sarahmatthews

FreakyFwoof, 4 months ago to tesla

I didn't know that #Tesla cars could fart-on-demand. Today I proved to my son Jake that I'm still a very big kid at heart, but I have absolutely 0 shame.
Warning: Do not drink and drive. Especially do not drink and listen to this at the same time.

FreakyFwoof, 4 months ago to random

The date: December 31.
The year: 2011.
The time: About 20:14.
The event: I'm opening a champagne bottle, and my lovely wife Kirsten and I are toasting the end of 2011 and the start of 2012.

Opening the bottle was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill event, but...
Let's just say bubbles, and a bottle that's been shaken around in a car is probably not a good thing.
Every year it's traditional that I play and post this recording for it's comedic value, every year I hear it I simply can't help but laugh. You don't need video to understand what happens, and to enjoy it with us. Listen and chuckle.
Happy new year from Jake, Alice, Kirsten and myself and enjoy yourselves.

PS. No Kirstens were harmed in the making of this recording, despite the cork shooting out of the bottle faster than you can say 2023, and nearly decapitating her.

https://youtu.be/SECSu6shNRk
@MoonCat

sarahmatthews, 4 months ago to bookstodon

I’ve had a brilliant year of reading so had a look back today to come up with a top 10 books of 2023 list, in no particular order:
📚 Towards Zero, Agatha Christie, 1944
📚 Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan, 2021
📚 I’m A Fan, Sheena Patel, 2022
📚 Moshi-Moshi, Banana Yoshimoto, 2010
📚 less, andrew Sean Greer, 2017
📚 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, 2022
📚 Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, Elsa Sjunneson, 2021
📚 The Fashion In Shrouds, Margery Allingham, 1938
📚 A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr, 1980
📚 Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates, 1961
That was incredibly hard! These are the books I highly recommend and that stayed with me long after reading. Ask me again in a few days and I’ll probably give you a different list haha!
2023 has been my first year of posting book reviews here and it’s started some great conversations and led me to trying out Storygraph again where I’m now tracking my reading and adding reviews, and I’m finding it so much fun #bookstodon @bookstodon

sarahmatthews, 4 months ago to disability

There are so many interesting events coming up on 4 Jan for #WorldBrailleDay - here are some just posted on The Braillists Foundation website #Braille #blind #Deafblind #PartiallySighted #WorldBrailleDay2024 @disability
➡️The Braille You Need, When You Need It: A Special Event for World Braille Day, Thursday 4 January at 7:30 PM
➡️ Braille and Breakfast from Sight and Sound Technology Ltd, Thursday 4 January at 9:30 AM
➡️ Join UKAAF for World Braille Day, 4 January at 1:00 PM
➡️ Braille Matters International Extravaganza from the Braille Revival League, Thursday 4 January at 6:00 PM GMT
https://www.braillists.org

sarahmatthews, 4 months ago to bookstodon

#BookReview Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlet
Read as ebook using a mix of Braille & TTS
Dean Street Press
Pub. 1941

---

I was looking for a gentle read for the Xmas period and had recently heard about this charming book. Written by Noel Streatfeild (famous for Ballet Shoes) under a pseudonym,we follow an ordinary family struggling to get by. Beth is the oldest of 5 kids and is disappointed not to be able to go on to secretarial college after school as her parents can’t afford it. Her father has always wanted her to join him at Babbacombe’s, a department store, where he’s worked for 30 years and she duly obliges.
Throwing a spanner in the works is Dulcie, a cousin who’s sent to live with them and also starts at the store. She’s been educated at boarding school, arriving with a showy attitude that contrasts with the simple life of the Carsons.
Beth’s story starts with her bumping into a young man, David, and his dog at Paddington station, meeting him again at Babbacombe’s, where they get stuck in a lift. From there the romance slowly builds, though Beth is resistant as she knows her father is against girls dating outside their class.
All kinds of obstacles are put in their way, many of which show the workings of the store. The scene where Beth’s duped by a shoplifter was really nicely told in particular.
i often find myself on edge when there’s a storyline about blindness in classic novels but this was generally good with regards to how the experience of glaucoma was described, given the time it was written, e.g. when he goes to see his sister who makes a fool of herself at a school performance:
“Edward missed the excitement: his vision did not carry as far as the stage. But already his ears were training themselves to help out his eyes, and he caught a faint whisper from the row behind. ‘What a little figure of fun!’” That was relatable.
And it made me smile to find the novel ending on Christmas Day, very festive!
#bookstodon #DeanStreetDecember @bookstodon

sarahmatthews, 4 months ago to bookstodon

A great list, via Electric Literature, this one’s definitely going on my reading list! - Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar “Amina Akhtar, founding editor of The Cut, has written a novel about a woman who, having gone missing for a year, becomes the subject of a true-crime podcast. “Part thriller, part family saga, part supernatural horror, Almost Surely Dead will surprise you in the best way possible”
#bookstodon @bookstodon
https://electricliterature.com/75-books-by-women-of-color-to-read-in-2024/#content

sarahmatthews, 5 months ago to Pubtips

this is an interesting read on the struggle new, non-celebrity, authors are facing via The Walrus | “a self-fulfilling prophecy: the authors expected to attract the most attention and resources from consumers are given the most attention and resources by their publishers (which in turn helps them attract the most attention and resources from consumers).” #publishing #bookstodon #books @bookstodon
https://thewalrus.ca/how-do-you-even-sell-a-book-anymore/#content

timrichards, 5 months ago to books

Christ, imagine being so deranged that you'd post negative reviews of books of fellow new authors you perceived as rivals. Goodreads is turning into the YouTube of the literary world (no that's not a compliment).

‘It’s totally unhinged’: is the book world turning against Goodreads? | Books | The Guardian

#Books @bookstodon @NarrelleMHarris https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/18/goodreads-review-bombing

sarahmatthews, 5 months ago to Pubtips

A spotlight on a great indie publisher based in West Yorkshire via The Publishing Post | “In contrast to the corporate and conglomerate nature of publishing today, Bluemoose publishes stories that engage and inspire, rather than books that rely on celebrity names to attract readers.”

https://www.thepublishingpost.com/post/spotlight-on-bluemoose-books

#bookstodon #publishing @bookstodon

sarahmatthews, 5 months ago to random

I’m off to bed with my Braille book and a cuppa so I’ll have enough energy for a meal out with friends later 🥱

sarahmatthews, 5 months ago to bookstodon

#BookReview The Dower House Mystery by Patricia Wentworth
Read as e-book using a mix of Braille and TTS
Dean Street Press
Pub. 1925

---

I’ve been meaning to read Dean Street Press for ages as their books sound so enjoyable, so #DeanStreetDecember was the nudge I needed.
I loved the setup of this one; Amabel Grey takes a peculiar job to earn enough money to send her daughter on a chance of a lifetime trip abroad (to snag a rich husband!), thinking she’s a capable woman who doesn’t believe in ghosts and all will be fine. How hard could it be to be paid by the owner of a house to live there for 6 months to quash the local rumours that it’s haunted, which have made it impossible to rent out?
But of course as soon as she arrives strange and unsettling things start to happen, all of which sound ridiculous when explained out loud; someone laughing, a cat mewing, doors that were bolted at night being wide open in the morning, the feeling that someone is following you up the stairs. And all manner of other creepy little details to add to the tension:
“The house was very still, but twice the stillness was broken by that sound of light footsteps, jenny of course, moving about downstairs. She turned a page and forced her mind to follow the words. They remained words to her, separate words, no connecting thought to string them together. On other nights there had been a hundred sounds; the wind in the chimneys, the pattering of the rain, the unkempt ivy buffeting the windowpane, the faint scuttering of mice. Tonight there were none of these sounds, the house was very still. It was like the hush before a storm.”
The solution was a little absurd and I saw it coming but I didn’t mind as I was enjoying the main characters and the eerie atmosphere of the house so much, I just went with it!
A fortune teller, a past love, a mysterious missing girl and two dogs that run away in terror all make for a thoroughly entertaining read.
#Bookstodon #DeanStreetDecember23 @bookstodon

sarahmatthews, 5 months ago to disability

A survey for any #Braille users in Europe who have a Braille display or notetaker - The European Blind Union want to know your views in order to improve access to electronic Braille:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTwXqIiE018k3wMOeTqALmMaggvd1sGqOm3VCkbrDUIzHu7A/viewform
#blind #Deafblind #PartiallySighted @disability

kimlockhartga, 5 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon Just out of curiosity, how close are you to your reading goal for the year? I need to read 12 more books to meet the goal I set for myself. 📚📚📚📚

Not everyone works the same way, of course. We've discussed before that reading goals are counterproductive for many. Having a goal really helps me, but it doesn't work for everyone. Just like reading for pleasure and reading to write a review are very different processes.

sarahmatthews, 5 months ago to random

I’ve not had an advent calendar for years but the boys spotted a Terry’s Chocolate Orange one this year and knew I’d like it, yum! So I put little sticky Dymo Braille labels on the windows but they’re all falling off already 🤣 oh dear, gonna have to do audio ones instead I guess

sarahmatthews, 5 months ago to Pubtips

Dean Street Press is a great independent publisher who are ‘ devoted to producing, uncovering, and revitalizing good books’. Their authors include Stella Gibbons, Brian Flynn and D E Stevenson. This month it’s Dean Street December and I fancy reading a new author to me, Patricia Wentworth, who wrote mystery novels in the mid 20th century. I’ve been having fun looking through their website this morning trying to decide which one to read first #bookstodon #publishing @bookstodon
https://www.deanstreetpress.co.uk/pages/author_page/33