It’s September now, and judging by the sudden plummet in temperatures, Summer is firmly over!

What I have read

I did quite well even though I didn’t read much the week I was on holiday. I spent several evenings in the hot tub then, though, and I thought it inadvisable to take a book in with me! I’m still six books ahead of schedule so I’m doing fine.

What I finished in August:

• Baby. Boom! – Helen Wallen
• The Mummy Lessons – Helen Wallen
• Outlander (Outlander #1) – Diana Gabaldon
• Discovering Scotland’s Lost Local Lines – Julian Holland*
• Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) – Jasper Fforde
• Lies We Tell Mothers – Suzy K. Quinn
• The Clippie Girls – Margaret Dickinson
• The Foyles Bookshop Girls (The Foyles Girls #1) – Elaine Roberts

And I’m still working on:

• The Foyles Bookshop Girls at War (The Foyles Girls #2) – Elaine Roberts.
• The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next #3) – Jasper Fforde
• The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger

*Probably not the Julian Holland from The Naughtiest Girl books.

I made the same mistake this month and started on the second Foyles Girls book, not realising it was the second in the series. I then read the first, and as I’ve started the second feel I should finish it even though the first wasn’t that great.

Talking of ‘not great’ I (and this is rare) do not recommend The Clippie Girls unless you want to be 30% bored, 30% irritated by almost all the main characters, 10% incredulous at the ridiculous birth details, and 20% in a rage at the hundreds of times the lead female characters bite their lips. The remaining 10% was probably OK. So far in the Foyles Girls books there has only been half a dozen lip-bitings, though most have ended in the metallic taste of blood. Who are these lip chewing women and how have they not disfigured themselves to the point of no return??

Ahem. Anyway, does anyone else find it hard to give up on a rubbish book?

What I have watched

• Hollyoaks
• ER season 13
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I’m inclined to try the book now.
• Murder She Wrote season 5

What I have done

• Found a few more Oor Wullies
• Brodie turned two (how??) and had a party
• Visited the St Andrews Sea Life Centre
• Organised a LOT of crisp packets for charity
• Launched my board game library
• Went on holiday! We stayed on a farm near Banchory in Aberdeenshire, and visited somewhere new every day. We went to Crathes Castle (lovely gardens and an adventure playground), The Deeside Vintage Steam Rally (lots of vintage tractors and other vehicles), The Den and The Glen (lots of life-sized fairy-tale and nursery rhyme characters, castles, vehicles and play parks in a huge garden), Stonehaven beach and park, the Grampian Transport Museum, and the Brechin Castle Centre (no castle, but a large play park with sledges and pedal carts etc).
• Went to our favourite beach for a paddle and sandcastles, and found a crab and some shrimp-like things