1 to go...

51. Tennis shoes. Noel Streatfield

I couldn't resist another of her books! I am not going to meet my 52 author target unless I hibernate from the world over the intervening days! It was enjoyable reading, with a different focus for her although to her usual formula!

Northumberland is lovely! It was a white Christmas!

Today we walked over Lambley viaduct where the river was frozen although due to my fractured wrist (ice-related), I chickened out of walking down a steep slope to it!

See below!

Happy Christmas world!

Number 50

50. Elizabeth Aston The true Darcy Spirit.

Another pastiche Regency romance- hurrah! I am a complete sucker for these. This particular author builds her characters around the relations of Jane Austen's Pride-and-Prejudice family in a very clever way. The main character of this one is the sickly Anne De-Bough's daughter who beguiles us. The world seems very unfair towards women and very immoral, but the excellent heroine manages, with the help of kind friends, to transcend the troubles! Worth reading.

2 to go....

Snow books

Alas, the snow has completely melted, apart from on our stage in the playground, which of course draws children like a magnet. Cue constant bellows of ,"Please get off the stage NOW!" which of course they think doesn't apply anymore at the end of school. AHGH!

I am desperately trying to finish my LTCL in music teaching diploma coursework. It's been dragging on for months! Word counts are always a problem for me. This one especially. HOW am I supposed to cover 20 hours of teaching 3 different classes in 5000 (10% leeway) words!! Tis eeeempossible! I have managed to cull 800 words in the last 24 hours, but the last 200 or so are totally eeempossible! So of course, am interrupting myself! Ahrgh!!!

I am sooo close to my book target, I am hoping I will make it. It's the author count that I am not sure about!

49. Yann Martel Life of Pi.

What an amazing book! I have been told by masses of people that I should read this and who am I to resist a recommendation. Startling, every so slightly unbelievable and yet so well written that you believed it. Poignant, vivid and imaginative. I loved it!

Now back to another Regency pastiche (with a new author of course!!!)

Where icicles hang

The weather is beautiful. It isn't conducive to my health, as I am plagued by a cold which just wont go away, which is immediately aggravated as soon as I venture out of a warm environment but I find myself mesmerized and gleeful seeing the gentle crystals raining down around me. Even when I was wheeling a trolley bag laden with a heavy viola and aching shoulders. Even when I traipsed along the road to school feeling queasy. Even when I trudged to school yesterday completely soaked and feverish. It just makes me smile, and feel a secret joy in my heart and imagine I am 10 again. Yippee!
Books creeping towards the target.
46. Geogette Heyer Charity girl
I always enjoy her books. A good romance in the Regency setting but there's often a twist in the tale. Another fine example.
47. James Herriott It shouldn’t happen to a vet.
I have loved James Herriott since I was a kid, perhaps it links to a secret crush on Peter Davidson (i.e. Tristan Farnon in the BBC series) and my young ambition of being a vet. Full of endearing, hilarious and downright bizarre anecdotes, you gain a real image in your mind of Yorkshire at an earlier time. Wonderful descriptions and endearing characters.
48. Janice Anderson and Edmund Swinglehurst The Victorian and Edwardian Seaside.
I've been interested in the history of the seaside since my PGCE term of it with Year 2. This book is fascinating in tracking the development of the seaside with many contemporary sources: quotes, photos, advertisments, cartoons. And, for someone who doesn't really like reading non-fiction, this was very interesting and approachable.