Sliding Along

After a lovely day on Bank Holiday Monday, it was no surprise to see that it was raining again. I did not pop out till after midday when there was a break in the precipitation. I went to Faversham to get some more pipe tobacco and to peruse the charity shops before heading over th the Office.

I picked up a 3 CD box set of recordings by the blues guitarist Elmore James of recordings made between 1951 and 1956.called the "Classic Recordings". I offered a fiver for the set from the Fleurs Bookshop.



This box set came out in 1993 on Ace Records and would complement Charly Records "King Of The S;ode Guitar" very well.

Book 16 - Meg Rosoff "How I Live Now"

Meg Rosoff "How I Live Now" (Penguin)






I found this book to be difficult to enjoy, at first, because of the author's unusual writing style. Meg Rosoff incorporates the dialogue seamlessly in with the narrative, which at times could be confusing. She also employs capitalization to point out Important Phrases.After about twenty or thirty pages, though, it was less noticeable and I began to enjoy the story.

The main character, Daisy, flies into London to visit her cousins, who she's never met, and to get away from her father and pregnant stepmother. At first she's unsure what to make of her unusual cousins, who all seem to have special gifts. Isaac seems to be able to communicate with animals, Edmond always knows what she's thinking, and she sees Piper as an ethereal wood-nymph. She's soon as entranced with them as everyone else seems to be, and with her aunt out of the country trying to avert a war, the children live a carefree life without adult interference. This lifestyle continues for a short time until England is invaded and occupied by a terrorist army. Now the children must cope with rations, shortages, being separated, and all the horrific realities of modern warfare. The story undergoes a sharp change in tone when the occupation begins, going from lighthearted and fun to dark and desperate in just a few chapters. I found this sudden change to be very effective in showing how abruptly people's lives can change in a war. Some of the scenes are graphic and disturbing, but the story overall is a great representation of (relatively) ordinary people attempting to survive under very challenging circumstances.

The Week Ahead

My DVD of Star Trek Nemesis arrived in the post this morning along with a postcard from my brother from his French holiday. I watched the DVD this evening  Excellent sci-fi drama!

Looks like cousin is still in a strange mood. Well been that way since Sunday, so i am just letting the taciturn and maladroit buffoon get on with it. At times he is an ignorant imbecile.

I was going to go up to the pub this evening but as my big wad from one of my companies has not come into my bank as yet I cannot afford to go. Anyway it is only a week away before my journey back to Sussex for the usual week away each month.

Next Thursday will be the June lunch club and on Saturday 8th i will be playing music at the Northern Lights  I also have some charity shop visits in Rye, Crowborough and Kemp Town. I might do Rye on the way and do Ashford on the same date, which will be next Wednesday.

Now that i have finished "The Book Thief" I am currently reading some more of the Umberto Eco novel "Foucault's Pendulum" alongside the Dan Brown book. As well as that, i am slowly trundling through the large tome on the "Third Reich, A New History" , all 942 pages of it!




There is some art installations down at the Prescription Art Studios i want to see. They have moved from Hove to Beaconsfield Parade in Brighton and the last day to see the current installation is June 15th. It will be a week I want to cram in lots of stuff!