h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi

Just looked on Janet Evanovich's highly active website and discovered that she will be in Braintree and Colchester in early July!

Sadly, though - NOT Braintree & Colchester in Essex...

Actually: Braintree, Massachusetts & Colchester, Vermont!!

Ah well. The next hardback volume, "Ten Big Ones", is published on June 21st. Last year, Janet signed at Murder One, the big crime & mystery bookshop on Charing Cross Rd, but I didn't find out until a few weeks too late. There are strict rules involved in an Evanovich book signing, apparently, as she suffers Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, so you won't see her fans with 15 books each for her to sign...

Hope you're OK & you "survived" a week without the coffee bar!

Rich

Thank you, Rich

I would love to see Janet, wouldn't you? Of course, I imagine her to be Stephanie Plum. I haven't got past Two for the Dough yet, have you read them all?

Well, I survived the closure of the CB only because my PC crashed last Friday-week. Four people have been involved to get me back on my feet again and last night I actually solved the Outlook Express myself. Seems I needed a new password. I was being disconnected every few seconds, it was driving me bananas.

So I'm really happy again.

Rich, have you read: "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd?
I would never had taken it off the shelf, but had to read it for my Book Group.
It's absolutely lovely. Very different. Do have a look, but maybe you know it already.

Been out this morning and taped Formula 1 Qualifying so I'll watch that now, followed by the Cup Final.

Bought some nice plants, so there's going to be some digging to do as well.

Hope to see you later in the CB.




Catharina

Hi Catharina

Don't know if you've seen a photo of Janet Evanovich - she was born 22nd April 1943, so probably a bit older than Steph Plum is meant to be - I imagine Steph to be in her late thirties, like myself & most of the cast of 'Friends', 'Will & Grace', etc... Haven't read all the novels in the series yet - started with 'Four To Score' and worked my way back.

I've just looked at the Sue Monk Kidd entry on Waterstones website - four ***** reviews from readers, and the plot looks fascinating. There are no copies of the book in this library, but several available in other Suffolk libraries, so I'll put in a reservation for it when I'm finished here - there's no charge to reserve books from within Suffolk. Thanks for the recommendation.

I suppose I'll have to steady my nerves & look at what happened on the R2 message board last night...

Rich

Just reserved Secret Life Of Bees by computer - five reservations listed from other library borrowers, but there seem to be several copies of the book available.

Enjoy the Grand Prix - hope someone different wins this time!

Hi Rich,

I hope you will like "The Secret Life of Bees" after all that, I don't know if it's a "men"'s book, but it certainly is a bit different, I thought.

No, I haven't seen a photograph of Stephanie Plum, I ought to have a look at her website, but it is difficult to fit in everything we want to do, isn't it? (Says she, after lying 3 1/2 hours in front of the T.V. to watch F1.) Jenson Button was so close behind the winner, I was having palpitations but couldn't tear myself away to get at the brandy.

I did 2 hours gardening before the race and another hour afterwards, there's so much to do. Given up on the rhododendron as the friend I was with thought it was too hot in that position. So I've planted a sort of conifer with varigated leaves. Supposed not to grow too tall, we'll see, but as I said to my friend: "If it gets to about 20 metres I can hardly take it back to the garden centre and complain." She tells me to keep on pruning!.

Time to wash my hair and have a shower and then cook my dinner. Stir-fry! Want to join me? I expect you've had a large roast for lunch. I hardly ever eat much lunch unless I'm out because after a few glasses of wine I don't want to do anything but lie about. So much to do, so little time.

Speak to you soon.

XX

(Haven't these smileys got horrible lips?)

Hi

Usual Sunday lunch is a small joint of beef or a casserole. Hardly ever miss out on meat for dinner - usually beef, chicken or sausages - though sometimes the occasional mackerel.

Has anyone sent a big fruit basket to Montoya? Sadly I was in the loo at the time, so I missed the shunt. In fact, when it looked like Schmacher was closing fast on Trulli, I wandered outside & re-potted a couple of my mixed pepper plants. If they produce anything, maybe I'll be having a lot of stir-fries too!

I'm not bothered about "Secret Life Of Bees" being a men's book or not - I'll read anything! Currently reading "In My Bedroom" by a black American author called Donna Hill - a book about incest survivors & broken marriages. A definite candidate for Oprah's Book Club, if you know what I mean. Oprah's messianic creed to her audience: life is a constant struggle against suffering, therefore all decent novels should reflect this. Oprah gets very annoyed when her viewers ask her to include a comedy, romance or genre adventure novel in the Book Club. (Actually, I haven't watched Oprah since she was dropped from Channel 5, a couple of years ago, though the monthly Oprah magazine is still available from one local newsagent.)

Running out of time on my library login session

Just been on Oprah dot com. This month's book club selection is the Southern Gothic classic "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers. (Which proves the point I was just making!)

Wonder if I should join up to the website & Oprah Book Club - will it cost anything? Oprah is notorious for her "enrich-your-life" seminars which cost $100 a ticket!

Rich

Hi Rich,

From what you said, I think you'll enjoy "the bees".
I have made a note of your book "In the bedroom", it sounds right up my street. I am endlessly interested in what makes people tick and far too analytical for my own good. Like all amateur psychiatrists (or professional ones for that matter), I often get it all wrong. But I can't help"exploring" and, even with strangers, try and start "delving".
There's nothing as fascinating as the human mind and human behaviour, I think.
I called myself"flybynight" because I often give the impression of being lightweight and superficial and I like to make people laugh, but that isn't really me.

I was with afriend yesterday who is the most depressed and depressing person I've ever met. She speaks in a low monotone, (try it, you'll see what I mean). I first met her when I was working in the garden and she stopped for a chat. She sounded so "down" that I invited her in for a coffee. She then told me that she had wanted to commit suicide a few weeks earlier, but things went wrong.
I asked what happened.She said she had already destroyed all her personal things, address books and diary etc. She had 4 cats and she wanted to kill them first so that they wouldn't be left behind. She then bought a large number of sleeping tablets from the chemist and mixed them into her cats' food, but they wouldn't eat it.

Of course, if she had been serious that wouldn't have held her back, yet, on the other hand, she wasn't a happy person either, was she?

Well, I'm ranting on again, I've got lots to do. Going on holiday next Sat., so things to arrange etc.

Speak to you again soon, Rich.

Have a lovely day.

Hi Fly

I know someone like that myself. The stereotypical "cry for help." Always seems a selfish thing to do, IMHO.

Details of "In My Bedroom" - it's an American-published hardback from St. Martin's Press - ISBN 0-312-28193-5. Quite enjoyed the novel myself, though I am not keen on authors who change viewpoint character in the middle of a scene or (even worse) mid-sentence.

Can you tell me where you're off to on holiday, or is it a secret?

Hi

I think our messages have got out of squence, I've only just seen yours about Oprah.
I wonder why she isn't on any more. She is very popular in Holland and my cousin, who is more like a sister to me, wouldn't miss an episode for a fortune. Are you going to read the recommended book?

I was looking through my books to see what I'd take with me, when in the front of one I read:

(Yes, well, after wasting a quarter of an hour hunting for it, I can't find it any more)

but words to the effect : "Everybody is looking for love.

I think that's so true. And that's where all the heartache starts.

Still, without lows there wouldn't be any highs, so we carry on and think: that's life.

No, Rich, it's no secret where I am going for a week. It is Spain. I've been persuaded by a friend, but I am a very strange person. Already I'm looking forward to being at home again. I just LOVE to be at home. Sad, isn't it? Friends travel far and wide, go on cruises, see the sights, want to see the whole world, and me, I just love sitting in my summerhouse with a friend and a glass of wine, or a book.
I DO go out a lot, but oh, I just am so happy being at home.
My husband was the same and of course, it was lovely when he was alive, but I've had to make new friends and guard against just vegetating. My docter at the time said: "You are melancholy. I want to see you again with all guns blazing". I'm doing my best!! Perhaps I'd like to be Stephanie Plum.

Did you think I was going somewhere exotic? Have you travelled a lot?

Must go and do a bit again, want to cut the grass and then again on Friday.
They forecast rain for the week-end..wouldn't you know it?
Still...the rain in Spain .....

Bye

Hi

Sorry I haven't replied lately - library computer server was down yesterday morning, and when I got on this morning - EEEK! - message said "you will need to enable cookies to access H2G2"!! Fortunately, this was only a temporary problem.

Hope you enjoy your time in Spain, I know several people who go there regularly, including the usual golf nut who spends the entire winter there (lucky him).

Am always getting travel e-mails & postcards from my London friend Joy - off to the Middle East for her friend's 40th birthday this time.

Must admit I have grown up as something of a homebody, thanks to a childhood which never included family holidays abroad, just the odd day trip to a local town or a week visiting my oldest sister in Lincolnshire.

Last foreign holiday I had was a badly-planned & worse-executed trip to Portugal with a friend from work & his best friend. If I tell you that the holiday coincided with a war in the Middle East between Saddam, President Bush... and Prime Minister JOHN MAJOR, then you'll realise how long it is since I had a foreign holiday!

Hoping to visit my Aylesbury sister for a week soon, but that will be after her teenagers' A-levels are completed.

Have a great time!

Hi

Glad I'm not the only one who likes being at home.
People who just love to travel must have quite different personalities to me. I just like sleeping in my own bed, looking out of the window and seeing my own garden etc.
I've been away for a few days with friends now and again and I suppose it did me good, feeling refreshed mentally, away from it all. But I never understand people when they have a lot of problems just wanting to escape, because they're all still there when you get back.
Or am I a pessimist?

Going to stay with your sister will be great, won't it? It's different to staying with a brother. When my brother was alive I used to visit.(Eindhoven, Holland), but I never felt free to do as I pleased because it was my sister-in-law's house and kitchen.
I was surprised when my brother stayed with me and helped himself to beer etc. and made a pot of coffee without saying anything, I would not have dared to do that in his house. I pondered this and came to the conclusion that it is the "woman's" house. True, or not?
But I expect you will be spoilt, as I did my brother. I miss him so much. I remember him being born and looked after him as if he was MY baby. Strong bonds!.

Going out to lunch to-day.
Thank you for your good wishes, Rich. I shall miss the boards, they do so become part of your life, don't they?

Have still not finished "the bees" and am beginning to wonder if it's all to do with racism,rather than love.
Look forward to your comments when you get to read it.

May see you later on to-day.

Hi Rich,

I've finished "the bees".
I was wrong, it wasn't anything to do with racism, but I look forward to seeing what you think.
I thought that it was all a bit rushed at the end. Don't you think books are often like that? It all sets out leisurely and detailed and towards the end you feel they just want to end it all, and quickly.
I'm probably wrong. I'm looking forward to hear what the others of my book-group thought as well.

See you soon,

Hi

Now 9.55am and I've only just managed to log on to H2G2 - the login screen took ages to come up, then ages to register, as did the R2 MBs. Maybe a problem with the BBC's computers this morning?

Hope you enjoy your time in Spain. I don't necessarily enjoy being stuck in my home town all the time, but certain financial contraints (eg credit card bill, no job, etc.) mean that I can't take that dream holiday to Canada or wherever. I wouldn't mind visiting Vancouver as I have some family photos of great-great-aunt & uncle who emigrated there in the 1920s, though my mother & her brother lost touch with that branch of the family in the mid-1970s.

I'm going to ask about The Secret Life Of Bees this morning at the library enquiry desk. The library's website does list the book with several copies available around Suffolk library shelves, but none of the five reservations for the book have been filled yet. Wonder if my own copy is available?

Hope you see this message before you go. Have fun

Rich

Hi

Yes, that would be really exciting trying to find relations. I have an aunt and uncle in Australia, they emigrated from Holland with ELEVEN children. They all did very well out there and I heard nothing until one day one of the "children" , a priest turned up on my doorstep with FIVE "mates".

Aunt and uncle came to Holland for a holiday about 10 years ago but were so disappointed with the way it had changed, they said they would never come back.They much preferred the life in AUstralia.

Thank you for your good wishes for my holiay, it's been a bit of a cliffhanger as the friend who was going to take me to the airprt didn't have her car, it had blown a gasket. But all is well and if I can get her out of bed in the morning, I should be on my way.

I'll miss you all. Still, only for a week.

See you then, Rich.