Unfortunately I can't find this series anywhere. My next St. Mary's books appear to be waiting for me. Hopefully I will have a chance to pick them up later this week. I actually have some of my best childhood memories centered around playing in mangroves. I have a scar on my knee to prove it from slipping and landing on an oyster shell. My father injured his back when I was little and we spent winters on a small fishing island in South Florida while my older brother looked after the family business in the North. Not a single alligator or bat among those memories. Lots of mosquitos and snakes. The mangroves are pretty much gone now replaced by houses :( . I haven't gone back in over 30 years, too sad. The palmento bugs were huge and we had black fiddler crabs on our sea wall. My brother thought the black crabs were black widows when he came to visit. :lol: I still remember him yelling at my mom for letting me play on our dock.....too funny. Nan, I agree with your husband about attracting bats. Not worth it! I feel really bad for your sister. We had to sit in the choir stall at the church with bats recently because the kids were playing handbells and the clean (covered) seats were already taken. They were sort of clean but not really, an effort had definitely been made but I still had to wash everything including jackets. Yuk! I just felt lucky the service started after the bats had left for the night!

Pam, I meant to thank you for all the hilarious bat stories. I think I like your dh's bat fighting costume the best! I may not like bats but I do appreciate the insect eating abilities. After living in dorms with bats during college I will never be comfortable with them. I have also seen what an awful mess they make when they move into a historic building and cannot legally be removed. We partner with a church that has bats. Pews must be covered, really everything covered which isn't feasible. Never ending battle in a building remarkably similar to ours, style and age. Everytime my name comes up on the cleaning rota I am very grateful for no bats! Just dusting my half of the pews takes a really long time.....

I read Tessa Bailey's Need Me this afternoon. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22836655-need-me. It is the second in her Broke and Beautiful trilogy, which probably could be read out of order. The basic storyline was good but the book had pages and pages of adult content, way more than the first one. I think a bit more story might have been nice! I do plan to go ahead and read the last one but this one just seemed a bit lacking after the first one.

I just want to point out that not everyone goes grey. My mom is in her 90's and until a couple of weeks ago still had hair that was more brown than grey naturally.....she has had chemo treatments and has lost her hair. No idea what color the new hair will be. That being said I think it's fine to dye your hair if you want to but it definitely looks better if the colour becomes less intense as you age. My mother's definately did naturally but you would have classed her as having brown hair until recently. An older friend who I always admired for her style turned white in her 30's but continued dying it her natural dark brown until she was in her 50's then did a 10year plus transition through the browns to white.

Not sure if Robin managed to read the Wolf Gift by Anne Rice or not. I am wondering what you thought of it. Overall I liked it. One of my favourite parts was the history of the morphinkind......werewolves. This was something I really enjoyed in her vampire series, this wasn't as fascinating but still an interesting where werewolves originated story. This story felt incomplete which is my big complaint. Everything finally was put in place to tell a good story and the book was over. Since it didn't really end so on to the next one at some point. I think there may be a third one in the works...... I also read Sue Grafton's B is for Burglar which was great. I think I may have vaguely remembered this one because I had the mystery part figured out really early....not sure all the clues were even there. ;) Definitely a great comfort read......She flew from her little California town to Miami last minute for $99 on ghd red eye. Love it when she mentions the prices.

Nothing will change my mind about bats! When they are out I go in. Easy.....

My birthday box has arrived from my best friend and nestled among an assortment of fun coffe mugs with an avian theme (her mom, my other mother, used to send me china with parrots on it for my bday each year) was a book which Jenn may want to read. Neil Macgregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects. The 100 objects can all be found at the British Museum http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/british-museum-objects/. Dd and I started looking our way around at these objects a couple of years ago but never finished. A paperback copy of the book should make things easier. Planning to start reading about an object a day with plans to spend a day or to at the museum next spring. My spooky rereads have not been going particularly well. I think I should just start reading the current books and give up filling in the holes made by having missed a couple in some series. I did start Robin's suggestion of The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice this morning and so far really like it. I currently have high hopes for this new to me series even though I have read Anne Rice in the past.

Eliana :grouphug: Your granddaughter is beautiful. I am so glad your dd's family is with you right now. Your older granddaughter is so lucky to have so many caregivers that love her living in the same house with her.

I finished an interesting book this morning. Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl alive is another book that has been compared to Gone Girl. After quitting The Girl on the Train I almost took myself off the list for this book. I can't say it was great but it was a book that kept me reading. This is the goodreads linkhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24688276-luckiest-girl-aliveand this is a different onehttp://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2015/07/16/jessica-knoll-luckiest-girl-alive-review/29974279/. Apparently it has been optioned to be made into a movie but it wil be a painful one for many to watch I think. I wouldn't choose to go see it knowing what some of the scenes will be.........I want to give spoilers, really badly, but the thing that makes the book and story reasonably good is all caught up in the big spoiler. Definitely has triggers ........ bullying, r@pe, school violence among them. I liked the ending.

It is also a pretty good movie.....Argo. dh watches it and says it is accurate, at least to the situation/ not the book. Lol

Doesn't sound familiar to me either. Have you looked at the paranormal lists over on Goodreads? Butter :grouphug: I think you deserve to read some fluffy books.....

Originally I had planned to keep my maiden name professionally but did not realize that I needed to make an announcement to that effect at work before my wedding. When I returned from my honeymoon a helpful coworker had changed my name on everything including the new phone directory which had conveniently been published that week (good for 6 months or so). They thought they were giving me a gift so I didn't make a fuss because I was already planning to use dh's name away from my work. I really haven't regretted my name change. My maiden name is ethnic, but common enough so most people think they can spell it.....my family spell it differently so I always had to spell it. My brother was almost sent home from basic training because his records were lost (he wanted to come home so wasn't telling them the problem :lol: ) I never would have made my kids have to deal with that name hyphenated. Dh's last name is easy which I really enjoy.

I had a hold on overdrive become available yesterday for my next Edilean book by Jude Deveraux. I have been reading the series every since. Yes, that means I have checked out another one, twice! I really love these books, they are fluffy but have just the right mixture of a bit of everything (history, romance, and intrigue). There is a continuing storyline but a couple could be missedhttps://www.goodreads.com/series/46173-edilean. BTW, I love Hitchcock. I had no idea how many of the moves came from books.

:grouphug:

I give.....finally put a hold on BNW. Even Jane is reading it! :lol: I read SF last year so I understood that part of the conversation. Reread 1984 the year before. So now BNW. I read it in 1978 so it has been quite awhile. ;)

:grouphug: Just in case you can move things forward....I haven't had a hysterectomy but for my back surgery I was able to have an epidural instead of being intubated because I had a cold but desperately wanted my surgery over, this was in the US. It worked really well that time, for delivery purposes something always went wrong.

Sorry I copied then couldn't get it to edit down. Pretend I just have the bit about prescription drugs....... Since we have been sharing funny things our dc's have done I thought I would comment on Prescription drug advertising which does not happen in the UK much. When we were in the process of moving here I let the dc's (ages 7 and 9) watch Family Feud and The Price is Right way more than I should have, telling them not to watch commercials. This was in the US. After we settled here and had a social life someone was discussing a medical problem, allergies I think...not viagra. My kids popped up with the pros and cons of several prescription allergy meds, could spell the proper name, and deliver the potential side effects pretty much verbatim from the commercials. No one knew what they were copying, utter shock. I think the bystanders thought I was teaching them that for some unknown reason, others were fascinated by their apparent vast knowledge. I don't think they knew much more than the average TV watcher in the US. There I stood, kids had oviously watched way too much telly and listened to all the commercials closely. :lol: We have very few commercial breaks, only three breaks an hour on commercial tv. The BBC doesn't break until the show or movie is over. Drug commercials are rare. Totally not book related but here is a link to the dc's favorite British game show from the same age, since Angel and her dd are sick. Pointless on youtube. They also loved University http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=university+challenge+youtube&FORM=VIRE2#view=detail&mid=461D7640F2DFF86D5F2F461D7640F2DFF86D5F2F and Mastermind. I haven't prewatched the episodes so have no idea content wise for linked episodes but most are fine.

:grouphug: Angel, I hope you both start feeling better soon. I have been busy reading the first book in a new to me Judith Cutler series. Thus far Drawing the Line (Lena Townend series) is great. The main character is a young woman who grew up an orphan and now works in the antique field.....small shops and antique fairs not Sothoby's. One day she stumbles accross a couple of pages from a very famous rare book and recognizes them from childhood. She knows her mother is dead but wonders if these pages can connect her with her father...... once again set in Kent but some scenes are in Harrogate (Yorkshire) and Oxfordshire.

I just picked Ashenden up at the library this morning. To be honest I had forgotten why I had requested it. Now I am looking forward to it again. Today I read a cozy simply because of it's title. Parrot's Prove Deadly by Clea Simon was the third in the series. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15811852-parrots-prove-deadly. I did fine starting with the third and enjoyed the talking bird humour......I had a parrot of my own for a number of years. The book was about an amateur sleth who works as a pet behaviourist who has a secret edge, she is telepathic with some animals including her cat(not the parrot). It was pretty good overall, a bit hard in places for me personally right now because it centered around a nursing home and problems with the elderly. The bird's use of bad language made me chuckle...they really do learn from hearing something once if it is dramatic enough.

We haven't used the course but at some point I ended up on their email list. I get a few emails a week from them asking for money so I can guess af the self promotion levels you are experiencing. The main content should be good so if it's part of an online class he might as well continue. I used to enjoy their Newsletter..https://imprimisarchives.hillsdale.edu/. I haven't looked at it in quite awhile but the archives should contain some good articles. I found this at Annenburg which I think we will use. http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/a-guide-to-the-united-states-constitution. They also have some video series but thet appear to be linked to the Articles etc. Not doing the AP just need to do government.

Angel, Dd and I think Agatha wrote Death in the Clouds after she had her experience with The Doctor! ;) I just ran into The Monstrumologist when going through the new books sections on my overdrive. The description sounded good for dd (it is considered YA) until I realized it was your book from this morning. I don't think she would be good with that much "arterial spray"!

I just went on Goodreads to put Another Shore on my want to read list and discovered that it is number nine on their Children's Timeslip Listhttps://www.goodreads.com/list/show/72120.Timeslip_in_Children_s_Fiction#724935. The shelving of books can have some really blurred edges in libraries. Unfortunatly none of my libraries has it or any of the other Nancy Bond books.

That's why Dd loves Death in the clouds!

Rose, Dd is out right now so I will ask her for ideas when she gets in. Her favourite Christie series was Tommy and Tuppence when she started reading Christie. She also really liked The Inspector Battle ones starting withhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16361.The_Secret_of_Chimneys?ac=1. Why didn't they ask Evans is a really good one. I tried to read ahead of her and the only one I remember not letting her read at 12/13 was one of the Egyptian ones and can't remember why. Her favourite Poirot was Death in the Clouds. Flavia fans here too. Agree with the second not being quite as good. Heather :grouphug: Glad you went to the Dr.

The phone messages all over the place boggled my mind today while reading A. She has an answering service. Her cheap hotel in LA was $11. I am also glad she has kept them in the 80's but it seems odd to read them and feel nostalgic. X was good. ;) I thought a couple were not quite up to the normal standards, around S I think. So was happy to read a really good one. I think you should probably wait for Christmas. Just think how happy your son will be if you read his gift on Christmas Day because you can't resist! :lol: I read Hillerman back in my 20's also. I can't remember much about the characters at all but have considered the new ones also. I stopped reading that series somewhere along the way. I think I just didn't have time with dc's. I have a feeling a complete reread would be required for me to enjoy the new ones.....maybe I will get dd to try those next. :lol: ETA: I just checked my overdrive and they do have several Hillerman's including the first one. Maybe I will try....but not during Spooky month!