A new family member

This is Sammy. She's 3-4 months old, and very playful. 

She arrived yesterday from the SPCA, and has already taken control of the house.

The Bone Clocks

This morning I finished, sadly, the best book I've read in a very long time: 

David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks. 

It was astonishing, brilliant... awesome, in the true meaning of that word.

If you are at all interested in speculative fiction, you should read it. As soon as possible!

I want to quote a paragraph which I find myself thinking about repeatedly.

The book's events begin in 1984, and end in 2043. One of the main characters (I won't tell you the character's name, as I don't want to risk any spoilers), says this in October 2043:

(I felt) "grief for the regions we deadlanded, the ice caps we melted, the Gulf Stream we redirected, the rivers we drained, the coasts we flooded, the lakes we choked with crap, the seas we killed, the species we drove to extinction, the pollinators we wiped out, the oil we squandered, the drugs we rendered impotent, the comforting liars we voted into office - all so that we didn't have to change our cosy lifestyles... 

My generation were diners stuffing ourselves senseless at the Restaurant of the Earth's Riches knowing - while denying - that we'd be doing a runner and leaving our grandchildren a tab that can never be paid."

In spite of what I have quoted here, this book is not a diatribe or polemical. It's a 

wonderful, gripping story, written by an extremely gifted author.