Funny Ladies, Funny Lives

There are two women on the telly box that I have always admired so it was great to sit down and have a read up on them in their own words.

It only took me days to read Clare Balding's My Animals and Other Family and it really did have me laughing out loud.  It tells where her love of animals comes from, how most of the animals in her life were put before her and how hard she worked to become a jockey before she became the sports presenter we know today.  I've been lucky enough to meet Clare and she is a hell of a lot more petite that she appears on TV!  This book was a real page turner.

Another woman I've loved since I was a little girl is Pam Ayres, there's just something about her voice,that gorgeous accent and her fantastic sense of humour.  Pam has led a really interesting life, trying out so many jobs that she just didn't have the "The Necessary Aptitude" for.  This is another book that tells of the hard work and determination it takes to make dreams come true.  I went to see Pam's show at the theatre a couple of years ago and she's still just as funny as she was when I first saw her in the 70's!

If it's chilly outside and you fancy curling up indoors with a book this weekend then I really can recommend either or both of these.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

So Much In Common!

I have just finished listening to a really great book and I can't believe I had so much in common with the lead character!

Christie Chapman is a single mum, like me, she works in an office, like me, she loves to craft, just like me!  Even her best friend is called Sarah, like me!  Christie dreams of giving up her job in the city to start her craft business, like me!

Something happens in Christie's life that knocks her for six and I'm not sure I'd be able to cope as well as she did.  Does she come through it the other side and get to live her dreams?

You'll just have to read the new book, Paper Hearts and Summer Kisses by Carole Matthews (another crafter), to find out.

If you're a Carole Matthews fan, like me, then I think you'll really enjoy this book and love the characters in it.  There are highs, lows and some laugh out loud moments :)

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

That Led To This

Me and Maddie love to watch a thriller, crime drama or mystery.  As soon as we hear the theme tune to Jonathan Creek we both say it makes us feel cosy but ready for a murder or mystery all at the same time :)

Last year we watched an amazing show, every week it kept us gripped and on the edge of our seats!  It was Harlan Coben's The Five:

Now although I love watching this type of show I've never, ever read any crime, thriller or mystery books but this program changed all that.  As soon as the show was finished I went to the library to find some Harlan Coben books.  After all, I'd watched one of his dramatisations and really enjoyed it so I thought it was a safe bet.

I wasn't disappointed with my choice:

This was a real page turner, I didn't want to put it down.  In the story we meet Dr. David Beck whose wife, Elizabeth, the love of his life had been abducted and murdered.  Eight years after her body was found he get a mysterious email with a specific phrase known only to him.....and Elizabeth!

This book took me out of  my comfort zone and on to a genre I had never read and I can''t recommend it highly enough.  I've since picked up a few more Harlan Coben books and can't wait to read them.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

The Traveller In Me

When I first thought of talking about and recommending books on my blog I really wondered how long I could go before ideas started to dry up.  As I started thinking about books it triggered something very much like word association and more and more lovely books came to my mind, I think it will be a long time before I have nothing to say on books :)

I really love to read autobiographies and today I'm sharing two of my favourites, two books that took me to different countries.

One of my favourite books from high school was all about a boy whose mother packed up the family and shipped them all to live on the Greek island of Corfu.  I felt the warmth of the sun and the waves lapping at my feet as I drifted through the pages.  I laughed so hard at some of the outrageous things that the family got up to and was hardly surprised at how stressed the mother got.  I also loved how she reminded me of my own mum who just lets things wash over her knowing it will all turn out well in the end.  I have watched two TV adaptations of this book but reading the book was much more fun than watching either of them.

The second book was one I heard about during a training session when I worked for a travel company.  Someone had read an excerpt from the book and it was a recipe for how to cook a dead fox!  I really have no idea why this made me want to read the book but it did.  I had spent two weeks of every year of my life in France and that was probably what else drew me to this book.  When I read how the French always greeted each other with a handshake and if their hands were full they would shake elbows or even their little fingers it drew memories from me of the very things I had witnessed.  This book covers the first year of Peter and his wife selling up their house in the UK and moving to France.  It's interesting and oh so funny and I've actually bought this book four times because if someone hasn't read it I insist they do :)

A Year in Provence was also made in to a TV series and yet again it didn't come close to how good the book was.

This got me thinking (the sort of word association thoughts) about another book I read as a child that was amazing and so much better than the film it was made in to:

If you haven't read these books then why not add them to your reading list?

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

How Do You Judge A Book?

There are plenty of times I judge a book by it's cover, I know I shouldn't but I do.  When I've just got a limited amount of time to speed browse a charity shop then I only really have the time to look at the book covers that really jump out at me.  That's how I found this gem of a book:

Alison Penton Harper was a runner up in a competition held by none other that Richard and Judy!  It follows the life of Helen Robbins as she goes from housewife to widow in the blink on an eye.  Now don't be put off by that, it's not a heavy book.  There are plenty of times that I laughed out loud, actually guffawed on the bus!

Getting to know Helen and her friends was great but it took me a long time to find the second book, they didn't have it in any of the libraries near here and my budget doesn't often stretch to a new book

A couple of years after finishing the second book I found numbers 3, 4 and 5 all nestled together in a charity shop.  Reading about Helen and co was just like meeting up with old friends after a long break.

The scrapes she gets herself into had me laughing and gasping all at the same time.  I binge read those last 3 books just as I binge watch a great series on Netflix :)

As soon as I finished the last book I jumped on the Internet to find out what was next.  I was so disappointed when I found out it really was the last book :( I'm not sure what happened to Alison and why she stopped writing because the last things posted about her were in 2012.

If you're looking for a series of books then I really can recommend these for easy, chilled out reading and, thanks to this heads up, you'll savour the final pages of the last book.

Do you have a favourite series of books?  You know, that ones you just have to share with a friend because they've taken you on a wonderful journey.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Reading

I love to read and so does Maddie.  Between the two of us we have four bookcases that are positively groaning under the weight of the books we have!

I always have 3 books on the go at any one time.  I love to read books on my Kindle. 

Just as much as I love to hold a real book and read it.  I love the feeling of opening a brand new book just as much as I love the feeling of opening a pre-loved booked.

I always have two book marks in a book, one to mark the page I'm on and one to mark the page I want to be on by the end of the day.  This is a method Maddie uses to keep her reading on schedule, she divides the pages by the number of days she wants to take to read the book to get her daily total.  It's a method that really works for me if I find I'm neglecting a paper book.

I also listen to books using Audible.  This allows me to 'read' while I'm on one of my many walks or when I'm in the car driving down to Paul's.
 
When I was younger I read the Enid Blyton books and I still own many of them.  The one book from my childhood that has always stayed with me and has always made me smile when I think of it though is this one:

It's a younger fiction book with an age range of 7-9 years and it made me laugh out loud.  It's the story of a class of school children who go out for the day and the adventure that happens when they get caught up in a bank robbery. If you've got kids (or even if you haven't) then read it :)

I'll be using my blog to share the books I've read and would recommend to others because that's the way I found great authors that are new to me.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx