Snap!

Here's my poem from last week's word challenge. 

Xx

 

Piano girl

I've had this dress for almost 9 months.  I remember seeing it on Miss Patina's website a couple of years ago and absolutely loving it! A sailor look, ruffly sleeves AND musical??? Check!

But the Dainty Melody dress was £85 and you can't return, only exchange, I think!  Luckily, I saw it on eBay for much cheaper last Summer and I jumped at the chance to buy it.

I wore this to church on Sunday and to my orchestra rehearsal. The delight I got from fellow congregation members was so sweet!

I wore my Ugg boots with it.

Awful picture but I wore my Primark Dalmation beret and added a tiny dainty music brooch that was a present from my ex-deputy head teacher.

And my Tatty Devine music necklace (was also an eBay bargain!) 

 Even the white cuffs have a little piano pattern on them! So fun!

Hope all is good with you!x

TARDIS Tuesday- The Eaters of Light

I actually wore this for TARDIS Tuesday last week AND didn't photograph it. And the whole outfit could be worn again so I wore it this week.

I wore it for TARDIS Tuesday at SOME point in the last 5 years but can't, for the life of me, find the post! How vexing!

It is one of Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor outfits from his final season and featured in a historical meets aliens called The Eaters of Light.

It's not particularly exciting but a great outfit for Winter!  

https://www.blogtorwho.com/spoiler-free-preview-doctor-s10-e10-eaters-light/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6250158/

Capaldi wears a black paint-splattered sweater from Zara plus a navy hoodie, velvet coat, black chinos and black boots.

Here's my under-layer. Featuring the Screen accurate Zara sweater which is 2 sizes too large for me but is super comfortable.

I teamed it with my black Seasalt trousers and Clarks boots.

I decided to forego the black jacket and navy hoodie and combined these into my navy corduroy G Star coat.

As I've mentioned, it's not a super 'costumey' outfit, but one that was perfect for COLD days!

Hope you have had a good day.

xx

Crispy Shredded Tofu

 In the words of CBC, "It's nice to try something new!"

I keep getting suggestions of ways to cook Tofu on Instagram. Most of the time, I salivate, screenshot them and then do nothing further. Mainly because they usually involve ingredients  I don't have.

But today (Sunday), I saw a recipe and video which looked so simple with very few ingredients that I decided to give it a go.  Especially as there were two blocks of tofu that I bought from Lidl in November that were a month out of date that I really needed to use up!! Sadly, I screenshot the recipe without the name of the author so I can't credit them.

It suggested you need

200g block of firm tofu

6 tbl spoons of olive oil

1 tbl spoon of Smoked Paprika

1/2 tsp of salt

Pepper to season

All you had to do was grate the tofu with a cheesegrater.  It was so easy to do. I decided to do  both blocks.

You then spread it onto a piece of baking parchment on an oven tray and then add the other ingredients and mix them. Which was easy.

You then bake it for 30 mins. 

I did so.  When it was almost cooked, I stirred it and added some Soy sauce.

When it was ready, I took it out of the oven and gave it a taste. IT was really crispy and yummy!  It almost had the texture of crispy duck from the Chinese. 

I served it with left over rice, kale, broccoli,  romanescu Cauliflower infused with tumeric and shallots, leeks.  There was enough for a second meal.  They suggest you can use it in Tacos, wraps and sandwiches.   I served it with noodles and pak choi and aubergine cooked in Tom Yum soup mix.  Also yummy and so easy to make!

I will definitely make this again! Yummmmy!!!

xx

A spell to cure the January blues

 Sorry for inflicting more poetry on you.  Sometimes, trying to create something is the lifeline I need when feeling stressed or anxious. The prompt for The Toy magazine's Word of the Week was 'Spell'.  I was feeling anxious and sad and after I'd prayed, I felt compelled to write this poem in the moment.  I needed the message of it at that moment. If you are feeling any blues of any sort, then this is for you also. What would be in your spell?

xxxx

Yappy Birthday

 It was my Stepmum's birthday this week and she is fond of dogs. She very much loves Month, their relatively new dog.

A while back, my penpal Char, who used to blog, sent me a thank you card for a Christmas present. It was a cute shaped sausage dog card. I decided it could be reused into a new card so I stuck it with sticky pads onto this blue card blank and then used a tiny star punch to cut myself a tiny stencil which I used with a blue watercolour pencil to draw stars all over it plus a border. The final stage was adding a handwritten 'Happy Birthday greeting on the dog' s back. I was pleased with how it turned out.

Today, I had to teach a French lesson before my music lesson. There is a, French boy in the class. I asked him to let me know if I pronounced anything wrong. 

After the lesson, I asked him how I did and he told me that I was really good and that there were some words that I sounded exactly like a French person. This was very sweet and nice of him. It's funny that we can never know exactly what we sound like to a native as speaker when we speak a foreign language but we can tell when someone is not a native speaker of our own language. Anyway, this was just a thought that came to mind!

Hope you are well! Xx

Blue Princess

Last week was the first rehearsal of my most local orchestra.  Unfortunately, the hall where we rehearse had broken heating and last weekend was chilly to say the least.  Luckily, we were warned.

When we arrived, it was really quite funny just how many layers everyone had on!  We survived the rehearsal!

Here's what I decided to wear:

I wore a long-sleeved Cath Kidston stop underneath and then wore this blue Cashmere Edinburgh Woollen Mill polo-neck on top.  I bought this in 2010, the year I broke my wrist and I always remember wearing this on New Year's eve to go to a local pub.

Under the skirt, I wore some leggings and my Ugg Black sheepskin waterproof boots (Charity shop bargain about 7 years ago of £25!)- though you can see my slippers in this picture. Speaking of the skirt, I bought this from Per Una, M&S in about 2004-5 which makes it 20 years old now. I am incredulous to realise this but I don't think I've ever shared it on the blog. It was my absolute favourite garment to wear when I worked at the Royal Academy of Music. There was a lovely Professor there, very shy and introverted, who one day came up to me and bought me a cup of tea and a chocolate cake "Because you look like a Princess in that skirt!" and scuttled off.  It was such a sweet gesture of friendship and I will always remember him and think  of that moment when I wear this. The funny thing is, I genuinely did feel like a princess when I wore this and used to watch it trail down the stairs as I walked wearing it!

On top, I added the black charity-shopped furry gilet. I still don't know if it is real or fake sheepskin but it is so incredibly soft and warm.

The final layer was my Per Una charity-shopped teal coat. I haven't worn this coat so much as I am always worried about it getting wet when cycling (in fact, this is the case with most of my coats) so I try to wear my other ones when we are in the car!  Added my Nan's 'banana slice' necklace and my charity-shopped black, velvet Kangol beret.

This was a week of rehearsals.  On the Tuesday, we had another orchestra rehearsal but as the heating was still broken, our conductor arranged for us to rehearse at his very nice school in the music department which was very warm!!!! Also I had a Balinese Gamelan rehearsal on Thursday which was actually really good.  I hadn't been to Gamelan properly since about April last year. I went once in October and found myself really demoralised learning a new piece and so felt worried about going again but it has been fine. We have a concert at Battersea Arts Centre on the 7th February (tickets available here) if you fancy seeing something a bit different!

xxx
 

The George

 I mentioned the pub we went for breakfast/brunch at in Trottiscliffe (I still can't get to the bottom of the spelling and pronunciation- apparently it IS pronounced as you'd expect but it is colloquially known as Trosley due to its proximity to Trosley country park) on the 2nd of January.

As it was such a nice pub, I thought I'd do a post on it.  The George has a great varied menu including breakfast, lunch and dinner (including some yummy-sounding Asian dishes which gets my vote).

I loved this table here as it was right in front of the roaring fire. Sadly, we were too many of this table.  The decorations were really attractive too.

Very much liked the convex mirror. Very Van Eyck!

The bar area was attractive 

The green decorations and lights made it so pretty!

Here was my breakfast!

The puns on the toilet doors very much up my street!  There was a Buoys too!

Sweet statue in the corner.

Very much approved of this sign.  It said they had live music and sing along sessions which sounded like a good reason to visit a pub!  

If you are ever in the area, it's definitely worth a visit!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday - Spots for Rosa

 I'm clearly having a Yasmin Khan month for TARDIS Tuesday as my past 3 TT outfits are hers. My main justification- she wears jumpers and trousers and the weather is GLACIAL!

Here's the main outfit worn by Yaz in brilliant story about Rosa Parks.  I last featured it in January 2022, so it's 3 years since it featured it which is quite a long time! This is the first Yaz Khan SA item I ever IDed- as I knew it looked like a White Stuff piece! I like the slightly quirky Spotty design!

Image borrowed from Express.co.uk

Here is my 2025 iteration...Can you spot the difference between 2022 and 2025???

2025:

2022:

The differences are my shoes and trousers!  No particular reason but they are different!  I wore my Seasalt black trousers and my Clarks Funny Dream trousers.

Hope all is well with you.

xx

New Year's Bash

 I didn't write about my New year!

So, I thought I would.

We headed over to my Dad's house on the 30th. CBC decided it was the day to clear out his wardrobe, just as we were supposed to be packing and leaving. This is not out of character. 

He pulled out a significant amount of items, big enough to fill 2 sacks and prepared them.  He was prepared to shame me but I came out with my own, comparable bags of items to take to charity!  I've been trying to really ensure that I am not clinging to things if they don't get worn or don't fit or make me uncomfortable (often due to material itching my sensitive skin!).  Sometimes, I don't realise what something feels like until after I've worn it a few times which is annoying.

We arrived to Dad's around 4.15pm- only 1 hour and 15minutes later than anticipated!

We had a delicious salmon dish and chatted. I failed to sleep very much at all! Not what I needed after Saturday's sleepless night.

The next day, the 30th, after a scrummy breakfast of Scrambled eggs and bacon on a muffin, we took the dog, Monty, out to Lullingstone country park to walk him. It was nice to get out. Whilst it was rather boggy and it wasn't the longest of walks, it was nice to get out. When we got back, after I took a walk to the COOP (needed more walking) to fetch some ingredients we didn't have for the day and the next day (their meal planning is very strong!), we had a game of Qwirkle and started prepping the New Year buffet.  We had a delicious time and then had a game of Jay's Pub Quiz.  To our delight, CBC and I won!  At midnight, we had some Prosecco (I had a token gesture splash), watched Sophie Ellis Bexter and I completed my poem for the word of the week.

We woke up quite late and had breakfast.  We had a quick game of Qwirkle and then CBC and I went out to see if we could find some more Ladyfingers for the planned Tiramisu (and Panko breadcrumbs which were needed for dinner). The weather was ATROCIOUS!!!!  We got back and I started a game of Carcasonne with CBC, my sister and her boyfriend but I went to help out prepare dinner which was a full scale, multi-hour operation with lots of washing up, and we ate a delicious dinner of Prawn cocktail, herb-encrusted beef and then Tiramisu.  My stepmum made me a special, non-coffee, non-Masala version which was lovely- basically mascapone, ladyfingers and grated chocolate- yum!  After that, we did an Escape Room challenge that was CHALLENGING- it took us an extra hour and a half above the 1 hour assigned. My dad gave up and fell asleep in an arm-chair- poor him, doesn't cope well with late nights, and the rest of us lost most of our will to live!

The next morning, we packed up and headed out to the George Pub in Trottiscliffe (pronounced TROZLEE!!!!?!?!?!?!) for breakfast/brunch!  What a GREAT pub it was!!!

After we bade them goodbye, we headed back to Essex, via Chelmsford where C got a haircut  and I managed to resist buying anything except a (Ang!) a grey striped John Lewis top in the Age concern Charity shop.  We went via Aldi where we picked up some groceries. The next day, we awoke late and the washing machine engineer came and thankfully diagnosed the issue!  He was very knowledgeable and replaced our heating element and we decided we needed a new drum as the bearings on our one have been wrecked by our hardwater limescale.  He will return once the office completed their stockcheck and the cost of a new one is included in the call out fee we had paid for this time as the machine is just still in its guarantee!  Hurrah, so nice to be able to wash clothes at a higher temperature and actually be able to do a successful wash without worrying it was going to go wrong.

Saturday and Sunday, apart from church, were prep days for home and school.

I wrote a triolet poem for this week's prompt.  The word in question was 'Bash'.  I immediately took this in its slang meaning for a party/event and imagined a child hearing the family are having a New Year's party but not having heard the term before and imaging something else.  I decided to use the Triolet form except  subverted the form slightly since the last line should be a repeat of the 2nd line but I decided to adapt it slightly to reflect a perhaps gleeful reassessing of what a new year's bash might mean!

New Year’s Misunderstanding

 

Mum says we’re having a New Year’s Bash,

It sounds worryingly aggressive!

Will there be multiple thwacks or just one big smash?

Mum says we’re having a New Year’s Bash.

Will we use clubs or maces to deliver our thrash?

A WRECKING BALL WOULD BE MOST IMPRESSIVE!!!!

Mum says we’re having to a New Year’s Bash,

It sounds SMASHINGLY impressive!

Hope all is well with you.

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- the coat I'm going to be wearing under my coat all week!

Hello there!

I hope you are well!  

This week, I am featuring an outfit I have worn twice here for TARDIS Tuesday, the last appearance being November 2022, I really like this outfit and it is practical for the weather!

It is worn by Yasmin Khan in Series 11.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06q81wy/p06qls32

https://www.blogtorwho.com/doctor-who-the-tsuranga-conundrum-what-we-learnt-about-the-companions/

It features a navy starry and moon-themed jumper from Maison Scotch, a Barbour (I think) red puffer jacket, blue fitted jeans, Burgundy Brogue chelsea boots from Dune.

Last time I put together this outfit, I wore a purple puffer coat, black trousers and navy trainers together with the same sweatshirt.

What happened this time?

The outfit features a red puffer jacket by Barbour (the Jurby), a sweatshirt by Maison Scotch, some burgundy flatform boots from Dune (Pacey) and some skinny blue jeans.  

Occasion worn:  for church on Sunday. I woke up and discovered it was pouring with rain so I simply added my Seasalt Janome raincoat over the top to keep me dry. It was a good call as I was cosy in my down but dry!  Jeans are not the nicest garment to wear in the rain though. Apart from that, I was lovely and warm at church.  Also helps that I was sat with a radiator directly behind me. Not so good- near the door.  Good- lovely warm cup of tea.  Not good- I was 30mins late! Good- I still went.   Not good- poor friend Jenny fell into a pond on her way to church. I hope and pray she is ok!

Embarrassingly, after church, I cycled straight to the station to buy my train ticket and discovered the ticket office was shut. "Noooo!" I wailed outloud to the window  "Why are you closed??! Are you closed all day or is this just a temporary closure!"   At that moment, the roller blind was raised and there was a ticket sales operator.  Awkward to be caught talking to a window!!! Ah well, I got my ticket so I don't have to contend with all the returning to school/work ticket renewals tomorrow morning when trying to get up in the dark will be arduous enough! I am deeply thankful for this small win!

Am trying to use up some items in our cupboards to make sure we have room. This will include food or toiletries.   Trying to ensure we have fewer duplicate items if possible! If C could do this with honey or chutney, I would be grateful! Waaaaaaaaay too much chutney and honey and jams in the cupboard!

Today- used up 2 tiny jars of strawberry jams so these will clear a little space.  Will try to report on things as I use them up!

What do you think of this outfit? I've decided I am going to wear this down jacket under the raincoat all week- hopefully will keep me cosy during my cold commute!!!

xx

The big book review of 2024

 Hello!

Here is my annual book review post where I summarise what I read and what I enjoyed the most.  I originally got this post from my friend Janet who used to blog!

• Best book you read in 2024:

Overall, I would say, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus or Delia Owens' Where the Crawdad sing were my favourite or best books or Little Fires everywhere by Celeste Ng.

• Children's fiction: 

I read 70 from this genre!!! This, choosing a winner may be somewhat more tricky! Pop was fantastic. It was one of about 30books which I picked up in an absolute bargain joblot on Vinted. I think I got 27 brand new, new release books for about & £19 in postage. It told the story of a brand of highly addictive fizzy drink with a secret recipe. Only two employees know the secret recipe and each one only knows half. They end up crashing into each other's planes and end up on a desert island together. They put the ingredient lists together and put them into an empty McTonic bottle which is then found by a boy. The race is on to recreate the recipe or find the boy who found the recipe. The book was bonkers but brilliant! 

• Crime fiction:

I only read 9 crime books this year! Often this has been my most read genre. The Enigma of room 622-by  Joel Dickers was a real onion of a crime book with layer upon layer of deception and redherrings. I was led up garden path by garden path. The book was told with a constantly changing timeline and I loved the Switzerland (mostly) setting. I picked this up in the 2nd hand bookshop in Felixstowe. 

• Classics: 

I only read 2-4 classics this year (Does Agatha Christie count as a classic?) It ends with Revelations by Dodie Smith was the best. I love DS  as an author. This book was really beautifully written and I didn't know how it was going to end. One of/THE revelation(s) WAS unexpected to me and I'm not sure how on earth I didn't realise or expect it, given the setting of the story ? 

• Non-fiction: 

I read 12 non-fiction books this year (over 10% of my total!!). My favourite was Words of Happiness by Susie Dent. I love words and this book really included some joyful words, beautifully illustrated and explained  in such a gorgeous way. 

• YA: 

I only read 3 that might count as YA. I would say Benjamin Zephaniah Refugee Boy might count. I recognised the East London setting and also the empathy and chance to see what life might be like for a young refugee was really powerful. It really helps empathy for the reasons refugees might end up somewhere and what they've given up to make a move. The book was sad but had hope it in which is important. 

• Dystopian fiction:

I only read 2 Dystopian fiction books The Gilded Ones by Namina Forma and Alebrijes by Donna  Barba Higuera. Both were really well written. I thought Alebrijes was really imaginative. I loved the idea of the children taking on the bodies of these drone animals - it was so clever. Perhaps I liked it more as a children 'a book that there wasn't so much overt violence or death compared to the YA or adult Dystopian fiction I usually read. 

• Most surprising (in a good way) book of 2024:

Running out of time by Simon Fox was really clever and had an unexpected ending!  It had a really interesting timeline for the story (in fact, that's crucial to the story!) I only bought it as a job lot but it was superb and had a great insight into people smuggling too! There was a lot that was surprising about it!

• Book you read in 2024 that you recommended most to others: 

 I did quite a lot of Children's Book recommending in 2024 to children at school from my personal library.   I recommended Saffiya's War by Noor Hiba Khan, which is a fictional account based on real life help which was given to Jewish people in Paris during WW2 from the Mosque in Paris. It was a really beautiful story and I thought it was written so well. I also recommended  Pop to several pupils and Spylark by Danny Rurlander which was a great book written about a child who hurt his leg and now lives life through his drone to be able to travel around.  He encounters a terrorist plot which he and a new friend manage to foil! I recommended and lent these books to N, one of my sad frog crew. I really miss her particularly and the other avid readers in that class who I could enthuse to about the books I loved. They would read them so quickly and we would chat about them.  She read Pop in one night!

• Best series you discovered in 2024:

 I didn't read loads of new series this year and I'm not so sure I'm that enamoured by any of them really.  I would say out of the lot, the one I would most be interested to read more of are the Miss Read Thrush Green books and I didn't realise they were a series until I saw my Insta/blog friend Janet do her year review (I originally got THIS post from her when she still blogged)  and she said that this was her favourite series she discovered this year.  My penultimate book of the year was Christmas at Thrush Green which I really loved (it's actually a reread from 2 years ago but I didn't remember it at all!) .  Now I know it is part of a series, I would probably like to read the books! They are so gentle and hark back to a gentler time, a simpler pace of life. The Christmas book reminded me of childhood.

• Favourite new author you discovered in 2024: 

No one immediately sprang to mind that was a NEW author this year so I looked through my list and I think that I really liked the books  Songwalker by Zillah Bethel and One Chance Dance by Efua Traore and I already bought another book by Efua Tratore to read. I have really enjoyed books by Nigerian heritage authors in the past couple of years and she is another great Nigerian author who writes very well about that country! I also loved Zillah Bethel's book too so perhaps her also!

• Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love but didn't: 

Death and Croissants by Ian Moore.   I thought it was going to be a good old whodunnit but it was very muddled and rather TOO cosy for a Whodunnit! My sister had exactly the same reaction to it too!

• Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre to you: 

I bought a job lot of books from someone on Vinted and I picked Roar by Cecilia Ahern. It was a series of short stories about women at difficult times in their life. Each short story is almost a woman living out on idiom or a metaphor "The woman who was swallowed by the floor" - weird and whimsical. They cover all sorts of issues such as abortion, stereotypes, gender, politics, what women should be like  It was a magical realism book where all sorts of whimsical and strange things happen.  Very odd but strangely compelling through the imagination. We never even learn the names of any of the women in the story!

• Book you read in 2024 that you're most likely to read again in 2024:

I'm likely to reread my friend Kate Wakeling's poetry books, Moonjuice and Cloud Soup so perhaps either of those.  Also, I have recently acquired the first book in the Suriya trilogy by Jamilla Gavin and my headteacher has the 2nd, so I may reread the third book - The track of the wind - so I might better understand it. I didn't fully understand it when I read it, given that I hadn't read the first two books!  The setting is post-partition India which I found fascinating!

• Favourite book you read in 2024 from an author you read previously:

 I loved Sylvia Bishops 44 tiny secrets which I read last year and I only read her The Secrets of the Night Train   a week ago which I thoroughly enjoyed and I think she is a brilliant author!

• Best book you read in 2024 that you read based SOLELY on a recommendation from somebody else: 

My sister gave me Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing. This was a devastatingly beautiful story which was SUCH an evocative setting, beautiful characters, extremely emotional and so compelling.

• Favourite cover of a book in 2024:

Susie Dent's Roots of Happiness or  The wonders of Nature- Ben Hoare were both contenders- Both were pretty! However, I think it has to be Melissa Harrison's By Rowan or Yew

• Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2024:

Hmmm, not sure if any of the books had a huge impact although I would say Nancy Birtwhistle's Clean and Green has had an impact on me in that it made me make my own cleaning products, I spent a Sunday obsessively cleaning and descaling my toilets with her Pure Magic and I made my own conker washing liquid! Any time I do cleaning or see something dirty, I think about how Nancy might approach it!   

• Book you can't BELIEVE you waited until 2024 to read:

I have perused my list and I can't really find anything to fulfil this criteria as most of the books went in and out of my life very quickly.  However, if I HAD to name one,  it would be Radio Boy by Christian O'Connell as I rescued it from the recycling bin in the school library as it was missing the front cover and the first two pages (it still made sense without reading the first few pages!) .  It has been sitting on my bookcase for a couple of years and I wanted it gone!

• Book that had a scene in it that had you reeling and dying to talk to somebody about it (a WTF moment, a epic revelation, a steamy kiss etc). Be careful of spoilers

Hmmm, well, I was SUPER keen to discuss the two linked Lisa Jewell thrillers The Family Upstairs and The Family remains that I read that my sister gave to me after she had read them!  They were really compelling and sinister and I had a good old catch up with my sister about them after I read them!

• Favourite relationship from a book you read in 2024 (be it it romantic, friendship etc):  

I loved the relationship between Lena and Alexandre in the The Circus Train by Amita Parikh but also between her and her father Theo. I also loved the relationship between Sunshine Phillips and her Grandfather in Meet Sunshine Phillips!  Such a beautiful relationship!

• Most memorable character in a book you read in 2024:

Elizabeth Zott in Lessons in Chemistry was a superb character!  I also loved the DOG, Six Thirty!!!! on the subject of dogs, Cosmo, in I Cosmo, was a brilliant narrator!

• Genre you read the most from 2024: 

As previously mentioned, I read 70 books from Children's Fiction (from the 9-12 age range mostly!).  I think this was my most read genre last year too!  The reason for this is because I had a lot of luck in the charity shops and Vinted finding brand new contemporary Children's fiction books and I have been trying to read them to vet them for the school library to check they are suitable and also so I can recommend them! 

• Best 2024 debut:   

My old blogging friend, Sarah Ziman, her blog name was Lakota, Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping, published her first full children's poetry book Why did my brain make me say it? this year.   She has SUCH a way with words and is very witty and brilliant at exploring poetic form in its many diverse types. It's short and sweet and very clever. I could think of lots of kids who would love this book. As there are lots of short poems (as well as longer ones), it would feel easy to read and not arduous for reluctant readers and it might encourage them to reread old favourites! I could see a lot of mileage in this book in a Guided Reading session with a mixed ability group of children and I have loaned my copy of the book to our new Literacy lead at school, recommending she buy a set, particularly as we have had more of a focus on poetry these past two years.  The book is roughly following the school year and there really is something for everyone.    Reasons my sister Cried this week is hilarious and Pre-emptive Strike is brilliant, particularly as it reminds me of an action that my old blog friend Chris at the Chrlog did once when he photographed himself licking his wife's chocolate muffin whilst she went to the bathroom! (read the post, it is GLORIOUS!)  She and my friend Kate Wakeling, both of them, have inspired me to return to writing poetry which is something I have enjoyed doing in my spare time since I was young (ever since I read Fatty in the  End Blyton Mystery books' poems!)  but do very sporadically (as you can read from my Poetry label on the blog).  I took part in an online workshop that Kate ran but Sarah has been my constant reminder on Insta of the joy of manipulating words over the past few years! Her word craft inspires me daily and I absolutely recommend this book for anyone wanting to buy a book for a child but not sure what they would like or what they have already read.  

• Book that was the most fun to read:

Sarah Ziman's book was so much fun to read! I've reread it several times. I love her witty poems. I also found that Race to Imagination Island by Mel Bessant-Taylor - was brilliantly imaginative! That was also fun!  Operation Nativity by Jenny Pearson was hilarious too!

• Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2024:  

The aforementioned Delia Owens book and Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson made me sad and cry!

• Book you read in 2024 that you think got overlooked this year or when it came out?

I always find this book very difficult to answer as I don't engage much with 'bookerati' but I think The wonders of Nature by Ben Hoare is a superb non-fiction book for children- each 'natural item' is a double page spread with a large picture of each item with an easy to read description. I bought this new from Oxfam Books but I've never seen anyone refer to this book at all and I think it is a corker!

• Total number of books read: 

109. Last year, I read 91 so I managed to increase my total by 18! I am very pleased to have got back to my previous levels of reading, even if a lot of them were children's books of a mere 250-300 pages or so. Someone who I know, who loves reading, told me they read 20 books last year, and it made me realise that I am lucky to have the time to read on my commute and be able to read so fast!

The List of Books in reverse order

2024:

December:

102.  Before Green Gables - Budge Wilson

103. Operation nativity - Jenny Pearson

104.  The Family Remains - Lisa Jewell

105. The House by the Sea - Louise Douglas

106.  Five steps to Happy- Ella Dove

107.  The Secret of the Night Train - Sylvia Bishop

108. Christmas at Thrush Green - Miss Read

109.  The wonders of Nature- Ben Hoare

November:

94.  The Shadow of the Wind- Carlos Ruiz Zafon

95.  The Italian Girl- Iris Murdoch

96. Planet Omar- Accidental trouble magnet- Zanib Mian

97.  Planet Omar- Unexpected super spy- Zanib Mian

98.  Planet Omar- Incredible Rescue Mission - Zanib Mian

99.  The Summer I robbed a bank - David O'Doherty

100. The movers and shakers of Victorian England (English Heritage publication) - PJ Harris

101.  The year that everything changed - Cathy Kelly

October:

87.  Why did my brain make me say it? Sarah Ziman

88.  Getting better- Michael Rosen

89.  A dog called Midnight - Ben Miller

90.  Moonjuice - Kate Wakeling

91.  Alebrijes - Donna  Barba Higuera

92.  Cloud Soup - Kate Wakeling

93.  Race to Imagination Island- Mel Bessant-Taylor

September:

77.  The Lamplighters- Emma Codex

78.  Black Maria - Diane Wynn Jones

79.  Benjamin Zephaniah- Refugee Boy

80. Time Hunters- Egyptian Curse - Chris Blake

81. Time Hunters- Knight Quest - Chris Blake

82.  The Runaways of Haddington Hall - Vivian French

83. Onyeka and the heroes of the Dawn- Tola Okogwu

84.  The Incredible Talking Machine- Jenni Spangler

85.  The day I fell into a fairytale -  Ben Miller

86.  By Rowan and Yew -  Melissa Harrison

August:

66.  Small fires everywhere - Celeste Ng

67.  Fatal crossing- Tom Hindle

68.  Voyage of the Sparrowhawk - Natasha Farrant

69.  Where the Crawdads sing- Delia Owens

70.  The river whale - Sita Brahmachari

71.  Peak Peril- Sharna Jackson

72.  Snap - Patrice Lawrence 

73.  The Enigma of room 622-  Joel Dickers

74.  Uncle Gobb and the Green sheds - Michael Rosen

75.  Rebel Girl rock and roll- 25 tales of women in music.

76. Dangerous Game- Malorie Blackman

July:

60. The cosmic atlas of Alfie Fleet - Martin Howard

61. The Time travel diaries - Caroline Lawrence

62.  Fire Boy - JM.Joseph

63. The Lightning Catcher -Claire Weze

64.  Nine perfect strangers- Liane Moriarty

65.  Death and Croissants- Ian Moore

June:

51.  Stories for South Asian Super Girls- Raj Kaur Khaira

52.  Peter Raven under fire - Michael Molloy

53.  Saffiya's war- Noor Hiba Khan

54. Danger gang - Tom Fletcher

55. Trouble Twisters- Garth Nix and Sean Williams

56.  Spylark - Danny Rurlander

57.  The family upstairs - Lisa Jewell

58.  Shackleton's journey- William Grill

59.  Pop! - Mitch Johnson

May:

37.  Percy Jackson and the lightning thief - Rick O'Riordan

38.  Beast Keeper (Beasts of Olympus Book 1) - Lucy Coats

39.  The History Keepers- The Storm begins - Damian Dibben

40.  Winner takes Gold- Ellie Clements

41.  Socks are not enough - Mark Lowery 

42. Lightning Strike-  Tanya Landman

43.  Madeleine L'Engle - A wrinkle in time

44. Into the sideways world- Ross Welford

45.  Prince of Fools- Sebastian Darke

46. The Haven- Simon Lelic

47.  The track of the wind - Jamilla Gavin

48. Running out of time - Simon Fox

49.  The Black Curriculum Places - important sites in Black British History- Melody Triumph

50.  The Greatest Inventor - Ben Brookes 

April:

27. Meet Sunshine Philips- GM Linton

28.  It ends with revelations - Dodie Smith

29.  Roar - Cecilia Ahern

30.  I, Ada - Julia Gray

31. Kite Spirit - Sita Brahmachari

32.  On your marks, get set, GOLD! - Scott Allen

33.  The Middler - Kirsty Applebaum

34.  Umbrella Mouse - Anna Fargher

35. A sprinkle of sorcery - Michelle Harrison

36.  Orion Lost - Alastair Chisholm

March:

17.  Musical World - Jeffrey Boakye

18.  The Circus Train  - Amita Parikh

19.  Bobby Dean and the Golden Egg - Aled Jones

20.  The Wishkeeper's Apprentice- Rachel Chivers Koo

21.  Rumaysa- Happily ever after- Radiya Hafiza

22. Mother Theresa- her life, her work, her message - Jose Luis Gonzalez-Balado

23.  Songs of Freedom- Eileen Mitson/Steve Goss

24.  Clean and Green -  Nancy Birtwhistle

25. One Chance Dance - Efua Traore

26.  The Star outside my window - Onjali Q Rauf

February:

10.  The Gilded Ones - Namina Forma

11. The Stormkeepers' battle - Catherine Doyle

12.  I, Cosmo - Carlie Sorosiak

13.  The secret of Haven Point - Lisette Auton

14. Sangu Mandana - Kiki Kallira breaks a kingdom

15.  The Song Walker- Zillah Bethel

16.  The Body in the Blitz - Robin Stevens

January:

1.  Radio Boy - Christian O'Connell

2. Roots of happiness - Susie Dent

3. When the light fades- Agatha Christie 

4. Rainbow Grey and the Battle for the skies - Laura Ellen Anderson 

5. The company of eight - Harriet Whitehorn

6. Cats and Curses - Elen Caldecott

7. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

8.  Friends and Traitors - Helen Peters

9. A Head full of Magic - Sarah Morrell

Here are the questions if you want to join in:

• Best book you read in 2024
• Children's fiction:
• Crime fiction:
• Classics
• Non-fiction:
• YA
• Dystopian fiction
• Most surprising (in a good way) book of 2024
• Book you read in 2024 that yu recommended most to others
• Best series you discovered in 2024
• Favourite new author you discovered in 2024
• Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love but didn't.
• Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre to you.
• Book you read in 2024 that you're most likely to read again in 2024.
• Favourite book you read in 2024 from an author you read previously.
• Best book you read in 2024 that you read based SOLELY on a recommendation from somebody else
• Favourite cover of a book in 2024
• Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2024
• Book you can't BELIEVE you waited until 2024 to read.
• Book that had a scene in it that had you reeling and dying to talk to somebody about it (a WTF moment, a epic revelation, a steamy kiss etc). Be careful of spoilers
• Favourite relationship from a book you read in 2024 (be it it romantic, friendship etc)
• Most memorable character in a book you read in 2024
• Genre you read the most from 2024
• Best 2024 debut
• Book that was the most fun to read.
• Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2024
• Book you read in 2024 that you think got overlooked this year or when it came out?
• Total number of books read

Here are my insta posts with my reads:

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