new book list!

Ah decided to add a rolling list of my favourite current reads to my blog (see right). I commute, I read a heck of a lot of books, and recently I've had a good run of books. May as well spread the word.

I guess every time I update the list, I'll try to write a bit about each book. So here goes -

Before anyone mocks the last book on the list, know that Calvin & Hobbes saw me through some dark times in Japan and they never fail to make me laugh. I have just discovered that on this website you can get Calvin and Hobbes every day. Direct to your inbox. Something to think about.

I'm just about done "A short history of tractors in Ukrainian". Odd title for a comic novel, but absolutely brilliant. It's the story of an 86 year-old widowed Ukrainian emigre who marries a 36 year-old buxom blond from his home country purely so she can immigrate to the UK. Told through flashbacks and memoirs, the story looks at immigration issues in the UK nowadays as well as educates the reader about eastern European history. Absolutely brilliant. Read it.

You may discern from the above comments that I have a soft spot for Japan, and Asia as a whole to be honest. "Empress Orchid" is a fact-based-fiction story about the last empress of China. Bit slow to start with but once you get into it, is really hard to put down.

"The time traveller's wife" messed with my head at first - it was such a bizarre concept to get my head around. I loved it, my colleague did not. It's an unconventional love story which - well I can't do it justice.

Despite the controversy surrounding his pseudo-fictional 'memoir', I was intrigued by James Frey's follow up, "My friend Leonard". This charts James' first few years post-rehab and all that Leonard did to help him. The ending caught me off guard - keep a tissue to hand.

Our local library really is a great place - when I first moved in with boy last year, it was one of the first places he took me to. A few months ago I discovered that they did "fast backs" - the top 10 bestsellers which you can take out for two weeks at a time. Brilliant. And that's how I managed to read Nick Hornby's latest, "A long way down". New Year's Eve, four strangers go to a notorious suicide spot intent on ending it all. But bumping into others, they abandon their plans and the four misfits become friends and try to help each other. Bittersweet, with some darkly comic (and not-so-darkly comic) moments.

So there you have it. My first list. Stay tuned for more to come.

party games

I was fortunate enough to be attend a friend's wedding last Friday. The following three 'games' were moments of pure genius leading up to and during the event.

Full respect to the Hoff Man for his inspired genius on the first two...

The chocolate squirty cream game
You may recall a few posts back that my lovely man and I went away for two weeks to Greece. While we were away little koo looked after our house for us. Upon our return, many new and exciting things were found in our kitchen - filtered skimmed milk, lime couscous, Asda fruit and nut choc... but the most exciting was the can of chocolate squirty cream. Yum yum yum.

The night before the wedding, a very good friend of mine (head bridesmaid at said wedding) and her boyfriend (the Hoff) came to stay with me and boy as we live fairly close to where the wedding was. I cooked us all dinner and for pudding brought out a yummy chocolate roulade and the tin of squirty cream. Yum.

As we were sitting around talking afterwards, I felt compelled to pick up the can of cream and squirt some onto my teaspoon.

"Ah.. I've just thought of the best game," said Hoff. He explained the basic premise to us, and it really was quite a simple concept. One person takes the can and squirts some onto their spoon. Down in one. Next person puts a bit more and again down in one, and so on until the pile of cream is too big to fit in one, or falls off. Pure genius. Kept four educated adults highly amused for a good 15 minutes or so.

The inappropriate song
This one came to be at the wedding itself. During the bride and groom's first dance ("Love is in the air") I again found myself next to the Hoff. As we're all cooing and enjoying the love of the moment, he leans in and says, "I've got a new game." I look at him quizzingly.

"Think of the most inappropriate song for the first dance at a wedding," he said, "for example, White Wedding by Billy Idol."

"Like a virgin," I countered.

"Bitch, by Meredith Brooks," he came back with. I then said we had to wait till after the first dance as it really was a beautiful moment. (Just for the record, I semi-cried 3 times that day altogether. Such a softie, me.)

Other suggestions include the following (and respect to the team for playing along too):

• Goldigga, by Kanye West
• I hate you so much right now, by Kelis
• All that she wants, Ace of Base
• Smack my bitch up, Prodigy
• You oughta know, Alanis Morissette
• Dude looks like a lady, Aerosmith
• Tubthumping, Chumbawumba
• Janie's got a gun, Aerosmith
• Thunderbirds theme tune
• Everyday I love you less and less, the Kaiser Chiefs
• I predict a riot, Kaiser Chiefs
• Billie Jean, Michael Jackson
• Like a prayer, Madonna
• Stupid girl, Garbage
• Creep, Radiohead
• Loser, Beck
• Love in an elevator, Aerosmith
• You've lost that lovin' feelin', Righteous Brothers

and so on... feel free to contribute your own to the list!

The glove song game
Simple really - think of any song with "love" in it and change it for "glove". Hence "Love in an elevator" becomes "Glove in an elevator"; "Lovefool" becomes "Glovefool"; and "Crazy in love" becomes "Crazy in Glove". Simple, hours of fun again.

Hell update
I did go and it wasn't that bad. Funny how after 8 months you lose the anger... ;)

Toe update
The toe is now untaped and free, and flip flops adorn my feet once more, hurrah. Foot is still swollen and the bruising is especially faint, more of a pale charcoal, even lighter than that. Hurrah.