I'm so jealous - in a good way. I would love to get to attend a class like that. I've taken it upon myself to learn painting this year and I'm terrible at it. But I'm having fun.

First things first - I just wanted to say how much I love this group and the posts. I look forward to reading through them every week. I finished the Big Four by Christie. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was so different from the last few I read and yes, a little predictable. But I loved the Poirot - Hastings dynamic in this one. I'm still plodding through Remains of the Day - the writing is lovely. I've almost finished Mary Oliver's Poetry Handbook - I can't say enough good things about it! I also finished a homeschool read - Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Tiny book, but so beautiful and sad. I'm finding I don't have much time for my own reading this year because my homeschool reads are taking so much of my time/energy. But I'm reading Bullfinch's Age of Fable with my ds and it's getting me excited to read Paradise Lost because it is full of Milton quotes. This enthusiasm is lost on ds however, but he is enjoying Bullfinch's. DD is still plodding through school reads. I need to see if she's completed any.

Hi All… Finally popping back in after a hectic start to the new year. DD caught the flu, I had emergency gallbladder surgery and we've been travelling. My reading has suffered for it, but now we are at home and healthy, so I expect it to pick back up. Robin - I love that poem. Thanks for including it this week. A few weeks ago I finally finished Roger Ackroyd. I enjoyed this one so much more as a re-read. It gave me such a different perspective while reading it since I knew whodunnit. I thought that would make me enjoy it less, but instead I was way more plugged into the clues and that caused me to marvel at Christie's genius. I just completed Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong. I really enjoyed this one! Thanks for the suggestion! DD is reading Justice The Right Thing to Do by Sandel. It's mostly for school, but I find her reading it in her free time, so I think it's a hit. I'm currently reading The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro and The Big Four by Christie. I've never read the The Big Four and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm also working my way through Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook. This little book is teaching me so much. I understand meter better than I every have and she has introduced to me to several poets I've never read before.

Oh, I read this years ago and loved it. I have read several other of Massie's books. This one and his Nicholas and Alexandra are my favorites. Loved your take-aways from the book.

I'm behind on reading everyone else's posts. We leave for a tournament tomorrow, so I'm hoping I'll be able read through the thread tonight since I'll probably be off line until Sunday. I finished Dreher's How Dante Can Save Your Life. I enjoyed it. A few times I became a little exasperated with his personal story, but I loved the ending and all the Dante bits. I'm looking forward to starting my own Dante Journey. I think I'll start it during Lent. I'm still reading Alexievich's Secondhand Time. It is so sad, borderline depressing, that I can only read it in small doses. I'm zooming through Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It took me a bit to get into. I've read it before and it's not my favorite Poirot. However, I'm enjoying it more this time. I'm also still reading the Benedict Option - just a few chapters a week. Even though I'm the only one in the family reading it it has made for great dinner time discussion. DD has finished Nature of the Beast and A Great Reckoning. She really liked A Great Reckoning. I need to get busy and give her some book suggestions because she'll be done with all the Louise Penny's soon. She's a super-fast reader.

DD finished her 1st read of the year - Louise Penny's The Long Way Home. Suffice to it say it was her least favorite book in the series. It was my least favorite too. But she is excited to start the next one because she has loved the series so far.

My daughter and I read it a few months ago. We both loved it. I wasn't familiar with the author beforehand, but it was fast paced story with a quirky main character that we enjoyed. For us, it was on par with a good Liane Moriarty book.

Yay - for Hercule Poirot! He's one of my favorite detectives and certainly my favorite Christie sleuth. I started reading his mysteries in order just a month ago. So, I guess it is fitting that my first completed read of the year is Poirot's Early Cases. Now I'm on to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I'm still reading Dreher's How Dante Can Save Your Life and really enjoying it. I've started a bit of the Inferno to go along with the Dreher. I'm reading Anthony Esolen's translation this time which I am enjoying far better than Robert Pinsky's translation. I need to catch up with the Benedict Option also by Dreher and I'm plodding along slowly with Secondhand Time. My reading has taken off pretty slowly this year, but hopefully now that the holiday crazy is over and the Christmas Tree is put away I can get more reading time in.

This is a great idea! I always forget to mark locations and then don't want to take the time to look back through the book when I'm working on my list.

I'm thinking The End of the Affair for my next Greene.

Hi All, I read this thread weekly, but rarely post. But, I really want to participate next year, so I thought I'd chime in with my wrap up for 2018 and goals for this year. Added bonus, my dd is going to participate this year. She wants to complete the BINGO. I'll just post her updates along with mine. 2018 was a tough year for our family. Because of that I only managed 44 books last year, mostly fluff. My favorites for 2018: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry - loved this audiobook! Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - my dd and I really enjoyed this one. Upstairs at the Whitehouse by JB West- might have been my only non-fiction. Delightful. The Quiet American - this was my first Greene. It won't be my last. Goals for 2019: 72 books The Divine Comedy Finish Christie's Hercule Poirot books in order Paradise Lost 10 books by Russian authors DD and I are both aiming for Bingo Homemade variation of the 10x10 - I'm doing a 5x10 Enjoy my reading more!!! I'm currently reading How Dante Can Save Your Life by Dreher, Secondhand Time by Alexievich, and Poirot's Early Cases by Christie. DD's first read of the year is A Long Way Home by Louise Penny.

I finished A Passage to India. While, I loved Forster’s writing and the much of the story, I think this was might least favorite of his books so far. But I’ve always wanted to read this one, so I’m thankful for the push to do so. I was supposed to be reading light and fluffy and instead picked up and finished The Nightingale. This actually turned out to be just what I needed despite the heavy themes of WWII. I was totally immersed in the story and not in my own troubles. I really enjoyed this read. Speaking of troubles, I got some great news. My kidney is just fine. They said it was a shadow on the ultrasound. It gave me such a scare, but I’m so relieved. I am being referred to a GI doc for the other issues. After almost 2 weeks of feeling miserable the meds have worked their magic and I’m feeling human again. I started A Moveable Feast, but other than that I’m not sure what I want to read next. I wouldn’t mind another book like the Nightingale, but maybe without the WWII theme. I can only read WWII era books in small doses. I totally commiserate with you PeacefulChaos. I'm facing lots of dietary changes and it sucks. I'm a bit older than you at 41, but it still seems so young to have to give up so much that I enjoy. I live a pretty modest life, but I enjoy eating and cooking. Yet, now my body has turned on me and seems to only want bland, white food. I'm in a mood, too - grin.

Thanks for good vibes and hugs. My dad is doing really well. His doctors are super impressed with his progress. Thanks so much for asking.

I finished The Martian. It was just what I needed since life has through me another crappy curveball. I went to my dr. with chest pains last Wed. I had an EKG and an abdominal ultrasound that showed a large mass on my kidney. I go in for a CT scan tomorrow. Try as I might not to, I'm driving myself crazy with worst case scenarios. I'm planning on finishing A Passage to India, but I'm also going to just focus on reading fluffy books with happy endings for a while. I need to take my mind off of this. I'm not really enjoying 2016 very much...

Thank you, Karen, for the lovely write-up on romance novels. I’m not much of a romance reader either, but I’m tempted by one or two of the titles you listed. I read and finished Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would like to read more books like that for my fluffy reads. Any suggestions? I’m still reading Caves, so I skipped a lot of the Passage to India posts in order to avoid spoilers. I’ll read them and post any thoughts once I’ve finished Caves. I’m still reading Philip Larkin’s Collected Poems. I’m also reading Sophocles’s plays with dd as a read-aloud. And I started Celebration of Discipline for devotional reading during Lent. I only read small portions of this at a time since I want to really meditate on the passages I read, so I’ll be reading this one for a while. I'm also hoping to start The Martian this week, but since my mother-in-law is coming to town in 4 days and the house is a terrible mess I may have to put that off for another week, so I can clean. :crying: