I'm very interested in this, but also a bit concerned. If you (general you) are a good sleeper, wouldn't taking melatonin mess that up? I'm all for taking vit D etc, but messing with my sleep....sounds risky, right?

I'm only popping in for a minute, but want to say that I appreciate this thread. And to add to @StellaM's good mental health news, in the Netherlands there is a 20% reduction in suicides at the moment. Nobody can explain it, but I'm happy about it.

Yep, we have those too in the Netherlands. Makes me want to scream! Threads like this always make me a bit nervous. We don't vaccinate against chicken pox here, and somehow all my kids haven't had it yet....which makes me worried about my eldest especially. And noone, really noone, is getting their tithers checked and vaccines updated as an adult. My family doctor would think I am crazy if I suggest such a thing. But I agree it would be a really smart idea with my general weak health. Hmmm, what to do....

I can declutter/KonMari anything.....except books. I have always had the rule, for my books, that I only buy books that I use or will definitely re-read. But I now also have a lot of books that I might not re-read, but one of my children might want to read when they are a bit older. And my library is getting rid of soooo many good books, Dutch books and the few English books they had. They still might have Stephen King, but when I last checked, they didn't have 1984 anymore. I am getting rid of all books my youngest has grown out of, so that is something.

It's the same way in the Netherlands! I was reading this thread and kept thinking 'What's the problem?? Of course you organise a party!' But apparently this is not so in America? Ha, learn something new every day! :-) So, my vote: throw yourself a party, your friends will love to celebrate with you!

I'm here! Looking forward to talking about Middlemarch. I'm really enjoying it, but I'm pretty sure I'm missing a lot of context. I ordered a copy with lots of notes, but it hasn't arrived yet, so I'll keep reading my Gutenberg e-book. Lady Florida, please keep seperate threads for the different sections, please.

I am suddenly a member of : Chinese Homeschoolers Pregnancy without Dr Fiesta Texas Peeps Current Events I'm NOT interested in these clubs. I used to be a member of: Literary Hub (active and I really, really miss it) Minimalism Classical Unschoolers, or something like that and several others that I can't remember. I don't mind those other clubs (they were not active anymore), but would really like to return to Literary Hub.

I'm so sorry! Wishing you strength. :grouphug:

I came back to this thread to read War and Peace with you ladies, but then my mother got diagnosed with cancer. She is 79yo, the cancer has spread all through her body with no options to treat. I have been taking care of her (and my dad) since then. My mother stopped eating last week and barely drinks anymore. Yesterday the doctor started (at my mother's request) sedation for part of the day and the whole night. I don't have the time or energy to join you here on this thread, although I'm still reading W&P. I'll be back when things calm down again.

Did you hear anything from them, yet? :bigear:

I agree.

Mmmm, nog so sure about that. I keep hearing Americans talk about never finishing a text book at school, but in the Netherlands you do finish your text books every year, for every subject. So I would not count on the Swiss not finishing their books. ETA: Dutch textbooks have less pages and less fluff than American textbooks. If our textbooks had 600+ pages, we also would not finish them :D.

I'm interested.

Hi ladies, I'm back :D. I took a Lent break and due to health problems I had not visited the forums again. A friend told me you were going to read War&Peace together and I simply could not miss that :lol:. I bought a new Dutch translation (with translated French parts) and I'm all set. I've read 109 books so far this year, which is an insane amount of books for me, mostly due to being too tired to do anything else than sit and read. I'm going to try another migraine medication next month, after I've finished reducing this one (Topamax) ....hopefully that will make a difference and my reading rate will drop, which is probably a weird thing to say on this thread :lol:, but actually having enough energy to *do* things would be nice for a change. I hope everyone is fine and I'm looking forward to reading all your book posts!

Yes, you can keep private book notes. If you select a book and click on 'Add a review', you get a new page with a large space for a review (which is public), but on the same page below the dates and other stuff, there will be a space labelled 'private notes shown only to you' which you can use for those notes.

My February update: book 20 - 43. Six Dusties. Still reading: - SWB's Story of Science - Herodotus' Histories I'm going to take a board break for Lent. See you all at Easter Fiction: Jennifer Worth – The Complete Call the Midwife Stories: True Stories of the East End in the 1950s (e-book, Chunky) Very interesting stories, although certainly not as fun and uplifting as the TV series. Terry Pratchett – The Wee Free Men (Dusty) Hella S. Haasse – Heren van de thee (Dusty) Hella S. Haasse – De verborgen bron (Dusty) Hella Haasse is the Grand Old Lady of Dutch literature and I love reading her :001_wub: . Homerus – Ilias (vert. De Roy van Zuydewijn, Dusty, Chunky) Lance Piantaggini – Piso Ille Poetulus, A Latin Novella (Latin) Andy Weir – Martian (library, reread) - Reread, and stilll fun. Rindert Kromhout – Soldaten huilen niet (library) Rindert Kromhout – April is de wreedste maand (library) Rindert Kromhout – Vertel me wie wij waren (library) Special mention of this wondeful YA serie by Rindert Kromhout :hurray: about the Bloomsbury group. It was a bit too YA for me, but that's okay...I'm obviously not a YA ;). My dd13 is reading it too and it has sparked so many wonderful rabit trails! Agave Kruijssen – Walewein (Dusty) - King Arthur retelling, in Dutch. J.D. Robb – Purity in Death (e-book, reread) J.D. Robb – Portrait in Death (e-book, reread) J.D. Robb – Origin in death (e-book, reread) J.D. Robb – Midnight in Death (e-book, reread) J.D. Robb – Memory in Death (e-book, reread) Non-fiction: Timothy Snyder – Bloedlanden, Europa tussen Hitler en Stalin (library, Chunky) Absolutely brutal reading. It took me more than a month of reading small chunks, setting it away, picking it up again. Still...very, very necessary reading. Justin Martyr – First and Second Apology (Dusty) Very glad I choose this version, with this many footnotes and commentary. It made me realize that my dream of learning enough Greek to read these type of books in the original Greek.....is totally futile, as even the professionals can't get it right. Just concentrate on getting to Homer, I guess. Joris Luyendijk – Dit kan niet waar zijn (library) Dutch journalist, always worthwhile reading, this time about the banking crisis. I'm going to count it for my Economy square for the Bingo chart. Meik Wiking – Hygge, de Deense kunst van het leven (library) Completely fluffy book, trying to make money quickly by following the Hygge hype. Blech. Poetry (Dutch): Hans Hagen – Ik schilder je in woorden (library, poetry) Hans Hagen – Maar jij (library, poetry) Ellen Deckwitz – Olijven moet je leren lezen, een cursus genieten van poëzie (library) Pierre Eggels – Spelen met gedichten, deel 2 (library)

What's the usual price for it? <trying to decide if $5.49 is still a bargain or not......, because apparently $1.99 is only for Americans>

That is awesome :hurray: ....quickly now, spend the money on books for you :D . (I wish I could cap my homeschool spending at 500 a year, Dutch educational materials are sooooo expensive. I spend the week battling Dutch educational publishers who are *refusing* to even sell to homeschoolers, so this makes me doubly :angry: .)

I'm reading Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin and it is brutal :crying: . I thought I knew about the atrocities of WW2, it's a big topic in Dutch school history lessons.....but apparently I didn't. I thought Auschwitz was the epitome of evil, but no....there are always worse things. I can only read a couple of pages a day and even then it is very difficult. I've trouble finding other books to counteract the horror. Tried to read some J.D. Robb....didn't work. Read Pratchett's The Wee Free Men....didn't work. So now I'm mostly cleaning my house, which kinda works.

I love, love, love Cloud Atlas, but I tried The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet twice and could not get into it. I've not yet read any other book by Mitchell, but plan to at least try The Bone Clocks this year.

Did you notice the new re-reading feature on Goodreads? :hurray: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/817-rereading-is-here-let-s-say-it-again-rereading-is-here

Ohhh, I'm so envious! Enjoy your reading!

I'm sorry to tell you that the other books in the series are not as good as the first book. Most readers will tell you to stop reading after Dune. I'm probably the only reader in the universe who really liked book 5 and 6 :lol: so I would tell you to keep reading :D. But whatever you do, do NOT read the prequels written by Frank Herbert's son....those are really, really bad.

I've read 19 books in Januari, 4 of them were hold overs from 2016. 6 Dusties, so that is reasonable, still would like that to be more. Slow reading through the year: SWB - Story of Science Herodotus - Histories Thomas a Kempis - The Imitation of Christ Fiction: J.D. Robb – Salvation in Death (started 2016, e-book, reread) Leigh Butler – Reread of Wheel of Time, book 7-9 (started 2016, e-book) Neil Gaiman – Mirrors and Smoke / Spiegels en Rook (started 2016, library) - I thought most stories were rather meh, but 'Murder Mysteries' totally redeemed the whole book! Susanna Clarke – Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (started 2016, library) - :001_wub: Loved this book. It started slow, but I'm very glad I kept at it. Haruki Murakami – Norwegian Wood (Dusty) - Next year I'm giving Murakami's non-fiction a shot, if that doesn't work I'm out. Sorry guys. Tom Lanoye – Heldere hemel (novella, Dusty) Geert Mak – Het ontsnapte land (novella, Dusty) - Novella by Dutch historian who travels through the Netherlands using old maps from 1912. Meh. Erasmus – Praise of Folly / Lof der Zotheid (Dusty) - I don't feel qualified to crtitique a classic like Erasmus' Praise of Folly, but I seriously doubt anyone today would raptly listen to this for 5 hours straight like they used to -_- . Theo Thijssen – Schoolland (library) - :001_tt1: Wonderful, wonderful. Beautifully written scenes about Dutch school life around 1920. Author of Kees de Jonge, a Dutch classic. Theo Thijssen – De gelukkige klas (Dusty) - Also wonderful. I'm going to track down all other books by this author. P.D. James – Pemberley (library) - I had seen the mini serie, didn't know there was a book. Good fun. J.D. Robb – Reunion in Death (e-book, reread) J.D. Robb – Promisses in Death (e-book, reread) Non-Fiction: Esther de Boer – Een andere kijk op (onder)presteren (library) Georgie Heard – Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School (Dusty) - Very nice! Loren Cordain – Het paleodieet: eet als je voorouders en verlies gewicht (library) Atul Gawande – Sterfelijk zijn, geneeskunde en wat er uiteindelijk toe doet/Being Mortal (library) - Timely read with a FIL who needs more and more care and with parents who are in their 80s, but not anything new. Poetry (Dutch): Hans Hagen – Hoe angst klinkt (library) Ingmar Heytze – schaduwboekhouding (library)

I'm so sorry for your loss, PrairieSong :grouphug: I liked your post, but not in a like like way :grouphug: