Books, hockey, and a bucketful of snark

I'm a cat-loving, sports-mad Yorkshire lass, who has just retired to the warmth of North Carolina after spending 12 years living in the beautiful (but freezing cold) city of Boston MA. 

I came to the US with my husband in the summer of 2007 and we were only supposed to be here for six months, but in June 2016 we became US citizens, so it looks as if I'm here for a while longer. 

I retired from work in 2019 and we made the decision to leave Boston and move south to warmer climes. We loved living in Boston, but the winters were getting us down so we upped sticks and are now in North Carolina.

Sadly I couldn't take this little guy with me. He's not mine so he had to stay behind, and I'm going to miss him so much. 

As you can tell from the photos on my blog I'm also a keen bird watcher. It's something I've been doing for years, but it was a bit of a shock moving to the US and having to recognize a whole set of different birds. I can't claim the credit for the pictures by the way. They were all taken by my husband. 

Seeing as this site is called Booklikes, I suppose I ought to talk about my reading habits.

I can't remember a time when I couldn't read.  My mum taught me my letters and simple words when I was two years old and I just took it from there. When I started school aged four, I'd already read the 'learn to read' books, so once my teachers realised this, they just let me go to the library and choose my own books instead.  And I've been doing that ever since. 

I love the classics (but not Jane Austen).  Sci-fi and fantasy led me to urban fantasy and that in turn has led me to steampunk. And I have a penchant for detective fiction, whether traditional or combined with another genre.

I don't read much romance, but one of my guilty pleasures is reading the 'sex and shopping' bonkbusters from the 1980s. And I do enjoy the occasional sweeping family saga.  

Yeah, basically I'll read pretty much anything.