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Tess Gerritson is an author I really enjoy normally. The Rizzoli series is one I have read for years. I did end up returning her latest stand alone to the library unread ( I really should have read the description before requesting it) because the daughter killing mother storyline was more than I could handle. Welcome to Night Vale sounds intriguing. Since both you and Kareni like it I will investigate. We actually did hire a Paleontology student for science when the dc's were younger. They had some great beach days cracking rocks open for ammonites and bellamites with a really enthusiastic teacher. We all enjoyed our lessons and still go fossel hunting and sometimes show them to the student, when he visits home as he now travels the world as a grown up paleontologist. We never have made it to Jane's park but did know about it. The student had detailed photos of him with each dino in the park..... :lol: Jane, We totally agree about Tara and Emma. Dd and I are watching and deleting Tara from the DVR. We need the space so badly only one of us has to watch for an episode to be deleted. Regarding our DVR issues the BBC has a new series called Dickensianhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35174153which dd (who read most of Dicken's books when 12 and is a huge fan) is loving. I am watching. Also recording the new War and Peace and Beowulf. Beowulf (ITV) is supposed to be family-friendly in the sense that Dr. Who is. The first episode wasn't bad but not great either. I loved the settings. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=beowulf+itv&view=detail&mid=0D5420CAC4E9B9546D100D5420CAC4E9B9546D10&FORM=VIRE4My imagination never filled things in that well. :lol: Anyway ds wants it on the dvr so space is needed.

I just discovered that I double posted so will post my current books in progress. Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody.....village cozy set Post WWI. This book features a young war widow (her husband is listed as missing, technically) as the sleuth. I always feel very melancholy reading the post WWI settings, so many young men dead. Set in Yorkshire. So far I am enjoying her first case. Our village library is featuring this author in about a month....I had to steal(I did confess to the person doing the display) my copy from the back room. Also reading Simon Brett's The Body on the Beach.....village cozy. Love the descriptions of life in the village. Accurate but really funny imo. Please note I find them humorous because I had to figure out similar proper behaviour. Thanks Jane for the village cozy idea. I am enjoying finding some new series. eta: First I double post and don't know it, then I edit the first dp instead of the second. Sorry!!!!

Eliana :grouphug: I just want you to know that you are an inspiration to me. While I understand the desire to do more in the world, you already make our world a much better place. I keep reading the thread when I have had a couple of free minutes but have spent most of my day watching Avengers (sixth season since Jane will want to know) and turning my quilt top into one big rectangle. All my planning seems to have worked thus far and I am really relieved. I did finish Lisa Kleypas' latest Cold-Hearted Rake. It was a well done historical romance. Nothing particularly unique about this book but I do really like the characters who are going to be the main characters in the second book in the series. Looking forward to that one.

I have managed to send you a friend request, I think. There are probably many of me......it kept locking me out after I had signed up (even worse after someone else had signed me up) or hooking up with my old account because fires remember....all amazon. Dh finally got it working for me, I hope. I currently have 3 books read, 1 current, and have some WTM friends. This has been way harder than it should have been.

I just started a new Goodreads account to use to link with this group. I am using mumtotwo (note the two at end) for my name there. No idea how to link but I am trying to friend people so if you get a request it is me. You are welcome to send me a friend request if you don't hear from me....this seems to be technically challenging for me. My whole family has been helping...:lol: Eta. I decided to do a separate account where I just record my books read and booklist from this group.

Margery Allingham and The Black Dudley Murder are already in my stack. Looking forward to comparing.

Jenn, I messed up the multiquote and lost yours. I had to laugh at you and Murder in Trall. I studied your stack photo and that was the book that I was planning to go searching for....just haven't had the chance. No need now. :lol: I like vampires but not Twilight. Good title ....... Another library fan here. I belong to several. I have several bags for returns and renew every Sunday for the next week...everyone's card. I am not above calling and asking for an extension if a book is due and I can't physically return it for a couple of days. Like Kathy I use my kindles for a great deal of my reading. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that with Kindle/Overdrive books you don't ever get fined or go overdue. If you have you wifi on your book returns automatically....sometimes I turn my wifi off in order to finish a book. Very motivating. One word of warning your Overdrive account can't be used if you have overdue physical books on that card. I learned that the hard way and lost a book that I had been waiting for. I finished the books I had in progress at year end. Manner's and Mutiny (Finishing School series) by Gail Carriger. This was probably my favourite out of the whole series. I was a bit blah about the third one and almost let it go back to overdrive when dd finished. She said I needed to read it. :lol: Gail Carriger is a favourite author of mine. Her Parasol Protectorate is a great Steampunk series and the Finishing School series is a spinoff of that for YA. To Catch a Rabbit by Helen Cadbury was the winner of a Northern (England) Crime award for new authors a couple of years ago. I ran into it when looking for village cozy books. Well it definitely isn't cozy or set in a village. It was well done. The main character was community outreach officer for a midsize city, who while on patrol is shown the dead body of a prostitute by a young boy. This led him through a series of crimes that were far out of his area of expertise. Not a warm fuzzy mystery but the locations are really accurate. The Keeper of Secrets by Judith Cutler. This is the first in her historical series surrounding a second son of a Duke who becomes a Vicar in the mid 19th century. Set in a small village in Warwickshire. The Vicar and the local Doctor solve a mystery involving the death of a servant at the local estate. I have the rest of these in my stack and am looking forward to them.

I read Things Fall Apart a couple of years ago as a pre read for dd. We both enjoyed it overall. I learned a great deal from a whole new perspective. Some things I found a bit disheartening from the missionary perspective but I needed to learn them, I think. My dd also does the challenge. She doesn't always post but plans to try to update here a few times this year.

I have to agree that I feel like the new year needs a Murakami book. I hope you don't mind but I just checked out Sputnik Sweetheart to try. I had been thinking I would read Norwegian Woods but typical Murakami sounds perfect. I have no idea how Rabbit, Rabbit works for New Year but back in college one of my roommates loved doing Rabbit, Rabbit. We would all sit around in our PJ's waiting for the digital clock to turn to 11:11. The first one to say Rabbit, Rabbit would have good luck.

I am planning to do a bit of armchair travel with Robin this year but my travel may end up being a bit fluffier than Robin's. A couple of years ago I used Map Makerto keep track of my countries visitedhttp://bighugelabs.com/map.php. It was fun to be able to see my places visited. If there is something better please post....I would love to be able to break down to states etc. I found and checked out a decidedly fluffy book to start our Indian Ocean travel mainly because I struck out with Robin's authors at my libraries. Marry Me, Stranger looks like something light and set in India so I will give it a try. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23564499-marry-me-stranger

Welcome to all our new BaWer's. Glad to see so many new and old friends returning. I read 11/22/63 a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I haven't read any of Stephen King's books since I was a teen and had to quit because one really scared me. I love the time travel genre as a whole.....movies, books, tv shows all attract me, and this was a good one. ;) Glad you liked it. Busy day here. We met friend's for a New Years walk and ended up making a wrong turn and added several miles on. Gorgeous day so no problem other than we came home ate a really big lunch and slept the late afternoon away after taking an Alieve for my poor knees, a long walk after the tower climb was too much. I am still reading the same three books that were supposed to finish up 2015. Hopefully will finish something soon.

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I like Poet Laureate also....... Just wanted to quickly wish everyone a Happy New Year! We have rung the New Year in literally and are home from the tower with a glass of Buck's Fizz. Basically a mimosa so bubbly. Getting ready for bed.

I have been using my bookshelves on Goodreads to record rereads....as long as not twice in the same year it works. Most of my rereads have been books I read a long time ago and go on my read (automatically), my 2015(currently), and my reread shelf. I have only read a couple of books twice since joining Goodreads and our group. Those I simply add to the current year's shelf and the reread. I don't think they count towards my main Goodreads challenge, where Goodreads tracks me.

I have been counting them but I have never done a reread in the same calendar year since I have been recording on Goodreads. Normally I only reread something that I have read recently if a new book comes out in the series and I feel a reread is in order for details....which means I have read the first Harry Potter many times. Just checked the first one out. ;) I have never read this author. Thanks

New Balance is what I wear also. I have tried a few other brands but always go back. We walk quite a bit. I actually keep my old ones in the garage to wear on muddy days.

I feel sort of obligated to weigh in on Robin Hood. First off I really do live in Sherwood Forest and actually live really close to one of King John's hunting lodges. So the legend of Robin Hood is pretty strong around here. When we first moved here locals were occasionally tell the kids they were related to RH. ;) I suspect most really are...... I just wanted to give you a couple of links to explore when you read Robin Hood. This wesite is one of my favouriteshttp://www.robinhoodlegend.com/ and this one just has lots on our myths in general http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams with I think you might find helpful for your overall project. Remember (my opinion but pretty common one here) RH is a myth but he was really many men. The poachers who kept the villagers alive because of lack of land due to the huge hunting grounds. Villages existed where hunting grounds adjoined. Not much space for common people. Every group had their own poacher. There is a descriptive word for poacher or similar term (maybe VC can help here because google is failing me) in Middle English (maybe Saxon)that when pronounced is awfully close to Robin Hood. Fwiw, my kids read Pyle. We did the Usbourne as a read along when young. Later Pyle individually.

We are still fine with surprisingly good weather (sunny today and tomorrow) but we live close enough to the Peneinnes to be concerned. The ground is saturated but could be worse. Much of the flooding in our basic area is due to run off not rainfall. People are keeping an eye on our local mill pond and are ready to open the flood gate if it starts going over the banks. Right now the pond is level wth the parking lot. We are visiting friends tomorrow who actually live pretty close to one of the area's with flooding and need to cross the Peneinnes to get there. Going via motorway not the scenic route. Tomorrow I may have horror stories. We are taking our wellies..... In book news I finished Bound by Night by Amanda Ashley. I loved parts of this book. The classic beautiful young woman escaping her horrible uncle and runnng away to hide in the local haunted castle where she finds a handsome man (who is really rich very old vampire) who loves her. The basic story was what I wanted but the details were irritating. Things like he had electric and bathrooms installed in his centuries old castle in two weeks for her. Seriously. Old houses made of stone take a really long time to modernize...thats with electric and plumbing already there. The unneeded weird details drove me nuts.

Please share what you are reading this week as well as your reading lists and tell us about your reading year: How many books did you read this year and did you meet or beat your own personal goal? I seem to have ended up at 300 with a couple more that will likely be finished in 2015. I show 18 of those as being called novellas, so shorter. My goal was 200 but my fluffier content this year seems to have swelled my number. My goal last year was less reading and more crafts and telly. I think I achieved it overall considering my inability to concentrate on anything lately. Share your top 5 (or more) favorite books. I always list books and series here. Because I love series..... Books 1)The Rook....looking forward to the next in this series. 2) Ready Player One 3) Remarkable Creatures 4) Carrying Albert Home 5) Kafka on the Shore....enjoyed more because it was a group read than for the content. Loved everyone's Murikami reactions. Series 1)All Judith Cutler series...I still have books to finish but she became a beloved author of mine last year. 2)Anne Bishop....Series called The Others. soooo good 3)Jude Devereaux....The Edilean series 4)Jim C Hines....Libromancer series 5) Lauren Willig....Pink Carnation series. Still reading slowly because I don't want to finish it. ;) Which books or authors you thought you'd never read and were pleasantly surprised to like them? A carry over from prior years but the fact that I really enjoy Murakami still amazes me. One book that touched you - made you laugh, cry, sing or dance! I loved Carrying Albert Home. It merged parts of my life oddly. My childhood with a favorite elderly neighbour who told great stories about Florida in the 40's with my current life in a coal mining area. I loved it. Share your most favorite character, covers and/or quotes? Albert the Alligator. :lol: One book you thought you'd love but didn't? My goal this year was to stop reading if I disliked a book. I have stopped reading many books this year. That said I stuck with Patricia Cornwell's latest because I am not ready to quit the series yet. It would have been really easy to stop reading. What countries or centuries did you explore? I spent lots and lots of time in Regency England. What books would you recommend everybody read? I didn't really read anything that profound. What was your favorite part of the challenge? Reading what everyone is reading and their opinions. I am so grateful to have all of you in my life! eta. I hope this makes things clearer.

Vera books are perfect for charity shop browsing with a purpose. Popular author and popular series. If they ask if you are looking for something specific ask..... shops have large storage areas frequently.

I have spent a few hours today copying my Good reads list into my book journal. I started a fresh one at the beginning of the year but never quite left the old one with it's lists behind . Somehow I never recorded beyond the first few books. This means I will have no country list or challenges completed to report. I have had a chance to reflect on what I read and will put my answers together and post tomorrow. Goodreads has a summary of your reading year on your "my books" section. I was really enjoying it until I discovered that not all of my 5* books (contender's for the favourites list) have a big cover. I do have to admit my big covers are a combination of longtime favourite authors like Sue Grafton and CS Harris with some new authors like Lauren Willing mixed in.

We did this book and loved it. My bodyhttps://www.teachercreated.com/products/my-body-0211with all the cut outs. I think we still have the bodies somewhere. The dc's loved pulling them out from under the couch and showing people. I also had some library books but the parts glued into an outline of them was the huge hit!

I am not sure that liking your post is appropriate. I hope the doctors find a solution to your mom's problems soon. Shawn, I think most of the ukulele groups here are mainly OAP's too. Two of our older bell ringers also play with the group and think Ds should join.... not going to happen! :lol: Jenn, It took me awhile to figure out what a BB-8 was. We really need to go see the Star Wars movie. The dc's have almost finished watching the old ones (I gave up). Now that I have googled I would imagine your dog (beautiful btw) has many hours of entertainment ahead. Looks cute!

I can't seem to link but he teaches his couse/book on Coursera.