An advert in the back of the most recently-read ancient M&B romance (formatting theirs):

"Each Romance features British heroines and their encounters with dark and desirable Mediterranean men. Plus, a free Elmlea recipe booklet inside every pack."

Yeah, that's the way to attract those dark and desirable Mediterranean men: fake cream.

Annoyed by two books in a row featuring wimpy women and sexual assault justified by "she wanted it really".

I picked these up at the library on impulse a few weeks ago and in my enforced bed rest yesterday finally got around to reading them.

Babycalming by Caroline Deacon is an NCT publication aimed at parents of children aged 0-2. I realised fairly quickly that it covered mostly things I've learned by trial and error with Charles, but for that reason I'd recommend it unhesitatingly to other new parents or parents-to-be. It has research statistics to back up its recommendations and for amusement there are quotes on childcare from the last 200 years on the chapter headings - so you get to see how some things never change and advice goes in and out of fashion. Most of all though, it isn't prescriptive, and it puts the power in the hands of the parents: more "you could try this, and these are the reasons why it might work, and these are some reasons why it might not" than "follow My Grand Plan For Parenting". If I'd had this 15 months ago I'd probably have started cosleeping much sooner, and maybe had more confidence sooner in other things I did.

If Babycalming was really being read a year or two late, then the other book, How to Say No and Mean It, is really a year or two early but still interesting. After an introduction about the general concept of its approach to child discipline, the book is in 2 parts. The first part is shorter and is simply a list of tools one might make use of to manage your children, in alphabetical order, with expansion and discussion under each heading. The second part is longer and is a list, again alphabetised, of problems or situations with more discussion and reference to the tools in the first part. It runs from small children up to adolescents and I skimmed quite a lot of it. Still, most of it felt like good common-sense (model the behaviour you want to see, don't have double-standards, explain and teach rather than order, remember that children are not small adults and amend your expectations accordingly, treat children as individual people not labels). I can see it being a useful reference book in a year or two. I didn't agree with absolutely everything in it, but the vast majority of it made sense.

2 for 2 on "not throwing across room in disgust" there. Perhaps I am getting better at spotting the ones I won't like.

A while ago Ingi recommended Raising Boys to me, and while I was browsing Amazon for that I also looked at Raising Babies by the same author. I requested both of them through the local library system along with What Mothers Do (about which I have enthused before). I read Raising Babies very quickly and it has completely changed my mind about what I want to do for Charles's childcare.

Until now I have been working on the assumption we would place him in the university nursery at 18 months so I could return to full-time work, as the cheapest and most convenient option. I started to feel warning signs recently when the nursery wouldn't confirm whether I had a place "as we are only processing applications for this year at this time" and I found myself pointing out to a friend that it appeared that the administration was run for the convenience of the nursery rather than the parents or the children.

The book is unapologetically campaigning, with the central thesis that children under three should not go to nursery, but should instead be cared for by parents, or if that is not possible, by a single dedicated carer. The points made are:

* Nursery is a qualitatively different environment from the parental home or a nanny or childminder arrangement, with children being grouped and looked after by multiple staff, often with a high turnover. The very frequent interaction that characterises most parent-child relationships (and certainly does ours with Charles) does not occur in a nursery setting, and has been shown not to by filmed observation, even when the workers knew they were being observed and presumably trying to look as good as possible.
* 0-3 is exactly the age where children are learning to socialise and need to have strong bonds with a very few loving carers who will give them the frequent intense interaction described above.
* There is evidence from several large UK-based studies that children placed in nursery before three are at much higher risk of developing anti-social behaviour in later life.
* Cortisol tests show that apparently calm babies/children are in fact very stressed when isolated from their primary carers.

The author has clear strong views on the "right" way to parent, but these happen to be the way Tony and I parent: with strong attachment and attention to the child, letting the child set the pace of development, and so on (all the stuff that tends to get wrapped up in the label "attachment parenting"). In particular the point about young babies wanting/needing to have a strong bond with a very few people really resonated with my observations of Charles: he wants me most of all, then Tony as a second-best and there are a very small number of other adults with whom he seems to relax, and then not always. He will be friendly to almost everyone, but he needs that reassurance of someone he knows really well being around. I am sure there are thousands of people who went to nursery under 3 who are just fine, but I am now convinced it is not the right thing for Charles or us.

In essence, this book was not so much telling me things I didn't know (with the exception of some of the studies) as exposing opinions/beliefs I already had and showing me how they were incompatible with sending Charles to nursery at 18 months old. In addition, I'd always thought I should go back to full-time work sooner, as the higher earner, but in fact I am happy with my current workload, while Tony is beginning to chafe. So it may be him going back first, as that is (probably) still a financial win as well as a happiness win. I am beginning to think about childminders and budgets.

I went out late, and then just missed the bus 10 minutes after the ideal one to catch. No problem, think I, it's an every 10 minute service. Half an hour later two buses turned up at once. So I was rather late to meet Tony et al for lunch but they were very tolerant. I just managed to finish in time to pick up some CUMC stuff from Pembroke and get to the midwife on time.

Lovely lovely midwife. She confirmed she's happy for me to home birth despite the big baby - the things that could go wrong are "all things we can spot coming and discuss transfer". We have provisionally booked an induction at the hospital for 42 weeks, though I can probably refuse it at the time if I'm feeling unhappy. If I do so, she will have to "strongly recommend" I go into the hospital and talk through the choices and risks with an obstetrician, and they will want to do full fetal monitoring. Fine by me, so long as I actually get to talk through choices and risks and don't get ordered around again.

She also wrote in my notes (with my agreement) that I declined to see the obstetrician again at 41 weeks, as I already have a midwife appointment at home at 41w2d, where if I want she can do a stretch-and-sweep. But she was very clear that I was under no pressure to accept that offer, and that she'd respect my fear of vaginal exams, be very careful, and stop the moment I told her to.

Should baby and I actually make it to next Wednesday without parting company I am probably likely to accept the stretch-and-sweep. Of the methods of attempting induction it is the least offensive, and I do trust my midwife to stop if I can't cope. I'd certainly rather try that in the relaxed environment of my home if it keeps me from the hospital the following week.

After all that, she checked the baby and thinks it has engaged a little more, and we both heard the heartbeat strongly. All continues healthily.

After the appointment I did more walking - paying in rent money from Sue, paying in CUMC cheques, and going into Cambridge Library for the first time in about 7 years. My membership had expired so I had to reregister, but at least that avoided the "I've changed my name to this complicated alternative" conversation. I borrowed four books. One I've read before, two unread ones by authors I already know and one completely new one.

I'm hoping to get back in the habit of using a library - yes I have a giant to-read pile and yes I have all of Tony's books that I haven't yet read, but for some reason I have this urge for variety at times, for books that haven't been staring at me for the last n months or years. Up till now I've just bought more books in that mood, but I'm going to see if the library makes a good substitute. I already noticed that it certainly makes me more willing to try random new authors.

123. Web of the Witch World, Andre Norton
124. Innocent Blood, P.D. James
125. The Chrysalids, John Wyndham

126-128. Baby Love, Gill Sanderson/Fiona McArthur/Janet Ferguson
Three-in-one Mills and Boon novel picked up in Oxfam. All three have midwife heroines (and consultant heroes, how dull) and funnily enough involve babies a lot. The middle book of the three is essentially propaganda for the active/natural birth movement, with the romantic formula serving as a useful framework on which to hang a series of birth stories where the midwife heroine helps mothers have a normal birth, and argues her case each time with the obstetrician hero. I found it great fun to read these dramatised versions of things I've been reading and researching in a more sober manner over the last few months. It helps that I think the midwife is right, of course ;)

129. X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble, Michael A. Stackpole
130. The Railway Children, E Nesbit
131. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
132. Hot Money, Dick Francis
133. The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling
134. Learning The World, Ken MacLeod
135. Total Recall, Sara Paretsky
136. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
137. Banner of Souls, Liz Williams
138. Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery

I've been working through a job lot of children's classics I bought last year, interspersed with two books bought from Oxfam at the same time as the Mills & Boon, another 'less-frequently read' Dick Francis, and some science fiction that ambushed fanf when he innocently walked through a bookshop.

139. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
And I've finally read this, about four years after the first person told me earnestly I should. I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as people seemed to want me to believe I would. I will read Fforde's other books at some point, although right now what I really want to read is Jane Eyre. I haven't read any of the Brontë books so perhaps now is a good time to start.

109. Pompeii, Robert Harris
Actually I read this somewhere in the middle of my Georgette Heyer fest, but I forgot because I made the mistake of reshelving it. It's an utterly gripping thriller that happens to be set in convincing (sometimes unpleasantly so) historical detail, following the official in charge of the aqueduct who is trying to work out why it has stopped flowing somewhere on Mount Vesuvius ... Tony has other books by Robert Harris so no doubt I will get around to reading those in time.

110. A Cat Called Birmingham, Chris Pascoe
Tony's mother lent us this, a silly book about a very unfortunate cat and the various bad things that happen to him. I didn't find it quite as laugh-out-loud amusing as Tony and his mum, but it definitely had its moments.

111. Rat Race, Dick Francis
Planes! Unfortunately my copy of this is falling to bits so will need replacing at some point.

112. Frank Skinner, Frank Skinner
Enjoyable autobiography, and unsurprisingly very funny in places (though I felt never inappropriately).

113. A Taste for Death, P.D. James
114. Devices and Desires, P.D. James
I'm finally working through some of my to-read pile, which includes a lot of P.D. James which my mother was getting rid of. They're very absorbing and beautifully written, but I'm not sure whether I'd really want to re-read any of them. I guess I'll hang on to them for a year or two and then decide.

115. Madam, Will You Talk?, Mary Stewart
116. Wildfire At Midnight, Mary Stewart
117. Thunder on the Right, Mary Stewart
I lent these to Kate some time ago and she returned them to me when packing. So obviously I had to read them (and they are still as good as last year when I discovered them).

118. Smokescreen, Dick Francis
119. Trial Run, Dick Francis
I've been picking out some of my Dick Francis collection that I know 'less well' and am really enjoying them. These two are vivid (if rather outdated) depictions of South Africa and Moscow. I'm resisting the urge to 'fill in' the gaps in my collection right now, on the grounds of not enough space and still too many books on the to-read shelves.

120. The Other Side of Paradise, Laurie Page
nassus lent me this - I've managed not to read any M&B for a while, but it was just what I needed on Tuesday when flaked out from heat.

121. Shroud for a Nightingale, P.D. James

122. Witch World, Andre Norton
Earlier this year I read most of my 'Witch World' books, but in a slightly idiosyncratic order. Finally I decided to pick up the first one (and the one I know best) and reread it, and it's still very enjoyable.

Which Hugo-winning novels have I read? (in bold)
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More than I would have guessed, given the question. At least some of the ones I haven't read are on the bookshelves thanks to Tony, so maybe I can get completionist about it.

87. Venetia, Georgette Heyer
88. The Grand Sophy, Georgette Heyer
89. Cotillion, Georgette Heyer
90. Pistols for Two, Georgette Heyer
91. The Quiet Gentleman, Georgette Heyer
92. Frederica, Georgette Heyer
93. The Nonesuch, Georgette Heyer

94. The Hidden Family, Charles Stross
I already enthused about this in its own entry.

95. These Old Shades, Georgette Heyer
96. Powder and Patch, Georgette Heyer

97. Accelerando, Charles Stross
This arrived in the middle of my Heyer-fest, and everything else got dropped to read it. I loved it, it sparked with brilliant ideas and made me laugh only 3 pages in (and repeatedly thereafter). I forced my eyelids open to finish reading it, only to have to reread the final chapter the next day because I hadn't remembered any of it. It's brilliant, and should be read (and just won the Locus award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2005.)

98. The Spanish Bride, Georgette Heyer
99. Beauvallet, Georgette Heyer
100. Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer
101. A Civil Contract, Georgette Heyer

102. Chocky, John Wyndham
That is apparently the same ISBN as the book I have, but the cover has definitely been changed.

103. Charity Girl, Georgette Heyer
104. The Toll Gate, Georgette Heyer

105. Skunk Works, Ben Rich & Leo Janos
Interesting non-fiction book about Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, and the development of the F117A stealth fighter, the U2 and the Blackbird aeroplanes.

106. Death to the Landlords, Ellis Peters
Murder mystery set in 1970s India. As always, Peters writes beautifully and delivers a good plot, but what jumped out at me was the apparent need to describe Indian food that is commonplace today. It was first published in 1971 and then I guess a British author might feel it necessary to describe a picnic lunch made up of "little three-cornered pastry cases stuffed with vegetables, and crisp pancakes sprinkled with paprika, the dough-cake type of bread called nan, and joints of chicken fried in golden batter."

107. Sari & Sins, Nisha Minhas
Continuing the Indian theme a little, this is an entertaining bit of British chick-lit, where some of the characters happen to be second-generation Indians and two of them are just starting an arranged marriage at the start of the book. I don't think I'll bother keeping it, but I'll look out for others by the same author.

108. Blood Sport, Dick Francis
A typical Francis novel, with horses and skulduggery and a bit of romance. I've only read it a few times, and I'm still struck by the portrayal of depression in the narrator/hero character.

Earlier this week we received The Hidden Family, book 2 of Charles Stross' "Merchant Princes" series. fanf got to it first because I was in the middle of a Heyer, but once he'd finished it, I read it in nearly one sitting, only the necessity of actually sleeping breaking it up. It's really really good. It does show that it's the second half of a book begun with The Family Trade, but together they make an excellent start to a trilogy appearing in six books. I have thus far resisted reading the trailer-chapter of The Clan Corporate handily included at the back.

I'm mildly disconcerted to realise that the only Stross on our shelves is Singularity Sky. I think that emperor has The Atrocity Archives and crazyscot has Iron Sunrise, Toast and The Family Trade. But I could be wrong, especially about the latter two books. Anyway, when we have The Family Trade back, I will happily lend it and The Hidden Family out as a pair, as they should be read.

Accelerando should be arriving from Amazon in less than 2 weeks. Maybe this time I'll get in first.

67. Storms of Victory, Andre Norton
Wasn't very impressed to be honest, not sure why I stuck it out to the end. Cannot recommend.

68. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
My father read this to me in chapters at bedtime until I preempted him by finding it and finishing it myself. Finally got around to getting my own copy and still love it.

69. The Star Fox, Poul Anderson
Recommended to me by a bookseller who'd failed to sell me a new copy of Wasp after my copy fell apart. It's ok but I didn't think it was comparable.

70. Lady of Quality, Georgette Heyer
71. Black Sheep, Georgette Heyer
72. The Masqueraders, Georgette Heyer
73. Devil's Cub, Georgette Heyer
74. The Convenient Marriage, Georgette Heyer
75. Regency Buck, Georgette Heyer
76. The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer
77. Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer
78. The Reluctant Widow, Georgette Heyer
79. Arabella, Georgette Heyer

80. Anyone But You, Jenny Crusie
Took a break from my nostalgic re-read of all my Heyer books (in a slightly random order) to read a newly published book from Jenny Crusie (who writes more contemporary romantic comedy). It was a bit of a disappointment to find it was actually a reprint of one of her Mills and Boon books rather than the big chunky books I first got to know. But still very much worth reading, and though sticking close to the M&B formula manages to push its boundaries, if not as much as Strange Bedpersons.

81. The Foundling, Georgette Heyer
82. Bath Tangle, Georgette Heyer
83. Sprig Muslin, Georgette Heyer
84. April Lady, Georgette Heyer
85. Cousin Kate, Georgette Heyer
86. False Colours, Georgette Heyer

I have just three Heyers left on the shelves, and they are my particular favourites which I've kept until last. I've had lots of fun rediscovering the 'less good' books though as they still make excellent reading.

56. Shardik, Richard Adams
57. The Laughing Policeman, Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö

58. Four From The Witch World, Andre Norton
The four stories in here are by Elizabeth H. Boyer, C.J. Cherryh, Meredith Ann Pierce & Judith Tarr. It was Tarr's story that stood out as truly excellent. I would like to read more by her.

59. Tales of the Witch World, Andre Norton
60. Gryphon's Eyrie, Andre Norton and A.C. Crispin
61. The Deep Blue Goodbye, John D. MacDonald
62. Flight In Yiktor, Andre Norton

63. Antarctica, Kim Stanley Robinson
Still as absorbing as the first time I read it (when I was on summer placement at British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge)

64. Engaging The Enemy, Elizabeth Moon
Not fair, she still hasn't finished the story and I'll have to wait another year or two for the next instalment. (Amazon have "Vatta's War" paperback with no cover image for publication 1st March 2007).

65. Borders of Infinity, Lois McMaster Bujold
66. Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold

( Cut because it's long )
Special mention for Kamila Shamsie, who I discovered recently thanks to a short story she had published in Prospect. She writes literary family stories set in Karachi, in the sort of family that has relations in London and America, and is rich enough to avoid the worst of life in the overcrowded city. I've enjoyed everything I've read by her and will happily lend out to share the joy.

Also for the Best Friend's Guide to Pregnancy, which j4 kindly gave me, and which made me laugh a lot on on the ferry last Friday. There are some minor irritations, like the constant capitalising of Friend, but overall it's a good book for the emotional/practical aspects of pregnancy, rather than the medical. It's so useful to have repeated reassurances that I'm not going insane (or at least no more than any pregnant woman). The heavy US bias is compensated by frequent footnotes explaining how it's different in the UK, almost every one of which made me glad I'm in the UK. I'm going to pass it on to my nearly-as-pregnant-as-me colleague.

( Cut to save those that aren't interested! )
Anyway, now I've caught up on my book-blogging, I can actually reshelve the books that have been stacking up in the study waiting for me to do so, so I can get at the lever-arch files they're blocking so I can file away lots of bits of paper so I have some hope of clearing the overflowing intray this weekend. Tony points and laughs and accuses me of yak shaving. I think I disagree - I've been wanting to get the books sorted for several weeks but keeping being ill/away/asleep/at work.

217. Scandal Takes A Holiday, Lindsay Davis
Another whodunnit in the Roman empire of Vespasian, to the usual high standard.

218a. Bet Me, Jenny Crusie
I only read it for the first time earlier this year, but it's still an excellent read.
218. Jemima J, Jane Green
Light romance about an ugly (fat) duckling transforming into a swan, and discovering that maybe appearances aren't everything where men are concerned either.

219. The Various Haunts of Men, Susan Hill
A murder mystery with lots of extra bits around the edges. Very involving. Bills itself as "a Simon Serrailler mystery" and a bit of digging on Amazon shows there are two planned sequels, one not yet out in paperback and the other still quite expensive.

220. Falling For You, Jill Mansell
One of the original 'chick-lit' authors and always reliable. Bought this supercheap from Amazon Marketplace without realising it was a hardback-sized paperback, so have left it with Louise after reading.

221. The River Of Time, David Brin
A collection of short stories, of which my absolute favourite is The Loom of Thessaly.

222. Wolf Moon, Charles de Lint
This was something of a disappointment - the author was recommended to me by a colleague who professed to like fantasy, but I found this uninspiring in plot, narrative and dialogue. It's quite short which is probably why I managed to finish it.

222 books in 2005, plus some re-reads.

211. Startide Rising, David Brin
Sequel, a couple of centuries on, to Sundiver. Better, I thought, and more engrossing, going into a lot more detail of the Uplift universe and the species therein. Genetically-enhanced dolphins in space - what's not to like?

212. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
213. See Jane Score, Rachel Gibson
214. After Ever After, Rowan Coleman
Light reading while I was migrainey. The first two met the criteria admirably, the last one less so. It's a book about "after the fairy tale wedding", well-written and with interesting characters, but not exactly happy. The 'big idea' it portrays is that marriage doesn't stay as fairy-tale as the whirlwind romance and wedding, and if a couple goes into the marriage thinking it will always be perfect, they're very ill-prepared when trouble sneaks up. Which I don't think is that big or new an idea, but sure enough rarely features in the average romance or chick-lit.

215. Short, Sharp Shock, Kim Stanley Robinson
I read this quickly before wrapping it (ahem). It's a very odd little story, beautifully told and atmospheric but without much of a structure. At one point they cross a tidal causeway following a guide called Birsay, but if there were other references in the story, I didn't get them.

216. The Uplift War, David Brin
This book made me late for work two days in a row, through being too good to put down. Follows one of the consequences of the actions in Startide Rising, on another planet a long way away. If I have a criticism of this series, it's that it makes humans and other Earthly species just too special and wonderful - Mary Sue on a grand scale.

I did pick up the next Uplift book, Brightness Reef. which is apparently the first of another trilogy, but found it too irritating in the first couple of chapters to continue. I will probaby skip the others of the trilogy too unless someone wants to persuade me that it's worth wading through reams of invented words and slang to get a good story.

7 weeks' reading. In my last books entry I said I wasn't buying any more books because five shelves of to-read was enough. I've now managed to get it down to four shelves, but I did accidentally buy some books earlier this week, as well as the replacement Moons last week.
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Nearly 8 weeks' reading, deliberately light in contrast to work, real life etc. Not much to say about most of them except they enjoyably passed the time. They would have made a dent in the to-read pile if I hadn't bought about 30 books when visiting my father at the end of September. I'm really honestly not buying any more books for a while now. I think five shelves of to-read pile is plenty.
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144. Their New Family, Janice Kay Johnson
145. Operation: Texas, Roxanne Rustand
Superromances. Amused to note that the first obviously had a name change very close to publication ...

146. The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
147. The Hollow Hills, Mary Stewart
148. The Last Enchantment, Mary Stewart
The King Arthur legend, retold with some effort at historical context, all told from Merlin's point of view. The first one is really Merlin's life up until the conception of Arthur. The second picks up the story until the young Arthur is proclaimed King. The third runs over Arthur's reign until Merlin's death. Throughout the main characters are portrayed fairly sympathetically, and with an moderation of the common stereotypes in the legend. I add these to my collection of Arthurian versions (must find the Rosemary Sutcliff one now).

149. The Wicked Day, Mary Stewart
Mordred's story, and rescues him from villainy nearly as well as The Mists of Avalon rescues Morgan le Fay.

150. The Prince and the Pilgrim, Mary Stewart
A fairly short, sweet little romance, adapted from one of the existing legends around Arthur, although the characters never quite make it to Camelot.

151. Return to Little Hills, Janice MacDonald
Superromance.

152. The Family Trade, Charles Stross
Recommended to me by bellinghwoman and very gripping - I read it in about a day. Fantasy rather than SF if you care about genre distinction, much more readable than Singularity Sky (but on a par with Concrete Jungle, which is what redeemed Stross for me). Annoyingly it ends on something of a cliff-hanger, and the sequel is only just out in hardback. (I don't like reading hardbacks).

153. Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer
Because it was lying around and I had a spare few hours and it always makes me laugh.

Lots of light reading, some childhood favourites and some books I wish had been.
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I've been reading a lot of books in the last three weeks.
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I slept most of yesterday afternoon, woke up in time to do the most urgent accounts (in order to pay the mortgage today) and rewarded myself in the evening with a trip to the pub. We taxied there and walked back, partly me testing my limits, partly laziness. It was nice to see people and natter, though I hope I didn't go on too much about Me Me Me things.

Today I've split time between the desk and the sofa, and dozed sometimes but not slept. Caught up on LJ, finished the accounts for this month, and managed a first-pass through my email, deleting or filing as much as is instantly possible. I may have a minor crisis about taking over Treasurer of CUMC, as the current incumbent graduates today and is going home to South Africa. However, there's not much I can practically do except mail her all my contact details and tell her to find me if she can before she goes.

Also managed to coax people into being ushers and readers next Saturday, having insisted Tony and I sit down yesterday to pick people from those coming. This means no barriers in the way of typesetting the Order of Service, which is the last really essential thing for the wedding, and in Tony's capable hands. From my email-skimming, my immensely talented bridesmaids have the reception-planning under control too. Hurrah for delegation.

I'm struggling with the Grisham I've been reading. Superromances seem to be more what my tired brain can manage when I need a break from the computer, and I'm half-way through the second today.

Amy and Lee completed their house purchase today - Amy got her keys around lunchtime and moved her bags out some hours ago. I'm assuming she'll be back at some point, but not sure. With Kate off for the summer, the house is going to seem a bit empty over the next month until Andrew moves in.

Tomorrow is our pre-wedding/birthday/birthday/birthday party. I'm really glad I roped extra people into the party in the first place, because I am all out of organise at the moment. Off to doze/read a bit more now I think.

Last night it all got a bit much and with Tony's help I rang NHS Direct to ask about the safety of taking my paracetamol+codeine pills rather than just paracetamol, on top of the diclofenac. I also rang home, but mum was out, so I rang his mum instead, who calmed me down - hurrah for second mothers. She also urged me to get more pushy with the doctors if I didn't improve. My own mother said the same thing this morning, so I'm currently waiting for an NHS Direct nurse to ring me back (calling the Daphne ward directly didn't get an answer).

I hate hate hate the recorded message that says they are facing exceptional demand and to hold the line if my call is urgent, or call back later. It takes both my mothers' voices in my head to keep me telliing myself that taking three different painkillers and still hurting too much to sit upright counts as "urgent".

Both mothers have told me to consider going private. I don't want to be someone who uses money to jump the queue, but it's amazing how that objection starts melting away in the face of everything hurting.

Yes, I'm whining. When I have something good to talk about, I will.

Well, I am reading some good books: Jenny Crusie writes very good romantic comedy, which is helping to keep me sane, and a whole stack of Diane Duane books arrived yesterday for me from Canada when I finish those. Hurrah for Abebooks.

75. Nine Coaches Waiting, Mary Stewart
76. My Brother Michael, Mary Stewart
77. The Ivy Tree, Mary Stewart
78. This Rough Magic, Mary Stewart

79. The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera

80. The Gabriel Hounds, Mary Stewart

Still working through the Mary Stewart "dashing heroines" books. They're all excellent reads, thoroughly recommended. Set in, respectively, France, Greece, England, Corfu and Lebanon. I read the Whale Rider in the middle for a bit of contrast: it's beautifully atmospheric.

81. Digital Fortress, Dan Brown
This on the other hand, comes thoroughly disrecommended. To be honest, I don't know why I stuck with it to the predictably disappointing and clunky ending. I bought it, together with Angels and Demons, because WH Smith had them on buy-one-get-one-half-price at King's Cross and I'd only two chapters of The Gabriel Hounds to go, and I thought "The Da Vinci Code was quite worth reading, maybe his other books are worth reading too". Oh what a mistake that was.

Dan Brown does his research well enough, but he then has his characters regurgitate it in clunky dialogue. For extra fun, in Digital Fortress he also narrates in tedious detail what the dialogue means, so the reader Is In No Doubt. Unfortunately, I think he simply doesn't understand what he's been researching, at least on the computer/cryptography side. The plot is deeply implausible and the characters even more so, and everything is just at best mediocre and often far worse.

I tried to read Angels and Demons but on the prelude page he spouts a lot of bollocks about antimatter under the heading "Fact", and then he has more painful dialogue and Helpful Explanatory Narration and badly-understood physics (again, painstakingly researched, just not understood). And the bloody Illuminati are involved. When he brought in yet another Terribly Clever Gorgeous Mysterious Heroine. All I can think if he's so clearly got his crypto research wrong and his physics research wrong, how much faith can I put in his "art history and architecture" research in the Da Vinci Code? Probably not much - in fact sierra_le_oli pointed out at least one mistake about Paris.

So in summary: Dan Brown: Just Say No.

82. Faking It, Jenny Crusie
By contrast, this book had me laughing out loud. Brilliantly-written rom-com, cleverly plotted and using the best farce cliches (in a good way). Thoroughly enjoyable, I will have to get my own copy of this (it's a lend from fanf's mother) and there are at least five more listed on http://www.jennycrusie.com/ ...

83. Reflex, Dick Francis
An old favourite I found lying around at fanf's father's place. Still as good a read as the first time I read it, even if it definitely shows its age. Particularly good in contrast to the abysmal Dan Browns.

84. The Partner, John Grisham
85. The Last Juror, John Grisham
I haven't read Grisham in ages, but I generally enjoy him when I do, and these two are no exception: good characterisation, plotting, dialogue, narration. I also seem to have hooked Tony, who has been digging out the existing Grishams on our shared shelves.

86. A Murder on the Appian Way, Steven Saylor
Another "Roman detective" book, with the same character as in Roman Blood which I read a month or two ago. Gordianus The Finder is about 20 years older in this book, and I gather there are two other books set in the intervening years. Steven Saylor's books seem to be based on enormous amounts of research and the cases involved are matters of historical record, as he describes in the appendix.

87. The Moon Spinners, Mary Stewart
This book's dashing heroine is in Crete. The quality remains excellent.