tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60599645510249998402024-03-13T02:10:36.364-07:00Book Club MumBabbling about booksClaire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-83106902963474961622014-07-15T13:15:00.002-07:002014-07-16T04:19:38.132-07:00Interview with author Andrew Clover <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Welcome Andrew Clover, who is on a blog tour to promote his new book, The Things I'd Miss. I used to like reading Andrew's column, Dad Rules, in the Sunday Times Style magazine. I miss it! So it's pretty cool to be able to ask him a few questions here</b>...<br />
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<b>First book you remember reading?</b><br />
A Fly Went By by Dr Seuss. I was walking through my brother’s room, I kneeled down to read it, and I still remember finishing it and thinking: I just read a whole book on my own! I can’t tell you what the plot was. I think it involved a fly, which went by.<br />
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<b>How do you decide on what book to read?</b><br />
Well I write literate love stories, so I read up the best stuff in that genre (Beautiful Remains, One Day, Where’d Did You Go, Bernadette..) While<br />
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writing, I also read anything that might inform the tone I’m trying to achieve (for this book it was Brideshead Revisited, The Bell Jar, and The Fault In Our Stars). <br />
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<b>Who is your favourite author?</b><br />
It’s got to be Shakespeare. I love him so much that I meditate in the morning and I imagine he’s there. I know True Love each morning, as I recite “When In Disgrace With Fortune….” When I reach “and in these thoughts myself almost despising/ Happily I think on thee…” it’s not clear if it’s me loving Shakespeare, or him loving me, but it’s a beautiful moment of Shakespearian commingling, and it makes me feel pure ecstasy each morning.<br />
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<b>If you could ask him/her one question what would it be?</b><br />
I ask him questions all the time. Recently I wrote a first draft of two books. I wrote a romantic comedy. I also wrote The Things I’d Miss. It’s about a woman who, one cross day, has a car crash, and, the next thing she knows, she wakes up as a student again, and she’s beside the man she always loved – the one she never kissed… I thought The Bard would opt for the first idea which was actually quite Shakespearian (it had a change of identity, passion, some great scenes). Shakespeare preferred the second. “It seems the better story,” he opined - or that’s what I imagined. So then I spent three months, improving the story of the rom-com. Then I gave both books to my agent. She preferred The Things I’d Miss. I should have listened to Shakespeare!<br />
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<b>What is more important to you in a book, the writing the plot or the conclusion?</b><br />
Well the trouble with writing is you’re always tempted to concentrate on your strengths, and you ignore the weaknesses. I have a smooth easy prose, and write good dialogue; I’m less good at plots. But look at Shakespeare! He nicked plots all the time! So with The Things I’d Miss, I thought I’d basically rip off the structure of A Christmas Carol. (Other people have, and I always enjoy it - It’s A Wonderful Life, Sliding Doors…) Knowing that instinctively, I ceased worrying about the structure. I concentrated on the writing. I listened to the narrator’s voice, and I tried to write out complete scenes, just the way she told it.<br />
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<b>If you do re-read books what book have you re-read more than others?</b><br />
I’d read Brideshead Revisited it as a teenager, and I enjoyed it on a visceral level. Sebastian was the sort of friend I’d like to have. I got very horny at the scene with the sister, on the boat. But rereading it, I was struck that the narrator is a painter, who’s seeing and feeling with a painter’s intensity. Maybe that lead to the conception of The Things I’d Miss: my heroin is revisiting her life, in a Near Death Experience, and each scene she sees – it’s embued with a clarity and force, because she thinks she’s dying: these are the scenes that she’d miss. <br />
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<b>Is there a particular genre you opt to read? Is there an author who in your opinion defines this genre?</b><br />
Well I love romantic comedy, so I love to read Dickens, Austen, Hunter S Thompson, Coward, Orton, Wilde, Nick Hornby, Helen Fielding… But the archetypal one has got to be PG Wodehouse. I resisted reading him for so long (I associated him with snobbery). I now reread him endlessly, because his prose is the most easy, elegant and comic prose that I can imagine.. Even though my latest book is more of a tear-jerker, reading PG Wodehouse still helped. It’s all about making a smooth read!<br />
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<b>A character in a book you would like to bring back to life and why?</b><br />
I love that Theatre Manager from Nicholas Nickleby – the one who involves his whole family in his mad Travelling Troupe - including the donkey, who, we hear, “went on in the pantomime, but he was broad… too broad!” (That donkey really makes me laugh! I can imagine him, going on, and being broad!)<br />
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<b>How would you encourage the younger generation to read?</b><br />
I’d ensure they have no TV or wi-fi in their bedrooms, then not push too much. Aged eight, my daughters both discovered books the way I found A Fly Went By: they found them for themselves. I make sure they have the best stuff though. Now aged 12 and 11, they’re currently tearing through Michelle Harrisson, Helen Dunmore, Sally Gardener, Divergent, and The Twilight series. They love books. Why wouldn’t they? Reading stills your thoughts; then it lifts them to a clearer, more passionate realm.<br />
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<b>The Things I’d Miss by Andrew Clover is published by Arrow, at £7.99</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Girls Love to Read:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Seeing my dogs every day<b> #thethingsidmiss</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Book Club Mum:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">An impromptu hand-hold from my children <b>#thethingsidmiss</b></span></div>
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-32405458084232062652014-07-14T04:20:00.001-07:002014-07-14T04:20:36.064-07:00BOOK CLUB REVIEW: The Dinner (Herman Koch)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On a summer’s evening in Holland, two middle class couples meet for dinner at a rather pretentious restaurant.<br />
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Over the course of the meal, a dark and troubling secret is revealed about their teenage children. <br />
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Billed as a ‘Marmite’ book – you’ll either love it or hate it – the story hinges on our perception of the unreliable narrator, Paul, as we begin to question his motives and morality. <br />
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In fact, the dinner went down universally well with book club. The lack of ‘likeable’ characters wasn’t off-putting and we agreed that it was a story that drew the reader in. <br />
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A short book, set in one place and time (with the use of flashbacks), it reads like a well-made play, set over three acts.<br />
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Paul even likens something in the meal to a gun appearing on stage - If you see a gun in act one, you know someone will get shot in act three. <br />
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And the way it aims to ruffle the feathers of middle class morality gives it something of a theatrical quality too. <br />
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I can’t guarantee everyone will love it, and the ending may leave a bitter taste, but I think most readers would find The Dinner a satisfying offering. <br />
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-69392074176345495012014-07-10T07:06:00.002-07:002014-07-10T07:06:28.834-07:00Wallace and Gromit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Latest <a href="http://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/web_july_august_fam_leeds_2014/0">column</a> page 6, in which I compare my children to a well-known dynamic duo....Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-54394945398102388332014-06-05T06:25:00.001-07:002014-06-05T06:25:34.986-07:00Apologies for a belated BOOK CLUB BOOK REVIEW: Apple Tree Yard (Louise Doughty)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My goodness! What’s happening? Nothing since March and then I go a write two in one day. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: blog posts are like buses. Well, mine are anyway.<br />
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This is a partial review. It’s more like a letter to explain why it’s not a review. Of the dog-ate-it variety.<br />
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You see, the thing about writing a book blog is that you really need to read books. Ordinarily this is not a problem for me. However, of late, I’ve been using the little bit of me-time I have before I go to sleep to do something other than reading. Never fear, this is not going to be too gratuitous. Although it does involve YouTube.<br />
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Yes, I’ve discovered the delights of watching short videos on the iPad of people doing all sorts of fascinating things like furniture restoring, cooking and cake icing. It’s my new guilty pleasure. But it is rather getting in the way of my reading schedule. <br />
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For far too long this site has declared that our book club is currently reading Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty. It’s not, we read it ages ago. We’re now reading The Dinner by Herman Koch...or some of us are I imagine. <br />
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Anyway, since it’s such a long time since we read and discussed Apple Tree Yard, my analysis here will not be up to much, but let me just say that it was excellent, we all thoroughly enjoyed it, and @claireeah is now a strong contender for the Best Book coaster, since it was her choice. <br />
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Here goes:<br />
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Yvonne Carmichael has worked hard to achieve the life she always wanted: a high-flying career in genetics, a beautiful home, a good relationship with her husband and their two grown-up children. Then one day she meets a stranger at the Houses of Parliament and, on impulse, begins a passionate affair with him – a decision that will put everything she values at risk.<br />
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At first she believes she can keep the relationship separate from the rest of her life, but she can’t control what happens next. All of her careful plans spiral into greater deceit and, eventually, a life-changing act of violence.<br />
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We all found this a gripping page-turner and very difficult to put down. The fact that the central character was a scientist appealed to the scientists and non-scientists alike in our group. <br />
Essentially a courtroom drama, the tension was almost unbearable as it built to the climax of the story, but we did find the crucial piece of evidence the case hinged on seemed in truth a little bit weak. <br />
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All in all though, this is an excellent read that keeps you guessing right till the very end, and thinking long after the last page.Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-28076252198168373322014-06-05T03:41:00.000-07:002014-06-05T03:41:46.448-07:00Diary of a laissez-faire mum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bonjour! Tour de France fever is reaching boiling point here in our part of Yorkshire, where the famous cycling race will be taking off in a matter of weeks.<br />
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Even I've got into the spirit, and my latest Families column is all about Le Grand Depart. I say latest, but in true (im)perfect style I have left it a little late posting the <a href="http://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/p32_may_junefam_leeds_web">May/June</a> issue.<br />
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And while I'm in confessional mode (when am I not?) I failed to update the previous, <a href="http://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/p32_mar_april_fam_leeds_2014_web">March/April</a> issue too. So there they both are, two for le price of one. (Page 6 in both).<br />
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Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-74031641315801956932014-03-27T03:20:00.001-07:002014-03-27T03:20:42.849-07:00BOOK REVIEW: H is for Hummus (Joel Rickett and Spencer Wilson)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Forget advice. Forget bath oils and cupcakes. When a friend has a baby, buy her this book.<br />
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What better initiation into modern parenting than this seriously funny, tongue-in-cheek ABC.<br />
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A is for Apple, B is for Ball, blah blah blah....<br />
Get up to speed with the realities of modern day toddlers and their busy schedules with this essential handbook, in which A is for Allergy, B is for Babyccino and C is for Controlled Crying.<br />
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For parents who love nothing more than a good laugh at themselves, this gorgeous little rib-tickler, which I was introduced to by my good friend @kchickman, is a perfect way to keep you sane <br />
<a name='more'></a>when your child is having an (I is for) iPaddy, you're covered in (P is for) Projectile vomit or you just need some (T is for) Time out.<br />
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From Active Birthing through to Zumba, it's all covered.<br />
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<i>H is for Hummus is published by Penguin, priced £7.99</i><br />
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-86014844676614970072014-01-30T02:56:00.000-08:002014-01-30T02:56:22.651-08:00Happy (Chinese) New Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello hello and a very belated happy new year to you. I am a tardy blogger, I do apologise. I'd make a new year's resolution, but my unreliability in this area is documented on page 20 of the current issue of <a href="http://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/p24_jan_fam_leeds_2014">Families</a>, on which I share 10 Resolutions I Already Know I Will Break....<br />
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There's also the column, on page 6, where I confess parenting failure when it comes to the five-year-old's Show and Tell day at school.<br />
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And since I missed the first new year, I will bid you a happy Chinese one instead. My little boy has been learning all about it at school. He's very excited. Last night <br />
<a name='more'></a>he put an envelope with some money under my pillow, and I helped him make a Chinese lantern. He's taken in for Show and Tell today. So, you never know, maybe 2014 will be a year of self-improvement after all... Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-86136474826443770922013-11-29T03:50:00.000-08:002013-11-29T03:50:47.799-08:00All I want for Christmas...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/xmas2013">Latest column - page 6</a>Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-88908177301920674862013-11-19T14:14:00.000-08:002013-11-18T14:17:12.008-08:00Author Gabrielle Kimm on researching historical novels<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAxxWohOUpk5wGjfa-59Y3C9k50ESQdf692peHtpdFiO8cNH-bqWWm7laQ8COx3Fbu-PPyp6Z7oSKTs-SNm8k1mrjOrYDn0bGNI2vOxZVAK4YLAs4T6Wyl4ErNI6XTgl0CZZB0AASZTE/s1600/Gabrielle+Kimm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAxxWohOUpk5wGjfa-59Y3C9k50ESQdf692peHtpdFiO8cNH-bqWWm7laQ8COx3Fbu-PPyp6Z7oSKTs-SNm8k1mrjOrYDn0bGNI2vOxZVAK4YLAs4T6Wyl4ErNI6XTgl0CZZB0AASZTE/s320/Gabrielle+Kimm.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Gabrielle Kimm</i></td></tr>
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<b>A warm welcome to Gabrielle Kimm, who is on a blog tour with her new book The Girl with the Painted Face. She's dropped by to Book Club Mum to tell us what it's like to be a historical writer...</b><br />
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Thank you so much for inviting me onto your blog!<br />
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I’m often asked why I’ve chosen to write historical novels – and there’s a simple answer. It’s all because of Victorian poet, Robert Browning.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>My first novel, His Last Duchess was inspired by Browning’s monologue My Last Duchess – a wonderfully sinister poem narrated by a Renaissance aristocrat who candidly admits to having had his wife disposed of because he judged her to be lacking in judgement, promiscuous and disrespectful. I decided to tell a possible back story to this poem (exploring whether or not he did it, and if he did, why did he do it), and, as Browning’s verse based on historical fact, my era and setting were determined for me. My book was to be set in Ferrara, northern Italy, in the mid 16th century.<br />
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As I knew next to nothing about either Italy or the Renaissance, this necessarily involved copious research, but the more I read, the more I found myself falling in love with it all. In many ways of course the sixteenth century was a fiercely challenging time to be alive, but it was also rich and exciting, sumptuous and vivid – I was hooked! When I finished writing His Last Duchess, I quickly started on a second novel, with a secondary character from that first book taking centre stage: I took the duke’s mistress, Francesca and moved her to Naples, where she sets about the task of establishing a position in the city as a courtesan. This story became The Courtesan’s Lover.<br />
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There is something very rewarding about writing historical fiction. I love immersing myself in a past world – a world that with careful research I can re-ignite and bring back to authentic life. For any fictional ‘truth’ to be credible, it simply has to be authentic, if the characters are to ‘live’ in the mind of the reader. I suppose every genre of novels demands a degree of authenticity, but perhaps historical fiction presents particular challenges, as you are necessarily bringing together the objective world of the historian and the elastic, subjective world of the novelist. Perhaps it’s this merging of the two worlds that I find so appealing to write. I’m not sure really – I just know I love it!<br />
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I try to do as much ‘hands-on’ research as I can for my books (within reason ... my second novel is about a courtesan, and there are limits!!). I’ve flown falcons and learned how to use a tinderbox; I’ve worked with a psychiatrist to analyse one complex character and I’ve spent a day in an antiquarian book restoration workshop, learning what happens when you burn a vellum-bound book! For my latest book, The Girl with the Painted Face, I ended up in a theatrical studio, learning how to stand and move as a Commedia dell’Arte actor. <br />
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The Girl with the Painted Face features a troupe of travelling players who become frighteningly embroiled in a murder accusation, and as I researched, I realised that, in order to be able to write about Commedia with any authenticity, what I needed to do was either to watch a performance, or (even better) try it out for myself. I contacted the artistic director of a troupe called The Rude Mechanical Theatre Company - a modern Commedia troupe who perform annually along the south coast of England – and as well as being given all the advice and help I could possibly need, I ended up in the company’s studio in Eastbourne, where I quickly discovered that the actors in my book would need to be decidedly physically fit and agile . . . by the end of the session I was absolutely exhausted!<br />
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My favourite historical writers? Definitely Sarah Waters, and this year I’ve read wonderful books by Imogen Robertson, Deborah Swift, Michael Irwin and am currently reading The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet by the intriguingly named Merlyn Hermes.<br />
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<b>The disappearance of </b><br />
<b>Emily Marr is out now, </b><br />
<b>to buy a copy from </b><br />
<b>Amazon, click here: </b><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=boclmu-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=0751550345&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-71196630435607530652013-11-15T03:32:00.000-08:002013-11-15T03:32:30.092-08:00BOOK CLUB REVIEW: Revenge Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This was chosen as a good light-hearted summer read and as such, the consensus was: it delivered. <br />
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A sequel to the phenomenally successful The Devil Wears Prada, the story catches up with our heroine Andy Sachs ten years after her tumultuous stint as assistant to the infamous Runway magazine editor Miranda Priestly. <br />
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The original book was adapted for the big screen with Meryl Streep playing the devil herself Miranda, who is widely acknowledged to have been based on real-life Vogue editor Anna Wintour, for whom Weisberger once worked. <br />
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Andy and Emily, her former arch-enemy and co-assistant at Runway, have since joined forces to start a high quality bridal magazine called The Plunge.<br />
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Andy has met the love of her life, Max Harrison, who is heir to a media dynasty. But on the morning of her wedding, Andy wakes up from a nightmare which still haunts her. In it, she has failed to get Miranda her lunch. Thus, we get the uncomfortable feeling that all is not as rosy as it looks, and the past might just come back and haunt Andy in her waking life too. <br />
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When I started reading this I was a bit picky about what I felt were incongruities. For example, When Wiesenburger introduces Andy and Max, he opens up to her about the fact he doesn’t drink, because his father had an alcohol problem. Yet when they are reminiscing about their wedding, he claims the bar ran out of his favourite whisky. Later, they go on holiday with another couple and “all drink a lot”. Apart from Max, who avoids alcohol, and Andy, who is pregnant. So, they don’t all drink a lot, do they?!<br />
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This irritation aside, I at first found the characters and the writing style annoying – it was all quite affected.<br />
But I was won round as the story, and Andy’s pregnancy, progressed. There’s nothing like a baby to keep it real, and to be fair, Weisenberger captured this extremely well. <br />
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Helen, who had read the first book and then seen the film adaptation, said she had reservations at first. “I felt like I wasn’t sure I liked Andy any more,” she said. But as the book progressed she got into it, and I we all agreed we liked the ending. <br />
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As Alison said, she: “Loved the bits about the baby group.” I couldn’t agree more, the scenes in which Andy makes new friends with a group of fellow first-time-mums are so enjoyable and so recognisable. And we should know, it’s how we all met! <br />
<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-3949848975832819982013-11-08T03:08:00.000-08:002013-11-08T03:08:21.199-08:00Solving the sock issue with Funky Giraffe<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWM2NsI8DAf_928ERqq__LD0bSyAbz_1jcTlnoaireAZRc5EArci_F0GBrlL6wsk6O8gBWeK9DrJziv5js9IC7K07QpzNTlzgR6Qdes3-CWY10VT9Mwl6acQ8femco34LrBLQWyRXX49Y/s1600/funky6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicVbTDGxWRFDe_z7S9uSSS39VeLK5cDcYR-URe1MIfpC8osXm4VIwadxooIeq5CUzpfxhKEXKpxtWkPMlWttxrq0g-VEPl3trvFJzNfjcOXdM91gf2xsHrN7lLzp1ROPSsd4RnutHHJ0o/s1600/funky2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicVbTDGxWRFDe_z7S9uSSS39VeLK5cDcYR-URe1MIfpC8osXm4VIwadxooIeq5CUzpfxhKEXKpxtWkPMlWttxrq0g-VEPl3trvFJzNfjcOXdM91gf2xsHrN7lLzp1ROPSsd4RnutHHJ0o/s320/funky2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Snugly: Benjamin</i></td></tr>
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“Excuse me; did you know your baby’s lost a sock?” This is the constant, well meaning inquiry of strangers and the answer is always a resounding: "Yes". Yes I know it’s fallen off, of course it has. Socks are incapable of remaining on babies' feet for more than five minutes. And I'm too slovenly a mother to spend my life reapplying them.<br />
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I remember this problem with my first baby. I tried little sock harness things (got lost once worn) pram shoes (fiddly and annoying to get on) - in the end I think I just made sure his feet were covered with a blanket. But second time around, I resolved to tackle the problem afresh and research what solutions are out there on the market.<br />
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And what I have found are these moccasins. I cannot recommend them enough. They have changed our lives. Basically like a slipper sock in design, they are an all-in-one sock and suede-soled soft shoe. They are easy enough to get on, they generally stay on, they seem comfortable and are perfect for keeping their feet and lower legs warm and allowing them to cruise around on their feet as safely as possible. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWM2NsI8DAf_928ERqq__LD0bSyAbz_1jcTlnoaireAZRc5EArci_F0GBrlL6wsk6O8gBWeK9DrJziv5js9IC7K07QpzNTlzgR6Qdes3-CWY10VT9Mwl6acQ8femco34LrBLQWyRXX49Y/s1600/funky6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWM2NsI8DAf_928ERqq__LD0bSyAbz_1jcTlnoaireAZRc5EArci_F0GBrlL6wsk6O8gBWeK9DrJziv5js9IC7K07QpzNTlzgR6Qdes3-CWY10VT9Mwl6acQ8femco34LrBLQWyRXX49Y/s320/funky6.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Moccasin</i></td></tr>
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<a href="http://funkygiraffebibs.co.uk/">Funky Giraffe</a> have a gorgeous range of designs at a really affordable, competitive price. They sent me these with the lovely anchor design (I’m a sucker for all things nautical), and there are plenty – stars, spots, strawberries, rockets, penguins - and much more on their website. <br />
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Along with the moccasins, they sent me a lovely matching bib, which is the company’s signature product.<br />
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Now, as you may have gathered, I am a rather – ahem - laissez-faire kind of a mother, and I’m afraid I just don’t bother with bibs. I let my baby eat and then change his clothes if necessary once I've hosed him down. One of the main reasons for this is that he simply can’t abide wearing a conventional bib. Or at least I presume he can’t, since he rips them off as soon as I’ve fastened them.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXuojXP34DZoFwHnXfFtXwik7gZlD1_s_EdteLmPRXhvJJ3QsAm7E_WhptjvYElaBd0etRTJKJptE3DBu_rhoeW2FOg69Yf-qfG9diurBRCzHN7K5idskYo7AZBuVecZYIL6iCg4Fyvhc/s1600/funky1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXuojXP34DZoFwHnXfFtXwik7gZlD1_s_EdteLmPRXhvJJ3QsAm7E_WhptjvYElaBd0etRTJKJptE3DBu_rhoeW2FOg69Yf-qfG9diurBRCzHN7K5idskYo7AZBuVecZYIL6iCg4Fyvhc/s320/funky1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Funky Giraffe bib and matching moccasins</i></td></tr>
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These bibs are different, however. For a start, they are lovely. They look really nice – not even like bibs at all, rather tasteful baby accessories. In practical terms, they fasten with two poppers at the back. My baby didn’t attempt to pull it off, but he probably would have been unsuccessful if he had. This could be because the bib is a lot more comfortable than the usual type. They are incredible soft, made with lovely quality squidgy cotton, and their thickness and absorbency is also a bonus in keeping their torsos and necks clean and dry. Again, there are lots of lovely designs on the website. Do check it out at <a href="http://funkygiraffebibs.co.uk/">funkygiraffebibs.co.uk</a><br />
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<i>Note: I was sent these products free of charge by Funky Giraffe to test and review. All views are my own, completely honest and unbiased.</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpINhB2XorxEg6QvelnPqBlOeJKFPr4rztqR3y6Tjzk-Lls6XnyGD_To42x-uReSVgDXlW-ab9mN_C8J-tLUwy5lcbh6e4yZw641fXmBcgZXx3-IXm1pgV-vW0_WTYW5QHit6QYVmRX9w/s1600/funky4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpINhB2XorxEg6QvelnPqBlOeJKFPr4rztqR3y6Tjzk-Lls6XnyGD_To42x-uReSVgDXlW-ab9mN_C8J-tLUwy5lcbh6e4yZw641fXmBcgZXx3-IXm1pgV-vW0_WTYW5QHit6QYVmRX9w/s320/funky4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Happy Ben bunny</i></td></tr>
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-55630441050295462562013-10-03T05:23:00.001-07:002013-10-03T05:23:49.635-07:00CHILDREN'S BOOK REVIEW: Spaghetti with the Yeti (Adam & Charlotte Guillain, illustrated by Lee Wildish)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This book has the kind of wacky off-beat humour reminiscent of Aliens Love Underpants - if you’re familiar with that seminal work. <br />
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Like the Underpants books, it rattles along with fast-paced rhyme and is illustrated with bright and detailed scenes.<br />
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The central character – a boy called George – decides to go and discover the Yeti, taking with him a backpack, hat, map and tin of spaghetti. <br />
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Setting off up a steep mountain path, he bumps into three monsters – none of whom turn out to be the yeti, but instead three creatures named, in turn, Betty, Hetty and Netty. Each one has contrasting advice on what the yeti will like to eat. When he does eventually discover the yeti, George is delighted to find that he in fact only eats spaghetti.<br />
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My nearly five-year-old Max liked the story and found the characters funny, though for his age it was perhaps a bit thin on plot – he probably needs slightly more drama and suspense to keep him really interested now. <br />
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This is essentially a very light and gentle read – a bit of harmless fun. Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-86874653981003647592013-09-26T03:38:00.000-07:002013-09-26T03:43:40.741-07:00BOOK REVIEW: Instructions For A Heatwave (Maggie O'Farrell)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It’s a catchy title, and one the marketing people must have been rubbing their hands with glee about, given the soaring temperatures that quickly followed the book’s publication.<br />
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But I would say the title is exactly what lets this novel down. <br />
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Recently retired bank manager Robert Riordan goes out for a newspaper as usual and doesn’t return, prompting his wife to call on her three grown-up children to play out a very domestic drama in which secrets are uncovered and relationships explored. <br />
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The heat wave scorching London in 1976, when it is set, keeps a cool distance. Just a few references to aphids and water restrictions establish its presence, with no sense of a wider national event.<br />
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In fact, the story just doesn’t seem to suit either the setting or the title. It’s a carefully-crafted family drama – the stuff of the well-made play or quality television series, to be consumed in a cosy velvet theatre seat or cuddled up on the sofa, not the last word in holiday reading, as I had anticipated.<br />
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Robert’s abandoned wife, Gretta, is the matriarch of the Irish Catholic family, which gathers at her home for the first time in years. The oldest son, Michael Francis, is a history teacher whose marriage is in trouble. His sister Monica has two stepdaughters who despise her and a secret of her own. Aoife, the youngest, now living in New York, is a bright and interesting character whose life is heavily affected by her constant efforts to conceal the fact that she can’t read – dyslexic in a time before the word existed.<br />
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There is a departure in structure for O’Farrell in this book. In her previous novels, she’s relied heavily on the device of a split time-frame, with us the readers working out how past and present are connected. <br />
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But here time is very linear, covering a period of a few days, with the rest of the story filled in for us via flashbacks. It means that, once the characters are introduced and the premise of the story set up, there is a section that seems quite flat. Despite this, O’Farrell manages to pull a few rabbits out of hats and reveal a spine-tingling secret at just the right moment to inject the story with meaning and suspense. <br />
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O’Farrell’s previous book, Costa Award-winning The Hand That First Held Mine, was one of those all-consuming reads that left me haunted and bereft once I’d finished it. I thought it was her best to date. She seemed to be on an upward trajectory, her work improving with every new story. <br />
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So perhaps it was inevitable that this one left me, if not cold, then at least needing an extra layer. But it was still very enjoyable and well written. If not highly recommended, then I’d certainly forecast that you’d find this a fair to middling read. Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-17508929279599812012013-09-19T02:33:00.000-07:002013-09-19T02:33:16.641-07:00Writing gobbledygook - the next generation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/sept_october_fam_leeds_2013_web">Diary of an (im)perfect mum, page 6, and on Page 20, some thoughts on first and second children.</a>Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-41259557799669789672013-09-12T02:47:00.002-07:002013-09-12T02:47:51.892-07:00GUEST BOOK REVIEW: The Conspiracy Kid (E P Rose)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><i>I’m delighted to present this review by Anna, a Grande Dame (but young)! of book club. An avid reader, she’s always great for a book recommendation, so I was very interested to read her verdict on this latest offering from the author of </i>Beyond the Valley of Sex and Shopping<i>.....</i></b><br />
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The Conspiracy Kid is a great read. I loved the witty and fast-paced prose; it was a real treat to pick up each night and was written so fluidly that I finished it in no time. <br />
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It follows the many eccentric but loveable characters who become part of the conspiracy kid fan club, where enrolment is automatic on the reading of a poem crafted by Edwin Mars. <br />
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Mars is a central character and for me could have been Adrian Mole’s cooler and more successful twin brother.<br />
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The plot surrounding Edwin involves family members, friends, lovers and werewolves to name but a few - and at first seems complicated. At the heart of it, though, is a simple story of loss and love, cleverly written in a tangled plot full of different personalities. <br />
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Although light and fresh this book is not irreverent, quite the opposite in fact. Each character has suffered loss in their lives and each person deals with it in very different ways. This book tapped into my sense of humour - often quite black – perfectly, and I would recommend it to any book lover.<br />
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<i><b>Thank you Anna!</b></i>Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-63469663920517055362013-08-12T06:47:00.000-07:002013-08-12T07:48:19.064-07:00BOOK CLUB REVIEW: Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We meet our 12-year-old narrator, Blessing, in Lagos, living with her parents and older brother in an air-conditioned apartment in one of the city’s most affluent streets. <br />
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But soon Blessing’s father has an affair and leaves, forcing the rest of the family to move to a village in the Niger Delta, to live with her mother’s family. Plucked from a comfortable life to one without running water or electricity, Warri seems appalling to Blessing, who says: "I opened my eyes as wide as they could go, to let in all the differences”.<br />
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She tells us what is not there - healthcare, hygiene, education – but as she forms relationships and learns about her environment, she describes beautifully what it does contain with humour and warmth. <br />
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Blessing becomes close to her grandma, a strong, wise character, who decides to take her on as a trainee midwife attending to women in the<br />
<a name='more'></a>surrounding countryside. Blessing describes the sense of wonder, responsibility, purpose and identity this role gives her – as well as introducing the horror of genital mutilation and the dangerous complications it can cause in childbirth. <br />
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Soon after their arrival, Blessing’s grandfather –who is trying out Islam as his new religion – decides to take a second wife. Meanwhile, Blessing’s mother becomes distant, working long hours at a hotel. Her brother, Ezikiel, turns from a keen pupil with plans to become a doctor, to an angry young man, falling under the influence of the local group of violent teenage boys railing against the corruption and destruction brought to the area by British and American oil companies.<br />
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Blessing's lilting sing-song voice makes her a captivating story-teller – and it is a style which reflects and evokes the tradition of oral storytelling. At the end of the book, Blessing embarks on a re-telling of her story all over again, and it reminds us of the importance of stories and their being heard.<br />
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“I never would have chosen to read this book” – was the verdict of a few of us book club members, “but I thoroughly enjoyed it”.<br />
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Having not even read a blurb, I had to double check that Lagos was in Nigeria. If I had known that the book’s subject matter included genital mutilation, I’m ashamed to say I might have put it down and turned away, an uncomfortable issue I did not want to confront. But, lead by the hand of an accomplished writer, it was a journey I was so glad I’d made – funny, shocking, happy and sad. <br />
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When we started out, we hoped book club would broaden our literary horizons and make us read outside our comfort genres, and this is a great example. <br />
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-78001174805464873082013-08-05T05:26:00.000-07:002013-08-05T05:26:50.052-07:00 Author Louise Candlish on the highs and lows of a writer’s life<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise Candlish</i></td></tr>
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<b>Louise Candlish is on a blog tour with her new novel, The Disappearance of Emily Marr. She's dropped by here at Book Club Mum to tell us about the highs and lows of a writers life...</b><br />
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In the ten years I’ve been writing novels, I’ve learned that the general perception of a writer’s life is that it’s a good gig. Nice work if you can get it. In fact, hardly work at all when you think about it. I’ve written before about how insulting it is to be told by someone that he or she would love to give up work altogether and ‘just’ write.<br />
Naturally, I make it my business to put these innocents right. Yes, there are joyous parts of this existence, but it is a full time job (and more) and, like all full-time jobs there are sweet spots and dark moments, highs and lows. And if you’re the kind of personality drawn to the sort of stories I am – emotional, dramatic, mysterious – then the chances are you have the type of heart that experiences those highs and lows very intensely. Here are five of each:<br />
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<b>Highs</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipeA-il5ZZxlVnT6TO2NTCo8tVtFbfgdWyz1zEmGAGF7indB6NvpXeTZH5S6CIc9qI0tfH4ccZ-4tfH4bvGgYfZJIspJngnMgAxPIZUxDqlCZNvgCpDcIFc9QGtZAFbk3CjN5MecD3wRo/s1600/EmilyMarr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipeA-il5ZZxlVnT6TO2NTCo8tVtFbfgdWyz1zEmGAGF7indB6NvpXeTZH5S6CIc9qI0tfH4ccZ-4tfH4bvGgYfZJIspJngnMgAxPIZUxDqlCZNvgCpDcIFc9QGtZAFbk3CjN5MecD3wRo/s1600/EmilyMarr.jpg" /></a><b>1 </b>The intellectual satisfaction. No other job has given me this much.<br />
<b>2 </b>Opening my post to find a finished copy of my new book. Placing it on various surfaces and at different angles to admire it. Fingering the embossed bits.<br />
<b>3</b> Being able to work flexible hours (though not any fewer than anyone else).<br />
<b>4 </b>Working with an agent and editor who you respect and admire and who let you cherry-pick their wonderful ideas to pass off as your own.<br />
<b>5 </b>Having writer friends – and non-writer friends – to share your successes and failures. No woman is an island, even if her new book is set on one.<br />
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<b>Lows</b><br />
<b>1</b> When your book sinks without a trace even though you think it might be rather good.<br />
<b>2</b> Being rejected (or ‘passed’ on, in the gentler parlance of publishing). This happens a lot, even when your character has had quite enough building already.<br />
<b>3 </b>Reading a one-star review of your work on Amazon and seeing your work described as ‘pointless’. Wishing you could wring the reviewer’s bloody neck while knowing that’s not a gracious or seemly response. <br />
<b>4 </b>It meaning something to you when you give a friend or family member a gift of a signed copy of your book, only for that person not to read it or ever refer to it again. (I’m sorry, but that’s just rude.)<br />
<b>5</b> Not being able to switch off your writer’s mind at night, at the weekend, when you’re supposed to be on holiday – or ever, really. Knowing you are not concentrating on your child’s story because you are thinking about your own. Knowing you are only pretending to compete at Uno or share the joy of Phineas and Ferb when you are in fact having an idea. Feeling guilty, basically, for prioritising made-up people over real ones. Then being shameless enough to write about that guilt for ready money.<br />
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<b>The disappearance of </b><br />
<b>Emily Marr is out now, </b><br />
<b>to buy a copy from </b><br />
<b>Amazon, click here: Details of the rest of the blog tour:</b><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=boclmu-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=075154356X&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-60454898335027811932013-07-24T04:24:00.000-07:002013-07-24T04:25:03.116-07:00What sunshine brings...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/july_august_fam_leeds_2013_layout_1">Latest column - page 6 </a><br />
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-57531411012125397482013-06-26T03:51:00.001-07:002013-06-26T05:25:54.936-07:00GUEST BOOK REVIEW: The House We Grew Up In (Lisa Jewell)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><i>I am delighted to present a guest review by Super Speedy Reader Mum - aka - my friend Jackie....</i></b><br />
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When Book Club Mum handed over this book and then sneakily suggested: "perhaps you could write a review?" I surprised myself by agreeing. Lisa Jewell is one of my favourite authors and I'd finished her most recent novel, Before I Met You, a week ago with a joyous bounce and a greedy eye for her next page turner.<br />
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With this book, The House We Grew Up In, still unread, my theme was going to be how good it is for children to learn to play on their own, and how my children learned to do this while I, in the interest of good parenting, sat in the garden and chomped through pages and let them get on with it.<br />
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This book isn't a romance though. This is a sad book. It's sad in a reflective, thoughtful, gently peeling back the wallpaper sort of way. <br />
<a name='more'></a>Actually, instead of sitting down and reading it in a big chomp I kept stopping to pay attention to my children instead. It was strangely put-downable because the author had done such a good job of evoking the fleetingness of childhood and the short time when they find a rainbow fascinating or want to bake cupcakes in the kitchen but only eat the icing. I'd forgotten how Jewell's stories and characters peel themselves off the page and insinuate themselves into real life.<br />
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The story is about an idyllic family named Bird who are broken apart by two tragedies. One happens on Easter Sunday when the four Bird children are teenagers, whilst the other has been unfolding slowly and inevitably since before they were born and continues long after they are grown up.<br />
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The children's mother is the personable, childlike Lorelei who, as she unravels through the book, also binds it together with her story. She wants so much to make everything perfect, and then hold on to that perfection forever until her pockets are filled, and her life and heart and house are bulging with mementoes<br />
and memories and lots and lots and lots of Stuff. Lorelei is a hoarder. <br />
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It is the back story of compulsive hoarding that drives the novel. Hot on the heels of reading her last book, whose characters felt filmic, solid and real, this felt much more of a story book. It was the story that<br />
shaped her characters. The story that made Lorelei so childlike, that made Megan such a clean freak, Rory the most popular boy in the school, Rhys into the sad and freaky loser and Beth to do what she did. In this book it felt like the characters were shaped by the story, whereas in some of her other novels,<br />
Ralph's Party, The Truth About Melody Browne, Before I Met You it felt like the characters were the ones driving the story.<br />
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There were moments too when they seemed, well, a little bit unbelievable. Megan forgave Beth a bit too easily in my opinion and Lorelei - did you really think that she was going to get better after going so far into her illness, with no support but an online lover with a talent for psychoanalysis? I don't think so.<br />
But what I love about Lisa Jewell is that she can't resist a happy ending. If things get a bit unbelievable just to make everything work out, that's absolutely fine by me. I'm all for a bit of magical realism.<br />
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So. About halfway through the book, as the threads began to come together I edged my deckchair out into the garden and pulled the big toy box into the middle of the sitting room. My children have learned to play together very nicely now, and they're really getting quite independent. Just the last few pages to go now. Yes darling, help yourself to an ice lolly. Don't trap your sister's fingers in the freezer door. Good girls. Mummy's reading.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=boclmu-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=1846059240&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-47293295038151550772013-06-18T13:09:00.000-07:002013-06-18T13:17:30.494-07:00BOOK REVIEW: Life After Life (Kate Atkinson)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Life After Life charts the many lives – or possible lives – of its protagonist, Ursula Todd. <br />
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Born in the middle of a snowstorm in 1910, she dies before even taking a breath because the umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck, the doctor and midwife kept away by the weather. <br />
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On the next page, her birth is a very different story - the doctor has managed to get there in time and the baby is saved. <br />
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Thus the novel unfolds, with Ursula’s idyllic, Merchant Ivory-style childhood regularly peppered with untimely death. A baby is smothered by a cat, a child slips off a roof, two girls drown playing in the waves, a murderous paedophile roams the countryside and Spanish ‘flu is hard to avoid.<br />
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Each time, we are told that darkness falls, and on the next page, the title is Snow. The motif makes it clear to us what is happening, but Ursula herself is only vaguely aware of the experience – a sense of deja vu nagging at her and urging her to make different choices – which don’t necessarily result in better outcomes. <br />
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As the novel moves into Ursula’s adult life, the possibilities become more complex, experiences lead to different decisions and it is not just individual deaths that threaten life but entire wars. <br />
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In one version of events, Ursula’s travels in Europe before university lead to an acquaintance with Eva <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Kate Atkinson</i></td></tr>
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Braun. She lives –and dies – and lives - through the blitz.<br />
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This book embraces a huge cast of characters and is concerned with the big themes of cause and consequence in history – could Hitler have been stopped? <br />
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At the same time, it explores the peculiarity of one life, lived. The fact that the life in question is presented as a tree of possibility rather than a linear chain of events describes the unique isolation of an individual perspective. <br />
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Life After Life has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and has probably attracted the most attention and acclaim since Atkinson’s first novel, Behind The Scenes At The Museum, burst onto the literary scene, winning the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1995.<br />
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Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite authors and I always love her writing, but this novel pushed me to uncomfortable places. As mother to a four-year-old and a baby, the heightened sense of vulnerability and danger in the section of the book that covers Ursula’s childhood made me very uneasy! <br />
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The later sections are no less challenging in their descriptions of senseless death and destruction. But it is one of those books that permeates long after reading the final page. Decisions and reflections made in real life refer the reader back to the sense of the novel. I suppose you could say that in this sense it has a life after life....<br />
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-31004490282769589312013-05-16T13:26:00.000-07:002013-05-16T23:59:31.565-07:00Author Lisa Jewell on her new novel - Before I Met You <b>Lisa Jewell is on a blog tour. Here, for Book Club Mum, she explains her inspiration for the '90s section of her latest book - Brit Pop London, a world just before the internet and mobile phones.... </b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lisa Jewell</i></td></tr>
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My novel, Before I Met You, is a dual time frame novel set in both the mid nineties and the early 1920s. But when I started writing it, way back in 2010, I’d intended it to be a simple love story set in the Brit pop years. I hadn't written a romance for years and I really wanted to see if I could still do it.<br />
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The – very tenuous – inspiration for the romance was actually the story of Meg Mathews who left the island of Guernsey back in the early 90s and by 1995 was married to Noel Gallagher and living it up with a phalanx of gossip-column celebrity mates in a huge house in Primrose Hill called Supernova Heights. I loved the arc of her life and the concept of leaving a tiny, compact island for the sprawling mess of London and finding yourself slap bang in the middle of the zeitgeist. <br />
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So I created Betty Dean, plonked her down on Guernsey and had her set off on the same journey. All I knew about her story was that she would rent a tiny flat in Soho and find herself living next door to a pop star. Dom Jones, my pop star, was a kind of hybrid of all those floppy-haired Primrose Hill characters from the 90s; a little bit Gallagher, a fair amount of Damon Albarn and a smattering of Jude Law. <br />
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In 1995 I was getting divorced from my first husband and had just started dating my second husband. I'd been cloistered away in the suburbs for five years and was rediscovering my precious London just as the UK was about to be crowned Cool Britannia and Liam and Patsy were to be photographed together for that iconic Vanity Fair cover in 1997.<br />
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My husband and I spent most of the first two years of our relationship in various corners of Soho, drinking, eating in Chinatown, watching films in fleapit cinemas. And so it seemed only natural to me to use it as a setting for Betty’s adventure. The odd thing about writing about the 90s was firstly that it is very hard to come to terms with the fact that it was two decades ago. The nineties to me still feel like ‘a couple of years ago’! The other odd thing was that while London itself is virtually the same in many ways; the pubs, the restaurants, the tourists, the traffic, the impossibility of getting a parking space, the nightclubs, the people – in other ways it is like a foreign land. And that is because of technology.<br />
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In 1995 my husband was about the only person I knew who had a mobile phone. I didn't get my first phone until the late 90s. Before that if I wanted to call someone when I was out and about, well, mainly I just wouldn't. Why would you? But if it was an emergency, I'd have to find a phone booth and check that I had the right change to feed it. If I didn't have the right change and it was really urgent, I’d have to call the operator and ask to make a ‘reversed charges’ call. Then listen while the operator asked my mother (mainly) if she was happy to accept the call. <br />
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Numbers given out at nightclubs were written down on pieces of paper. And lost. Calls were made at home. If you wanted to find out more about someone you'd just met, you’d have to ask around. If you needed a phone number for someone you’d have to pull muscles lifting up a phone directory and then pore over it for an age, flicking through hundreds of pages. If you were looking for a number for someone called Jane Smith, forget it.<br />
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There was no social media in the 90s. No way of hooking up with people other than in Real Life. People read newspapers on the tube. And wrote each other letters. If you were running late for an appointment, that was tough luck, there was no way of letting anybody know you were ‘just round the corner’.<br />
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In the 90s my husband bought me a Sony Discman for my birthday. The very height of modern technology. This massive lump of plastic followed me around wherever I went, with one CD in it which I'd have to listen to all day long. <br />
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As I say, another world. But actually, from an authorly point of view, writing about this period was a gift. Particularly once I’d added in the other time frame and set Betty off on a mission to track down the mysterious beneficiary of her grandmother’s will. If I'd set the novel in the present day, Betty would have run a few Google searches and found Clara Pickle in a day! As it was, I was able to set Betty off on search by foot through the city, meeting colourful characters and uncovering fascinating nuggets of history as she did so. <br />
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I am as much of a convert to the joys of infinite and constant access to technology as the rest of the world. I love the internet with a passion. Google is my best friend and I’d be lost without my phone. But I do think fondly of the ‘old days’ when London was the coolest place in the universe and you could walk its streets, uncontactable, invisible, lost in the moment, lost in thought. <br />
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<b>Before I Met You by </b><br />
<b>Lisa Jewell is out now,</b><br />
<b> published by Arrow, </b><br />
<b>priced £7.99. To buy a</b><br />
<b> copy from Amazon, </b><br />
<b>click this box:</b><br />
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<b>For details of the rest of Lisa's blog tour...</b><br />
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Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-4490753317519939602013-05-15T03:35:00.002-07:002013-05-15T03:35:40.713-07:00Author Lisa Jewell is heading this way on a blog tour....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Before I Met You is the latest novel by Lisa Jewell, author of The House We Grew Up In and After The Party. It's a love story set in bustling, grungy '90s Soho, and 1920s bohemian London. Lisa will be sharing her inspiration for the 1990s section of the book with a guest blog here at Book Club Mum this Friday. So don't forget to drop by for a blast from the past - Cool Britannia, the Primrose Hill set and the time when telephone numbers were still exchanged on pieces of paper...<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> </span></span></div>
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-61523098189553704882013-05-14T02:49:00.000-07:002013-05-14T02:49:02.817-07:00A letter to Kate and a case of hypochondria<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/may___june_fam_leeds_2013_web?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml&backgroundColor=2A5083&showFlipBtn=true">Latest column - a severe case of hypochondria, page 6, and a letter to Kate Middleton about those first few weeks of motherhood, page 8.</a>Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-74344843553178891622013-05-03T02:53:00.000-07:002013-05-03T02:53:50.563-07:00From the sick badge to Looks of Envy.....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Look at this jewellery. Gorgeous, isn't it?<br />
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In terms of accessories, I’ve been wearing the same brooch for the last few months. I say brooch, it’s really more of a badge. A badge of honour for parents of babies with reflux.<br />
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It’s so versatile – I’ve worn it with absolutely everything since Ben was born. Though I find it really sets off a manky old fleece particularly well.<br />
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Anyway, the reflux, I’m glad to report, has finally settled
down, thanks to some medication and early weaning onto purees from 17 weeks
(special dispensation from the health visitor, you understand!).</div>
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And I think it’s time from me to emerge from my why-bother-it’s-just-going-to-get-sicked-on
attitude to appearance and make a bit of an effort. And that’s where the nice
jewellery at the top of the page comes in. Here are a few more examples....</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKDYWI-e4AQI9BRgHEgeEBouikexekbpiGMd3hrHGQo-RTmCaujUcxFOo7lXBcGUlMVnJXbflQotGVS-qXdnVfEMuVC0__S2aR4eKcYEcbcKlb2PjrVjeq-Lw2t1RZ6tfgkRZqi9C-c9U/s1600/Bella.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKDYWI-e4AQI9BRgHEgeEBouikexekbpiGMd3hrHGQo-RTmCaujUcxFOo7lXBcGUlMVnJXbflQotGVS-qXdnVfEMuVC0__S2aR4eKcYEcbcKlb2PjrVjeq-Lw2t1RZ6tfgkRZqi9C-c9U/s320/Bella.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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They’re by a company called Looks of Envy, recently set up
by busy mum of one Sandra Cull. She offers statement jewellery combinations that can be bought individually or as complete looks.</div>
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When she worked in the corporate world and as a full time mum, she found sourcing complimentary accessories for an outfit really difficult and time consuming. "There's no time to traipse around shops and when you look online the pictures are often tiny," she said. </div>
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She decided there must be a gap in the market for affordable statement jewellery and asked her NCT group, who agreed and eventually became the models for her website. "They're wearing white tops and jeans, which I think most people will have in their wardrobe," said Sandra. "I hope that shows that you don't need expensive elaborate clothes to get the look. Statement jewellery is a perfect way to transform your wardrobe
- particularly if you are not wanting to make a huge investment.” </div>
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Absolutely. Having just become
a mum for the second time myself, I know
it’s easy to get bored of your bland
maternity and nursing wardrobe, but not want to spend a lot on new clothes
because body is still changing shape – hopefully! </div>
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“A couple of signature pieces can make you
feel like you are making an effort, transforms your outfit and makes you feel
gorgeous again,” said Sandra. </div>
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She’s offered a £10 gift
voucher to one lucky winner. To enter, visit her site here: <a href="http://www.looksofenvy.com/">www.looksofenvy.com</a> and tell me which is
your favourite ‘look’ as a comment below. For an extra entry, like my Facebook
page. All entries need to be posted by May 31, 2013, open to UK residents only.</div>
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<o:p> Good luck!</o:p></div>
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<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059964551024999840.post-21654526198907771172013-04-18T12:36:00.001-07:002013-04-18T12:36:32.434-07:00BOOK CLUB REVIEW: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKLR0VUfp_se036CBcOktFMdmT13I7PSUbk2p96LvXveVAu3qJZfL4SPcfrGG3uKlLnp3F-Zl7Qt-WD_bJ6A7BG6oV8z8dkZ0Z7i3vFnDYXcyp1w9spHhpLwCOBbzFrbsm-4OL1AUh4s/s1600/gonegirl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKLR0VUfp_se036CBcOktFMdmT13I7PSUbk2p96LvXveVAu3qJZfL4SPcfrGG3uKlLnp3F-Zl7Qt-WD_bJ6A7BG6oV8z8dkZ0Z7i3vFnDYXcyp1w9spHhpLwCOBbzFrbsm-4OL1AUh4s/s320/gonegirl.jpg" width="209" /></a>I don’t normally do this, but with a smash hit thriller so famously full of twists and turns, I’m going to include SPOILERS. How exciting! I’ll give you good warning when they’re about to kick in...<br />
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Nick and Amy Dunne are preparing to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, but things aren’t good with their marriage. The couple, in their late 30s, have moved to his home town in Missouri after they both lost magazine jobs in New York, victims of the recession which looms as a motif in this unsettled world. <br />
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Before any anniversary celebrations can begin, Amy disappears in mysterious circumstances. There are signs of a struggle at the Dunnes’ home, but things don’t add up.<br />
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Gripping to the end, what happened to Amy is revealed to us in first person narrative by both Nick and Amy alternately.<br />
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Nick is the classic, shady noir narrator - a man with secrets. Amy’s story is told as diary entries, charting their relationship from its heady beginnings to more troubled recent times, with worrying signs which implicate Nick and undermine his less-than-convincing honesty in the present as he tries to persuade police and media of his innocence. <br />
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*SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * *SPOILER ALERT * *SPOILER ALERT *<br />
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The dazzling showpiece of the novel comes right in the middle, when it is in fact Amy who is revealed to be the even less reliable narrator, having written the diary entries as part of an elaborate plan to frame her husband for her murder. <br />
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This was the part of the novel which most impressed book club, and although everyone found it very readable, the ending could not match this impressively pulled-off and carefully constructed twist in the middle. <br />
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The ambivalence towards the two dishonest central characters was also commented on – as readers we weren’t particularly rooting for them – even when Amy appeared at first to be genuine, something didn’t quite ring true. <br />
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So, despite its impressive structure and power as a page-turner, ultimately the unsympathetic protagonists and anti-climactic conclusion left us if not cold, then decidedly underwhelmed.<br />
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Many agreed that it read like it would make a good film – perhaps even work better as a movie than a book, and it’s no surprise that the rights have been snapped up by Hollywood actress Reese Witherspoon, with plans for director David Fincher to adapt the story for the big screen in the pipeline. <br />
<br />Claire Bottomley Book Club Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00094955308786652840noreply@blogger.com2