Just started "Night Film" and so far it's good. Only 60 or so pages in. I love the crime reports etc included as you read. Makes it seem so real.....yes, it made me google to make sure I hadn't "missed" the existence of the famous movies. :lol: My plan for the spooky book challenge is to read the Vlad history book that I am waiting for (I am too lazy too find the title right now, same author that Stacia read). I want to reread Stoker's Dracula and "The Historian" with that. Hoping to manage "Frankenstein " and "Jekyll and Hyde" too. Obviously, hoping to make it a 5/5/5 since I have failed on many of my others. Vampires are usually great reading fo me not sure about other creatures.

I am so sorry for your loss.

I finished a few more in the car.... "Stormbringers" an Order of Darkness book by Philippa Gregory. It is a YA. Good series. This one centers on the children's crusade and a story of how it may have been -- personally doubt this version but good story. "The Lady Confesses" by Carole Mortimer which is the first historical I have read by one of my favorite Harlequin authors. Nice easy read. "The Activist" my next Theodore Boone by John Grisham. Another YA. Not much to say other then I really like that kid! Finally "Grey Mask" a Miss Silver mystery by Patricia Wentworth. Reminiscent of Miss Marple only more businesslike. Totally enjoyed it. Stayed up until after 2 last night to finish it. I found it in a kindle library and it is the first of 30 odd books if anyone wants to hunt for it. :)

Let us know if it is good! Edie was such a great character!

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/books/testament-mary Dd and I both read "The Testament of Mary" by Colm Toibin as part of car travel reading. It was the first of my booker prize short list books to arrive. Not sure sure how to describe it because it was not what either of us expected. It is a retelling of parts of Mary's life. Particularly focused on the last weeks of Jesus life. Mainly it is a story of a woman who gave birth to greatness and her continual feelings of loss. Her feeling of loss is really what the book was about. Imo It is a short (104 pages) easy read. Imo. We both gave it a 4 independently on Goodreads so obviously found it worthy. Just not really what we had hoped for, if that makes sense. If you look at the comments in the above link my feelings about the book appear to be typical.

Great list Lori -- Thank you!

Welcome!

Thank you!

There is a great one on youtube for the space race by the BBC. It had either 3 or 4 parts. Great acting and really accurate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onIpOpqQQZc This is the first one.

We always fly into Manchester from US and take the 10:30ish train to Sheffield, so not the same one. The station and train are very empty at that time. Train becomes full at City Center Manchester. Empties fairly quickly thereafter. Shouldn't be a problem that time of day.

:lol: When we first moved to the UK we lived in a brand new very posh apartment building. Great appliances. The first house we looked at only had room for either a dishwasher or washing machine. Dh put enormous pressure on me to move because the real estate agent implied that was typical. I took an informal poll at church and discovered everyone had both! :) Needless to say the next place had both. Currently moving and this place has room for a dishwasher but no plumbing. Plumbing happening next week. You didn't have a catagory but I normally run mine twice a day. Three at home meals plus snacks creates quite a few dishes. I can't fit quite as many in here as I could in the US.

I read the first Mickey Bolitar and need to read the second. I thought it fit well with the overall Myron Bolitar storyline. Not sure if anyone else has tried Theodore Boone series by John Grisham or Order of Darkness by Philippa Gregory. They are YA books by popular adult authors which are quite good. :) Dd and I have the latest in both series in our holiday stack. We are going to France overnight tomorrow -- minimum 10 hours car and ferry so shared books are required!

Jane-- :grouphug: I am so sorry for your loss.

Thank you for sharing these booklists. :) Dd and I are planning .....

"The Distant Hours" sounds great. I will request it as soon as we finish moving. We are only going around the corner but I plan to reduce my pile as much as possible over the next month. This could be considered a really huge challenge! :lol: I am skipping the Christie challenge although I love them. Tommy and Tuppence could very well be my favorite Chrstie characters so enjoy "The Secret Adversary". I finished "Highland Laddie Gone" by Sharyn McCrumb. The third and the best so far in my reread of the series with Elizabeth MacPhearson. The setting was a Highland Game weekend in Virginia (or thereabouts). A fun cozy with zany characters and a bit of Scottish slang being essential to solving the mystery. I was actually able to sort of follow the slang this time through.... I downloaded my spooky books last night and my banned book is ready to go. I just need time... Currently reading Laurie R. King's "A Darker Place" which is about religious cults. Very different from her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. So far very good. I need to finish it so my Kindle can go online after tonight or the library will return it!

I just finished my latest Dorothy B. Hughes American Noir thriller. "The Blackbirder" was a lot like watching a really good Hitchcock movie with great mysterious actors. Cary Grant was Blaike the mysterious man following the rather confused heroine. I started late last night and almost didn't sleep last night. Woke up early to finish it. :) http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/mystery-39.html

We abandoned Stobaugh after the first unit. We had the first book in the Lit series -- 7th up recommendation).We decided to read and discuss good books and enjoy literature again after our first formal class had gone so badly. We did some short units from the Smarr Literature series and enjoyed them. Also returned to Sonlight. We are now working our way through the Excellence in Literature series(American, Brit, World) and love it. Going really well. Dd doesn't necessarily love every topic and book but because of the clear assignments she has been able to do a great job.

Love the Sister Wendy idea!

"Mistress" by James Patterson and David Ellis is the best thriller he has written in ages. I suspect that has much to do with David Ellis. It did not really "feel" like a Patterson book imo -- Much harder to speed read through. :lol: Interesting plot, I did not guess the ending for sure. I thought of it but dismissed it so it was a surprise at the end.

I finally had a chance to look for my book. It was actually sitting on the shelf at my village branch. Librarian laughed because I probably "saved it" because it hasn't been checked out in over two years. So even if I don't read it I will have saved a banned book! :lol:

I looked at the banned book list. Hard as this is to believe I actually attended on of the schools listed as banning. That surprised me. Not that conservative of an area, I thought. May have to read that one. ;( Will look more later with AP list in hand. If I can accomplish two goals all the better.

As soon as we armed dd with zip locks in the pockets of her booster she started to improve. I think she worried after it happened once which made her scared and nauseous. After she had her bags mess was no longer something to worry about.

Bumping.... Can I add Stewart's into the mix.

My best friend has been in my life for over 20 years. Her mom, my second best friend died last year, introduced us. I was introduced to her mom socially and she became a second mother so best friend is sort of a sister. My kids favorite aunt and more of a family member. My other friends are not as close as that. Mostly mom friends who I get along well with. A couple would remain longterm friends if I left here. Most would drift away.

I bought one of the old versions and was highly disappointed also. Dd hated it -- the only book she ever hated in all these years! Poor format, lacking explanations, unusable examples. I didn't care for content either. We love Excellence in Literature.