I've had the good fortune to sneak away for some winter sun and found myself a quiet corner with a pile of books. So to get my journal entries off to a cracking start for 2011, I can already claim to have finished The Fountainhead/Ayn Rand – loved it although a little didactic in parts; That Summer in Ischia/Penny Feeny of which you will hear more later this year but enjoyed it; Breakfast at Tiffany’s/Truman Capote – preparation for our Readers Gathering and as good as I’d hoped it would be; The Help/Kathryn Stockett as I felt I needed to know what all the Book of the Year fuss was about and now I can see why; Hypothermia/Arnoldur Indridason (nb60)  which started slow but gradually gripped and, finally, just started Annie Proulx’s Close Range for Brokeback Mountain, verdict to follow.

Suspect I’m making myself a hostage to fortune as I’ll struggle to keep this up but over to you, Mandy!