Hi all - just letting you know I'm moving my blog to a new home:


A Dixon Life Blog

Finding refuge in a quiet rural backwater, Dr David Hunter hoped he might at last have put the past behind him. But then they found what was left of Sally Palmer…
It isn’t just that she was a friend that disturbs him. Once he’d been a high-profile forensic anthropologist and all too familiar with the many faces of death, before tragedy made him abandon this previous life. Now the police want his help. But to become involved will stir up memories he’s long tried to forget. Then a second woman disappears, plunging the close-knit community into a maelstrom of fear and paranoia. And no one, not even Hunter, is exempt from suspicion.

Dr Anya Crichton, a pathologist and forensic physician, finds work is sparse for the only female freelancer in the field. Between paying child support, a mortgage and struggling to get her business off the ground, Anya can't yet afford to fight her ex-husband for custody of their three-year-old son, Ben.


After her expert evidence helps win a high-profile court case, Anya is asked by lawyer Dan Brody to look into the drug overdose of a young Lebanese girl. While investigating, Anya notices startling coincidences in a number of unrelated suicides she's been asked to examine by friend and colleague, Detective Sergeant Kate Farrer. All the victims disappeared for a period of time, before committing suicide in bizarre circumstances. As Anya delves deeper, the pathological findings point to the frightening possibility that the deaths are not only linked, but part of a sinister plot. One in which Anya is unwillingly immersed... 

Back to the sticky-beaking

I found this small picture in the newspaper this morning.

The idea that this sort of book is still around - and will be able to be seen in public (well, for a short time anyway) is just fantastic.

Here's a bit of background about it.:

"A manuscript Bible produced in Italy in the middle of the 13th century with extensive and exquisite painted illustration. It appears to have been made for the use of a convent of Dominican friars - but the borders include diverting genre scenes and fantastical creations far from the routine religious illustrations that might be expected. The death of Theodoric Borgognoni (c.1296) is recorded in the Calendar and he may have commissioned the work: not only a Dominican friar and Bishop of Cervia he was one of the most significant and innovative surgeons of the medieval period." As per artknowledgenews.com

The people in the know have estimated the sale price to be somewhere between £2,500,000 to £3,500,000 ( approx. aus$4,000,000 to aus$6,000,000).

The thing that amazed me the most about this gorgeous, nearly 900 year old book - is that the person that is holding it up in the photo isn't wearing any gloves to offer the book some protection. That just seems ludicrous for such an old and very expensive piece of history.

My understanding of the processes involved with making books from that era is that they were usually written on parchment, which was made from goat or calf skin. But the more "important" books (bibles would fall under this category) would be made from vellum which seems to be a much higher quality parchment. Intersting enough - vellum is still used today, but in paper form. Apparently now, as was then, the animal kind is very expensive to come by.

That's really all I have to say. I would have assumed that the person holding the very expensive book would have worn some sort of protection - or at least not put their hands on the pages. 

But maybe that's ok to do?ipt Bible produced in Italy in the middle of the 13th century with extensive and exquisite painted illustration. It appears to have been made for the use of a convent of Dominican friars - but the borders include diverting genre scenes and fantastical creations far from the routine religious illustrations that might be expected. The death of Theodoric Borgognoni (c.1296) is recorded in the Calendar and he may have commissioned the work: not only a Dominican friar and Bishop of Cervia he was one of the most significant and innovative surgeons of the medieval period.

I've just recently purchased a website. 

I did a heap of research and asked a heap of questions. Unfortunately the most important question I asked as over the phone and now I have no records to back me up. The lovely saleswoman assured me that I would be able to use this website to add over 5000 books to it.

Easy Peesy she said. We can do that for you. This is the perfect website for you and your new business.

So we looked over all the information, asked a heap more questions that were probably just as important but since they were in writing I didn't have to worry so much about them.

The following weeks were spent adding content to the website - and trying to fix up the little things I didn't like. Then I received an email saying I had reached 80% capacity.

What capacity? 

I only had 130 books listed. Surely they can't be telling me I can't add anymore.

One quick phone call sorted that out. Yes I had reached my limit - but if I wanted to pay and extra $20 per month (I was already paying twice the amount everyone else was offering for hosting) I could double my capacity.

WOW - now I could have 260 books listed. That's EXACTLY what I was looking for.

NOT!!!
Another phone call with me telling the person on the other end that I had been assured by the saleswoman that this website would easily meet my needs:
"Oh, they wouldn't have told you that" was the response. Do these people think I would really want to spend a HEAP of money on a site that wasn't even going to list the books I have sitting next to my bed, let alone the 2 rooms full of books I need to sell? GRRRRR

Anyway, if you want to check out my site - please feel free. It's going to be "Under New Management" in the next week or so.

We will start again. With a lesson well learnt :)

Dawn French is one of the greatest comedy actresses of our time, wtih a career that has spanned nearly three decades, encompassing a vast and brilliant array of characters. Loved for her irreverant humour, Dawn has achieved massive mainstream success while continuing to push boundaries and challenge stereotypes. Here she describes the journey that would eventually establish her as a perhaps unlikely, but nevertheless genuine, national treasure.
Dawn began her career as part of the groundbreaking alternative comedy group, the Comic Strip, marking a radical departure from the more traditional comedy acts of the time. Later came the all-female Girls On Top, which teamed Dawn with Jennifer Saunders, Ruby Wax and Tracy Ullman and firmly established women in British comedy.
As part of the wildly successful and much loved duo French and Saunders, Dawn helped create a repetoire of brilliantly observed characters, parodying popular culture and impersonating everything from Madonna and Harry Potter to The Exorcist. Dawn's more recent role in the Vicar of Dibley showcased not only her talent but also her ability to take a controversial and topical issue and make it mainstream - and very funny.
From her early years as an RAF child and her flat-sharing antics with Jennifer Saunders, to her outspoken views on sizism and her marriage to Lenny Henry, Dear Fatty will chronicle the extraordinary, hilarious rise of a complex, dynamic and unstoppable woman.

I loved this book. 

I love Dawn French so was really hoping that it would be a good read and I wasn't disappointed. She had me in hysterics in places, laughing out loud so hard OH wondered what was going on :)

She also had me in tears, telling about learning of her fathers death. Of looking back on his life, trying to understand the signs of depression that had been there. I loved that she spoke of him in present tense -  and had many conversations with him throughout the book. I do the same thing with my mum who has been gone for over 20 years now.

I felt anger about the treatment that was awarded her husband (and he probably still gets it in this day & age as well) because of the colour of his skin. It's just something I won't ever understand!

Buy this book. It absolutely ROCKS!!!

I'm no coward. I want to make that perfectly clear. But after my life turned into a horror movie, I take fear a lot more seriously now. I finally became Dr. Carrie Ames just eight months ago. Then I was attacked in the hospital morgue by a vampire. Just my luck.
So now I'm a vampire, and it turns out I have a blood tie to the monster who sired me. The tie works like an invisible leash and I'm bound to him no matter what I do. And of course he's one of the most evil vampires on earth. With my sire hell-bent on turning me into a soulless killer and his sworn enemy set to exterminate me, things couldn't get much worse -- except I'm attracted to them both.
Drinking blood, living as an immortal demon and being a pawn between two warring vampire factions isn't exactly how I'd imagined my future. But as my father used to say, the only way to conquer fear is to face it. So that's what I'll do. Fangs bared.

Wow!

I was introduced to this series when one of the mum's from school asked me to buy the rest of the series for her. I asked to borrow this first book from her as it is out of print and can't find it anywhere (hurry up publishers)!

She warned me it was a little, well, not for the faint-hearted so I went in with really high expectations (not being too sure which category of unfaint-heartedness I should belong to). Was it going to be graphic Vampire stuff or was it full of sex, or just really bad language?
I have to say, with only "not for the faint-hearted" to go on, I was a little underwhelmed by the first half of the book. I don't particularly like the main character, Carrie Ames who is doing working as an ED doctor at a hospital when she crosses the path of a vampire. I didn't particulary warm to her - although I'm not sure if that's the point?

She ends up, after Googling "what to do if attacked by a vampire", with a vampire who belongs to The Voluntary Vampire Extinction Movement - which seems to be a self- policing vampire society that offs vampires.

The "not for the faint-hearted" stuff occurs about 3/4 of the way through the book (I'll leave you to get to that bit yourself :)), so it does happen - eventually. Really  - I'm not too sure if I really want to read the rest of the series. I will, because I hate to read just one part of  a series, but I don't think I'll be putting it up as a must-read.

Shame really because I do love a vampire book.

For years, Nadezhda and Vera, two Ukrainian sisters, raised in England by their refugee parents, have had as little as possible to do with each other - and they have their reasons. But now they find they'd better learn how to get along, because since their mother's death their aging father has been sliding into his second childhood, and an alarming new woman has just entered his life. Valentina, a bosomy young synthetic blonde from the Ukraine, seems to think their father is much richer than he is, and she is keen that he leave this world with as little money to his name as possible. If Nadazhda and Vera don't stop her, no one will. But separating their addled and annoyingly lecherous dad from his new love will prove to be no easy feat - Valentina is a ruthless pro and the two sisters swiftly realize that they are mere amateurs when it comes to ruthlessness. As Hurricane Valentina turns the family house upside down, old secrets come falling out, including the most deeply buried one of them all, from the War, the one that explains much about why Nadazhda and Vera are so different. In the meantime, oblivious to it all, their father carries on with the great work of his dotage, a grand history of the tractor.

Surprisingly, I loved this book.

It's not my usual type of book. And I wouldn't go as far to say "Mad & Hilarious" as the Daily Telegraph has proclaimed.

But it was fun. And also a little close to home.

The sisters relationship seemed to almost mirror mine & my sisters - although ours is not as fragmented as theirs :). The story of their father and his new relationship is also similar to that of our father's and his relationship with his partner. Although, in all fairness to my father's partner - she isn't very similar to Valentina!

The story starts with the father (Nikolai) telling his youngest daughter Nadia about the woman he wants to marry (his wife had died a few years previously). His fiance is from his homeland  - the Ukraine - and needs to get married so she can stay in the country. But first she must get a divorce from her Ukrainian husband.
The story is interspersed with the family history. How the father & mother came to meet (he was Ukrainian & she was Polish). How they managed to escape the concentration camps and came to live in England. And also, while all these backgrounds are being told, and Nikolai is trying desperately to marry, and then divorce, the very voluptious Valentina - he is writing a book titled A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian.

Some of the characters are not likeable at all. Some of them I ended up feeling so sad for. And the book finished a little too early for my liking. I wanted to find out more, but you'll have to read it to understand what I'm talking about. There were a few story lines that could have been followed up, but were left just hanging - although there was really so much going on in the book it would've been quite difficult to add a few more threads into it.

I liked it and will make someone else from bookclub read it next :)

Sarah Linton has fled to Atlanta seeking refuge from the patient in her ER, she'll find herself deeply ensnared in a case which rips the lid off secrets as dark and complex as they are disturbing. When Special Agents Will Trent and Faith Mitchell join forces to probe into the life of the victim, they embark on an investigation which will change all of them forever.

I also really enjoyed the mindgames of this book. It's been a while since I've read this type of book and I realised I've missed it. I've been reading these types of books since I discovered Dean Koontz when I was around 13 and have devoured them ever since. I know it's a great book when I have to finish it the night I start it because I HAVE to know what happens. Mo Hayder did exactly the same thing for me with Birdman.

Scared me so much I couldn't put it down until it was finished.

And to me, this is the sign of an excellent writer.

Interesting enough, someone I know has recently said that they haven't read another Karin Slaughter after they became so upset with the ending of the book they had just finished. This person was most incensed about this and felt completely duped (I don't know which book she was referring though). I also think this is a sign of a good writer (although you don't want to alienate them completely ) because she has got this reader so completely involved with the story and she has evoked such a huge emotion in this particular reader that the reader has actually taken action because of this book. Surely that is a writers goal in writing a book? They want their readers to feel as passionate about their books as they, the author does.

Anyway, I for one can't wait to read more. And I promise if I don't like the ending to keep reading more

I think I need a holiday.

Or do we just call them our husbands?