Stacia, My ds recently read When Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and I think really liked it. He somehow found it on his own and had to read it, suspect it was mentioned in his programming class. I just tried to get him to discuss it...me: Would you recommend it. ds: Well, I finished it. me: I guess that says it all. ds: nods wisely. From him finishing it is actually a recommendation! :lol: Has you ds read Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy? Ds begged to read that and loved it. Has it close to memorized.

I checked the Big Read choice out and was also disappointed. I read the first few pages and decided the it was OK but I had several books I was looking forward to in my virtual stack. The first Big Read was the first book in one of my favourite cozy series so I expected much better. The first book was A Pedigree to Die For https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48058.A_Pedigree_to_Die_For.

I knew the Tracy Chevalier month was one I wanted to participate in and couldn't remember why. I tried reading the Girl with the Unicorn last year with Shukriyya and couldn't seem to get invoved enough to go on. The Mary Anning book is one I have wanted to read for several years. My dc's used to be very enthusiastic about fossel hunting. Their tutor has since gone on to name his own species, talk about a child's dream come true! Not sure what he named it but he originally thought it was an archaeopteryx http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/dinosaurs-other-extinct-creatures/dino-directory/archaeopteryx.html. I can't remember why his is different, but very glad it was. No idea what he named his dino.

I have been busy trying to read Mary Balogh's Only a Promise which is the fifth (I think) in her Survivors series. I am enjoying it after waiting for it for several months. This is my favorite historical series, at least my favorite by this author. ;) Hopefully I will manage to stay awake and finish it. :) Jane, I haven't even managed to read my alternate history choices yet, so haven't even thought about HotMA beyond watching your progress. I have gathered my British history books(for lack of a better title) onto the bookshelves which is a start.

These look great! I was able to download the first five books in the Lost Lords series as a collection so plan to start there. I have three weeks to read the remaining four intermingled with my others. Stacia, Johannes Cabel the Detective has now appeared. But I have three weeks on that also so it will be later. Butter, I love the tshirt. I love how passages make the picture. Very cool. Also your picture is lovely.

I finally read Waistcoats and Weaponryhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21407176-waistcoats-weaponryby Gail Carriger. I had it when it first came out and dd read it but I never had a chance. I liked it better than the others in the Finishing School series perhaps because the character connections with the Soulless series were a bit more concrete. I believe there is a new book coming soon.....naturally we will be reading it. I also read Mary Jo Putney's Loving a Lost Lord. It was really really good! Thank you Kareni! :) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6066533-loving-a-lost-lord. Seriously this book was a great example of a historical romance done really well imo. I liked pretty much everything about it (the ending was a bit overblown but fitting)and am looking forward to the rest of the series.

Someone provided a link to Stop You're Killing Me http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/for their e newsletter when I first joined BaW and I thought some of our newer people might enjoy it. I like it for the What we are reading section but for cozy readers it generally has a handy new releases and new characters section too! I found an interesting one there today, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, which I have downloaded. My search for a couple of the others didn't end successfully. ;( Yesterday I finished a fluffy book by Vonnie Davis, The Highlander's Passion. This series has me a torn, I like the character mix .....bear, yes bear not wolf shapeshifters and some witches runnng a castle hotel in Scotland but the dialogue is aweful. Hard to read because of all the swearing in a Scottish accent, normally I just skim those bits but the accent means I have to read so I don't miss storyline. These books have adult content, once again Scottish accented so can't totally skim. I find this series humorous although I have no idea why I have read two of them.

I already had the numbers one from yesterday's list!

Jenn, Yesterday you started me on a search for Ann Cleeves and her Shetland Trilogy. Thought a I found the first one at my most inconvenient library which I was already going to today. Something went wrong and the book on the shelf wasn't Raven Black but the third one. So tonight I checked the local library just to cover all my bases and it is now there. Not just there but at my branch on the shelf according to the computer. Not sure what happened because it wasn't there last winter. I will stop by and pick it up soon...plan to be away during the open hours tomorrow.

The majority are packed away. The only times I have ever had to go hunting is when a friend who needs something, and then only if I am feeling nice and know which box. We have had to retrieve foriegn language books, math (NEM) for practice exams, and some grammar (Blue Book) once again for exam practice. A few books I thought "I" really wanted to read that we never got around to stayed out for awhile but I think those went in the last shelf purge. I am sure the odd really handy reference book should stay out (easy to follow history timeline or geography for example) but other than that it is probably fine to put it all away. imo.

Personally I would send her with a stack of 5 dollar bills for emergencies. She won't get change but I suspect she will get food.

Picking books for that age (12 going on 16) was really hard especially since my kids simply didn't have the life experiences I had at that age. Many of my friends at that age were very troubled, coupled with the fact that my best friend at the time had a psychiatrist for a dad. He felt that explaining things like teen suicide etc. to both of us, while being the parent chauffeur was appropriate. That probably had to do with the fact that he knew some of our friends professionally and couldn't say, but felt the need to explain. My junior and senior high years were filled with troubled friends that I was constantly trying rather unsuccessfully to rescue. My middle school BF (the daughter) ended up getting married while still in high school....my need to shelter my dc's stems from my experiences. Life as a homeschooler can be pretty sheltered and I am very grateful for that. It is my gift to the dc's... Now for books. Sometimes I just judge things as not ready for, especially if the greater friend pool was unlikely to bring the issue into their lives. The books get set aside for later and seem to return when needed. But for things they "need" to know more about (experience through books), we have a discussion before the book. I do spoilers. Especially for dd. I find the spoilers help her. Not necessarily exactly what happens but a broad this book deals with drug abuse.....sort of a pre lecture where what happens is mentioned as part of a broader discussion. I give the spoiler than she decides rather to read it or not. Her choice, almost always reads unless judges it boring. Ds frequently goes with boring.....so sometimes he gets the book, discussion after. lol Sorry, I rambled. Not sure if this helps at all but will post it. Normally I would just delete it now.

I love The Historian. I think it might start coming together if you get a chance to just sit and read for a couple of hours. Have you read Bram Stoker's Dracula recently? That makes it an interesting read also but not required. I read it alone the first time and loved it......contacted BF to tell her she needed to read it, oddly she had just finished it also. This wa before our Goodreads connection. Second time I combined it with Dracula. I will probably read it again...... Reading in the car.....have you tried reading on an original Kindle Reader? I love to read in the car and have normally been able to in the front seat. When we moved to England I started getting carsick when reading if we weren't on the motorway. For a couple of years I took knitting everywhere for the smaller roads. Then I discovered I can normally read my kindle on most roads. I still need the front seat but being able to read again is great. Fyi, the smaller roads here are designed with a bit more of a camber so the water runs off apparently. An engineer friend told me this is why I get carsick here more.

The Expendable Man made my 10 best list for 2013, I think. I loved this book. I have read some the author's other books and they are good, not as good as the Expendable Man. Jenn, I haven't read Ann Cleeve's Shetland Series because I can never get the first book, I have issues. Glad to know you enjoyed it out of order, maybe I will try.... Dd and I did go to a murder mystery tea which she wrote based on that series. Good fun but we both got it wrong! I have read at least one of her other mysteries and really enjoyed it. I needed to read one before the event or I feel like a fraud! :)

So did I and at some point I remember reading it. The fact I remember it means it was pretty good! :lol:

They had timing issues due to mistakes in the instructions. Some sections were thrown out of the grading. The June 6 exam was done result wise with fewer questions.

I read a YA novel called We Were Liars byhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/children_sbookreviews/10912234/We-Were-Liars-by-E.-Lockhart-review.htmlE. Lockhart. I would recommend it even though it was another book that I put on hold for dd that we waited for so long that it ended up on my kindle by accident....my library doesn't classify it as YA. All the reviews I glanced at when picking the one I ended up linking were enthusiastic. The book has layers beyond the obvious privileged family issues. The book kept me pretty much glued to it even after I realized it was YA. It had a surprise ending that I had no idea was coming. I will check it back out for dd when it becomes available again. ;)

Since I am in the UK I can't get into the US Cambridge site but it appeared similar to what we have in the UK. The US site has a number of activities that can be used th make doing the books independently much easier. A friend here is using the site and owns none of the books. There is a fee in the US for the website but the teacher's guide etc for Cambridge is pricey so might work out cost effective. Dd just went through the Cambridge books using the website as part of her study plan for the SAT 2. She found it helpful. We used a combo of Henle and Wheelocks for the majority of her Latin.

dd gets huge reactions from mosquito bites also. We normally try to carry benedryl cream with us on walks and get some on the bite quickly. While the cream doesn't reduce the swelling much (I don't know what size they would have been, but she still gets quite a big lump) it does make her more comfortable. Follow up with the pills later. It takes a couple of days for the swelling to go down and then she has a bruise for at least a week.

I had wondered where you were in Johannes Cabel. The one part I really disliked is coming up for you really soon. The book finds itself again after being a bit extreme imo so keep reading and you will end up liking it again. I actually went on the holds list for the next one. The Infatuations was interesting. I thought some of her theorizing went on a bit long but at the same time it was well done. I had been happily reading a chapter or two at a time but it was going to be removed from my kindle this morning and I didn't want to have to keep my wifi off so I finished it. To be honest I thought the ending was poor. The light dawns and you do nothing. Nothing, really. No fear, no reporting (I admit that would be difficult) but some reaction seemed needed. While disliking the ending I did like the sort of twist. Yes I had figured it out but was glad when she did. Are my answers ambiguous enough? ;)

I have managed to read more this week then I have lately. Maybe I am coming out of my slump. Some of it was fluff but I did read a couple of Stacia recommendations, Johannes Cabel, and The Infatuations. Both of which I enjoyed overall but had a couple of cringes forme too. I just finished Sharon Bolton's newest book Little Black Lies. While being different from her Lacey Flint series it still packs quite a punch. This really isn't a book for the faint hearted as it is quite upsetting while being utterly fascinating. Some sad scenes involving animals.....The book which is set in the Falklands. Post war and fascinating for its location alone. I have read a few articles about the Falklands and this book seemed to be quite accurate location wise. I feel like I traveled there. The subject matter was disburbing, child abductions in a very small place. This was layered on top of the main character's overwhelming grief because her children had died in a car accident as a result of her best friend's carelessness. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sharon-bolton/little-black-lies-bolton/

Kareni, Thank you for the post here regarding Eaglei's son. Very sad news.

I am so sorry. Your son was an inspiration to many of us. I have found myself sharing his story of faith with several real life people. What a wonderful young man. I will continue to pray for all of you.

We appear to be last for the AP. That's fine as long as we know. Pretty much everything should have been released from the sound of things. Dd's exam have been received but that is all we know. So the big worry is gone. No other explanation. Supposed to go in her account when graded.

Just checked for the hundredth time today so I will probably be able to ask when I call tomorrow. Getting ready for bed. Our first experience with Collegeboard was the May SAT subject exams. Now I am wondering if Dd's AP will be a long wait for the score.