That's awesome! Is he giving a talk of some sort or just a book signing?

LOL. I know exactly how that feels. Every year on Halloween night Kevin and I go to bed and cross our fingers that this isn't the year we wake up at 2 am to a kid puking. Here's hoping we're better parents in 2019 and regulate candy better on Halloween night.

Me too. I've got a stack of new writing books on my nightstand that I'm slowly trying to read through. Plotting Your Novel by Janice Hardy Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham Wired for Story by Lisa Cron I'm also reading through a few Daisy Dalrymple novels trying to get caught up on my Brit Tripping. They're all like 270 pages and can be read in two nights so it's like Halloween candy for your brain.

We had a bit of a crazy week last week so I finished one book and re-listened to some audio books. Early last week my car died and to make a long long story short John and I ended up abandoning Kevin and the girls at home while we flew to Charlotte and drove a new (used) car home. It was seventeen hours in the car over two days. Then we almost hit a deer about an hour from home. And we listened to Curious George and the Firefighters ... I don't know ... something like seventy billion times.

Finished: A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd. Everyone's seen the discussion Mum and I have had on the Ian Rutledge series so I won't recap that but I will say that this was better. The writing was as good but it wasn't as negative as the other series. I recommend it for a WWI-era mystery and plan to read more in the series.

This is a really interesting discussion because I wonder if you would have felt different if you had gone in with a different expectation as far as genre. I liked it (had to check goodreads to make sure I was remembering correctly) but I would not classify it as horror at all. Creepy. Maybe gothic. I don't really know. Sometime it's easier to find her books on audible then anywhere else. I do't know why that is though. Seems like it should be really easy to make an ebook. I think you've already bailed on Rebecca but in case you decide to pick it back up I would recommend reading it as a book so you can just power through the first 50% and get to the good part. Although after reading some reviews here I'm beginning to think that Mumto2, Laura, and I are the only ones that think there was a good part ... *eek* Is your friend going to attempt the full 50k words? My suggestion is to try to get ahead early in the month so if you have to miss a day or two you aren't behind. It feels impossible to come back from behind!

I accidentally reread the first five Three Pines novels this summer and followed them up with the next six books in the series. And then I reread them all again. And then I read then one more time but I just skipped ahead to the parts with the subplot I really liked. I'm kinda embarrassed to admit it but there ya go. I felt a bit like you with your Uhtred books. "Oh geez all this thread is anymore is the Untred gal and the chick that's REALLY into the Three Pines mysteries!" LOL. I'm just saying ... I understand where you're coming from @texasmom33. And now I'm sitting here patiently (not really ... hurry up and read!) tapping my finger waiting for you to get through Rebecca. I read the first half of it over a week and the last half from 2 am to 4 am.

I'm trying to decide on Spooky London... there are so many good options for London and Spooky. Even for a wimp like me that considers anything "stronger" than Agatha Christie spooky. Likely I'm going to go with whatever shows up first at the library tomorrow.

@Negin - Your post on Israel was super interesting and informative. Thanks! @Robin M - My people are waiting until this weekend for Who! I'm so far behind (still on Matt Smith ... what do I do with my time?!?!) that I won't watch until I'm caught up. At this rate they'll have to cancel the show for another ten years so I can catch up. @Violet Crown - Currently on my nightstand is Morte D'Urban. I started it awhile ago and then it disappeared. (There are a number of suspect but nobody confessed. I do have a clue though. It was found when I dumped out all of John's trains looking for a specific connector piece. He was likely framed. I suspect DD was cleaning the basement and everything she could get her hands on when into the train box out of convenience.) I'm really enjoying it! Thanks for recommendation. @mumto2 - Hope you get feeling better soon! @Faithr - Ah the Miss Buncle books! Yes. So charming and perfect for when you just need something pleasant. @Zebra - Your internment camp book review has sent me down a rabbit trail of internet research. I. HAD. NO. IDEA. I'm decently educated and yet there's so much of our recent history that I didn't know about.

We have a darling girl from Madrid living with us for the year. She's turning 16 next week and I want to make her birthday special since she's away from home. I need some present ideas. Help! She likes makeup a lot and other beauty products. She likes puzzle books. She enjoys reading but has a ton of things on her kindle already. It doesn't have to be big ... just something for her to unwrap at dinner. DD likes the ideas of getting her fun beauty products but I'm a bit of a plain jane and don't really know what would be cool or interesting for a 16 yo. It can't be too much of anything because she's got to pack it back across the ocean in May.

Just picked up two Skinnytaste cookbooks from the library and the Bess Crawford book. Off to bed to read! One of my favorite books of all times! I just put it on my nightstand to reread for a mild Spooky October.

I think that's a great analysis of the book. Almost exactly what I though. Have you read anything else by Ishiguro? That's very stressful. Is she driving home or flying? I hope everything will be okay. Judge-y answer: We'll be lenient. Which in itself is ironic with GH because she was known to be such an incredibly stickler for exact historical accuracy. But she's not here and I am so ... go for anything in the wider cultural era. What's your final thoughts on Cold Comfort Farm? Would you recommend it to either of your big girls?

I just started the Beck Diet Solution by Dr. Judith Beck and like it. Has anyone read it? @Negin It certainly seems like your type of book. I've also abandoned Your Wicked Ways by Eliosa James. The premise is interesting but it's everything that people make fun of in poorly done romance novels. The guy's a jerk for no reason. There's "another woman" for no reason. The woman is too dumb to live. I think I've got less than 10% of the book left and I'm still going to abandon it because I've got better things to do with the twenty minute of my life it would take to finish the book.

Oh geez! What a compliment. We'd take you guys!?

Read: Like this, For Ever by Sharon Bolton - Number 3 in the Lacey Flint series. I loved books one and two. Fast paced thrilling writing. The type where you abandon your family to microwave mac and cheese for dinner because YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AND DAMNIT KIDS LEAVE ME ALONE UNTIL I FINISH THIS BOOK! This one had the same great writing style but ... I love a good romantic subplot and these books have it EXCEPT it's never resolved. Book one ended with us sure that they were on thier way to happily ever after but then book two started and somehow everyone went wrong. Okay. Surely the author will make it up to me. Book two was awesome and it ended with us just being sure our characters were together. Yay. So when book three started and they were awkwardly not together for no good reason I was disappointed and at the end of this book when the author is pulling the same trick ... nope. I'm not in for that again. It's too artificial. Like she's just keeping them apart because she has to to keep that tension not because that's what works for the story. My recommendation is to read the first book in the series and just assume a HEA for the FMC and MMC and stop there. London. Three Stars. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and Birth of the FBI by David Grann - This was incredible. Sad and disturbing and a part of history I knew nothing about though I only live about four hours from all this. Not as gory as In Cold Blood but the same literary style. Highly recommend. Five Stars.

The mom of one of the kids my girls carpool with came from Vietnam as a refugee. I'll have to check this book out and recommend it to her. It sounds like just the type of book she'd love. Good for you! What are you currently working on? I've got a post-WWII women's fiction mystery/romance hybrid that I'm editing and feeling overwhelmed with. It's my first big undertaking as far as editing goes so it should take me forever which is good because it feels like it's taking me forever. I always appreciate your healthy living book reviews. I've agreed with everyone of your positive reviews to date so I know to avoid the ones you don't like as well. I just picked this up from the library! I too was leary of the series for the same reasons but if it gets a thumbs up from you then that's good enough for me. That is such a great book. I remember it being really funny too. I can't say that about all parodies but this one really worked. Particularly if you like Brit Lit.

Hello ladies! Thanks for thinking of me. I've been busy but my BaW friends have been on my mind. (And thank you to the gentle nudge ... kick in the pants ... from @mumto2 to get over here and say hello.) I think everyone knows that the aggieamy family had a new addition in August. (Maybe not? Have I posted in September?!?!) She's 15 yo and from Madrid and will be living with us for the year. We're super excited but going from two kids to going to three kids has been like going to 800 kids! Alejandra and Sophia are both in high school together at our local Catholic school and things are going great. There's another family at the school with an exchange student and our families got together on Sunday to chat, the other mom asked me if I felt like life was at the new normal yet and I'd say it does. It will be a busy year but a great year! She's made herself right at home. Which I love. My kids had been watching movies on a laptop on the kitchen counter because we got rid of TV at Christmas and just hadn't gotten around to getting another one yet. So when I came home from the grocery store and she was sitting there watching a show on the counter and eating nutella I knew she would fit in just fine. And her first PB&J ever.

@Faithr - I find times like this when I'm looking for something lovely to read it's helpful to pull a few of my favorite books growing up off the shelf. There's something reassuring about the idea that you can still go on adventures with Mary Lennox and Colin in the Moors or run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If it's a real emergency I might hijack a few of the Calvin and Hobbes books from DD's room.

Hello friends! Just popping in to say howdy while I wait for some documents to print. I can sum my reading the last two weeks up simply ... Three Pines. I finished the sixth Gamache novel as an audiobook and then proceeded to read/listen to the next five. Obviously, I'm enjoying them. I'm going to go through and listen to the first five again. Luckily I can listen while I work which is good because that's the only reading I'm getting in. I'll try to catch up on last weeks thread and then come back here soon.

I am so so sorry. DH has lost both his brothers and I have lost a sister. It's hard. Some days are tougher than others. DH's parents died before his brothers did but my parents buried my sister. They still don't accept what happened to her and are in denial. (Suicide.) No matter the cause I would suggest getting your family into counseling. Hopefully your MIL will be open to the idea too. Your family will be in my prayers.

I read my first Miss Read book about ten years ago and thought it was ... slow, dull, too gentle. I'm going to pick another one up because I suspect that younger Amy might not have been able to appreciate it for what it was. Younger Amy was a plot junkie. Talk about your rabbit trails - once I started looking into the WHAT and WHY behind the Nobel Prize stuff I was lost for hours. I'm ready for a Jeopardy category on Nobel Prize.

This post makes me so happy. It's one of my favorite books of all times so it's wonderful when a friend also thinks it's just great. My facebook alias is based on the book ... once you are finished I will tell everyone what it is but otherwise it's a spoiler.

WE. WANT. MORE. PICTURES! ? That library is so cool! I want to head to Australia just to see that.

Really? I don't know. How about this one? I'm pretty sure it's about housekeeping. *insert old hysterical laughing emoji here*

Wow. Good for you! I hope you love your job and I'm sorry about your DH's job. That timing is ... I need a word that means "lucky" and "fortunate" and "blessing" in equal parts.