Reading Group at Rectory Library

I went to the first reading group meeting yesterday (Is it called a meeting? I'm not sure, it does sound a bit too formal though for a gathering of people just having a natter).

We had read the book "The suspicions of Mr Whicher or Murder at Road Hill House", as you may know from my previous posts. I was the youngest there (Being only 21), everyone else was either middle aged or past it. I didn't feel out of place at all though, as everyone made me feel welcome and didn't speak to me like I was a child.


It was interesting to see the different points of views about the book that there are. I have never joined a reading group before, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We spoke about how the book was written, the good points and the bad points of it's structure. We even spoke about what we believed to be true or not (As the book is a real life crime). We became detectives ourselves as we pointed out the things that were not stated within the book. For example; One of the women noted that not alot of blood was spilled as the throat of the child's was slit down to the bone. Someone else said that the child was suffocated beforehand (as stated in the book), and so the blood was no longer circulating around the body. I mentioned the fact that he had little cuts on his hands and so must've still been alive and trying to protect himself (as described at the end of the book). NOW FOR OUR OWN DETECTIVE WORK TO KICK IN; I suggested that the cuts were caused after he had been suffocated by accident. If you look at the way a child sleeps, they tend to have their hands up either side of the head. Maybe, when the child's throst was slit, the force behind the knife must've slipped and cut his hands at the same time! Another one I pointed out, was that there were a large number of people in the house on the night of the murder, and yet not one person heard a thing. I think that everyone in the house must've been drugged before going to bed so they'd sleep right through.


Overall it was great fun. We spoke about the book (and gave it an overall score of 4/5), then we had tea and biscuits and a chat for another half hour or so before leaving. For next month's metting, we are reading "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory :-D

The evening with Sara Delphi

I went to see Sara delphi tonight at Barking Library. She was doing a talk on her new book "Tarot Secrets". I took my Mum and my Nan with me, as they both love anything to do with tarot readings and clairvoyance.

I'm not too sure where to begin really. We found the evening to drag on a bit. We didn't even stay the full 2 hours. We ended up leaving half way through, but it felt like we'd been there a long time.

Maybe it was 'cause she was nervous, I don't know, but she seemed to "umm and err" alot. She started off by going through the basics in palmistry. I found this to be really fascinating, and I was looking at mine and my Nan's palm to see what we could find as Sara spoke about the different lines and their meanings. Afterwards she asked if there were any questions. A girl sitting behind me said she had a couple of question. Once she'd asked her first question and Sara had answered, sara decided that was enough of the questions part. I found this to be a bit rude towards the girl.

She then went onto tarot cards. She proceeded to bring up the pictures and names of the major arcana (There are 22 of these, they are the main challenges produced). She explained each one individually. This is where everything really slowed down. You could see people trying not to nod off. Sara wasn't very engaging and spoke in a rather monotone voice. After she had Spoken about the Tarot's, We decided to leave. I didn't like to be rude, but I couldn't sit there for much longer.

Overall the evening was... Interesting... but very dull in the way it was explained.

The Murder at Road Hill House

I am currently reading "The suspicions of Mr Whicher or The murder at Road Hill house" by Kate Summerscale. As you may know from reading my last post, I have joined a local reading group, and this is what we are reading this month.

I cannot put it down. I'm about half way through now, and I just cannot put it down. It's a true story, a murder mystery in 1860. The only problem is... it's no longer a mystery for me, as I flicked to the back of the book to see where it ended (There are pages worth of notes and a biography). As you can probably guess, my eyes skimmed over a couple of sentences at the end, and fell upon the name of who did it. I'm rather dissapointed with myself right now. I will keep reading though, to see how it was done :-)