Room by Emma Donoghue

I put off buying this book for months because I was afraid it would be too disturbing for me as the front of the book read: Jack is five. He lives with his Ma. They live in a single, locked room. They don't have the key. Jack and Ma are prisoners.
I couldn't have been more wrong. I started the book at 3:00 in the afternoon and by 11:00 that night, I had 90 pages (of the 336) to go - that's with stopping to do the dinner, bath time & bedtime routines with my 2 year old.
This is one of the most thought-provoking and beautiful books I've ever read. The first half of the book was almost difficult to read due to the images and visions it provokes, but written from Jack's point of view it was innocent and much more bearable. I have never read a book that made me feel so much - the gamut of emotions from sadness to elation, just a wonderful and revelatory novel. I did not find the second half to be as compelling as the first, but overall it was five stars.
Check it out on Amazon.com by clicking the title above or on Amazon.co.uk by clicking here

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Top 20 Lists

Recently, a magazine here in the UK issued their list of their Top 100 women in show business. This sparked conversation between Wayne and I and one rainy weekend when we had nothing to do, we compiled our own Top 20 lists. The rules were we had to judge on looks alone (not their physique) and only one token model was allowed.
For fun, I thought I'd add our lists here for you to view and enjoy. Maybe it will even spark conversation between you and a friend or loved one.
Wayne and I actually had a really good time creating our lists together - judging each other's taste in the opposite sex and laughing over how long it took for us to prioritize our selections. We still change the order every time we look at it! (although our top five have remained the same)
Enjoy and feel free to comment!

Fight Club for Five Year Olds - Part 2

The other mother and I went into the school to meet with the teacher and the assistant head. We both let them know how upset we were that we were not informed that our children were sent to the office and how much we were against the children being allowed to play fighting games on the playground. I told them I wouldn't allow it at home and I'm really unhappy that it's being allowed at school. They admitted it was a problem and explained that they are planning to introduce a a scheme to teach the children to play in a safe way. They will be calling it 'Super Hero Training'. They plan to give out capes & masks out to children who behave well as rewards at playtime. They will have assemblies where they will teach the children to play fighting games without making contact. I find this to be absurd. The problem has gone on to long and I doubt they will be able to teach little children to change their games when they have sixty other children to look after o…

Kicked the habit with an e-cigarette

I quit smoking when I moved to the UK, mainly because I promised my husband I would. I did it for him, but not because I wanted to. I enjoyed smoking. I missed it, but quit successfully for many years until I went through a stressful time and started again. My relapse lasted over a year. The whole time, I was ashamed of myself. I hated the smell. I hated how I felt, I hated the health risks and I hated my lack of willpower.
I've known a few people who have tried e-cigarettes. I was a skeptic. I thought it was going from one habit to another. The people I knew that tried it, always had it and were constantly sucking on it. It seemed to me they were more addicted to it then they were cigarettes. I don't know any smokers that constantly had a cigarette in their hand.
Then in January, I saw a piece about it on the BBC News. I watched with interest thinking they were going to say that they have found it to be harmful. What they said was quite the opposite.…

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