more is to come, for Juvela is about to become forsaken, and that's before she learns the real truth of not just the crimes plaguing Ossard's bloody streets, but the wider world. Ossard is falling - falling into the realm of Death. Doom is coming.


This book is currently available at Amazon.com and in Australia. It is a fantasy novel by a chap I came to know on Sara Douglass' Bulletin Board. When he started writing this story he would send me first drafts to read and comment on. Well he's turned what I at first found confusing into a very readable story that moves along at a nice pace. Now I just have to wait to find out what happens next.




THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN: KATE MORTON

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book -- a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and with very little to go on, "Nell" sets out on a journey to England to try to trace her story, to find her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell's death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. At Cliff Cottage, on the grounds of Blackhurst Manor, Cassandra discovers the forgotten garden of the book's title and is able to unlock the secrets of the beautiful book of fairy tales.

I preferred the story in The House at Riverton ( see March 28th review). I did like the main characters and I did like the story idea but I thought it wondered away from the main focus at times. Morton does handle her time shifts well and I will be keeping an eye open for any further titles.


2 books

Month end: 15
To date:45

April DVDs: (12)
Night in Rodanthe, Son of Rambo, Twilight, Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Passchendaele, Rent, Quantum of Solace, Slumdog Millionaire

The Tale of Despereaux, The Day the Earth Stood Still, War Inc., Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

Not quite finished my current book so it will have to wait til next month to be counted.

Month end: 11 books
To date: 30

2 movies on DVD... Dan in Real Life, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist : neither spectacular but enjoyable enough. Paul watched Zack and Miri make a Porno, I lasted 5 minutes so it doesn't count on my list.

Library Journal RIMRUNNERS
Bet Yeager's shady past remains a carefully guarded secret aboard the spaceship Loki. Set in the same universe as Cyteen and Downbelow Station, Cherryh's latest novel captures the acute sense of claustrophobia of men and women under pressure.

Not great but not bad. Adds a bit more detail to the whole Alliance/Union/Company saga. Characters play their parts well and the storyline has some interesting bits.

The X Files..I want to believe. ho hum. Little better than one of the average TV shows.

Burn After Reading: The end was the best. I really disliked the use of the F word .. it felt like a work count add on.


..............

Month end: 7 books - 6 of them Cherryh
5 movies on DVD

to date...19 books, 12 movies on DVD

Month End

Final January DVD: THE DUCHESS. The Duke wasn't the horror I had expected after some of the reviews I read..a man of his times most likely.. and I really don't see why some made the Princess Di. comparison. On the whole a decent movie with great costumes and wonderful sets. There's something to be said for movies that can use the old homes and building in the UK.

Series: BLUE MURDER set 2. and I've started another Cherryh book.

I'm going to be keeping a monthly tally this year

12 books
7 movies on DVD

****

I did a quick approximate count for 2008

60 books
84 DVDs
6 movies at the theatre