The weather is getting colder ... so the perfect excuse to curl up on the sofa with a good book!  Just now I'm in the middle of a really chunky one, so I wont be able to post my thoughts on it until I have read it all, but I can certainly recommend the author - Peter James - as I have read 2 others by him recently and really enjoyed their fast pace and gritty storylines. The one I'm currently in the middle of is one of his detective novels featuring Roy Grace, but my particular recommendation is "Sweet Heart"
www.peterjames.com


This book was very suspenseful, there seems to be a malevolent force at work in the house which Charley and her husband move into - added to this they are in quite a remote location and lonely Charley is seeing therapists who are using hypnotism to help her increase her fertility - she longs to have a baby.  I love books with a time-slip element to them, and I enjoy a supernatural theme, so this book was ideal for me.  When Charley regresses into her past life, her memories are quite erotically charged and as she tries to cope with her new life and form new relationships there is sexual tension as well as a malevolent & haunting presence.  It was so gripping - I devoured it in 1 weekend!

This author was recommended to me by my good friend Simon - who makes sure that my reading list is not just chick lit and other-worldly reads, but is interspersed with action packed drama and crime novels!  Keeping it real!


TV - I am delighted that Downton Abbey is back for the autumn - such interesting people and stories and the icing on the cake are the lovely costumes and the fabulous period decor. The ladies are probably wearing the kind of glamorous clothes that my Granny used to wear and I love the difference between the above stairs and below stairs rules and dreams and relationships.  In the past I have Snobs by Julian Fellowes who writes the script for Downton Abbey, and he has such a light but illuminating touch as he weaves the story around with social/class interplay and saving face - the social layers in that book are very complex as it deals with the myriad subtle differences between the upper middle classes and the upper classes in twenty-first century Britain.  Downton Abbey is more straight-forward and clear cut with it's difference between the servants,the village folk and the family at "the Abbey" and all their posh friends. We imagine them as simpler times, but when you watch this period drama you realise that the opposite was true.

Two Broke Girls - Series 1 has nearly finished - the last one tonight.  I have enjoyed the comedy and wise-cracking dialogue in this series,  but I have to admit that it has lost some of the freshness & promise it showed in the first few episodes.  I'm one of those people who always wishes I had thought of a smart come-back when someone insults me or tries to put me down - So I long to be more like Max but I think instead I am really "vanilla" Caroline who has been so sheltered & spoilt she doesn't realise what real life is like until she hits rock bottom and has to rely on new found friends like Max to show her the way to survive.  I hope they make a series 2 and that they get back to the quality of scripts in the earliest episodes - the language can be coarse and the double-entendres aren't always subtle, but it is a favourite with me.