I've been working on a new project

with a certain someone.... More details to follow but I am finally back to do something I really enjoyed before!

I've had four finishes recently and will be

uploading pics soon (except one which is a secret surprise). It feels good to be back to stitching after so long and my list of projects in progress has gone down!!!

I have only 11 WISPs now - the list can be at found on the right hand side of the blog.

so I decided to start another new project (part of a gift for for someone so it will have to remain a secret)

Fall Reading Challenge: Read a book about senses, a book about emotions and a book about memories

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A disturbing book. Central is the disintegration of society when the vast majority of the population lost their sight and how man must adapt to such a violent change in circumstance.

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Points for this book: none yet, part of a 3 book task
Points so far: 195

Fall Reading Challenge: Read a book with the word devil, witch, vampire, zombie or werewolf in the title

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The concept of this book fascinated me and I was interested to see if the execution was deft or clumsy. In parts it is very clumsy but that doesn't stop it being very funny. Overall though I prefer the real P & P and Austen's mastery of subtle and ironic comedy.

Nice to see the not so likeable characters in the story get their just deserts though!

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Points for this book: 25
Points so far: 195

Fall Reading Challenge: Listen to an audio book whilst exercising

She by H. Rider Haggard


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Listened to this rather than read it but found it another interesting member of the Victorian gothic/horror/fantasy genre that is still popular today. Couldn't get over quite how much the Victorian explorers of deepest darkest Africa spent either eating or sleeping!!!!

Lots of familiar literary devices though it seemed as if the author tired of the book and the journey home was accomplished with barely a description or a thought.

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Points this book: 15
Points so far: 170

Fall Reading Challenge: Read an Alternate History Novel

Fatherland by Robert Harris


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As an alternative Europe goes, I preferred the one we got in which Hitler did commit suicide in a bunker in Berlin when he realised there was no escape. I like the way Robert Harris created an alternate cold war and thought this book very subtle in that it didn't diversify from the real historical events in a traumatic way just gently changed direction. The images of a Germany in the 1960s still under National Socialism were disturbing: The quantity and variety of uniforms, the control of the media, the control of the people using the methods of a police state.

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Points this book: 15
Points to date: 155

Fall Reading Challenge: Read a Christian Fiction Book

The Shack by William P. Young


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm not sure what to make of this book, I thought the story was contrived and not that well written but it certainly tugged at emotional heartstrings. I don't think it added to my knowledge of Christianity in anyway, nor did it encourage me to explore my faith any further.

I am sure there are much better books out there for the purpose this book suggests itself.

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Points from this book: 20
Total points to date: 140

Fall Reading Challenge: Read one of the Seasonal Book Challenge Group Reads

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The book is funny, and having just seen the movie adaptation which is in places very different, I have to say this is one movie of a book that didn't disappoint me. Julia Child fascinated me when I saw her cooking show even though I was too young (and not living in the US) to see it when it originally aired - she was a heroine for quirky women and as i grow older i want to be quirkier too!

Read this if you love food...

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And the pearls were my "car bomb when you least it expect it in a movie because that wasn't in the book" moment ;)

Points for this book: 20
Points to date: 120

Fall Reading Challenge: Read a book about a democratically elected leader and write a review of their administration (500+ pages)

John Major The Autobiography by John Major


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a long read but fascinating for me to go back over the Major government as it was the first one I could have voted for and so I was more politically aware than I was previously.

I do remember that John Major had a very bad press often, and reading the autobiography I sometimes struggled to work out why. He was never a dramatic politician, normally conciliatory and forced to be more so by the Euro-sceptic faction in the Conservative party.

I have greater respect for him as a Prime Minister now than I did at the time.

Though it is said to be a revealing autobiography he conveniently does not mention the four year affair with Edwina Currie that came to light in her memoirs later in 2002

Achievements of John Major's Ministry

Highest popular vote ever recorded by a political party in a British General Election (though this resulted in a lower majority)
Citizen's Charter
Ratification of the Maastricht Treaty with opt-outs on the single currency and the social chapter
The National Lottery
Worked towards peace in Bosnia
Much of the groundwork for the Good Friday Agreement was done under the Major government
Economic recovery following the recession of 1989

Biggest Scandal of John Major's Ministry

Cash for questions which took down several prominent MPs including the now infamous Neil Hamilton

total 785 pages

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Points for this book: 25
Points to date: 100

Fall Reading Challenge: Read a book with prophecy in the title or as a theme

The Prophecy of the Gems: Three Girls, Three Stones, One Destiny by Flavia Bujor


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Really this deserves to be a 3½ but it's isn't a 4 star book so I've left it at 3. It was written when the author was 12 and published when she was 14! There was much about this book I liked but I think it needed a little polishing, the world she created didn't seem complete (or perhaps that parts of it didn't emerge until it was convenient for the story) however it was an enjoyable read and I look forward to reading more of her work.

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Points earned with this book: 25
Points to date: 75