Woodland knits is being given here also. Probably to me. .lol. I just put in on a list and know its been ordered. Book challenge wise......obviously I really enjoyed Spooky October. I was also really surprised with how much I enjoyed our travels through the centuries this year. I also like the geographical ones. For the weekly ones I tend to enjoy (do) the ones with a word in the title. I also really liked the one where we had people pick letters and numbers to locate a random library book. I admit I ended up with a really good book which probably led to my liking that challenge. ;) I just started a historical cozy mystery by Alanna Knight called the Balmoral Incident. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23631708-the-balmoral-incident So far it is really good. She is apparently a prolific mystery writer with 60 books to her credit. No problems with this one not being the first in the series and we all know I would be the first to complain!

Shukriyya, Glad to know you are fine before turning the lights out. I haven't been following the storm but my mother, the fox news watcher certainly has. While talking to her a couple of hours ago, my concern for my friends here increased greatly. I hope everyone else is safe also. Books as Christmas gifts.....I don't give them to my family as much as I used to. I think it is in reaction to how stuffed our book shelves are. If I give the kids books I am making work for me. Both are happy with their kindles. So I have some puzzle type books but that is it. One book that I am giving in the next few days is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/718473.White_Stallion_of_Lipizza#other_reviewsHenry's book on Lippizzons. I thought a mention of this was appropriate because of Shukriyya reading Airs Above Ground. One of dd friends is doing a research projectf for school regarding horses in media. She has never read any of Henry's horse books but encountered references to them in her research. Long story made short I ordered a copy of the White Stallions for her because it's my favorite. Also plan to have her watch our copy of the Disney movie about lippizzans over the holiday, tired and can't think of the name.

These are so simple but so cute! I finished another https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11938752-a-lady-awakened book from the stack. It was definitely filled with adult content, since the objective was for a recent widow to become pregnant so her husband's entailed estate and employees would not pass to a nasty relative, but not extremely explicit. I liked it enough to have the next in the series downloaded from overdrive and there is a .5 novella availiable free on kindle for a couple more days I think. The author is Cecilia Grant.

My best friend read Lady of Ashes a couple of months ago and gave it a three on goodreads. That is her signal to me to only read it if I really want to. We rate things that the other one will like 4 and a 5 is a must read....see why I didn't like my goodreads messed with? Anyway because of her lack of enthusiasm I haven't bothered...overdrive does have it. I have seen the Retrievers series but not the other.

Rosie, I had meant to include a Congratulations! on completing your 5/5 challenge in my previous post. If you haven't guessed I have a stack of books in progress so will hopefully be finishing some off this week. Another one that has been completed is Hard Magic by Laura Anne Gilmanhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7303068-hard-magic. This is one that I ran into browsing an online catalogue. The first in a paranormal series and pretty good overall. I plan to keep reading the series.

Thanks Stacia, my problems were on the left hand part of the feed. I just found the link button, which wasn't there yesterday, and got rid of them. I was getting several recommendations updates a day which was irritating, not a couple of book covers like I had on the right. Ds keeps offering to turn off my advertising and I should probably let him. My big fear is my newish kindle has some issues which Amazon has been fixing by sending updates to it. It is working much better so I don't want to ruin things! Eliana recommended Heyer's The Unknown Ajax quite awhile ago. I finally had a chance to read it and really enjoyed it. It was a hard one to source through library systems for some reason. I have only read one other book by Heyer and greatly preferred this one. Good main characters and the rest were comical. Herehttp://austenprose.com/2011/09/25/the-unknown-ajax-by-georgette-heyer-%E2%80%93-a-review-2/was the best review I could find. I suspect most of you have already read it.

:grouphug: Parrot related....Not sure if you remember because our parrot conversation was at least a year ago but I had one for years that talked a lot. My parrot was very social and liked to be where the people were. At that point in our lives I was working from home and would simply move him and perches around the house with me. Your parrot will probably be happier hanging out in some way with you and dd even if you don't sing to him! My bird actually seemed to enjoy sitting by me while I read books to myself, he commented quietly as the pages turned sometimes while he dozed, totally a companionship issue.

WonderinG if anyone else has noticed changes in Goodreads.....Goodreads is suddenly filling my home page with recommendations that I don't want to look at. Normally what my friends (dd and my best friend, so small group ;) ) are reading and have recently read are the only thing shown there which is extremely handy. These recommendations are being generated off books that I read so long ago that I don't remember them! To say I am not interested in them is being really polite. Did I accidentally change my settings somehow or is this a new feature. Can these recommendations be gotten rid of or am I stuck looking at them until they age out?

I just read the first book in the Blue Heron series which I think some people here may have read. The Best Man was a good modern day romance. I enjoyed it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15803757-the-best-man I originally started reading the fourth one in this series and had to abandon it because it was obvious the recurring characters were going to drive me nuts if I didn't know the backstory.

Kareni, now I know why that sentence sounded familiar. Thank you to whoever asked to have the accompanying link removed.

Just wanted to agree with the code academy recommendation. My ds learned his basics there. Has gone on to coursera and other classes online.

Our dog didn't bark until the new neighbour's dog taught him. Be careful what you wish for. Once he started, at 9 years old, he made up for his silent years.

VC, I am so very sorry. Sending hugs to Wee Girl and you. If I can do anything please let me know. :grouphug:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is ds favorite. He has read most of Douglas Adam's work.

Not sure how helpful this is but roughly twenty years ago I was a travel agent. Our best trip ever was booked very last minute and included a stay in a good London hotel. Dh and I arrived in jeans carring backpacks to stay in our £20 a night room, basic room at that hotel at that time £100. We knew we were going to look a bit rough for that hotel but had not wanted to carry extra and expected to be OK on a tourist type floor. We were shocked to discover we had been given a room on the VIP floor. We had a small room for that floor, twice the size of a normal London room in our £800 a night room but we had extras. Guard by the private elevator, fresh lacy linens on the floor each night, new big fruit basket each day, really nice shampoos etc. The service was invisible, tray of tea and rolls with newspaper mornings. It was really lovely but very uncomfortable because we were so very underdressed. We also stayed in a room that Michael Jackson supposedly used when in London on a different trip. That one was just big. Odd loft area. No special amenities came with the travel agent rate at least. Room slept several people, with a couple bathrooms. Can't remember what the proper cost was for that one. Calling it a room because open floor plan with areas. It was by itself at the end of a corridor.....probably easy security wise. I loved travel agent rates but sometimes we also got the room the hadn't been decorated since the 1950's so don't be too envious. There were some real clunkers too......

Imping is fascinating. Just watched youtubes. I cannot imagine trying to do it with a living raptor or for that matter with my pet parrot!

Since we seem to be discussing knitting Christmas Ornaments I am going to link the pattern dd and I have used to make several ornaments. No double points needed and in DK so larger needles. Most of these have been completed in an evening. http://www.alandart.co.uk/product/holidays/christmas-tree-decorations/ The book looks adorable but I do not knit with double points so wanted to give people an option! :lol:

I have been looking forward to the final book in Jacqueline Carey's Agent of Hel series since reading the other two earlier this year. Poison Fruithttp://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-451-46531-3#path/978-0-451-46531-3 was good. Sad that the story appears to be over.

Happy Birthday Amy!!! I have barely been able to keep up reading the thread. Busy weekend. Nan, Thanks for the warning about the salt dough. It did go slightly rubbery so I retrieved them after Evensong tonight and am trying to dry them out again in a cooling oven. Trees come down tomorrow so they survived the festival. I did manage to read Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell, the latest Scarpetta. The ending was rushed but otherwise quite good. This is one of the series where the author badly lost their way but seems to be getting back to what was good about the original books. While reading I thought of your discussion of how we read.....I am definitely a words to pictures. Sort of a movie after I get comfortable. This book reminded me why I like series, the movie can start on page one, no figuring out the pictures. ;)

I am so very very cold! All day, 11 hours with two 45 minute trips home looking at trees, decorating trees, putting trees together which had instructions for other trees, then decorating a bell tower with self adhesive decorations which would not stick together. I am cold tired and waiting for dh to arrive with Chinese carry out. I will take pictures on a sunnier day and try to post some. Things do look festive at the church. Angel, My take on Monuments.....nothing inappropriate but long. Neither of mine would be particularly interested because they receive long in depth WWII lectures every time they visit a site from dh who taught the subject to graduate students. I never seriously considered making them read it. I don't think there was any reason not to let them read it.

Mom ninja, not much to say on the subject of German Roaches beyond :grouphug: I suspect you already know they are the most common kind in the US (yep, google told me that) and you need to have a long talk with your dh regarding sealed containers.

Continuing to pray for your son and family. :grouphug:

Shukriyya, before I forget we ended up using salt dough because of the fear of attracting mice to the church. Although after serving refreshments all weekend I think ornament biscuits will be the least of the mouse attractors. ;( We assured everyone that our cookies could not be good for the mice if they did eat them. We ended up with a recipe that was half salt. The first one that was a fifth salt started crumbling this week. It just was not right so we had to make new ones. Dd just finished painting the final ornaments for the tree festival. Tomorrow we decorate.......

Nan and other Agatha Raison reader's, I have been happily reading the latest Blood of an Englishman today and thought of you. I am about halfway and really enjoying it. The reviews on Goodreads are a bit brutal, as in I wondered if I wanted to even start it. But then I realized they apparently sent people copies for reviews who had never read the series. This one definately assumes the reader knows the characters already because they all just appear where they should in Agatha's life with no explanation at all for an unfamiliar reader. For someone that knows the characters it is a relief because things progress at a nice pace.

Yes it does....