karenmarie's book journey of 2016, thread #3

Hi all and welcome to thread three. We're over halfway through 2016 and I feel like I've read so many interesting books this year. My Mount TBR is 1,634 books and will grow as I have some that I'm going to reclassify as TBR. Having so many books to be read does not prevent from buying or receiving new books of course, (thank you in advance, Mark!), so I'm sure TBR will grow by the end of the year. Sigh.

Too many books, too little time.

Here's the list of what I've read so far this year:

1. van Loon's Geography by Hendrik Willem van Loon 11/1/15 01/02/16 ***1/2 505 pages hardcover
2. *reread* The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto 12/9/15 1/7/16 ***1/2 **audiobook** 622 pages hardcover
3. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay 1/2/16 1/8/16 ***1/2 292 pages trade paperback
4. Pacific: Silicon Chips by Simon Winchester 1/3/16 1/24/16 ***1/2 444 pages hardcover
5. At Home by Bill Bryson 1/8/16 1/28/16 **audiobook** **** 560 pages hardcover
6. The Unstrung Harp by Edward Gorey 1/24/16 1/24/16 **** 64 pages hardcover
7. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker 1/24/16 2/2/16 **** 640 pages trade paperback
8. *reread* Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 2/2/16 2/3/16 **** 212 pages hardcover
9. Desert Heat by J.A. Jance 2/3/16 2/4/16 *** 373 pages MM paperback
10. The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson 2/4/16 2/8/16 *** 376 pages hardcover
11. A Key into the Language of America by Roger Williams 2/8/16 4/4/16 *** 205 pages trade paperback
12. *reread* Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories by J. Sheridan LeFanu 2/8/16 2/9/15 **1/2 92 pages trade paperback
13. Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews 2/9/16 2/12/16 ***1/2 427 pages hardcover
14. *reread* The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith 2/1/16 3/4/16 **** **audiobook** 464 pages hardcover
15. The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink by Erle Stanley Gardner 2/14/16 2/15/16 **1/2 226 pages mass market paperback
16. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin 2/13/16 2/16/16 ***1/2 228 pages mass market paperback
17. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins 2/16/16 2/17/16 **** 323 pages hardcover
18. Fox Evil by Minette Walters 2/17/16 2/24/16 **** 369 pages hardcover
19. No Shred of Evidence by Charles Todd 2/24/16 2/26/16 **** 341 pages hardcover
20. Ross Poldark by Winston Graham 2/27/16 3/1/16 ****1/2 455 pages trade paperback
21. Demelza by Winston Graham 3/3/16 3/4/16 **** 432 pages trade paperback
22. Save the Date by Mary Kay Andrews 3/8/16 3/11/16 *** 464 pages trade paperback
23. My American Duchess by Eloisa James 3/12/16 3/15/16 **1/2 404 pages mass market paperback
24. Girl Jacked by Christopher Greyson 3/18/16 3/21/16 ***1/2 218 pages trade paperback
25. *reread* The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith 3/21/16 *audiobook** 455 pages hardcover
26. Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben 3/25/16 3/27/16 **** 387 pages hardcover
27. Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver 3/27/16 3/31/16 **** 437 pages hardcover
28. Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews 3/31/16 4/2/16 *** 419 pages hardcover
29. *reread* Funerals are Fatal by Agatha Christie 4/4/16 4/5/16 ***1/2 226 pages hardcover
30. The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer 4/8/16 4/10/16 ***1/2 316 pages trade paperback
31. *reread* Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 4/10/16 4/14/16 **** 850 pages mass market paperback
32. *reread* Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon 4/15/16 4/24/16 **** 947 pages mass market paperback
33. On the Choice of a Mistress by Benjamin Franklin 4/22/16 5/24/16 ***1/2 59 pages mass market paperback
34. *reread* Voyager by Diana Gabaldon 4/24/16 4/30/16 **** 1059 pages mass market paperback
35. *reread* Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock 4/29/16 4/29/16 **** 48 pages hardcover
36. Sabine's Notebook by Nick Bantock 4/29/16 4/29/16 **** 48 pages hardcover
37. The Golden Mean by Nick Bantock 4/29/16 4/29/16 **** 48 pages hardcover
38. *reread* Drums of Autumn by Diane Gabaldon 4/30/16 5/8/16 1070 pages **** mass market paperback
39. The Pharos Gate by Nick Bantock 5/8/16 5/9/16 **** 60 pages hardcover
40. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon 5/8/16 5/17/16 ****1/2 979 pages hardcover
41. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler 5/25/16 5/30/16 ****1/2 375 pages hardcover
42. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon 5/17/16 6/2/16 **** 980 pages hardcover
43. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon 6/2/16 6/23/16 **** 820 pages hardcover
44. Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon 6/23/16 7/1/16 825 pages hardcover
45. The Fireman by Joe Hill 7/2/16 7/14/16 ***1/2 748 pages hardcover
46. Hot Guys and Kittens by Audrey Kuhner 7/7/16 7/7/16 ****
47. Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker 7/14/16 7/14/16 **** 110 pages hardcover
48. Who Stole Sassi Manoon? by Donald E. Westlake 7/13/16 7/14/16 ***1/2 178 pages hardcover
49. String Theory by David Foster Wallace with an introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan 07/14/16 07/15/16 **** 138 pages hardcover
50. *reread* Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith 7/18/16 8/4/16 **** **audiobook** 512 pages hardcover
51. Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters 07/15/16 07/25/16 **** 326 pages hardcover
52. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman 07/24/16 7/30/16 ****1/2 343 pages trade paperback
53. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 7/30/16 8/1/16 ***** 255 pages hardcover
54. But Nellie Was So Nice by Mary McCullen 08/03/16 08/04/16 183 pages hardcover
55. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling et. al. 8/5/16 8/6/16 **** 308 pages hardcover
56. Rooms by Lauren Oliver 08/06/16 8/9/16 **** 303 pages trade paperback
57. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny 8/9/16 8/14/16 *** 386 pages trade paperback (ARC)
58. The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones 8/15/16 8/18/16 ** 420 pages trade paperback
59. Where God Was Born by Bruce Feiler 7/30/16 8/18/16 *** **audiobook** 381 pages trade paperback
60. The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos Featuring Smell O-Toons by Berke Breathed 8/25/16 8/26/16 **** 96 pages paperback
61. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson 8/19/16 8/28/16 **** 864 pages trade paperback
62. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear 8/28/16 8/31/16 *** 294 pages trade paperback
63. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee 9/1/16 9/3/16 ***1/2 278 pages hardcover
64. Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer 9/4/16 9/4/16 *** 368 pages trade paperback
65. A Gentleman's Mistress by Mary Brendan 9/5/16 9/5/16 ***1/2 206 pages mass market paperback
66. The Wary Spinster by April Kihlstrom 9/8/16 9/8/16 *** 222 pages mass market paperback
67. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham 9/8/16 9/9/16 **1/2 208 pages mass market paperback
68. A Radical Arrangement by Jane Ashford 9/9/16 9/10/16 ***222 pages mass market paperback
69. Miss Dornton's Hero by Elisabeth Fairchild 9/10/16 9/11/16 *** 1/2 212 pages mass market paperback incl Author's Note
70. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 8/5/16 9/14/16 ***** **audiobook** 255 pages hardcover
71. Yukon Ho! by Bill Watterson 09/14/16 09/14/16 **** 128 pages paperback
72. All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen 9/11/16 9/18/16 ****1/2 330 pages trade paperback (ARC)
73. The Lonely Dwarf by Rosemary Lamkey 9/18/16 9/18/16 ** 49 pages hardcover
74. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty 9/19/16 9/20/16 **** 464 pages trade paperback

Currently reading:
The Quartet by Joseph J. Ellis 3/23/16 248 pages hardcover
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 9/1/16 472 pages hardcover 1861
Until I Find You by John Irving 9/1/16 820 pages hardcover 2005
Yuge! by Gary Trudeau 9/20/16 111 pages trade paperback 2016
Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner 404 pages hardcover 2016

America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation by Kenneth C. Davis **audiobook**

Book acquisitions in 2016.

January - 16
Amazon Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
Amazon The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva
AbeBooks Shooting Stars by Stephan Zweig
Bookmooch Pay Dirt by Rita Mae Brown
Bookmooch Murder at Monticello by Rita Mae Brown
Thrift Store Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews
Thrift Store The Pope's Rhinoceros by Lawrence Norfolk
Thrift Store The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
Amazon A Catholic Interlinear Old Testament Polyglot Volume 6 by Paul A. Boer Sr.
Journal Subscription Lapham's Quarterly Volume IX, Number 1, Winter 2016:Spies by Lewis Lapham
Amazon The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson
Thrift Store The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black
Thrift Store The Stolen Bride by Jo Beverly
Thrift Store The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker
Thrift Store The Confabulist by Steven Galloway
Amazon The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West

February - 9
Circle City Books Used Books Desert Heat by J.A. Jance
Circle City Books Used Books The Arrangement by Suzanne Forster
Amazon Dead in the Scrub by B.J. Oliphant
Bookmooch The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers
Amazon - Christmas Money No Shred of Evidence by Charles Todd
Bookmooch Remains of Innocence by J.A. Jance
Bookmooch Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell
Amazon A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King
Amazon Ross Poldark by Winston Graham

March - 10
Amazon Demelza by Winston Graham
Amazon Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham
Thrift Store Dark Places Gillian Flynn
Thrift Store Outlaw Mountain by J.A. Jance
Thrift Store Damage Control by J.A. Jance
Thrift Store Dead Wrong by J.A. Jance
Amazon Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Neighbor Larry Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King
Neighbor Larry The Talisman by Stephen King
Costco Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

April - 80 (76 Friends of the Library Sale, 4 Amazon)
Amazon Lexicon by Max Barry
Amazon And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Amazon Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Amazon The Sherlockian by Graham Moore
Easton Press 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" leather-bound books of poems by: Browning, Burns, Byron, Coleridge, Longfellow, Shakespeare, Shelley, Tennyson
The Friendly Jane Austen by Natalie Tyler
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
Life for a Life by T. Frank Muir touchstone not working
Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Love Story, with Murders by Harry Bingham
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer
Night Train by Martin Amis
The Arts by Hendrik Willem Van Loon
The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Ladies Night by Mary Kay Andrews
On the Choice of a Mistress by Benjamin Franklin
The Chessmen by Peter May
Blowback by Peter May
The Lewis Man by Peter May
Exit Lines by Reginald Hill
A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd
Bruno Chief of Police by Martin Walker
The Marx Sisters by Barry Maitland
Police by Jo Nesbo
The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
One Man's Flag by David Downing
Dark Mirror by Barry Maitland
Folly du Jour by Barbara Cleverly
The Blood Royal by Barbara Cleverly
The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization by Hornblower and Spawforth
How to Do Everything by Courtney Rosen & the eHow Editors
Three Exemplary Novels by Miguel de Cervantes
King of the Confessors by Thomas Hoving
Heloise & Abelard by James Burge
Insatiable by Meg Cabot
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
Rooms by Lauren Oliver
The Future for Curious People by Gregory Sheryl
Jefferson's Legacy A Brief History of the Library of Congress by John Y. Cole
Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis
Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter
Nora Webster by Colm Toibin
The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories by O. Henry
Passing on by Penelope Lively
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
The Illustrious Dead by Stephan Talty
Impulse & Initiative by Abigail Reynolds
The Game of Thirty by William Kotzwinkle
Autumn, All The Cats Return by Philippe Georget
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz
The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
The Intern by Gabrielle Tozer
The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg
The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz
Fiddlers by Ed McBain
In a Dark House by Deborah Crombie
A Sight for Sore Eyes by Ruth Rendell
Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs
Disclaimer by Renee Knight
Where God Was Born by Bruce Feiler audiobook
America's Hidden History by Kenneth C. Davis audiobook
His Excellency George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis audiobook
Paris by Edward Rutherford audiobook

May - 19
Family 9 Bibles
Family 2 New Testaments
Neighbor Louise Cold Vengeance by Preston & Child
Amazon The Pharos Gate by Nick Bantock
Bookmooch Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue
Amazon The Prague Cemetary by Umberto Eco
Amazon The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
Amazon The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon
Friend Karen Justice Hall by Laurie R. King
Friend Karen The Moor by Laurie R. King

June - 18
Thrift Store Betty Crocker's Ultimate Cookie Book
Amazon The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Friend Karen North Carolina Architecture
Friend Karen North Carolina Pottery
Amazon The Romantic Egoists
Amazon 10-day Green Smoothie Cleanse
Amazon To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Amazon - Christmas Money End of Watch by Stephen King
Amazon The Story of Land and Sea by Katy Simpson Smith
Thrift Store lightning by Dean Koontz
Thrift Store Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
Thrift Store Ape House by Sara Gruen
Costco The Fireman by Joe Hill
Amazon The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Amazon Villa America by Liza Klaussmann
Amazon Written in My Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon
Amazon The Outlandish Companion Volume 2 by Diana Gabaldon
Amazon Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

July - 7
Amazon Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
Friend Karen Hot Guys and Kittens by Audrey Khuner
Showed up on Shelves - probably from Friends of the Library Sale Rooms by Lauren Oliver
Amazon Who Stole Sassi Manoon? by Donald E. Westlake
Amazon String Theory by David Foster Wallace
msf59 Crow Lake by Mary Larson
msf59 Astray by Emma Donoghue

August - 19
Amazon - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
Friend Teresa When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson
Friend Sarah A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
Friend Louise The Divide by Nicholas Evans
Friend Louise A God in Ruins by Leon Uris
Friend Louise Regulated for Murder bu Sizamme Adair
Thrift Store Willoughby's Return by Jane Odiwe
Thrift Store A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horowitz
Thrift Store The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones
Thrift Store In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner
Thrift Store Sentenced to Die by J.A. Jance
Thrift Store Impulse & Initiative by Abigail Reynolds
Amazon Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Amazon The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua
Friend Louise Unquiet by John Connolly
Amazon Vanishing Point by Michael Roessner
McIntyres Fine Books and Bookends A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
McIntyres Fine Books and Bookends Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin
McIntyres Fine Books and Bookends River of Darkness by Rennie Airth - returned and replaced with
McIntyres Fine Books and Bookends Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard

September – 54 so far

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard J. Carwardine
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee – I’m sad because the box is seriously damaged, but the CDs are immaculate
Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo
Summerland by Michael Chabon
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
The Greater Journey by David McCullough
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
The Old Devils by Kinglsey Amis
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
The Portable Dorothy Parker with an introduction by Brendan Gill
Euphoria by Lily King
The Enormous Room by e.e. cummings
In One Person by John Irving
The Red Pole of Macau by Ian Hamilton
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
The Confusion by Neal Stephenson
The System of the World by Neal Stephenson
The Teachings of Don Juan
A Separate Reality
Journey to Ixtlan
Tales of Power
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne
A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, and The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote
Dexter’s Final Cut by Jeff Lindsay
Redemption Road by John Hart
Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
This Fabulous Century: 1910-1920 by the Editors of Time-Life Books
The Distant Echo by Val McDermid - hardcover
A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works by Jonathan Swift - trade paperback
Three Complete Novels in One Book: O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather- hardcover
The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White - hardcover
Kim by Rudyard Kipling - hardcover
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride - trade paperback
Voltaire's Calligrapher by Pablo de Santis - trade paperback
The Dream-Detective by Sax Rohmer - trade paperback
The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters - hardcover
The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks - hardcover
Nothing to be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes - hardcover
Nelson's complete book of Bible Maps & Charts - Thomas Nelson Publishers - trade paperback
Ask Your Angels by Alma Daniel, Timothy Wyllie, and Andrew Ramer - trade paperback
The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War by the Editors of American Heritage The Magazine of History - two hardcover volumes slipcased
Amazon We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Amazon Yuge
Bookmooch The Dinosaur Feather by S.J. Gazan

Statistics through the end of June.

Author
Male 52%
Female 48%

Living 72%
Dead 28%

US Born 58%
Foreign Born 42%

Medium
Hardcover 53%
Trade Pback 16%
Mass Market 21%
Audiobook 7%
e-Book 2%

Source
My Library 100%
Other 0%

ARC/ER 0
Re-read 28%
Series 53%

Fiction 36 84%
NonFiction 7 16%

Original Year Published:
1643 3%
1932 3%
1934 3%
1945 7%
1946 7%
1952 3%
1953 7%
1958 3%
1987 3%
1993 3%
2002 3%
2004 3%
2005 3%
2006 3%
2009 3%
2010 3%
2012 3%
2013 7%
2014 7%
2015 10%
2016 10%

I am in a bit of a reading impasse - have started three books but nothing is grabbing me.

I have done a mass migration of books that I have read to the empty shelves in my Retreat (daughter's old play room behind her bedroom), so the Sunroom aka Karen's Home Office now only has books that I have not read yet. And, they are only one book deep, so far no double- or triple-shelving!

But I haven't found the right book since finishing String Theory the other day.

At least looking around should make it easier to find something since everything in this room is available to read. Well, except Hot Guys and Kittens, but THAT requires periodic re-reads..... :)

Ermagerd! Hot Guys and Kittens! Bwahahahaha!

ETA- Total shelf envy.

Happy new thread, Karen. I hope you get your reading mojo back for high summer. Your books look very nicely organised. xx

>5 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! Well, it was a birthday present from a friend of mine. Aren't presents a wonderful thing?

shelf envy - Husband had these shelves built for me. Originally this was a true screened porch, but it turned into a junk room so we implemented our second option, which was to make it a room. The screened windows openings were originally built with standard window dimensions, so we had standard double-hung windows installed, and we simply got some additional heating/air conditioning vents put in. Real room. After that the shelf on the right was built, then eventually the shelf on the left with the connecting overhead shelf; both by our very talented neighbor Larry.

>6 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul! Thank you. Working on the book mojo.

Since retiring I have spent countless hours inventorying and reorganizing my books, just so I could have this result - single-shelved books that are where they are supposed to be. Mind you, they are not alphabetized, sorted by author, color, Dewey, or any other methodology (mostly - Stephen King and Dean Koontz share a shelf and my Lapham's Quarterlys and van Loon books are together). My tags tell me where things are. The inventorying confirmed/corrected my tags.

Other book locations still have double- and triple-stacked books. I think I will be moving some read books from the Library to the Retreat, too, just like the Sunroom.

And I finally, finally have gotten my cataloging problem fixed. When downloading my catalog, it would say 4353 books to be downloaded, but would only actually download 4323. 30 were missing. So I identified all 30 books not making it to excel, gave them a temporary tag of XXXX, then deleted and re-added one at a time until one them somehow magically got rid of the glitch and they now all download. It turns out that they were all entered on July 3, 2015, but not all the books entered that date weren't making it to excel..... strange problem. Anyway, Hooray!

Wow, I love your book shelves! They look beautiful. I had shelves built in my dining room and use that as my library. My table is very old and mahogany so in my mind, it looks just like a library table! And, we can still eat in there once a year at Christmas!

Hi Karen, happy new thread my dear, I love your book shelves. Sending love and hugs.

Happy New Thread, Karen. I LOVE the bookshelves. We love messing with those books, don't we?

Oh yeah, thanks for name-dropping me, in post #1. Smiles...

>8 Dianekeenoy: Thank you, Diane! Every room of the house should/could have books - unfortunately, my dining room has too much stuff against the walls for me to add shelves. Your dining room sounds lovely, especially with your mahogany table. When our daughter was young, we went through phases of eating all our meals in the breakfast room and other times eating all our meals in the dining room. Now, we only eat in the dining room if we have company and of course for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

>9 johnsimpson: Hi John! Thank you. Love and hugs back to you.....

>10 msf59: Hey Mark! I love my shelves, too. And I do love messing with my books. And re >1 karenmarie:, you're welcome!

Would you believe it - I was in town to get a haircut and run errands and decided to stop in the thrift store to look for ..... books..... but couldn't find any that I couldn't absolutely live without. Shocking.

Oh dear! You cannot find a book that grabs you. And not even in the thrift store ! Bad news :) I've actually read a book and have started another, When the Moon Is Low: A Novel by Nadia Hashimi. Great bookshelves! I hope you soon find a book that grabs you!

Happy new thread, Karen. Such neat looking shelves and only single book depth, just think how many more you could fit in there if push came to shove. Hope you find a story that grabs you soon.

>12 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! It has not really, really grabbed me, but I am enjoying Underground Airlines. I've pulled The Light Between Oceans off my shelves for next month's book club meeting but haven't (re-)started it. I bought it in 2013, started it, put it down, but kept it. Just gotta get the right energy for it.

>13 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Thank you. I used to have them double- and triple-stacked. (this is an old pic from my old camera and I can't seem to get it to appear larger here.) I had 1398 books in this room early June, but now "only" have 913. I got rid of a few but moved most of them upstairs to my Retreat - daughter's old play/rec room.

Morning Karen! It will be a tough few days here but I will persevere...my books will keep me distracted.

Happy New Thread, Karen! The shelves are great, and I don't worry a bit about your falling in love with something soon. Have you read Robert Goddard? I'm pretty involved with his Past Caring at the moment.

Hi Karen, if you go on www.librarything.com/topic/173412 you will find photo's of my book shelves but I have added a lot more books since mid 2014, posts 128 to 137.

>17 johnsimpson: Hi John! One of my favorite things to look at - pictures of books in bookcases! Thanks for sharing. What's a billy bookcase?

^ This is a photo I took awhile back of part of my "keeper" classic shelves. I always smile when I pass by and since the bathroom and fridge are just past it, I do it a lot.

>19 msf59: Thank you Mark! Lovely books in a lovely bookcase.

Back at'cha! This is my Agatha Christie collection. What appear to be black hardcovers are really dark blue, all a gift from my mother from 1987 until about 2005. A few here and there, birthdays and Christmases.

Our plan for today is to go get breakfast out, a rare enough event, but also to get a flat-screen TV for Karen's Retreat.

Husband is grumbling a bit because he'd like to get 4K and HDR in a 65" model for downstairs but they are 'way too expensive, especially since he's been furloughed and we think he's going to lose his job at the end of the month. The furlough has provided us with medical/dental benefits and allowed him to collect unemployment, but (fortunately) he can't justify THAT expense. He wants to wait 2 years 'til the costs come down and there are a goodly number of 4K items to justify the excuse of the purchase. I honestly don't know why he wants to get me 4K, but there's a sale at Costco so we'll see.

I want to be able to have the option of watching Amazon Prime upstairs, and am trying to figure out a way to use my tablet to connect to the TV so I can use Dish Anywhere to watch satellite. Can't justify the expense of another satellite box, but perhaps a long enough usb-to-usb cable?

I'm reading Underground Airlines in fits and starts, but with a bit of a slow start for me, am enjoying it. Not loving it, but enjoying it.

Are you a bottle digger? I see a couple of old bottles in the Dame Agatha pic. And what did you think of And Then There Were None? That and 1984 are the only two books that have left me really shaken.

Hi Larry! And Then There Were None is among my favorite Agatha Christie's. It did spook me, for sure. Maybe time for a re-read. 1984 got read when I was in high school and 1984 seemed so far away that I couldn't imagine that kind of a world. I was much more shaken with Animal Farm by the same author and by Lord of the Flies by Golding.

Those bottles were inherited from husband's mother. I'm very sure that they were just saved from original use, given the kind of hoarders his family is.

Now these are my pride and joy. The one in the middle was dug up on the land we built our first house on in 1992 and the two on the outside are from the old farm house on the land where our 16-house cul-de-sac subdivision is now. When they built behind our little subdivision, they bulldozed the house. But daughter and I had gone over to visit several times soon after we moved here in 1998. Behind them are the triple-stacked shelves and my audiobooks that need to get taken upstairs.



---------------

We just returned from buying the Samsung 50" 4K HDR TV for my Retreat. It is sitting next to the couch downstairs. We'll get it upstairs in a bit and then start tinkering. Husband did mutter that he hopes he has another hdmi cable somewhere.....

I'm a bottle *and* marble digger! LOL I had a 100 year old Victorian with lots of stuff buried in the back yard

Hi beeg! How wonderful - lots of treasure to dig up. What kinds of things did you find?

TV's set up, can get Amazon Prime on it and play DVDs. Husband is jealous of the picture quality, which I must admit is absolutely stunning.

>18 karenmarie:, The Billy bookcase is from Ikea and they have a range of shelving for CD's, DVD's and Books all called Billy.

>26 johnsimpson: Thanks, John!

Well, sad news, although except for a miracle it was expected. My husband got a call today that he's been permanently laid off.

Blech.

>21 karenmarie: Breakfast out and a flat-screen TV - hope you will not be watching yourselves eating!

I don't watch too much TV these days other than news and sport as I don't want to get hooked, like Hani does on various series, and hamper my sleeping time.

Have a great weekend, Karen, and happy viewing!

Oh dear. I know you were expecting your husband's dismissal, but it's still bound to be depressing. Best to you both! Hope he finds something better soon!
Happy New TV! Enjoy!!

>28 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I don't watch TV news at all, ever, unless it's on in the living room when husband is watching as I'm passing through. Mom and Dad watched when I was growing up, but I never got into the habit after I went off to college. Of course we didn't have TVs in our dorm rooms and once I got an apartment and a TV, I had lost the itch to watch.

>29 LizzieD: We did expect it, Peggy, but husband is very depressed. I hope he finds something soon, too, and thank you.

>27 karenmarie:, Hi Karen, sorry to hear that your husband has been permanently laid off that's a bit of a bummer, I hope that he will be able to get something fairly quick as there is nothing worse than this when you have worked all your life. Karen thought that might have been a possibility earlier this year but she will stay with Asda but move from Photo/Music and Video to the George clothing department and hopefully that will be when she goes back to work after our jaunt to London. Apart from the news about your husband I hope you have a nice weekend my dear and send love and hugs your way.

Oh hell, I am so sorry. I'm thinking lovely thoughts for him and you both. Has he ever thought about driving a truck? A friend of mine dropped out of college and did that, and make good money.

Yesh. Go to the movies. That's like the new church. Ugh.

>31 johnsimpson: Thank you, John. Good luck with Karen and her new position with Asda. Have fun in London, too! We're having a good enough weekend - errands and laziness yesterday. Today has been lazy so far, a bit of breakfast and working on my physical inbox.

I just watched the Clinton/Kaine announcement speech in Miami from yesterday - I've always been a Hillary supporter but wow! Kaine is fantastic. Good speaker, good credentials, personable, worthy of respect.

>32 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks, Larry. We appreciate the lovely thoughts. Husband is pretty much not interested in trying to do anything that would require a credential or certificate. Sigh. But I'll mention it again. Plus, we have the newest catalog from our local community college, and there might be something in there that I can bring to his attention.

So I just went to the local theater's website (the closest theater to us, 45 minutes away), saw a Star Trek, an Ice Age, and etc., and then was absolutely shocked to see Hillary's America, a right-wing attack movie. Know-Nothing idiocy. Yeesh.

I'm sorry to hear about your DH's job. Even though not unexpected, some things you just can't prepare for emotionally.

Wow - Hillary's America. Amazing. I'm surprised it isn't playing at the theater here. I checked it out on RottenTomatoes.com Critics give it a 5% approval rating - over 3000 viewers have given it a total 83% approval. That's the most fun split I've ever seen on that site. I wonder if that many people have really liked it or if they are just stuffing the review box.

>34 streamsong: Hi Janet! Amazing dichotomy. Critics 5%, viewers 83%. That tells me that liberals/Democrats aren't bothering, the critics see it for what it is, and the viewers are going to vote for Trump regardless of the party platforms and facts.

Thanks re my husband's job, too. He's just so depressed. It's very hard for a white male his age, 60, without a college degree to find a white collar job here in the boonies. We tried to be prepared emotionally, but there was that little whisper, that little hope, that they might call him back. They didn't call back the other planner either; the other one is a woman in her late 50s also without a college degree. They knew the business, though. The only reason they kept the young black guy and the 40s woman were probably salaries. One had been there less than a month and the other only 3 months.

I've got some good news! Amazon is selling professionally narrated audiobooks of classic novels published by Trout Lake Media for 1 or 2 bucks. Zowie!

So sorry about your husband and the loss of work. My husband will be 60 later this year, and no way are we prepared for retirement and the loss that of income as yet. Getting there - but not there yet. I sure hope Hilary and Kaine get in . I shudder at the thought of Trump.

Sorry to hear about your husband's permanent lay off, Karen. It is hard to be looking for a job at 60 when you have to compete with people so much younger. Ageism does rear its ugly head.

Morning Karen! I am also sorry to hear about your husband's job. What a bummer. Sending positive vibes.

Is Underground Airlines getting any better? Or just not ringing your bells?

>36 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! I snagged 4 free books from Trout Lake Media - Sons and Lovers, Meditations, The Time Machine, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Thanks for the heads up. I'll look more again today. Plus, I need to check out the freebies regularly.

>37 vancouverdeb: Hi Deb! Thank you. We haven't begun to deal with the income issue yet - we're just pulling money out of my 401K. Sigh. At least husband has 2 weeks of vacation due him. I watched a bit of the RNC on Youtube and read about it a bit on my various news websites but absolutely refused to watch his acceptance speech. I think Boehner gets it wrong - Cruz is not Lucifer, Trump is.

>38 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg. Ageism is indeed rearing its ugly head. And so is how jobs are offered and candidates chosen. You used to send a resume, potentially get an interview, and thanked for your interest. Now they run the Word or other resume documents through software that eliminates people without even giving them a chance to sell themselves. Husband is very good face-to-face, he just can't get past the software.

>39 msf59: Thanks, Mark. Underground Airlines picked up for me, on page 173 when Jackdaw has just told Victor "I'm a free man, you asshole." He gathered up some spirit in his eyes, and he stared at me and declared it: "Free man. Born and raised."

>40 karenmarie: Oh, Karen, so sorry to hear your husband got laid off. It's hard to look for a job at 60, especially if you're not in a heavily populated area. I hope something turns up.

>35 karenmarie: That is not fair Karen. In the unionised world of the UK we always used to practice "last in- first out" - it seems completely wrong that two relative novices are retained in his stead.

You may have seen on my thread and elsewhere that I am not overly enthusiastic about Hillary based on her past record as Secretary of State and questions of personal probity. The scandal of the Democratic Party Organisation actively undermining Sanders deserves plenty of airtime. IMO the USA missed an opportunity to do something quite radical, instead we have somebody who needs to beat The Donald who is less than ideal herself. Scary indeed that opinion polls show him well ahead of her nationally - I hope to God that is wrong even more than I wish it was Bernie out to beat him in November.

>27 karenmarie: Damn. I know you were anticipating this, but still.

>41 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy. We saw a former co-worker in the parking lot of the grocery store Saturday - he got furloughed the same time as my husband but is young and landed quickly and well, telling our company to stuff it. We told him our sad story and said to keep his eye open at his new company. He texted my husband this morning that there is a buyer job open - not exactly what my husband was doing, but he definitely has quite a bit of the skill set needed for it, so my husband is tweaking his resume today and will send it off to Chad. I think this is the only way my husband will find a job - word-of-mouth - so each one of these little opportunities is gold.

>42 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I've always been pro-union. However, in the US being a union shop usually means the hourly employees, not the salaried, so even if our former company was unionized, it wouldn't have been of benefit to my husband. My sister, on the other hand, works for a community college system in California, and as an administrative assistant is white collar and unionized. The union has helped her a couple of times with a former psychotic boss, too. Of course, she'll vote Republican, drat her, and blethers about unions in the abstract as being bad.

I know your opinion and respect it, Paul. I agree that Hillary is flawed. However, I cannot discount her public service, though, her entire life, and her principles and hard work. And, I honestly don't understand how people can consider Bernie Sanders as a Democratic candidate - he's a f***ing Socialist, for goodness' sake! He was officially an independent 1979-2015, aligning himself to the Democratic Party in 2015. Lip service, IMO, to run for president. He has ridden the coattails of the Democratic Party's organization, knowing that he wouldn't have gotten a tenth as far had he run as an independent. Has he added Democrats to the voter rolls? Yes. Has he energized people? Yes. Will he have influence on the Democractic Party platform? Yes. All good things. But he's not a Democrat at heart, he's a Socialist using the Democratic Party to further his personal ambitions.

Trump got a bump at the RNC, Hillary will get one after the DNC. Pence and Kaine are now the identified VP candidates (anticipating Kaine in the DNC, of course). It's all shenanigans, all a game, all deadly serious. I haven't looked at the polls in detail yet, but will be following things carefully, believe me!

>43 qebo: I know, but still. Not a fun time here in central NC, for sure.

I just finished Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters, ****.

It took more than half the book, page 173 to be precise, for me to really start enjoying this book more than as just an obligatory read. That’s when it finally grabbed me and kept me through to the end. You will read in other reviews about the premise and the plot and execution, but I just want to say that the things not said, the things promised after you close the book and Victor’s future are the most powerful part of this book to me. Victor’s story emerges piecemeal throughout the book, too, and that is beautifully written and the book wouldn’t be the same without it.

>44 karenmarie: Well it is relative I suppose Karen as he would hardly qualify as a socialist in the UK, but still. I am on the other hand a socialist in the British sense but one aghast at the mess my own party has fallen into.
You are right of course on Sanders' affiliations but I really do feel you could have come up with a better candidate than the one you have. Still I want her desperately to beat The Donald, if for nothing else so that my family can one day visit yours as I do feel Trump may stop my liberal muslim family from reaching your shores.

Wasserman Schultz need to resign before the convention so that she doesn't turn the DNC into the train wreck the RNC was. I surprised at her decision and its potential to disrupt party unity, really.

ETA- Aaaand she's out.

>46 PaulCranswick: All my statements re US politics are US-centric, I suppose, Paul. I think we were fated, doomed, privileged, whatever, when in 2008 Hillary lost and Barack Obama won the nomination. Of the two I prefer Barack Obama yet am extremely proud that a woman has won the nomination. (once again emphasizing that I'm a yellow-dog Democrat and can't see myself ever voting for a Republican woman under any circumstances.)

I desperately want her to beat The Donald too. I would certainly have voted for Bernie Sanders over The Donald had he won the nomination, even though he's a nominal Democrat. ABT - Anybody But Trump.

It seems impossible that there are people who can, with straight faces, talk about restricting people from coming to the US based on their religious affiliation. It's downright embarrassing and un-American.

I'd love for you and your family to come visit!

>47 SomeGuyInVirginia: The news is hard to interpret, some saying she won't open the convention, others saying she'd resign, others saying she'd speak later on.

Just what we need - stupidity like we saw at the RNC. Of course we won't end up nominating such a dangerous person, but still.....

Deb just agreed to not gavel open the convention.

Well now there are Sanders supporters who have whipped themselves into such a froth about Clinton that they'd rather vote for Trump, indirectly or even directly. Which suggests their support is about something other than policy issues.

>49 SomeGuyInVirginia: I saw that.....

>50 qebo: My husband told me that when I came out from taking nap. It does suggest something else, doesn't it? It could be they can't bear to vote for a woman, they're crybabies who are pouting because Bernie didn't win the nomination, or that there are people who try to vote for the winner, right? Regardless of anything else, they want bragging rights on voting for the winner?

I've (re-)started The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, for next month's book club discussion. I bought it at the grocery store when it came out in trade paperback in 2013, started it and put it down, probably to read a romance or mystery.

I'm finding the re-start to be good. I'm on page 53 and I think I am intrigued enough to continue reading it. It's during one of my favorite time periods (WWI and 1920s) and in an area of the world I'm not overly familiar with (Southwestern Australia). Cool.

>51 karenmarie: They want to break a corrupt System. And then a savior will rise from the ashes of the apocalypse. Or something. It's a current that's been there for awhile. (I should note for the record that I voted for Sanders so he would do exactly what he's done: pressure the Democrats from the left. I'm not a wild fan of either candidate, I like the president we have and wish we could keep him, but I think the outcome is good enough for the future of the world and vastly vastly vastly preferable to the alternative.)

>52 qebo: considering how well that impulse to break the system and wait for a Savior has worked out elsewhere, I'd prefer a more restrained orthopedic approach.

"I agree that Hillary is flawed. However, I cannot discount her public service, though, her entire life, and her principles and hard work."

"I desperately want her to beat The Donald too."

Amen, my friend. I managed to catch some of last night's speeches. Michelle spoke wonderfully (I got teary), (why do they hate this woman?) and I loved what I heard from Cory Booker. He is a definite rising star. And I love that Liz warren.

>45 karenmarie: I am so glad it ended up being a 4 star read for you. Funny, it grabbed me immediately and did not let go. The wonder of books...

>52 qebo: I am perfectly happy that Sanders has influence over the platform and has, as you nicely put it, pressured the Democrats from the left. What I don't like is that his fans are acting the same as Trump's fans - "Lock her up" from Democrats? I realize he can't control them and he did a lot toward that end in his speech last night, which I just watched. I also just watched Michelle Obama's speech.

>53 ffortsa: *smile*

>54 msf59: Amen indeed. Funny, I never like watching this stuff live, but will probably watch Hillary's acceptance speech Thursday night.

>55 msf59: Thanks, Mark! The problem with LT is that I have so many interesting friends here that read so many books that the bar has been raised. I think that perhaps 5 years ago or so I would have swooned over this book; now, it's good, it's even 4-star excellent in my rating system, but it was a bit of a slog based on some of the superior books I have read based on LT friend recommendations.

Today is a visit to my massage therapist for deep tissue massage, then moving some more books around from the Library to the Retreat. More reading, possibly visiting my friend and neighbor Louise.

" I have so many interesting friends here that read so many books that the bar has been raised." I think most of us, can relate to those words, my friend. LT is a Game-Changer!

Morning, Karen! Sweet Thursday. I received your card yesterday. Thanks. I hope you enjoy the books.

>57 msf59: - It's the Mom influence, Mark. Can't get by without a written thank you. :)

I watched the Tim Kaine and Barack Obama speeches last night. Kaine has to grow into the national stage a bit, but I think by the end he had everybody on board. Obama had everybody from the first word.

This morning I watched the Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg speeches. Both attack-dog speeches, both good.

What fun to visit your thread - especially when I've had it way beyond wherever "Up to here" is in my sweet hometown. Voted for Bernie. Would keep Mr. Obama. Will support Hillary as fervently as I can. In fact, AMEN to >52 qebo:!
I can't wait to hear the Donald say, "Believe me," again.
I'm eagerly awaiting some good results from your friend Chad's intervention.
I don't now why companies are so short-sighted as to keep young, untried employees (especially very young ones with questionable work ethics) just because they are cheaper than the quality. It's universal around here though.
Keep reading!

>59 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! I just had dinner with a friend who is voting for Trump. I asked her what he would do the first day in office after he and Melania and Barron moved in and she said she didn't know, but that it couldn't be worse than Clinton. I asked her about Putin and Trump and she said she didn't know. I asked her what about not supporting NATO and letting Putin have more influence in Europe and she said she didn't know. She just said that she's always hated Hillary ever since she was in the White House. We had to agree to disagree.

She did say that she'd have voted for Biden. And that's an interesting question - would Hillary have fought him or would she have worked with him, going for VP so she could run in 4 or 8 years? Or, since she's 68 now, is it now or never? Inquiring minds and all that.

I got home in time to watch one old episode of The Good Wife (season 3, episode 18). We never watched it when it was originally aired, so are binge-watching 2-3 episodes a night. And there are seven seasons, so we're in hog heaven.

10 p.m. - Chelsea and Hillary.

I'm really enjoying The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, about 1/3 or so in, too.

>60 karenmarie: always hated Hillary
Not so easy to argue with people's emotions.

Very enjoyable discourse here as usual I must say Karen.

I really cannot understand how anyone could feel so strongly about their support of Bernie Sanders as to vote Trump because he didn't get the nomination and Hillary did. I am not a fan of Hillary as is well known but she is a world away from Trump and the fact that Sanders has endorsed her should surely wake them up.

Does Trump have a plan? His first days in office would be wonderful soap opera his tenure, I am sure, a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.

>59 LizzieD: Peggy! I want to add that NC, where you and I both live, is an interesting mix of urban and rural, conservative and liberal. My county, Chatham, consistently votes Democratic, but there's a world of tension between the rural/agricultura/Christian/conservative southern and western portions of the county and suburban/commuter/religiously diverse/progressive northern and eastern portions of the county. It plays out in county politics consistently.

Plus, my dad worked in aerospace in SoCal in the 50s - 80s. He learned engineering in the Army in WWII. He used to comment that the 'young whippersnappers' who came out of college could do great things on paper and computer, but couldn't design something that would actually work. Where am I going with this? Companies used to mix age/experience with youth/enthusiasm to bring up new generations solidly, each side learning from the other. Now the bottom line drives hiring decisions and I saw this in most places in the company I worked for - engineering, logistics, IT, mfg. You get what you pay for, and the pressure on the bottom line makes companies think they can get by with only young people, only college graduates. It's wrong.

>61 qebo: Hi Katherine! I very rarely try to debate with people, and last night was just as you say, emotions for my friend. I think mine are emotional too, in some ways, but grounded in belief of what the Democratic Party believes in and has put in their platform vs what the Republicans have done.

We had a mock election in 1964 at my elementary school. I was 11. Johnson vs Goldwater. Some of the details are fuzzy, but I do know that we analyzed the issues and party platforms (obviously simplified for 8-12 year olds) and everybody, 3rd - 6th grade, voted. Johnson won and we sent a letter to his campaign telling him so. No response that I can remember, but that was the first time I was aware of politics in the US. So by the time I reached 12 or so and realized that my dad and mom wanted me to conform to their opinions and wouldn't listen to mine, I was pretty firmly set to be a Democrat. I flirted with trying to judge candidate by candidate for some years in my 20s, even registered Libertarian one time, but have become more and more convinced that the Democratic Party is my philosophical and political home. Thus yellow-dog Democrat.

>62 PaulCranswick: I can't understand either, Paul. They voted for Bernie, saw him lose to Hillary but have a heavy influence on the Party Platform and drive it to the left, and yet some of them are so puerile as to flee to Trump 'cuz they didn't get their way completely. Everything Obama and Hillary said the last 2 days was that democracy is hard work, there must be compromises, and that there are occasional losses. That's when you have to get strong and pick yourself up and keep going.

Of course Bernie looked like'd swallowed vinegar most of the time they showed him after the roll-call vote, but he stayed, they acknowledged him and his contribution.

And so I watched Chelsea speak and I watched Hillary speak and it made me want to get involved in the campaign. We have a strong Democratic party organization here in our county, so maybe, just maybe, depending on how things go with husband and my California family, I might get involved, more than contributing to Hillary's campaign.

Today is sheer laziness. Books and air conditioning mostly.

>63 karenmarie: Bernie looked like'd swallowed vinegar
Hah, yes he did.

Hooray for sheer laziness! Happy Friday, Karen!

I did not see Hillary's speech or Obama's, so I need to go back to them. I did listen to the Muslim father and was very moved by it. I was very pleased with the DNC.

>63 karenmarie: Bernie dropped out of the Democratic party, during the convention. He never was a Democrat. I'd guess that's one reason Debbie Wasserman Schultz favored Hillary in the the process. Bernie now has no sway over the Democratic platform, other than a threat to take away future, potential Democratic voters. Ask Ralph Nader how well that's moved his agenda ahead. It's like he really has betrayed the people who supported him.

>64 qebo: Bernie is an opportunist who didn't get what he wanted. See below.

>65 msf59: HI Mark! Lazy day except for the half hour of pulling weeds. Got my heart rate up and got the monkey grass walkway looking pretty good. I really think you should take the time for Obama's and Clinton's speeches, they are worth it.

>66 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! This is what I wrote in >44 karenmarie: above:

.... I agree that Hillary is flawed. However, I cannot discount her public service, though, her entire life, and her principles and hard work. And, I honestly don't understand how people can consider Bernie Sanders as a Democratic candidate - he's a f***ing Socialist, for goodness' sake! He was officially an independent 1979-2015, aligning himself to the Democratic Party in 2015. Lip service, IMO, to run for president. He has ridden the coattails of the Democratic Party's organization, knowing that he wouldn't have gotten a tenth as far had he run as an independent. Has he added Democrats to the voter rolls? Yes. Has he energized people? Yes. Will he have influence on the Democractic Party platform? Yes. All good things. But he's not a Democrat at heart, he's a Socialist using the Democratic Party to further his personal ambitions.

I didn't know he dropped out of the party during the convention! Favoring the real Democratic candidate is not unreasonable, under the circumstances. I wonder how many people thought Bernie's been a Democrat all along?

>66 SomeGuyInVirginia:, >67 karenmarie: It's a bit murky, because Vermont doesn't have party registration and Sanders was elected to the senate as an independent and will serve the remainder of his term as an independent. It was not unreasonable for him to run for president as a Democrat, but perhaps less reasonable to complain about lack of support from the establishment while running an explicitly anti-establishment campaign. Clinton worked behind the scenes securing support, partly because in 2008 many superdelegates switched to Obama. The establishment doesn't sit around as a blank slate waiting until the last random person enters the race. Apparently also, issues with the DNC and DWS go back years, and the Clinton campaign wasn't happy with the situation either, but had higher priorities. After the email leak, DWS had to go pronto before the convention, and the way to oust her was to give her a face-saving unpaid position in the Clinton campaign. It is difficult to be pure in politics.

Belated happy new thread, Karen. I love your book shelves. I'm so sorry about your husband's job situation. I keep my fingers crossed that he finds soon another one.

Ha, I noticed that you're abke to post pics. Wonderful to see them.

I wish you a lovely weekend.

>69 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara.

I'm glad I can finally post pictures - it's amazing what happens when one actually reads the instructions!

Today will probably be normal errands and staying cool in the atrocious heat/humidity. It's getting a bit cooler than it was mid-week, but it's still going to be 92F with humidity.

Ugh. I've got the same weather. The windows are covered in dew, which means the outside atmosphere is basically soup.

>71 SomeGuyInVirginia: We've had that several mornings, Larry, but this morning the humidity is down. Puffy white clouds, warm out but not humid yet. Wasn't The Nation's Blah a swamp? I know you don't exactly live in DC but close enough, I think.

I just now finished The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. I have given it 4 1/2 stars. It is absolutely stunning. Here's the synopsis from Foyle's author page of M.L. Stedman:

A survivor of the First World War trenches, Tom enjoys the solitude of life as a lighthousekeeper, but one trip to the mainland brings him a wife, Isabel, with whom to share Janus Rock. One fateful day, the sea washes a dinghy up on the shore containing the body of a man and a baby - very much alive - which the couple, desperate to start a family, decide to take as their own.

The writing is pure, stripped down much as the South Western coast of Australia was hardscrabble and minimalist in the mid 1920s. It's hard to imagine how the author was able to make everything so vivid with such pared down language, but she did. The story flows effortlessly.

So much of the emotion of this book is the love of a mother for a child and how being a mother is defined. There are raw emotions on almost every page - joy, anguish, loss, fear, love, hate. When Tom and Isabel realize that the birth mother, Hannah, is still alive, they have different reactions and emotions. Isabel is frantic to keep Lucy and Tom is frantic to keep Isabel happy. It goes against the grain with him, and eventually he cannot resist letting Hannah know anonymously that her daughter is alive and loved. This almost makes it worse for her, knowing her daughter is there but not with her. Only the actions of Bluey, one of the two men who bring supplies to Tom and Isabel quarterly, link the missing baby in town with the little girl on Janus Rock. And then the story intensifies. The author is brilliant at writing so sparingly about such raw, desperate emotions yet capture the depths and nuances. They ring true. Not every author can do that.

Not a book I'll forget any time soon, and perhaps the best book so far of this year's book club reads.

Morning Karen. I will have to get to Between Oceans. I have had it saved on audio, for ages.

I did listen to Hillary's speech last night. I thought she did a terrific job. Hope to hear Obama's over the weekend.

>73 msf59: Hi Mark! I hope you end up loving it as much as I did.

And now I'm going to start To Kill a Mockingbird. I've never read it, never watched the movie either. I chose Go Set a Watchman as my book for our RL book club's September discussion, realizing that I'd need to read TKAM first.

I have my husband's grandmother's 1960 book club edition. I'm taking the dust jacket off to protect it, and will read with the reverence it deserves!

Have a great weekend, Karen. Convention over and Hillary anointed. Still not convinced and I am extremely concerned about her foreign policy positions, but she is certainly the winner of the upcoming two horse race if I had any choice.

>75 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul. My weekend is percolating along.

And to respond to your political statements, which I appreciate and which help me clarify my own thoughts:

From what I have read, and it's not as much as I should have read by now, Clinton has made decisions with the best information available to her filtered through her hawkish attitude. True, she's had to walk back some of her positions and I've disagreed with her and most of Congress on those decisions. I disagreed with her on going into the Iraq War (Obama was one of the few who didn't vote for it). At the time I thought it was a mistake for 3 reasons - Bush was lying about WMD, it was an illegal, and personal vendetta of Bush's, and I thought, unfortunately correctly, that it would destabilize Iraq and therefore the region. I disagreed at the time with NAFTA, but both parties supported it. Only Ross Perot thought it would do what it has, since then, done - sucked jobs out of the US. I did, however, vote for Bill Clinton because voting for Perot would have possibly let Bush Sr. win a second term. Hillary Clinton follows the pro-Israeli foreign policy of the US since inception in 1948. I don't disagree with the creation of the state of Israel, but I do disagree with Israel's apparent immunity from UN sanctions and how the Palestinian people are treated. This is regardless of Hamas, the PLA, and other political entities.

So she and I have disagreed about several major political foreign policy decisions. However, I think Clinton will be a safer choice for Commander in Chief and keeper of the nuclear launch codes than Trump. I think she has more knowledge of the world than xenophobic Trump. I think she has a vast network of policy wonks and connections that will continue to help her navigate the post-Iraq war, post-9-11, terrorist-filled world we are now in. And compared with Trump's blatherings about possibly walking away from NATO and our Pacific allies, his even considering having diplomatic relations with North Korea as things now stand, and his potential cozying up to Vladimir Putin, she's an oasis of foreign policy saneness. She won't go off half-cocked and she won't make unilateral decisions. Given that she's the only Democratic candidate that came forward (excepting Bernie as an independent who used the Democratic party and Joe Biden not running), she really is more than ABT (anybody but Trump).

That was a long time on a soapbox and I certainly don't expect anybody to read the above spoiler who doesn't want to read about my support of Clinton.

I am, finally, after a lifetime of not reading it for some reason, reading To Kill a Mockingbird. It is in anticipation of reading Go Set a Watchman, my book choice, for my RL book club meeting in September. I am fascinated and entranced. I honestly don't think I could have appreciated it before moving to North Carolina in 1991, and given my whirlwind marriage and raising of my now-23-year old daughter, I was too busy to have appreciated it in the last 25 years as much as I do now. It is exactly the kind of book that appeals to me. I've found other authors who speak in the same serious, eccentric, whimsical, language-driven way as Harper Lee and loved them - Rita Mae Brown and Charlaine Harris come to mind with Wheezie and Juts and Sookie Stackhouse - so am happy to go back to one who must have been an inspiration and influence.

I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird. Oh. My. Goodness. Only the fifth book in catalog that I've ever given 5 stars to.

I'm going to wait a while before reading Go Set a Watchman, I think. I need to mull TKAM over a bit, possibly even read some reviews or other info on it.

>77 karenmarie: I agree with your rating of To Kill a Mockingbird. I couldn't believe that I had never read it earlier in my life either! I listened to it on audio read by Sissy Spacek. I highly recommend this on audio as well. It was just incredible.

Hi Diane!

I have the audiobook too - got it at a Friends of the Library sale last year. I've been at loose ends about what to listen to in the car - I don't commute any more so don't listen much in the car - but think I'll try it out so I can (try to) catch some of the things I'm sure I missed.

Morning Karen! Hooray for giving Mockingbird 5 stars. It is worth every bit of it. I am following your lead and will listen to Go Set a Watchmen next and then do a reread of TKAM, later in the month. Looking forward to hearing Sissy Spacek do the narration.

>77 karenmarie: clearly I need to revisit TKAM! You give so few 5- star ratings. I have hardly given any these past 2 years, about 4 or 5 in total out of about 100 books. But yours are even more rare.

>80 msf59: Hi Mark! It was so worth it. I seriously still can't believe that I never read it before. I'm 63 years old, took advanced placement ("college prep") English starting in 7th grade, have read voluminously since I was about 8, if not earlier, and it had never been on my radar before.

>81 LovingLit: Hey Megan! It seems like it would be a good re-read, so go for it. Yes, I am very stingy with 5 stars. If it's not a masterpiece, it's not going to get 5 stars. When I initially finish a book, I usually think of where it fits into my personal rating system for 5 stars:

Masterpiece *****
Stunning ****1/2
Excellent ****
Very Good *** 1/2
Good ***
Average ** 1/2
Bad **
Very Bad * 1/2
Don't Bother *
Anathema 1/2

I don't usually keep stinkers, so I only have a few in my catalog that are less than 2 1/2.

Being the data geek I am, I sorted my catalog by rating, counted the 5 stars by unique book and came up with 5. I then exported my books, combined title and author to get it to the number of unique books, and here are the results:

4,355 books that are physically on my shelves not counting daughter's, 4,194 different title/author combinations, 1,853 unique titles read, 958 rated, of those, 5 unique titles have 5 star ratings.

They are: Pride and Prejudice, Killer Angels, To Kill a Mockingbird, Old Southern Apples (a book about heirloom apples), and The Source.

--------------------

Well, I am seriously disappointed. I pre-ordered Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on March 4th when I first heard about it. It arrived two days ago, we picked it up out of our mailbox yesterday, and since it was packaged in a bubble-wrap envelope, the dust jacket is creased. I don't expect new books to come in bubble wrap envelopes. I've just printed the return label and re-packaged it to be returned. I'll get my replacement, hopefully in a box, on August 5th. :(

I'm happy because I just ordered my 2017 desk calendar from Letts of London. I've been keeping desk calendars since 1985 and got a Letts of London global desk calendar in 1993 from a company I worked for and liked it so much I've bought them ever since. The 2017 one will be my 25th.

I'm going to read a book bullet from Peggy, But Nellie Was So Nice by Mary McCullen. Nellie was my grandmother's name, so of course I had to buy it!

>76 karenmarie: I think we can agree completely on that Karen and I would have shared the soapbox with you pretty much. Only thing I don't think it pays to demonise Putin as the USA would be better working with him wherever possible whilst making it clear that he won't be allowed too many liberties.

>83 PaulCranswick: Glad we're on the soapbox together. I think I internalized the demonization of the USSR as that was the world structure until I was 42. Putin was part of that system, and I distrust Putin in the way he came to power, especially the second time. I don't doubt for a minute he has had assassinated Boris Nemtsov, Alexander Litvinenko, Anna Politkovskaya, Sergei Magnitsky, Natalia Estemirova, Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, Paul Klebnikov, Sergei Yushenkov, and Boris Berezovsky among the ones I've read about and I'm sure many, many more.

I agree that the we need to keep working with him while abhorring him and keep keeping him as 'honest' as we can - meaning adhering to UN and other world organization agreements. He's made territorial grabs and so far we haven't jumped into them, but some time he's going to make a military move on someone we really can't afford to NOT support militarily. "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."

Hi Karen, hope you are having a good day my dear, loving your stats and it is nice to know another person who loves stats. Sending love and hugs.

>85 johnsimpson: Thanks, John! I do love statistics. In fact, I took a statistics course at college which resulted in my being hired by the Pepperdine University School of Business and Management's computer center. After that I spent 42 years working with computers until I retired in January. Love and hugs back.

Hi, Karen. I'm pretty much shoulder to shoulder with you on your soapbox.... just so you'll know.
I'm thrilled that you read *TKaMB* at a time you could completely appreciate it. GOOD for you!
And I hope you like *But Nellie*. It may not be one of my favorite McMullens, but as I read it in drips and dabs, I'm finding it good.

>87 LizzieD: Thank you, Peggy. Listening to intelligent friends here on LT more than makes up for the right-wing folks I am either friends with or husband is friends with. Husband leans Democratic but isn't as fervid as I am.

I'm liking But Nellie Was So Nice a lot. Mary McCullen paints vivid characters, sets the Greenwich Village scene nicely, and is pleasantly bitchy about them and it too.

That's a great title for a mystery. I'm always on the lookout for undiscovered authors.

FINALLY cooler yesterday and today. What's the weather like in NC? Hammock time?

It's cooler here, too, although still summer weather - today's high is supposed to be 85F. It just may be hammock weather!!

Morning Karen. Hooray for cooler temps and hammock reading.

I am just about done with GSAW. Surprisingly, it is not bad. Sure, it is unpolished and ham-fisted but far from the disaster I expected.

Hi Mark, a day late! I didn't make it into the hammock yesterday.

I finished But Nellie Was So Nice. A good read, very interesting characters.

I've read a couple of paragraphs in The Game of Thirty by William Kotzwinkle, a Felony & Mayhem "Hard Boiled" mystery. We'll see.

Today is Sangria Friday with one dear friend and two acquaintances from when daughter was in HS Band and we were all on the executive board of the Band Boosters.

Well, I couldn't resist. I just had to write a review of TKAM:

To Kill a Mockingbird, review the 1058th review on LT

Great review! Sangria Friday and hammock weather. Life is good.

>93 karenmarie: I suspect that Go Set a Watchman will be a disappointment for you. Maybe consider it as a rough first draft.

>93 karenmarie: Great review, I gave it a thumbs up! That's exactly how I felt about the book, and also couldn't believe I had never read it myself until I was in my 60's.

>94 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks, Larry! Sangria Friday was a hit. I ran a few errands on the way there - mailed your book, dropped off a UPS package, and went to the bank. In a few minutes husband and I are going to continue watching The Good Wife - we're on season 5 - then a break while he watches the news, then a couple more episodes. Binge watchers, much?

>95 qebo: Hi! From what I've read I think you'll be right. I've deliberately not read anything since initially hearing about it, so will go into it with a pretty clean slate.

>96 Dianekeenoy: Thank you, Diane! I'm glad my thoughts expressed yours.

Life is good - I just got my replacement copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and am already on page 31. It's in play form, and if you haven't taken the Harry Potter series intravenously you might be a bit lost, but everything is vivid when the Harry Potter drug kicks in.....

Hey, thanks for the book!

Wow. Just finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I've given it 4 stars for 'excellent'. Reading a play is so different than reading a novel that I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, but all in all it's very satisfying and has a combination of the deadly earnestness, occasional preachiness, and wonderful slapstick that infuses the Harry Potter books. Lots of strange juxtapositions, things you'd never expect, thrills.

Happy Saturday, Karen! Will this be a hammock day? Inquiring minds...

Hi Mark! Serious No to Hammock Day. Too hot, too humid. 93F, 63% humidity, 113 heat index. We're hiding out in the air conditioning after lunch out with some friends and errands.

I have to tell you that visiting LT and hearing from all of you intelligent considered people that don't support Trump is soothing to my soul. I see people on facebook who support Trump and it is such a puzzle to me. The guy is nothing more than a reality show guy with orange hair.

Thank you, Deborah! I can't talk politics with my mom or sister, can't talk politics with my husband's friend Carl, can't talk politics with my friend Vanessa, BUT I can talk them here. And even though I have a friend here on LT who probably wouldn't vote for Clinton if she were the last candidate, she says she's going to write in instead of voting for the reality show narcissist psycho hose beast guy with orange hair. And she and I have agreed to disagree, just like civilized folks should.

It's an embarrassment to lots of people here in the US, more and more of them Republicans, that Trump is the Republican candidate for President. It's unprecedented.

Let me amend that to "a reality show bully with orange hair." There. I'm mortified for us.
Back to books! I polished off *Nellie* this afternoon, Karen. It had been long enough that I didn't remember anything about it, so obviously, it's time to reread all 12. Fun!
Happy Weekend! Stay cool!

>103 karenmarie: more and more of them Republicans
A few days ago a Romney sign popped up on a front lawn along my evening walking route.

>104 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I liked *Nellie*. It's a good sign about a book for me when it pops up in my mind days after reading it. I'll look for more Mary McCullen books.

>105 qebo: Big smile here, Katherine. A Romney sign. A sane Republican who if a Republican had to win, I wouldn't mind seeing in the White House.

Tonight is our August book club meeting to discuss The Light Between Oceans. For those of you who haven't read it, I recommend it highly. It's beautifully written, tells a gut-wrenching story, and will stay with you for a long time.

I've picked up a book called Rooms by Lauren Oliver. Here's what Amazon has to say about it:

The New York Times bestselling author of Before I Fall and the Delirium trilogy makes her brilliant adult debut with this mesmerizing story in the tradition of The Lovely Bones, Her Fearful Symmetry, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane—a tale of family, ghosts, secrets, and mystery, in which the lives of the living and the dead intersect in shocking, surprising, and moving ways.

Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance.

But the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical Sandra, long dead former residents bound to the house, linger within its claustrophobic walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a light bulb.

The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths that will soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic results.

Elegantly constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an enticing and imaginative ghost story and a searing family drama that is as haunting as it is resonant.

Morning Karen! Happy Sunday! No fun laying in a hammock on a hot & humid day. We are definitely getting a break from it this weekend.

I was eye-balling Rooms but did not pull the trigger. I loved her Liesl & Po, from a few years back.

Hi Mark! Thank you. So far a bit of laundry, reading, watching Olympic men's fencing (The US guy beat the Italian guy after being down 7-13, winning 15-14. Amazing.)

Off to read some more. Husband is seriously into watching the Olympics and I am not..... US soccer, anything US basically, that's it for me.

>105 qebo: BWAHAHAHA!

>109 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! It is amusing, isn't it?

Our book club had a great discussion of The Light Between Oceans last night. I'm always surprised when someone doesn't like a book I love, but so it was. 8 of 10 liked it, but two thought it was poorly written, full of clichés, and had at least one thing that struck them as not believable.

And I am gloating a bit. One of our members, Sarah, works at an indie bookstore. I went up there two weeks ago to help get the fiction in order. I only spent 2 1/2 hours doing it but it was fun. Last night Sarah brought me a thank you present - the Advance Readers' Edition of A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny. I'm excited about it and will read it after I finish Rooms, which is turning out to be a very good read. And then, Go Set a Watchman for September's book club read.

Today is the Friends of the Library Board Meeting, so I'm going to read a while then head on off for the 9 a.m. meeting.

Morning Karen! I will try to bookhorn in The Light Between Oceans into my audio rotation. I have had it forever.

>111 msf59: Hi Mark! I'll be interested in seeing what you think about it.

>110 karenmarie: I've got that one (The Light Between the Oceans) on my wish list. I'm pretty sure it may be in my audio/ebook wish list from the library too. I didn't choose it for this trip. (I don't think it was one of those "available now.") How nice of your friend to give you the Penney ARC.

I'm another who has and is waiting for The Light Between Oceans. I'm not sure why I didn't dive in immediately upon putting it on my Kindle.

Morning Karen! Happy Friday! How those current reads treating you?

>113 thornton37814: Hi Lori! I have discovered, as have most serious readers, that there's a right time and a wrong time for a book. You'll find the right time. And yes, I was very happy to get the new Penny. It was a total surprise, too. Sarah didn't have to do anything to thank me for what I did - that's what makes it so special. She knows I love Penny and she knows I'd be anxious to get the new one.

>114 LizzieD: When you finally start it, Peggy, I hope it grabs you as it did me. I have so many books that came into the house that have languished on my shelves..... as I've said elsewhere, I have over 1600 books tagged 'tbr', enough for at least a decade and a half at my current reading rate. I hope that I can find the right time for most of them.

>115 msf59: Hey Mark! The new Penny, A Great Reckoning is going well. The plot, characters, and general writing are excellent. As always, I have problem with her punctuation. She needs to lose hundreds of full stops and let sentences flow. She. Tends. To. Break. Things Up. For Emphasis. It's a low hum below the surface singing of the book, occasionally rising to the surface and obliterating the melody. Here's an example:

But on the village green itself stood the three tall pines from which the village took its name. Vibrant, straight and strong. Evergreen. Immortal. Pointing to the sky. Daring it to do its worst. Which it planned to do.

Now I realize that this is an ARC and it may get changed for the published version, but would be surprised if they do that. This is a trademark construct of hers. Irritating. Jerky. Breaking up the meaning of what she's trying to say. Which she likes to do. :)

Today we're going to watching the US women's soccer team play Sweden. It's either at 12 p.m. or 1 p.m.

Tonight we're going to have dinner with friends at the 'local' steakhouse in Siler City, the big town.

I am another stealthily moving The Light Between Oceans up the TBR pile.

Have a glorious Sunday, Karen.

Hi Paul! I hope it's stealthy enough to be quick about it. I'll be interested in your opinion.

We were pretty upset that in football (soccer) the US women lost to Sweden. Solo didn't look good the last two games except in the penalty kicks and I was ashamed to hear of the comments she made after the game. I read a little online article about her. The writer's opinion was that they needed a new goalkeeper. I'm getting closer to agreeing. Her personal life is a mess, she offended every Brasilian who heard about or saw the stupid photo and comments she made about zika, and then she called the Swedish women cowards.

On the other hand, we watched the US women take bronze in fencing. That was way cool.

I hope you had fun with your friends and enjoyed a wonderful meal!

I haven't ever started the Three Pines series. I know there are a lot of LT'ers who really enjoy them. Hooray for your friend who shared her ARC! And hooray to you for helping her out! I do agree that's a jerky opening. And anyone who thinks pine trees are immortal needs to spend a little time in the woods.

Happy Sunday, Karen. Hooray for Three Pines. I think I am only 6 or 7 books in. She is supposed to be coming to Chicagoland later next month. I may try to attend.

Cooling off a bit here. Some relief.

>119 streamsong: Hi Janet! We did have fun with our friends. The meal was adequate. The quality of their beef has gone downhill somewhat in the last 4-5 years. To be perfectly frank, I can grill a steak as well as they can, in my kitchen, using my Calphalon square grill pan on my gas stove. The company was the thing. After dinner, we sat outside the restaurant in rocking chairs, just chatting. It was warm and humid, but well worth it.

I have begun to have a love-hate relationship with the Three Pines series. I keep reading, keep liking the books, but her writing seems to have changed somewhat. I feel the same about the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly, too - I have his most recent one, The Crossing. I started it a while back then put it down.

For both, I'd say the writing is much less .... dense.... I guess, less descriptive, less rich, less detail and flow, more choppy. It's less three dimensional, shallower somehow.

Louise Penny likes to try to make statements that are supposed to jerk you into a Wow moment. Wow! This writer has discovered something no one else has seen. Or Wow! This writer has juxtaposed two ideas that are clearly meant to go together. I think she gets too fanciful, and sometimes it doesn't work. I wish her editor would help her with the occasional disconcerting series of non-sentences like the one I quoted above.

>120 msf59: Hi Mark! Hooray, but with the caveat that I think the series is beginning to reach its natural end, at least for me. I would love to meet her, though.

Today's supposed to be 94F. The heat index will be well into the 100s again. Husband has gone out to mow the back. It's about 2 acres and we do have a riding mower, but he will come in overheated and exhausted. It's just pure evil out there, already at 81F and heat index 88F.

>121 karenmarie: pure evil
Ugh. Got to 98 here yesterday, and I'm drenched with sweat just peering into the yard to see all the tasks I'm not doing.

>4 karenmarie: How I envy your book spaces. Years ago I downsized and now live in a townhouse. There is a lot of space, including a huge basement, three bedrooms, including a large bedroom off the kitchen downstairs with its own bathroom. But, the book cases are portable ones and nothing is built in. I do miss some of the features of my larger houses. But, I do not miss all the cleaning.

>122 qebo: Me too! Peering out and looking at things that need to be whacked back, pulled out, and trimmed. I don't do much of the outside work in general, but really need to just spend 1/2 hour a day doing something outside to keep things looking tolerable. Ugh. 98F is deadly with humidity, for sure.

>123 Whisper1: Hi Linda! I never imagined 25 years ago, when I moved to NC and got married, that I would have over 4,500 books. It is a serious indulgence, for sure. We've discussed selling and downsizing, but both of us like it here on our 8 acres in the middle of nowhere. I never had built-ins until I married and husband made sure I had libraries in the two houses we've built. Sturdy wooden bookcases always did fine and would again, I'm sure. Cleaning a larger house is definitely not fun, but I must admit that I still have Pat and Pam every two weeks to do the big stuff and I keep up in-between-times.

We entertained a lot in our larger space. I miss my large kitchen and the outside patio with a bench built round an old, lovely shady tree. But, those were my younger days when I had lots of energy. I look back and wonder how I raised two daughters while my former husband traveled round the world for his job, went back to college for another degree, that one in accounting which i did at night while working a 45-50 hour week.

Life is so different now. Both are/were good. We have a lovely little yard and entertain a small group of neighbors whom we adore.

Good grief, just thinking of working in the yard in this heat makes me ill. It's dangerously hot. Make you husband come in so I don't have to think about it. How in hell did people live in this heat before a/c, when you had to work in it no matter what the weather was like? No wonder they boiled their clothes.

You know, even as a kid I knew I was going to have a lot of books. Not as many as I wound up with, but I thought I'd have lots.

Remember when you were a kid, and someone would be reading and suddenly laugh and you'd ask what was funny and get an inadequate answer? I remember my Mom reading Winnie the Pooh to me every night, and going mad because I wanted to read it for myself.

>125 Whisper1: I sometimes look back, too, Linda, and wonder how I got the energy to do the things I did! I'm glad you're happy now and that you can look back with happiness.

>126 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry. He came in after doing 1/2. He was tired but not exhausted. Thank goodness he ran out of diesel, otherwise he would have felt obligated to continue. So the half you can see from the road is done, the front facing into our pastures/creek/trees is a bit shaggy. And it hasn't stunted yet. Usually by now there's less mowing required.

I don't know how people did it except to suffer. I went to visit my MiL's sister last Wednesday and we were discussing the nasty weather. I asked her how they survived the heat/humidity when she was little. She said that she and Kay had an attic bedroom with No Insulation. At night when they'd go to bed between 10 and 11 p.m., they had one little fan and sweated all night. Husband doesn't remember feeling the heat as a kid. I remember the heat, but it was a dry heat and very rarely dangerous. I do remember one time in 5th grade (1963-1964) when it was in the 110Fs for about a week. My mother called the school to ask if I could wear shorts instead of petticoats and a dress and they told her no. I think we skipped the petticoat, but am not sure.....

I wish I had thought that when I was young, Larry - I would have kept more books. I never thought about having a big library, even as recently as perhaps 5-6 years ago.

I hate that inadequate answer! You're lucky that your mom wanted to read to you though. My mom didn't do any of that, but my dad would tell us stories before we went to bed. I especially like the one where I was swallowed by a tiger. There was a chair and a refrigerator and books and a TV and I stayed there for a while before wanting to come back to the real world.

We're on the final 8 episodes of The Good Wife and I realized that the actor who plays Elsbeth Tascioni's husband was in No Way Out and Desperately Seeking Susan, two of my fav movies. We do that a lot - recognizing actors from other things we've seen, not knowing where we saw them and then looking it up on IMDB.

I finished A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny and gave it 3 stars. Her books are beginning to seem like parodies of themselves and the writing has gotten terribly disjointed and predictable. I'm not sorry I read it, but it was rather unsatisfactory.

I'm going to try to get back into The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution 1783-1789 by Joseph Ellis.

This a.m. is my 6-month checkup at the dentist. On the way home I plan on stopping at one of the county's thrift stores and check out their books.

Morning Karen! I agree with your thoughts on Three Pines and I may not finish the series either, for those same reasons but I will read a few more.

Have a good Monday.

I'm with you on Great Reckoning, but more because it's a series and I don't usually like series books, but never if the author introduces a love interest. That makes it totally jump the shark for me.

It's been brutally hot for a long time, and it won't let up for a few days at least. Hellish, I was on the road this weekend and kept thinking 'if there's an accident I'm in serious kim chee in this heat.'

Yeah, Mom read to me every night. I don't remember my brother being there but I suppose he was. He never got the reading bug, though.

Silly me. I got the date of my dentist appointment wrong. It's tomorrow at 10, not today at 10. So I went to two thrift shops and bought the following books:

Willoughby's Return by Jane Odiwe
A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horowitz
The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones
In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner
Sentenced to Die by J.A. Jance

>129 SomeGuyInVirginia: Good morning, Larry! I've heard the phrase 'jump the shark' before but never knew exactly what it meant, so looked it up yesterday. I think Fonzie's on the water skis on the Louise Penny series - just getting ready. I've given up on the Stephanie Plum series.

It's been brutal here, too. But there has been just enough rain in just enough amounts to keep the grass from stunting. And the trees have kept their leaves so far. Today's supposed to be another stinker too.

I have a sister and a brother, and neither one of them got the reading bug, although my sister used to read sporadically until she had a heart attack about 5 years ago. Now she can't seem to concentrate in the same way. She's still deadly accurate in her job and managing things at home, just doesn't seem able to concentrate on books. And my brother, intelligent as he was, never read books after high school to my best knowledge. Just another acknowledgement that you may be siblings but you may be dramatically different.

Back to the dentist this morning. I've started The String Diaries and even though I'm only on page 20 it is intriguing.

Hi, Karen! Boo to the heat! Boo to the dentist. Hope the rest of the day goes smoothly.

Hi Karen, wish I could send you some of Louisiana's rain, we have enough for everyone.

>132 msf59: Hi Mark! Heat's awful - 110F heat index. Dentist was uneventful - yay! Lunch out with husband and our friend Carl, and now home.

>133 beeg: I have read about the flooding, but didn't really realize how bad it was beeg; I hope you're okay. I don't exactly know where you live, but St. Mary's Parish looks to be either east of the flooding or actually flooding.....

We're good here, just soggy for the most part.

Glad to hear it, beeg!

My sister and husband live in Rialto California, and are about 25 miles south of the Blue Cut Fire, which started yesterday and less than 24 hours later has burned over 30,000 acres with 0%, yes Zero Percent, containment. They aren't in any danger, fortunately as it's in the mountains north of them.

Good grief. California has great weather and you can lay on the beach in the morning and ski in the afternoon, but that earthquake/natural disaster thing is a real downer.

When's the next Sangria Friday?

Haven't heard from Vanessa this week - I'll sent her an e-mail to see how she's doing and we'll go from there. Thanks for the reminder.

California has four seasons - eathquake, fire, flood and drought.

I do so strongly recommend Tim Powers's Earthquake Weather.
Meanwhile, hot and dry here - except for the air that is almost soupy. Pretty moon though.....
Hi, Karen! Hope your sister is doing very well.

Hi Peggy!

My sister and her husband are fine, about 25 miles south of the fire. Some of the people at the college where she works are under mandatory evacuation orders, but so far she hasn't heard of any of them losing their homes.

Losing their homes.

Can you imagine? A fireman comes to your door and says you have to leave within x hours (sometimes x minutes!) so you grab prescriptions, kitty carriers (and corral the kitties so you can put them in quickly), photos, valuables, cell phones and computers (because mine has so many photos on it!) and special books. Hmm. I think I need to have a list of the books I couldn't bear to leave behind. I can think of 5 offhand. Put stuff in both cars and get ready to leave, realizing your house may be smoldering ruins when you return. Or blown away in a hurricane for those of us here on the east coast. Scary.

I'm continuing with The String Diaries. It's good enough to continue, but right now we're in middle-of-the-book doldrums.

I just found my 'currently reading' list from the start of the summer. I haven't picked one of them up. Book doldrums indeed.

Well, that's depressing, but there's always a right time to read a book. I never force it. If a book doesn't appeal, I'll put it down.

I finished two books yesterday, one trade paperback and one audiobook.

First was Where God Was Born by Bruce Feiler 3 stars. This is the third book I have read by Feiler, the first was Walking the Bible and the second was Learning to Bow. I liked both of them better than this one.

From Amazon: In Where God Was Born, Feiler discovers that at the birth of Western religion, all faiths drew from one another and were open to coexistence. Feiler's bold realization is that the Bible argues for interfaith harmony. It cannot be ceded to one side in the debate over values. Feiler urges moderates to take back the Bible and use its powerful voice as a beacon of shared ideals.

Of course, when Bruce Fieler is talking about the Bible, I think he's mostly talking about what Christians call the Old Testament, but he does talk about the New Testament in this book.

The audiobook was read by the author, who did a credible job although it makes me appreciate professional readers. It was a combination of moving and irritating and I kept listening because for some strange reason I felt compelled to. He brings in a lot of his childhood, his marriage, and provides the most banal, abbreviated descriptions of the people he meets and interacts with. The most interesting insight to me was when he and his wife visited Iran. We demonize them, they demonize us; he and his wife were met with interest, kindness, and openness. His oft-repeated idea is that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all have Abraham as a common ancestor. 2 billion Christians, 1 billion Muslims, 12 million Jews are his main statistics. He talks about his personal faith not restricted by structure. I also have his Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths, which I'll probably try to read sometime this year, too.

I have stated elsewhere on LT that I am not Christian. The closest I can come to stating my personal religious beliefs is that I am a Liberal Theist. I have, however, always been fascinated by Judaism and occasionally read about it. I also occasionally read about Christianity, less occasionally about Islam. I need to read more about Islam, I think.

The second book I finished yesterday was The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones. This was one of those books that I kept reading almost against my better judgment. It started out great, then devolved into a secret group of human beings with supernatural powers (won't spoil what kind). It moved confusingly among time periods, telling multiple stories that all converged in the last 50 or so pages. The plot ground audibly with a Deus ex machina ending. I only gave it two stars and am not adding it to my permanent collection.

Although I just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird in anticipation of reading Go Set a Watchman for our September book club meeting, I just started listening to it on audiobook in my car. I need to wait about another week or so to start Go Set a Watchman so as to have it very fresh in mind for the discussion as it is my book for the year. So I am listening to it, but not the Cissy Spacek version. It's read by Roses Prichard, 1997. It's very good, and thank goodness I've lived in NC for 25 years! I can mostly understand her.

Snort! I just listened to Cissy Spacek reading Carrie and thought she did a great job. I've always liked her a lot. I'll see which version the lie-berry has.

One night, when my grandmother was in a nursing home, I overheard a woman speaking in one of the most beautiful, lyrical southern accents I've ever heard. That cadence is probably all but gone now, but my god it was like sweet honey and talcum powder. She was asking the nurse after someone named Lillian and I gathered that person had probably been dead for some time although the lady wanted to know if she had called.

I've heard that same accent! My husband's mother, his grandmother, his great aunt, among them. Excellent description - sweet honey and talcum powder.

I still occasionally have to say "Would you say that again please?" when I just can't parse a Southern sentence.

Hi Karen, hope you are having a good Friday my dear and hope you have a lovely weekend. Sending love and hugs.

Morning Karen! Happy Saturday. I have TKAM, lined up on audio. I plan on starting it after The Mare.

Enjoy your weekend.

>146 johnsimpson: Thank you, John! So far the weekend has been okay. Not stunning, but okay. Love and hugs back.

>147 msf59: Hi Mark! I'm really enjoying my Roses Prichard recording of TKAM.

I've started Seveneves and am on page 139. Extremely good so far, although some of the science slows me down a bit.

I hope to get it done before the end of August, then start Go Set a Watchman for book club. And there was a discussion about a group read of Great Expectations for September so I'll have to go back and find my message about how to set it up and run it.

Morning Karen! Happy Sunday! My audio recording of TKAM is narrated by Sissy Spacek. I have heard good things. It will be my next listen.

I can't wait until the Great Expectorations group read, but I should say up front that barring a massive hole in the space time continuum, there is 0% chance I'll make it through such a massive book in a month.

What a book, though. They'll be reading it in two thousand years. (Just thought, was that the book that Spock gave to Captain Kirk in Star Trek?)

Still looking forward to the Great Expectations read.

>149 msf59: Thanks. So far so good, reading and moving books around. I have heard good things about the Cissy Spacek reading of TKAM, but I got this one for $3 at the Friends of the Library some time ago, not even realizing that it wasn't Spacek reading it. Mark - you interested in reading Great Expectations?

>150 SomeGuyInVirginia: I don't know what the usual rules for group reads are, but we don't HAVE to plan on reading it in one month. I'm much more inclined to not put pressure on myself or anybody else by requiring a quick read.

Group readers - is there a rule/SOP for doing this?

Nope. Husband nailed the quote and then found the video on YouTube - from the movie Wrath of Khan. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." A Tale of Two Cities.

>151 streamsong: Excellent, Janet! I've also got tess_schoolmarm lined up for it and Paul mentioned he might be in.

I have read Great Expectations a couple of times. I would be interested in a revisit but probably not this year.

I am way overdue for a Dickens but I really want to read one of I have not read.

Oops. I was about to leave without speaking. Hi, Karen!
I'm not quite in the mood for Dickens yet. For some reason, *GE* has never been one of my very favorites, so I probably should read it again to see why.

About 550 pages, practically a novella for Dickens.

>155 SomeGuyInVirginia: *snerk*

I have read it but I will join in for the group (re)read of Great Expectations, Karen.

Hi Karen.

Sorry to hear about all the heat in your area and the wildfires in California. I'm glad your sister is fine. We've had our share of wildfires in Canada this year- we had big one in Fort McMurray . It took quite a while to get that under control. We have several burning right now in BC - and across Canada. It is hard to imagine actually being in the midst of one. Here is the link to Fort McMurray - part of what was so surprising is that it happened so far north. Global warming I guess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Fort_McMurray_wildfire

>153 msf59: Good morning, Mark! There's certainly enough Dickens to find something you haven't read yet. I have a 19-volume set given to me by our neighbors/friends Harold and Louise.


>154 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Hmm. I am not sure I've ever done that before - re-read a book I didn't particularly like to find out why. Interesting motivation to read a book!

>155 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hey Larry! The copy I plan on reading has 472 pages. My other copy has 566 pages. Monday was hammock weather. I dozed, read, and played on my cell phone for over 2 hours.

>156 drneutron: Hi Doc! That begs the question "What is the longest novel written by Dickens?" Extra credit given for identifying the second longest.

>157 PaulCranswick: Excellent, Paul. We'll start in September. And once again I thank you for setting up the Group Read thread:
Karen's Group Read - Great Expectations

>158 johnsimpson: Hi John! Sending love and hugs to you and Karen. Give Leo a skritch for me.

>159 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah. The heat and humidity let up for two days with two more days of the same, then we're back in the nastiness. The fires in California are one of the four seasons - earthquake, fire, flood and drought. I remember driving home from vacation through smoke and seeing fire on the hills above us one time. And the Bel Aire fire of 1961 dropped soot and ash for days all over LA. Then, when I was about 14, after we had moved to the foothills, there was a fire "across" the street in the brush behind houses 2 streets over. Had the winds changed, we would have lost our house. Thanks for sharing the Fort McMurray link.

Today will be reading, moving books within the library and to my Retreat, and maybe going to visit neighbor/friend Louise.

Ooh, a 19 set volume of Dickens. Sweet. Good shape too? Should keep you busy. Just don't mention it to RD. Could put him over the edge. Grins...

Yay! for Great Expectations! I've only read a few Dickens so I'm looking forward to it.

If you add the link to the thread here http://www.librarything.com/topic/219483 we might pick up a few more people. I'm sure Jim will also add it to the group read thread list as soon as he is aware of it.

Wow - neat set of Dickens! How many have you read?

>161 msf59: They are all in good shape, bindings intact, pages undamaged. The first volume has masking tape across the spine and some of the covers have interesting dents in the tops, but I consider that "life experiences".

>162 streamsong: Hi Janet! I have only read David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. Sad. Thank you for the link to the Group Read Organization Thread. Paul set up my thread originally, and either he told Jim or Jim already found it, as it's in the Wiki already.

Speaking of life experiences for books:

I have the Harvard Classics, all 51 volumes, that I bought at a Thrift store for $8 for the complete set. They were published in 1909 and some of the volumes have fire damage. Volume 10 has an inscription: The Harvard Classics were a gift to Mattie McDuffie from a friend. She prized them highly & so do I & I hope who ever receives them after I'm through with them will appreciate them as she did & as I do Effie M. Howard Feb 15 1965 I had to look to find it just now, so am glad it was volume 10 and not volume 51!

Hi Karen, I love the photo's of your 19 volume set of Dickens and your 51 Harvard classics, I collect the pocket sized classics produced by Oxford University press, Bodley Head and Collins that were produced from the late 1890's through to the 1930's, the pages are wafer thin and the text is quite small with a lot on a page yet some of the books are between 600 to 950 pages long. Hope you are having a good day my dear.

I love reading book inscriptions.

<160 Oh my! I love the pictures of books! And do I spy a couple of shelves of Virago Modern Classics??? How lovely!!!! I'll try to remember to take a picture of my incomplete set of Dickens from my great-aunt's sister's collection. They are pretty old and were obviously pretty cheap at the time of purchase (14 volumes, inscribed "Lillie Davis 1889"), but I love having them........
And that's why I noted your comment #160. I am a Dickens Disciple. My Lizzie is in honor of Lizzie Hexam from Our Mutual Friend, and my D is for Dickens. To say that *GE* is not among my favorites is not at all to say that I don't like it. I bow before everything the man wrote. That said, I'm not quite in the mood for it now, and the last time I started one not in the mood (Martin Chuzzlewit with Heather), I didn't finish. I might, however, give Havisham a try - or I might not.

>164 johnsimpson: Hi John! Glad you do - I had fun finding the inscription and getting the photos over here. It's fun collecting something special, isn't it? Sending love and hugs to you and Karen.

>165 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! To my best knowledge that's the only one in a book I have that wasn't written by a member of my husband's family. I treasure it.

>166 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! No, I don't have any Viragos. The books you see are my Bantam editions of Agatha Christie. My mother bought them for me and doled them one 1-3 at a time for birthdays and Christmases for about 7 or 8 years, not kidding! I treasure them. I'd love to see your Dickens' 14-volume set.

I am absolutely charmed to know why you are LizzieD! I always wondered but never thought to ask.

The first picture in >163 karenmarie: above shows partially empty shelves. I'm about 1/3 of the way through pulling books in my Library that I've read and moving them upstairs. I can only do about 10-15 at a time so I don't strain my back. Once the Library only has (mostly) books I haven't read yet, I'll redistribute them so that I don't have as many double- and triple-stacked shelves. I'm also getting ready to move daughter's 2 trombones, saxophone, and guitar into the closet, and moving her Breyer horses from one shelf to a different one (behind the TV). I'll be able to do some of that today as I have no other plans, yay.

I'm on page 710 of 867 in Seveneves. It's a bit of a slog right now, but still intriguing. I'm sure I'll be able to finish it in the next several days. And, then on to Maisie Dobbs or Go Set a Watchman for our September 11 book club meeting.

Morning Karen! Are you slowly making your way through the Dickens volumes? How many of his, do you still have to read?

>168 msf59: Embarrassment time: I've only read David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. I'm more of a Janeite than a Dickensian (fan of Jane Austen vs fan of Charles Dickens).

My afternoon plans have changed as my friend and neighbor Louise has asked me to stay with her husband Harold for 3 hours while she goes with her SiL to visit a nursing home in Chapel Hill. I'll go to her house about 3:10. (I'm not kidding - she wants me there 5 minutes before she leaves.) As mentioned several times on my threads, Harold has dementia and had colon cancer this spring and now wears a colostomy bag. He's the sweetest man in the world and is always happy to meet me for the first time! I think he's 84.....

>169 karenmarie: Well, it's nice to learn that you too are a Janeite! I don't think I've read all that much Dickens myself. I began Bleak House and was enjoying it but then real life blew up and I never got back to it. I did read The Mystery of Edwin Drood as well as Christmas Carol. I thoroughly enjoyed A Tale of Two Cities which was fortunate since I had to prod two teenage boys through it when they were in high school. But I think that's all I've read of Dickens. I'm not quite the devotee that others here might be.

>170 jillmwo: Hi Jill! I am a Regency era fanatic, and include parts of the late Georgian era in that interest. So we're talking about roughly 1780 to 1820. Jane Austen lived 1775 - 1817, nicely encompassed within that time period. My interest is a direct result of reading Faro's Daughter, a Regency era romance written by Georgette Heyer. I read that before 1968 for sure, and still have that copy. I've read all her romances and several of her mysteries. She also wrote quite a few other books, of which I've only read The Great Roxhythe. I tend to re-read her romances every couple of years, not all of them, but my favorites.

Happy Friday, Karen. Well, at least you have some fine Dickens ahead of you. I have read both of those too. Bleak House may be my favorite.

Enjoy your day.

Hi Karen! When I was younger - late teens - early twenties, I was quite a fan of Dickens. I think I read A Christmas Carol, The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield and I am not quite sure what else, but not Oliver Twist . I am glad I read them back then - such long books for the most part.

So kind of you to stay with your friends husband today. I was out walking the dog a few days and stopped to chat with another dog walker -and she told me that she had bladder cancer, and that her husband had been moved to a carehome from their home about a week prior. She was just explaining why she was taking her dog for a short walk, but I felt quite badly for her. I have not seen her since, but I often see her . I'll have to ask if there is anything I could do to help out. People are so brave . I had seen her often with her walker and small schnauzer, but I did not want to ask why she needed the walker etc. Now I know. Such a lovely lady.

>171 karenmarie: I hadn't heard of Heyer's The Great Roxhythe before, Karen. It seems like she had a fascination with Charles II as I just read Royal Escape which was about his escape from England after he was defeated by Cromwellian forces.

>172 msf59: Hi Mark! I'm looking forward to the Great Expectations group read. Maybe reading that will give me the Dickens bug....

>173 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! I go through waves of reading an author or a subject. I remember one time when I was living in New London Connecticut and the Library was my friend that I read every book I could find there about the Elizabethans. I devoured them.

People are brave. Louise made the decision to move Harold to the Brookdale facility in Chapel Hill NC. She didn't sleep much Thursday night, second guessing herself, but realizes that it's best for Harold and for her. I visited her yesterday for a while and we had a good time. Fortunately her daughter and SiL are helping her out and being more supportive than they were earlier in the process.

>174 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! I have never made the connection between the subject of those two books. Excellent catch. I have read Royal Escape, but only once.

I took a bit of a break from Seveneves to read The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos Featuring Smell O-Toons by Berke Breathed, the only Bloom County comics book that I hadn't read. So much fun and since it was about the '88 election, especially relevant. what a hoot.

Morning Karen! Happy Saturday. Last work day forme, before vacation. Happy Camper!

Hooray for a Dickens surge...

>99 karenmarie: I just finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and I also liked it. The play format did make it a bit different to read: more action than character development. But it was a return to a wonderful story and had, as you said, all the elements that made the series such fun to read!

Happy Saturday, Karen! I like many of the same series that you do. I am waiting very impatiently for the Susan Hill Simon series to come out. It seems like a long time since the last that she has written. I hope there will be more. I do like to check out some of the Bookers ahead of time, but so far the two I've read have come from the library. It's a strange list of books this year, I think.

Just speaking - Hi, Karen. It rained enough to wet the deck this afternoon. That's all. *sigh*

>176 msf59: Hi Mark. Insomnia has reared its ugly head, although it did help me finish Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Yay vacation for you.

>177 witchyrichy: Hi Karen. I'm glad you liked Harry Potter and the Cursed Child like I did. It's funny, though - I can't imagine myself re-reading it any time soon like I did with the seven books of the series.

>178 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah. Based on the elapsed time between Hill's last two Simon Serrailler books, we could hope to get another soon - 2012, 2014, .... 2016? There's nothing on her website about a next book.

>179 LizzieD: Sigh. We got some rumbling thunder in the distance last evening but that's all.

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson is a very good read. I must admit that I liked the first part better than the last part. The first part is about present day Earth and the explosion of the moon into seven pieces. The repercussions are fascinating. The second part is about 5000 years in the future and I found it less fascinating. But it was eminently readable and definitely worth the time and effort.

Now to pull something off my shelves... perhaps Maisie Dobbs.

I have looked up my copy of Great Expectation in anticipation of our group read and also because I would not want to forget to pack it for my UK trip. Looking forward to reading one of my favourite Dickens' novels again. xx

Ugh, sorry about the insomnia. I've never found an easy fix for that. There are drugs that work like a champ but they are addictive. Getting up when you can't sleep is probably the best thing to do.

>181 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul! I'm looking forward to reading it for the first time, and am looking forward to reading it with friends. Great foresight on your part to pack it!

>182 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks, Larry. I just got up about 15 minutes ago and feel like I've been hit with a two-by-four. I didn't take anything to get back to sleep. So I was up from about 2:30 - 3:30 finishing Seveneves, then putzed around here on the computer, then started Maisie Dobbs. So far so good.

Bacon for breakfast! First time since mid-April. It's cooking right now, as I have my first few sips of coffee and try to come out of my daze.

Happy Sunday, Karen! Boo to insomnia but hooray for finishing a book. I have never read Stephenson but keep it under your hat.

>184 msf59: Shhh! Okay. Under my hat. I read Snow Crash and actively disliked it except for about 30 pages in the middle, but I really liked Seveneves. I have Quicksilver on my shelves and it is book 1 in a series of 8. There's also a book 0, Cryptonomicon, but Peggy assures me that I can start with Quicksilver. I just spent 2 1/2 months re-reading the first 4 Outlander books and reading the last 4 books, so want to stay away from chunkster series for a while, I think.

I just went out with a woman who I've known for years at the Friends of the Library Sales, but who invited me out to get acquainted since I'm now a Member-At-Large on the Friends Board. We had a nice lunch then walked over to McIntyre's Fine Books and Bookends at Fearrington Village. I've tried to be somewhat circumspect buying books recently (trying not too successfully) but had a $35 gift card to McIntyre's and only spent $13 more on top of that! Trade paperbacks have gotten absolutely ridiculous - I bought 3 and they were $15, $16, and $16.99!!! So I spent about net $13, not so bad. I bought

A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin
River of Darkness by Rennie Airth

And Rhoda told me that she would set aside some books for me at the next Friends of the Library Sale on the 15th. I'll pay 'full' sale price, but she'll make sure I get them since she'll be volunteering all day and I get there first thing! Friends in high places.

I was disappointed that they didn't have Yuge by Gary Trudeau or Engineering Eden by Jordan Fisher Smith, but I'll get those somehow and in the meantime got 3 great mysteries.

>186 karenmarie: I really liked River of Darkness, Karen. Hope you do too. I liked it so well that I have at least 3 other books by Airth on the shelves.

I haven't read R. Airth yet although I have one (but not that one). Ambler and Rankin will be totally fine! Good choices!

Morning Karen! A rainy start to the day, here in the Midwest. I may be forced to stay in and read. What a bummer.

Hooray for library book sales!

>187 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Good to know. I'll put it on my 'read soon' list!

>188 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! I've read the first of Rankin's Inspector Rebus series, never read Ambler. My friend Rhoda recommended Ambler.

>189 msf59: Hi Mark! So sad for you, having to stay in and read. I wish we would get some rain - it's getting a tad dry around here. Our magnolia is getting brown on top. But my shamrock, which was getting really ratty where it was, has perked up nicely since it's in the sunroom getting filtered afternoon sunlight.

It's dry here, too. The midwest is getting a lot of dramatic rain that isn't widely reported. A friend in Kansas City said one of her friends had to be rescued from her out though the sun roof. Wackiness!

Karen! It's supposed to be a perfect summer's weekend this time. Total hammock weather, total Dickens weather.

Hi Larry! It is craziness. I knew about the flooding in Baton Rouge LA but not the Midwest.

Husband is out getting an 'emergency' root canal. Niece went to the ER two nights ago and has a mysterious infection that they can't diagnose - she was diagnosed with bronchitis and sinusitis and asthma and went home that night but then had to go back last night because of severe chest pain - not her heart, not a pulmonary embolism (what they thought for a while until a CT scan and X-ray ruled that out. Mysterious and troubling. On top of that they are in a hotel in SF because they are moving back down to LA - supposedly this weekend but now it doesn't look like Heather will be well enough. Sigh. I may go to LA to stay with my sister's husband 'cuz HE has too many health problems to stay home alone while my sister goes up to SF to be with her daughter and wife and their son.

In the meantime I'm reading Maisie Dobbs but the writing is a bit disappointing - there seem to be any number of anachronisms and she's doing a lot of verbal shorthand to describe things that could use just a bit more description and depth. I'll soldier on because I'm 82 pages from the end.

Esh, sorry about the niece. Getting sick nowadays is an outrageous proposition. Find out what the mystery infection is, and take steps to not get it. Lots of funky stuff out there now.

The son of the lady who helps my dad out a few times a week has been in excruciating pain for over a year, something about his back and rods he's had inserted. It's very scary. He was rushed to the hospital with a heart attack last week, and they said he'd had a previous heart attack, maybe more, but his back pain was so bad he didn't notice. When I was in the ER in Feb the nurse said she didn't want to give me additional pain meds. I asked her if she'd even been in my position, and said if she had she'd do anything within her power to alleviate it. I got the shot and morphine and percocet to take at home. I was lucky, though, and I'd been through similar situations with medicos so knew how to ask for what I needed.

The hell with doctors. If they won't give you the meds you need, go on the street and get them.

I loath doctors. Can you tell?

Pain is undertreated out of some stupid Puritanical sense that we should be stoic and suffer in silence. However, pain is its own stresser and I for one am always glad to get and take pain meds! Morphine was my friend in the hospital with my kidney stones, for sure.

Husband is using the last of an oxycodone prescription of mine for this tooth pain so he can sleep. Yesterday he was in great pain when he got home, but 2 antibiotics and alternating rounds of Tylenol and ibuprophen later, it was tolerable.

Your loathing is noted for future reference. :)

I've got the insomnia blues. Woke up at 4:49 a.m., tried to go back to sleep, yet here I am, drinking coffee and eating a piece of whole bread with organic crunchy peanut butter (the good kind - only peanuts and salt).

I'm going to start Great Expectations in a couple of minutes for the group read.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear





I finished Maisie Dobbs last night. Maisie Dobbs starts out as a housemaid. Her employers perceive her intelligence and thirst for knowledge and arrange for her to be tutored by a friend of theirs. She starts University, then volunteers to be a nurse in WWI. This is the backstory. The action takes place in 1929, after Maisie is established as a private investigator in London. It starts out with a man needing to find out if his wife is cheating on him and goes from there.

It was pretty good although vaguely disappointing. The mystery in 1929 is quite good, but it felt much more two dimensional than other books I've read about WWI. The best series I've ever read about the shell shock of WWI is the Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy Sayers - and all books also take place after the war but there are quite a few discussions throughout many of the books, at least the early ones, about Peter's shell shock. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club starts off on an Armistice Day remembrance with a murder/natural death for Peter to figure out, and contrasts how two brothers have different responses to their wartime experiences and how it affects their lives later on.

So Maisie Dobbs said all the right things, and discussed front-line nursing and doctoring, but again, it seemed lacking in a vividness seems the only way to describe it. I may or may not continue the series.

In addition to Great Expectations for my group read, I'm starting Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee for our RL book club discussion on September 11th. AND, I've started Until I Find You for the AAC John Irving challenge. Sheesh. I can't remember when I had 3 fiction books going before, and all started on the same day.

I'm going to pick up a used hard copy of Great Expectations this weekend, the Kindle versions all seem kind of sketchy to me for one reason or another.

Long weekend! Whoo-hoo!

Good morning Larry! I hope you find a good copy. The chapters are short yet dense - I'm really liking it. I read another 3 chapters this morning.

And yay for the holiday weekend. We're expecting to get 3-6" of rain from Tropical Storm Hermine starting noonish today. Daughter is in Wilmington, and they are expecting to get 5-7". Fortunately she has today off although I'm sure their boss would be cancelling everything anyway. So today and tomorrow are going to be iffy, but it should be dandy on Sunday and Monday.

Pssst - don't tell anyone, but since GE is on Project Gutenberg, I've been sneaking in some chapters during quiet times at work. I imagine today will be one of those days - lots of people gone today making a four day weekend for the last of summer.

Ooh, Janet! I won't tell anybody..... *smile*

When I was working at my last job before retirement, initially the Internet was available all day and with no restrictions. Eventually they clamped down and I stopped using it entirely at work, but many a day before then I'd be on LT, or performing genealogical research, or reading news.

Hi Karen, hope you are having a good day my dear.

Hi John! Today was pretty good. Highlights include reading some of each of the following:
1. Great Expectations for my group read
2. Until I Find You by John Irving for the AAC challenge for September
3. Go Set a Watchman for my RL bookclub meeting on September 11

I met some friends for lunch at a Mexican Restaurant for what we call Sangria Friday. We each had a glass of Sangria, chips and guacamole, and our meals. It was fun - they started including me about 4 times ago and except for one of the women always making everything about herself, it's a fun time. I have another friend who always makes every conversation about herself and when I was talking about it with my daughter today, I said that M. could give D. a run for her money on being the more selfish of the two!

I stopped at a bookstore on the way home to exchange a book I bought. I already had it on my shelves, so replaced it with Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard.

We're having a bit of rain because of Tropical Storm Hermine, which is battering the coast of my state North Carolina. We're expected to get 2-3" of rain through tomorrow a.m. with some wind but not much; daughter's expected to get 5-7" inches in the same time period as she's in Wilmington getting the brunt of it right now. She's safe and sound, though, snug in her apartment with enough food for a couple of days if there's flooding or power outtages.

Tonight will be some sort of series or documentary with husband; in fact, it's time to shut down the computer and go be sociable!

Oh sorry that Maisie Dobbs did not work out for you! I really love the series, but taste does vary. I agree with the idea that pain medication is given as though we should just suffer. With both of my kids I had difficult forceps deliveries and while it seems to be the goal of doctor's that you have a " natural childbirth" I asked my doctor whether he'd like to have his appendix out " naturally." Such a silly concept. At least the second time round I had an epidural at 3 cm as I asked. First time I had to wait 30 hours for the epidural! So stupid.

Best wishes with the tropical storm - I hope things go okay for you and yours. Sorry about your niece - I hope she is feeling better soon.

I think we're through the worst of Hermine, Karen, and it wasn't bad at all. A lot of rain (we'll also get the 4-7 inches - in fact, we got ½ inch last night) and a little wind, but that's it!
Tomorrow should be fine! Happy Weekend!

>201 karenmarie: Isn't it funny how most groups have one person who likes to talk about themselves. I hope the rest of you got to visit with each other as well.

Hi Karen, I hope the fall out from Tropical Storm Hermine has not caused any major problems for you all, after a nice week yesterday was a bit dull until late afternoon and today it is raining but tomorrow will be better and by the middle of next week we will be back in the mid to high seventies with warm sunny weather coming up from Spain and the Mediterranean. Sending love and hugs my dear.

Happy Saturday, Karen. Greetings from the U.P. Looks to be a gorgeous weekend.

I hope you enjoy GSAW. Not a great book but not a bad one either.

>202 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! It was an enjoyable enough read but didn't WOW me. Natural childbirth, ha. I was glad to take as much pain medication as they'd give me with 45 hours of back labor and then a C-section.

I think Hermine is gone. I've opened the sunroom door to get fresh air. There is some wonderful blustery wind and light white clouds are making their way across the sky. We may or may not get any more rain. The radar doesn't show any bands of rain coming at us.

My niece is stubborn and the timing is terrible. They are moving back down to SoCal. They were out of their rental house on the 30th, staying at a hotel in San Francisco. My sister said they have started the drive down to Bakersfield (their intermediate stop to visit her wife's family), then last night my sister texted me that Heather has pains in her chest again. She apparently has found another urgent care to go to. I'm hoping no news is good news, as it's 6 a.m. out there and they should all be sleeping.

>203 LizzieD: Yes, we escaped much of the anticipated Hermine, too, Peggy. Thank you. I'm looking forward to cooler temperatures for the Labor Day weekend.

>204 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Not so much as every time anybody mentioned anything M. turned it back to herself. There was one time they all three talked about a current band situation - that's how we all met, my daughter's high school marching band program - which really surprises me since only my dear friend Vanessa still has a child in band. The other two can't seem to let go, especially M. She is still officially in charge of one of the fundraising activities as no one else has stepped up. My opinion is that if she were to give them a date that she's done and hand all documentation, info, contacts, and etc., over to the Band Boosters President, someone would step up even if they didn't want to. But M. is somewhat of a martyr too.

I must admit that I watched most of it with amusement, drank my sangria, ate my food, and wondered if I wanted to participate any more. :)

>205 johnsimpson: It's gorgeous right now, John, a crisp 66F. Love and hugs back to you and Karen!

Hammock weather!

>207 karenmarie: I must admit that I watched most of it with amusement, drank my sangria, ate my food, and wondered if I wanted to participate any more. :)

Yes, it is hard to see the point when you don't have the same commitment to what they are talking about any more but some groups are able to morph into something different as time goes on so it is hard to tell if carrying on is the best option.

>206 msf59: Hi Mark! I finished GSAW in the wee hours and am mulling it over. I think it's a very good book, certainly not Pulitzer Prize material, but definitely satisfying. Several things were shocking, of course, but they are spoiler material. I'll write something up a bit later on. This morning is 66F, beautiful Carolina blue skies, cicadas, and the gentlest of breezes.

>208 SomeGuyInVirginia: Good morning, Larry! I've been having a bit of a problem with my left hip, which was aggravated the previous week by hanging out in the hammock. If I indulge today I might take out a pillow to put under my hips or even tighten the hammock one more notch.

>209 Familyhistorian: Hello Meg! I'll give it one more try. M. doth protest too much - she's empty nest and says that's great but really doesn't have much else to talk about. Sons and band, occasionally husband and her job. I know that the other two are readers, so will try to introduce book discussions next time.

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee





Book description from Amazon:
Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—"Scout"—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can only be guided by one's own conscience.

Reading about GSAW after finishing it makes me realize that most of the world considers it an unedited draft of TKAM. There are many paragraphs that are identical in both books and there are inconsistencies between them where events are referenced in both – as an example in TKAM Tom Robinson is found guilty and in GSAW he’s found innocent, but only as a passing reference to the case from Scout’s childhood.

I agree that they may have been written as two separate attempts to tell a story, but together they represent childhood’s innocence and subsequent loss of innocence. It would take a book to write about GSAW and TKAM, but overall it’s fair to say that Scout’s adoration of her father grows between books and becomes grounded in reality and a chosen attitude and love towards her parent, warts and all, rather than the blind adoration of her childhood.

I thought GSAW a bit more two dimensional and also was a bit impatient with the 26-year old Scout’s necessary-for-the-book arrogance of being 26 and thinking she knows the world. She has, after all, lived in New York City, but learns a series of painful and necessary lessons that allow her to understand the people she loves and grow as a human being.

TKAM and GSAW together are one extremely powerful novel.

Good morning, Karen!

I'm glad that the hurricane passed you by. We could certainly use a little of that precipitation. It's cloudy outside today, although there is still enough forest fire smoke it's hard to tell what are clouds and what is smoke. The forecast this weekend is for snow in the high country, so relief may happen, soon.

I think it's fun that you looked for Engineering Eden - Jordan Fisher Smith will be at the Montana Festival of the book later this month - I think I'll whip out my LTER ARC and have him sign it.

Hi Janet! Thanks. We did get about an inch and a half of needed rain.

Wow. Still forest fire smoke. I hope there's rain to settle it. And snow in the high country! My friend Karen, who lives in Belgrade, has told me of years where there's a snow every month, even July and August.

I'd like to get Engineering Eden but have recently come to the realization that with retirement and husband currently not working AND one thousand, six hundred and forty four books categorized as TBR, I shouldn't be buying so many books right now.

I'm really hoping and putting positive energy out there that my husband finds a job soon. It probably won't be with benefits and we'll have to use ACA to find a health care package that makes sense for us, but still. He needs a job and we need for him to have a job.

Happy Sunday, Karen. Good review of GSAW. I think you summed it up very well.

Thank you, Mark! It's my choice for our book club meeting on September 11th. I'll have to do some homework on Harper Lee and expand my thoughts above.

My husband is outside attacking the former-Dutch-Iris-bed-current-Johnson-grass-bed. I only feel a little bit guilty that he's out there while I'm in here. :)

I stayed up until 3 a.m. reading a Georgette Heyer Regency Romance that I don't ever remember reading before - Bath Tangle - and thoroughly enjoying it. It's not going to end up being one of my favorites, but I'm definitely glad I read it.

Now for a bit of Great Expectations and Until I Find You for my group read and the September John Irving challenge respectively.

Morning Karen! Happy Labor Day! We head home in a little while. Sighs...it was a great vacation though.

How is the Irving novel, in the early going?

Good morning, Mark!

I'm really liking it. I have read several John Irving books already so knew somewhat to expect. Having said that, this doesn't have any circus people or bears in it so far.....

I decided to read another Regency Romance today. A Gentleman's Mistress is a Georgette Heyer wanna be + sex. Fun. The heroine's motives are irritating, but the hero is all good things. :)

I'll be gone until tomorrow some time - visiting my 92-year old friend Frances then going to spend the night with my daughter in Wilmington. Frances is getting a bit frail and a nice little afternoon visit will be good for both of us. Daughter is working today so we'll coordinate schedules and meet at her apartment some time after she gets off work. We'll have a nice dinner out, then come back to her apartment to watch a movie, then tomorrow morning I'll probably leave when she does unless I can persuade her to make a pot of coffee for me!

have fun!

>220 karenmarie: Enjoy your visiting!

Morning Karen. I think I am going to start my John Irving pick, as my next audio. I hope it has nothing to do with White Trash. Grins...

>221 beeg: and >222 Familyhistorian: I had fun with visiting Frances, but I must admit that visiting her is an exercise in slowing down. She is nearly blind, has a paralyzed vocal cord, and you just can't rush her. We did have fun talking politics. We agree 100% and had fun trashing Trump and McCrory - our NC governor.

Daughter has been having a terrible week, as it turns out and when I called to confirm when I'd be there, she sounded so stressed and upset that I just said I'd come home instead. She's exactly like I am - when stressed needs to be alone, calm, and not dealing with anything. I understood although I admit that my feelings were a bit hurt. So I drove 278 miles round trip yesterday and am whupped today.

And of course my husband had to text her and berate her, which didn't help. I was the one upset and I had decided to just let things rest for a couple of days. Now she's tweeked and I'm tweeked and husband really made it worse although he won't understand that. Blech.

>223 msf59: Hi Mark. Good for you! I'll go check out the thread to see which one, 'cuz I forget. Mine, in case you've forgotten, is Until I Find You.

Book moving. Reading. Greek salad for lunch later today.

I just had to read another Regency romance today. It was only adequate, a Georgette Heyer wanna-be. Read, and ready for the thrift shop!

Hi, Karen. My Irving read will be Avenue of Mysteries. His last novel. I also started Disgrace. A tough read at times but I am really liking it.

No comment other than "Peace!" And "Find a good GH to reread!"

If you got to have fun chatting about politics in a civilized way, I say your visit with Frances was a complete success! :) I love chatting politics and having a chuckle with it. Sorry about the situation with your daughter and husband right now. Best wishes that everything will sort itself out.

Morning Karen! I think I may have just abandoned my Irving pick. It just was not clicking and I am not sure I want to spend the next 19 hours with it.

>226 msf59: Hi Mark! I'm glad you're taking one for the team on 'tough reads' - right now I'm more in the mood for light and fluffy.

>227 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I would have had to pull the step ladder into the library to see my GH, so instead pulled out the first Albert Campion mystery by Margery Allingham, The Crime at Black Dudley. I will continue reading it and finish it, but I'm reminded of GH's mysteries - Agatha Christie Wanna-Be(s) - and am finding it terribly dated in an unattractive way. Soon the step ladder!

>228 vancouverdeb: Oh, we had a marvelous time, as Frances would put it. The three of us will be fine. We tend to snarl and then get our feelings hurt and crawl off to lick our wounds, then come back and things get back to good quickly.

>229 msf59: Do say! If you haven't read Until I Find You you might find it interesting.

Now isn't that interesting? I have never warmed to Allingham, but I thought that the GH mysteries were very well done except for Penhallow, which is just a wretched book!
Anyway, be sure to get a good GH to make the step ladder worthwhile (or "worthwild" as a former student insisted on writing).
Have you read the Sebastian St. Cyr series by C.S. Harris? I have a bunch of them coming, strongly promoted by Lucy, and I'm anxious to get started.

>231 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I finished The Crime at Black Dudley only because I thought I should.

67. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham





The first Albert Campion of the series, originally published in 1929.

I found this book a Peter Wimsey wanna-be. Albert Campion was only in it for part of the book anyway, and played the frivolous ass perfectly. However, Allingham makes sure we realize that he is obviously more than he appears. There’s a country house party, hidden rooms, The Bad Guys, the murder victim, and a vast confusion of names, motives, and dithering around. I found that the plot ground audibly when at one point there’s an improbable rescue, and the coincidences and dated activities and technology made me realize that I wouldn’t continue the series.

Happy Saturday, Karen. Glad you are enjoying your Irving. I have that one on the list. I will be switching to Garp, a little later.

Light rain at the moment but much cooler. Sweet...

Oh dear, a 2. 5 star read. Sorry about that, Karen. Best wishes for a good book next time.

Yesh, I don't know if I'd have been able to finish a 2.5. At least you finished, that takes strong will power.

>233 msf59: Hi Mark! I had a wonderful Saturday - we drove 2 1/2 hours to a reunion on my husband's side of the family. It was hot as Hades but excellent fellowship, and we really enjoyed seeing the cousins we knew and meeting new ones. We got back just about 1/2 hour ago, having spent the night in Lincolnton NC.

>234 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! Yup. I could only give it 2.5 stars. I finished it to be able to review it.

>235 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hey Larry. I usually put "2.5" reads down, but Meg (familyhistorian) had just reviewed The Tiger in the Smoke and I finally decided that I should give Albert Campion a go. One's enough. :)

Don't anybody get me wrong - I love Sayers and Christie and all my Regency romance authors and the time periods they put their characters in. I love the technology and motivations and societal mores. For some reason The Crime at Black Dudley just irritated me.

I just finished another Regency romance, Miss Dornton's Hero by Elisabeth Fairchild. I seem to be reading a lot of post-traumatic stress disorder books recently, as in this one the Hero is a Waterloo survivor whose horse is shot out from underneath him and pins him. He's left for dead but survives and can't seem to free himself of the awful images. Our Heroine is a young woman who witnessed the death of her younger brother, and they are drawn to each other. Highly satisfactory.

Happy Sunday, Karen. Hope you had a good time at the reunion. I am kicking back watching the Bears and the Texans. Not much reading getting done. Sad face...

I'm assuming your Bears are losing, Mark? Sorry. We had to watch our Panthers lose by one point Thursday night when Gano, the field goal kicker, missed one. He so rarely misses that we were stunned. The Panthers have now lost as many games as they lost all last season. One.

Welcome home, Karen! Lincolnton, eh? My best college friend was from there, but her parents are dead and she and her brothers are long-gone. (In the small state department, her best girl friend growing up married one of my best boy friends growing up.)

Good day, Peggy! Yup, Lincolnton. My husband's mother was born, raised, and eventually moved back and passed away in Mooresville. Her half-brother's children/grandchildren live in Lincolnton. My husband and daughter both look like all their red-headed, brown-eyed cousins.

I'm trying to read an ER book from .... embarrassed sigh..... five years ago. Once I get back onto a regular reading schedule after the weekend's festivities and yesterday's volunteering for prep work for the Friends of the Library Sale, I should be able to devote much attention to it, Great Expectations for the group read, and Until I Find You for the September AAC John Irving challenge.

In the meantime, coffee and Great Expectations!

Morning Karen! I hope you have a great time reading this afternoon. Our weather has been beautiful. I hope you are getting some of it too.

I am so totally envying you your hammock reading time. Totally.

Hi Karen, just getting around the threads after our trip down to Oxford. We have had a glorious day here with a temperature of 29C and then this evening we had a terrific rain storm and lightning. Sending love and hugs.

I've had the occasional 2. 5 star read too - books I just felt I had to finish to do them justice, or books I enjoyed , sort of, but objected strongly to certain elements of the book.

>241 msf59: Hi Mark! I've had a pretty good day. The weather was hot earlier on, but has cooled down and the humidity is down.

>242 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hey Larry! I'll enjoy some for you, too - seriously, being in the hammock with just me, my book, and one or the other of the kitties occasionally stopping by for a visit is heaven on earth.

>243 johnsimpson: Hi John! I'd actually like some rain here - we are in a dry spell for about a week if the weathermen are right. Love and hugs back to you and Karen.

>244 vancouverdeb: In my way of rating books, Deborah, is average. Not pejorative, but definitely not something to write home to mother about. No magic, no real goodness, just not bad.

I don't usually finish 2.5 books, but do have 38 books currently on my shelves that are rated Several of them were ER books.

Masterpiece
Stunning
Excellent
Very Good
Good
Average
Bad
Very Bad
Don't Bother
Anathema

I looked out the sunroom door this morning and this is what I saw:

>246 karenmarie: Pretty!

Begonias, begorrah!!!!

>246 karenmarie:, What a great photo my dear.

Lovely!

Thank you Mark, Peggy, John, beeg! I just loved seeing the morning sun coming in through them.

Well, I finally finished listening to To Kill a Mockingbird. I read the book for the first time in my life last month and since I already had the audiobook, decided to listen to it starting a couple of days later. This is not the Cissy Spacek reading and I've not ever heard it; I cannot imagine Cissy as Scout as perfect as Roses.

Today is the first day of the Friends of the Library Sale! Hoo-rah!

I helped sort books on Monday for the Friends of the Library Sale, which started today, and for my volunteer thank you book I picked A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot.

Today I was there for about 2 hours as a customer and got the following:

Audiobooks:
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard J. Carwardine
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee – I’m sad because the box is seriously damaged, but the CDs are immaculate
Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo
Summerland by Michael Chabon

Trade Paperbacks:
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
The Greater Journey by David McCullough
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
The Old Devils by Kinglsey Amis
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
The Portable Dorothy Parker with an introduction by Brendan Gill
Euphoria by Lily King
The Enormous Room by e.e. cummings
In One Person by John Irving
The Red Pole of Macau by Ian Hamilton
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
The Confusion by Neal Stephenson
The System of the World by Neal Stephenson

Boxed Trade Paperback Set by Carlos Castaneda:
The Teachings of Don Juan
A Separate Reality
Journey to Ixtlan
Tales of Power

Hardcovers:
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne
A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, and The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote
Dexter’s Final Cut by Jeff Lindsay
Redemption Road by John Hart
Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
This Fabulous Century: 1910-1920 by the Editors of Time-Life Books

I feel like I got a pretty good haul. I'll go back this afternoon to cashier from 5-7 and will get another volunteer thank you book. Then, I’ll go back on Saturday for $5/bag day. I usually find enough things to fill one or two bags…..

Whoo-hoo! I love Michael Chabon, he can do no wrong. And I'm listening to a Jeff Lindsay Dexter book and am really liking it. Good swag!

>252 karenmarie:, That's a great haul Karen my dear.

Ooh, I heard there was a book orgy going on over here and I was not disappointed. Cool. A lot of terrific titles here, Karen. I just finished Disgrace and think that is an ideal choice. I also see you have some AAC authors on here. On purpose or an accident?

>253 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! I have 6 titles by Chabon. I've read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

>254 johnsimpson: Thanks, John! This is a twice-a-year event and I love it.

>255 msf59: Hi Mark! I must admit that I couldn't remember the Coetzee you'd finished and saw two. Other than that, it was just serendipity.

I've finally cataloged everything bought yesterday and only discovered two books that I already had. Oh, well. I'll donate them. I also made sure that I am using member-uploaded covers. Where there wasn't a good one, I've scanned mine in. Takes a while. I wish I had known from the beginning about scanning covers in and figured out earlier how to do that; lately I've been changing my covers over from low-quality member scanned covers to high-quality; if not there, then I'm scanning those, too. Trying to get away from Amazon covers, but unfortunately half my books still have them.

Wow! Wow! Wow! I wish our annual library sale had equal quality.

We're lucky, Peggy - we have a VERY upscale retirement community in Pittsboro called Fearrington Village/Galloway Ridge, and those people are readers and donators! Also, many of them liquidate their libraries 'cuz their children don't want their books so we get a lot of classics and oldies.

The library sale in Sanford, which is a much bigger town south of us, has mediocre book sales at best because of the ...er... lack of serious reading in Bible Belt Lee County. Sad, but there it is.

That was a good haul for you Karen :-)

Thanks, Anita! I'm very pleased with my acquisitions. Of course I can't start any of them right away. I have three fiction books going, very unusual for me, one nonfiction that's on the backburner, and one audiobook for when I drive anywhere.

Ah, the book orgy sounds fun! Have fun at the Orgy2 bag day today!

How cool that you have access to such great books! Our book sale is quite small and stuffed into one basement room at the library. The quality is in-between the two you mention. Some great stuff, some not so great. You make a wonderful point for me to attend the AAUW sale in Missoula. I've stopped going to that one because Planet TBR is so huge. But I'm sure the quality is better there.

Happy Saturday, Karen! And hooray for Book Orgy Day 2.

Yes, I read Disgrace and will definitely be reading more of him.

>261 streamsong: Hi Janet! I know, I am really lucky to live in such a literate county. We also have 2 used book stores, Habitat for Humanity, and 3 thrift stores for books. You should really go to your AAUW sale - what if there is just One book that you absolutely have to have?

And my tbr tagged books number 1668 before entering what I bought this a.m. It's a nice problem to have. A friend of mine on the Friends board says that books are like money in the bank. She has quite a few books tbr too.

I just got back from Orgy2 - one bag, 17 books, and a "Lincoln in His Own Words" magazine.

>262 msf59: Thanks, Mark. It was fun.

This is what I got this morning:

The Distant Echo by Val McDermid - hardcover
A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works by Jonathan Swift - trade paperback
Three Complete Novels in One Book: O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather- hardcover
The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White - hardcover
Kim by Rudyard Kipling - hardcover
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride - trade paperback
Voltaire's Calligrapher by Pablo de Santis - trade paperback
The Dream-Detective by Sax Rohmer - trade paperback
The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters - hardcover
The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks - hardcover
Nothing to be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes - hardcover
Nelson's complete book of Bible Maps & Charts - Thomas Nelson Publishers - trade paperback
Ask Your Angels by Alma Daniel, Timothy Wyllie, and Andrew Ramer - trade paperback
The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War by the Editors of American Heritage The Magazine of History - two hardcover volumes slipcased

Whew. I'm done. I could have stayed another half hour, and I am sure there were other treasures to find, but enough was finally enough. I had a blast.

Monday morning is the Friends of the Library Board Meeting. I became a Member-At-Large in June, and am just getting my feet wet. We'll know how much money was made at that meeting. They usually net $18-20K per sale, and there are two sales per year.

Hi Karen, just looking at your latest book sale purchases and noticed you have picked up Cold Granite, this is the first in the Logan McRae series and is very good. I have read the first three and have the rest on the TBR pile, lol. Hope you are having a good Saturday and have a lovely weekend my dear, sending love and hugs.

Wow! 52 books did you say? What a great haul, Karen! Enjoy! How nice that the library sales net $18 - 20 K . That must help out the library a lot. The libraries that I go to in my area have an ongoing library sale. There are always books for sale from $3 - $1. I usually leave them behind, since I already frequent the two second hand bookstores in my area, but sometime I find something great .

>264 johnsimpson: Hey John! My friend Rhoda volunteers at the book sale every year - in fact that's how I got to know her - and she recommended Cold Granite to me. She's turned me on to several mystery series that I like. Now I have two recommendations for it! The weekend is going well, the Panthers play today and I'm going to make a pot of chili, and I'm almost finished with a very interesting book All Cry Chaos. It was an ER book from five years ago. I'm totally ashamed that it's taken me this long to get to it, but hey! At least I'm reading it now.

>265 vancouverdeb: Good morning, Deborah! Yes. Some sales are better than others, and I'm very pleased with this one. Last September was the best haul ever - I got 57 books for $160 - most of them were hardcover slipcased books Sep 2016 Haul and $5/bag Haul

57 books for $160 and then 43 more for $10 on $5/bag day. This year was 37 books for $92 plus 14 more for $5 on $5/bag day.

233 total acquired this year. Yeesh. However, in my defense, this year I have culled 106 books so far, and will cull at least 20 more this week as I attempt to weed out duplicates. Most of them have been given to the thrift shop, some to my cleaning ladies Pat and Pam, and daughter took a bunch too. There are probably 30 waiting for daughter to go through before I take the next batch to the thrift store.

Plus, instead of automatically putting a book back on to my shelves, I am asking myself if I really want to keep it or not and have culled 5 that way since August.

20 pages to go in All Cry Chaos. I just could not keep my eyes open last night and thought the book was better than just finishing it to finish it. With coffee and a good night's sleep, I am looking forward to enjoying the ending.

Happy Sunday! Happy Book Orgy! Another nice haul. How is the Cather edition? That sounds like a catch.

Hi Mark! Thank you. The Cather edition is definitely a catch because I needed The Song of the Lark to complete the Prairie Trilogy. I have a copy of O Pioneers! that I can now cull. Both book and dust jacket are in immaculate condition. It was published in 1992. The third book is not the third book in the Prairie Trilogy - My Antonia is, and I have that on my shelves too. Now, as with all my books, I just have to find the right time and mood to read them.

I have finally read an ER book from five years ago and am only sorry I waited to so long to read it. Absolutely wonderful.

All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen





Here’s my review: All Cry Chaos

Hi Karen, I have purchased 154 books so far this year and I am supposed to be being good and now I have to look at the Book People site as we need to make a couple of orders to qualify for some freebies that we have had for the last few years. To qualify we have to make four orders each year of a small amount and we have been slacking this year although we will probably order some books that will be presents for Christmas time. Sending love and hugs to you my dear.

>252 karenmarie: I like quite a few of those books you bought, Karen. In particular, I read and approved:

Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
The Greater Journey by David McCullough

I'd like to read the two Coetzee titles you got, as well as The Enormous Room by e.e. cummings and Irving's In One Person. I just finished My Movie Business, in which Irving recalls the trials and tribulations of having his novels adapted to film.

Both my wife and I got good snorks from the title of Christopher Moore's book (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal).

I myself went to a library sale on Saturday (one of five six the Bethlehem Public Library holds each year), and I too bought The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. As well as book bargains, I've had meet-ups with Linda (Whisper1) and Diane (Dianekeenoy). With books purchased, we retire to the nearby Hotel Bethlehem (originally built and operated by the Bethlehem Steel Corp.) for lunch and book chatting. Warbling does occur.

Beautiful photo of the flowers, Karen. Isn't it nice to have time to appreciate your surroundings now that you are retired?

That is quite the upscale Friends of the Library sale! Looks like an interesting book haul.

Wow, congratulations on your fantastic book haul, Karen! I'm going to have to do better, I came home yesterday from our Bethlehem meet-up with only 8 books, I'm a little embarrassed...

>270 johnsimpson: Hello John! Small purchases, some for Christmas gifts, sounds like a good way to go to get those Freebies! Sending love and hugs back to you and Karen.

>271 weird_O: Hi Bill! I made a big mistake with Christopher Moore - I had quite a few of his books for a while, started one and didn't particularly like it and got rid of them all. Sigh. So I pick 'em up when I can these days. I got the Coetzee books and the John Irving because of Mark's threads. I've loved e.e. cummings ever since discovering him in college (so that makes it about 1972ish - 44 years ago or so). I have quite a few of his books and a complete poems book, but didn't have the memoir.

Some book titles are just so wonderful, and Christopher Moore has quite a few of them.

Congrats on the Bethlehem book sale and LT meet up. Warbling sounds wonderful.

>272 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg! The time is magical. I'm still amazed that I don't have to get up to an alarm very often, can basically do whatever I want when I want, and have been spending more time in my sunroom reading and here on LT. It was just a quick glance and I thought that the sun coming through the begonias was wonderful. And thanks to cell phones, too! Picture, e-mail to self on computer, upload to LT, post on thread. Easy peasy, now that I've finally gotten it figured out!

Like I mentioned above, it is a very upscale book sale. The local retirement community is huge and comprised of lots of very well off retired professionals who read a lot and donate a lot.

>273 Dianekeenoy: Thanks, Diane! I don't know how your sale works, but with anything except our fabulous Friends of the Library Sale, I'd say 8 is wonderful. On top of that, the meet-ups are to be envied!

We watched our Carolina Panthers win - yay! - and kept up with the Cowboys winning, too. Husband has always been a Cowboys fan since we never had a pro team here in NC until the Panthers. He's a "both" fan, and I'm a Panthers fan. So is our daughter. I texted her a couple of updates since she was working today.

I need to find another book to read - what a problem to have! - and am going to start re-organizing my Library now that I put most of the books I've read in my upstairs Retreat. I've moved 1,535 books upstairs and updated the location tag in LT. It's almost all done now.

In the Library, some of the shelves are down to a book or two and some shelves still are double stacked, so I'm going to even things out. Oh. And, of course, I'll add my Friends purchases. I really think that I might get it to single stacked.....

Oh wow, I love anything by Julian Barnes. Mozel-tov!

Hi, Karen. I would like to have Cather's Prairie books in my collection too. I still have to read Song of the Lark.

Enjoy playing with those bookshelves. I always enjoy it.

I've had to split my book acquisitions thread into two pieces because of an ERROR when I tried posting yesterday.

So Book acquisitions thread 1: Book Acquisitions I

Continuation from September 1 forward for book acquisitions:
September - 58 so far
Amazon Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer
Amazon The Grand Tour by Matthew Prichard
Library Sale Volunteer Thank You Book A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot
The following 52 books are from the Friends of the Library Sale:
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard J. Carwardine
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee – I’m sad because the box is seriously damaged, but the CDs are immaculate
Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo
Summerland by Michael Chabon
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
The Greater Journey by David McCullough
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
The Old Devils by Kinglsey Amis
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
The Portable Dorothy Parker with an introduction by Brendan Gill
Euphoria by Lily King
The Enormous Room by e.e. cummings
In One Person by John Irving
The Red Pole of Macau by Ian Hamilton
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
The Confusion by Neal Stephenson
The System of the World by Neal Stephenson
The Teachings of Don Juan
A Separate Reality
Journey to Ixtlan
Tales of Power
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne
A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, and The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote
Dexter’s Final Cut by Jeff Lindsay
Redemption Road by John Hart
Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
This Fabulous Century: 1910-1920 by the Editors of Time-Life Books
The Distant Echo by Val McDermid - hardcover
A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works by Jonathan Swift - trade paperback
Three Complete Novels in One Book: O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather- hardcover
The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White - hardcover
Kim by Rudyard Kipling - hardcover
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride - trade paperback
Voltaire's Calligrapher by Pablo de Santis - trade paperback
The Dream-Detective by Sax Rohmer - trade paperback
The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters - hardcover
The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks - hardcover
Nothing to be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes - hardcover
Nelson's complete book of Bible Maps & Charts - Thomas Nelson Publishers - trade paperback
Ask Your Angels by Alma Daniel, Timothy Wyllie, and Andrew Ramer - trade paperback
The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War by the Editors of American Heritage The Magazine of History - two hardcover volumes slipcased
Amazon We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Amazon Yuge
Bookmooch The Dinosaur Feather by S.J. Gazan

Today is dreary and rainy but not too humid yet as Tropical Storm Julia dumps 'remnant' rain on us. We desperately needed the rain so am glad to be getting it.

We're also in a gas shortage, of all things because of a break in the Colonial Pipeline. Husband and I both have pretty full tanks after making sure we got gas the day after the 250,000 gallon leak and shutdown of the pipeline for repairs, and it looks like gas will start flowing in the next few days, but there have been shortages, rationing, lines, and price gouging. I debated going to visit friends 30 miles away today, but am confident that I'll have enough gas to get through to next week. I may cancel my Sangria Friday plans depending on supply then.

I finished a wonderful book last night, by an author I very much like. I guess you'd consider it 'chick-lit', but it's very powerful writing by a good author.

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty





Liane Moriarty is an Australian writer whose grasp of emotional crises and human strengths and weaknesses makes her a joy to read. This is the second book I’ve read by her, the first being What Alice Forgot.

The Husband’s Secret tells the story the long-ago murder of Rachel’s daughter Janie and how it impacted her life. It also tells the story of Tess and her marriage to Will when he comes to her and says he’s in love with someone else, and the story of Cecilia, married to John-Paul, and her learning his secret. John-Paul is the titular Husband, but his story is told almost exclusively from Cecilia’s perspective, with the occasional impression of John-Paul from other characters.

The characters are a bit hard to follow at first as they are thrown at you quickly in the first several chapters, but the interrelationships become clear quickly. I kept wondering how they all tied together, but somehow Moriarty juggles and manipulates all her characters to a sad, realistic, devastating ending. I didn’t walk away depressed, however, as there was true growth and honesty in the characters and I felt that they would all be okay in the long run, even the ones I didn’t particularly like. As with life, some people we like, and some we don’t.

Morning Karen! Boo to gas shortages. Hooray for mighty book acquisitions. That is quite a haul.

Have a good time at lunch today.

You can't blow off Sangria Friday! It's a thing!

>279 msf59: Hi Mark! I love the book sale. I had a great time.

Lunch was fun. I saw 3 out of 4 gas stations with no gas on my trip today. I'm down to 3/4 tank.

>280 SomeGuyInVirginia: Okay, if you say so, Larry! I won't blow off Sangria Friday.

>278 karenmarie:, Hi Karen, sorry to hear of the gas shortage and hope everything gets sorted out. I have both of those Liane Moriarty books on my shelf to read and am glad you liked them. I read most genres except horror and have read and read quite a bit of chick-lit and I like it, I mix up my reading with crime and a chick-lit as my two books on the go at the same time and then will read a historical fiction with a thriller and so on and so forth unless I am reading a series and want to just continue reading that. It all makes for an enjoyable reading experience. Sending love and hugs to you my dear.

>278 karenmarie: I enjoyed that book as well! I'm in shock about the gas shortage. I need to call my dad who lives in Hickory and see if he's having any issues. I forget how far you live from Hickory...hope it ends soon!

>282 johnsimpson: Hi John! I rarely read horror. Mysteries are my genre of choice, with Regency romances (Georgette Heyer and Mary Balogh specifically) coming in second. I love historical fiction too, but am very particular about language and so dump more than I end up reading. I hate anachronisms. Sending love and hugs to you and Karen!

>283 Dianekeenoy: Hi Diane! I definitely like her books. Have you read What Alice Forgot? It's very good too and I'm going to be keeping my eye out for her other books.

Hickory is about 130 miles from my house, depending on route. Roughly about 2 1/4 hours or so. Apparently the shortage is beginning to ease, but I haven't been back out to check. Husband is going to have lunch with a friend, so he'll be able to report back about one or two stations in Pittsboro.

Morning Karen! Sweet Thursday. 2 more work days and I am on vacation. It will be my last hurrah for '16. Looking forward to it.

Enjoy your day.

>277 karenmarie: That is quite a haul Karen! Over what period did you add that little lot?

I am finally getting back to the threads after my UK trip and a busy return to work.

Yay! Sangria Friday is saved!

>285 msf59: Hi Mark! Sweet Thursday indeed. I've just taken a from-scratch chocolate cake out of the oven and will make and frost it with buttercream frosting when cool. Then it's over to visit neighbor Louise for a while, cake in hand of course! Where are you going on vacation this time? Tee hee.

>286 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul! The majority on September 15th, with another bag's worth on the 17th. Since then I've gotten a few via Amazon and Bookmooch, too. I'm impressed that you're already zooming around to friend threads! Thanks for visiting.

>287 SomeGuyInVirginia: Yup. I think the gas shortage is pretty much over and even if it isn't, 60 more miles won't hurt too much with 3/4 of a tank left.

Plus I need some alcoholic encouragement.

Husband and I have a difference of opinion about where to keep our portfolio - we moved most of it to our insurance guy at NML in the spring because they've branched out into portfolio management, but I haven't been pleased with their response so far. Some of my money is still with my work 401k at Fidelity, and yesterday we discovered another small chunk at our old broker Morgan Stanley. It raises some questions about NML's efficiency - they obviously weren't thorough in either asking for all our authorizations or on following through whether everything had been transferred. And, was this 'missing' chunk included in their analysis or not? Sigh.

I think we'll move everything except the insurance back to Morgan Stanley because I like their response time and detailed answers better than NML's so far. I think I'll consider moving my 401k too. Husband says he's washing his hands of it and it can be my retirement project. If there's something to decide, involve him, otherwise handle it. Well, okay. I can do this. I've wanted to learn more about our investments so will now be forced, in a good way, to learn.

It's an excuse to go to Charlotte for a few days since our guy at Morgan Stanley is there, too. :)

Good lord, avoid Charlotte like the plague. That place has gone over the edge.

Well, for now we will avoid Charlotte, but I think that if we move everything back to MS then I'd like to finally meet Rick - he managed husband's mother's money for 40 years, ours for probably 20 or more. Charlotte is a tinder box right now - another person shot, another potential police abuse case, another set of riots. Someone else was shot last night, but it may not have been by police, there's confusion on that issue. I'll have to ask Rick if his offices are in the midst of the madness or not. He didn't mention it this a.m.

North Carolina has gone over the edge with our Governator and HB2 and all the blow back and walking back and sheer stupidity. I was embarrassed to live in CA with Ronny Raygun and am now embarrassed to live in NC with Patman.

I must agree that from what I have read in the news, Charlotte would be a place to avoid for the moment. Sorry to mix you up with my poorly constructed sentence . She'd would likely bite me before at the sight of pants for her. She just barely tolerates her rain coats, and they are a necessity for hour long walks in the climate that I live in. I know where my cousin lives, it gets so cold , her dog wears a snowsuit, legs and all, as well as booties to protect her feet from freezing. My Poppy would really hate that! Poppy would put up quite a struggle .

Hi Karen! I meant to answer your comment over on the group read thread long ago, and only just remembered. Cool that you're thinking of reading the Bible with us!

As for the Literary Study Bible I'm pleased with it for the most part. The print is reasonably sized and it's mot in double column format, making it more readable to me. There are comments after each passage explaining literary context, but I don't yet know how helpful they are. I'll see. I was disappointed to see very little introduction, though. I guess Leland Ryken hopes you'll buy his book How to Read the Bible as Literature as background. I don't know if I will or not. Anyway, not trying to influence you one way or another! Just wanted you to know what it was.

>291 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! My MiL used to put a little coat on her dog Lulu when it was cold out. I thought it was cute. Snowsuits and booties. Now that's a visual!

>292 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel! Thanks for coming on over to visit. Like I said, I'm intrigued with the idea. I have many different versions of the Bible. If the jury is still out on The Literary Study Bible, then I'll pass on it. I've already spent way too much money on books this year.

Well, I baked a chocolate cake today. Scratch cake with homemade buttercream frosting. Yum. I was inspired by my sister's telling me that her daughter-in-law made chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing for a family birthday and sent me a picture. Sadly, I did not have cupcake paper baking cups, so had to make a cake instead. I took some over to my neighbor this afternoon, and she said that she wasn't going to share..... and then proceeded to take it into her bedroom!

It's Sangria Friday!

That's a terrible thing you've done, showing that cake and not sharing any.

Good morning, Larry!

We could do what my sister and I do - say we're on a plane coming to visit with cake in hand. No? Ah well, I tried.

Sangria Friday will be at a BBQ place today - since I don't eat BBQ pork it could have been a challenge, but fortunately this place serves brisket. I'm not sure they have Sangria, but we'll wing it as far as alcohol goes.

I was strong this morning and did not have cake for breakfast.

>293 karenmarie: That cake looks yummy!

Morning Karen. Happy Friday. We are going down to Texas, next Thursday for a long weekend. Never been to Houston or Austin. Looking forward to it.

Cake is a breakfast food ya know

>296 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori! I just had a piece - afternoon snack - and I'm resisting the urge to go back for a second snack.

>297 msf59: Hi Mark! Your long weekend sounds like lots of fun.

>298 beeg: Hi beeg! Tomorrow morning it probably will be. There's no sense in being good when there's cake in the house. The last dessert I made was months ago, so I'm allowed. :)

Let them eat cake, I always say

What Sangria goes with cake? Autumn has fallen on the Nation's Blah and I have hammock envy.

>300 beeg: Hi beeg! I've had half a cup of coffee. Cake is calling.....

>301 SomeGuyInVirginia: Well, Larry, I absolutely didn't like the BBQ place. The brisket was tender and good but I didn't exactly like any of the sauces they provided - the closest one was pretty good but not exactly right. The mac'n cheese was bland and I suspect made with velveeta, and the potato salad had onions in it. Blech. They had good unsweet tea in huge, plastic cups, though - if there was wine on the menu I didn't see it. It was very noisy. I had to do a bit of lip reading.

As I just poked my head out the sunroom door I saw a leaf fall, so I guess it's fall, but the air temp wasn't cool enough to leave the door open. I might 'hammock' this afternoon, although we're going to a party tonight and the day is already filling up with stuff to do prior to our 5 p.m. arrival. I'm regretting rsvp-ing to the party, as the older I get the less social I get. Sigh.

I'm progressing nicely with Great Expectations. I'm also reading Until I Find You by John Irving for the September AAC challenge, and although I didn't read a single page of it yesterday, have picked up a mystery called Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner. I couldn't resist buying Yuge! by Gary Trudeau, the collection of his 30-years worth of cartoons about Trump, and chuckled my way through half of it last night.