Two Kindle books on sale today, not as cheap as I would like, but it's a sale. A Thousand Acres We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals

Me too! I usually give up on a book if it doesn't interest me. I thought that the story may, just may, possibly improve. Many have liked this book. It wasn't for me. I didn't care for the ending nor any of the characters.

I read Loner - 1 Star - This was a disturbing and strange book. In all fairness, the author is a good writer and he did a great job portraying the protagonist, but the story was a challenge for me. There wasn’t a single character that I thought was interesting, never mind any that I liked. Neither are good signs for me. This was just a creepy and sad read. MY RATING SYSTEM 5 Stars Fantastic, couldn't put it down 4 Stars Really Good 3 Stars Enjoyable 2 Stars Just Okay – nothing to write home about 1 Star Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

Provence, France - pretty much all of France. We went to France last summer and it was one of the best vacations that we've ever had. We feel blessed. The only city that we didn't care for too much compared to all the others was Lyon. We've also loved: The Cotswolds, U.K. Amsterdam Bruges, Belgium

Stacey, classes are not really an option for me either. Like you, I'll be 50 soon as well and feel the same way. Many have recommended this book to me and I'm reading it right now. It makes so much sense. For DVDs, so far I like Cathe and got this one to start out with. I hope to try to heavy weights two to three times a week if I can. I'm editing to add that it was because of this very thread that I got motivated to change my workout program completely, so thank you! My dh had been telling me about heavy weights for a while, but I paid little attention. Then your thread came up. We talked about heavy weights. My dh said, "I told you so." We ordered some weights and a bench to hold them in from amazon. Due to the craziness of life, I didn't really get started until very recently. I feel positive about this. I definitely feel better and more toned overall. For me personally, I've tried them all - ballet-type, pilates, etc. I still will do them from time to time. I love them all. I love to swim also, but heavy weights will most likely be the foundation of my overall plan. I think my body will need this as I approach menopause.

I saw the Queen Farah of Iran and King Hussein of Jordan when I was a kid in Iran. It was shortly before the Revolution. We were staying in a hotel and I was only a few feet away from them. I was delighted to see the Queen. I didn't know who King Hussein was. I've seen Queen Elizabeth from up close, in the front of the row, when she visited here back in the '80s. That was a delight. Prince Philip was there also. I've been to a few concerts but am not counting that. I saw Arsenio Hall from fairly close when I went to his show. When I lived in New York, I saw a few. Here are some that I remember: Woody Harrelson Wayne Brady Ann Curry Samuel L. Jackson And I saw Mary Louise Parker when I went to have electrolysis done. :) Oh, I've also met John Inman from "Are You Being Served?" and had fun chatting with him. Also met Dr. Laura. This was years ago, before we had children. I would share the photo, but we can't post celebrity photos.

I read The Girl You Left Behind - 5 Stars - I didn’t think that I would like this book that much. What a pleasant surprise! My expectations weren’t that high, which always helps, since I’d read “Me Before You†a year or so ago, and thought it was just okay. The story – two stories actually, alternating between 1917 and 2007 – is a beautiful one. I didn’t want to put it down at all and was annoyed anytime that I wasn’t able to read. Those are always good signs! MY RATING SYSTEM 5 Stars Fantastic, couldn't put it down 4 Stars Really Good 3 Stars Enjoyable 2 Stars Just Okay – nothing to write home about 1 Star Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

Three Kindle books on my wish list are on sale today. Sharing them in case anyone may be interested. Gwendy's Button Box Israel: A History The Hope

The Physician is $1.99 today on Kindle.

Although this is an old thread, I want to thank the OP for the thread. It's definitely motivating. It took me a long time to find it again and I'm glad that I did. Thank you both for this. I should have known this already, but now it's reinforced. I'm finally starting to incorporate heavy weights and am loving it. :)

Kristen, thank you so much. :) I like DVDs as well.

I found it! I found it! :hurray: I'm so happy! :D

Old thread, but I thought to add this. Love this cardigan.

Kristen, I'm intrigued by your reply. I should have known this already. Can you recommend any specific yoga workouts/instructors/programs? I'me excited to read up more on this. The second link about the parasympathetic nervous system isn't working at the moment. I'll keep trying. My dh reminded me that meditation works on the PNS also, but I'm more into yoga than into meditation.

I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - 5 Stars - This is just a wonderful book. It’s a coming of age story of a young girl in Brooklyn in the early 1900’s. The writing is beautiful and I didn’t want it to end. For the longest while, others have recommended that I read this. I’m delighted that I finally did so. My favorite quotes: "Francie thought that all the books in the world were in that library and she had a plan about reading all the books in the world. She was reading a book a day in alphabetical order and not skipping the dry ones." “To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.†and The Ladybird Book of Red Tape - 3 Stars - Funny, as all they are. Not the funniest in the series, but still an enjoyable read. MY RATING SYSTEM 5 Stars Fantastic, couldn't put it down 4 Stars Really Good 3 Stars Enjoyable 2 Stars Just Okay – nothing to write home about 1 Star Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

Two e-books books on my wish list are on sale today for $2.99. Magpie Murders Desperation Road

Angi, no, but thank you anyway. I remember it being a separate thread.

It's annoying! I'm so glad that you remember it also. I'm pretty sure that the OP was a brunette. I wish I could remember her name. I think she posts fairly regularly, unlike me these days. I won't give up and I'm still searching.

Thank you all so much. I do wish that I could find that thread. I'm quite sure that it was during this year. That book is on my list. We don't have a library in our country, but I'm planning to order it soon. I've heard great things about it. No, not that one, but thanks anyway. It's nice to re-read that thread.

If you have the time and are able to, that is. :) 1. I think that it was in the past year or at least several months ago 2. The OP mentioned something about going on vacation, not being particularly overweight, but needing to tone up in the shortest amount of time 3. Replies included mostly: heavy weights, I remember one specifically said, to not go with light/Barbie-type (3 pound dumbbells) or something like that, and also squats, deep squats. I would love, so love, to re-read that thread. There were lots of helpful replies.

I read Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph – 5 Stars - Dennis Prager is a favorite of mine and here he gives a clear and strong argument for a return to American values and the two forces that are opposing it. This book is profound and what I always appreciate with Prager is that there is none of the type of nastiness and contempt that one sees so often today. It was challenging for me to pick my favorite quotes. I’ve included a few here. If you wish to see more, you can visit my review on Good Reads. Other quotes are shown at the end of my review. “One of the credos of my life is taken from Viktor Frankl, a Jewish survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who was a psychiatrist and author. In his highly influential book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he related that after the war someone asked him if he ‘hated the German race.’ He responded that he did not because in his view, ‘There are only two races, the decent and the indecent.’ That is how I divide the world. Not between Muslim and non-Muslim, black and white, or American and non-American, but between the decent and indecent. The issues I raise about Islam are not about the decency of Muslims, but about whether Islam in its traditional Islamist configuration is more or less likely than the American value system to produce good societies.†“Given the amount the human suffering Communists have caused, why is Communist so much less a term of revulsion than Nazi? When people describe particularly evil individuals or regimes, why do they use the terms Nazi or fascist but almost never Communist? And, unlike Hitler, Communist mass murderers are rarely used as examples of evil incarnate. Sometimes, in fact, they are used in a heroic or even entertaining way. There are “Mao†restaurants in various cities in the Western world. It is unlikely that there are any “Hitler†restaurants in the West. So, too, while Che Guevara T-shirts and posters are ubiquitous, there is nothing similar celebrating a Nazi, or fascist, or perhaps any non-Communist killer.†“I have devoted much of my life to studying, writing, and lecturing about the subject of happiness. In particular, I have advocated that people act as happy as possible even when they do not feel happy. This is, I believe, both a moral obligation to all those who are in our lives—it is unfair to others to inflict our bad moods on them—and a particularly effective way to increase our own happiness, since acting happy elevates one’s mood. This is hardly controversial—in just about every area of life, human beings deeply influence how they feel by how they act. As a rule, those who object to this idea of acting contrary to how one feels are people on the Left—because on the Left, feelings are sacrosanct.†Final picture of Monet's Garden: "Anyone who came to lunch would be conducted around the flowerbeds, water garden, and greenhouses afterward. Those who admired particular fruits and flowers often found that Monet sent them later as gifts." MY RATING SYSTEM 5 Stars Fantastic, couldn't put it down 4 Stars Really Good 3 Stars Enjoyable 2 Stars Just Okay – nothing to write home about 1 Star Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

Kathy, hoping that you and everyone else stays safe. All these hurricanes are bringing back awful memories of when we experienced Ivan here back in 2004. I read Victoria: The Heart and Mind of a Young Queen: Official Companion to the Masterpiece Presentation on PBS - 4 Stars - I’ve always loved Queen Victoria and couldn’t resist this when I saw it in one of our favorite bookstores while visiting Miami a few months ago. If you’ve enjoyed the TV series, this is an absolutely beautiful companion. Monet's Gardens: "The gardens provided Monet with a kind of spiritual refuge, and Arsene Alexandre observed the change that overtook him when he was lost in contemplation there: 'This man who is laconic and rather cold in Paris is another person here - peaceful and enthusiastic. On the boulevards his smile is sardonic; in his garden among his flowers he is filled with happiness. The artist forgets that Paris exists for months on end ... The garden is the man.'" MY RATING SYSTEM 5 Stars Fantastic, couldn't put it down 4 Stars Really Good 3 Stars Enjoyable 2 Stars Just Okay – nothing to write home about 1 Star Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

I read The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code - 5 Stars - I loved this book, but then again I love all books by Dennis Prager. He has a true knack for explaining things ever so clearly. As always, he was engaging and articulate. In this book, he goes through each of the Ten Commandments and explains their importance and relevance today. I highlighted so many quotes and had a difficult time choosing my favorites to share here. Other quotes are included at the bottom of my Good Reads review. “Any moral system that is detached from God, no matter how noble and sincerely held, will likewise fail.†“Sigmund Freud, the father of psychiatry and an atheist, theorized that one’s attitude toward one’s father largely shaped one’s attitude toward God.†“Neither the Ten Commandments nor the Bible elsewhere commands us to love our parents. This is particularly striking given that the Bible commands us to love our neighbor, to love God, and to love the stranger. The Bible understands that there will always be individuals who, for whatever reason, do not love a parent. Therefore, it does not demand what may be psychologically or emotionally impossible. But it does demand that we show honor to our parents. And it makes this demand only with regard to parents. There is no one else whom the Bible commands us to honor.†“The Hebrew original does not say, ‘Do not kill.’ It says, ‘Do not murder.’ Both Hebrew and English have two words for taking a life—one is “kill†(harag, , in Hebrew) and the other is “murder†(ratsach, , in Hebrew). Kill means: 1.Taking any life—whether of a human being or an animal. 2.Taking a human life deliberately or by accident. 3.Taking a human life legally or illegally, morally or immorally. On the other hand, murder can only mean one thing: The illegal or immoral taking of a human life. That’s why we say, ‘I killed a mosquito,’ not ‘I murdered a mosquito.’ And that’s why we would say, ‘The worker was accidentally killed,’ not ‘The worker was accidentally murdered.’†“So why did the King James translation of the Bible use the word ‘kill’ rather than ‘murder’? Because four hundred years ago when the translation was made, ‘kill’ was synonymous with ‘murder.’ As a result, some people don’t realize that English has changed since 1610 and therefore think that the Ten Commandments prohibit all killing. But, of course, they don’t. If the Ten Commandments forbade killing, we would all have to be vegetarians—killing animals would be prohibited. And we would all have to be pacifists—since we could not kill even in self-defense.†and A Russian Journal - 2 Stars - This wasn’t as good as what I had hoped, nowhere near as good as the few other books that I have read by Steinbeck. I think that part of the problem with this one was that he seemed to be trying very hard to not be judgmental or show much at all in the way of opinions. It quickly became quite boring. A quote that I thought to share: “There is very little laughter in the streets, and rarely any smiles. People walk, or rather scuttle along, with their heads down, and they don't smile. Perhaps it is that they work too hard, that they have to walk too far to get to the work they do. There seems to be a great seriousness in the streets, and perhaps this was always so, we don't know.†Once again (and I hope no one minds), sharing photos of our visit to Monet’s House and Gardens. This is the kitchen which I fell in love with. “Adjoining the yellow dining room, the spacious blue-tiled kitchen had a glass-paneled door and two uncurtained windows opening onto the veranda, so the cook could enjoy views of the garden framed by trees, and step outside to where hens and ducks roamed through the nearby farmyard. … Monet himself rarely set foot in his kitchen, but as a demanding gourmet, he took an intense interest in everything that happened there." MY RATING SYSTEM 5 Stars Fantastic, couldn't put it down 4 Stars Really Good 3 Stars Enjoyable 2 Stars Just Okay – nothing to write home about 1 Star Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

Good to know. Adding it to my list.

Lori, I'm open to trying her again :D. I thought that it would be best to read her books in order, because that's the type of crazy person I am :lol:. Do you have a list of favorites? Should I just start with "Daughter of Time"? When I'm not sure of an order, I often look at those with the highest ratings on Good Reads and go from there.