I’ve had shopping amnesia recently – every time I went to the supermarket I automatically bought eggs, and I only realised what I was doing once I had 3 and a half cartons. So, for the last week, it’s been eggs for dinner (scrambled, buttered, omletted, encaked...), and now things are back to more sensible levels.

Along similar lines, I’ve been finishing off all my library books before they, too, exceed their expiration dates…

The Hungry Cloud, Tom Ingram. Children’s fantasy, in a vaguely Scottish world where two children wait in a castle for their parents to return from holiday, and strange things start to happen. ( The Hungry Cloud. )

I’ve bounced off a lot of Cherryh’s stuff, and it took Cyteen (which I read for the first time about three years ago) to actually make me stick. ( Foreigner, CJ Cherryh. )

The Stormwatcher, Graham Joyce. The blurb disturbed me on this one. “In England,” it says, as if about to announce some bizarre perversion, “it is very common for groups of friends to vacation together…”. It then goes on to tell me that only one of the events in the story is unambiguously supernatural, and after finishing the book I’m still not sure which it was. Anyway. ( The Stormwatcher. )

Magic's Child. Tying up the series. ( Magic’s Child, Justine Larbelestier. )

( Edwina Sparrow: Girl of Destiny, Carol Chataway. )

( Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl. )

( The Haunting of Lamb House, Joan Aitken. )

( The Hard Way, Lee Child. )