@Kareni Thank you especially for the link to Katherine Addison's "Five Favorite Moments" in writing The Goblin Emperor. I loved seeing all the kindred souls posting in the comment section saying it is their favorite book and go-to comfort read. And I'm ridiculously excited she is writing another novel set in that universe! Earlier this afternoon I finished Milkman by Anna Burns. I absolutely loved it. Was gobsmacked by it. Loved the writing, the main character and the evocation of a place and of situations so familiar yet so utterly alien. If you are considering it, I highly recommend you listen to the audiobook as apparently the printed version is a challenge. You are inside the main character's head, an 18yo girl who prefers to read while walking, and prefers 19th century novels. She is escaping the 20th century, specifically the 1970 Troubles in Belfast. The setting is never explicitly named, nor are the characters. It is a stream of consciousness narration of a few months in her life, with long rabbit trails into background and explanation that stop the action in the plot. It all makes perfect sense when listening to it as it feels as if you are listening to what is going on inside the 18yo's head. But apparently in print it means never ending paragraphs which, judging by some reviews, is exhausting. The NYT's called it a slog! Other reviewers who loved it nevertheless mention how difficult a read it is.  I'm also really enjoying the non-fiction Love of Country, the chronicles of a journalist's trips to the different islands of the Hebrides. The author, Madeleine Bunting, was a columnist for The Guardian for a number of years. It is the perfect travel book, at least for me, in that she describes landscapes and modes of transport, but intertwines the history and throws in lots of literary references, quoting Samuel Johnson and James Boswell who travelled the Hebrides together. She writes about George Orwell who decamped to the island of Jura after WWII, and wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four there. And she writes about the fun stuff -- going on a boat excursion to ride the whirlpool in the Gulf of Corryvrekan.

Good grief it is Tuesday, I haven't posted my update and have lots of catching up to do! @mumto2 I really enjoyed The Sunday Philosophy Club! It was the yin to balance out the decidedly yang of Ian Rankin's Edinburgh mysteries. And, I looked it up. Did you know The Really Terrible Orchestra is a real thing? Alexander McCall Smith was one of the founders, and he plays bassoon in the group. I wasn't sure whether to believe his author bio, so looked it up, lol! I agree that the ending was...odd. But the characters and the conversations are worth revisiting. I'm listening to Milkman, the 2018 Man Booker prize winner. I can't quite imagine reading it, as it is a very stream of consciousness book without names. But it works in audio with the Irish narrator. I'm totally riveted by it. It is the story of an 18yo woman in Belfast (though the place is never named) during The Troubles, and it immerses you in the world of living on one side of the line. The cruelties, the ways in which you have to cope. Will check back in later after I catch up with this week's discussion.

Just FYI: The castle is currently under tarps because they are redoing all the roof caps and turrets. (The castle hasn't had any major work done on it since it was built in 1955). The tarp isn't too ugly, though -- it has the castle painted on one side and Malificent and a dragon on the other side. Weather permitting, there will be fireworks on Sunday night, but a light show only on Monday and Tuesday along Main Street. As far as food, we are not fans of Blue Bayou, although the atmosphere is great. We like Cafe Orleans -- sitting outside and people watching while eating. There's often entertainers performing just outside of Cafe Orleans. We also like the pasta at Pizza Planet. Last December we had a nice and relaxing meal in CA Adventure at the Lamp Light -- a Pixar themed restaurant. We sat outside downstairs where we could watch the coaster taking off -- it was quiet and the food was good. The food and wine festival will be going on while you are there, so there will be lots of little trailers with yummy offerings.

Disneyland, yes? Anaheim?? Are you doing California Adventure at all or just Disneyland? And where are you staying?? It's been ages since I've gone with young'uns, but my ds is a cast member, (as is his girlfriend) so I can get answers to any specific questions you have. Below are some rambling thoughts.... Monday and Tuesday morning thru early afternoon should be quite pleasant as people tend to come to the park after school and work. Save the gentle Fantasyland Rides (Small World, Dumbo, etc) for then as both adults and families with young kids like to ride them and they can be the longest lines in the park! Sunday might be a little nuts, but you can get a good overview of the place and pick out the stuff you want to do when it is less crowded. It is "off season" but there are thousands upon thousands of annual pass holders in Southern California who will just go for a few hours on a whim, any day of the week. It is their own personal playground! Down load the app that has all the ride wait times. Think of some games to play in line, like finding hidden Mickeys. Definitely get fast passes first thing when you enter an area. California Adventure has much more space -- the walkways are wider and it just feels more open. Carsland is a hit with the younger crowd as is the Little Mermaid ride. Some 8 yos do fine on the coasters at Disneyland. There is nothing super crazy like the 6 Flags parks. Can't remember what the height restriction is. Space Mountain is totally cool as is Big Thunder Mountain. Indiana Jones freaked my kids out as did Haunted Mansion -- it was too spooky for them but your kids might be just fine! Our whole family hates Matterhorn since it jerks you around. The yeti is cool, but it is a painful ride. Stuff my kids liked and that ALL of you can do: To the left of the hub in the Adventure and Frontierland area: Jungle Cruise Explore the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (maybe renamed a Tarzan??) Riding the train around the park Pirates of the Caribbean -- don't let the line scare you -- it is a constantly loading/unloading ride so the line moves fast. Riding the boats Exploring Tom Sawyer Island -- a great place to let kids run and burn off energy. You take a raft to it! The cute Winnie the Pooh ride that is almost past Splash Mountain. Haunted Mansion is a gentle ride but some kids are totally freaked out and spooked by it. Your older kids might like Indiana Jones, but my kids found it a bit scary til they were older. Splash Mountain is gentle til that last drop. To the right of the hub in Tomorrowland: The roundy round rockets -- which have a name I can't remember at the moment. You'll know it when you see it, lol! Buzz Lightyear is great fun for all ages. Autopia is a classic! The 2.5yo might be able to go with you... Older kids would like Star Wars and perhaps Space Mountain -- the best coaster in the park! Fantasyland is great for all ages as is Toon Town. Can't comment on the current parades and entertainment. There is a Frozen "show", I think still by the castle, and a bigger more Broadway like Frozen show in CA Adventure. Take time to poke into the fire station near the flagpole at the entrance to the park. On the 2nd floor is Walt Disney's old apartment where he would sometimes stay, and they keep a light on in the window for him. You can't go in, but look for the light! I can comment more on food and CA Adventure later, if you'd like. And feel free to post or PM specific questions.

I too skimmed and edited while reading to the kids. But the funniest thing I did was when reading aloud the exciting bits of good books, like some of the Harry Potter books -- I'd stop speaking and just be reading to myself and wouldn't realize it!! My kids would get so exasperated! We'd have to figure out where I left off and start again.

Do you think it is a better Edinburgh book than 44 Scotland Street (which I have on my shelves)? I actually read about half of it several years ago but it never engaged me the way the Ladies #1 Detective Agency did. ETA: While I was at the library this afternoon I found and checked out the Sunday Philosophy Club. 😉

Happy Monday, everyone! My February romance indulgence will likely be a relistening of an Audible freebie from a few years back: Richard Armitage (what a voice!) reading famous love poetry from Shakespearean sonnets to Lord Byron to Shelley to Keats. Last week I read a satisfying Ian Rankin mystery, A Question of Blood. It had a serendipitous tie in with the Belfast based thriller I'd read a week early in that both books deal with the personal toll to those who fought in both sides of The Troubles. My other Irish read is much gentler and so much fun. A Secret Map of Ireland is by an Irish poet and journalist who writes about something unique and quirky in each of the 32 counties of Ireland. Each chapter is a short essay, making it the perfect "sip" book. While I am enjoying Michelle Obama's memoir, it is a bit long, and I wanted something different and lighter to listen to over the weekend. So I put Becoming aside and started listening to a fun Brandon Sanderson YA, Rithmatist. The premise is utterly ridiculous -- certain people have the ability to do battle through chalk drawings, and some of those drawings have come to life and are fighting on their own. But it totally works with its Harry Potter like setting of a school with plucky teens. @Kareni I've added the Hum and the Shiver to my "want to read" list. There were a few titles I'd like to read from that list you linked of musical books, but I'd probably add a few others as well, such as Patrick Rothfuss's work. He really captures what it is to be a musician.

Yep. My ds and I listened to it last summer and I remember the relationship between Cormoran and whatshername drove us both absolutely nuts. And the whole damsel needing rescue trope at the end. I wish she (the author, for those who don't know is JK Rowling writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) would just write solid mysteries featuring Cormoran as he is a great character.

I finally finished a couple of books last week: Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds is a lovely, quiet and fascinating look at the birds encountered in the Seattle area. Lyanda Haupt is not only an ornithologist and keen observer of nature, but a gifted writer. I look forward to reading more by this author. Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville was filled with far more detailed gritty violence than I like. But the haunted protagonist was a compelling character, and it was a well written and plotted thriller. It painted a bleak picture of The Troubles and of the uneasy peace of today, and I spent some time on the internet to read up on the factions and history. I'm enjoying listening to Michelle Obama read her memoir, Becoming. She comes across as down to earth, and as Lady Florida commented, it is fascinating how much we have in common while yet having had such different life experiences. She talks, without blame or resentment, about the realities of being one of the few Black women in Princeton or in the Chicago law firm where she first worked. But she also talks about all the things familiar to all of us -- family and love and figuring out life. I started a whimsical travel book, A Secret Map of Ireland. Rosita Boland, an Irish poet and journalist, traveled to each of the 32 counties of Ireland and visits something interesting and unique in each county. Not unique as in the oddball giant statues we have in the USA, but interesting, historical and off the beaten path. It isn't a standard travel book, but her own explorations of her country. And for reading during these tough winter days in Southern California (I had to put a sweater on this morning), I've got an Ian Rankin mystery, A Question of Blood.

@Matryoshka -- How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe has been on my nightstand for a few years now. My ds read, and as I remember, enjoyed it. I keep thinking I'm going to start it, so have left it there, vacuuming off the dust from time to time! My reading pace remains fairly slow this month. I didn't report in last week that I read another Arnaldur Indidrason mystery, Black Skies. Inspector Erlendur doesn't make a single appearance in this one, but instead we follow Sigurdur Oli. A good mystery, and it was good to get "to know' Sigurdur, an interesting and flawed character. Still haven't finished the lovely and short Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds. It is a nice quiet read when I do pick it up. I did get through (though it has lots of photos which help make it a quick read) the autobiography of the designer Kaffe Fassett, Dreaming in Color. If you are a knitter or quilter you might recognize the name. What a fascinating life! I'm now mildly stressed at the idea of designing a quilt worthy of the small collection of his fabrics which I got at Christmas! I may soon need a bit of Flufferton as a palate cleanser! I'm reading a very dark, gritty thriller set in Belfast, featuring a former IRA member who is haunted by the 12 people he murdered during The Troubles. It is really good. Just dark. It is The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville. Oh, and I started listening to Michelle Obama's memoir. I've got lots of hand work (knitting, quilting) to do so imagine I'll get through it fairly quickly.

Awwww, thank you @Robin M!!! I'm copying this, and saving it where I can find it. I love reading about a place and reading literature from or of that place before I visit.

Yes -- thank you for sharing this story! What a wonderful weekend to have shared with your dad. How was David Weber in person? Sometimes I get smitten by an author just based on hearing them talk at events and I wind up reading books which I might not otherwise pick up.

I'm finishing Basilisk Station on my kindle, and as I expected, it is much, much better reading it in print than listening to the mono-toned narrator. I thought I had heard of these before, and it was you AND Nan! What better recommendation could there be? That other book I mentioned, The Space Between the Stars is one I think you'd enjoy and anyone else who would like a more hopeful dystopian book. A friend put it into my hands saying it was her favorite book of last year.

You posted it toward the end of last year, which is why I was asking again, lol. I'll search for it and will add House with Green Shutters to my list. I read Ivanhoe in the last 3 years or so... I may spend a day or two by myself in Edinburgh, so fully appreciate the need for being paranoid!!

@Violet Crown Loved the Anglo-Saxon elegy. Thank you for sharing it! And The Virginian sounds like a fun a read. I'm ready to pay attention and take notes on your list of recommended Scottish reads. Poetry, novels. Favorite Edinburgh bookstores and anything else you think I should know.

Still a slow start to the reading year. I did finish a book, The Space Between the Stars by Anne Corlett. It is a hopeful, quasi dystopian sci fi which was very engaging, but not terribly memorable. I'm listening to the first in a series recommended by my brother in law who is a long time sci-fi reader. He loves the politics in two series written by David Weber, and I decided to start with the Honor Harrington series. On Basilisk Station is ok, though the reader leaves a bit to be desired. I'm not inspired by politics, but do appreciate the strong female lead who is based on Horatio Hornblower, and I like the conceit of the British Navy in space. This may be a series I continue in print (or see if the narrator eventually changes). About audio books. Anyone else find American women in general to be the worst narrators? I can think of exceptions, of course, but I've had a recent run of annoying female readers, all American. I'm dipping in and out of the beautiful and delightful The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands. Each essay is filled with rough sketches drawn by authors as they create book, and of course there are lots of illustrations and maps from books. Some essays are written by authors, some by illustrators. I just love it.

I finally finished a book!!!!! The Space Between the Stars is a hopeful dystopian-ish sci-fi. The premise is that a virus has killed 99.9% of all humans across several planets, and one survivor, a woman, wants to go home to earth. It isn't great literature, but it was absorbing, thoughtful and hopeful. I didn't know what to rate it on Goodreads, so I just didn't! Coffee or tea, but coffee for breakfast. Can I have a brownie with that ice cream for maximum gluttony? And I'd rather have dinner with some of my long time friends from here.

I loved homeschooling high school almost as much as I loved homeschooling early elementary. Teens start to mature into rational young adults during these grades and being with them feels like a reward for surviving the middle school and tween years. These boards, I think, make the prospect of homeschooling high school, and the college admissions process, seem far more daunting than it is. I've got 2 successful college grads now. Neither took any AP courses (and one went to a competitive private liberal arts college). I followed their interests, helped them find internships and mentors, even loosely unschooled some subjects. I drove them to community college classes, and delighted in listening to them bubble wth enthusiasm over those classes. I read aloud. We took the odd day off to go to the zoo or to the movies, just to spend time together before they headed off to start their lives. Both are very grateful for the education they received. 9th grade doesn't have to be that different from 8th grade. Sure you keep records and keep an eye on college admission requirements, but it probably isn't that different from what you've been doing. Shoot -- I didn't bother putting together a transcript until the summer after junior year!

I've not settled back into a reading routine due to cleaning out and reorganizing drawers, closets and cabinets. What a daunting and exhausting task! It seemed the natural thing to do when putting away Christmas, but it is like the children's book When you Give a Moose a Muffin -- you start one thing and see something else that needs to be done first, then something else has to happen and another day has gone by. My reading is further unsettled as I'm ready to abandon my audiobook. Foundryside is a just o.k. steam punk-ish fantasy, not sure if it is meant to be YA but I'd call it a gritty YA. Anyway, I'm disappointed as I had been blown away by the author's previous work, specifically City of Stairs. This one seems rushed, there are far too many information dumps to explain the tech and the world, and the characters are standard YA trope characters. Lol -- I'm depressing myself with this post! I'm going dig through my stack of books and pull out a mystery to start tonight!

Nope -- no need to set and state a goal!! I've never done any challenges or goals, though I almost completed bingo one year by accident as the books I had read nicely fit into the bingo spaces. @marbel Crack in the Edge of the World is the Simon Winchester book, yes? Does he mention in the book that he studied geology at Oxford (or was it Cambridge?) I always enjoy his books, especially when he reads them on audible. The Krakatoa book is my favorite. It is in that book that he discusses his geology studies, including a research trip he went on in Greenland back in the 60s or 70s. I haven't read the California book as I'm not sure I would glean anything new. AND @Robin M and @Melissa M (alas it seems I can't tag her) my first bird of the year was a lovely white crowned sparrow, which only visit us from October to March. I especially love their song. And last night I stayed awake listening to the magical sounds of a Great Horned Owl hooting. Perhaps it portends a great musical year?

On the night stand, and scattered around the house...(in other words what I'm currently working on) Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds (The perfect bed time read -- a few lyrical chapters on the delights of backyard and neighborhood birds.) Foundryside (chunky sci-fi on audio.) All Strangers are Kin (finishing from 2018, a memoir of traveling in the Middle East to master the Arabic language) I also have 2 map books, which I received as Christmas presents, to dip in and out of: The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey

Just sent several friend requests on GR, which means I ought to start keeping my reading lists up to date! This is my GR page

Oh good, I can still post my wrap up! I was out of town for the holidays and hadn't kept up with the threads, so was afraid I'd missed out! Will go back and read everyone's wrap up reports after posting this. I read 66 mostly wonderful, often excellent and occasionally stupid books. Some random stats: 33 female authors, 33 male authors. 29 mysteries 15 sci-fi/fantasy 13 literary fiction 9 nonfiction (6 of which are memoirs) Among my favorites are: Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Cloudstreet by Tim Winton Famous Father Dad by Jamie Bernstein Circe by Madeline Miller The Mere Wife by Maria Davana Headley City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett Mysteries remain my go-to genre for engaging but mindless comfort reads. I'll go with the armchair psychology explanation of mysteries being satisfying because someone puts a chaotic world back in order. And the one book I abandoned half way through was Kristin Lavransdatter. I was satisfied with what I read and just wasn't compelled to go further.

We'll be performing in the royal chapel at Stirling castle and Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh. I know we will visit Isle of Skye and Glasgow, and can't remember now where else we're performing (Iona maybe?) I'll be playing fiddle -- American fiddle, that is, and otherwise singing. Since we are from a Presbyterian church, we'll be visiting Haddington where John Knox was born and raised. So any reading recommendations will be welcome -- but not yet! Let me get through this holiday season first....

Just stopping by for a quick hello. No reading to report as I'm buried in holiday music gigs, sewing projects for gifts and other holiday festivities. Looking forward to collapsing on the couch and just reading after Christmas! I will likely re-ask in another month for a repeat of that list of Scottish titles -- I'm going there (and Ireland) with my church choir next summer!