Stephen King ' Dolores Claiborne '

After every 5 books or so I read, I sneak a Stephen King book into my reading rotation - as many of you know, I am a biiig Stephen King Fan and hope to visit 'his' state Maine one day!

This book is rather different in style and story. The story is told as a monologue by the main heroine, Dolores. Right in the first pages, she tells the police chief that she did not kill her employer, Vera, for whom she was a housekeeper, but she did kill her husband...and then the story unfolds and she tells us the story of her life. She is a very brave women.

If you look for blood and guts, you won't find any, but there is plenty of suspense, and as always, King paints his characters beautifully. He talks about domestic and sexual abuse in the way only he can describe it, and it doesn't ever get boring. I finished the book in 2 days. Some scenes from the book will stay with me, for example how Dolores tries to trick her bedbound employer Vera whom she has to literally clean the 'S&*t' she produces, and Vera seems to know how to trick Dolores so it always ends up in the freshly made bed. great stuff.

Here is my weekly update on the wedding sampler. I think I've made quite good progress. If I get to stitch every day during the week than maybe another 10-12 days or so.
Had a busy day today, first Ruby went to violin lessons as every Tuesday. While she was there I went to the petshop to get Bonnie's monthly sack of dogfood, and a new lead for her and a little bag/pouch for going on walkies - kind of thing which goes around your waist. I like that sort of 'gadgets';-)) And then was Tutor/Parents Day for Danial and Imran.
Since finishing at 2pm every day now, I have realised that the trains are very empty at this time of the day obviously, and I can get some stitching done!! Jippi! (I don't like to stitch in the jam-packed commuter trains in the morning, even though I always have a seat). So, I now always take a little project with me to work. I've taken the Labrador out which I bought in Olympia in March. It's from PAKO designs and not too big. Will show an update next week - not much to see so far.

After working late on Friday (up to 6pm - usually I finish now 2pm), the weekend got off to a bit of a wet and cold-ish start on Saturday. I was thinking of Sara and her wedding, she was so praying for good weather... at least it didn't rain buckets.

I went swimming with Ruby on Saturday, as every week. She is now already very confident in the deep water, and I can see that she finally seems to have the hang of it - her movements in the water kind of look like they ought to be. Great considering she only started to learn in January... Those lessons are expensive enough anyway. I have to pay 10 weeks in advance which is £49 - and she has 1 lesson per week of 30 minutes, which is almost nothing considering...

Today the weather is much nicer, temperature is up to around 24 degree C, but it is rather breezy. It was lovely weather to walk Bonnie, but she gave me a right fright when she suddenly ran down the embankment onto the road - and it is a fast double laned road leading directly to the motorway. I kept practicing recall with her, and thanks goodness she listened when I called her back that time - gosh my heart went.

Tried to squeeze in lots of stitching time. I sat last night while Nafees watched his Asian channel, and today I watched 'Blackwater' (Australian movie) which I enjoyed. It's about 3 people being trapped in a sort of swamp (don't know the right word for it) and being stalked by a crocodile. Easy entertainment and good to stitch to! I will show my progess on the wedding sampler tomorrow.

Johannes Mario Simmel 'Wir heissen euch hoffen '

I used to read almost all of Simmel's novels many years back in Germany. Now I've found 2 books in my stash, and had to re-read them.Simmel is an Austrian author, and his stories are mostly epic, you will find everything from love, politics, friendship. I believe he is Jewish, so the II. Worldwar and persecution of Jews usually plays a part in his books - interwoven in the story.

'Wir heissen euch hoffen' roughly translates into ' We give you hope' (?) sorry, can't do any better. it is the life story of the scientist Adrian Lindhout, starting from the time when he was a Jew in a bombed out cellar in Rotterdam during the war, and took on the identiy of his Arian friend in order to survive and in order to continue his science. His mission in life is to find a treatment for drug addiction - one which doesn't make addictive such as methadone. The story takes us to Vienna and later in his life into the States. Three women will play a significant part in his life - and there is always his quest to find the drug treatment. International drug baron's are not too happy about his quest and will try to hunt him down.

There are many twists and turns in the story, and Simmel has me usually hooked.

Here is my update on the Wedding Sampler. Sara's wedding is on Saturday, and of course it won't be finished, but she is away now until the 10th of April (firstly, her wedding is in Devon, and then off to her honeymoon in Croatia.). I'm confident I can do it by that day.
Had to go to Hobbycraft today, because I had run out of DMC212 (the dark red in the flowers). There was a notice in the shop by the DMC colours saying something like: 'As many other retailers, we are currently facing difficulties with supply. If you wish to substitute for another brand we can assist you.' Wonder what that is all about.

We went to a dog show yesterday at Port Lymphe Safari Park. My friend Rachel sort of 'talked me into it', as I wasn't too sure - long journey, high petrol prices, and how would Bonnie react with all those other dogs - I was sure she's gonna go crazy. But it was a great day. The journey took not that long, motorway was almost deserted. The weather was fantastic. And Bonnie was sooo good. Every now and again, if another dog gave her a 'strange' look, she would bark etc, but apart from that, she was as good as gold. Didn't even pull me - funny that is, if she sees ONE dog when I take her out for a walk, she will pull like mad, but with hundreds of dogs in one place she is fine. She didn't win any prices, but came under the first 8 under the 'prettiest bitch' category.

Me and My Dog show http://www.totallywild.net/events/index.php?p=show_event&id=201&bn=63.

And that's what Bonnie does to my plants in the garden:

Yep, that WAS a nice plant!

You have to make space for this book, it took the best part of a year for me to read. I read on Amazon it is the longest written in English language, well, my edition has 1474 pages. Part of the problem, of course, is that I couldn't take this book on the train communte with me, so it stayed on my bedsite table and I only ever read it before going to bed.
The story is set in India, shortly after gaining Independance from British rule. It is, at this core, a love story. There are so many characters, it is hard to keep track, and the family trees of the 4 main families at the beginning of the book proved very handy. The main character, if there is one, is Lata, a young girl living with her widowed mother, and her mother's quest to get her married. And, of course, Lata seems to fall for the most unsuitalbe of all, a Muslim boy. But there are other candidates... well, I had my favourite and was a bit disappointed with her choice at the end, and I really had to be strong this time - not peeking at the last pages ;-)) .
But the story is by no means only about Lata and her family. There are 3 other main families, and all are somehow one way or another interlinked, either by marriage, politics, friendship etc. My favorite character was Maan, who was so desparately in love with Saeeda Bai, the courtesane, and this love should prove to be all consuming and fateful for him. All the characters are beautifully crafted, even minor one's which we meet only on a few pages. I got a bit bored in the middle when there was a long section on politics, India holding an election. And apart from the fact that I was disappointed with Lata's choice, I also missed a 'proper' ending on some of the other characters, such as Maan. But I suppose that's were our imagination can come in.
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