Lots of deadpan humor. It is read by someone else, Derek Perkins, but I am still enjoying it so far. I admit I am listening at a bit faster than normal speed most of the time because it is a 15 hour book and I am impatient. I've been reading Alice in Wonderland to the kids for months and I'm not sure we've gotten out of chapter one. I only read half a page at a time when I remember the book exists. I deserve no such Alice serendipity in my life as you enjoy -- but am very excited to hear you will be off to the ballet! Since you are having superstitions that you don't believe in, here is a quote from Sapiens for you :) “Consistency is the playground of dull minds.†― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

It's been said, but I have to say it, too -- I can't keep up with this thread! So please consider your post "liked" if I missed it and hi to everyone joining! I'm new-ish to these threads. I posted a little last year and am so happy some of you have connected on Goodreads. Just in case anyone missed my last post and is wondering -- yes, I changed my user name (from CaladwenEleniel) but my avatar is the same. Kareni -- if you see this, I've been thinking of you and hope things are going well. Books finished since my last post here: The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah (Poirot mystery) and The Vegetarian by Han Kan, translated to English by Deborah Smith. The Vegetarian is for my "translated" book bingo square. One of the comments on the front said "For the fans of Haruki Murakami". I did think about seeking out a Murakami book but I spent all my book money this month already and my library didn't have anything I wanted last time I checked. So I don't know if it would be loved by Murakami fans Books in progress: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari on audio and Venetia by Georgette Heyer (e-book). I've never read a Heyer book and so I figured I'd give this a whirl for the Flufferton square. I wanted to try a different on but my library has no books by her! I must have picked up Venetia during a sale a long time ago and I am hoping to finish it and not only fill in a square but also get to my goal of reading all the unread stuff on my Kindle.

Quick update -- finished three books but only because we had a long weekend and I wasn't feeling wonderful. So I mostly sat around and read. I will NOT be reading at that pace the rest of the year! For Bingo, I read a mystery (Faithful Unto Death by Caroline Graham), book set in ancient times (Antony & Cleopatra -- I think I got that idea from Rose), and a dystopian book (Fahrenheit 451). Not sure what is next ... I'm so tired so I'm trying to settle on a lighter book. I don't know why I couldn't get through the Dorothy Sayers I tried. Maybe I'll have better luck with Georgette Heyer for Flufferton? My library doesn't have the one I want but I found one on my Kindle that I never read, so I might give that a whirl. Or I'll try The Thirteenth Tale for my prime number book. I am pretty sure I read it but I don't remember it.

I am so sorry.

Happy New Year! Thanks to Robin for the group and everyone for being so welcoming. I checked in sporadically last year and it's been so nice. Checking in here regularly is one of my few New Year challenges. My user name was CaladwenEleniel and I just changed it -- I don't post a ton so hopefully it isn't confusing. My avatar is the same. I started both reading Fahrenheit 451 and reading Faithful Unto Death by Caroline Graham, as my dystopian and mystery books for Bingo. I'm also listening to the Tim Robbins narration of Fahrenheit 451 and enjoying it enough that I will probably listen to all of it, too. Last year I read a Caroline Graham mystery for the first time and liked it very much. So far, Faithful Unto Death is good. I did watch the Midsomer Murder episode and remember it mostly for Roger Allam's appearance in it and also Barnaby saying, "You really don't have a soft pedal when it comes to the English language, do you, Troy?" but other than that, I'm drawing a blank on the storyline. Antony & Cleopatra, Lab Girl, and The Plover are on my to-read list this year. I remember reading Sleeping Murder when I was quite young and wonder if I'd like it as much now. The last version I watched of it was so different from the book but I liked it. Hope all are better soon, Angela!

The BaW threads and connecting with people on Goodreads has been so much fun. I am going to try and do better at keeping up here in 2017. I think I'll finish one or two more books before the end of the year but I'm at 80 right now, not including audiobooks. Six were Agatha Christie re-reads, one a Kurt Vonnegut re-read. I had also read The Big Sleep and Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress over ten years ago. I lost count of my audiobooks, but I know I listened to several Great Courses, A Doll's House, Hamlet, Frankenstein (read a lot of it), Catch-22 (read most of the e-book, too), and tons of stuff with the kids. Nothing made me mad enough to want to toss it. I quit The Birth House and a Maeve Binchy book because I just couldn't get into them, but I didn't dislike them. I almost quit A Spool of Blue Thread (chosen for the cover) but I managed to finally get through it. Oh, The Greenglass House did bother me but I didn't completely hate it. There were other books that disappointed me but I had gone into them expecting very little anyway. I just read The Mistletoe Murder and other stories by P.D. James and loved it. For fiction, other favorites were The Razor's Edge (thanks to Stacia) and Kurt Vonnegut (of course) and a book by Caroline Graham. For reading about reading, Browsings by Michael Dirda and The Late Age of Print by Ted Striphas were good and had some of my favorite covers. So many quotes in my notebook! Too many to list, but here is one quote that stayed with me from a kid's book, The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley: “She doesn’t—I’m sure it’s not—†She stopped walking and turned to face me. “I don’t know what to say,†she said, after a pause. “I don’t want to tell you a lie, and I don’t know the truth.†It was maybe the most honest thing anyone had ever said to me. “If she does hate you she’s wrong to do so,†Miss Smith said.

I had gotten out of the habit of reading for myself (was just focusing on stuff to do with homeschool or the kids) and the BaW threads really helped me this past year. I started out sure I would not get a book a week done but I did. (I did forget to check in here every week but am going to try next year.) I started doing audiobooks this year because the kids liked them so much and we had Audible for awhile. So I tried a couple of books for myself and got a cheap bluetooth earpiece so I can listen while doing chores and it's been really working well even though I never thought I'd be able to pay attention to audiobooks. I read The Violinist's Thumb this year. I had just gotten it at the library based on the cover and coincidentally it discussed an interesting medical condition I'd been reading about.

:grouphug: to Ethel. And hope you are doing well, Jane. I read a children's book last week called Winterfrost by Michelle Houts for a cozy, quick, and snowy book. Finished A Little History of Philosophy, too. Looking at My Year in Books, I have 73 books but quite a few were for kids: Goth Girl by Chris Riddel, Winterfrost, When My Name Was Keoko, The War That Saved My Life, Peter and the Starcatchers, Dragon Rider, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof, Greenglass House, The Apothecary, West of the Moon, Will Sparrow's Road, Escape From Baxter's Barn I read a lot from two big short story collections (Hercule Poirot and Art of the Short Story) but definitely won't finish this year and Anna Karenina is still in that stack, unfinished. Too many favorites from what I read last year to list! Of my least-liked -- I was most let down by A Spool of Blue Thread, The Apothecary, & Greenglass House. There were a few others I didn't care for or would definitely not re-read but I am glad I read all of them. One book that I have tried three times and just can't get through is Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers. I don't know what my problem is but I keep starting it, putting it down and having to re-start. I have not gotten beyond the third chapter yet. I give up on it for this year.

All holiday stuff arrived safely (fingers crossed for everyone still missing stuff!) and early but this is the first time I've had so many shipping issues and I've never had items completely destroyed before. Two boxes were destroyed on the way to us. Another box had damaged goods. Also, an envelope arrived torn open and empty -- it was just a five dollar omelet microwave pan inside, but I guess someone wanted it or it just got damaged on the way. One of the badly damaged boxes was packed so well, we were able to get the stuff -- books, well shrink-wrapped and protected. The other box was apparently so bad, they just sent it back and I am waiting to find out if they will just send us a new one or if they'll refund. Another box had a bag of potato flour open up during shipping and so when I opened the box, it went everywhere. What a mess. Along with that we had a postal worker show up looking for a neighbor's misdirected box that had personalized Christmas gifts inside. We didn't have it but we let them know we keep getting our neighbor's mail. That same day one of my boxes was misdirected but they caught it before it was picked up in the wrong postal box. That's not even counting the weird shipping issues we had earlier this year! I'm definitely trying not to have things shipped. I hate going out shopping but the shipping issues are such a pain.

You can tell him I read The Razor's Edge only because you recommended it! It was one of my favorites from the past year.

Agreed -- prevention is so much easier so keep up once it is under control. One of my kids uses Clear cleanser and the same BHA you got. No allergy to benzoyl, so yes, we do use it. BHA is enough for my skin issues but I don't know it would have been enough for my teen acne. But in general I like using it. But I think I remember your other thread about this and people here and the rep at PC are all saying a dermatologist might be helpful. I think you may want to consider it. Just tossing it out there -- disregard if this isn't her trigger -- reducing sugar and/or low fat dairy could be part of the solution, too. We have always only had full fat dairy but for one of my kids, we saw huge improvement with just limiting sugar. https://www.aad.org/media/news-releases/acne-guidelines http://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622%2815%2902614-6/fulltext http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/02/19/172429086/diet-and-acne-for-a-clearer-complexion-cut-the-empty-carbs http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/well/eat/yes-foods-may-fight-acne.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/health/nutrition/11real.html

Yes, Melissa and Doug baby or a princess doll would work. Corolle has a lot of options. There are also Our Generation dolls at Target if you don't want a baby doll.

deleted my post. Please delete where you quoted me, thanks!

Nevermind

I am thinking of making the Dorie Greenspan Coffee Cardamom recipe at the bottom of this link because I have a kid that has been asking for cardamom recipes. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/12/07/504581691/not-for-you-cindy-lou-these-tasty-holiday-treats-are-for-grownups

This blog post at King Arthur, discusses why you mostly use unsalted but what to do if you only have salted. Here is a recipe where they talk about why salted works best for some recipes -- but they write most of theirs for unsalted butter. A Sally's Baking Addiction post on the same topic: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2016/06/22/salted-butter-vs-unsalted-butter-baking/ You can see her advice is the going advice in most baking books but she says her mom never follows it and things are fine. It's like the difference with my mom. I measure everything precisely with a scale and she never does but her stuff always is amazing. We just learned to bake in different ways and she is more intuitive so she adjusts as she goes. I have one baking book that does use salted for every recipe but that is the only one I've come across so far. Most of mine state they tested with unsalted.

:party: belated Happy Birthdays to Rose & Amy! I finally read Baking With Less Sugar by Joanne Chang. Impulse buy when it was on sale and I had just finished The Obesity Code. We aren't a sugar-free family by any stretch but I am pleasantly surprised by how well they are doing with less. Without making them obsess, they've been good sports about keeping track of our sugar intake. Anyway, the cookbook intro was nice -- reminded me to try making crème fraîche and calibrate my oven. The measurements are given in metric as well, and I printed a few recipes to try. A lot of them are no-go because of severe allergies and it would be impractical to substitute for a lot of them but I am glad I read it. That's the third book about reducing sugar I read this year -- earlier I borrowed A Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub. Also read The Waste Free Kitchen Handbook by Dana Gunders. I grew up with a bad relationship with food and hated cooking so some of the no-brainer info in here was useful to me. I was thinking about The Cardamom Trail by Chetna Makan because my kids are huge GBBO fans and one of them loves cardamom. Not sure if I'll get it or not. Other reading -- finished Frankenstein in print and listened to half of it on audio. Almost done with The Open Boat and other stories by Stephen Crane.

Once, I brought these Soft Molasses cookies to someone for the holidays. I was lazy and did not bother with the ginger syrup. I gave them to someone at the office who told me it was incredible and just like the cookie recipe one of her relatives refused to share. Remembering how happy she was about them makes me wonder if I should start baking for outside the family again. I have not done so in years because I am so disorganized and dislike holiday stress. Anyway I still make those at the kids' request because I use mini cookie cutters to cut out the middles and they look so cute. It is the only cut out type of cookie that I do because I don't have the patience to do real ones. These chocolate crinkles went over well last year. And I always do shortbread.

Oh, motion sickness. That reminds me we went through a time when we had lots of throwing up in the car. So neither of us even wanted to go out on errands let alone traveling with them since we have to at least start in the car to get anywhere from here. I was thinking about my family and most of my relatives all travel alone and together. Except one uncle who has spent only one night away on his own but he & his wife have been together since they were thirteen or something. They are nearly inseparable. They are not at all of the mindset that the wife must obey or anything like that, nothing to do with control or power. Just two people who are always together. But he also wishes all of his relatives would move back and live near him and is always trying to plan reunions.

The simple answer is yes, I would. Since being married, I coincidentally I have not had the chance to travel alone or just with the kids. Not dh's fault or wish. I just have some minor medical issues that can randomly leave me unable to care for the kids all alone. I have family near by when he is at work that bail me out but to travel alone, atm, is a bit risky. My mom and I have gone with just the kids, though. Also, we both felt more comfortable together when the kids were really little and we were outnumbered by them. We're both a bit disorganized, lol. I hate driving, too, and he loves it. Oh, we have not had time and/or money to go away for long. Our longest trip from home was to the next state for medical needs and it was a whole four nights and it did end up being nice because we went over another state line for a day out. We've never just gone away for fun for very long. On the short trips we've done, I needed all available hands on deck to help me manage the kids but again, that's just me being sometimes knocked out, and often disorganized. Nothing to do with feeling unsafe (re crime) or like I don't have permission.

I've gotten some jewelry from Accessory Alchemy on Etsy -- not the more expensive stuff, but what I got was lovely. A lot of it would work for steampunk fans. I was looking for a vertical pen pouch and found this one. Can be carried in a bag or stands up on a desk. Pairing with some nice pens and I heard about these artist tiles from Kareni. I heard about the Demeter Fragrance Library on the forum and found a crayon scent -- got a sample as a little joke for someone I know who always is sniffing at boxes of crayons. She always sniffs books, too, so I did consider these book themed tea lights. Also -- a SolarPuff Collapsible Light

I just realized as I am posting all about food, one of the last books I read was The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. Not related to food -- I picked up Escape From Baxters' Barn by Rebecca Bond to see if one of our kids would like it and ended up reading it. Turned out to be a lovely book for the kid who wants us to have a farm and didn't mind a brief lesson in plural possessive apostrophe usage as I handed the book over. (This would be humorous to my former English teachers, who knew I was hopeless at grammar.) I was also having a go at reading about farm life as I finished up three books by James Herriot. I had to skim through some of the descriptions in the treatment room but it was mostly enjoyable. This year, I started listening to audiobooks while doing chores after picking up a cheap bluetooth earpiece. Never thought I'd do audiobooks since my mind wanders so much but it has worked out well. I started to re-read Slaughterhouse-Five and finished with audio. Also listened to performances of A Doll's House, Macbeth, Cabin Pressure, and the Jane Austen collection. With the kids, Bunnicula, Nim's Island, Narnia, Hobbit, and Shakespeare adaptations by Bruce Coville, David Timson, and Patrick Ryan. I also got through some Great Courses audio and a beginner foreign language series. Right now, I've been going back and forth between reading & listening to Frankenstein since I somehow got the audio version with the the e-book version for just a couple dollars together. I'm (happily) surprised by how Dan Stevens reads it and I will probably finish reading it tonight but will also finish the audiobook.

I remembered another cookbook that I had to dig out from one of the kid's rooms. French Cooking in Ten Minutes by Edouard de Pomaine -- I love how it beings and I love how he wrote one of his tips in his chapter on advice, how he describes enjoying a coffee & cigarette. That sounds like a lovely stocking stuffer. I hope you are recovered very soon! That reminds me of a cookbook I forgot I have. It was my great-aunt's, who I was close to. I was flipping through one of her cookbooks and saw some of the few, little notes she had made, which pan worked best or substitutions she had tried. For one, all she had written "NO!" in pen, and in large letters next to a sole and pepper recipe. I have taken her advice and never tried it, not that I am much for making seafood at home anyway.

I have missed a few weeks of threads but wanted to peek in and say hello! I made a couple new friends on Goodreads and it reminded me to get back on here. I grew up with a mom who ADORES cookbooks. She is my #1 resource for recipes and has written out a lot for me. We had tons of magazines stashed just because of recipes. And I not only had severe food issues, but I also disliked cooking and thought recipes were boring. My poor mom, but she now has the joy of grandchildren who adore cookbooks. Since we have outside activities today, they are coincidentally all lounging and reading cookbooks at this moment while I procrastinate about getting ready. Anyway, I do use one of my mom's books that she let me have a few years back -- Fannie Farmer's Baking Book. I usually use King Arthur recipes when I bake but I like that this book told me in the intro how the flour was measured when it was developed. My mom bakes intuitively (and better than I do) and doesn't weigh her ingredients. I'm obsessive about using my scale and being precise because I have no instinct and never remember how the dough or batter should look. I have a King Arthur book but I learned to bake using their blog. They teamed up with the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes authors for this blog post, which is how I learned that sort of bread. I was so happy when I made it and my dad said it was like what his mom used to make. Someone mentioned Chef John, who I love to watch. I will hear our kids saying "Enjoy" just like he does when serving something. On our bookshelf, we also have some Cook's Country, Mark Bittman, Tasha Tudor, and Alton Brown. I should get Nigella's for my mom sometime. Ina Garten got me to eat broccoli and make risotto. One blog I read regularly is Simply Recipes. I also follow Mel's Kitchen and Sally's Baking Addiction. I picked up Baking With Less Sugar when it was on Kindle sale, but I haven't read it and the price is back up. I have a kimchi-fan relative that wants Edward Lee's Smoke & Pickles cookbook but none of it appeals to me. But it sounds like fun to read. I have a long wishlist of other cookbooks for myself, too, but I usually end up not buying because I'm trying to be good and keep my cookbook collection under control.

I agree with what's been said -- stop accepting stuff, don't go over there, no more house-sitting, putting things in writing, stop thinking he is "sweet", etc. I've learned that sometimes gifts come with large strings attached and are not actually signs of generosity. I distanced myself from someone who had a case of martyr syndrome over problems she created with her "gifts" but this sounds different. One similarity, though, is the outward schmoozing and giving people an image of himself as a caring, generous, involved person. But look what he is doing to your family. A really caring person would be coming to you, if he really thought it was your kids, and wanting to talk, parent to parent and not venting this to his kids and who knows who else is hearing this. And a caring person doesn't refuse payment and tell his kids that yours are moochers. I admit I am probably paranoid because I would not want any of them on my property anymore. I'd be afraid if anything happened with their kids at my house, the dad would be making accusations. And yet, I'd not want to be on the bad side of someone who I have to be neighbors with. I don't know if it is practical where you live but I'd be more inclined to say, when the kids want to see each other-- let's meet at the library or the park or playground or somewhere public instead of being at our house. Definitely do nothing that involves money together. But I am not used to just having people come and go at my house regularly, so I'm not saying my ideas are normal.