I recently read a wonderful book called Carrying Albert Home https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24585366-carrying-albert-home which is about an incredible journey the author's parents took in order to set a pet alligator free. It is titled mostly true...in the Carolina's they encountered Steinbeck on his journey during a mill strike.... I am also a fan of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil so will look for Swan. A friend had to order her dd's costume used from Australia. Crazy expensive. Her dd is super tiny, 4' 11", so not much choice in the colour she needed. It was still cheaper than new. :grouphug: One of my good friend's needs to be gluten free post chemo. Fortunately she isn't as sensitive as most but we still try to be careful with her food. I am pretty sure she has touched bread products while we are eating together, handing things to others.......Btw, glad you enjoyed the romance novel!

Great but accurate typo.....on Saturday my connecting flight landed 20 minutes after my flight back to the family started boarding. It really was a fight to switch terminals and board that plane. I was the second to the last on board. The last was also on my flight in......I managed to move faster than a 30 year old in heels. Tennis shoes are good for something!

Can't wait to hear about your trip! I still can't believe you came to visit and I wasn't there. Safe fight home, I am sure you have a good book to enjoy.

Stacia, I thought of your dd and her Irish dance earlier today while dh and ds were buying silly cheap St. Patty souvenirs to take back to the UK. Happy to be back with dh and the dc's. I will post my books tomorrow.

My dd loved huge jigsaws from an early age, she is actually watching telly and working on one right now at 17! I spent a lot of time when the kids were younger going to garage sales/charity shops and picking up inexpensive puzzles and other learning activities. For math dd had a huge preference for colourful. So we used Abeka as opposed to Saxon etc. She loved Singapore Math which at the time had a colour text through 6b, not sure what the new books look like. Regarding an earlier post speculating on what early jigsaw ability might translate into academically, I had to chuckle because mathematical, gifted at foreign language, and artistic are words that most people would use to describe my daughter.

My husband found his copy of that movie recently......could not understand why I wasn't enthusiastic. Lol. I did a reread of Heart of Darkness last year, still disliked it although it was better than my high school memories. I also read Things Fall Apart which I loved.

My quote order is wron but I was going to say it was for sale to read. Butter found it first! Hope you feel better soon. Thanks, I just checked the Bali one out. Make sure to review it here. Also let me know how your kids like it! Still at my mom's. Reading Grave Witch by Kaylayna Price. That is the series we all searched for....for Mel. Really good for the paranormal fans among us. :)

Sending hugs.... You have done this analysis before...I always think of you when I abandon a book! Sending hugs to you also. My brother has been having a mass on one of his kidneys monitored for several years now. No change. Sending good thoughts and prayers. Currently reading and enjoying Brotherhood in Death. BTW my likes aren't working all the time but I am attempting to keep up. Everyone seems s liked! Happy Birthday to Kim!

So little time for so many comments I wish I could make.... I am at a real coffee shop waiting for a pizza. My mom ate almost half a frozen pizza last night so I decided to feed her what she likes in the evening. ;) I have already done soups and roasts.....she is up and going better with her walker. I finished The Royal We. It was highly readable but I felt sort of bad for Will and Kate. It was thinly disguised made up about them and if I was Kate or Harry I would be soooo mad. I also finished Forever and the Night. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/641637.Forever_and_the_NightIt was the first real paranormal romance and it was fascinating to realize how otherauthors have taken things from that book.

Congratulations!

Robin, Death in Kashmir was very good. Now that I am done I would say more of a Mary Stewart feel. Good story/mystery in a well described exotic local with a bit of very proper romance. Perfect for the young teen girl. Looking forward to more in the series but not sure if the main character continues. From the one I glanced at I think they are stand alones.

Welcome Abigail Therese! What a beautiful name. :grouphug: to Angela and her family during the coming months. I finished 90 minutes in Heaven last night. It is one of my bf's favourites and I have had her copy for years......dusty, recommended by friend, number in title wins! My feelings about this book vary widely. The spiritual message was good but much of it was about his recovery and bounced all over the place. As a quick summary, leaving religion out as much as possible..... He was in a horrible car accident and was declared dead on the scene. A minister friend arrived on the scene (former Vietnam medic) and crawled into his wrecked car to pray for him. After quite awhile the man returned to life. But then came the recovery which I puzzled over. His wife approved an experimental treatment in order to attempt to save his leg from amputation. The procedure was painful and required being relatively immobile for a year but would save his leg if it worked. The recovery portion jumped all over the place timewise which I found a bit difficult to follow. As I read I had a real problem with his negativity during that time because I was in the hospital, confined to a bed for over 100 days while pregnant. It was scary, but I was grateful and tried my hardest to be pleasant to everyone because they were helping me save my baby. This man was a dreadful patient and I read and cringed for about 80 pages. A friend did eventually explain to him that he needed to be more appreciative of his friends who were trying to help him, and he was. I suspect I missed something important in the later pages of this book because of my experience. I also want to apologise to my goodreads friends because I just put a stack of books on my currently reading list. I am getting ready to go to my mom's and will only have short periods of time on the internet. In order to hopefully get the bulk of my books recorded I put everything on my kindle in currently reading so I can quickly switch to read. I lost my paper list one year....

Dd has a puzzle board for 1000 piece puzzles which she loves. Our neighbours have a wide assortment of puzzle boxes which are great (dd borrows theirs). Neighbours are serious about jigsaws and have a room filled with them and like the boxes best for actual works in progress because they can easily remove their puzzles from the path of visitors.

Robin, Last December we had a conversation regarding planning for reading about India. I mentioned hunting for a Shukriyya recommendation that sounded wonderful but I couldn't remember beyond it had a pretty cover. Unlike many of you I am highly visual, my mom used to take me with her to used book shops to show her which Harlequins she had already read, I sorted by cover art. I have continued my search and am relatively confident the author is M.M. Kaye. I think the book is The Far Pavilions but Shadow of the Moon is a close second. In honour of my search I am currently reading the first in her mystery series titled Death in Kashmir. Good so far and very different setting. I never associate skiing with India. Thus far (20%) the book has a bit of a Christie feel....may turn in to a locked room. Isolated ski chalet where murder is going to happy really soon. ;) https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1040250.M_M_Kaye

I have also finished a couple of books recently. I enjoyed A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33456.A_Dirty_Job. This was a book that I suspect I read at the wrong moment in time but still enjoyed overall (I had been waiting a really long time so went ahead). The book is about a young father, owner of a secndhand shop, who has a very odd second job in the overall world, collecting soul vessels from the dying and reselling them in his shop. Parts are hilarious but other parts depressing. I won't be continuing the series any time soon but the dc's and I now have a new "kitty" joke, for those who have read the book. I also read and loved Mary Jo Putney's latest Not Always a Saint. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22750006-not-always-a-saint. It was a good addition toher Lost Lords series which I highly recommend to anyone considering reading a historical romance this week.

Thanks for the review of the BBC War and Peace. I have it recorded and waiting for me when I get home. Like you I might try a read along. Yesterday I spent my free time paging through a really good quilting book for English Paper piecing. All Points Patchwork, which was at a library, had everything plus that I have spent the past few months figuring out for my quilt. This books tells and shows how to do pretty much everything regarding EPP (my hexagons) and has ideas for small projects just in case anyone wants to give it a try. I will probably be buying a copy of this one.http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-points-patchwork-diane-gilleland/1120955649

Thanks for the great romance links Kareni. There are a few I haven't read mentioned! My Valentine's reads are a couple of old favourites both by Linda Lael Miller. I am rereading her time travel books Knights and Pirates. Also planning to read her Vampire series (available on Prime) starting with Forever and the Night.

How wonderful! I am thrilled Ford both of you. :)

I would look at the colleges your Ds is planning on applying to and see what they require. A quick email to an admission person to clarify things can be helpful also. I know that several selective engineering programs require one of the Math Subject exams. A good score is not quite as easy as it sounds because the exams require speed and accuracy. If you end up needing to take one I highly recommend using one of the review books. We used Barron's and were pleased.

Welcome! Just wanted to wish you well. We are in the UK.

Very quickly, My ds has always preferred one subject at a time. I tried and struggled to make him have a balanced schedule for years and was never successful. Finally I just gave in for the past year he has been assigned one subject at a time with an exam at the end. Most sure and varied year ever. If I had a do over button I would probably try to do something similar, maybe a subject a week. Math daily would be the exception. I think he would have loved it and dd would have tolerated it.

Rose, Before I forget regarding books for Shannon. By Christie, 4:50 from Paddington (Marple) is a favorite. We also enjoyed the Superintendent Battle series starting with The Secret in the Chimneys. I can't remember if you have a kindle or not but Anna Katherine Green books are free on the kindle. Her Mr. Gryce series, starting with The Leavenworth Case is great. Dd loved them. Mrs. Green was supposedly Christies inspiration for Miss Marple. Eliana, your description of our group is lovely. Yes, Willig's Blood Lily had many interesting cultural observations. I personally found her descriptions of the Captain's feelings of being British but having a true connection with India rather poignant. Connecting to a place he doesn't really belong. Our annual trip accross the ocean always makes me rather emotional about this. The culture is so foreign to my children. It's hard to believe they ever lived here. Really glad they are British because it is where they feel the connection.

Praying

I am sitting in a library while the dc's are online..... One of the books I just downloaded is Forever and a Night by Linda Lael Miller which was the first paranormal romance I remember ever reading. Actually my first paranormal book ever. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/641637.Forever_and_the_Night?ac=1&from_search=1. The series is available on prime right now and I think on kindle unlimited. I was looking at the Goodreads reviews and it appears to have been many peoples first paranormal romance. Anybody else read this one?

This is simply an fyi post. ;) Dd did the French SAT without listening because the timing was right. It went well so we took her for a Clep which is always listening. The scores were similar, Sat out of 800 and Clep is out of 80 so easy to compare. The Clep gave her 12 credit hours. She did the same with German. Once again almost identical scores. Credit hours :)