I so wish I could do calligraphy Shadow! My handwriting by itself is awful enough but my partner's sister is an amazing calligraphist, I think it can look amazing! I've never seen kits though to be fair, maybe I could have a go. Gail - I love crochet, my friends all crochet and what they make is ama...

Great topic! For the last 2-3 years, I've been working with a local tattoo artist (who does thick lined blackwork that I love) on a Harry Potter leg 'sleeve'. The idea was to get one tattoo to represent each book and I finally have 6/7. Book 1: Hogwarts Book 2: Tom Riddle's diary and basilisk fang B...

Title: Sheets Author: Brenna Thummler Genres: suitable for young audiences, graphic novel, fantasy I found Sheets a graphic novels brilliant in its simplicity and highly effective. Marjorie runs a down-on-its-luck laundromat and when malevolent forces threaten her family business, she find herself ...

Book Title: 13 Minutes Author: Sarah Pinborough Genre: Thriller, Young adult (caution: not appropriate for younger readers!!) Natasha was dead for 13 minutes. Pulled from a river by a passing jogger and missing her memory, Natasha has to try and piece things together to work out how she got there, ...

Book Title: Thunderhead Author: Neal Shusterman Series: Arc of a Scythe (#2) Genre: Sci-fi, Young adult I love love love this book series! The Thunderhead is, by definition, perfect, but certain things are outside of its control. What will happen when the independent scythedom starts to slide from ...

Book Title: Scythe Author: Neal Shusterman Series: Arc of a Scythe Genre: Sci-Fi, Young Adult It may be early in the year but I can tell this is already going to be one of my favourites of 2019. In a world where mortality is no longer an issue, the population must be...controlled by a consortium of ...

Have a fabulous day!!

Book Title: Rosemary's Baby Author: Ira Levin Genre: Thriller, horror This is my second Ira Levin book ever, the first being The Stepford Wives, and it's proved that he's far from a one hit wonder. Just two books in, he's already in competition as one of my favourite authors. Rosemary has just moved...

Title of the book: The Stepford Wives Authors: Ira Levin Genres: horror, thriller A wonderfully chilling contemporary horror novel - no wonder it's a classic. Joanna Eberhart and her husband have just moved to the perfect town of Stepford. Its lawns are perfect, the people are perfect and in particu...

I love the sound of your tradition Gail! (And Merry Christmas for yesterday) My tradition is that I tend to read the Harry Potter books around Nov/Dec (this year I'm cheating and have them on playing on audiobook) but with a small twist. I mark out the Christmas sections of the first 6, the parts wh...

Title of the book: Leah on the Offbeat Authors: Becky Albertalli Series: (Creekwood #2) Genres: LGBTQ*, Young Adult Warnings: Definitely a young adult but upper teens and above - a LOT of swearing Leah on the Offbeat is the follow-up to the wonderful 'Simon and the Homosapians Agenda'. It's senior y...

Title of the book: One Way Authors: S.J. Mordon Series: (Frank Kitteridge #1) Genres: Sci-fi, Mystery One Way is a futuristic sci-fi mystery that falls short of expectations. We follow convict Frank, who is in prison for life after shooting his son's drug dealer (for nonsensical reasons). Approached...

Ahh I'm so glad you guys both read it (and enjoyed it!) Nessa, the second book I think it potentially even better than the first, I hope you get to read it soon! The third and final instalment I think comes out in January! Tarma, I very much agree with your assessment. It's one of those books that r...

Book Title: Neurocomic Author: Hana Ross and Matteo Farinella (illustations) Genre: Graphic Novel, Non-fiction, Science I have mixed feelings about this neurology-based graphic novel. The book follows our protagonist through the brain, meeting different scientists who made significant discoveries ab...

Book Title: Waking Gods Author: Sylvain Neuvel Series: The Themis Files (#2) Genre: Sci-fi Waking gods was a great, fast-faced, exciting sequel that has ramped this sci-fi series up considerably! This is the second book in the Themis Files trilogy, sequel to 'Waking Gods'. It continues on from the l...

Thanks so much sky for sharing your thoughts as a blind person! I found your post really interesting. I can also not think of any examples of blind characters where their blindness wasn't either the 'tragedy' of their situation or a defining feature. I also find that often representation can be very...

Title of the book: The Bear and the Nightingale Authors: Katherine Arden Series: Winternight Trilogy (#1) Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction Summary and evaluation: The Bear and the Nightingale is by far my favourite book of 2018 so far! I didn’t expect it to love this story half as much ...

I was really impressed to learn recently about Eddie Redmayne playing Newt Scamander as likely having 'Asperger's'. He got some things really right: the preoccupation with a special interest (magical beasts), some general awkwardness, lack of eye contact, poor social awareness (Crimes of Grindelwald...

Wow Maude, that sounds amazing! I was lucky enough to win tickets to the UK premiere of the first FB film and walked past Eddie on the red carpet. I was struck by how tall he is in person (although I imagine he was sitting for most of the commentary :lol: ) I've also seen the film twice so far, I'm ...

Happy Birthday Patrick!!

Have an awesome day!