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:

Thanks for the well wishes. He's getting stronger each day and may be able to go back to work in a week or two. Getting back to work is really important to him, so this is great news. I've only just started Larkin, but I am enjoying him. I've not read a lot of modern poetry and how concise his poetry is, is refreshing to me. His poems are cleaner, often short and sometimes there's an occasional f-bomb in the mix. Since my favorite poets are Frost and Donne this is a change for me.

Just popping in for a quick update. I finished Brideshead Revisited. The writing is exquisite. I do think I’ll have to re-read this one to fully digest all that it is trying to say to me. At times this one reminded me a bit of Catcher in the Rye, although I can’t articulate why. And, I agree with reviewers that you can see a lot of this book’s influence in some of Donna Tartt’s writing. Supposedly the mini-series with Jeremy Irons based on this book is supposed to be a good one, so I think I will watch it sometime soon. I am only a few chapters into A Passage to India. Since things have calmed down with my Father and he is recovering well at home, I plan to dive in to APtI and several other books I have in my rather large tbr pile this week. I have started reading Philip Larkin’s Collected Poems. I gave up on Joseph Brodsky, I don’t think I’m quite smart enough for him just yet – maybe another day.

Jane – thank you for the wonderful write up on Forster. I will definitely join in for A Passage to India. I remember the first time I read a Room with a View. The beauty of the writing literally took my breath away. After that I immediately read Howard’s End and enjoyed it. But I have never read APtI. I can’t wait to start it since I’ve also never done a read along. I have to figure out the quote and multi-quote thing so I can comment on all the books mentioned in these threads. So many good books – happy sigh. Update on my dad. He’s still in the hospital, but he is probably the luckiest man I know. He will come away from this without any significant neurological deficits which his doctors have told us is just amazing. We are thinking he will be discharged sometime this week. I’ve been staying with him pretty much this whole time so I’m looking forward to being home with my family again. I started reading Brideshead Revisited a few days ago. Andrew Kern mentioned it a lot at the last Circe Conference and I have wanted to read it for a while. It’s pretty much all I’m reading right now, since Dad requires so much of my time. I think I have abandoned Mansfield Park. As much as I wanted to revisit it, it was turning into a chore to read. If I decide to re-read an Austen I’d much rather read Persuasion since it’s my favorite. I plan to start A Passage to India when I finish Brideshead and I also want to start St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation this week. David Hicks mentioned it several times at the same Circe Conference and I’m curious. I’m also a few chapters into Light in August by Faulkner. I liked it enough to continue once I’m settled back home again. Please forgive all my typing errors, I’m quite sleep deprived – grin.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your kind words. It certainly makes a hard situation a little brighter. Of all the books I picked up to reread I picked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. At first I thought it might be too depressing,since the parts about Snape make me cry. But so far it is proving to be a good choice since it's my favorite of the series and it's like having an old friend with me while I sit with my dad.

My reading has pretty much come to a ground halt. My father collapsed and was rushed to hospital with an aneurysm. He had an angiography with the coil procedure and had another rupture during the procedure. So, even though I’ve been at the hospital with him day and night I have had little time for reading. The worst of his recovery is supposed to be the first 7-10 days, so I think I should be able to start killing time by reading books, but I think I’ll just stick to re-reads due to the constant interruptions in his hospital room. I did finish The Rook and The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax before all of the above happened. I enjoyed both, but I wouldn’t call either of them favorites. I haven’t read the thread yet, but I look forward to reading it tonight.

I finished Age of Innocence. I really, really enjoyed this. It reminded of the first time I read A Room with a View. I just loved the way Forster wrote his sentences and I felt much the same way when I started Age of Innocence. This was my first time to read Wharton and I’m going to have to read more. This was probably my favorite read of the year so far. I had a road trip this past weekend, so I chose The Rook on audiobook to listen to in the car. I don’t usually read this type of book, but it was just what I needed since I was doing so much early morning and late night driving. It did a great job of keeping engaged and awake – grin. I should finish this in a day or so. I’m also halfway through The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax on my kindle. But since I’m currently sharing my kindle with ds I only get a little bit of time each day to read this one ‘cause ds is a kindle hog. I’m starting Mansfield Park today because the discussion last week inspired me to pick it up for a re-read. I haven’t read it in years and it will be interesting to see where I end up in regards to Fanny/Edmund. All in all, a great week for reading. One of my goals for the year was to read more Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning books/authors. And this last week I finished two Pulitzer prize winners – yay.

Oh, I just love the Art of Simple Food. I learned how to cook from that cookbook. My copy is falling apart.

Yay, I finally finished Gulag. I chose to read it because last December I read the Big Green Tent and realized how little I understood about the Soviet Union and how much influence the Gulag had on so many of Russia’s great writers. I’m so glad I read it to the end. The last few chapters were really thought provoking and worth those times when I had to set the book down and walk away because it was just too much. I’m in the midst of reading Age of Innocence and The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (both BAW mentions). But as soon as those are done I, too, am going to have to pick up Mansfield Park for a re-read thanks to this thread.

My 13 dd is in CAP. She joined last May. It is only one night a week, but it can become a lot more. My dd participates in Cyber Patriot through CAP and that has taken up a few hours each weekend as well. She has done a Mini-Glider Flight Academy that was 3 days last summer and she just got home from Winter Encampment that lasted 5.5 days. This summer she wants to participate in a week long Glider Flight Academy and is going to go to a mini color guard camp that will be a 3 day weekend event this Feb. She doesn't have to do all those things, but she wants to. The minimum requirement is the weekly meeting. The Encampment is required to advance in rank, but is not usually expected in their first year. We are fortunate that we have a winter option since the Winter Encampments are typically shorter and cooler since we live in TX. The summer encampment can be anywhere from 7-14 days. There are some expenses involved. Uniforms for instance, but you can get scholarships for events and some squadrons have a sharing closet. Also after they get their Curry ribbon (one of the first) they receive a voucher that will pay for their first blues uniforms. We buy most all of our stuff 2nd hand at a local Army Navy store. CAP has been fabulous for our dd. She has made some really lovely friends, but the leadership skills she is gaining are fantastic. I would definitely recommend it. My dd had an already full plate with Martial Arts, music lessons, fine arts co-ops and she started her freshman year this year with a pretty heavy course load, but we have found CAP totally doable. My dd's favorite moment in CAP this past year was the moment they gave her the controls in her first Powered flight ( in a small Cessna). She said it changed her life - grin. She is now determined to get her pilot's license.

Wow, my tbr list has grown substantially thanks to last week's thread - grin. I finished: 1. Primates of Park Avenue. Just meh. It was an easy, fast read with some interesting stories about the super rich mommies of the Upper East Side. It wasn't filled with gossip, just an account of the author's experience from an anthropological stance. 2. The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds - an Isabel Dalhousie novel by Alexander McCall Smith. I don't really know why I like these novels since nothing much happens in them, but I do. I enjoy Isabel's love for Auden, the snippets of poetry and art. 3. Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi - I've wanted to read this for a while. But now that I have, I don't know how I feel about this one. I definitely enjoyed it and felt it was extremely well written, but at times I felt a little lost reading it. I'm still reading: Gulag by Anne Applebaum. I'm on page 423. I'm in the last part of the book and will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. Complete Poems in English by Joseph Brodsky. I'll be reading this one for a while. I'm starting: Either Light in August by Faulkner or The Nightingale by Hannah. I can't decide which, but I need something to read when I need to put Gulag down. And I need to pick The History of the Peloponnesian War back up so that I can discuss it with dd. I wish I didn't have so many other things I wanted to read instead of this one. I haven't read this many books in one week in a long time. My youngest is now 7 and his love for Minecraft is making it easier for me to fit some extra reading time into my day. I've also cut way back on my own screen time and am following Stephen King's advice in On Writing to carve out 4 hours a day for writing and reading. Of course I have break this up into small chunks throughout the day and evening working around the kids and hubby's schedules. But just doing this has brought some excitement back into my reading life.