Do you have any charter schools in your area that function as umbrellas for homeschoolers? For my outside the box kid, it was the perfect mix of classes for the social fix, plus some outside accountability that helped our relationship immensely, and we still got to do funky outside the box homeschool stuff. I was lucky to have a "facilitator", the teacher in charge of us, who encouraged our outside the box courses, and found the wording to make them sound like traditional classes on his transcript. I hear isn't always the case, but it is possible. You've gotten some great suggestions for thinking outside the box. We designed lots of courses around interests, found ways of adding some academic meat to outside interests in order to create a transcript worthy course. It was great. I know of homeschool kids who started high school without some ideal skills and habits, yet they figured it out and wound up doing very well. You just never know. Oh, and yes, Lori D, I so agree that these kids with learning challenges can wind up with the most interesting and successful lives as adults. And they are fun people to spend time with! Sending encouraging cheers to those of you still in the trenches!

Just a quick wave hello before I dive back into a very busy week. I'm "this close" to finishing a relisten to Good Omens. It's one of those book that so many love, and while there is much I like about it, overall I find some of the humor forced, cynical, unoriginal, and a little mean spirited. I never feel that way with Discworld books -- I like how Pratchett gently satirizes us through his books. But the gloves are off in Good Omens and to me at least, it isn't funny. But, as I said, I do like it on the whole -- the plot, the main characters, the message of free will. It's got that Star Trek trope going of the aliens who say, "Oh those humans, they are rather clever and interesting, aren't they?"

Ahem. The musician here has a few recommendations for you. The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes is about Dmitri Shostakovich's artistic life under the extreme whims of Soviet Union regimes, from Stalin to Brezhnev. It is excellent. It isn't a biography but a beautifully written novel imagining what it must have been like living on forever on the edge of favor, subject the whims of powerful political figures who had absolute control over your life and your art. Vivaldi's Virgins is a quick, fluffy read about the young girls he taught at a convent in Venice. It is along the lines of a Tracy Chevalier book. I've not read Dvorak in Love, but it is on my TBR list. It is about Dvorak coming to America in 1892, and I believe the love refers to his love of this country. Are you familiar with his New World Symphony? That is the best known fruit of this particular love affair. I have twice now tried and abandoned Longing by JD Landis, about Clara Schumann. My brother loved the book, lots of folk on Goodreads love it, but I hated the writing. The story is amazing, however, and true. Clara Schumann was a piano prodigy -- she started the fashion of piano soloists performing by memory. She married Robert Schumann against her father's wishes, produced a bunch a children, and composed some exquisitely lush and romantic music. She and Robert mentored Brahms, and when Robert tried to commit suicide and wound up in a mental hospital, Brahms was there for her (they were quite possibly lovers).

I'm only half way done with this book, but I'm enjoying it as it is the perfect kind of fluff for the moment. It is like most dramas on Masterpiece these days -- lovely to look at, pleasant to visit, but not terribly deep, profound or especially good on a critical level. But I definitely find myself wanting to pick it up and read, or if I'm being honest, to skim. Faint praise, eh? But I don't have the luxury of reading anything significant at the moment, so Grand Hotel is still half done and the Murakami I started earlier this year also is patiently sitting with a bookmark in place.

I also really liked Count of Monte Cristo -- I believe I wound up alternating between reading and listening. It started slow, I thought, but once he is out of prison, wow! Hmmm. I have The Summer Before the War all ready to start on my kindle. I'll give it a try and see, once I finish Grand Hotel. I had the nastiest of head colds so got little reading done this week. I had to muster all my mental energies for rehearsals and 3 shows this weekend, so the only actual reading I'll count is starting a re-listen of (to?) Good Omens while in the car. I settled on it for a listen as it is coming out as a tv series soon, and figured I'd better get the book details set in my mind before seeing the tv version. Is David Tennant as Crowley type casting or what?! Anyone else excited that the book three of Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings is coming out this month?!!

I hate conflict, avoid it like the plague. But I'm down with the head cold from h3ll and feel emboldened to step into the fray. And I wrote this before reading Robin's most recent post. I don't have the brain cells to edit any of this in response to your remarks, Robin. It hope it comes off as thoughtful, and it is meant kindly and lovingly. Robin, I so admire how you've kept this thread rolling along ever since Kay left. I'm not interested in all the challenges, but clearly they are a big hit and I admire the thought and creativity you put into them. This thread would not be the place it is without you. However, I'd like to gently suggest that you don't need to police the thread, too. I know some folk reached out to you a few years ago when a thread or two strayed into what some of us felt was uncomfortable territory. But other than that, I think we've done a good job of staying non-political. I think, too, as grown ups we don't need to be protected from thoughts and ideas different from our own. After all we are readers who love to expand our horizons. In this age of such deep divisions and distrust in our society, I value so very much this virtual front porch (and in winter, the cozy fireside) where we gather to talk books and share bits of our lives. We are a very diverse bunch, and I love that we share tidbits of our very different lives. I think we, as adults, should be able to speak up for ourselves to say that something makes us uncomfortable. We need to heed the adage we've no doubt told our kids -- you can't control what someone else says (or thinks or does). We can only control how we react to it. I kindly suggest we keep everything in the open. That we not be quick to take offense. That we skim over details in posts that don't interest us. That we mindfully take something off the thread if there is an interest to go deeper into a topic. For instance, I am shocked, just shocked that none of you have wanted to discuss with me the merits of Italian versus Russian opera, but that's the sort of topic we could have taken off the thread. Likewise, if any of you are inspired by Eliana's activism or Jane's environmental work, you could respond with "how cool, I'd love to discuss this further with you. Can you pm me? Shall we start a separate thread?" That's all I've got this morning.

Ruby the dog is a Hufflepuff. She would be a star seeker on a quidditch team, provided that the golden snitch was a tennis ball... I'm so happy to see all the Shetland love! I got hooked by the series, then read the books -- they are different but both quite good. I also love Ann Cleeves' Vera series. Happy I was able to provide some distraction, Loesje! And hope it all goes well so your dd can get her normal mom back :laugh: I finished, and really enjoyed Magpie Murders by Anthony Horwitz, which has an Agatha Christie styled murder mystery wrapped inside another mystery. I'm still reading Grand Hotel but am totally absorbed by the audiobook version of The Bear and the Nightingale. I'm thinking I need to go find some knitting or hand applique work so I can just sit and listen this afternoon. These titles should bring me to 52 for the year, but I'm not sure as my count might be off after abandoning Rebecca.

Yes! I should be sending it off next week.

Speaking of War and Peace, here are some paintings I found at the Louvre featuring Napoleon: I thought at first this painting depicted a scene from the 1812 Russian campaign, due to the cold and snow, but no, it is of the 1808 Prussian battle d'Eylau. The second photo is a detail of Napoleon in the painting-- I think he looks rather infantile here, very much like the odd looking babies found in Renaissance paintings. This isn't Napoleon, but is of our 1812 Russian campaign: "Marshal Ney at the Redoubt at Kovno" And finally, this very flattering image, a study for a portrait commissioned after his victory in Italy in 1796. I didn't take a photo of the huge painting where he is crowning the Empress Josephine as she wasn't part of our epic War and Peace read along.... And, speaking of Renaissance paintings, I was a Donatello short of a complete Ninja Turtle sweep of famous Renaissance painters :lol:

This reminds me of a cartoon in a little book, Baking with Kafka, which I bought in Belgium. Tom Gauld is a cartoonist with a clean style whose subject is often literary. One cartoon is of two books, one consoling the other by saying "what's so bad about being adapted? We've all suffered bad tv adaptations." The other book replies that it is much worse than that, and holds up a review that says "Masterpiece! Much better than the original book!" Here is a sample of his work, from Instagram, which made me think of the earlier conversation among you budding mystery writers in our group: Some Murder Methods for Modern Mystery Writers. Who would like to be the next to read Grand Hotel? I'll sign our BaW names inside the front cover and send it on!

I ran out of likes somewhere in the 2nd page of this week's thread. Consider yourself well liked! On the reading front, I'm enjoying one book and abandoning another. Grand Hotel is a whole lot of fun with many quotable passages, and a host of delightful characters, and I hope to find the movie for a treat when I'm finished. I'd love to read Vicki Baum's memoir, too. I'm reading the copy our own V. Crown pressed into my hands at our meeting last May. The book I'm abandoning, I'm sorry to say, is Rebecca. Perhaps I would have loved it if I'd read it when I was a lot younger, but this curmudgeon of an old lady just can't stand it. I went on Wikipedia to read the synopsis, and discovered that everything I've predicted is coming to pass. Blech. No. Gothic romance is clearly not the genre for me. :leaving:

Just now sitting down to actually read, rather than skim, the thread. I first want to thank all of you for prereading Donna Tartt's books for me, and saving me the trouble. I thought Rose and Kathy's take on the audio version --one pro and one con -- was interesting. Then I clicked on the link in Mothersweets' post about the audio version of True Grit and I had to laugh... Donna Tartt is the narrator of this particular audio version of True Grit!!! :lol:

The building is the MAS museum, or Museum aan de Stroom which we did not visit, so I'll simply have to go back one day. We toured a museum about immigration, specifically about the thousands of European emigrants to North and South America who funneled out of Antwerp on the Red Star Line in the late 1800s thru early 1900s. It was in the actual building, so it was like visiting the European side of Ellis Island. I don't have ancestors that would have come that way, but if you do, there are databases of the emigrants. I spent most of my day yesterday in the air conditioning, hiding from the 106 degree heat and reading. I'm just past the half way mark on The Magpie Murders, Anthony Horowitz's mystery within a mystery. Really good so far, and I would have stayed up to finish but jet lag finally got the best of me by 8pm.

If you were at Heathrow, too, between noon and 3 yesterday, it will be a shame that we didn't meet! I'll bet my flight was longer than yours, though. We had a nonstop to San Diego, 11.5 hours on the plane. I watched Big Sick, a British movie called Their Finest, a couple of tv shows, listened to almost 2 hours of Bear and the Nightingale, slept, ate, drummed my fingers....

We left Ghent, Belgium in the cold, rainy, predawn morning yesterday, and arrived home last night to an extreme heat advisory. It is supposed to be 105 here today! My husband and a colleague were guests at a Flanders comic con in Ghent, so while they two of them were meeting fans and signing books, the other wife and I went exploring. Our biggest adventure was our day in Antwerp where we spent several lovely hours with Loesje. It was quite the trek just getting to Antwerp as something happened (a suicide attempt?) to shut down all the trains heading there from Ghent. All the announcements were in Dutch, but friendly locals kindly translated for us, one nice young man called Loesje's cell phone for me to explain that we were delayed. We took a train as far as it would take us, then paraded with all the other passengers across a small town to pack into a tram that took us into downtown Antwerp. Then with the help of Google maps, we walked the last mile and a half to get to the museum. We were an hour late, but Loesje was patiently waiting for us! We spent a lovely few hours with Loesje, learned a lot about Flanders and Belgian politics. And I tried wrapping my tongue around some Dutch! After we parted outside the Antwerp train station, my friend and I had a few more adventures trying to hunt down a book for her dh, then we had dinner in a cozy cafe and caught the last train back to Ghent. Apparently it was the only train back to Ghent that day -- we couldn't have gotten back any earlier due to the disruption. (The ticket seller in Ghent recognized me on Sunday, and asked with concern about our trip to Antwerp!) Flanders is beautiful. The medieval buildings are straight out of a fairy tale -- at least to these American eyes. And the food!! Buckets of french fries come with dinner -- I had mussels and fries and stew made with local dark beer and fries. We of course ate waffles and packed our suitcases full of chocolate. Loesje -- I should have brought you some American chocolate so you could understand why Belgian chocolate is such a treat. Both things may be called chocolate, but they are NOT the same. I'll be back to catch up and talk books, but for now here is a photo of two BaW friends outside an iconic and decidedly NOT medieval building in Antwerp.

Good morning from Paris! We arrived yesterday morning after a sleepless night on the plane— unusual for me. But thanks to my ds I had the perfect mindless sci fi audiobook to keep me company, The Fold by Peter Cline. Experiments in creating a fold in space time naturally go wrong, leading to a possible alien invasion of earth. Still have an hour to go and when I left off the Marines had been called in. The hero of the book, btw, is a high school English teacher. To combat jet lag, we spent a glorious day outside, enjoying beautiful warm weather and walking over 6 miles. I made it to Shakespeare and Company but was too tired to do any serious book shopping. I wanted to buy something Significant from the storied shop, looked in vain for for the Hemingway Michigan-based stories, so settled on an Alan Furst novel set in Paris. At one of those used book stalls along the Seine, my dh found copies of the first comic book series he worked on 30 years ago. It is an obscure series — not household name superheroes, so it was a bit of a surprise! Colleen — congrats to your ds! That is an impressive accomplishment, Glad you are heading home, Rose. Good luck to those in the midst of moving, whether packing or unpacking. And get well, Heather and Loesje!!

I abandoned the audiobook at the 2nd epilogue, skimmed it in print, read some on-line summaries (researched the heck out of the opera) and called it done. What pattern of quilt do you feel? 9 patch? Log Cabin?

:iagree: I was amused by the book recommendations for the crew of the original Star Trek. In the creepy cover category -- that edition of The Exorcist is the one I read while babysitting the kid next door when I was 12. I might or might not have screamed out loud when lil' Junior came out asking for a glass of water after bedtime. :eek: I've not read any of the books about religion, though a few are on my radar. I've been a casual user of Goodreads, but now the value of having a group of friends on there. I just marked that I am reading Rebecca (listening, actually, til my smartphone up and died today) and appreciated Amy's comments in her review that it starts slow. I've found it slow going so far, but young Mrs. DeWinter (or as the reader says, De Wintah) has just arrived at Manderley, home of the creepy housekeeper, so I'm thinking things will perk up a bit from here. But, ewwww, Mr. DeWinter is a classic predator, totally grooming the young innocent. Imagine the horror of finding yourself at not one, but two different Apple stores in one afternoon, dealing with rush hour freeway traffic in between, and NO BOOKS. I couldn't read a kindle book while waiting for the genius at the genius bar, couldn't listen to Rebecca while sitting in So Cal freeway traffic. And the local NPR station is in full pledge drive mode. Aaaarrgghh. Friendly PSA for the day. Back up your smart phones!! I'm so glad I had a few days ago when I sensed trouble coming...

Good morning, all. Based on the news out of Sonoma, it appears Rose's community is still in the clear. That newspaper site has a great real time map of each fire with red dots indicating active hot spots, and of course other stories with in depth coverage. So much devastation in an exceptionally beautiful part of the country. Rose -- hope you and the girls got a good night's sleep and that you are able to unplug from the news for a bit, enjoy the ocean and fresh air.

Well, you'd have to add all the islands, too. Shetland is obviously easy with the Ann Cleeves series by that name, but are there mysteries set in the Orkneys or Hebrides? Isle of Man? It sounds like a whole lot of fun no matter how flexible your rules. I think I'm going to steal the phrase "free range personality" and use it to describe myself instead of "rebellious non-conformist". Your set of words is much kinder. Jane -- I was pleasantly surprised to see my library has some of the Garry Disher mysteries. I even checked one out, though I have no business in adding another book to my reading pile this week! Rose -- Glad you checked in this morning as I heard about the new evacuations last night. It is utterly exhausting being on constant alert, coping with uncertainties for yet another day. How are your girls coping with it emotionally? Oh and I almost forgot. I came here to post a link, another Tolstoy link. We've had War and Peace music and knitting, how about some Russian cooking? It [the book] is only available for Kindle, but here is an article with a few recipes about the Tolstoy Family Recipe Book

Good to hear you got some sleep last night, Rose, and it sounds like the winds have died down around the state. Good thing, too, as firefighters are stretched pretty thin with so many active fires. I could see escaping for some breathable air. Sometimes these fires stubbornly linger for days in rugged foothills, and even once they are out the smell of smoke is going to linger for quite some time. A few days after the huge fire that took out part of our area, I took the kids to trick or treat in a neighborhood on the other side of town. In Southern California, people hang out all year around fire pits, and around Halloween they do so in their driveway waiting for trick or treaters. But that year I wanted to scold them all because that smell of burning wood freaked me out!! Hello, trigger warning! But back to bookish news. Here's a link to a fun BBC article Great Authors Forgotten by History

This is why that scene in War and Peace bothered me so much, the scene when Pierre goes wandering around Moscow while it burns. Goodness, I'm having such a visceral reaction to the news -- as are all my neighbors who've been through this before. I really hate October!

:grouphug: Slightly freaked out sounds like a completely sensible reaction. :grouphug: You and your dh just need to take turns sleeping tonight, though I do hope for your sanity that the winds die down. Keep checking in!! I'm glad to find posts from you each time I have a chance to sit at my computer. There is another large fire near my ds, by Disneyland, and he said he's having to wear a mask to breathe. Not sure how he's going to survive working outside tonight as he is somewhat asthmatic.

What an awful day. :grouphug: to your girls on the loss of their theater home and more hugs to all of you as you sit completely unsettled and worried. I've been in your shoes 2 or 3 times in the last 15 years, so am fully empathizing. It is a total nightmare.

Firestorm days are the absolute worst. Hope you've at least packed up your car, or have your important stuff ready to go. My young neighbor is a student at Sonoma State where classes have been cancelled and students are evacuating.