Last night I finished a wonderful Chilean noir mystery, Dark Echoes of the Past by Ramon Diaz Eterovic. It is the only novel of his translated into English, though his books are very popular in Chile. I'd definitely read more of them and think several of you would enjoy this one, though it isn't for the squeamish as there are a few brutal descriptions of the torture tactics used during the Pinochet regime. But the detective, Heredia is a great character. He writes book reviews when he doesn't have a case, his office/apartment is packed with books and he reads everything from poetry to Dashiell Hammet, and he has a cat. You also get some wonderful noir atmosphere: I loved it, but decided a "palate cleanser" was in order, so I started reading Three Men in a Boat! Am still somewhere in book 7 of Middlemarch, and am finding it hard to discuss what I was thinking earlier in the book, knowing what I know now, and having stumbled upon spoilers when following rabbit trails on the internets.

I first learned about Miss Read from Jane, and very much enjoyed a collection of Christmastime novels. I read them while in Hawaii one Christmas, and it was a bit of a disconnect to be enjoying the tropical breezes while reading about cold, rainy and snowy England. But they are decidedly cozy, very sweet and delightful.

Huh. I tested as a middle class woman, 18-24 with a post graduate education. 2 out of 3! It was an odd test. I was totally stymied by the music section because I PLAY orchestra, opera, ballet, musicals and bluegrass and contemporary pop (Christian pop at church, but still....) I answered as an audience member. And the range of music, tv and books that you had to have listened, watched, read and liked/dislike was a little odd, maybe the choices too obvious. It was all music you'd hear at the mall. I would have thought I would have come out much older -- AD/DC and Madonna and Dolly Parton are what us old folk listened to way back when, and let me tell you from experience, the audiences for classical music tend to be even older folk!

Wait -- the clubs have been up for 24hours? The boardpocalypse was a long and dark time. I'm glad it is coming to an end!! I found I spent less time on the internets than usual. I also: Played violin (well duh, it's what I do, but Holy Week was a blur of rehearsals and services) Went on a quilter's retreat in wine country and succeeded in quilting while drinking wine. Got my muscles nice and sore from gardening. I'm aiming for that arid but tropical look -- think succulents, salvias and palm trees. Listened to some podcasts, one of which I wanted to share: It is a Penguin Podcast with Neil Gaiman discussing how he and Terry Pratchett wrote Good Omens. It is delightful and interesting, and a must listen for those of you who are fans of either author or of the book. I started listening to some Spanish stories for learners in both podcast and youtube format. And read some books! Middlemarch: I'm about halfway through book 7, so almost done. It remains a delightful read. The most recent Elizabeth George mystery, The Punishment She Deserves, was a pleasant return to the kinds of mysteries George used to write. And, Jane will appreciate this -- the Annoying Character was missing entirely from the action! I'm about half way through an excellent mystery by Chilean author Ramon Diaz Eterovic, Dark Echoes of the Past. It's got a very noir vibe to it, and the mystery is tied to the nightmare of the Pinochet regime. Unfortunately it looks as if this is the only mystery to have been translated into English, and I'm not quite ready to read one in the original. And I'm about 100 pages into River of Doubt, a nonfiction book about Teddy Roosevelt's expedition in South America in 1914.

I prefer physical books over the kindle, but hard back vs paperback depends on where I'm reading. I especially love a hard bound book that will lay open on the table next to me while I eat. I have used all sorts of implements as book weights to hold open pages -- butter knives, my phone, the number stand at the neighborhood taco shop. But I hate a heavy hard bound book that is cumbersome and heavy to hold when reading in bed. I can't deal with small print anymore, so won't touch most trade paperbacks. I don't mind rough cut edges on the paper, but its been a while since I've seen a book like that. I do like nice paper -- the only thing I don't like about the print version of War and Peace I bought during last summer's read is the thin paper, almost like old air mail stationary (anyone here old enough to know what I'm referencing?!) Audiobooks only work if I'm doing something like driving, knitting or quilting. But I can't be looking at directions on a knitting pattern or cut fabric while listening to an audiobook -- just can't break concentration long enough to focus on the craft at hand! Or when driving I turn the book off when I'm looking for a parking place or a specific address. And an audiobook can't be something that will make me squirm. Call the Midwife, for instance, with the graphic descriptions of medical stuff, was just too much for my drives! I'd need it in print so I could squint my eyes and skim over the icky stuff, lol!! Oh -- thinking of old air mail stationary reminded me of trying in vain to find some paper in the house that had a watermark. I was reading aloud Hound of the Baskervilles, and wanted to show the kids what a watermark is since it was a big clue.

Elizabeth George does a great job filling in any pertinent background info you need, so I think you'd be fine jumping into this one. It certainly isn't cozy (or cosy for that matter!) but it isn't as dark as some of her earlier titles.

Woohoo -- my first post on the new boards! I was out of town much of last week, and it took some doing to get back on the forums due to password issues and an old e-mail address. But here I am! While we were on blackout, I read and very much enjoyed Elizabeth George's latest Inspector Lynley novel, The Punishment She Deserves. I know folk who gave up on the series a few years ago, for understandable reasons, but this felt like the good old days of her novels. This was a book I found at Costco -- I always stop by the book table, and while I don't often find something to buy, it is a pleasant surprise when I find a new title by a favorite author. Mumto2 -- I was using your postcard as a bookmark for this book as it seemed fitting to have an English postcard for a book set in England. And, for those of you Brit tripping, this was set in Shropshire. I'm about 3/4 through Middlemarch, but have slowed down a bit as I've once again hit a dull section on politics. It's like the war sections in War and Peace, a necessary part of the novel, but a slog nevertheless.The war scenes out-slog the political scenes by far, lol! I've been listening to some podcasts, including some of the Duolingo stories for intermediate learners of Spanish. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy they were to follow, so have been hunting for some more listening practice on youtube. The plan is to follow up with some Spanish language novels.

Hoping the results of the French exam come quickly and that she passed this time! And about reads during The Great Blackout of 2018, I just found the most recent Inspector Lynley novel while shopping at Costco. Didn't even know there was a new one out, so finding it was a treat!

:seeya: Checking in and waving hello before the big shutdown. My mini challenge is to get all our tax stuff organized for the accountant so I can reclaim my sewing table!! And, yeah, I might read some books, too over the next few days. Catch everyone on the flip side! PS -- who else was here when the boards switched to this format back in, I think, 2008? Kareni, Lady Florida -- who else?!

The bolded is exactly how my ds would describe Wooster. Jane in NC's ds is also a Wooster grad who found his "people" there. Jane and I have nothing but glowing comments to make about the college. My ds started working in a geology lab the spring semester of his Freshman year. He did field work all three summers of his college life, including a couple of weeks in Iceland. He also presented at the big Geology Society of America twice -- once as a sophomore and once as a senior. He also tutored math and geology and was a TA for a couple of semesters. In fact at graduation, I gushed to his professors, thanking them for how they nurtured and pushed him. It was all that I could have wished and hoped for during those long years in the homeschool trenches. Aside from the wonderful faculty, he found his crowd of people there. Smart, engaged, quirky, not competitive. The student run coffee house was a haven freshman year where the kids who don't drink would gather to play board games, Apples to Apples or Cards against Humanity. His tight knit group of friends started playing D&D, and two years after graduation are still playing weekly via Skype!!! (My ds is in Japan teaching English, and is the Dungeon Master for the group.) Friends invited him to spend Thanksgiving at their house, a small group of them hiked on the Appalachian Trail one spring break, and at graduation his friends and their families and our family took up huge tables in the big family-style Amish/Mennonite restaurants in the surrounding area. What separates Wooster from the other LACs is that their capstone project is big and mandatory. And, if you do not pass it, you do not graduate. There is so much support along the way that it seems shocking that anyone would not complete and pass it, but 2 girls from his glass didn't pass. It was the only truly stressful part of his undergraduate time, and I think helped him put off grad school for a little while (hence teaching in Japan). Wooster is beautiful, and to my Southern California boy, the trees and rolling farmland, the quaint small town vibe, not to mention the actual 4 distinct seasons, was exotic.

My oldest ds was in the college program for a full year back in 2010, and it was an excellent experience. He worked Tomorrowland attractions (meaning rides) at Magic Kingdom (D-World). He was guaranteed 35 hours a week, though of course during peak seasons would work overtime. It was more than enough money to live on. He auditioned for entertainment positions, but his height wasn't right for some of the costumed characters. Most of the Disney "face characters" I know -- Belle, Ariel, Elsa and etc, are not in the college program but got in through the big audition process. (It usually takes multiple auditions.) Those young ladies have really worked all over the world -- Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo. The housing was excellent. They ran a really tight ship with the housing -- spot inspections, zero alcohol and drug tolerance, zero party tolerance. The housing was also incredibly secure -- guards at the gates with guests having to sign in and out, with no over night guests allowed. My ds did not have a car his entire time on the college program, but the program's transportation was sufficient for getting to and from work, getting to and from Walmart or other grocery stores. My ds recently told me that they are putting more people into those apartments, that there are now bunk beds so that 4 are sharing an apartment instead of 2, which I think would kind of suck. 4 people getting ready for work with one small bathroom?! Or the one who has to get ready for the 4am bus when the roommates didn't get back from their shift til midnight? He made some really good friends, both domestic college program kids and international employees. My favorite text message was from him on Christmas Eve, something like he would call us later because he was at Applebees with "The Brazilians". Everyone was missing family at the holidays so the group from Brazil that worked with him just took him in for their Christmas Eve dinner. The one caveat to the whole thing is that college program employees get NO benefits. Yes they are working full time but they do not get health insurance. This was pre-Obama care, so don't know how that would work now. My ds came down with walking pneumonia that year and had to take a taxi to a store-front urgent care, all of which was paid for out of pocket. But they get other employee benefits like being able to get a certain number of friends and family into the parks for free. We had a great family trip to visit him, and he was able to get us nice hotel rooms with the employee discount, used his dining discounts, and got us into all the parks for 3 days in a row, I think. He also bought himself a Universal annual pass and had fun going there on his off days. He finished his degree and is now a full time employee at the parks here in California doing specialized stage technician work. The lights on the castle at Christmas? That's my boy!

I find this utterly delightful, both VC's reporting about her reading and Mumto2's searching for the exact historical spot. It could ONLY happen here in BaW land!

Most people look at their mileage, or gas consumption, to judge how much driving they've been doing. Me? It is the progress I'm making on my audiobooks. I've listened to 10 hours of Middlemarch in 10 days, and I haven't been driving every day! Hoping this week I can instead be productive with some knitting or quilting while listening. I'm really enjoying it. I read Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile last week. I knew "who dunnit" before the death(s) on the Nile happened, but the fun was in the characters and watching Poirot solve the case. I know some of you here are Louise Penny fans. Usually I am too, but I had to abandon the latest novel, Glass Houses. It got a little too convoluted for me -- don't want to say too much to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet. I'm clearly in the minority on this book, based on the reviews at Goodreads. And I've got guilt about not liking it as she says in the afterward that she started writing it while her husband was dying -- she wanted to escape for a few hours each day to Three Pines and the characters she loved. I do love those characters and the setting. Love the importance of art and poetry in their lives. Wished I ate as well as they do. But this particular story -- one aspect of it really -- ticked me off!

LOL, Robin! You win!!

My ds graduated from and loved Wooster. It is full of down to earth, nerdy, intellectual kids. He didn't like the hipster vibe he felt at Macalester, and decided he didn't want an urban school location. Don't know what he didn't like about Lawrence, but it seemed a lovely school, too.

I'm listening to Nadia May as she has read all the Jane Austen books to me many, many times. I like Juliet Stevenson as an actress, but I really didn't like her as the reader of Mansfield Park, but of course it is Mansfield Park. The reviews of her (Juliet Stevenson) Middlemarch are just glowing, but Nadia has my loyalty!

Sorry to have been AWOL for a couple of weeks. Robin, thank you for checking in to make sure All Is Well! Since I haven't posted in a bit, thought I'd share my eclectic, year to date book list: Mort by Terry Pratchett. Not my favorite Pratchett but Death is a favorite character! Captain to Captain a Star Trek novel. What can I say? Not my typical genre but it was a Christmas gift from my son. Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto by Leslie Buck. Fascinating look at a year studying traditional Japanese pruning techniques True Grit by Charles Portis Y'all were right in recommending it all these years, especially the audio version. Loved it! Goblin Emperor by Kathy Addison. Stand alone fantasy with a great protagonist. Two thumbs up! West with the Night by Beryl Markham. Another winner of an audio book. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles French. Historical mystery, not bad, but read after being immersed in so many excellent books. Original Sin by PD James. Realized I had read it years ago, but it was fresh and and excellent The Fifth Doll by Charlie Holmberg. A fairytale/fantasy set in Russia. Great world building, quick, easy read. Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong. Wow -- great mystery and an excellent book on modern China Then after a week or so of the reading doldrums, my books in progress are: A Loyal Character Dancer by Qiu Xiaolong. Not wowing me as much, a little clunky, but still enjoying it. Middlemarch by George Elliot. A nice chunky audiobook to keep me company in the car and while quilting or knitting. ETA: Wait a minute, I forgot a couple of completed titles! Educated by Tara Westover. I see there is a thread devoted to just that title. It is definitely a mixed bag of a book. Cold in the Earth, a DI Fleming novel, set in Scotland. I really wanted to love this, but it just got silly.

I had to re-read your post because I thought your family was heading to China for a month long business trip! One of these days I'll get back there...and not recognize anything! I was there the summer of 1981, when people still wore Mao suits, when the trains were all coal powered steam engines, but I did get to witness the first trickle of capitalism leaking out into the open. And are you paper piecing all of that Lucy Boston quilt? :svengo:

Goodness -- 2nd page of posts already? Thought I'd post an update then go back and catch up with everyone. Last week I read a somewhat cozy mystery set in Japan, The Flower Master by Sujata Massey. It was pretty good, all in all. The author got much of of Japan right, but the characters, when it served the plot, too often acted and spoke like Americans. But, all in all, a fun romp in Tokyo with a decent mystery. Massey has written about 11 in this series featuring Japanese-American Rei Shimura. The book I'd really like to try by her is a new one about a female lawyer in India, The Widows of Malabar Hills I finally found the first of the Inspector Chen series, Death of a Red Heroine, by Qiu Xiaolong, and am totally blown away by it. The author grew up in Shanghai, left the country just before Tiananmen and wound up staying the US. He is a poet, misses the food of his homeland, so made Inspector Chen a poet AND police detective as well as a lover of food. And a member of the community party -- it really adds some authentic color to the story, and allows Qiu to make political commentary. I'm a little over 100 pages in and am really enjoying it, and already know I'll be reading the entire series. Finished West with the Night, which I loved, and at the library over the weekend picked up a collection of Beryl Markham short stories and articles published during her lifetime.

Were you reading my mind, VC? Just last night I was feeling the need to add a Victorian tome or two to my reading diet, and wondering whether to return to Dickens or try someone else. And here you present someone else, someone hitherto unknown to me, George Gissing. In reading about him, I came across this NYT article from 1991, marking the centennial anniversary of the publication of New Grub Street. ETA: Violet Crown warns that the first few paragraphs of the article contain major spoilers. Reader, beware!

Without meaning to I've started the mystery tour with y'all by reading a Scotland Yard novel. It was a splendid read, too! Original Sin by PD James. The mystery is set in a publishing house on the Thames, downriver by the Docklands. One of the incidental characters is an aging mystery writer who has lost her knack. I had such a sense of deja vu reading it, and realized I must have read it before, but didn't remember enough to spoil the outcome. Still listening to, and thoroughly enjoying West with the Night.

Just came home from the library with the first Charles Lenox title, A Beautiful Blue Death, and with a mystery set in Australia, Kittyhawk Down, an Inspector Hal Challis mystery. I scored at the library's used book store, too, with a couple of PD James titles and that western several of you read last year, The Sisters Brothers. Now to have lunch and settle down with a book!

That's it! The confusion comes from too many Charles -- Charles Todd the author, the Charles Lenox series by Charles Finch. And too add to the confusion I was thinking I had read the Ian Rankin books because of the character Ian Rutledge! And you remember correctly that we, and a few others here, I think, had enjoyed them well enough but gave up. That's why I was confused when you and Kathy were talking about Charles Lenox going to sea -- I was wondering why you both were still reading the series we had abandoned a couple of years ago.

Oh my!! Congratulations!!! No Brit Tripping for me, though as an unabashed fan of all sorts of British mysteries, I'll be bumping into y'all along the way. And adding lots of titles to my long TBR list. For example, I thought I had read the first few Charles Lenox books, but after reading the description on Goodreads, it seems I have it confused with the series about the WWI vet who had the "ghost" of his dead Scottish army buddy working cases with him. Guess I didn't read the Charles Lenox books after all, and have a shiny new series to try! And I need some paper versions of mysteries as, so far, my 2018 reading has been exclusively audiobooks. Which is weird as I usually have several books going at a time, both print and audio. I finished The Goblin Emperor last night, and really liked it. It is so very different from other fantasy novels in that it is purely character driven, and the action is not sprawling in battle scenes and quests across vast landscapes, but all happens in the limited setting of a palace and the surrounding town. It's like a Jane Austen novel in that way -- we are always in the character's mind, watching how the character acts as others come in and out of the scene. It is a classic bildungsroman, the mental and emotional journey of a very decent and likable young man who is unexpectedly thrust on the emperor's throne and must learn to cope with the position, the politics, the loneliness, the expectations of others. I could have used the print version, however, as all the names sounded alike and I had no compendium at the back of the book to remind me of who a character is. And there were a few obvious turns in the plot, and a few clunky moments, but overall it was a refreshing, positive change of pace. The yin to the yang of Game of Thrones! Next up in my audible queue is Beryl Markham's West With the Night.

It's been awhile since I had one of those conversations. I like having a book with me so I've got something to fill time while waiting, but all too often when someone asks what I'm reading it is just a polite question, and my answer usually shuts the conversation right down! I'm never reading the latest bestsellers but something a little weird. "Why, it's a memoir about the 9 months the author spent as a gardening intern in Kyoto." Or, "War and Peace. No, really! I'm reading it for fun and really like it!" They smile politely and change the subject. :laugh: I never even heard of the Trixie Belden books! I read Nancy Drew and some Hardy Boys. LOVED Black Stallion (was there more than 1 book?!) and Heidi. My love of all things King Arthur started with the Mary Stewart's books. I recently reread Crystal Cave and liked it just as much as I did at 12 or 13. And I loved Tolkien. Don't think I've ever read LM Montgomery, but have Blue Castle on my list thanks to this group! My second grade teacher, bless her, read to us every afternoon after lunch, and her series of choice was the Oz books. It was the best thing ever -- a teacher who knew we'd be useless in the early afternoon, and who knew the benefit of reading aloud.