Belated happy New Year to all

Oh goodness me it seems a long time since I have visited my little blog space.  I do hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year. So here we are 2019 and what will this year have in store for us all I wonder.   Last year was not a particularly good year for us so we were rather hoping that 2019 would fare better.  Unfortunately it's not been the best start with me being laid up in bed with the flu.  Days came and went including my birthday. I can honestly say I have not felt that poorly for a very long time and I'd had the jab. So here we are the third week into the New Year already and hopefully things will only get better from now on.

Like most of us I have already been plotting and planning what craftiness I would like to get up to this year and like most of us just how much of this will actually be achievable will remain to be seen.

You know when you're truly poorly if not one stitch has stitched or one page of a book turned for over a week. When it comes to reading, not much has taken place in the last few weeks, I seemed to loose my zest for reading. I couldn't quite decide if it was the books I had picked to read or just a slump.

I was then given Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine to read, by a colleague from the office who said I wouldn't be able to put it down.  Well that wasn't quite how it went but yes I could see why everyone has been raving about this debut novel and why it has won such high praise and why it won book of the year. 

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work everyday, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.  Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled existence. Except, sometimes, everything ................  

Eleanor Oliphant  is certainly a very complex young lady who has had a lot to deal with in her 30 years and may not conform to everyone else's norm but who is to say how someone should go about their daily lives.  Life would be very boring if we were all the same. If you've not already picked up a copy to read I would recommend you do.

Fortunately it would seem that my slump or choice in books has improved. This may have been helped by one of my favourite Christmas presents this year. It was given to me by a lovely friend who is also my Yarndale buddy.  She is a demon with a sewing machine and has made me some beautiful things over the years I have known her.   This years Christmas present was a cushion with a difference.   'If I could crochet and read at the same time my life would be perfect'.  Well that's about the strength of it for anyone else who enjoys both reading and hooking or any sort of crafting that requires your full attention really.  It has been suggested that I could go for audio books but I don't think they would hold  my attention the same way as a good book to hold does.  Now the best part about my cushion is that it has this little pouch at the front where you can store your book or kindle maybe the odd ball of wool and a hook and possibly even hide the odd bar of chocolate so no one else will find it and what you can also see peeping out of the top were Christmas presents from the bearded one.  He had asked me what I would like and as I hadn't yet purchased the next two novels by Amanda Prowse I asked if he would get me a copy of Anna and Theo. I have heard great things about these novels and  I have long been a fan of Ms Prowse writing skills.  Some of her novels are better than others but having started Anna this weekend I can tell you I am already three quarters of the way through and not been disappointed in it. Theo is the sequel to Anna and  both books are described as being the two sides of a love story. You know things are not going to run smoothly for this couple but you just hope that some how they will work things out. There is another book to this trilogy titled How to fall in love again - Kitty's Story but from reading the blurb on the back this is someway into the future when Kitty meets up with her old flame Theo in their twilight years.  There aren't any spoilers at this point as there is no mention as to what has happened between Anna and Theo but I get the impression that a lot of tissues as well as a plentiful supply  of chocolate may well be required whilst reading these three.

Now for anyone who knows the bearded one and I as a couple they will tell you we are polls apart when it comes to our likes and dislikes but just occasionally we will end up buying each other the same gift.  Twenty years ago it was almost identical valentines gifts,  this year it was Noel Fitzpatrick Being the Supervet which we had both bought with the intention that when the other one had finished reading it we would then read it too. As I had bought him several books and he didn't have a burning desire for another one so it was decided that I would swap my copy and as Kate Morton, another one of my favourite authors, has a new novel out it was really a no brainer and so Noel was swiftly swapped for The clockmaker's Daughter which at 592 pages will keep me busy for a while, in fact I may just have enough books to get this little dormouse through her winter slumbers and into Spring.

Mx