Outfits of the week 23/09/22 with a birthday and a funeral

Posted on 23/09/2022 by The Librain

Hello and welcome to Friday’s post. Well, a lot happened while I had a break from the blog, didn’t it? To begin with, Younger Son visited, Lovely Husband had his 70th birthday and then we had all of the sadness, upset, pomp and circumstance of Queen Elizabeth ll’s passing and funeral. More about the latter later on.

It was so lovely to see YS for a few days. He really helped to give his Dad a great birthday and also supported my efforts to sort out a few issues with the house (the curtain rail in our bedroom came down the other week and I was unable to screw it back on the wall by myself). YS cooked a fabulous celebration dinner for the four of us which was great for his dad as he (LH) usually does all of the food purchasing, preparation and cooking.

We all gave LH some great presents for his birthday: the lovely crystal glasses that I showed you on here back in August and some framed cricket memorabilia. LH was really thrilled, which was so lovely to see.

These were his gifts: two wine glasses from Royal Scot Crystal, then two cricket items bought on eBay. The top one is a print of Scarborough Cricket Ground and at the bottom is a signature and photo of LH’s hero: Dickie Bird. The framing was done locally.

Westminster large wine glass – Royal Scot Crystal
Cricket memorabilia

Now for something more sombre…

Queen Elizabeth II, photograph by Ranald Mackechnie

I am not going to write much about the extraordinary events of the past few days. To be quite honest, I am not a monarchist at all, but somehow I felt caught up in these historic times. As I was born in the 1950s, Queen Elizabeth was on the throne for my whole life and it felt as if she would be there forever! She outlived my own parents, who were a little younger than her and it seems so unsettling now that she has gone.

I really surprised and shocked my family by dressing up in my pearl earrings and necklace and wearing my Hermès Regina scarf, which dates back to the Silver Jubilee in 1977. Here is a quick photo:

Outfit of the day 19/09/22 with Hermès Regina scarf

I wore the scarf with a deep purple twin set and navy trousers from Lands’ End. My pearl earrings and necklace were from John Lewis and the gold tone scarf ring from MaiTai. Here is a larger image of the scarf:

Regina by Hermès

I must admit that I have found the last week or so really exhausting and today I have been climbing the ladder to fit the new bedroom curtains! Perhaps a good rest is now in order!

Hoping for a calm and peaceful weekend.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 21/09/22

Posted on 21/09/2022 by The Librain

Hello! So, I’m back again after my extended break. I had hoped to be able to write an extended post with loads of great books to whet your reading appetite, but the events of the last few days made it impossible for me to concentrate on reading. There is only one book that I can write about. Here it is:

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

I enjoyed The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley so much that I decided to read another of her books: The Rose Garden. This is the blurb:

“When Eva’s film star sister Katrina dies, she leaves California and returns to Cornwall, where they spent their childhood summers, to scatter Katrina’s ashes and in doing so return her to the place where she belongs. But Eva must also confront the ghosts from her own past, as well as those from a time long before her own. For the house where she so often stayed as a child is home not only to her old friends the Halletts, but also to the people who had lived there in the eighteenth century. When Eva finally accepts that she is able to slip between centuries and see and talk to the inhabitants from hundreds of years ago, she soon finds herself falling for Daniel Butler, a man who lived – and died – long before she herself was born. Eva begins to question her place in the present, and in laying her sister to rest, comes to realise that she too must decide where she really belongs, choosing between the life she knows and the past she feels so drawn towards.”

I really needed a bit of escapism and this book certainly provided it! Here is my five star review on Goodreads:

The Rose GardenThe Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second terrific escapist novel by Susanna Kearsley that I have enjoyed. Just the thing when you are beset by worries and troubles. I loved the intertwining of modern day life with the adventure set in the early Georgian era. The characters were interesting and well drawn and the setting beautifully described, leaving me wishing that I could travel to Cornwall once again. Lovely book.

View all my reviews

As I am still struggling to concentrate, I wonder what I can read for next week’s post?

All will be revealed…

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Mourning 09/09/22 – updated 12/09/22

Posted on 09/09/2022 by The Librain
Mourning by Kat on Flickr

Updated Monday 12/09/22: I have decided to take a few days away from the blog for various reasons (LH’s 70th birthday, YS visiting, ES returning from his holiday) and also because I am feeling totally overwhelmed at the moment. So, I hope to return on Wednesday 21/09/22 with a Reading Roundup post.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

💔

Image details

Mourning (The weeping angel on Franz Bendel’s tombstone), by Kat on Flickr

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Reading roundup 07/09/22

Posted on 07/09/2022 by The Librain

Hello, fellow reading fans! Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup. I have enjoyed two books this week and have started a third. Here’s the first one…

The Girl She Was by Alafair Burke

I have read a couple of books by Alafair Burke before, so I thought that I would try another. This one was called “The Girl She Was”. First we have the blurb:

“HOPE CAN BE A DANGEROUS THING…

She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she really is.

Fourteen years ago, she was found thrown from an overturned vehicle, with no clue to her identity. Hope started a new life, but never recovered her memory.

Now she’s missing. With nowhere else to turn, Hope’s best friend, Lindsay Kelly, calls NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher.

In pursuit of answers, three women search for the truth beneath long-buried secrets. And when their searches converge, what they find will upend everything they’ve ever known.”

The book was entertaining enough and I gave it three stars on Goodreads. This is my response on the site:

The Girl She WasThe Girl She Was by Alafair Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting mystery/thriller with many positive points. There were plenty of twists and turns, but ultimately I found the plot confusing and muddled in places. For me, the characters weren’t fleshed out enough and one blurred into another. The book did entertain me until the end, however, so deserves three stars. There were some clever surprises which made the book worth reading.

View all my reviews

I had seen this book title, “Where the Crawdads Sing”, in several places, but had not thought of reading it until I realised that a film is being made of it. That intrigued me, so I decided to see what all of the hype was about…

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Here is the blurb:

“For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life – until the unthinkable happens.”

The book was really worth reading and this is my Goodreads’ review:

Where the Crawdads SingWhere the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I find it really interesting to read the negative reviews of books that I have enjoyed. They give such different perspectives. I can understand those readers who know about the geographical setting and don’t like how this was depicted. Or who know about the local dialect or history of the area and feel that the book didn’t hit the mark. This happens often to me when I read something set in my country or in historical periods that I have studied closely.

However, I live in the UK so I really loved the book, particularly the first half about an abandoned child having to make her way in a hostile place. Hostile in terms of the attitudes of the local people, in terms of poverty and deprivation. It was interesting to read about Kya’s development into adolescence and adulthood and how she related to other people, particularly men. The second half was a more difficult read and the structure of the book at this point became quite an issue for me.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see the film of the book. I hope they can make a good job of it!

View all my reviews

Re-reading some of my reviews sometimes reminds me that my writing, since the stroke three years ago, is not always at its best. Anyway, I hope that you find my responses to the books that I read helpful at the very least!

And now I am going to return to my latest book. What is it? Well, you will find out next week 😁😁😁.

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Update 05/09/22 with a very quick post

Posted on 05/09/2022 by The Librain

Apologies everyone! I was so preoccupied that I almost forgot to post. Elder Son has gone away on a week’s holiday and the fuss and bother involved in getting him ready meant that I just buried myself in a book after he set off.

So, I will simply give you this image…

Serena Williams via Twitter

What a woman!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Outfits of the week 02/09/22

Posted on 02/09/2022 by The Librain

Here we are at Friday once again and also the first post of a new month. I was pleased and surprised that the statistics for August were the second best ever! It is so lovely that this little blog is reaching so many people around the world. Thank you all for visiting 💕💗💖💗💕.

You might remember that we took some items to be framed into town last week. Well, we went to pick them up yesterday and so I had to actually get dressed properly. The two items are birthday presents for Lovely Husband’s 70th birthday in a fortnight and I will show them to you after he has seen them. I was really pleased with the final result – the framer did a wonderful job.

This is my full outfit:

Outfit of the day 01/09/22

Outfit details:

  • Cobalt blue sleeveless dress – Toast. Well, this is actually their Marigold Block Print Cotton Nightie that I bought last year and decided to wear as a dress!
  • Silver butterfly earrings – Sainsburys. This is a similar image. Gift from Elder Son.
  • Silver bell and bow pendant necklace. Bought for me by LH on our honeymoon.
  • Blue and white beaded bracelet. Gift from my sister.
  • Navy leather sandals – Suave.
  • Navy metallic Africa leather midi-Selene handbag – Massaccesi.

This is a larger image of the dress/nightie:

Marigold Block Print Cotton Nightie by Toast

The pattern on the dress is in a golden beige, darker than in the photos above. There are pockets and side slits that make it very comfortable to wear.

OK, I think that is all for now…

Happy Weekend to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 31/08/22

Posted on 31/08/2022 by The Librain

I have enjoyed one great book during the last week. It was quite long, so I have not had enough time to read another one…

A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride

Regular readers may remember that I am a huge fan of Stuart MacBride’s books. I was thrilled when I found A Dark So Deadly on our Library’s ebook service. Here is the blurb:

“DC Callum MacGregor’s career was going pretty well until he covered up for a cock-up to protect his pregnant crime-scene tech girlfriend.

Now Callum’s stuck on a squad with all the other misfits – the officers no one else wants but who can’t be fired, never likely to get within reach of a decent case again. Until they accidentally get handed the biggest murder investigation Oldcastle has ever seen.

When a mummified body is found in the local rubbish dump, the top-brass assume pranksters have stolen it from a museum. But as Callum and his colleagues investigate, it starts to look less like student high-jinks and more like the work of a terrifying serial killer…”

As I wrote above, this was a long read, but I felt sad when I got to the end! Definitely a five star favourite.

This is my short response on the Goodreads website:

A Dark So DeadlyA Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely adore MacBride’s books, but even I baulked a bit at the length of this one. By the end, however, I understood why he wrote such a long tale. The darkest of dark humour and the grimmest of grim plots kept my attention from the beginning to the end.

And I will never be able to face a kipper ever again!

View all my reviews

How on earth will I follow that? I have a long list of “to reads”, so I will go through them to see what could possibly measure up to a great MacBride book.

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Update 29/08/22 with a frustrating day!

Posted on 29/08/2022 by The Librain

Today has been very annoying so far… grrrrrrr! Sorry, I won’t take it out on you, my dear readers, but I am feeling rather grumpy this afternoon.

Elder Son kindly offered to give our (mine and Lovely Husband’s) bedroom a “spring” clean today. I spend so much time in it that it needs a through going over very frequently. Anyway, he had just got started when we heard a loud noise, followed by some very ripe language. It turned out that one of the heavy curtains plus the track had fallen off the window, breaking all of the connectors. Now, this track is very old and had fallen before. But only three of the connectors broke that time and we had exactly three spare ones. On this occasion, the whole thing has come down. Yet another thing to sort out with this house!

I won’t write much more about this, but we are really struggling to find anyone to do minor or major work on the house and we have a lot that needs doing. We have lived here for over twenty years now and we did a major refurb on the whole house ending about ten years ago. It really needs a second refurb now and we are having so many problems with our health issues, Elder Son and other matters that it all feels overwhelming.

Right, now I had better find a lovely image to help me calm down…

From History Defined – Twitter (accessed 11/08/22)

I find it astonishing that something so breathtaking can be carved from stone.

On that note, I will take my leave until Wednesday’s Reading Roundup post.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Outfits of the week 26/08/22

Posted on 26/08/2022 by The Librain

Well, we have arrived at the end of the week once again and I have a proper outfit to show you! If you read Monday’s post, you will have seen that I had to go out to organise Lovely Husband’s birthday presents. Two of his gifts need to be framed, so we went to see an expert who gave us excellent advice.

I decided to wear my bright pink dress from Marks and Spencer with some lovely accessories. Here is the outfit…

Outfit of the day 24/08/22 with Hermès Cosmographia Universalis scarf

Outfit details:

  • Bright pink, cotton t-shirt dress – Marks and Spencer.
  • Bronze leather sandals – K Shoes.
  • Pink, white, gold and brown earrings by Chalk Jewellery.
  • Multicolour enamel and rose gold bangle – Hera by Liberty of London.
  • White leather handbag – Massaccesi.
  • Silk scarf, 90 cm, in bright pink, sky blue, white and navy – Cosmographia Universalis – Hermès. Folded on the bias then tied casually at the front.

At least I won’t fade into the background wearing that ensemble! I wish I had remembered my bright pink lipstick too.

Here is a larger image of the scarf:

Cosmographia Universalis by Jan Bajtlik for Hermès

It is a very cheerful and colourful scene and I have no idea why the model looks so miserable wearing it! The colourways of this scarf are wonderful. If you are interested, have a look at my Scarf of the Moment post about it.

Happy Weekend to you all…

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 24/08/22

Posted on 24/08/2022 by The Librain

I do hope that your own reading has been great recently. I have enjoyed two books since I last wrote one of these posts.

The Girl Behind the Wall by Mandy Robotham

The Girl Behind the Wall by Mandy Robotham was one of those random choices from the Library’s ebook catalogue – and such a good choice.

Here is the blurb:

“A city divided.

When the Berlin Wall goes up, Karin is on the wrong side of the city. Overnight, she’s trapped under Soviet rule in unforgiving East Berlin and separated from her twin sister, Jutta.

Two sisters torn apart.

Karin and Jutta lead parallel lives for years, cut off by the Wall. But Karin finds one reason to keep going: Otto, the man who gives her hope, even amidst the brutal East German regime.

One impossible choice…

When Jutta finds a hidden way through the wall, the twins are reunited. But the Stasi have eyes everywhere, and soon Karin is faced with a terrible decision: to flee to the West and be with her sister, or sacrifice it all to follow her heart?”

I may have been a little harsh in my review of the book. Certainly, other readers have been more generous in their ratings. Anyway, this is mine:

The Girl Behind the WallThe Girl Behind the Wall by Mandy Robotham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, however it fell just short of being a really good read.

What I liked: I can remember the Berlin Wall coming down and over the years leading to that, I often read about incidents at the wall. So I found the subject of the book interesting. The main characters were quite well drawn and there was a good sense of tension and suspense at times. It was also interesting to read about life in East Berlin. The final chapters lead to a satisfying ending.

What I didn’t like: the alternate points of view didn’t quite work for me. Perhaps longer sections should have been given to both sides as it all felt too rushed. There were tense moments, but everything ended far too neatly. I kept waiting for a serious betrayal or something really “gritty” to happen. The book seemed as if it was written for a younger audience, not for adults.

Verdict: worth reading, but could have been a lot better!

View all my reviews

From one historical fiction book to another, this time set in the early 18th century:

The Winter Sea by Susannah Kearsley

I went against all my librarian’s training and…

… chose a book because I liked the cover!!!!! Eek!

Seriously, I also liked the blurb:

“History has all but forgotten…

In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.

But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her…”

Perhaps I was a bit over generous with this response!

The Winter SeaThe Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, I really loved this book. Just for once, I decided to indulge in a historical romance and it worked as pure escapism from my daily life.

OK, perhaps I’m being a little indulgent with the full five stars. There were flaws, such as the often-done alternating timelines and the DNA/memories, but the whole tale transported me out of my worries and onto a wind-swept coast with a gorgeous view of the sea.

I simply refuse to be cynical. At school, I studied the Jacobite “Rebellions” but not this earlier episode, so the setting was very interesting. Especially knowing that it would all end in tragedy. The book itself, however, although very sad in places, has given me a real lift.

Now to find more by the same author!

View all my reviews

Well, that has certainly been a lovely week of reading. I hope I can make such good choices for next week!

Happy Reading to you all…

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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