Thank you! Since I won't be able to highlight these books on Sunday for Brit Trippers and others I will now! First there are a couple of good read alongs for those with children or who enjoy YA. The Eagle of the Ninth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149405.The_Eagle_of_the_Ninth I plan to read this one....need to find my copy. We never got around to it but an adult male friend who is a serious bibliophile considers it to be one of his favorites for York because he has heard the ghosts. .https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/treasurers-house-york/features/head-to-the-basement-at-treasurers-house http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/features/8935109.True_story_of____lost____Roman_legion/ One of my favorite read alouds was A Murder for Her Majesty https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/606250.A_Murder_for_Her_Majesty?ac=1&from_search=true which is the story of a young orphan with royal connections who joins the York Minster Choir School to hide from her pursuer. The key word hered is HER. Loved it. We read it at the same time as our move and had a great time walking her routes around York. I'm off to figure out my adult picks! ;)

My daughter took the Chemistry Clep and passed with a pretty good score. That being said she worked really hard learning the syllabus from REA and one she found online. At the time she took it the pass rate was very low ( 10% I think) on that Clep. Dd decided to take the Chemistry Clep 2 years after taking high school chemistry so her experience really does not match but not many here take Cleps so I decided to post. We did use Apologia for our homescool chemistry so she had Apologia text for review. It is a good text per dh who has an undergrad chem degree so it might be enough. Because dd had done a Coursera class via Duke on her own while taking Apologia (maybe titled Intro to Chemistry) and was also able to access those lectures for review. She also ended up listening to several lectures from a higher level chemistry class on Coursera in order to cover all the topics on the syllabus. My advice is compare the syllabus to what has been done in the Apologia class ad try a practice exam.

I like Kareni’s plan! :lol:

I just saw this http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/671052-wtm-shut-down-from-march-24th-to-march-28th/ on the main board. I guess we are going to be offline Saturday through Wednesday. What am I going to do without you guys!

What a hard question! At first I thought Agatha Christie, more because her list is long than for a great love. But.....I'm on my second or third time through currently and suspect the reason I am loving them is good narration because I know who did it. I can't imagine being on my tenth read in quick succession! Gaaaaah! I have been thinking about this all night (I did sleep) and have decided it can't be something from the mystery genre. Ditto romance. Maybe more comedy aka Jeeves......if I had to pick now I think I would go with Tolkien because in terms of pages probably equal to Christie but with the possibility of seeing something new each time I read a section.

I feel like I should start reading Murder on a Summer's Day which is my Frances Brody so I can be part of the read along! ;) I am stalled on my The Outlaws of Sherwood book. I read a few pages and find something else to do. Bores me. ;( I don't think it's a bad book but possibly not the book for a history enthusiast who lives near Sherwood. I personally believe Robin was many men, every village had a Robin which could be my problem. This book condenses strands of the popular stories into one book from what I can see. I will finish but at a few pages a day. Something I consulted for Brit Trip planning gave The Man in the Brown Suit https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15820391-the-man-in-the-brown-suit and Death Comes to a Village https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22376877-death-comes-to-the-village as being set in Nottinghamshire. I read them both and couldn't find the villages but am leaving them in Notts. I really enjoyed listening to The Man in the Brown Suit which is also part of my Agatha Christie challenge. I don't remember it particularly fondly as a book so it was nice (and a relief :lol: ) to find enjoyment in the recording. Death Comes to a Village is a nice fluffy cozy with a hint of romance. I actually have the next book started because I really enjoyed the characters so much!

So glad you were able to have a break! Stamford Bridge, the historical site, is close to where we live. I must pass within 10 minutes of it at least once a month on my way to York. Surprisingly no one really knows what it is. I sure did, when we first moved it was on my top 10 list of places to visit. I asked directions and got some strange answers. It wasn't until later I discovered that Stamford Bridge is the name of Chelsea's football stadium near London! As a historical site it was a disappointment. I want to add my congrats to middle girl! I listened to Glass Houses. There was quite a bit a the end where Louise Penny spoke about her writing that was really interesting. I will admit I loved it but I sort of love Gamache. Huge crush here! Speaking of knowing what was going to happen we recently all watched the new Murder on the Orient Express movie. Dd and I thought it was great! Hubby complained to dd about how long the train was stuck ie. boring. She patiently explained that it got stuck in the book also with a look of horror because he didn't know. Obviously it had to get stuck so the crime could be solved! At least someone in my family gets my love of mysteries. Ds wisely kept his mouth closed! :lol: I have Lake Silence but Dd has it in her room. I also have it on hold on overdrive. It is due soon and has holds so in suspect I will be waiting for my overdrive version. I am glad to know you liked it enough to read twice! Mothersweets, I missed your quote but Brodsworth is a huge favorite. We have a membership and have spent a huge amount of time there over the years. It has a good playground where we used to go to meet friends.

We are finally in Yorkshire! :) I have lots of Yorkshire books on hold and it is really doubtful that I will manage to read most of them. I'm still in Notts reading the Outlaws of Sherwood. For Agatha Christie I finally have The Man in the Brown Suit on audio. I have also started my CS Harris reread in honour of the new book coming out this April. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39149.What_Angels_Fear First up on my list for Yorkshire is A Second Chance which is the third in Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St.Mary's series. This series is fun and a clever twist on time travel IMO. They are historians traveling back to witness and clarify history. I read some of these out of order a few years ago and had to stop. I am currently armed with the book of shorts and am hoping to read the books in order that I skipped. We shall see.......the group is based near Thirsk so North Yorkshire. Thirsk is where James Herriot was a vet IRL. I also have the next in Frances Brody's series https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18514251-murder-on-a-summer-s-day. I saw Amy has the first one on her nightstand. ;) Then I have several Robert Barnard mystery books. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8252.Robert_Barnard He is a highly successful series author with many books set around Yorkshire. He also appears to be a Bronte expert although I haven't had the opportunity to read any of his Bronte books. I am planning to start here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1585017.No_Place_Of_Safety in his Charlie Peace series. I have read a couple of his other books and enjoyed them. If you recognize the name but can't figure out why Robert Barnard writes the introduction to Josephine Tey's mysteries.

Our first math competition was the Primary Maths Challenge in the UK. http://www.primarymathschallenge.org.uk/ Similar to Math Kangaroo I believe. Sample tests are online so throw those into the prep pile. ;) Looking back I think much of my kids success in competition math can be attributed to a daily concentration on story problems. We always did a page from Singapore’s Challenging Word Problems. They are challenging, truly, so we generally did the book behind the level of Singapore we were actually in. The aim was to solve whatever the problems of the day independently. We also had the Abeka math sequence which is strong in story problems. Sometimes we just did the story problems. As soon as possible start playing on Alcumus.

Am I the only one who has been busy reading these titles? Great collection! :lol: I am sort of relieved that the candles are an issue for someone else. When I read the Hygge book my reaction was along the lines of sounds lovely but could not happen in my house because of the candles. Candles are not Dh's thing at all and they would make him miserable which is not the point of hygge. I do think the book has made me think about what things my family does find cozy implement a few. I tend to keep a supply of lighter books on my kindle in case I can't sleep. Thank you Overdrive. ;) Last night I finally started a Miss Silver who is Patricia Wentworth's version of Miss Marple. Miss Silver is formally considered to be a detective apparently but otherwise I find them close. Little grey haired ladies with a steel spine solving crime......The Case is Closed opens with a young woman escaping on the wrong train from her ex-finacee. It quickly shifts to the young woman meeting a odd woman who essentially tells her that her cousin's husband, who was convicted of a murder that spent months on the front pages, didn't do it. The girl becomes an amateur sleuth and spends quite a bit of time in Bedfordshire. Woot! Not as much Miss Silver solving as is typical in the two others I have read recently and it did drag for my because everyone kept reading the trial transcripts. That said the murder plot was good so I rounded up from the 3.5 stars and gave it a 4 over on Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1440133.The_Case_Is_Closed

Does super scoring help and would it be accepted? I was a bit surprised to learn how many schools simply want the highest score in each section.

The Outlaws of Sherwood is my O for Clover also. It's on the nightstand with 2 chapters read. For Ireland I read and enjoyed Haunted Ground by Erin Hunter. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/905451.Haunted_Ground. It was on one of Robin's lists. It was good. I liked the archeological mystery (a body discovered while digging peat) that was featured with the present day missing woman and child. This was the first in a series that I will probably read more of in the future.

Four books (all library currently) on my nightstand plus Kindles. The Fantastic Beasts trailer was fun so thank you for the link. I’m looking forward to it now and was really disappointed to see November is the release date.

Praying

When I first read your review of Footsteps in the Dark my initial reaction was that our different perceptions (I really enjoyed it) stemmed from the difference in the speed of reading verses listening. I generally prefer to read lighter books because listening takes too long. I am currently reading another of Heyer's cozy mystery books and feeling quite blah about it. I think Footsteps may just have been one of my preferred cozy storylines. I finished listening to The Dark Forest which was the second part of The Three Body Problem trilogy. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25332122-the-dark-forest. The fate of the world is now resolved to my satisfaction so I am probably done with that series for now. :)

Thank you!

I think you might like these. Light and easy to read in one sitting. I had read the first couple of chapters as a taster to see if I wanted to keep it and was able to read the rest in a rather pleasant sitting.

Before I forget to mention them I tried the Lady Appleton Tudor series which LoriD. mentioned a few weeks ago as binge reading. I read the first book Face Down in the Marrow Bone Pie https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/612301.Face_Down_in_the_Marrow_Bone_Pie and suspect I will read through the rest of these short (200 page) mysteries in the next few weeks. Cozy in the sense of not being overly descriptive but from reading the first and descriptions of the rest, infidelities appear to be a popular topic so probably not a cozy to hand to a 12 yo. The first one would have required explaining why someone might die with their cod piece unlaced for instance.;). Lady Appleton is a herbalist and an expert in poisons while her husband goes on missions for the relatively newly crowned Queen Elizabeth. In the first installment while her husband is away in France Lady Appleton travels to his neglected estate in Lancshire when his steward mysteriously dies face down in the marrow bone pie. One of the mysteries solved here is what marrow bone pie is! In the course of learning some of her husband’s secrets Lady Appleton also sets about restoring the long neglected estate to prosperity. For Brit Tripping purposes Manchester is also visited several times.

Since I am still waiting ;) I will go onto the what am I reading now. I just started my Irish book. It's called Haunted Ground by Erin Hart https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/905451.Haunted_Ground?ac=1&from_search=true and so far I think I am going to love it. I have only read a couple of chapters but am looking forward to being able to read more. I am still listening to The Dark Forest which is the second book in The Three Body Problem trilogy. Still enjoying it but it is long, almost 23 hours, so not done. I need to find more quilting time this next week! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25332122-the-dark-forest I finished my Northamptonshire book. I ended up reading A Long Shadow which is the eighth Inspector Ian Rutledge book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205.A_Long_Shadow. I think I liked it better than the first in the series but have no regrets regarding skipping several. These are good, well written mysteries that make me sad. I may read more if needed for Brit Tripping but doubt I will fill in the blank places in the story. If anyone looks I added Rutland to the county list for this one. The village in this book borders Rutland according to google. I suspect he must have crossed over at some point. Rutland is a small county with very few towns. The big attraction is Rutland Water which is a really popular weekend holiday destination http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/leisure/water-parks/rutland/

Is that her new series? We are on our way out hopefully (Ds is finishing proofreading a paper due today) so I am just going to quickly post my Nottinghamshire plans/hopes and try to post more later. The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinney https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41423.The_Outlaws_of_Sherwood. What can I say Sherwood Forest mixed with an O for Clover. Contrary to what my Goodreads has to say I have never read this so am hoping I enjoy it! Death Comes to a Village by Catherine Lloyd. Supposedly set in Notts and it is a V for Clover, I am looking forward to this as it’s the first in a cozy series I have been wanting to try.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16073004-death-comes-to-the-village The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie is supposed to have a Nottinghamshire connection. I am hoping to listen to it next but am still waiting on my hold. It works quite well because it is also part of my Christie challenge. So far I am somewhat in publishing order and have only completely skipped one.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/209194.The_Man_in_the_Brown_Suit

My kids are in college and I bought several life of Fred's last year. I think I have them all now except the beginning ones. Eventually I would like those. I've also been considering BA just because I never got to use it. ;)

I don’t think I am a very good sequel reader as they are defining the term with the examples. I have read a few of the books on the lists and other then The Lord of the Rings found them all lacking compared to the first. Even LotR is lacking compared to the Hobbit if I am being honest but I still loved it! I will say I think the second book can make a series. I have definitely noticed I have a tendency to set a series aside after the second book. Sometimes I go back to it in a year or two but not always.

I saw the same thing when looking at the article in terms of series. When I saw Amy’s question I didn’t have time to read the article. I spent awhile thinking while doing housework and couldn’t come up with in sequels other than Scarlett that I liked, sort of. Scarlett wasn’t by Margaret Mitchell so doesn’t really count imo. Now if I use series I am sure I can come up with some. ;) Should we be looking at series where the second book or the continuing story as a whole? Fun! :) I finally finished a couple of books that I thought were going to be completely off the Brit tripping bus. Dark in Death is the latest JD Robb which is a series that has certainly held up well. That installment was actually number 41 and still good. My biggest complaint was not enough continuing story in this one. I love Sommerset and he was on holiday, boo! I got really excited for two minutes because Roake was going to Bristol on business. He went but the story didn’t so no Bristol for my Brit trip list. :( I also finished The Lost Plot https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31690144-the-lost-plot which is the latest and perhaps best in the Invisible Library series. When I glanced at Overdrive yesterday and learned it was going to be returned in less than 24 hours. I thought I would be turning my WiFi off for a couple of days but I read it in one sitting sort of.......started seriously reading in bed last night, fell asleep with it, finished first thing this morning! Action packed with great characters and an enjoyable alternate world and......wait for it........they visited York(London too). Brit Tripping!!! ETA.....Loesje, I hope your dd is feeling a bit better today!

Seriously cannot believe it. Your situation is even more unbelievable than my friend's. You were the one who was wronged so very clearly. In her case I could understand the mixed up weirdness of the logic if you believed the child. The case history showed the incredible history of destructive lies. They had documented them for years and still ripped her life apart. Totally messed up system. :grouphug:

:grouphug: I am so very sorry. Something very similar happened to a close friend of mine. It went on forever because she did every possible appeal. I am sending healing thoughts and prayers.