Welcome!

I have been reading my banned book "The Glass Castle" a bit. It is a sad story of growing up poor with extremely neglectful parents. Imagine falling out the door of a car withe your dad driving and the car continuing done the road. Not stopping. The child knows they will come back so sits and waits. They do but only because a hysterical sibling reports the child missinng to dad. I am not far and finding it pretty upsetting. My upset has much more to do with things that have happened in my life to others I have been close to. Not sure I want to continue because it is too sad to be reading that now for me. It has been a bad couple of days for me. My friend died last year from cancer and I just found out her children are going back to school. Starting next week. Off to visit today. Another dream of hers ends which is why I am upset not so much at the idea of public school for them. Anyway setting The Glass Castle aside. Nothing shocking thus far just not good for me right now. Currently reading "The Cuckoo's Calling" also. It is pretty good. Not outstanding (where I stay up all night to finish it :lol: ) but probably better then many is the way to describe it. Very different then Harry Potter. The dc's keep wanting updates which is making the reading fun. They have non interest in reading it just really want her book to be "good" so keep checking on my progress. ;)

We rate them but I don't think you have too. It may help to generate the recommendations accuracy wise. Dd and I read several of the same books independently and it is fun to compare. We also have shelves labeled different ways. Abandoned, good for dd, read 2013 are some of mine. Dd has a " books I will never read again" shelf which makes me laugh, books that she disliked but had to finish for her lit class have a prominent position on it. Hope you enjoy it. You might want to look a "52 books" thread to see how some people use Goodreads. Robin has things linked. It is a great thread!

My dc's are a bit older but we all do Goodreads. It is a great way to keep track and sort by shelves. It gives recommendations which can be perfect and sometimes they are old books. We friend each other which makes it easy for me to see what they are interested in reading next for library holds etc. It is a great free service.

Praying

There are 14(I think) Oz books by Baum. They are great. Read them all three times to dcs at that age. All time favorite! Free on kindle. Books of Wonder had best deal hard copy years ago.

I just watched someone read it on youtube. I can think of many many that are much better. I hesitate to even attempt to link youtube but here is a potential link When you google youtube this is not my hat it is the 3 minute one.

http://www.meta-calculator.com/online/ Someone here recommended this if he wants to try the problems without the expense. We haven't used it but I had it bookmarked.

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/omens/ I finished "Omens" by Kelley Armstrong. It is the first of new series for her. The first part was spooky but then it turned into more of a thriller. Ended with a cliffhanger. I read it in one highly interupted sitting so pretty good but not her usual book by any means. No witches, werewolves,or vampires. Characters who inhabit a rather unusual town with odd abilities. I hope the sequel is soon! I have been through the lists and ordered a couple more from the library. I looked at Anno Dracula recently and resisted. Robin's recommendation put me on the hold list! The children's book list brought back great memories. We read many of them. I have an urge to locate the ones we never read! Stacia, Coursera has been a great addition for us. We have signed up for a few this summer/fall and have enjoyed most of them. Being free we just drop the ones that are not working with no regrets.

The dc's have done the special pass once with their friend who has severe sensory special needs. They had a great two hours.....that was all that child could handle even with the pass. I think it equaled 4 or 5 rides so not a tremendous number. We have great pictures of them on the rides together. Her parents were absolutely thrilled. It made a Disney visit as normal as it could ever be for that particular child. Proof should be required but waiting for the fastpass time will not work for them and she doesn't have visable needs. Makes me sad that people ruined this.

It is also one of the most frequently appearing books on the AP. I have obviously spent too much time with that list!

Coursera has an "Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative" class from Vanderbilt which is based on the Lord of the Rings. Both my dc's are doing the option without gameplay(video games as part of school would not be a good option for my ds ;) ) which turns the course into more of a lit course. At the end they will get a certificate -- dh went to Vanderbilt so fun just for that. I think he could still sign up because the hard deadline for work is end of October. The second week is about Tolkien and his work. Not sure if he would be interested but wanted to let you know. We haven't ventured beyond LOTR but my friend's ds spent literally years imersed in the "Silmarillion".

I finished!!! Overall really enjoyed "Night Film" by Marisha Pessl. Did not care for the ending at all. Came out of no where and made little sense imo. All I can say is I was hooked throughout the entire book until the last few pages. Not sure what is up next other then I am halfway through a kindle Midnight Breed book so will finish that. Several of my library stack have other holds on them. Not sure if I can finish them without being able to renew!

I applaud your strength! I need to do this but won't. I return a couple extra each week. :lol:

We love Coursera! Right now dd is doing an ancient greek history and lit course which she loves. Both are taking the Globel Business of Sports, Intro to Microeconomics(16 week plan), Intro to Dinosaurs, and the Lord of the Rings online gaming one. All are working well. We have signed up for a couple and dropped when actual material came out. One because too hard with our computer situation, others workload would be great because lack of backgound. We are in the middle of a house renovation / move so a great time for them to learn to follow a Syllabus etc. They completed Cryptography 1 over the summer which was really hard. Both survived and got a certificate but lots of hours went into it for both. Ds kept saying he was not a quitter. Stressful. Neither child wants to do the second class starting soon! Lol

We haven't been to Italy yet but when we are not clear about bed configuration we tend to stick with the Intercontinental (Holiday Inn) group and Novotel group. Both seem to be standard. We need a room for 4 with separate beds for dc's which works really well at Novotel -- that configuration has a queen(in the UK an American queen size is called a King sized) too if that helps.

Thanks for the Sci fi list. I really don't get what is so bad about Hitchiker's. It is ds favorite book. Some swear words and a line about a three breasted whore come to mind. I did preread a year or two ago. FWIW Ds finds the three breasted woman to be weird -- genetic mutant...swear words are fascinating since we don't. :lol: I really can't see how this is enough to ban a great book. We just gave it as a 13th bday present last week...... Glad you are enjoying Dracula! :)

This has been on my list for quite awhile. Glad to hear you are enjoying it!

That silly fairy couldn't find them on our first moving trip to England. In three weeks they lost 4 teeth! None were loose before departure. They left a note as soon as we returned to the US explaining their move! Our fairy is a bit fancy, dh thought leaving silver dollars from their individual birth year would be a great idea, so no hope of a solution without messing up the collection. ;)

I have been waiting for this one from my library for a long time. The "book" library didn't have it, waiting for a library's kindle copy.

Still reading "Night Film". The fault is not the book's between working on the new house and other activities I haven't had much time. For banned book week I have "The Glass Castle" ready to go.

I use the hook for bread dough. The paddle for general batter like cookie dough. The whisk for frosting (fluffier I think) and egg whites.

We did color too. Not just pink, my friend requested a rainbow of color so my ds didn't have to do pink. It sounds like your son will do a fantastic job supporting his friend.

Just wanted to send some :grouphug: your way. I have been thinking of you today. The funeral for my friend last year was a dreadful day for me. :grouphug:

Welcome!