Harry Potter and I got to know each other when ds was a baby. I could walk to a huge upscale mall from our house and went for a weight reducing stroll on hot days through the mall pushing my double stroller. There was a PBS store where dd and I did much of our shopping with a huge HP display. At some point I remember buying the first HP book there. I was hooked and soon owned the three that were out. I added the next within days as they were released. Each new book has meant that I reread the series up to the new release so I have read the first ones lots of times. Fast forward a few years and ds was about 6. We are moving to England and all the Home Education group information is talking about HP with kid's younger than ds as huge fans. Pen pals were big in the publications of that time! I had been planning to wait but Sorcerer's is sort of mild so cultural immersion began. They needed to be able to speak the language! :lol: We read through the death of my favourite character then I handed the books over to the dc's. They had to wait for the last one too. Reading hp and being huge Dr. Who fans did help them fit in with their new friends. Something to talk about. We love Harry Potter. Everyone in the family except me loves the movies. We watch them frequently with me complaining that this or that part got left out. We have been to the studio and a few film sites.

Last week was spent reading books I didn't really like so I plan to read fun things this week! I plan to work on my birthstone challenge which means I have done a bit of planning. I decided to do June's three birthstones with enthusiasm mainly because both Mary Balogh's The Secret Pearl and Wilkie Collin's The Moonstone were already on this year's list. So that leaves Alexandrite to spell! I think I can......the requires X which is problematic... The search for X turned up I am Princess X by Cherie Priest. I was excited because she was my Steampunk for Bingo author. I didn't pay proper attention beyond 200+ pages and had quite a surprise......it's a graphic novel. Oh my, I just entered a whole new world. They can be checked out on my Kindle Fire apparently because that one worked. It was a great story and seriously good fun. When I went to Goodreads after I discovered Aggieamy has read and loved it.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17408897-i-am-princess-x The story starts with two childhood friends create a cartoon character called Princess X and become a bit obsessed creating boxes of notebooks with their tales. When one of the girls dies in an accident and the other moves the tales are lost. Three years pass and the girl returns to their hometown, Seattle, and discovers that Princess X is the star of a long running web cartoon. At first she thinks someone has the missing notebooks but as she reads she learns that her dead friend must be the author..... It was great! It did take 2 or 3 hours to read so I'm counting it for Alexandrite. ;) X is hard. Currently reading the latest in one of my favourite cozy series Devil's Breathhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29939369-devil-s-breath?ac=1&from_search=true and continuing to listen to my Tom Clancy audiobook with 4 hours to go!

I agree and I have now finished it. Occasionally I liked it and kept going and climbed to 60% complete with serious thoughts of giving up. I completed it for my Bingo square. No way am I starting the next. I can understand why some people enjoyed it but I just needed more of plot.

Thanks, I had a hard time deciding what to read for my finance square. I think I have six more books to read in order to fill my card.

Now I won't feel guilty if I give up on it! The one this young man bought for $500 was of the really trashed variety. He even had to rebuild the foundation. Apparently there were auctions with bidding starting at $500. His was a pretty typical family home. He traded and searched through rubbish for most of his materials. He found a stove from the 30's for his kitchen for instance. My understanding is that the "mansions" didn't up in the auctions normally. Regarding Too Like the Lightning I will read a bit more before I give up but I have a great stack right now that I am looking forward to. I feel special. :lol: The only official peerage I know is a Duke. He lives locally so meeting him wasn't that hard! He owns a good chunk of the land locally. I have only met one other titled person other than the Duke's wife, he is technically the first son of a Baron. Not sure what that makes him. He's localish too but just goes by his first name. Both are extremely nice and handsome. Just saying.....they are both rather dreamy actually. Definitely a certain polish that makes one feel special but too young for me and too married for dd! ;) :lol:

So I am 30% in to Too Like the Lightning and would class myself as mildly intrigued. It might be getting more interesting because something seems to be up but I am wondering if I should go on. Guys tell me have I missed it or do I keep going because it going to get good soon......I am wondering if I am in the doesn't get it side of things. Jane, fascinating photos. I'm glad you had a great trip! Tress, I'm glad to see you back. I hope the new medications work and you start feeling better. I do hope you still find time to hang out with us when you are reading less! I did finish my finance Bingo Square by reading A $500 House in Detroit. I originally picked it because we were repeatedly asked for financial advice when we first arrived in the UK by people who were being marketed to regarding foreclosures all over the US. Telemarketers were packaging 10 or so homes for a super low amount and promising to handle the rental of the property. Some were in Detroit but a few other big cities too. Sight unseen. No idea if anyone actually bought but we didn't encourage it! I was curious what this book would say about the actual rehab process for these houses. I found some of the location descriptions really repetitive but I knew the areas being talked about so it could have just been me. Overall it was a hopeful book and interesting. A young woman close to me is involved in the art movement in Detroit in a very peripheral manner and was describing some of her experiences to me recently. That conversation enriched other parts of this book.

Fastweedpuller, I am glad to see you back! No emoticons, sorry! I have been following you over on Goodreads but have missed you here. Safe travels to Jane and Amy. I hope you both have/had good flights. Vc, Lucky you. I'm glad you received a second visit. I keep hoping for a chance to head your way again but things seem to be busy around here. Not much reading accomplished today. We were out the entire day, I carried the Kindle but never even opened it.

Sebastian St Cyr is a series you will love! I thought you had already read it actually. It really must be read in order imo. The books take place in a really short span of time compared to most so last weeks events are still really fresh and referred to in the next book. Also the level of the spoilers from out of order would ruin previous books in the series. The character's back story development is surprising but wonderful. :) Characters you dislike at the start either change over time or step back to be really minor for the most part. This series is worth the bother of holds. Make sure to check your overdrive too because the whole series appeared at my Overdrive library recently. Here is the series order for those who are trying to figure out what we are talking about! https://www.goodreads.com/series/40696-sebastian-st-cyr This is a great historical mystery series but it isn't a fluffy one at all. Some of the crimes are extremely violent so not necessarily for everyone. That being said Aggieamy is another fan so....

I'm done! The one I needed to finish first was a book called Daisy in Chains by Sharon Bolton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28220906-daisy-in-chains. I didn't like the end at all. The whole book was a question mark to be honest but I kept reading because the author was really popular when I was working at the library. I have read and enjoyed the first in her Lacey Flint series but didn't care for the second. I guess I'm done trying to like this author. This is one of those big twist at the end books where I considered the possibility of what happened early in the book and discarded it because it was too strange. It was!

Too Like the Lightning is my next book because it returns tomorrow! Kindle reader is off until I finish that and The $500 House in Detroit. I have one other one with the tomorrow due date that I should be able to finish before bed if I stay off the boards so will post about that one later. Anyway glad to hear everyone loves it. I am planning to use it for a Bingo square...Sci fi I believe.

:grouphug: I hope an answer is found soon.

Dd took the French Reading SAT first so she definitely used the SAT study materials. Barrons and Princeton Review I believe. When she decided to try the Clep exam she reviewed using the material for the listening SAT exam. We also had a brown covered Clep review book from the library. I couldn't find it on Amazon so assuming it's no longer in print. It wasn't very helpful so I wouldn't hunt for it. Just asked dd and she said it was very similar.

I'm going to try to help. :lol: I checked the Duke edition which should be Maude out of the overdive library. It says Duke on the top of the cover. I received the cover that I just put in my currently reading on Goodreads.....white horse on the cover. I just paged through many pages and looked at the back. Relatively sure my footnotes all follow the paragraph immediately. Appears to be really easy to use. I counldn't find any footnotes that weren't language translations. Even on the same page most of the time. If someone can tell me where to hunt for other footnotes I will hunt. It's a huge book to page through! Removing library books from kindles. Most of the time they should disappear with a message when the library takes them back and they disappear from your library account. Sometimes they stick if your device isn't online at the time. In order to get rid of them you have to click on the book.....on a fire you hold your finger on the cover until a message pops up. It will ask you if you want to remove it from your carousel or device. In order to get rid of it pick device. I think it might still sit in your cloud but I don't think that is a real problem. Readers you just right click on the book on the home page, on mine the bottom option is remove from device.

So very tempted. I loved that one. My 10 year old self thought the word moonstone made it super exotic. :lol:

Not sure if the end result will be spelling Pearl or Moonstone. Each is partially done with a sort through my tbr pile. I think I am just going to keep track for a couple of weeks before I commit. I did go ahead and download The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh because it's been on my tbr list for a couple of years. I am happily reading Evan and Elle by Rhys Bowen. Part of a great series that will also give me an E for either stone. Decisions.......The books always describe the area around Mount Snowdon in Wales so well that I spent part of last night researching how much it would cost to live there then I went and read a few more pages and discovered the crimes in this book are setting fires in new people's homes. I think I'm officially off that idea! I know it's fiction but the idea has stuck! We did have a lovely vacation there a couple of years ago. I am still listening to the Bear and the Dragon. I am in the teens now so making some progress.

I finally had a chance to read Becky Chamber's A Closed and Common Orbit which is the second book in her Wayfarers series. I loved A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet much to my surprise which was the first in this series. This book was very good in parts but I found many parts really boring. The boring bits did have a purpose but I never would have kept reading if I hadn't liked the first one so much. Angela, Glad everyone is feeling a bit better. I hope Abby's ear infection clears up quickly.

One close friend was the first baby anyone ever let me really touch. :lol: It's one of my first memories. Our parents were best friends and we go through phases of intense closeness. We had our kids and started home ed together. Moved overseas to different countries at the same time. Friends for 50 years in a few days I guess... her birthday is coming up. My other bf and I have been friends for close to 25 years. I met her mom first and she decided the two of us needed each other. She was right.

I have a few hard copies coming myself. ;) I think dd might be considering reading it while it is in the house and want to make sure there is a translation she would enjoy. She is fluent in French and learning Russian so her needs are a bit different from mine! I'm a Kindle girl so it's Maude or Garrett for me. Great picture! It's wonderful you guys were able to get together. I miss her also.

:grouphug:

Robin, I've stayed quiet all day long because I wanted to let other people have a chance to read and comment but I would love it if we have a stated goal for the week and a discussion of sorts early in the week. Your plan sounded pretty perfect to me. :) I hope you will consider posting the chapter divisions each week as you suggested and any other ideas would be welcome. I know I need them and if I am understanding what others are saying I have company. ;) I don't think any of us newbies to War and Peace feel comfortable leading, I know I don't. I'm hoping that with stated weekly goals maybe we can manage a reasonable discussion each week. We obviously will occasionally be in the same place as some of our other readers so hopefully others will pop in and out. I couldn't like... So sad. I haven't read The Plover yet but plan to.

:grouphug: I wish knew.....

Angel :grouphug: and prayers

I finished my last Emerald book. Donald Westlake's The Hot Rock was about a theft of an emerald by career criminals gone very wrong. It read easily and was the first in another long series called Dormunder. I didn't love it and won't plan on more at this point. Too many things I want to read. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13224948-the-hot-rock I went ahead and ordered my hard copies for War and Peace. I ended up getting two translations and will pick at that point. I fully agree with VC's caucus race rules and know that it's probably the only way because I would actually just as soon start while I am enthused. A tiny part of me wonders if the reason The Razor's Edge was successful for me was each Sunday we had a discussion. I knew that on Saturday I needed to read my pages. It was fun......if we are all at different places what will we do? Can we do anything without spoiling it for others? Maybe pick an end date with some pre selected discussion questions....so if we finish early we can do our answers before we forget details and still have our books. I think several of you have participated in chunky readalongs on Goodreads and am wondering how it's handled?

I lost Loesje's next quote. So..... Just a suggestion for spreading the book: Week 31 (starts Sunday 30 July) part I = chapter 1-3 Week 32 (starts Sunday 6 August) Part II = Chapter 1-5 Week 33 (starts Sunday 13 august) Part III = Chapter 1-3 Week 34 (starts Sunday 20 august) part IV = chapter 1-4 Week 35 (starts Sunday 27 august) epilogues, catching up and final conclusions Monday 4 September starts school again, and I want to be done with the book before that :) This way it is about 380 pages a week in my edition. The Maude edition on the Kindle calls them books. There are 15 books each with many chapters and 2 epilogues which is where I came up with my 17 parts. The end of Book 3 puts us at 24% of the book. I can't see any "part" subdivisions but each book has a year identification. I went ahead and downloaded it onto my old Kindle reader. This is what I see: Book 1 (1805) with 28 chapters Book 2 (1805) with 21 chapters Book 3 (1805) with 19 chapters.......24% complete #### Book 4 (1806) with 16 chapters Book 5 (1806-7) with 22 chapters Book 6 (1808-10) with 26 chapters Book 7 (1810-11) with 13 chapters......44% complete Book 8 (1811-12) with 22 chapters......50% complete ##### Book 9 (1812) with 23 chapters Book 10 (1812) with 39 chapters Book 11 (1812) with 34 chapters.......76% complete ##### Book 12 (1812) with 16 chapters.......84% complete Book 13 (1812) with 19 chapters Book 14 (1812) with 19 chapters Book 15 (1812-13) with 20 chapters.....92% complete #### Epilogue 1 (1813-20) with 16 chapters Epilogue 2 with 12 chapters Not sure if that is any help. ;) I put #### where I think your breaks are. The Kindle I put it on doesn't do page numbers so all I can do is percentage complete. The chapters appear to be relatively short at 10 pages each for my random count. Language seems quite readable. The French appears in French with a *, directly under there is a * with the English translation. Eta.....Obviously this is a bit late. I made food and did laundry while writing. ;) I'm going to leave it up..... I am very much for spreading things out more.

Nan, My reason for giving War and Peace a try stems from it truly is one of the classics that I have always intended to read. There are lots of classics I haven't read but many of those I will never read and am good with that. You will never see me join a Moby Dick read along.....whales, explains it in one word. I haven't read War and Peace simply because I have always categorised myself as too busy, also I was never assigned it for a class. :lol: A group read along is perfect for me because it lends itself to some accountability. Also I should be able to continue my fluff reading and still keep up. :) That being said totally clueless me "checked out" and returned the Maude translation earlier tonight. I wanted to look at the index and it has 17 sections. I was unable to look at page numbers without completely downloading it. I think the next thing the group who wants to tackle this book needs to decide is a reasonable schedule of these sections. I suspect some are a much quicker read than others. CandanceSophia and others familiar with the book I think we could use suggestions. As Matryoshka suggested upthread the one hundred pages or so each week worked well for Razor's Edge. How long should we spread this over? I suspect that hanging on to my library books won't be much of a problem so whatever works for the group is fine with me.