:grouphug: Stacia I am so glad it wasn't the alligator. I was expecting that too from how the story was going. Your sister does owe you big time. Ice will hopefully work it's magic soon.

I will be curious to hear what you and the girls think of it. Dd and I both read it and felt pretty ambivalent about it. We thought one new character was sweet but after reading other's comments I guess we are in the minority about that too! :lol: Ds had it on his kindle for 3 weeks and didn't bother.....he is the kid who really hadn't read any real books but sat down with book 6 because I refused to read the sad books out loud. His lack of interest surprised me but I didn't bug him about it. Just gave the 2 day warning. ;(

I am MumToTwo on Goodreads if you want to be friends.

I finished a new book in a new series by an author that many of us have read. Kelley Armstrong writes some great paranormal fiction but in this new series everyone is human, not nice but human. City of the Lost https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25362841-city-of-the-lost is the first in the Casey Daniels series. It has an interesting plot concept that I found fascinating when I started reading but it got pretty tired by the end. Two women who have been roommates and friends both find themselves in danger but can't expect their situation to be solved by a call to the police. One of them discovers a secret organization that helps you disappear to a city in the far north that is filled with people like them. The place is off the grid and almost self supporting. They both apply to the "council" and are relocated. The setting is sort of Northern Exposure meets The Others (yep,Anne Bishop). Obviously this doesn't end up being a warm and fuzzy world. I probably will try the next book in this series when it is released but I didn't love this one. Simply an acceptable read that made me sleepy. ;) or maybe it should be ;( !!!

Hi Tress, It's good to see you back, you have been missed. Hope the migraines are better. Stacia :grouphug: Stay safe and enjoy the doggie love. I doubt they will give you any choice! I hate hurricane/tropical storm season. I thought I had escaped when I moved accross the ocean but the gulf stream brings them up to us. Rainy weekend in the forecast from the last round of storm you guys had.

My two online worlds intersected this morning, my quilt blogs which are a new obsession and BaW's bookshelves topic. Since there are other quilter's here I need to share this ideahttps://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/stash-bee-3523682/hive-3-september-tutorial-bookshelves-5108890683. It's on my to do list, maybe a lap quilt. I am thinking shelves not blocks. :lol: All these ideas swirling around as I sit and hand sew my binding on, really boring activity!

How do I organize my books? Badly! :( In our living room we have a smallish book shelf with reference/ school books. Interested in Greek top shelf with the Christian reference books. Other languages second shelf with math. Need to take an AP exam, SAT Subject, or other standardized test check out the third shelf. Really chunky books oversized books including science and history bottom shelf. This is my go to home ed reference bookcase. Just the best stuff. I have left the testing books simply because they tend to be concise. Dd has bookcases that are a mess. They represent what she has done schoolwise for the last three years with some shelves of to be read fiction for both of us. Ds has a bookcase of mainly programming manuals and math books. I have a stash of craft books under the bed that is pretty extensive....projects that I have planned for the next ten years or so ;) the rest of these live in the garage. Lots of books stored in storage boxes in the garage. All my Cookbooks are there. I keep copies of my favorite recipes in the house. I realised that I tend to google my unplanned recipe needs so the books were just taking up space that I didn't have, plus I find it really convenient to magnet my recipe to the frig as I cook.

Check your settings if these are overdrive books. A 21 day option for audiobooks appeared about a month ago at one of my libraries. You might have a pleasant surprise. I also suspend my "next in line holds" if I am just starting a new book that is popular.

I think I have read the whole series. I checked a big stack out that I wasn't sure about last year while visiting the US and read each until I recognized having read it. I am great at boosting circulation numbers! ;) I was in the process of my big move when the last book was published. I don't think it was all that good because it was depressing. The characters were feeling their age. But the author was in her 90's when writing it so I think she may have felt the need to wrap their lives up also. It was not a fun mystery! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72816.The_Cat_Who_Had_60_Whiskers. There is another partially published book with a really limited distribution out there. I haven't read that one. For anyone interested in trying this series I think it was at it's best in the middle. I remember really liking the Post Office one https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38436.The_Cat_Who_Played_Post_Office so that might be a good place to start. This is a series that I read hugely out of order. I remember really struggling to get the early books which were written in the 60's and set in an alternate Detroit. The Detroit ones were good but had a different feel than the UP ones. This sounds like way more fun to me! The mobile game has created a situation where kids are bike riding while on their phones the wrong way down our one way street. Pulling out of our driveway has become a bit harder.

I left the Outlander part in fastweedpuller's post for a reason but forgot to comment on it. I have been watching the show on Prime also but am far from caught up. I started watching Mr. Robot because M.. posted that it was good and suspect I will be watching that now instead. Ds wants to watch it with me. :) I tried the books when I was on bed rest years ago. I didn't care for them but suspect the chunkiness factor didn't help. I watched a tv show this afternoon based on a detective series that was new to me called The Last Detective starring Peter Davidson (my favourite Dr.Who). Dangerous Davies, the Last Detective is the name of the first book in the series https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/937254.Dangerous_Davies_the_Last_Detective?ac=1&from_search=true. The episode I watched was enjoyable and the books have good reviews. I am planning to read them if I can find them, the results of my brief search weren't promising. Has anyone read this series?

:lol: I didn't think you would make it through that book. Dd and I have had tons of fun with quilting and other craft projects through the years. I miss those days. She is so busy with her stuff right now that I end up by myself for craft time. Everyone except me was gone today, all day. I got quite a bit done but it was boring. She does have all her fabric for a Dr. Who quilt which will be fun. I am looking forward to quilting with you! I am planning to reread the Cat Who books. Many years ago the author lived (or had lived) nearby and everytime I was reading one of her books someone would ask if I knew her. To the best of my knowledge I never even saw her! Quick update on my cozy rereads....I am really enjoying the Sarah Booth Delaney series. I don't think I ever read the second one before and loved it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/905891.Buried_Bones I think this one will always be my favourite Donna Andrews. I have readit several times! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/615408.Revenge_of_the_Wrought_Iron_Flamingos

This is one of my favourite series! Thanks for the ideas. Two of the authors are new to me. Now waiting on some library holds! :lol: I am also waiting for a Miss Seeton. I am hoping that it is a series that I read years ago and have been hunting for the name to reread. I love Tey also. Oddly the first new Hillerman was already in my stack when you wrote this. I decided to finally try the daughter's books..... Here's a link to this weeks thread http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/622568-book-a-week-2016-bw35-summer-sun/. A new thread starts every Sunday afternoon. Hope to see some of you there!

Woot! Woot! Finally finished Stiletto https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25695756-stiletto. It was actually pretty good when I sat down and concentrated on it!

Still reading Stiletto but only three hours left of my current Julia Spencer Fleming audiobook. Almost to the binding stage for my extra quilt finish for the quilt show. I remembered after I started working on it that I had put that top together with imperfect blocks from a quilt I made for dd when she was 7. The corners don't match etc. Not the quilt top I should have picked from my stack of unfinished quilts.....yes, I like making the tops but not the finish work.

Well I married the boy next door so....... Now I live in a smallish rural village in England. We know and are friendly with pretty much all of the people who live nearby. Dh and I are pretty busy enjoying the last years with our kids at home. We stop and have a cup of tea and chat occasionally but not really time to entertain etc. It would be pretty easier to be far closer if we had more time. Otherwords plenty friendly. ;) We do have several close village friends that we socialize with just not right next door.

:grouphug: I still haven't gotten over Clinique discontinuing my shampoo back when I was pregnant with dd. The new version gave me hives. It took me years to find a replacement that didn't make me itch after a couple of uses.

As someone who lives in a smallish English village and is involved in the village C of E many of the situations arising from those characters crack me up. I can just imagine the teeth sucking, as a good friend calls the polite disapproval, it would be shown in public. I find the relationship good for entertainment value but suspect that in real life it wouldn't last. How do you feel about them?

I am pretty sure the first Elly Griffiths mystery The Crossing Place is set in the fall https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6688087-the-crossing-places. I believe a later one A Dying Fall is too. No copies available to double check..... I just wanted to invite all the readers here to join us over at the weekly Book a Week thread. We have several regular posters who read mysteries. We would love some new people. This is a great time of the year to join because our weekly threads are relatively short. In October we have our annual month of spooky reads which is lots of fun!

Thank you for the link. I bookmarked it and need to start looking for the series I haven't read. Most of my favourites are included so hopefully I will enjoy the others also. Amy needs to look at the list too! Another convert! :lol: I can't believe how many books I have listened to while crafting recently.

A personal favourite is Wicked Autumn by GM Malliet https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10946475-wicked-autumn?ac=1&from_search=true This is the first in a series featuring a retired British secret agent turned village vicar. This website is wonderful. It can be sorted so many different ways. Here are the groupings for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Lots of choice. http://www.cozy-mystery.com/blog/fall-halloween-thanksgiving-cozy-mysteries.html. I was going to list some favourites from the lists but many books by good cozy authors are there.

I am one of those people who can't be around perfume or I suffer. I try to stay away from potential perfume wearers in crowds. That being said my father firmly believed that if he could smell a woman's (or man's) perfume he knew that their hygiene habits were poor. When anyone in my family smells perfume we tend to think in those terms to be honest.

What a great present!!! Glad you had a great night out with friends while your ds had his night out. I read Stiletto for quite awhile last night. It's long almost 600 pages. I just downloaded a novella that I have been looking forward to reading by Anna Lee Huber. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26177709-a-pressing-engagement Planning to read this later today!

I am definitely hooked on this series. I am about a third of the way through number six. I spent a few minutes googling and found a comment from her saying she is working on the next one but that it is going slow. I read a spoiler and can see that wainting for the next book is going to be a irritating! Have you tried the Kate Burkholer series yet? There are many similarities between these series both set in small towns with an unbelievable amount of violence. The latest for this series was recently released an is sitting in my stack. I also have Stiletto which is the sequel to The Rook https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10836728-the-rook?ac=1&from_search=true which is one of my favourite books ever. It is good but I am having to go slow because I am still quilting pretty intensely for the quilt show. I finished my large quilt but decided to finish a quilt top I made several years ago also. So I listen to audiobooks while quilting and am still suffering from insomnia. I do read during the night but tend to pick things that don't require full concentration in case I manage to actually fall asleep. Kate Burkholder is too violent for insomnia reading,gives me weird dreams so haven't started it.

Link should be https://www.goodreads.com/series/115052-the-women-of-the-real-downton-abbey I finished Master and Commander on audiobook. I enjoyed it and will start working my way through the series, skipping the second per Jenn. I am back to Rev Claire Ferguson's series by Julia Spencer Fleming. I read a fluffy romantic suspense novel last night called Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz (also known as Jayne Castle) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25203491-secret-sisters. I enjoyed it.

Happy Birthday VC!!!! What a wonderful present!