IT'S A CRIME! (OR A MYSTERY...)

15 Books...

Notified of the meme by Maxine, I got the details from one of her links: Sunnie's Book Blog.  The idea is that you list 15 books that will always stick with you, within 15 minutes.  I compiled the list within the 15 minutes and added the extra text later.  I won't tag a further 15, but I invite you to do the same, if you feel like doing so.  Here are mine, in a sort of chronological order:

Anon - Go Ask Alice
When our school’s Religious Education lessons went further off-topic, we read this book.  Until then, I had been a naïve teenager.  Some thirty years on, the book remains in print.

L. P. Hartley – The Go Between
Another one from school and about adult relationships.  Oo, er.  I later loved the film too, although the story’s rather sad.

Mary Higgins Clark – A Stranger is Watching
The Early Warning Signal that I was in for a life of crime (fiction).  I wasn’t actually too keen on the English literature we did at school.  The fact that my English Language teacher saw me with this and asked to borrow it gave it credibility.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, My Soul to Take, intro on YouTube

You may have noticed Yrsa Sigurðardóttir in the first pic in my previous post on the Hay Festival, for which I make no apologies.  It was this event at Hay last year that led me to reading her first UK-published crime novel Last Rituals and also to chatting to her and her hubbie at last year's CrimeFest, the following week in Bristol.  Yrsa was at pains to say that she was not her protag Thora, even if her own later family experiences reflected those she had created in her fiction. When I read Last Rituals, I found Thora to be much like Yrsa in personality: approachable; chatty; down to earth; intelligent; erudite; juggling; generous and fun with a great dollop of good sense of humour.  (Her hubbie too, I hasten to add.)  Yrsa was also at pains to say that her crime novels "get better".

And so, a year on, My Soul to Take is now on the shelves in the UK, real and virtual, waiting to be purchased.   I have been remiss; I don't have a copy yet, but it's coming and I can't wait.  The ever-alert Janet Rudolph at Mystery Fanfare pointed me to the intro video from Yrsa and she said "...The scenery is breathtaking. Yrsa should market this to the Icelandic tourist bureau..."  She's right on the nail there.  Here's the video.  Two caveats: if sensitive to the lives of whales or wild ponies, you may find this video distressing.  (And that's serious, not sarcastic.)  If you wish to find out more about the background for Yrsa's novels and My Soul to Take in particular, watch this:

Hay Festival (& Personal) News

I had better get on and retrieve my "wish list" spreadsheet schedule of Hay Festival events from the old PC, finalise it and make my bookings and volunteer for stewarding shifts because...

...those lovely people at BBC Mid Wales emailed me last week and asked if I was going again this year and if I'd like to blog for them again.  I replied with a "yes" of course and I really appreciated the return invitation.

It was fun last year and by doing some stewarding it will add another dimension this year.  I didn't write about it at the time, but I had my first experience of stewarding last December at the mini winter festival.  Will they have me back?  Well, at the end of the day I was being encouraged to do so, although I didn't get off to an auspicious start on arrival.    I had my relatively new mobile phone on silent, but as I arrived in the hall, I thought it best to turn it off.  I had forgotten that on switching off it blared out some tinny sounding thing.  Peter Florence, Festival Director was on stage interviewing and he looked up in my direction as I raced back out of the hall, damage already well and truly delivered.  Thus I hope I have not been marked up as a black sheep to be avoided at all costs in the future.  And I hope they'll have me back.  I promise to be quiet.

A little light relief...

I stumbled across this one when net surfing, (as we introvert Brits are wont to do).  Its creativity made me laugh.

Social networking sites turn Brits into introverts...

... so says a study reported here and here.  And apparently, Brits are the biggest users of such sites.

I have to disagree with the introvert bit.  Clearly, Maxine, Karen and I were not included in the study.  If we had been and they'd observed us at the LBF, they'd have seen three people who could not get the words out fast enough and three people who had to remind themselves to get out of the chairs and start touring the stands.  It's called meeting real people who catch up on the net because of geographic distances.

Sixteen events that have shaped my world.

Maxine asks in her blog “What are the 12 most significant global events that have happened throughout your life, that have had an impact on you?”  Here are my thoughts (with an extra 4) and the why.

The Apprentice: Series 5; Episode 6

  

This week, let's start with an open letter to Ben.

Dear Ben,

I notice that in the car you were harping on about Sandhurst again and how they recognised the team leader in you, etc., etc., etc.  But you didn't actually go there, did you?  I do admire your spin efficiency, even if I find "spin" abhorrent.  So, just in case you don't win and just in case you've missed it, I think you'll find the Labour party is a bit short of spinners at the moment and may be recruiting (and hopefully not with taxpayers' money).  Wishing you all the best in your future endeavours and thank you for entertaining me during this series.

Yours truly, crimeficreader