BOOK MY PLACE

Bill Bryson At Home

Shirley Curran — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:00:57 +0000

To write a large and consistently amusing history book by simply taking a journey around the house you live in, discussing what is to be seen there and what used to be seen, might seem a surprising idea. Although perhaps unusual, it certainly works. Even the fuse-box- a recent addition to the house – provides a fruitful topic. Passing from the wartime black-out (more dangerous than bombing) to the dangers of lighting a house with candles or the surprising inconveniences of gas, we are informed about the rise and fall of the whale-oil industry and the beginnings of the ‘oil age’.

The house in question was also designed to include a dressing room, although in modern times this has become a bathroom. This is rather appropriate, as the importance of washing appears to be much more recent historically than the importance of how (or with what exactly) we dress ourselves. We at least don’t have to bother with sumptuary laws trying (fairly unsuccessfully, it seems) to restrict our choice of apparel. Nor, mostly, do we need to bother about choosing the right wig for an evening out.

Read Bill Bryson‘s book and discover for yourself some of the curious history which surrounds and enriches the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, our everyday possessions and other features of your house that might normally appear plain and uninteresting. Quite the opposite, if you look more closely!

General Knowledge Crossword No 93 by Chalicea

Shirley Curran — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:00:58 +0000

General Knowledge this week. If you prefer to work on the interactive version of the crossword or to print a pdf., click on this LINK which will take you to the Crossword Compiler website.

Across

1 The largest island in the West Indies (4)

3 Tablets placed horizontally on top of the capitals of columns as aids in supporting the architraves (8)

9 Small Arctic whale the male having a long spiral ivory tusk (7)

10 Infections of the skin or nails caused by fungi and appearing as itching circular patches (5)

11 An annual award for achievements in motion picture production and performance (7,5)

13 An outlet for secondhand goods at reduced prices in Australia (2,4)

15 A city in northwestern Syria (6)

17 Meteorological item used to observe air currents (5,7)

20 Club consisting of a heavy stick (often bamboo) bound with iron; used by police in India (5)

21 A pear-shaped tropical fruit with green or blackish skin and rich yellowish pulp enclosing a single large seed (7)

22 Revealing excessive self-confidence; reaching for the heights (8)

23 Displeasing to the senses (4)

Down

1 Aromatic bark used as a spice (8)

2 A mountainous republic in southeastern Asia on the Bay of Bengal (5)

4 The second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I; was executed on a charge of adultery (1507-1536) (6)

5 A breed of sheep (8,4)

6 A terrace or garden oriented to the south and protected from cold winds (7)

7 A fraudulent business scheme (4)

8 Someone who claims to be able to read your character from the shape of your skull (12)

12 Edible European fish with a black oval mark on each side (4,4)

14 A Chinese breed of small dog similar to a Pekingese (4,3)

16 Come into possession of (6)

18 Large long-armed ape of Borneo and Sumatra having arboreal habits (5)

19 Person from eastern Europe or Asian Russia (4)

Here is last week’s solution:

The seven unclued lights were Cantons of Switzerland where French is the main language or is spoken by lots of inhabitants.

Dark Matter, A Ghost Story, by Michelle Paver

Shirley Curran — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:00:09 +0000

Spitsbergen comes to life in Michelle Paver‘s Dark Matter. The reader is with Jack Miller in his first enthralling encounter’s with the island in the summer. With him, too, we are left alone in the terrifying bay of Gruhuken when his partners in the expedition, Gus and Algie, have to leave because of a medical emergency.

Jack is poor and desperate for a change and leaps at the chance to become the wireless operator on the expedition that is to spend a year in the bay. With him, we get to know Spitsbergen, we learn to love the dogs and Isaak in particular and we witness the departure of the sun and the arrival of the winter where there will be fierce storms and nothing but occasional moonlight for four months.

We are with Jack, too, as he realizes that the ghostly figure that he sees really is threatening him and attempting to reclaim Gruhuken. The story is spellbinding and chilling and told in beautifully evocative language. It is difficult to put this novel down.

Michelle Paver is the author of the Chronicles of Dakness series for children. She is just as accomplished as a writer for adults.

Cryptic crossword No 92 by Chalicea

Shirley Curran — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:00:28 +0000

The clues in this crossword are cryptic. If you wish to work on the interactive version or download a pdf., you must click on this link which will take you to the Crossword Compiler website.

Seven unclued lights have something in common.

Across

1 Unclued light (4)

3 Unclued light (8)

8 Dish of composer with middle of taties for seconds (9)

10 Regularly urge on to go fast once (3)

11 Unclued light (5)

12 Unclued light (6)

14 Bullfighter nonsense in women’s trousers (8,5)

17 Unclued light (6)

19 Stock farm with no recipe for Chili pepper (5)

22 Unit and grade essentially (3)

23 Unclued light (9)

25 Roots lie abnormally in hormone (8)

26 Unclued light (4)

Down

1 Furiously I object; a supporter of Scottish kings! (8)

2 Spirit or US hearsay (5)

4 African form of pop music’s warped air (3)

5 Element right in the middle of a gift (5)

6 In Scotland not ploughed up twisted run vine (7)

7 French glove producing Scots yawn (4)

9 Conclusion – a type of fatty acid (5)

12 Superficial appearance of a deceptive explanation (5)

13 Determined in the past, I lassoed inappropriately (8)

15 Mangled burs had a rodlike sponge spicule (7)

16 Vegetable and Chinese fruit (5)

18 Owner initially changed machine for removing bristles from barley (5)

20 Old peasant endlessly produced short surplice (5)

21 Pasta in chorizo but not Chinese or Italian (4)

24 In Italy one popular game (3)

Here is last week’s solution:

Crossword No 91, No Q, X, Y or Z, by Chalicea

Shirley Curran — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:00:05 +0000

If you wish to work on the interactive version, click on this LINK that will take you to the Crossword Compiler website.

Across

7 A man who has sex with and is supported by a woman (6)

8 An informal term for a youth or man (6)

9 This month in short (4)

10 Pontianac, a substitute for gutta-percha (8)

11 A piece of soft absorbent paper used as a disposable handkerchief (7)

13 The conventions that embody the fundamental values of a group (5)

15 A constellation on the equator to the east of Taurus; contains Betelgeuse and Rigel (5)

16 Fundamental principles or practices (7)

18 Rock that is collapsing or unstable (3-5)

19 The piece of land on which something is located (4)

21 Ill once (6)

22 A heavy creamy-coloured paper resembling parchment (6)

Down

1 Scots iron (4)

2 A tray for passing a decanter round the table (6-7)

3 Starched with rice or millet gruel (7)

4 Pulse (5)

5 Unmoved by feeling (13)

6 A dissident in France (8)

12 Strips of bacon used as trimmings (8)

14 Trondheim’s river (7)

17 Everything that exists anywhere (5)

20 A journey or route all the way around a particular place or area (4)

Here is last week’s solution (unclued lights were novels by Jane Austen and the Author herself):

Started Early Took My Dog, Kate Atkinson

Shirley Curran — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:00:39 +0000

I have been a Kate Atkinson fan since her very first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and found her Jackson Brodie ‘crime novels’ intriguing and different. I thought they were going to be a trilogy, so it was a surprise to find this new Jackson Brodie novel, all 494 pages of it, featured in the bookshop.

Jackson Brodie is back in his native Yorkshire, behaving like a tourist and recalling those wives and partners of the past that we have already encountered. He rescues a dog that is being maltreated. Meanwhile, in a parallel incident, Tracy Waterhouse, a retired police detective who is working in security in the Leeds Merrion Centre, ‘rescues’ a maltreated child, Courtney, by ‘buying’ her from a skinny prostitute, Kelly Cross.

We are led through a clutter of memories – of the Yorkshire ripper, of disappearing children, of a murdered prostitute and of an inexplicable adoption where no papers or records surface – so that for the readers, the central issue is as clouded as it is for Jackson Brodie, until the resolution of the mystery ties together the threads and we understand, for instance, why we have been entering the mind of senile Tilly, who, with us, witnessed the incident in the shopping centre.

This is a novel to take with you when you have a long journey to fill.

Cryptic crossword No 90 A-Tunes by Chalicea

Shirley Curran — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:00:28 +0000

Ten unclued lights (one of two words) form a group (two single words, two of two words and two of three words with one word doing double duty). The eleventh unclued light was responsible for the others.

Across

1 Unclued light (10)

7 Unclued light (3)

9 A religious leader keeping old company and clipping the ends of words (7)

11 British (English) deli mixed substance that can be eaten (6)

12 Unclued light (5)

13 Teenager transformed into turncoat (8)

14 Swan feather (3)

15 Unclued light (9)

17 Unclued light (11)

21 In the past grievous US tractor magnate (5)

23 One kid’s tattered soft leather (7)

26 Unclued light (9,4)

28 I have been told it’s European spaces (7, 2 words)

29 Shelter first class hog rat (5)

31 A deacon gets quite different collections of short tales (11)

34 Shells unfortunately fluster us (9)

38 Put back notes (3)

39 Unusual combat op in recruit training centre (8, 2 words)

40 Exclamation of surprise – a myth put another way (5, 2 words)

41 Sufficiently English name of unknown German husband (6)

42 Meat dish lab returned in time (7)

43 Mythical Himalayan creature with tail chopped besides (3)

44 Unclued light (10)

Down

1 Seized and took a casual sleep (6)

2 Poet’s rumble in guts of gastro intestines (4)

3 Fantastic hero – one who does the weeding (4)

4 After personal assistant returns, brief research (5)

5 Charge nurse wrapping knee (4)

6 One girl converted into star (5)

7 Nomogram carried back in a US shopping bag (4)

8 Active, abounding with offspring, beginning with daughter rather than son (5)

10 Warm up in advance a one time favourite, holding her back (7)

15 Essentially bluish grey (5)

16 No longer used, lost heart and stopped working (4)

17 Unclued light (5)

18 Mid month before the end of August, that is (5, 2 words)

19 American fellow lines cotton seed (4)

20 One task creating tie-died fabrics (5)

22 See! I’m inside a large car (4)

24 Special areas of land in Orkney, not right old marshy spots (5)

25 One island alder, running wild, belonging to a family of plants (7)

27 US law officers fostered sleaze primarily (4)

30 Unclued light (6)

31 Unclued light (5)

32 Manner of fashioning regular quips for US joker (5, hyphen)

33 At most in Italy, confusion of Pauli or Paul I (5, 2 words)

35 Support foundation (4)

36 Goat-like animal, a backward rodent possessing head of a hamster (4)

37 Unclued light (4)

38 Asian from Haiti endlessly in confusion (4)

Here is last week’s solution:

Snowdrops by A.D.Miller

Shirley Curran — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:00:50 +0000

Nick was working in Moscow when he was ‘picked up’ by the enigmatic Masha and her ‘sister’/'cousin’ Katya. He is seduced by Masha and believes himself to be in love with her as she shares the Russia of nightclubs, restaurants and dachas with him. He is a lawyer and willingly assists Masha and Katya in their plans to help their ‘aunt’, Tatiana Vladimirovna, to sell her relatively comfortable Moscow apartment and move out to a new flat in Butovo. Nick even invests his savings in the plans.

From the beginning of the story, we, the readers, are suspicious of the situation, especially as the story begins with one of Moscow’s ‘snowdrops’ appearing when the spring snows melt – ‘that’s what the Russians call them – the bodies that float up into the light in the thaw -’

A.D.Miller’s book is a psychological thriller. There is a villain in Nick’s legal transactions at work, too. We are told on almost every page about Russian corruption, that everyone is involved in using forged documents and taking a financial cut from any transaction. The Cossack convinces Nick and his colleague, Paolo, that the oil they are investing is real, but we, the readers again suspect from the start that this is a shady situation.

A.D.Miller’s Snowdrops is packed with Russain flavour, – we feel that we are with the rather naive and honest Nick as he loses his innocence. We anticipate the final pages of this novel, ‘longlisted for the Man Bookeer Prize 2011, with dread.

Crossword No 89, 2012, by Chalicea

Shirley Curran — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:00:12 +0000

Here is the first General knowledge crossword of the year. Unclued lights contain an exhortation and a greeting. If you prefer to work on the interactive version, click on this LINK.

Across

1 A laundry service in which only basic washing is done (7)

5 Any of many long-legged birds that walk in water in search of food (5)

8 Place in a grave or tomb (5)

9 Demure (7)

13 In a disobedient or naughty way (13)

15 A double pronged piece of metal used to hold women’s hair in place (7)

16 Scandinavian punch made of claret and aquavit with spices and raisins and orange peel and sugar (5)

17 A home-made firework – a cone of damp gunpowder (5)

Down

1 A thorny stem or twig (5)

2 To start making an effort (3,2,4,4)

3 Derived by logic, without observed facts (1,6)

4 The lowest string of the lyre or its tone (6)

5 To be oppressive or burdensome (5)

6 A sales outlet offering goods at a reduced price (8,5)

7 Present a settlement for a second time (2-5)

10 Place to buy intoxicating drink (3,4)

11 Slang for a jail (7)

12 Steeple hat with a veil hanging from it worn by French women in the 15c (6)

14 A German huntsman (5)

Here is last week’s solution:

Ignazio Silone, Bread and Wine

Shirley Curran — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:01:07 +0000

Ignazio Silone was an exile in Switzerland when Bread and Wine first appeared in print in a German version. He completed this work and his classic Fontamara in exile, from which he only returned in 1944.

The novel is a deeply moving revelation of the way the fascist state dominated the minds of its people and brutally suppressed opposition. Pietro Spina has returned from self-imposed exile and, masquerading as a priest, aims to help the peasants resist the evil regime. Silone, with Orwell and Camus, was regarded as one of the great political writers of the period.

I loved this novel when I first read it, years ago – not because of its underlying political message but because of the gripping story, the wonderful Italian colour (when, for example, the young donkey is being christened ‘Garibaldi’, and is beaten until it recognises its name) and the flashes of humour and gentle love stories that underly the harsh political satire.

Silone was a superb writer and one can but wonder what he would have produced had he lived in a different and more liberal society.