Since I suspect I am the only person here who had a Burns Night supper in their lives this year I have a bit of new knowledge to report regarding haggis. Other years our whole family has been involved actively in making the village event happen but this year dh was pretty adamant that I wasn't going to go and work clean up because of a foot injury that I have pretty much recovered from. He was right standing on a hard floor for a couple of hours would have set me back. He took my place which was sweet and did his normal heavy lifting too. So I stayed home and worked on a quilt. ;) Well, my crew arrived home about eleven and the smell that came with them was pretty bad. As they walked towards me it arrived long before they did! :lol: A fatty meaty heavy yucky smell that resulted in me doing two loads of laundry before going to bed. I'm really not that picky in general but could not imagine waking up to the smell today. I never noticed it other years...... I finished a new book by one of my favourite mystery authors, John Verdon. Wolf Lake was a bit of a disappointment compared to the others in the series. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30644034-wolf-lake. I loved the first in the series Think of a Number which recently appeared on one of our list links, maybe a Great Books You've Never Read type of a list.

Hampton Court Palace is part of a larger ticket scheme that includes the Tower and Kensington Palace. http://www.hrp.org.uk/support-us/individuals/membership/#gs.RgLZ7Vc. Hampton Court is a fun day out of the city that is really easy to do on the underground. Windsor also works as a day trip really easily.

I forgot the Harry Potter Studio tours https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk. We have been several times and love it.

It's a really good idea to incorporate your child's online syllabus into your calendar. Expecting them to remember to tell you they have a major deadline when the rest of the family has fun spur of the moment plans is a stretch. It's good to know when your dc has a major assignment due......trust me, I know. Part of the problem has been I am used to being able to adjust their due dates around our life because I have always made the due dates now someone else is in charge.

York is another possible day trip. Walled city with walkable walls. Good mix of museums both Viking and Roman artefacts. Free National train museum. Everything is easy walking distance from the station. Lots of trains out of Kings Cross. The travel time is roughly 2 hours depending on the train you choose because of stops. If you do decide to do longer train trips make sure you consider buying a friends and family card for roughly £35. It can mean a big savings on tickets.

The only other one that I remember Robin clarifying as non fiction is that the best seller in family member's birth year could be non fiction. They publish a non fiction list also.

Glad they removed the weird comments for you. :grouphug: to you and your dd. I hope the drs. figure out what's going on soon!

Warning.....I just finished a book which won't be released in the US for a few months! The Essex Serpent was a good solid interesting book with an absolutely magnificent cover. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26225360-the-essex-serpent I was going to try and write a description but have decided that the one written by Goodreads is pretty good. ;) Every character highlighted in this book is interesting and diverse. I think that might be the most important thing about this book. It's well done with just enough description so I could easily visualize the book. Yes, I'm one of the I see a movie in my brain people! :)

With all of our recent talk about the Hygge book I can't resist posting this crochet a long that starts soon because of the hygge title. https://itsallinanutshell.com/2017/01/25/hygge-cal-kits-now-available/ My friend did the Mandela one with the same person and it worked incredibly well. She was not experienced with crochet beyond the very basics. I won't be participating but it's beautiful isn't it?

Dc's are working the Burns night dinner again this year...this weekend. ;) They are the waitstaff for a sit down charity dinner held every year. Ds considers all the haggis he can eat a good deal and has been having a great time telling dh how great it is. It's honestly better than you all would imagine, very spicy. Dd normally goes hungry until the dessert but is going to brave the vegetarian haggis this year. Dh and I stay home through the dinner but always help with the clean up.....no haggis for dh and he is Scots. We just survived our internet being down for about 30 hours. Totally stressful because the dc's had papers that had to be submitted online last night. With two large projects due Sunday that ds hasn't exactly started.....worse he hadn't saved the directions any place. All got sorted. We now know our local big supermarket has great free internet. :lol: I got quite a bit of reading done. The book of interest was Under The Harrow by Flynn Berry https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27246107-under-the-harrow?ac=1&from_search=true. It's my debut author book. The reviews compare it to Gone Girl so it's another rollercoaster type read. It definitely kept me reading but wasn't really satisfying so I gave it a three. Parts were a bit disjointed. Remember I didn't like Gone Girl and abandoned Girl on a Train so I am probably not the best judge of this particular style!

Great job, Cstarlette. Your weight loss is huge! I finished Home by Harlan Coben https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29430007-home last night. For now it's my one word title for bingo. It wasn't bad because it definitely was a book where the pages turned easily but I didn't like it as much as previous ones in this series. The ending was somewhat unexpected but only came about because so illogical things happened about a third of the way through. That really bugged me because it just couldn't happen that way. Still trying to finish The Ides of April. It's my book set in Rome which is the only reason I keep going. It isn't bad but I don't seem to mesh with it real well. I have started The Essex Serpent and like that one! :lol: As the mom of fossil collectors enjoying those parts. Also the local myths about the serpent which cross over into a serpent carved into a pew in the local church. I was so sad to discover the church doesn't exist. I thought it might. Many churches in my area have church mice.....wooden ones carved into, maybe onto describes better, the church furniture. It's lots of fun hunting for them when visiting a new church.

:grouphug: I went through chemo with my mom. It was awful. So very very dreadful, she quit. Lived the rest of her days with no symptoms which were 9 decent months. Last summer her hip broke, possibly spontaneous (I have been assured it can happen in the very elderly, she was 94). She passed during hip replacement surgery. A very close friend is now out of remission. Can't believe this is happening again. So hugs to everyone.

Sadie :grouphug:

I just looked at the release date for England and have to say the book must have become instantly really popular with a home ed group ds likes to go to. I've heard quite a bit about it. Since Amy approved it I have finally requested it. :lol: I skimmed the link but need to go to bed, what's cracker noir? I couldn't spot the answer.....I was thinking Florida cracker but the author isn't from Florida.

I put the mysteries I found today in my current reads on Goodreads. I also put what I think will be my cultural read, Richard Muir's How to Read a Village. It is supposed to be reflective of the disappearing countryside and what common terms mean. It's been on my bookshelf for years.

I moved quite a bit between set points as a child of older parents and have continued to do so as an adult. "Where are you from" always makes me pause because I tend to give the most appropriate answer for the setting I am in. My family has deep roots in the Yorkshire moors with both a village and a moor named after my ancestors. I never had an opportunity to visit either until dh and I stopped a couple of years after we married to have a look. My dh, a Scot whose roots are coastal, had a poor immediate reaction to the hilly terrain filled with an overabundance of sheep that were blocking our way. The stark beauty.....I had never really stopped and looked at a place quite like it but found myself very comfortable. We are actually considering a move to that area now, dh has gotten used to moors. ;) That immediate connection still amazes me because the reality of my childhood was living near water wherever I was. Reading wise my week has been slow. I am finishing off The Ides of April and One Night for Love by Mary Balogh. When those are done so is the January Garnet challenge. On my library trip today I picked of a couple of mysteries whose subtitle is "a Yorkshire Moor Mystery". Now to find something cultural......

I'm hoping to read Amethyst Dreams by Phyllis Whitney. She was one of my favourite authors growing up. I doubt I read this one back then. Oooh no, Aquamarine. I trying to take this a month at a time. At least it's just one e!!! :lol:

I am the one complaining about the E situation. Please thank Middle Girl for me but I have already read both long ago. Since we can't do rereads the game becomes a bit harder. I loved Eight Cousins but have read that more than once so truly a reread! I have already found my potential E for Amethyst, Engleby by Sebastian Faulks https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2392274.Engleby has been on a wish list for awhile. I actually went and found books in my stack for most of the letters. It just dawned on me that The Essex Serpent which I picked up today would work as an E. Honestly not sure that I will wait for February. I may just use it for my Bingo free space. It's too pretty to go unused! ;)

I think it's great that your library now has a stack of SWB books. Being able to look and plan for the future is so much fun! Not sure if you were able to get the Story of Western Science or not but some BaWer's are doing a read along. Robin will be including each week's chapters in her first post when it starts. Sorry, I can't remember when it is supposed to start.

I'm sorry! So very confused. I did actually look at Amazon.com to make sure it had been released in the US before posting and for me it looks like it has been. But when I look closely one section has £ but everything else is $. Maybe Amazon is adjusting from where I am? As in willing to sell it to me via US with a UK delivery. Confused. Well I will definitely try and pick the book up tomorrow from the branch library that has it on the new releases shelf!

Great job, Heather. What a big achievement! I love the pictures! Last night I saw a book that I am looking forward to trying. Dh and I had 2 hours to spend at the mall while the kids were at a nearby meeting. We spent quite awhile in Smith's and Waterstone's (bookstores) When I walked in to Waterstones I was immediately drawn to an incredible looking display of books with absolutely gorgeous covers. The book is The Essex Serpent. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/16/the-essex-serpent-sarah-perry-review-novel Victorian gothic. I'm planning to pick a copy up tomorrow. Eta: I changed my link because it wasn't working. In future posts you will see this book is not being released in the US until June. I am really sorry. :(

In Overdrive Listen my fire shows the number of minutes left (and completed) on one of the screens. I have that one constantly up while listening, also what chapter I'm on.

Thanks guys! The E problem has been a bit of a surprise to me. I really thought I would be able to do it out of my stacks for the most part for a few months then move into my wish list. Because of availability issues I ended up going through a new books listing to find The Elephants's Journey. I'm not planning an quitting the challenge but it did become more of a big challenge. Originally I had been going to do the stone in the title each month and consider myself done! Than I decided to do it every way and up my game for some unknown reason. I am just so grateful that it's any word in the title because I have read several of the E books from that list! The challenge is actually fun for me, sorry I'm probably moaning and whinging too much. But a 205 page book really shouldn't take me this long! ;)

Stacia, I hope you feel better! Somehow your indie list led me to The Life We Bury https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20758175-the-life-we-bury?ac=1&from_search=true by Allen Eskine's. Looks interesting. I might check it out eventually.

Generally if I have room I check the book out or put it on hold right away. When it hits my account it normally sits for at least a week in the stack. At some point after that I read a couple of pages. If I don't say I read it fairly quickly I probably quietly gave up! Onr thing BaW has taught me is how to sift through a pile! I'm reading The Elephant's Journey. It's a historical retelling he did of an elephant's journey back in the 1500's from Lisbon to Vienna. I have never read any of his other books. It is interesting but I am not finding it as quick a read as I was hoping for. The huge eye confusing paragraphs are slowing me down along with busy days. I truly am reading it for the E in Garnet. I thought I had it with Hillbilly Elegy but I am not sure if I started it in 2016. I threw my E and N out and went hunting for new books because of start dates. I have a fluffy historical for N so thought I would read something more literary for E. No biggie except I wonder what I will be readin next December to find a vowel!