Hello and welcome to the final post of the week. On Monday, I wrote that my birthday was the next day and I had planned to centre today’s post on my presents. However, they haven’t all arrived yet, so I am going to hold that post over until next week. One item may not even arrive for a few more weeks, but I am sure that it will be worth the wait!
So, instead I am showing you the outfit that I wore on my birthday:
Outfit of the day 08/11/22 with Hermès’ A L’Ombre des Pivoines scarf
There are actually two of my birthday presents in this collage – the turquoise cashmere jumper and the amazing earrings – but I will wait until Monday to give you the details. The trousers are in navy cord and by Lands’ End; the Hermès silk scarf is 90cm and called A L’Ombre des Pivoines. Here is a larger image:
A L’Ombre des Pivoines scarf by Hermès
I adore this scarf! The above image doesn’t quite show the beautiful colours accurately. My modelling photo is much closer to the real shades. In particular, the architectural background is finely drawn in a dark navy. I wasn’t sure whether the scarf would work with the jumper, but it does, and it also complements my other cashmere jumpers in navy, pale and dark grey.
Well, that is all for this week. I do hope that you all have a great weekend.
Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup. As it is two weeks since I last wrote one of these posts, there are quite a lot of books to tell you about. I don’t really want to make a very long post, so will talk about three books this week and hold the rest over until next time.
Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The first book is Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is the sequel to Dogs of War, which I reviewed in the Reading Roundup post on 27/07/22. Here is the blurb:
“Mars. The red planet. A new frontier for humanity, a civilization where humans can live in peace, lord and master of all they survey.
But this isn’t Space City from those old science-fiction books. We live in Hell City, built into and from a huge subcontinent-sized crater. There’s a big silk canopy over it, feeding out atmosphere as we generate it, little by little, until we can breathe the air.
It’s a perfect place to live, if you actually want to live on Mars. I guess at some point I had actually wanted to live on Mars, because here I am. The money was supposed to be good, and how else was a working Joe like me supposed to get off-planet exactly? But I remember the videos they showed us – guys, not even in suits, watching robots and bees and Bioforms doing all the work – and they didn’t quite get it right…”
I seem to have become a real fan of Tchaikovsky’s work over the last couple of years! This is the review which I posted on Goodreads:
This was a good sequel to Dogs of War but not quite as brilliant. That said, it was a great read with an inventive plot and intriguing characters. Tchaikovsky’s imagination simply amazes me and I really enjoy his writing. He manages to slip in important messages without labouring them.
All in all, this was a very gripping and satisfying read and I cannot wait to read another book by this author! Highly recommended.
After the science fiction, I wanted a complete change of genre. I had been in a long reservation queue for the most recent book in the Vera series by Ann Cleeves and it popped into my list at just the right moment!
The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves
So, here we have The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves (#10 Vera Stanhope series). I haven’t read all of the series yet, although I try to get hold of the ebooks when the library has them on their system. Anyway, this is the blurb:
“Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers spent a weekend on Holy Island, forging a bond that has lasted a lifetime. Now, they still return every five years to celebrate their friendship, and remember the friend they lost to the rising waters of the causeway at the first reunion.
Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now . . .
But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible . . .”
Once again, I really enjoyed the book and awarded it four stars. Here is my review:
Having read a lot of this series and all of Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series, as well as watching almost all of the TV spin offs, I think that I am quite immersed in this author’s writing! I have always wanted to see Holy Island but, despite having been to Northumberland several times, I haven’t quite made it. Anyway, it was interesting to read such a book set in the area. The setting was so well-written, as were the characters, and I didn’t guess the murderer at all, which is very unusual for me.
This time I changed genres again to dystopian alternative history!
Widow land by C J Carey
I was intrigued by the blurb written for C J Carey’s Widowland:
“To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature.
London, 1953, Coronation year – but not the Coronation of Elizabeth II.
Thirteen years have passed since a Grand Alliance between Great Britain and Germany was formalized. George VI and his family have been murdered and Edward VIII rules as King. Yet, in practice, all power is vested in Alfred Rosenberg, Britain’s Protector. The role and status of women is Rosenberg’s particular interest.
Rose Ransom belongs to the elite caste of women and works at the Ministry of Culture, rewriting literature to correct the views of the past. But now she has been given a special task.
Outbreaks of insurgency have been seen across the country; graffiti daubed on public buildings. Disturbingly, the graffiti is made up of lines from forbidden works, subversive words from the voices of women. Suspicion has fallen on Widowland, the run-down slums where childless women over fifty have been banished. These women are known to be mutinous, for they have nothing to lose.
Before the Leader arrives for the Coronation ceremony of King Edward and Queen Wallis, Rose must infiltrate Widowland to find the source of this rebellion and ensure that it is quashed.”
Looking on Goodreads, it seems that the book is part one of a series! I will have to think about whether I might look for this. Anyway, here is my response:
The plot of this book was certainly a mixture of others: Fatherland, Handmaid’s Tale and SS-GB etc., but, all the same, it kept me interested until the end. The author cleverly tied in alternatives to the real historical events and worked out a plausible version of what could have happened. I must say that I think that the British would not have rolled over quite so easily to a German takeover, but, perhaps, I am being sentimental! Even though I was born a good decade after WWII, I was brought up with images of the plucky Brits and bulldog Churchill and I don’t like the idea that people would have collaborated to the extent that the book portrayed.
The fact that this tale was told from a female point of view, certainly gave it a good twist. Well worth reading.
I am pleased to say that I have now read 66 books this year! My challenge on Goodreads was 60, so I have done well. Not quite the number that I used to be able to read before I had the stroke, but eyesight and memory issues have now come into play. I try to spend two or three hours every afternoon with a book and that seems to work well at the moment. I try to look at this time as a more positive aspect of being bedridden – 😀.
Hello kind visitors: I’m back again! Welcome to a new week on my blog…
Well, last week was very strange. On Tuesday, I started to feel very ill in the evening with horrible D&V. This lasted until I, eventually, fell asleep and then it all recommenced in the early morning of Wednesday. In addition, a horrible black mood came over me and lasted most of the day and into Thursday. To be quite honest, I felt so utterly miserable that I could only think the worst kind of thoughts. Life felt dark and bleak with a terrible and frightening future ahead of me.
I couldn’t stop crying and both Lovely Husband and Elder Son were incredibly worried, wondering if they should call for medical help. They laid on the bed, trying to comfort me. Also, I posted on Facebook asking for support and so many friends helped. Heartfelt thanks to those lovely, kind people ❤️.
Then, suddenly, an idea struck me through the gloom. I forced myself out of bed and looked through my box of medications on the dressing table. Sure enough, I found what I was looking for: one of the packets had a strip of the wrong dose of the medication inside and I had been taking it for six days! Basically, I had been taking half of the correct dose.
It took another day for things to settle back to normal, but I now feel much better. Phew! We have no idea how the mistake happened. At least I found the answer and now all is OK again.
Now for a nice picture to round off this post…
Screenshot from @womensart1 on Twitter
I should have some nice things to show you on Friday because it’s my birthday tomorrow! Wednesday’s post will be the usual Reading Roundup.
Welcome to a new week on the blog. Yes, I know it’s Hallowe’en today, but I don’t really take much notice of that. Perhaps my children were “deprived” of Trick or Treating when they were young. It is just not something that I have ever been interested in.
So, instead of spooky stuff, I am going to upload some Twitter posts that I have saved. They all have images of amazing and beautiful jewellery that caught my eye…
First we have some lovely Byzantine bracelets:
Screenshot from @ArysPan on Twitter
Next, a collection of Ancient Greek crowns:
Screenshot from @ArysPan on Twitter
Then an amazing purple Roman jewel:
Screenshot from @TheClassicalCo on Twitter
Finally, here is a more modern piece:
Screenshot from @NouveauDeco on Twitter
So much beauty! A real feast for the eyes and imagination. Which do you like best? If I had to choose, my favourite would probably be the amethyst or the bottom right-hand “crown” which is actually a bracelet!
Welcome to the final post of the week. Today I am going to show you the outfit I wore last Saturday when we went out to have our latest vaccinations. I have already written about the event itself and the aftermath, so this is just a quick “Outfit of the Day” post.
Last Friday, I wore an outfit with one of my gorgeous blue Hermès scarves, Plumes en Fête. Here it is as a reminder:
Outfit of the day 18/10/22 with Hermès’ Plumes en Fête scarf
I wore the same jewellery with this week’s ensemble, but swapped around the blue clothing a bit: a cobalt blue twinset and dark denim jeans. So, this is the outfit with Hermès De la Mer au Ciel scarf. The colours are quite similar to my Plumes en Fête (blues, purple and green), but the effect is quite different.
Outfit of the Day 19/10/22 with Hermès’ De la Mer au Ciel scarf
I must show you a larger image of this lovely scarf:
De la Mer au Ciel scarf by Hermès
I now have a stack of scarf boxes in my bedroom with the scarves and shawls suitable for Autumn/Winter. My plan is to just open the top one and see what comes next! I’m hoping for a change in colour, but we will see.
Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! After the previous three weeks, where I was working my way through a brilliant, but extremely dark, trilogy, I decided to turn to something more lighthearted. My favourite science fiction with humour author is John Scalzi and this is the book that I chose:
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi is actually a reworking of a much older book, by H Beam Piper, called Little Fuzzy. At some point I intend to read that as well and it will be interesting to compare the two. Anyway, getting back to the point of this post, here is the blurb for Fuzzy Nation:
“Jack Holloway works alone, for reasons he doesn’t care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorp’s headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporation’s headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, that’s not up for discussion.
Then, in the wake of an accidental cliff collapse, Jack discovers a seam of unimaginably valuable jewels, to which he manages to lay legal claim just as ZaraCorp is cancelling their contract with him for his part in causing the collapse. Briefly in the catbird seat, legally speaking, Jack pressures ZaraCorp into recognizing his claim, and cuts them in as partners to help extract the wealth.
But there’s another wrinkle to ZaraCorp’s relationship with the planet Zarathustra. Their entire legal right to exploit the verdant Earth-like planet, the basis of the wealth they derive from extracting its resources, is based on being able to certify to the authorities on Earth that Zarathustra is home to no sentient species.
Then a small furry biped—trusting, appealing, and ridiculously cute—shows up at Jack’s outback home. Followed by its family. As it dawns on Jack that despite their stature, these are people, he begins to suspect that ZaraCorp’s claim to a planet’s worth of wealth is very flimsy indeed…and that ZaraCorp may stop at nothing to eliminate the “fuzzys” before their existence becomes more widely known.”
I really enjoyed this book and it had a lovely uplifting effect on my mood! This is my four star review on Goodreads:
I have probably written this many times before, but I really love John Scalzi’s writing. This is a quick and humorous read which also has a strong message for human beings. Just how would we behave if we could reach other planets? Would human nature rule with us exploiting every resource to make money? I’m sure most of us can answer questions like these.
This is apparently a reboot of a book written in the 1960s. I may try to find that to see what Scalzi added or subtracted from it – could be interesting!
Anyway, once again I will say that Scalzi’s work is well worth reading. Although simple, it is clever and funny and thoughtful. Great stuff!
After this book, I chose at random from the library’s ebook catalogue…
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
On Goodreads, The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel had pretty good ratings and reviews, so I thought that I would give it a go. Well, I got through the first fifty pages and gave up. I just couldn’t get into the plot at all. The only thing that I liked about the book was its cover. In my opinion, life is too short to persevere with a book that you aren’t enjoying!
I chose another book, which I am now half way through and enjoying immensely. What is it? Well, you will have to wait until next week. Or you could just check the sidebar of this blog!
Well, that was an unpleasant weekend! On Saturday, Lovely Husband, Elder Son and I all went to have our flu and COVID jabs done at our local surgery. For some reason I felt nervous, although I am not worried about injections at all. Anyway, we arrived OK but on entering the building I began to feel dizzy. This was my usual low blood pressure issue. ES quickly sat me down and the staff were very kind. A nurse was called to do the inoculations in situ for both me and ES, whilst LH joined the queue. Everything went well and then we drove back home.
Then I had a bad reaction. I expected that I would have the usual stiff arms, but, on Sunday I had awful nausea and really painful arms all day. I couldn’t do very much or eat as I felt dreadful. Both LH and ES were OK.
I think I have had some improvement today and hope it continues! Of course, I am so thankful that I live in a country where we get healthcare free at the point of need. The NHS is a wonderful institution!
Now, I will cheer myself up with a lovely image:
Springtime in Eskdale by James McIntosh Patrick – screenshot from Henry Rothwell on Twitter
I love the brilliant painting of sunshine on this painting! So cheerful!
Welcome to today’s post! I am really pleased because I actually managed to go out again this week. On Tuesday, I was actually feeling quite strong and asked Lovely Husband if he could drive us around the countryside (some of you may remember that I am no longer allowed to drive since I had a stroke back in 2019). So we did our usual thing of going to a garden centre, having a drink and then walking around for a while. I felt so pleased by even this little bit of exercise!
Also, it gave me the opportunity to wear something nice! Here is my outfit:
Outfit of the day 18/10/22 with Hermès’ Plumes en Fête scarf
Outfit details:
Navy short sleeved cotton top – Lands’ End.
Navy cotton cardigan – Lands’ End.
Navy stretch cord trousers – Lands’ End.
Blue crystal and silver earrings – Sonrisa Boutique.
Blue enamel and gold curb chain bangle – Halcyon Days.
Purple Africa leather handbag – Massaccesi.
Silk scarf, 90 cm, in cobalt blue, turquoise, and green – Plumes en Fête – Hermès. Tied in an asymmetric wrap.
A navy blue “column” (top and bottom) like this is very useful and versatile. You can do this with any of your base colours in your wardrobe. My other base colour is grey. Against the base, you can choose any accent colours that you have. In this case, I used brighter blues with a pop of purple for interest. I might use this set of clothing again next week with a different scarf, just to see how it works.
This Plumes en Fête scarf is so gorgeous that it needs a larger picture:
Plumes en Fête scarf by Hermès
You may remember that I also have the cashmere/silk shawl version of this design:
Plumes en Fête shawl by Hermès
And on that note of feathery loveliness I will sign off, wishing you all a very Happy Weekend!
Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! Today, I am bringing you the final book in The Broken Earth trilogy by N K Jemisin…
The Stone Sky by N K Jemisin
The third book is The Stone Sky. As I was quite seriously ill at the beginning of last week, I was unable to fit in another book. So I only have this one to tell you about. To make up for that, this is a quite brilliant book in an amazing series overall. Anyway, here is the blurb:
“The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women.
Essun has inherited the phenomenal power of Alabaster Tenring. With it, she hopes to find her daughter Nassun and forge a world in which every outcast child can grow up safe.
For Nassun, her mother’s mastery of the Obelisk Gate comes too late. She has seen the evil of the world, and accepted what her mother will not admit: that sometimes what is corrupt cannot be cleansed, only destroyed.”
And here is my response to the book on the Goodreads website:
This was a good final part of the trilogy with everything nicely tied up by the end. I can’t quite give five stars because I felt that the early part of the book dragged in places. Also, nothing could quite live up to the amazing first book! The three books were extremely dark with pretty grim characters too, but I am glad that I read them. If I were younger, I would re-read them over and over as I think that there is so much to get out of these extraordinary books. But, I haven’t enough time to do that, so I will look out for other books by this author and read them instead!
This trilogy comes highly recommended if you enjoy very dark and grim plots, intriguing and complex characters and utterly incredible world building. The author’s imagination is amazing! I am definitely going to try some of her other work, although I will probably wait a while as her writing is quite overwhelming!
Former professional school librarian, now retired through chronic illness. Trying to keep cheerful by reading, drinking lots of tea, blogging my new life, and my love of bling!
The Librain
That does seem to be the problem, there alway sis another one isn't there?! The correct decision will come to…