Zyma is 4!

by Confuzzled Bev, posted in disability parenting, family, life

As always seems to be the case these days I’m a little late with this, but better later than never, right? Two weeks ago our first daughter, the one who made our dreams of being parents finally come true, turned 4! It only seems like yesterday we were in hospital with a tiny newborn, wondering when we would be given the all-clear to take her home, and now she’s a preschooler!

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Age 3 was a big year for Zyma. She got her wheelchair in October of last year and took to it like a duck to water. In May 2025 we flew with it for the first time and she got to show most of her extended family how well she can use it. Hills are, of course, still a challenge but when she’s feeling motivated she’ll give them a good go. She also had the chance to test a posterior walker in June and she did so well with it that we applied for her to get her very own. The application was approved in July but after many delays on the manufacturer’s side it only finally arrived a week before her birthday.  So this year’s task is to motivate her to practice walking with it regularly! For the last few months she’s also been attending a weekly “play group” with another girl her age who is also in a wheelchair. She’s starting to realise that not being able to stand isn’t the norm at hers age and it’s been really good for her to see that she’s not the only one. At the same time, she moved up a group at nursery and is so proud to be a “big” preschooler and no longer a toddler. Next comes Kindergarten, which is the start of obligatory education in Switzerland (unlike German Kindergarten, which is nursery or daycare, in Switzerland it’s more along the lines of pre-school, similar to reception class in the UK).

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Having got lucky and skipped the terrible twos, we definitely had some threenager behaviour to deal with this year! This girl is too clever for her own good and has an answer for everything! A lot of the time you can’t fault her logic either (but the answer is still no!). Most of it is fairly harmless though – and her worst behaviour is almost always a result of being overtired. Becoming a big sister has obviously been a major upheaval, but she’s taken it very much in her stride. She absolutely adores Aster and loves helping out with her. A little too much sometimes – poor baby just has to stir slightly in her sleep and she’s being woken up by a very enthusiastic big sister cuddle! I’m extremely proud of how wet she’s adjusted to no longer being an only child. She’s so kind, caring, generous and friendly…. if it weren’t for the fact that I see my mother in some of her facial expressions I would wonder whether the doctors transferred the wrong embryo. She certainly doesn’t get her sunny personality from me! I’m happy to take credit for her imagination though… listening to her make up stories about what her dolls are doing takes me right back to my own childhood.

The year from age 3 to 4 has seen Zyma change from a toddler into a proper little girl and I can’t wait to see what she does next!

One month of Aster

by Confuzzled Bev, posted in life
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I can’t believe in writing this. It only feels like a couple of days since I posted that she was here, but somehow Aster turned 1 month old on Friday! So far she’s a mostly chilled baby, apart from struggling with gas – something we never had with Zyma. She’ll struggle and strain then finally push out something that a grown man would be proud of! We’re currently hoping that it’s just because of an immature digestive system and it’s will gradually get better. The midwife said it’s normal and recommended massage. She still has day and night confused, so she’ll want to eat every two hours all night long buy can happier sleep for 3 or 3.5 hour stretches during the day. Useful for getting Z out of the house, not so much for my sleep deprivation. Usually we go back to bed after dropping Zyma off at nursery. Today Aster gave me an hour before wanting milk (to be fair it had been nearly 3 hours since her last feed) then she stayed awake grunting and complaining so I brought her to the living room where she wouldn’t disturb Jan. After a nappy change she promptly started crying for more milk! She’s a proper boob monster. I thought Z liked her Mama milk but this one has her beat hands down. As a result she’s also been gaining weight like a champ and has already outgrown most of her newborn clothes – Z was in size 50 until about 2 months!

Zyma is an amazing big sister – gentle, helpful and caring. So far we’ve had no issues with jealousy. The only thing we need to work on is getting her to sleep through the night again – and stay in her own bed. Since I was in hospital she’s developed some kind of separation anxiety and keeps telling us she can’t be alone and she doesn’t like her bed. On the rare occasion that Aster goes longer between night feeds Z starts crying for me at 3 a.m. and ends up in the “big bed” with us!

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Look Mama, she's holding my finger!

Overall things are going well – I say having literally just dealt with an hour and a half of fussing! The gas situation seems to be slowly improving – at least last night she slept peacefully in between two hourly feeds without having to be on me – and we’re gradually settling into a routine. I’ve yet to figure out how to get out of the house by myself with both girls (I can’t push both the pram and Z’s wheelchair at the same time) but luckily Jan has another month off so there’s still some time. And by then A will hopefully be big enough to go in the carrier.

Now the baby has finally fallen asleep, which means I can actually put her down and make my breakfast. There’s a cup of tea with my name on it begging to be made!

She is here!

by Confuzzled Bev, posted in life

Literally the day after I wrote my last post I went for a growth ultrasound. Since the abdominal measurement was on the small side the doctor decided to see whether she could get me in for the C-section at 38 weeks instead. And so daughter number two made her entrance into the world on 17 September 2025 at 2:55 p.m. We are home now, everyone is doing well and Zyma is a very proud night sister.

This time around we’re going with Aster as her blog name – it’s the birth flower for September and also means star in Greek.

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Still here, still pregnant…

by Confuzzled Bev, posted in life

and now Jan has kindly given me a cold so I’ve got a headache, temperature and constant sneezing on top of the aches and pains I already had.

C-section is scheduled for 24 September so we’re onto the final countdown… and entirely new territory. Z was born at 37 weeks, so after tomorrow I’ll be the most pregnant I’ve ever been! Please keep your fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong in these last two weeks. It’s all been such smooth sailing so far that I can’t believe the universe doesn’t have something in store for me…

25 weeks, 4 days

by Confuzzled Bev, posted in life

Thank you everyone for the comments on my last post. I should really get round to answering those!

As you can probably guess from the title, I’m 25 weeks and 4 days pregnant today. Last time this was the day that Zyma had her operation. It’s so strange to be having a normal pregnancy! We had an extra ultrasound at nearly 18 weeks then the usual 20 week ultrasound. Both showed no indication of spina bifida. The brain and spine both look fine, and there are no signs of any other anomalies at this point either. I’m already over a week passed viability and on Friday I passed the gestational diabetes test, so now I have no more appointments until 29th July, when I’ll be 30 weeks and 6 days. It would have been slightly earlier, but the doctor I see for my ultrasounds is on holiday so they gave me the next available appointment with her. She specifically said I should request her (the boss!) because of my past history. So now I get to… just enjoy my pregnancy? How strange!

What I read in January 2025

by Confuzzled Bev, posted in life

Hello! I’m still alive, it’s just been a busy year so far – and how on earth are we in June already? I want to try and get back into blogging so I thought I’d kick things off with something easy – the books I read in January, which – with a mere 4 books – has been my best reading month of the year so far!

The Garden of Lost and Found by Harriet Evans.Nightingale House, 1919. Liddy Horner discovers her husband, the world-famous artist Sir Edward Horner, burning his best-known painting, The Garden of Lost and Found, days before his sudden death. Nightingale House was the Horner family’s beloved home – a gem of design created to inspire happiness – and it was here Ned painted ‘The Garden of Lost and Found’, capturing his children on a perfect day, playing in the rambling Eden he and Liddy made for them. One magical moment. Before it all came tumbling down… When Ned and Liddy’s great-granddaughter Juliet is sent the key to Nightingale House, she opens the door onto a forgotten world. The house holds its mysteries close but she is in search of answers. For who would choose to destroy what they love most? Whether Ned’s masterpiece – or, in Juliet’s case, her own children’s happiness. Something shattered this corner of paradise. But what? This wasn’t a bad book, but it was far too long. I mostly found the parts in the past more interesting than the present-day ones. Juliet was just too annoying. The ending was rather abrupt. Everything was tied together but it seemed to just end. The switches between time periods were sometimes a bit too abrupt as well, which made things confusing. But the writing is generally good and parts of the story were excellent, which makes this really hard to rate! I’m going with 3 stars.

The Howling Hag Mystery by Nicki Thornton (Howling Hag Inn #1). Secret witch Raven Charming knows the rules of using magic in the real world. So she is horrified to discover a potential rival witch in her village – one that uses the worst kind of magic. Luckily , help is at hand. Together with boy-sleuth Mortimer Scratch and a sharp-talking black cat called Nightshade with a talent for solving magical mysteries, Raven sets out to uncover what’s going on in Twinhills. When I realised that this book was a spin off from the Seth Seppi series with Nightshade the cat as a main character I just had to have it! Nightshade was one of my favourite things in the Seth Seppi books. This one seemed to be for younger readers than the other series – something about the writing style. I liked Raven although I wished she had believed in herself a bit more from the start. Mortimer ended up being a great character and I really enjoyed his scenes, but Raven’s mum’s advice that he was probably spraying Raven with water because he liked her felt a bit off. I hope that isn’t something people still tell little girls! All in all it’s a fun little mystery and I’ve already read book two in the series to see more of Nightshade (review to follow in a separate post). 3.5 stars.

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter. It was a case that gripped the nation. In December 2003, Luke Ryder, the stepfather of acclaimed filmmaker Guy Howard (then aged 10), was found dead in the garden of their suburban family home. Luke Ryder’s murder has never been solved. Everyone present around the time of the murder swears they saw nothing. Despite a high-profile police investigation and endless media attention, no suspect was ever charged. But some murder cases are simply too big to forget… Now comes the sensational new Netflix series Infamous, dedicated to investigating – and perhaps cracking – this famous cold case. The production team will re-examine testimony, re-interview witnesses, and once again scour the evidence. The family will speak. The key players will be reunited–on camera. The truth will come out. Are you ready to see it? This is written in the form of scripts, newspaper articles, text messages, etc. so it took me a little while to get into it, but once I did I was hooked and ended up really enjoying it. I still prefer the DI Adam Fawley series but this is another great book by this author and once I got used to it I found the format really interesting. I was not expecting the ending at all! 4 stars.

Down a Dark Road by Linda Castillo (Kate Burkholder #9). Two years ago, Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. He was a “fallen” Amish man and a known drug user with a violent temper. Now King has escaped, and he’s headed for Painters Mill. News of a murderer on the loose travels like wildfire, putting Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her team of officers on edge. But this is personal for Kate. She grew up with Joseph King. As a thirteen year old Amish girl, she’d worshipped the ground he walked on. She never could have imagined the nightmare scenario that becomes reality when King shows up with a gun and takes his five children hostage at their Amish uncle’s farm. Armed and desperate, he has nothing left to lose. Fearing for the safety of the children, Kate makes contact with King only to find herself trapped with a killer. Or is he? All King asks of her is to help him prove his innocence—and he releases her unharmed. Kate is skeptical, but when the facts and the evidence don’t align, she begins to wonder who she should trust. Spurned by some of her fellow cops, she embarks on her own investigation only to unearth an unspeakable secret — and someone who is willing to commit murder to keep it buried. It’s been a long time since I read anything in this series and to be honest I can’t even remember whether I ever read book 8, but it doesn’t really matter. I’ve read enough of the others to know the background of the characters and for the latest murder/mystery itself the previous books are irrelevant. As with all the previous books in the series I really enjoyed this one. It’s fast-paced and well-written with high stakes. I love to see Kate’s team get behind her even when the town council aren’t. As always Kate’s reckless nature and insatiable inquisitiveness got her into some sticky situations and it was definitely intense at times! The final outcome was slightly predictable but overall I continue to recommend this series to thriller fans. 4 stars.

And that was everything I read in January. I recommend everything except The Garden of Lost and Found. More book reviews hopefully coming soon.

Zyma is 3! (Three months late)

by Confuzzled Bev, posted in life
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As the title states, I am waaay late with this post. WordPress logged me out and for some reason I couldn’t get back in. Now I’m finally here again what can I say about Zyma? She’s still genuinely the happiest person I’ve ever met. A little sunshine who loves people – on her terms! If random strangers talk to her in the street she’ll often hide her face or look down, but then on other days I’ll be pushing her around in her wheelchair and she’ll be saying “Hallo” to every person she says then complaining to me about every one that doesn’t answer. However, since hitting three she’s definitely been making up for the lack of terrible twos. Recently we’ve had a few reports from nursery about her hitting the other children (apparently she does apologise afterwards though and she’s not the only one – they say it’s just a phase). She’s also become very good at not listening (getting her to tidy up her toys or put on her pyjamas is a struggle some days!) and started doing things like putting random small things in her mouth – coins or small toys – which she never did as a baby. She only does it if she knows I’m watching and will actually draw my attention to it of she thinks I haven’t seen so obviously she knows it’s wrong. We’ve also had to take her colouring pencils away from her several times for drawing on the floor and she’s been told off at nursery for drawing on the table. All in all is pretty harmless though and she’s mostly pretty well behaved. We can even take her to restaurants and on fairly long train journeys as long as we take lots of books/water painting/toys without too many parts to lose. Her last flight was in October (two months before she turned 3) and she did amazingly well. Ate her pasta nicely, looked out the window, kept her seatbelt fastened without arguing when the sign was on and generally coped brilliantly with having to be on one place for nearly two hours. The next flight the UK is in May so we’ll see how that goes. She’s definitely found her cheeky side – she’s too clever for her own good and has an answer for anything. I can definitely see her being able to argue her way out of any situation – hopefully by then we’ll manage to teach her to get her point across without being rude!

Speaking of rude… obviously I still have to remind her to say please and thank you, but a lot of the time she will actually say it spontaneously. Today I handed her a bowl with some cut up pieces of apple in and she said”For me, oh thank you mama!” She’s getting very good at saying sorry as well – mostly thanks to Bing (one of the few things she’s allowed to watch. It can be annoying but has come in useful at times, such as using the trick of asking her to be “statue still” when we need to do something like cut her nails).

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She absolutely loves books, puzzles (although she hasn’t been asking for them as much recently), painting, drawing and sticking. Outside her favourite thing to do is play in the sand (much to my dismay – that stuff gets everywhere!) or go on the baby swing. She is also always singing something, and will even randomly make up her own words and insert them into the tune then say “That was a funny one!”

She’s doing amazingly with her wheelchair. On flat surfaces she’s super speedy and can even go backwards around corners, and now she’s getting stronger she can even cope with gentle slopes. Meanwhile we’re still working on standing (with the aid of her orthoses/leg braces) and she’s getting really good at kneeling. Currently she’s working on trying to stay up on her knees without holding on to anything. I made her a posting game to encourage her to kneel and I keep trying to think of other kneeling activities for her to do.

She’s still a pretty good eater – obviously she would like to eat sweets every day (courtesy of the many party bags she’s received – she’s been to three birthday parties so far this year and also got a bag of treats from two other people at nursery!) but she doesn’t argue too much when I say no. Her favourite foods include pasta, avocado, salmon, goat’s cheese, sausages (any kind!) and pumpkin soup. She also absolutely devoured her mince-filled pancake on pancake day, then ate most of a sweet one with sugar and cinnamon. I was seriously impressed! She loves baths but hates having her hair washed – pretty normal for her age.

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Helping make the pancake batter.

I can’t really think of anything else to say right now. Zyma may drive me round the bend at times (when I’m on the 10th time of telling her no, it’s not TV time, or to stop adding*more* margarine to her bagel and just eat it) but she’s my absolute favourite person to spend time with and I’m so proud to be her mama!

What I read from August -December 2024

by Confuzzled Bev, posted in books, reading

Yes, I know my last post was book reviews too, but I want to draw a line under my 2024 reads now. So here are the books I read in the last five months of last year.

August

The Year of Taking Chances by Lucy Diamond. It’s New Year’s Eve, and Gemma and Spencer Bailey are throwing a house party. There’s music, dancing, champagne and all their best friends under one roof. It’s going to be a night to remember. Also at the party is Caitlin, who has returned to the village to pack up her much-missed mum’s house and figure out what to do with her life; and Saffron, a PR executive who’s keeping a secret which no amount of spin can change. The three women bond over Gemma’s dodgy cocktails and fortune cookies, and vow to make this year their best one yet. But as the following months unfold, Gemma, Saffron and Caitlin find themselves tested to their limits by shocking new developments. Family, love, work, home – all the things they’ve taken for granted – are thrown into disarray. Under pressure, they are each forced to rethink their lives and start over. But dare they take a chance on something new? was fine. Good but not amazing. It all wrapped up predictably neatly – happy endings all round – and I expect will ultimately be forgettable but it was an entertaining enough read and I got through it quickly. 3.5 stars.

Boarded Hearts by Ruth Stilling. Jon is one of the most successful hockey players the NHL has ever seen, with a reputation as the ultimate playboy. But when newly-divorced Felicity literally crashes interest into his life all the changes. Suddenly Jon is ready for a real relationship after all. But Felicity is wary and jumping into a new relationship so soon after finally having the courage to leave her abusive ex. Can Jon prove that he’s more than his reputation and convince Felicity to take a chance at happiness again? The romance in this book was good but the writing is not. Particularly the dialogue was awful in my opinion. Nobody talks like that! At least it was a quick read. 2.5 stars.

September

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the unsolved murder of a preteen girl and the disappearance of another. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming. This was okay. There are a lot of twists and turns but I guessed who did it relatively early so it was just a matter of finding out how. I’m not sure whether I was supposed to feel sorry for Camille or hate her. Honestly, I was mostly indifferent. Despite her issues and all the backstory that was gradually revealed she just felt bland to me. I would have liked to see more of Adora’s friend – whose name I’ve actually forgotten. Jackie? Something with J. She at least sparked my interest. Other than that the most interesting character was Amma and even she could have done with more depth. Basically everyone felt like a psychotic caricature (the women) or barely noticeable cardboard cutout (most of the men). The actual plot was reasonably readable, just predictable. 3 stars.

Lifegame by Alison Allen-Grey. Fella and Grebe have grown up on an island, believing that the world beyond its shores is toxic and that the islanders are the lucky survivors of a cataclysmic disaster. And then Fella, an orphan, discovers a diary, hidden fifteen years ago by his mother – a woman who seemingly came from theOutside, from a world not run by the Officiate.This revelation seems incredible, but it gives the two friends hope that they can escape the brutality of their lives. Yet when, after a gripping chase, they manage to get off the island, what they discover is a shock. Not only is the Outside alien and frightening, it forces them to understand the appalling truth about where they have come from, and why they were there. This was fine. I found it predictable and the concept isn’t new but for teens who haven’t come across anything like it before it raises some thought-provoking questions. The writing isn’t bad although some of the pacing felt off and towards the end especially it could have done with a few more chapters. 3 stars.

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill. Enter a world where magic bubbles just below the surface. . . When Jack is sent to Hazelwood, Iowa, to live with his strange aunt and uncle, he expects a summer of boredom. Little does he know that the people of Hazelwood have been waiting for him for quite a long time. When he arrives, he begins to make actual friends for the first time in his life – but the town bully beats him up and the richest man in town begins to plot Jack’s imminent, and hopefully painful, demise. It’s up to Jack to figure out why suddenly everyone cares so much about him. Back home he was practically… invisible. Another one that was just okay. It’s intriguing to a point but then I started to want at least a few answers. Wendy and Frankie are great characters but Jack is a little bland. It’s hard to believe this is the same author as The Girl Who Drank the Moon, which is amazing! 2.5 stars.

October

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson. 18-year-old Annabel, known as Bel, has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on. But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again. Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. But if Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And – could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead. This was good but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series. Something was lacking for me and some of the reveals and twists felt a little too far-fetched. I’m Al’s annoyed that it was set in the US – for me one of the selling points of the Good Girl’s Guide series is that it’s set in the UK for a change! I would still recommend this one though. 4 stars.

November

The Great Ice-cream Crime by Hazel Townson. (Lenny and Jake Adventures #1).When Lenny and Jake find a bag of money in the woods, they suspect the owner of an ice-cream van of kidnapping. With the police refusing to take them seriously, it’s up to the two boys to solve the crime. This was fine. Obviously dated being from 1980 but the kind of book I would have devoured as a child. I liked the characters, especially the aunt. 3 stars.

Secrets of the Stormforest by L. D. Lapinski (Strangeworlds Travel Agency#3). Flick and Jonathan have faced countless dangers in their roles as part of the Strangeworlds Society and come out alive on the other side. But what do they really know about the Society they are risking their lives for? Why does it exist? Who is Strangeworlds there to protect? And what in the worlds is happening to the multiverse now?With worlds everywhere under threat of collapse and mysteries abounding, it’s up to Flick and Jonathan to discover the answers to these questions. And only if they can uncover the secrets of Strangeworlds and the secrets of a new mysterious world called ‘The Stormforest’ will they have any hope of defending their world – and others – from the threat that is facing them all. I really enjoyed this. The stakes are high, it’s packed full of adventure and the author did an incredible job of bringing all the threads together into an ending that made sense. It’s been a while since I’ve read the other two books so I can’t say for sure but I don’t think there were any questions left open. I highly recommend this series. I’m sad that this was the final book. 5 stars.

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (Hawthorne and Horowitz #1). A woman is strangled six hours after organising her own funeral. Did she know she was going to die? Did she recognise her killer? Daniel Hawthorne, a recalcitrant detective with secrets of his own, is on the case, together with his reluctant side-kick – a man completely unaccustomed to the world of crime. But even Hawthorne isn’t prepared for the twists and turns in store – as unexpected as they are bloody… I enjoyed this book for the most part. The mystery was intriguing and I didn’t guess the culprit. They’re author’s insertion of himself into the story was a novel and interesting touch and accompanying him around London was a lot of fun. However, something about it irritated me slightly. I think it was the number of times Horowitz mentioned his other work. I found myself rolling my eyes every time he mentioned the Alex Rider series – it almost felt like he was bragging about how successful he is and it kind of put me off him. Other than that it was an enjoyable read though. 3.5 stars.

Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan. This Christmas the Miller siblings have one goal – to avoid their family’s well-meaning questions. Ross, Alice and Clemmie have secrets that they don’t intend to share, and they’re relying on each other to deflect attention. Meanwhile, Lucy Clarke is facing a Christmas alone, and the prospect of losing her job – unless she can win a major piece of business from Ross Miller. She’ll deliver her proposal to his family home in the Scottish Highlands and then leave. After all, she wouldn’t want to intrude on the Miller’s perfect family Christmas. When Lucy appears on the Miller’s snow-covered doorstep, she is mistaken for Ross’s girlfriend. But by the time the confusion is cleared up, a storm has hit and Lucy is stuck. As everyone settles in for a snowed-in Christmas, tensions bubble to the surface and suddenly Lucy finds herself facing a big family fallout with a family that isn’t even hers. I really enjoyed this. It’s exactly as predictable as you would expect but not entirely fluff – the story does have some depth to it. I loved the characters, especially Nanna Jean, and now I want to be part of the Miller family! One slight issue is that there were maybe too many storylines and perspectives. The focus on Alice and, to a lesser extent, Clemmie made Lucy and Ross’s thread ended up seeming a little rushed. I would have liked to see them interact more to make it more believable. All in all I enjoyed it though and it really put me in the mood for Christmas, even though it was only November when I read it! 4 stars.

December

Noddy Goes to Toyland by Enid Blyton (Noddy #1). My sister had the Noddy series as a child and I know I read them too but I don’t really remember them. I picked this one up second hand a while ago and at the beginning of December Zyma took it from the bookcase and wanted to read it. Since it’s longer than her usual picture books I decided I could count it towards my books too – I was amazed she sat through the whole thing actually (in 3 sittings but all on the same day). I think most people know the story? Noddy is a little wooden man whose head nods when he speaks. This book introduces him and tells the tale of how he met Big Ears and came to live in Toyland. I enjoyed it well enough. It was interesting to (re-) learn where Noddy came from and how he got his name. It’s a cute story with themes of belonging and being judged on your actions rather than appearance or origin. I read the 2008 edition and there’s nothing particularly objectionable in it – Big Ears is still Big Ears (I believe there were objections to the name but IM not sure whether it’s been changed in some editions?) but the Golliwogs have been replaced with toy monkeys. If my daughter continues to show an interest I may get her the next book in the series. 4 stars.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. We all know them from the horror films, when the killing is over and the perpetrator is either dead or gone, one person is always left alive to tell the tale. The survivor, the final girl. But what happens to final girls after the end credits? Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up. This was a fun read and kept me entertained on a looong day of train delays. The premise was pretty clever and while I kind of guessed who the culprit was I was only halfway there. Most of the characters felt quite flat though and I could never seem to remember which of the final girls was which – other than Lynette, obviously. I would actually have liked to see more of Chrissy – the brief scene in her “museum” was fascinating. I gave it 3 stars but I do want to read more from this author even if this one wasn’t the five star read I was expecting.

Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates. Matt Donaghy is the class joker, and Ursula Riggs is the misfit loner. Neither knows the other. But when Matt is suddenly arrested on a charge of threatening to blow up the school and massacre the students. With all Matt’s friends keeping their distance, Ursula – or Ugly Girl as she secretly refers to herself – is the only one who sees through the hysteria and hypocrisy, and corroborates Matt’s story. Matt may have a big mouth, but he’s not a killer and Ugly Girl knows injustice when she sees it and she isn’t afraid to stand up for the truth. I liked this book, but didn’t love it. It’s well written with some good moments but it’s quite predictable. I thought the Ugly Girl helping Big Mouth prove his innocence part would take longer but actually most of the story is about the aftermath, which is fine but not what I was expecting. I’m glad I read it but it’s not one I’ll read again. 3 stars.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they navigated the girl drought of gawky adolescence together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career and a marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove. This is one of those books that makes me feel like I’m too stupid to understand. There were parts I really enjoyed but the ending left me frustrated and confused. I can’t tell you all my questions without spoiling things but here is one: how can someone understand something they didn’t even know in the first place? 3 stars.

And that’s all of them. Phew. Quite a few mediocre books there – 2024 wasn’t my best year for truly great reads. Here’s to a better 2025!