Update 07/12/20

Posted on 07/12/2020 by The Librain

This will only be a short post today as I am feeling very unwell and haven’t been able to get out of bed. I have been wearing pyjamas so much that some of them have become very tatty indeed. So, I had a search around and came across a top and trousers that I thought would work both in bed and also for lounging around the house. In fact, so many shops now have “loungewear” collections on their websites, which are especially useful in our current circumstances.

Anyway, here are the images from the Marks and Spencer website:

Cosy Lounge Rib Sweatshirt – Marks and Spencer

and…

Cosy Wide Leg Lounge Pant – Marks and Spencer

Both pieces really are soft and cosy and in a kind of dark navy and white tweed effect. My only issue is that the legs are too long – I have very short legs. In the past, I would have shortened them, but I don’t have the energy to do that now. So, I think I will just leave things as they are and hope that I don’t trip over the hems!  Having looked at the site again, I can see that they have sold out now, but they might be re-stocked with different leg lengths. So, if I decide to buy another pair, I may be able to select shorter legs next time.

Oh, and the trousers have pockets! It’s so rare to find pockets in women’s clothes these days, but they are so useful.

I will let you know how these wash and wear in the longer term. Other colours were also available a few days ago, so if they work out for me, I might buy more in other colours.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Outfits of the week 04/12/20

Posted on 04/12/2020 by The Librain

OK, I have finally given in! I cannot really write Outfit of the Day any more. Yes, I wore both of these this week, for a few hours, in between lying in bed:

Outfit of the day 01/12/20 with Hermès’ Plumes en Fête shawl

Outfit items:

  • Dark grey long-sleeved t-shirt – Lands End.
  • Grey cord pull-on trousers – Lands End.
  • Silver and gold feather earrings – birthday present from Younger Son.
  • Cashmere and silk 140cm shawl in grey, purple, pink, blue and orange – Plumes en Fête by Hermès. This shawl is so wonderful to wear! I am still paying back the house “kitty” for it whilst plotting quietly to see if I can possibly save up for another one. Oh, the Hermès slippery slope!!!

And here is the second outfit from this week, this time with the silk 90cm version of the Plumes en Fête pattern:

Outfit of the day 03/12/20 with Hermès’ Plumes en Fête scarf

Outfit items:

  • Cobalt cashmere v-neck jumper – John Lewis.
  • Navy cotton joggers – Cotton Traders.
  • Silver and gold feather earrings – birthday present from Younger Son.
  • Silk scarf, 90 cm, in cobalt blue, turquoise, and green – Plumes en Fête – Hermès. Tied in an asymmetric wrap. Aren’t these blues wonderful?

I really adore the feather earrings as they are not too large and just nicely tie in with the pattern. In fact feathers have been my theme this week, because today I am wearing my Liberty of London Hera shawl which features peacock feathers. I didn’t take a modelling photo, so here is a reminder from a while back:

Outfit of the day 29/10/18 with Liberty’s Hera shawl

Outfit of the day 29/10/18 with Liberty’s Hera shawl

Right, I think that is enough for the final post of the week, so I will sign off with my very good wishes for a great weekend.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 02/12/20

Posted on 02/12/2020 by The Librain

This week’s post is about two books which I have enjoyed reading. I am also half-way through a third. All this is thanks to our County Library Service – they are really expanding their ebook catalogue.

Absolute Proof by Peter James

The first book was Absolute Proof by Peter James. Here is the blurb:

Investigative reporter Ross Hunter nearly didn’t answer the phone call that would change his life – and possibly the world – for ever.

“I’d just like to assure you I’m not a nutcase, Mr Hunter. My name is Dr Harry F. Cook. I know this is going to sound strange, but I’ve recently been given absolute proof of God’s existence – and I’ve been advised there is a writer, a respected journalist called Ross Hunter, who could help me to get taken seriously.”

What would it take to prove the existence of God? And what would be the consequences?

The false faith of a billionaire evangelist, the life’s work of a famous atheist, and the credibility of each of the world’s major religions are all under threat. If Ross Hunter can survive long enough to present the evidence…

I enjoyed the book and awarded it three stars on the Goodreads website. Four stars are given to really good books and as for five stars? Well, I only award the full five for a book that makes me go “Wow!” (or even “Aargh!”, or “Eek!). Anyway, this is my Goodreads review:

Absolute ProofAbsolute Proof by Peter James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think that, if I had realised that the book was so very long, I wouldn’t have started it! Whilst I became quite engrossed by some parts of the story, I think the book could have been cut by up to a third. That would have tightened up the pace of the plot considerably.

I am really not a religious person, but that side of the tale was very intriguing even if over-done at times. There were nicely written twists and turns and a good ending.

Last of all: the choice of cover design was poor. It gave the impression that a large chunk of the action would take place in Egypt or that hieroglyphics would be important. That is not so! There was an exciting piece of action, but not enough to use such a misleading image.

View all my reviews

Better to Rest by Dana Stabenow

Those visitors to this blog who follow this weekly reading post, may have noticed that I am enjoying Dana Stabenow’s work. So, this next book won’t come as any surprise. Her fourth book in the Liam Campbell series is Better to Rest and that was my second book of the week. Here we have the blurb:

A party of hunters stumbles upon a desiccated human hand, a feisty grandmother meets an untimely death in her own kitchen, and the broken remains of a World War II-era transport plane emerge from the face of a calving glacier. It’s all in a day’s work for Sergeant Liam Campbell of the Alaska State Troopers. And 60 years ago is like yesterday.

Liam had his hands clenched around the edge of his seat and with every muscle strained upward, keeping that plane in the sky. Oh, God yes, anything but down, please, please. I’ll never get drunk again, I’ll do all of Miranda every single time no matter how the Supreme Court rules, I’ll marry and settle down and live a nice, quiet life, just please don’t let this plane go down with me on board.

But when he risked a glance out the window, down seemed to be coming up very fast indeed, and now he cursed the light of the moon that so clearly illuminated the river beneath them.

I am finding this series perfect for my present mood: exciting enough to keep me reading, well-written and interesting characters, with a great setting. This is what I wrote on Goodreads:

Better To Rest (Liam Campbell, #4)Better To Rest by Dana Stabenow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the book, especially the great opening chapter. Lots of the longer story arcs of the series were resolved – did the author intend to finish it here? I know there is another books, so I suppose she will open up some new avenues for her main characters.

The mysteries at the heart of the book were, however, not quite so well written for me. The resolution came along rather suddenly with some details left open. Although maybe that was either intentional or my own fault with memory issues.

Anyway, I have had a good time with these characters and the amazing setting and hope that I can read more books in this series.

View all my reviews

Platform Seven by Louise Doughty

When I have finished writing this post, I will return to my latest book: Platform Seven by Louise Doughty. It is freaking me out a bit and I will tell you why in next week’s Reading Roundup!

Until then, Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Update 30/11/20

Posted on 30/11/2020 by The Librain

Sorry, there will not be a proper post today as I am feeling very ill. I hope to be able to write later in the week.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Update 27/11/20 – hassles all round!

Posted on 27/11/2020 by The Librain

I had planned to wear a colourful outfit with a lovely Hermès scarf today – I had been building myself up! But, events have got in the way. Things tend to come in threes, don’t they?

First event: lasted all day yesterday. Elder Son (with Autism) spent the whole day kicking off about the new COVID rules for England which have put our area into Tier 3. This stops him travelling around and visiting his friend in the way he prefers. Instead of berating Boris, ES decided to punish his parents! We ended up exhausted and distraught. I hope he calms down before this evening.

Second event: the back door broke! So, we have spent the day trying to find a good and reliable firm to repair or replace it. Hassle all round.

Third event: ES noticed that a length of guttering had become partially detached above the bathroom window. So….. we have spent the day trying to find a good and reliable firm to repair or replace it. Hassle all round again.

Events 2 and 3 are not Earth-shattering in themselves, but, added to the exhausting nature of the first event plus the poor state of our physical and mental health, they do feel difficult to sort out. Let’s hope that we can regain some equilibrium in time and not end up like this famous song from my childhood…

Wishing you all a hassle-free weekend!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 25/11/20

Posted on 25/11/2020 by The Librain

I have been rushing to finish a book so that I could write about in this week’s Reading Roundup, but realised that I was spoiling the ending for myself. So, this post will be about one book this week and I will add that book to the next Reading Roundup post.

Close to Home by Cara Hunter

The book I am writing about today is Close to Home by Cara Hunter (DI Adam Fawley #01). Here is the blurb:

SOMEONE TOOK DAISY MASON… SOMEONE YOU KNOW.

HOW CAN A CHILD GO MISSING WITHOUT A TRACE?

Last night, eight-year-old Daisy Mason disappeared from a family party. No one in the quiet suburban street saw anything – or at least that’s what they’re saying.

DI Adam Fawley is trying to keep an open mind. But he knows the nine times out of ten, it’s someone the victim knew.

That means someone is lying…
And that Daisy’s time is running out.

And this is the quick review which uploaded to Goodreads:

Close to Home (DI Adam Fawley, #1)Close to Home by Cara Hunter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fairly complex police investigation of a missing child. Many of the characters were well-drawn, others were just an interchangeable set of names. The main character, DI Adam Fawley, was interesting with a tragic back-story. I found the interjections of past events rather jarring and they interrupted the flow of the plot.

The book was easy and quick to read, despite the bleak themes, and held my interest all the way through to the surprising end. I certainly enjoyed the book enough to immediately search our Library Service’s ebook catalogue for more books in the series and was very pleased to find that there are several available. The next book has been reserved!

View all my reviews

As you see, my experience with such a dark and serious book last week made me turn to crime! The book which I haven’t quite finished is Absolute Proof by Peter James – here is the cover:

Absolute Proof by Peter James

As soon as I have finished reading the book, I will write it up ready for next week.

Until then:

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Update 23/11/20 with some grammatical humour

Posted on 23/11/2020 by The Librain

A friend posted this on Facebook this morning and I just had to share it on here:

David Needle

• An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.

• A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.

• A bar was walked into by the passive voice.

• An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.

• Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”

• A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.

• Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.

• A question mark walks into a bar?

• A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.

• Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Get out — we don’t serve your type.”

• A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.

• A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.

• Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.

• A synonym strolls into a tavern.

• At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar — fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.

• A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.

• Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.

• A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.

• An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.

• The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.

• A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned a man with a glass eye named Ralph.

• The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.

• A dyslexic walks into a bra.

• A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.

• A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.

• A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.

• A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.

Isn’t it clever? Well, I think so…

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Outfit of the day 20/11/20

Posted on 20/11/2020 by The Librain

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I have been struggling with ill-health for many years. My situation has not improved this year as I am spending even more time in bed and have only been able to leave the house a handful of times. To be honest, I live in fear and dread every day.

I am trying to cheer myself up by wearing some of my lovely accessories, even if I sometimes still keep my pyjamas on underneath! After all, I am very lucky to have a small collection of expensive Hermès scarves and a larger collection of cheap and cheerful jewellery and, yes, even more scarves!

Outfit of the day 20/11/20 with Seasalt scarf

Today’s outfit:

  • Navy cashmere v-neck jumper – John Lewis.
  • Grey cord trousers – Lands’ End.
  • Red and clear Swarovski Crystal necklace and earrings – Warren James (gift from Younger Son).
  • Red and multi-colour velour rectangular scarf  – Seasalt (recent present from my Sister). Worn in a simple drape in order to show the necklace.

I have been looking at my scarf collection and am determined to work my way through, trying them all on over the next few weeks. Some of my older, cheaper ones may still be left to lurk in their drawer, but I will try to brighten my mood by wearing my favourites again. You will see the results on here.

Happy Weekend to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 18/11/20

Posted on 18/11/2020 by The Librain

First of all, I must apologise for the lateness of this post. I had almost finished the book, but not quite, so I decided to read to the end so that I could write a post this week. Yes, I only managed to read one book this week!

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

The book was An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. I chose this at random from our Library’s ebook service. This is the blurb:

Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human.

When the autopsy of Matilda‘s sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother’s suicide some quarter-century before, Aster retraces her mother’s footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she’s willing to fight for it.

And here is my one star review on the Goodreads website:

An Unkindness of GhostsAn Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I have just read some of the reviews and thoughts written here by other readers. Loads of full five and four stars given. Lots of top-notch reviews.

And here are my thoughts.

First of all: why on earth did I force myself to read the whole book? Recently, I decided that I would not make myself read something that made me struggle or that I wasn’t enjoying. So, I am puzzled with my motivation. I suppose that I felt I had to finish. The unrelenting misery made me feel that I somehow owed (who?) someone the full read. Such total misery.

So, other readers may like or even love the book and that is completely fine for them. I, however, wish that I hadn’t spent some of my limited reading time left on the book!

Well, I am being honest.

View all my reviews

Yet again, I must add that many other readers highly rate this book. It simply didn’t work for me. I think that the unrelenting bleakness of the story, plus the lack of likeable characters, wasn’t right for my present state of mind. I need some positivity at the moment.

It might just be the right book for you, on the other hand. After all, that is the wonder and beauty of books. I firmly believe that there is something out there for everyone!

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Outfit of the day 16/11/20 with Hermès’ Sweet Dreams scarf

Posted on 16/11/2020 by The Librain

I really love this scarf with its blue, grey and white scaley monsters roaming across the soft wool and silk fabric! It is both warm and fun to wear. Today, I wore it with my new cobalt cashmere v-neck, blue crystal earrings and a Halcyon Days bangle. OK, I should, perhaps, have dug out my jeans from the wardrobe, but I did try!

Outfit of the day 16/11/20 with Hermès’ Sweet Dreams scarf

Today’s outfit:

  • Cobalt blue cashmere v-neck jumper – John Lewis.
  • Navy and blue patterned pyjama trousers – Sainsbury’s Tu.
  • Cobalt crystal and silver earrings – Sonrisa Boutique.
  • Cobalt and gold Curb Chain bangle – Halcyon Days.
  • Wool and silk scarf, 100cm, in blue, grey and white – Sweet Dreams – Hermès.

This is such a cheerful outfit on a typical grey Winter’s day in our part of the UK!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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P.S. If you would like to know more about this scarf, there is a Scarf of the Moment post that you could check out!

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