Both Heart of Stone and The Ghost and the Deb were already on my hold’s list. Great minds think alike!😂 I am reading Val McDermid’s Still Life. It’s the latest in her long running KarenPirie series and my hold arrived. This series is great and Val McDermid is considered to be one of the great Northern mystery authors.......It’s good. She killed off my favorite character a couple of books ago and I haven’t read one since......I think I was mourning. Anyway I am far enough to know i will continue......one of the storylines involves someone joining the French Foreign Legion which is just fascinating. I suspect a few people here would enjoy these. @Pen for sure https://www.goodreads.com/series/138123-inspector-karen-pirie I just finished listening to Helen Hunter’s Slouch Witch which was a hoot! I am so disappointed that I had to put the next book on hold. The lazy😉witch spelled her cat familiar so it can talk and the cat snark is hilarious! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34670747-slouch-witch

@HalcyonWelcome! @KareniThose freebies by CK are already in my stack! I just started A Few Right Thinking Men which is the first in the Rowland Sinclair cozy series and was sort of surprised when the housekeeper declared ghosts murdered her employer!😉 When I decided to read a couple of ghost/which cozies and consider my Spooky done this year I didn’t expect ghosts to keep appearing in unexpected books.........one appeared in my Chaina Bayles series too! I have had A Few Right Thinking Men on hold since last spring and am hoping to use it for my 10 x10 Worldwide Dectective Category........it’s set in Australia. I spent a couple of hours going through my reading challenges for 2020 and hope to finish a couple more by the end of the year.......I need to at least finish my 10 Agatha Christie’s in order! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36568063-a-few-right-thinking-men eta........I just found this article about the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries. https://www.betterreading.com.au/news/isolated-aristocrat-witty-detective-the-rowland-sinclair-mysteries-series-by-sulari-gentill/

I counted last night.......this makes 11 free Carla Kelly’s in my Kindle library. How awesome is that? Thank you Kareni!

I ended up listening to The Two Towers and enjoyed the production so will finish up by listening to the Return of the King. @DreamergalThere wasn’t an intervention in the excepts I read........guessing the book is saying Di’s sister. The one who worked for the Queen. I think I heard that......I find the uncle improbable and a bad choice. So am I right or wrong? I am going to end up reading the book aren’t I? 😂

Thanks to @Kareni I am going to have to have a Carla Kelly readathon very soon! She keeps finding wonderful titles for free.......and I keep downloading them and saving them for emergencies. Since we aren’t traveling emergencies aren’t happening with internet fortunately! Btw, I want to make it clear I love Kareni finding all these great freebies for me! I started rereading an urban fantasy that I remember fondly from a few years ago which now is a series with 4 books......I need to read the rest and couldn’t really remember the first. Libriomancer https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12844699-libriomancer is a fun read for Sci Fi fans because he has the ability to reach into his book and extract objects......ummmm weapons. My list of classic and current Sci Fi to read is growing as I read this.

Enjoy! I suspect there is quite a bit of fiction thrown in to connect the facts. One thing mentioned in the excerpts I read regarding their large regular dinner parties while at St. Andrews I have confirmation on. 😂 Friends were attending at the same time and frequently spotted Kate and William buying huge amounts of groceries at Tesco(?). Their table sat like 14 and they filled it with friends frequently. I read that and was like that’s why they had overflowing carts all the time! 😂 From what I read Charles came off really poorly, same for the book?

That’s great! The church we are zooming with has actually lost it’s long term rental of a parish hall during Covid because it failed an inspection and the diocese is closing rather than repairing it. They have been allowed to meet with lots of restrictions on Sunday mornings in a local park. They seem to have picked up some potential members among the dog walkers who are listening from nearby benches......of course they can’t introduce themselves. But are making the online presence known!

I think situations like your zooming into your previous book club is one of the blessings of the past few months. Our whole family gathers weekly for a bible study with members from our first church in England.......which we left because of distance. On of the group is zooming in from Spain. It’s comforting to spend time with our old friends. Plus the minister is great!😉. I finished Witch Way to Murder which I mentioned above.......3 stars. There are more in the series, no rush to read. I also finished Mary Jo Putney’s Once Dishonored and loved it as it revisited a minor character that I have a soft spot for in a previous book of hers. Finally Fortuna https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43879093-fortuna. My opinion has wavered all over the place while reading this one......parts are a bit of an Expanse copycat. This doesn’t mean if you like the Expanse you will like Fortuna, more of some situations are really close. I am 20 minutes from the end and at this moment looking forward to the release of the second book.

Praying!

My kids now take charge of the group project by contacting their group early on with the intent of being the person that edits the project in the end. They volunteer upfront and have prepped the project well. They divide the project into different “jobs” where everybody in the group picks something......they do a section plus the editing. Normally this works fine but there is always at least one person who does not finish.......once the person ended up unavailable due to military service and sent Dd what they had finished before deploying. She was happy to finish what he started. They answer the surveys honestly but don’t complain generally......

Welcome to the group! You are welcome here no matter how many books you finish! The purpose of this thread is to share our enjoyment of books no matter how many we finish. @DreamergalExcerpts from Battle of Brothers were serialized in the Daily Mail a couple of weeks ago..........I suspect I have already read the best bits!😉.

Meatloaf is not on tonight’s menu. Hubby is not a fan of meatloaf which I understand because his mother’s was not good at all. My mil was known for giving us food poisoning........she cooked on Saturday for the entire next week. All day Saturday and every dish for the week sat on the counter cooling until all was done before she refrigerated things. Hubby whispering in my ear not to eat anything she made and to keep the kids away was part of every visit there....... Anyway I haven’t made it in years but my mom’s was pretty basic with both a bit of milk beaten with the eggs and some ketchup inside. No glaze. I like it with gravy. My husband has fond memories of MY mother’s cooking.😂 Books......I finally caught up on my China Bayles series by Susan Wittig Albert and am trying to get my 2020 bookchain completed before year end. So 20 books all interconnected by Titles and authors names. A Plain Vanilla Murder and Queen Anne’s Lace bring my total to 15 so I need to get moving! I enjoyed both........After moving to England I was surprised that Queen Anne’s Lace was a common weed there too as my horticultual landscape tended to be slightly different regarding many plants. The Queens Anne’s Lace book explained why........parts of the plant has contraceptive properties so women carried the seeds and spread the plant as they migrated in order to always have access. Fascinating historical tidbit. The book also had a ghost (unexpected) so I added it to my Spooky List while counting the ghost as my artist for Bingo!😂 The ghost owned her own lace business in post civil war Texas. I love bobbin lace........Dd used to take lessons and is quite good at it. I also learned there is a rare breed of black chicken that even has a black heart.........I love it when my cozy mysteries have interesting extras added in! My next book in the bookchain will be Witch Way to Murder which was already in my spooky stack.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229132.Witch_Way_to_Murder After that I have a couple words to play with. Susanna Clark’s Piranesi has joined the stack. I peeked, the first couple of pages are interesting.😉https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50202953-piranesi?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=owg23hpvrm&rank=2 Last week I listened to Christie’s Appointment with Death and have placed the books needed to complete this year’s 10 Christie’s in order personal challenge on hold. @Violet Crowninspired me to try to try finish some of the planned challenges and kick a couple to the side. So my reading will hopefully become a bit more intentional! I remembered Appointment with Death but enjoyed listening. Currently listening to a space opera called Fortuna https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43879093-fortuna. No idea how I will feel about the book at the end as I really dislike one of the main characters. As something to listen to while I sew it’s fine. I started listening because I saw a blurb about the soon to be released second in the series and was intrigued.

Congratulations to @Junie and @Lady Florida. on meeting this years reading goals! I happened to look up one of @Kareni’s Olivia Dade’s on my Overdrive and know the Lovestruck Liberians were part of their collection as I thought they looked interesting too. No idea about the dispute. I have the 40 Love book on hold by the same author.

@Pen I just finished a great dog book which you may or may not😉 have recommended to me. Kindle and goodreads have both recommended many times while I have been waiting for my hold! A Borrowing of Bones features a former female Marine and her inherited military sniffer dog. The characters are both damaged and trying to figure out how to go forward when they find an abandoned crying baby and a human femur bone on a wilderness walk......I can’t wait to continue the story! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37638044-a-borrowing-of-bones My fluffy spooky cozy theme has been going really well. I found two series so far that I fully expect to continue reading. The Ghost and Mrs. McClure https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156510.The_Ghost_and_Mrs_McClure was great as an audio book. Sort of a remake of my favorite movie ghost except in this one there is a Mickey Spillane type private detective haunting the bookshop where he died in the 40’s. My library has the series on audio so definitely finishing this series. @aggieamy may have recommended these to me as I had them marked to read. Pumpkins is Paradise https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31130648-pumpkins-in-paradise is a typical fluffy mystery filled with likable characters. Nothing special except I liked the whole package quite a bit and already have the next one checked out. It’s an audiobook so huge bonus points as I seem to be quilting quite a bit again.

Thank you for doing such a great comparison for me as I have often wondered about those “other” Anne Cleeland’s.......particularly this one after living near Sheffield for so many years. The really are a lot of really basic parallels......... On the historical romance front I finished my Mary Balogh and have the latest Mary Jo Putney ready to read. @DreamergalI have never tried one in Stephanie Lauren’s Cynster series. I have read a couple books by her in the past but never really loved them so maybe The Devil’s Bride (first in the series) will be what add SL to my list of historical romance authors. I have a few really prolific ones that I tend to rotate between........it’s hard to run out of books when you are reading authors who have all written many titles!😂

I have a dent in my thigh that matches perfectly with the footboard on our bed which has given me multiple big nasty bruises over the years. The odd thing is when I am riding my bike a lot it disappears......so my muscle apparently fills it in. When I stop biking it reappears. I consider it a gentle reminder to exercise!

So......For the past few days I have been highly irritated because a spooky Halloween quilt kit I ordered is touring the US.........now it’s sitting at my local post office but no mail delivery today. I’m on a deadline! Days are ticking.........😂I decided thanks to all the happy Christmas vibes to get a Christmas project out and start cutting out Gnomes for a Christmas quilt for hubby. Everyone here is thinking Christmas now.....DS was happy to hear he is getting a reindeer quilt out of the gnome fabric leftovers. Nothing like themes...... I love Rebecca btw. But probably not perfect beach reading unless you are looking out over high cliffs with pounding waves. Fog.....lots of fog.

Yeah VC! Congratulations on finishing one of your 10’s!

Glad you were enjoying Dissolution! They are my favorite historical chunky books. 😂 I get the call of the familiar right now. You just read the prequel (I think) so you are now going in proper order. Always a good thing imo!😂. I am all about series in order in case you didn’t know. 😉 Last night I curled up with the latest in Susan Mallory’s Happily Inc. series and just enjoyed the characters. I love that little town that specializes in bespoke weddings and an animal park filled with giraffes! I felt sort of bad reading a Christmas themed book during Spooky Month but it was such a great escape. I finished that and moved on to another favorite comfort author Mary Balogh......😂So I am escaping to the land of Dukes and Duchesses with an occasisional Viscount thrown in.

Sending prayers for a speedy recovery for all!

41.......what a great rabbit trail. Just a bit of my search😂. What I have learned Nancy Drew’s and the whistling bagpipes sort of calls to me https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/631146.The_Clue_of_the_Whistling_Bagpipes?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=yw3jbKUgBz&rank=1. The problem is I don’t own it and my box of Nancy Drew’s is now difficult to get to. If I buy it I am going to need to put it in that box. So not now........ I am surprised (and disappointed)that Miss Silver only has 32 mysteries. Agatha is certainly a possibility but remembered my in order challenge. Nora Roberts......If I counted right the 41st romance that she wrote does not look better than number 41 in Diana Palmer’s Long, Tall, Texan series which my overdrive actually has........so True Blue wins! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12003997-true-blue?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=sD5bGOMvjT&rank=1 So......what I am actually reading I read the first in a new to me cozy series called In the Shadow of a Glacierhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51034816-in-the-shadow-of-the-glacier?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BBrVP4yQ5E&rank=3. It was set in British Columbia in a small town and I did enjoy it but didn’t love it. My library owns several more on Overdrive so I marked the next in the series and will probably read it eventually. I have been listening to Hidden by Benedict Jacka https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18599601-hidden?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=JUTqq6ocR2&rank=1. It’s the fifth in his series set in a magical London which I set aside while immersed in my Rivers of London(favorite series) reread last year. I am slowly remembering the characters and plan to keep reading until I finish the series.

I ran into this post https://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2012/01/cute-little-patchwork-bag.html?m=1. It’s old but at least one of the links still works.

I just finished a really fun cozy by Miranda James called Cat Me if You Can. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48709977-cat-me-if-you-can It’s part of a long interconnecting series so I am not saying @aggieamyor anyone else needs to read this one but it had a great setting. A group of series regulars plus some extras all went on holiday together to have a Gilded Age cozy mystery convention of sorts. They talked about greats like Patricia Wentworth, Christie, Peters.......so fun! Of course one of the members started murdering people...... A new to me series was mentioned by Elizabeth Peters that I have requested from my library. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66512.The_Murders_of_Richard_III A really appealing picture was painted of Allingham’s Albert Campian series https://www.goodreads.com/series/55933-albert-campion-mysteries so I may skip ahead and try again as I have failed at reading those. 😂

Your granddaughter is going to love this gift! I’ll keep an eye out for some easy patterns as I read my blogs and post them here.

My mom cooked the dried beef and thickened milk separately and poured it over toast! I love that meal......only my son will eat it with me.