:grouphug: praying

When I read the description I instantly thought of of this location with medieval wall paintings. This church currently sits in Nottinghamshire but the county lines are historically fairly fluid where it is so very possibly Yorkshire at some point in history. http://www.paintedchurch.org/blyth.htm. it's a nice church with a good bell tower. ;) The church is listed in the 1000 best churches book by Simon Jenkins because of the paintings.

I am determined to finish spelling. Alexandrite so have put other reading on hold for the moment. I am a few pages into Taken by Benedict Jacka for a T and finished Black Ribbon by Susan Conant for a R. I just need my E book to come off hold! I had three E books where I was next in line on Overdrive and suddenly moved to 2 people ahead of me on one. I guess people had suspended it. Strange! I deleted that one so am just waiting for one of the others. Susan Conant writes an interesting series called Dog Lover's mystery's which I used to read and own all of pre big move. My bf has the books now and has continued the collection. I've been meaning to go back to reading them and recently noticed some of them including Black Ribbon in my Overdrive library. This is one I can't remember at all although I must have bought it....I was pregnant when it was released so brain fog maybe. The one isn't set in Cambridge MA like most of the series and is missing most of the reoccurring characters so not a favourite. At some point I will read from this point on.....https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39362.Black_Ribbon We didn't get to go to the beach today. :( Ds didn't have one of his assignments done for his online class and they are due tonight. He needs to learn to read his syllabus better and has received lots of lessons\advice from his family today! Considering that he is still typing away not going was a good call. BTW, I just finished the first weeks War and Peace assignment so don't wait for me. I do intend to catch up but want a few days to finish my current books and a couple that will return very soon. I feel a bit guilty after giving Ds a serious lecture this morning on the importance of reading one's textbook! Mom's a slacker but at least he doesn't know! ;)

My Goodreads friends may have noticed that I have been busy putting lots of books in as read without dates. I am sorry that I have been filling your feeds with lots of books by a couple of authors each night. Hopefully I will be organized soon. :lol: ;) I just finished listening to a cozy by Donna Andrews called Lord of the Wings. The only way I could get it was on audio. I wasn't expecting to like it because it's so far into the series and I expected to hate the narrator because she didn't sound like my Meg (the main character). I actually quite liked it...need to look up the narrator and try more with her. Tomorrow we are hopefully heading to the coast for the day. I'm not sure that I will have much peaceful reading time so I will probably stick to the cozy books I have picked out to finish spelling Alexandrite. I will take W&P thanks to my Kindle. I will admit that I am hoping my audio version becomes available before I start another audio book on Monday...... Eta.....I just discovered a book I know I read last year not marked on Goodreads. I guess my obsession with trying to organize my series reading might have some additional record keeping benefits!

Congratulations to Shannon!!!!! What a lovely story.

I just finished Shoulder to the Sky by DE Stevenson. Five stars!!! Total comfort wonderful. The third in a series that I have been able to read as my free boom each month on Prime. Obviously Amy and Angel for potential readers....https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26176376-shoulder-the-sky

I was going to send hugs but suspect you might be celebrating! ;) My first thought was I might be next. I just put an audio version on hold. I don't seem to be able to catch up. Still back on chapter 20 of the first week. It may be a soap opera but I still seem to need to read it in chapter chunks which for me means I can't carry it around and read a couple of pages at a time which is my normal reading style. Maybe listening while I quilt will work.......

We enjoyed the Number Devil but had it from the library. Dd used it as the basis for a fun slightly arty unit study we made up as we went along. Basically illustrating the math concept in in chapter her way. Ds enjoyed it as a read aloud. Both dc's are and were Math geeks.

A Paddington article people might find interesting. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/paddington-bear-13-things-didnt-know/ The Jeremy Clarkson being mentioned is the one of Top Gear fame.

One of my kids favourite things was reading my books that my mom had saved. I still have those plus their favourite books that we bought. No regrets. Not sure yet how much they will be used but happy that the option will be there.

:grouphug:

Now I know who started my Benedict Jacka addiction! I've only read two but have really enjoyed them so thank you. Waiting for room in my library account to get the third....... Eta....just got to check Taken (book 3) out. Really happy because I now have a T for Alexandrite. Several of my planned reads for that have been on hold. I have been next in line the entire month for a couple....at least one will work for Ruby so it's fine overall. Another works for Bingo. Lol ;)

I took the quiz and it said that I am an Escapist. I read because it's fun....that's definitely me! :) Matryoshka....Thank you, I was definitely over complicating things. Glad I only did five!

Dd's bf went to Iceland last February on an organized school trip for her geography glass.....here that means more the studying glaciers at gcse level etc. I know things went well but she needed some serious cold weather gear and that might not be what your ds wants to pack for Rome! Short stories......many are on Goodreads and I have a category called short stories for ones I want to remember that I have read. I also put my novellas in and consider it it's own category at the end of the year. They do end up in my big count done by Goodreads for the challenge. I can't figure out how to stop that. Which leads me to Matryoshka's idea....... Help me think this through, I would love to record my reading from the past in my Goodreads but don't want to effect my yearly count. I know I can create shelves to organize it but exactly how are you planning to do this? I know how to do the covers it's not making myself read 1000 books in 2017 that I am trying to figure out. I just created a previously read exclusive shelf which will take care of it I think. I need to figure out how to rate etc. I have some years book lists etc to record. Ideas??????

I don't think I posted here but I read the first in that series, Burn for Me, last week. Quite enjoyed it and am on a wait list for White Hot. I finished The Moonstone. Loved it.....and I even knew who did it for most of the book. ;) Eta: pretty sure I listened to this one https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16637927-the-moonstone :grouphug: to all that need one.

Welcome! I read Hillbilly Elegy at the start of this year and enjoyed it.

Thank you Jenn for all the musical links which I plan to explore as soon as I finish my audio book The Moonstone. Which I am loving. I highly recommend it as an audio book. I'm down to 4 hours. I hope I have time to finish it tomorrow! War and Peace....yep, it's a soap opera. I didn't manage to finish all the assigned reading but expect to catch up quickly now that I have officially started reading. My birthstone reading is going well overall. Pearl is complete with Balogh's The Secret Pearl and Moonstone will be complete very soon. I'm working my way through Alexandrite with 5 letters to go. I'm currently a bit distracted because there was a recent thread about our favourite light reading which several of us responded to on the main board. That thread is to blame for my checking The Cat who knew Shakespeare out. I started it.....need I say more!

War and Peace is planned for tomorrow or Sunday. I have the Maude version on my Kindle and really hope I like it. I kept the P/V from the library just in case.

:grouphug: Amy, Sending prayers to all.

The kids are living at home still so I continue to provide food and laundry service but have hours free each day. Thrilled they are at home so not complaining at that one bit. I have no real desire to do much of anything except read and my craft projects after I deal with my family's needs. I put my volunteer library job on hold last year when my mother died and feel absolutely no desire to return to the library and to have to adhere to any one else's schedule. It's all very not like me considering I have had a volunteer position of some sort most of my life and loved being busy with all of them. I am currently blaming it on years of having to make my self imposed home ed schedule work.....the pressure of it even though I didn't really consider it pressure. Home education really did consume huge portions of my time. Basically I can't think of a better explanation my current behaviour! ;)

Yesterday I read a new contemporary romance by Jen McKinley called About a Dog (Yes, I needed an A for a challenge). It was quite good :) the first in a new romance series called Bluff Point. Jen McKinley is quite a prolific Cozy author who I have read occasionally but never really connected with. This series I will continue I think....

Those are The Cat Who......by Lillian Jackson Braun. I recently was able to start at the beginning thanks to my library's Overdrive. They are wonderful! :) I used to love Mitford. I need to revisit that series soon. Love Amelia Peabody audio books!

I like series books, in order. Cozy mysteries (The Cat Who... and Donna Andrews are my current favourites), historical romances ( Mary Balogh is my current author of choice), and paranormals (most recently Benedict Jacka's series). I'm also working my way through Lee Child's Reacher series.

No one will be at all surprised to hear that I am a Daddy Long Legs fan. It's one my mom handed to me at some point. Dd loved it as a preteen too. I had no idea that Jean Webster was a niece of Mark Twain. That definitely would have made my radar screen because my favourite teacher growing up was also related to him. Second cousins (I think)....she was a young child when he died. She was quite elderly but absolutely fabulous. She had retired once from somewhere else but came back to teach my class because of a huge teacher shortage. She read Tom Sawyer as a read aloud. It's the long lead in to the good part. I saw the movie first so suspected it was worth the wait. I have actually reread it a couple of times since and am always shocked at how boring the start is.

I read The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh this morning. It was one of the best historical romances I've read. That led me to find this list https://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com/blogs/2013/09/trysting-with-heroes-mary-baloghs-betas which Kareni and Amy will enjoy. I checked out one that will lead me to one of the heros this afternoon. The need to read in order can be a pain! ;) Robin, I remember liking the first Preston/Childs book quite a bit. I didn't make it much further in the series. There was a reason but I can't remember it....... Our complaints regarding burning appear to have worked. We went to the sea this afternoon to cool down and when we arrived home the area they were burning is completely cleaned up. The Council website said they act on this sort of complaint same day, I guess they do. Wow.