Book a Week 2015: BW41 alfred hitchcock

[Jane in NC]

I listened to several of the original "100 object" podcasts, and have flipped through the book at the store a time or two. I should get it for dh for Christmas, then we can go find find some of those objects on our trip!  A visit to the Royal Observatory is already on my must list, too!

 

 

You can take a boat down the Thames to Greenwich.  I highly recommend arriving this way and then walking up the hill to the Observatory. 

 

 

 

[Pam in CT]

You can take a boat down the Thames to Greenwich.  I highly recommend arriving this way and then walking up the hill to the Observatory. 

 

 

 

Oh but this is brilliant.

[Robin M]

Congratulations, Eliana, and good wishes for the little one!

 

I need the help of you BAW ladies. I'm in a Public Speaking college class and have to get up in front of the class and tell a spooky story. It has to be about 4 minutes long. Do you have any suggestions or links for stories that would make good retellings, especially ones that are not well known and might be of interest to a class full of young adults, younger than me that is. 😊 I've been looking around but haven't found anything to strike my fancy yet. Thanks!

 

ETA: I have a collection of Poe, and will use him if nothing else comes up.

Poe was the first and only thing that came to my mind.  The Tell-Tale heart, especially.  

[Onceuponatime]

I am currently stuffing my face with Brach's candy corn. I allow myself one bag each year (I used to eat 3 or 4 bags each year). Since I have been eating poorly while sick (who the heck wants to eat salad when you have no taste buds. I want comfort food) now was a good time :laugh:

I buy one bag a year too. This year I went wild and bought caramel macchiato flavored candy corn. It was scrummy.

 

My favorite Dava Sobel was the one about Copernicus, because it was centered around his book.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I listened to several of the original "100 object" podcasts, and have flipped through the book at the store a time or two. I should get it for dh for Christmas, then we can go find find some of those objects on our trip!  A visit to the Royal Observatory is already on my must list, too!

 

 

The Master and Commander series is my literary sextant connection.  Each day at noon the Captain and the "young gentlemen", aka the Midshipman, take their readings to pinpoint their location. I once tried to figure out how a sextant works at an exhibit on the Shackleton expedition, but I think it would have made more sense to see it used on the open sea rather than in a closed museum space. I have all 3 of my dad's slide rulers, one of which I used back in math class in the early 70s...

 

I don't recall finishing Longitude when I read it many years ago.  I distinctly remember reading it while the kids were at a YMCA swim class, because the mom next to me, who clearly was not a reader, kept interrupting my reading to chat. Upon seeing the title of my book, she said, rather vaguely, "Oh......you must have to read lots of books since you homeschool."  

 

I never want to confess that this is my favorite part!!!  :w00t:  :leaving:  :lol:

[Violet Crown]

Oh and I think I,ll give James a miss. He sounds very unkind.

To be fair, while James certainly had a literary obsession with furnishings, I don't know of any reason to think that he held or expressed such sentiments in his actual life. The excerpt related the point of view of a particular character; and not, as you rightly observe, a particularly kind one.

[Nan in Mass]

To be fair, while James certainly had a literary obsession with furnishings, I don't know of any reason to think that he held or expressed such sentiments in his actual life. The excerpt related the point of view of a particular character; and not, as you rightly observe, a particularly kind one.

Ah. I see. That makes sense.

[Nan in Mass]

You can take a boat down the Thames to Greenwich. I highly recommend arriving this way and then walking up the hill to the Observatory.

 

 

 

Ooo... I would like to do this some day!

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

I loved Longitude. Commercial pressure, Crown intrigue, scientific race, big bribe (oh, I mean, prize) at stake, working class upset out of nowhere. Something for everyone, really. Nan, I think you'd enjoy it if you haven't already.

I haven,t! I will put it on my wish list!

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

The Master and Commander series is my literary sextant connection. Each day at noon the Captain and the "young gentlemen", aka the Midshipman, take their readings to pinpoint their location. I once tried to figure out how a sextant works at an exhibit on the Shackleton expedition, but I think it would have made more sense to see it used on the open sea rather than in a closed museum space. I have all 3 of my dad's slide rulers, one of which I used back in math class in the early 70s...

 

I don't recall finishing Longitude when I read it many years ago. I distinctly remember reading it while the kids were at a YMCA swim class, because the mom next to me, who clearly was not a reader, kept interrupting my reading to chat. Upon seeing the title of my book, she said, rather vaguely, "Oh......you must have to read lots of books since you homeschool."

Lol My middle one has been one of those "young gentlemen" lol. He actually owns a sextant. It is easier to understand how one works if you fiddle around with a protractor and a piece of string someplace with a horizon first. On the unfun side, oldest is mourning the loss of a classmate on El Faro. And I am alternating between trying not to think about it and holding the families in the light. Ug.

 

Nan

[Jane in NC]

I am so sorry, Nan. I had wondered if your guy had been on this boat but did not dare ask. Hugs all around.

[Nan in Mass]

I am so sorry, Nan. I had wondered if your guy had been on this boat but did not dare ask. Hugs all around.

No, thank God. We knew there was a problem early on because middle one told us they,d gone radio dead. A boy in one of his classes had done his coop on her this summer and was worrying. Oldest,s friend mentored that boy,s replacement. A short career - three weeks. Heartbreaking. Those cargo ships run so close to the edge financially that there is a lot of pressure to save time by ducking under storms rather than waiting for them. Oldest, who just got off a ship the same age as Faro, says things are constantly breaking on a ship that old. 50 foot seas and 140 knot winds make it pretty much impossible to launch a lifeboat. The crew is very much at the mercy of the decision of those in command, which I think is part of what is upsetting him. That and that he is one of the ones responsible for keeping the engine running and can imagine the scene in Faro,s engine room. That,s two ships lost in storms now with crew members my kids knew.

[Stacia]

Nan, I'm not 'liking' your posts because of the heartbreaking content, I'm 'liking' them in solidarity.

 

It's heartbreaking. I cannot even imagine the terror of being caught on an ailing ship in high seas. My condolences to your family on the loss of friends. :grouphug:

[Stacia]

Since it's October, this list might fit...

 

10 Books That Will Change Your Mind about Bats

[mumto2]

Since it's October, this list might fit...

 

10 Books That Will Change Your Mind about Bats

Nothing will change my mind about bats! When they are out I go in. Easy.....

[Pam in CT]

No, thank God. We knew there was a problem early on because middle one told us they,d gone radio dead. A boy in one of his classes had done his coop on her this summer and was worrying. Oldest,s friend mentored that boy,s replacement. A short career - three weeks. Heartbreaking. Those cargo ships run so close to the edge financially that there is a lot of pressure to save time by ducking under storms rather than waiting for them. Oldest, who just got off a ship the same age as Faro, says things are constantly breaking on a ship that old. 50 foot seas and 140 knot winds make it pretty much impossible to launch a lifeboat. The crew is very much at the mercy of the decision of those in command, which I think is part of what is upsetting him. That and that he is one of the ones responsible for keeping the engine running and can imagine the scene in Faro,s engine room. That,s two ships lost in storms now with crew members my kids knew.

Oh, Nan.   :grouphug:

[Pam in CT]

BATS!!!

 

Lots to talk about, bats.  Nearly as good as rhubarb.  I have to run out and deliver my son to his daily grind.  Will report back shortly.

[Rosie_0801]

I finished 'The Psychic Tourist: A Voyage into the Curious World of Predicting the Future' by William Little. It was just the right level of sophistication for reading on the train home after dropping dd off to her father.

[Nan in Mass]

I love bats. They eat mosquitoes. And they are really cool. The ones we have are really cute.

 

ETA I finished a Georgette Heyer. Funny fluff.

[Jane in NC]

I love bats. They eat mosquitoes. And they are really cool. The ones we have are really cute.

 

ETA I finished a Georgette Heyer. Funny fluff.

 

Those who know me understand how much I appreciate bats conceptually.  In fact, it is a bit of a family joke that bats like me as I seem to be in residence in the Northern family cottage whenever there is a bat invasion.

 

Just last summer a bat came into the house and flew around the bedroom occupied by a young guest who was too polite to awaken us to ask for assistance.  I was mortified that she was attempting to shoo this uninvited guest out without realizing that old houses have strange places for critters to hide.

 

The next morning my husband found the "cute" bat and removed it.  The better news is that the old family cottage has a new roof and that some hidden cracks along roof seams and around the chimney are now properly sealed.  So hopefully those bats will stay outside where they belong and I can enjoy them conceptually.

 

[Tress]

I like bats :D, we have very cute little ones near the house. For years I thought we had these very quick little birds who only showed themselves at nightfall. Shows what I know :lol:.

 

Yesterday I finished Robinson Crusoe. Turns out I downloaded both Robinson Crusoe *and* Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in one volume (ebook). No wonder the second part was very unfamiliar to me. That made book 90 and 91 of this year.

[Jane in NC]

My husband forwarded a Tweet to me:

 

 

http://t.co/dYCub5qIUk

[Pam in CT]

I love bats. They eat mosquitoes. And they are really cool. The ones we have are really cute.

 

Awww, of course you do.  I knew you were a kindred spirit!

 

 

FAMILY BAT STORY #1:  After years in New York, my husband and I had recently moved out to the wilderness (suburban New Jersey).  I had not yet learned about bats, and thus had only internalized through osmosis our cultural phobia about them, and thus did yet not know that Bats Are Our Friends.

 

I was pregnant with our first.  Overcome with first-trimester exhaustion, I collapsed into bed quite early, long before my husband was ready.  I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard a strange rustling sound coming from the bathroom.  I got up to investigate, spotted a suspiciously bat-shaped shadow fluttering wildly behind my newly-sewn curtain, closed the bathroom door firmly, and went to the sitting room where my husband was watching the news.  "There's a bat in our bathroom," I announced.  

 

"Huh," he replied without looking up.  "Wonder what you do, to get rid of a bat."  (Remember: New Yorkers.)  "Guess we call Animal Control in the morning?"

 

"Um, I will tell you right now, I'm not going to get any sleep at all, so long as there's a bat in the house."

 

"Well, so, how do you propose we get it out?"

 

"Look, dude, there's no 'we' here.  Right now my job is to gestate this baby, and your job is to get rid of the bat.  You're clever, figure it out."  I returned to our room, verified that the bathroom door was firmly closed, and pretended to read.

 

Quite a while later, he came in, wearing his trench coat, leather gloves, and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat pulled down low.  "I got into Animal Control on the World Wide Web," he announced triumphantly.  (This was just after Al Gore had invented the WWW.  Search engines had yet to be invented.  We were quite unusual, that we had Home Access to the WWW through my employment at AT&T.  It's actually not possible to convey, to you younger ladies, just how random and astonishing it then was, to actually locate information that you wanted.  A triumph my children will never know.)  "They say, the way to get rid of a bat is to open the window."

 

All right then.

 

He eyed the bathroom door.  I eyed him.  "I'm going in," he said, adjusting his cowboy hat just a little bit lower.

 

"You're my hero," I replied, scootching down a bit further under the covers.

 

He took a few moments outside the door, marshaling his resources; then went in, hurled up the window sash in a single motion, and hastened back out, breathing heavily.

 

"CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR!" I shrieked.  He obliged.

 

I looked at him.  He looked at me.

 

"How will we know if it leaves?" he asked, peering out our bedroom window into the dark of the wilderness beyond.

 

___

 

We decided that Animal Control's assurances, that the bat really did want to be outside, and could feel the cooler outside temperatures and smell the outside smells and sense those delicious outside bugs, and would direct itself to the opening, meant that all we had to do was leave the door firmly shut, and wait.

 

We failed to realize the Rookie Error of leaving the bathroom light on.

 

____

 

I actually fell asleep.  Quite some time later my husband came in, conducted some unseen investigation that left him satisfied that the bat had indeed flown out, and went to bed.

 

_____

 

~ many hours later ~

 

A weird swishing sound has permeated my dreams.  Slowly, I emerge into consciousness.  Swish, swish.  

 

Blink.

 

"OH MY GOD TOM WAKE UP THIS INSTANT THE BAT IS FLYING OVER US!!!!!"

 

Moan.

 

"GET UP!!"

 

Moan.  Swish. Whimper.  

 

My husband opens his eyes.  The bat is circling above us, careening crazily. I pull the comforter over my head.

 

"Well, what do you want me to do?" my husband demands irritably.  "I left my trench coat out in the hallway!"

 

The *towering* absurdity of this is, thankfully, enough to jolt us into recognition.  He scoots under the comforter with me and we choke with laughter in the stuffy darkness for several minutes.

 

"OK.  Here's the plan," he finally says.  "You stay under the covers with the baby.  I, your hero, will sally forth into the hallway to don my gear and gather my tools.  Then I will drive the bat out the window."

 

"Then we'll all live happily ever after."

 

"Right.  I'll be back."  He waits for the bat to cross to the other side of the room, then quickly clambers out of bed and -- crouching way down low to the floor -- skedaddles out of the bedroom in his underwear.  He shuts the door behind him.

 

"So NOW you remember to shut the door?!" I shriek after him.

 

"Well, better that we know where it is, right?" he shouts back.

 

Several minutes later, he returns.  I peek out.  He's back in his full trench coat / leather gloves / cowboy hat regalia, except now his skinny little legs are poking out at bottom.  He is carries a SNOW SHOVEL in one hand and a broom in the other.  I am *crying* I'm laughing so hard (even as I, simultaneously, really really want that bat out of my bedroom).

 

First he runs around opening each of the bedroom windows.  Then he turns off the bathroom light.  Then he crouches down low near the door to see what the bat does.  The bat keeps on careening in circles.  He says, "Bat.  The window.is over.THERE," and he gestures menacingly with the snow shovel.

 

Bat continues circling.  Tom advances, still crouching, snow shovel blade raised high.  Bat's careen pattern shifts to smaller circles.  Tom waves snow shovel.  I am choking.  I can't watch anymore.

 

 

Then, abruptly: "he went out!"  My husband couldn't have been more surprised.

 

 

 

 

 

(I have stuff I have to do, now.  Stay tuned for Family Bat Stories #2 and #3...)

 

[Nan in Mass]

Nan, I'm not 'liking' your posts because of the heartbreaking content, I'm 'liking' them in solidarity.

 

It's heartbreaking. I cannot even imagine the terror of being caught on an ailing ship in high seas. My condolences to your family on the loss of friends. :grouphug:

Maybe not that bit, but most of the rest you can imagine just by singing sea chanties. I grew up singing them and have disconcertingly found them all too real.

 

Don,t you cry my pretty dear

Tho you,ll be left behind

For the rose will bloom on Greenland,s ice

Before I change my mind

 

Or

 

Oh if I had the wings of a gull, me boys

I would spread them and fly home

 

Beware what books you give your children to read, what songs you sing them... Powerful stuff... I,m not regretting all those sea chanties and sea stories. I grew up on the same ones and am as bad as my boys.

 

Nan

[KathyBC]

Finished Middlemarch!  :cheers2:  I will be thinking about those themes for awhile now, I'm sure.

Next up is either Joyce Carol Oates' The Sacrifice or Far From the Madding Crowd. Probably the former. 

[Mom-ninja.]

Still reading BNW. It's slow going as we don't get to it every day. Hard to find time to read aloud to your teen when the other kids loiter around. We finished The Giver and have started A Wrinkle in Time. I've never read this book so at least it's new for me.

 

I am close to finishing Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. Again, don't get to it every day. This book is longer than I anticipated. It's longer than P&P itself. According to my Kindle I'm at 88%. So before finishing the book I will share my formulating opinion. First, I must repeat that I am not a fan fiction fan. :) I almost never read spin off books unless written by the original author. So my opinion is is already biased. That said I do think the author managed to keep the vocabulary close to a JA flavor, but of course added terminology that JA would never ever have used with being a "book about what happens behind closed doors." So that part as been fun. However, I don't feel that the Elizabeth in this book is the real Elizabeth. You know as far as a fictional character can be real. ;) She's not witty enough in her conversations. She's more often than not at a loss of words. That never happened in P&P. Elizabeth being unable to come up with a response just isn't Elizabeth. She's too submissive to Mr Darcy actually. The parts in the book that Elizabeth is supposed to show her spunky self then goes too far. So she's either too subdued or too outrageous for either to be believable for the original character.

 

Spoiler (if you plan to read the book): I mean she takes out a pistol, aims at Lady Catherine, and shoots the feather sticking out of Catherine's hat. Um, just no. Elizabeth would never need to resort to physical violence (yes, shooting at someone's head is violent) because she was capable of such verbal fencing that physical violence was beneath her. So for me that scene was just ridiculous. It was supposed to be funny I guess, but I just rolled my eyes and groaned at the idea of Elizabeth being so angry that she lost her speech and instead took out a gun instead because she lost her cool. In my world Elizabeth does not lose her cool in front of others especially Lady Catherine. Elizabeth is not the only character that does things out of character in my mind. Georgiana running off to war and thereby putting others at risk of death and grief is just not something I think she would have done. Then there's Fitzwilliam falling in love with Elizabeth. Just no. That little turn also disappointed me. I think JA made it clear that Fitzwilliam was not interested in Elizabeth. It is entirely possible for a man and woman to be friends and there not be any romantic feelings from either side. So don't like that turn of events in this book.   

 

My other complaint is the length of the book. It just keeps going. There's no real story line/plot. Just keeps on truckin'. First, lots and lots of sex. All day and night and everywhere. Then kidnapping and attempted rape, then miscarriage, followed by still birth. Then years of infertility with first Elizabeth and then Darcy suffering depression. Then Georgiana running away and Darcy looking for her in another country for months. 

 

There are little side stories about other characters that are really irrelevant to the story. One really doesn't need to know the back story to Darcy's past lady of the night.

 

I guess you could say that I'm not going to sing praises for this book. That said it was a fun enough diversion. I am going to finish it which is more than I can say for some books (looking at your Outlander). I will not be reading the continuing books the author wrote. I already feel this book has gone on too long let alone continuing the story. Maybe if I'm really bored, but I doubt it as I have way too many books on my TBR list.

 

I think it's clear why I don't usually read fan fic. :lol:    Perhaps I am too picky.  

[Chrysalis Academy]

Pam!!! I'm laughing so hard I spit coffee on my desk and nearly choked to death.  That story is hysterical, and you tell it so well.  I am going to let Shannon read it, we're working on descriptive essays right now and your story is a stellar example.  I can see Tom, vividly, in my mind's eye.  I keep giggling. My family thinks I'm nuts.

[Stacia]

Jane, thanks for the medical post. I think that may explain why my cholesterol is so high! :lol: I just sent it to my dh. I'm guessing his health will be ok since English is not his native language. He may need to cut back more on his daily English usage, though, to make improvements come about. 

 

Pam, lol!

 

I love bats (in theory), but I've never had to deal with one up close & personal. I do have a bat house in my yard & have wished we would have bats. We have so many mosquitoes we could feed a colony of bats quite easily. As far as I know, though, we don't really have bats around our house.

[Jane in NC]

Pam's bat story reminded me of another bat discussion on the thread a year or so ago.  Shukriyya wrote:

 

 

This has been deemed the most beautiful bookstore in the world. It is quite lovely and I would certainly enjoy an afternoon or several spent there with a latte and some chocolate. It's located in Portugal which is also home to this astonishing library. Not only is it visually stunning...

 

The magnificent floor is covered with tiles of rose, grey and white marble. The wooden bookshelves in Rococo style are situated on the sidewalls in two rows, separated by a balcony with a wooden railing. They contain over 35,000 leather-bound volumes, attesting of the extent of western knowledge from the 14th to the 19th century. Among them, are many valuable bibliographical jewels, such as incunabula (books printed before the year 1500). These beautiful finished volumes were bound in the local workshop (Livraria) in the rocaille style.

 

They have also devised a way to deal with the potentially devastating problem of insects... :eek:

 

 

 

 

"Yes. To keep books from being damaged by insects, the Mafra library uses bats. 500 of them. The bats are kept in boxes during the day but at night they are let out and eat up to double their own body weight in insects. (There is a joke here about bats eating bookworms. But let’s not). I imagine most of the time just before opening in the morning is spent herding the bats back into the boxes and cleaning up guano."

 

There is something fittingly medieval about their solution.

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

I really appreciated bats for their insect consumption abilities and have always liked them. I suggest that farmers install bat boxes to help with insect control.  However, I must confess to being grateful that I do not live in a tropical country; after reading David Quammen's excellent book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, I was rather shocked to find how many animal-to-human disease leaps have been tracked back to bats.  Just sayin'.  The fault of course, is not with the bats but with human encroachment into their habitats.  But still.  

[idnib]

My favorite Dava Sobel was the one about Copernicus, because it was centered around his book.

 

I see what you did there.  ;)

 

No, thank God. We knew there was a problem early on because middle one told us they,d gone radio dead. A boy in one of his classes had done his coop on her this summer and was worrying. Oldest,s friend mentored that boy,s replacement. A short career - three weeks. Heartbreaking. Those cargo ships run so close to the edge financially that there is a lot of pressure to save time by ducking under storms rather than waiting for them. Oldest, who just got off a ship the same age as Faro, says things are constantly breaking on a ship that old. 50 foot seas and 140 knot winds make it pretty much impossible to launch a lifeboat. The crew is very much at the mercy of the decision of those in command, which I think is part of what is upsetting him. That and that he is one of the ones responsible for keeping the engine running and can imagine the scene in Faro,s engine room. That,s two ships lost in storms now with crew members my kids knew.

 

:grouphug:

[Kareni]

 

(I have stuff I have to do, now.  Stay tuned for Family Bat Stories #2 and #3...)

 

I'm eagerly awaiting stories 2 and 3.  I certainly enjoyed Family Bat Story #1!

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

 

10 Books That Will Change Your Mind about Bats

 

That was a fun list even though I doubt it will change my mind about bats.  One book on the list that I recall fondly from my daughter's childhood is Stellaluna.

 

 

My husband forwarded a Tweet to me:

 

http://t.co/dYCub5qIUk

 

That was amusing, so thank you Jane.  I've shared it with my husband and daughter for their pleasure.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Lady Florida.]

\

 

Kathy, I loved the phrase that your grandson "barged into the world!"  :lol: Is that he present personality as well?  

 

 

 

Hmmm. I'm not sure yet. When he was still small he was such a smiley guy. In fact, anytime anyone described him it was to say he smiled all the time. 

 

Now at 15 months, a bit of his personality is showing up. He does seem tougher than his brother. When the oldest, 3-1/2 falls and bumps a body part there's quite a bit of drama over his boo-boo. When the little guy falls and bumps a body part, he gets up and keeps going as though he didn't even notice the fall. :D

 

((((Nan)))) It's so hard on the family and friends of the crew.

 

Mom-ninja, I don't think I'd like that JA fan fiction book (I'm not big on fan fiction either). I agree with you. That totally doesn't sound like Elizabeth. Her weapon has always been her tongue. She don't need no stinkin' gun! She'll shoot you down with words every time.

[Kareni]

In honor of today's bat discussion.  This is copied from a post by a person named Lover of Books on the Amazon Kindle forum.

 

 

 

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Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

And here's a currently free Kindle book that sounds appealing ~ 

 

Taking Flight  by Adrian Magnuson

 

"Jeremy Walsh’s parents assume he’s been abducted by the elderly man he met on a cross-country flight, but it’s the other way around.

Two unlikely companions meet in midair: 13-year-old Jeremy, sent against his will by his career-absorbed father to spend the summer with his bipolar mother, and Harry, one-legged and afflicted with mid-stage Alzheimer’s, who escapes the confinement of home for what may be his last adventure. Their journey begins, trailed by Harry’s wife and Jeremy’s parents, who threaten to cut it short. It’s a race against time and circumstance."

 

 

"In Adrian Magnuson's Taking Flight a curmudgeon losing his memory and a snarky teen fleeing his parents find a common passion in bird watching. Endearing characters, delightful story and a poignant final scene give this book wings along with the beautifully depicted birds.†—Frances Wood, author of Brushed by Feathers: A Year of Birdwatching in the West

 

***

 

another title ~  The Veiled Heart: The Velvet Basement Series  by Elsa Holland

 

 

"After a cold and cruel Victorian marriage, Miriam rejects the foibles of her class and is determined to help London’s fallen women. A fleeting brush with a handsome stranger at the scandalous Velvet Basement creates a chance encounter to sin. Surrendering once could be forgiven, but what happens when this dangerous game promises to extend beyond one unforgettable encounter to a passion that threatens the very foundation of her world?

Max, is delighted at the invitation by the veiled visitor to the decadent Velvet Basement. But the flammable seduction turns world-shaking when the veil is torn and reveals the woman who has always haunted him. Can he play a dangerous game and win the heart of the woman he wants? Or will discovering his true identity push Miriam far out of reach forever?"

 

 

"Miriam and Lord Worthington are unconventional characters, and this sets the book apart, as they are superbly written and feel very real. Their relationship will have readers' hearts fluttering, and pining for the next book in the series." ~ RTBookReviews

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Violet Crown]

Ah bats! I love the trapped bat story. (Hint: window screens.)

 

Here are our local bats, the world's largest urban colony.* Mexican freetails, living under a bridge over the river downtown. A good date night: Hey honey, let's go watch the bats!

http://www.petertsaiphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/peter_tsai_austin_photo_portfolio-4.jpg

 

A downtown statue in their honor:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4b/86/54/4b8654fe22e6052ea2e247f2fc2b27ea.jpg

 

 

*There are ugly rumors that a Certain County to the north now has a larger colony. But they would not be the Right Sort of bats so we will ignore the rumors.

[Nan in Mass]

Pam - I love your bat story! Thank you for the laugh.

 

I totally get the internet part. All three of our fathers worked for AT&T. Same with all of my high school math class except the doctor,s daughter and one anomoly. We played many paper rolls of star trek in the middle of the night, connected to the mainframe by suction cups lol.

 

I grew up where bats were common. They occasionally flew around your head at night. They especially liked flying around the birdie when we played badmitton in the dusk. They got in the house sometimes and we opened a window and shooed them out with a towel. Then I went to college in Virginia. The dorms were typical brick ones with a giant window at one end of the hall and bathrooms at the other. One day, an engineering student friend and I were feeling dwarfed by a bunch of very loud football players visiting one of the southern belles on my hall and wondering how to get past them to the stairwell when a bat flew down the hall low over our heads. The giants screamed and threw themselves face down on the floor with their arms over their heads. We couldn,t believe it! We told them to stop scaring the bat and my friend got me up on his shoulders so I could drop the top of the window. The poor bat flew out. Scrawny little engineers to the rescue! We felt pretty triumphant lol!

 

Pam, I can,t wait for the next installment. I loved your husband,s outfit. Very practical, actually. Overkill in this case, of course, but it would have been just the thing for a raccoon.

 

Nan

[Jane in NC]

Ah bats! I love the trapped bat story. (Hint: window screens.)

 

Here are our local bats, the world's largest urban colony.* Mexican freetails, living under a bridge under the river downtown. A good date night: Hey honey, let's go watch the bats!

http://www.petertsaiphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/peter_tsai_austin_photo_portfolio-4.jpg

 

A downtown statue in their honor:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4b/86/54/4b8654fe22e6052ea2e247f2fc2b27ea.jpg

 

 

*There are ugly rumors that a Certain County to the north now has a larger colony. But they would not be the Right Sort of bats so we will ignore the rumors.

 

This seems to go beyond a "colony of bats".  A colossus of bats? A "Good Lord, I can't believe there are that many" of bats?

[Kareni]

This seems to go beyond a "colony of bats".  A colossus of bats? A "Good Lord, I can't believe there are that many" of bats?

 

 

A thirteen colonies of bats (only if they're American bats, of course)?

A republic of bats?

A united nations of bats?

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Mom-ninja.]

Spoiler alert for Darcy Takes a Wife.....

 

 

 

 

Um, really? I'm supposed to believe that Georgiana returned to Pemberly pregnant yet not married? And by the man who was her appointed co-guardian and respected family member? 

 

Nope. Not plausible in my mind. Not even the least bit. 

 

Glad to be done with the book. Very glad. Will not be reading the rest of the series. 

 

I am now reading a collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson which includes "The Lottery" and I will consider it my October spooky read. It'll be good to wash the besmirching of Pemberly inhabitants from my brain. 

[Onceuponatime]

I've been reading Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and supernatural suspense. It is an anthology of short stories, more amusing than spooky. Barber Illuminati anyone? There have been a few time portals and out of body experiences as well. I think I've become handicapped by my inability to believe in the supernatural. No shivers for me unless something is grounded in reality, but I don't want to read realistic horror at all. So, I will have fun reading these as fantasy.

[Kareni]

Last night I finished the contemporary romance Dark Wild Night (Wild Seasons)  by Christina Lauren; I enjoyed it.  It's the third in a series and while it could be read as a standalone, you'd miss out on some of the back story.  Definite adult content.

 

"Lola and Oliver like to congratulate themselves on having the good sense not to consummate their drunken Las Vegas marriage. If they'd doubled-down on that mistake, their Just Friends situation might not be half as great as it is now.

 

...Or so goes the official line.

 

In reality, Lola's wanted Oliver since day one-and over time has only fallen harder for his sexy Aussie accent and easygoing ability to take her as she comes. More at home in her studio than in baring herself to people, Lola's instinctive comfort around Oliver nearly seems too good to be true. So why ruin a good thing?

 

Even as geek girls fawn over him, Oliver can't get his mind off what he didn't do with Lola when he had the chance. He knows what he wants with her now...and it's far outside the friend zone. When Lola's graphic novel starts getting national acclaim-and is then fast-tracked for a major motion picture-Oliver steps up to be there for her whenever she needs him. After all, she's not the kind of girl who likes all that attention, but maybe she's the kind who'll eventually like him.

 

Sometimes seeing what's right in front of us takes a great leap of faith. And sometimes a dark wild night in Vegas isn't just the end of a day, but the beginning of a bright new life..."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Rosie_0801]

Spoiler alert for Darcy Takes a Wife.....

 

 

 

 

Um, really? I'm supposed to believe that Georgiana returned to Pemberly pregnant yet not married? And by the man who was her appointed co-guardian and respected family member? 

 

Nope. Not plausible in my mind. Not even the least bit. 

 

I wonder what it is with people that makes them need to trash fictional characters. I read a blurb for Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom saying Raoul became a wife beater. No. No he didn't. He married his lady and they went off and grew up. Or if she didn't grow up, perhaps he took up drinking and slept at his club a lot. He did not turn into Mr DV Perpetrator.

[Robin M]

Oh my gosh,  pam.  That's hilarious, albeit scary for you at the time.  The visual of your hubby will leave a lasting impression.

Several minutes later, he returns.  I peek out.  He's back in his full trench coat / leather gloves / cowboy hat regalia, except now his skinny little legs are poking out at bottom.  He is carries a SNOW SHOVEL in one hand and a broom in the other.  I am *crying* I'm laughing so hard (even as I, simultaneously, really really want that bat out of my bedroom).

  

All this bat talk is giving me ideas for the story I've been writing. I have to make it more literary than genre related for class.  Character driven, indeed.    :lol:

[Kareni]

For those of you with pre-teens, this book might be of interest; it's a free Kindle version which I've posted before.

 

David and the Phoenix  by Edward Ormondroyd

 

"A Magical Adventure David knew that one should be prepared for anything when one climbs a mountain, but he never dreamed what he would find that June morning on the mountain ledge. There stood an enormous bird, with a head like an eagle, a neck like a swan, and a scarlet crest. The most astonishing thing was that the bird had an open book on the ground and was reading from it! This was David's first sight of the fabulous Phoenix and the beginning of a pleasant and profitable partnership. The Phoenix found a great deal lacking in David's education-he flunked questions like "How do you tell a true from a false Unicorn?"-and undertook to supplement it with a practical education, an education that would be a preparation for Life. The education had to be combined with offensive and defensive measures against a Scientist who was bent on capturing the Phoenix, but the two projects together involved exciting and hilarious adventures for boy and bird. A wonderful read-aloud book, adventurous and very funny, with much of the magic as well as the humor of the fantastic."

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[Kathleen.]

I read "Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness" by Poe and my 9yo read "Mysterious Messages" by Gary Blackwood.

:)

[Pam in CT]

Ah bats! I love the trapped bat story. (Hint: window screens.)

 

Here are our local bats, the world's largest urban colony.* Mexican freetails, living under a bridge over the river downtown. A good date night: Hey honey, let's go watch the bats!

http://www.petertsaiphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/peter_tsai_austin_photo_portfolio-4.jpg

 

A downtown statue in their honor:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4b/86/54/4b8654fe22e6052ea2e247f2fc2b27ea.jpg

 

 

*There are ugly rumors that a Certain County to the north now has a larger colony. But they would not be the Right Sort of bats so we will ignore the rumors.

Ah, yes.  I've been longing to visit for years now.  But we'll get to that....

 

 

 

Pam - I love your bat story! Thank you for the laugh.

 

I totally get the internet part. All three of our fathers worked for AT&T. Same with all of my high school math class except the doctor,s daughter and one anomoly. We played many paper rolls of star trek in the middle of the night, connected to the mainframe by suction cups lol.

 

I grew up where bats were common. They occasionally flew around your head at night. They especially liked flying around the birdie when we played badmitton in the dusk. They got in the house sometimes and we opened a window and shooed them out with a towel. Then I went to college in Virginia. The dorms were typical brick ones with a giant window at one end of the hall and bathrooms at the other. One day, an engineering student friend and I were feeling dwarfed by a bunch of very loud football players visiting one of the southern belles on my hall and wondering how to get past them to the stairwell when a bat flew down the hall low over our heads. The giants screamed and threw themselves face down on the floor with their arms over their heads. We couldn,t believe it! We told them to stop scaring the bat and my friend got me up on his shoulders so I could drop the top of the window. The poor bat flew out. Scrawny little engineers to the rescue! We felt pretty triumphant lol!

 

Pam, I can,t wait for the next installment. I loved your husband,s outfit. Very practical, actually. Overkill in this case, of course, but it would have been just the thing for a raccoon.

 

Nan

Gracious, that jogs another memory (the family animal stories are pouring in like, um, cats and dogs (?)).  No raccoon story, but we did have Millie the Millennial Squirrel, who crashed our Year 2000 New Years Eve party to considerable consternation... but I'll stick to bats for now.

 

 

FAMILY BAT STORY #2

 

Fast forward a dozen years or so.  We've settled into our life in the wilderness.  Tom's sartorial sense has evolved; he still wears the trench coat on excursions back to The City, but around the homestead he's moved on to a Bean barn coat.  The kids and I have spent many happy weeks at Family Nature Camp * in Acadia and Family Adventure Camps in the White Mountains, at which we have gone to Bat Talks and gone on Bat Walks and built Bat Boxes and our consciousness has been duly raised.  We know, now, that Bats Are Our Friends.

 

One lovely summer evening the five of us, plus Tom's parents, plus Tom's sister and her husband and their boys (Recall: New Yorkers, the lot of them) are lingering over dessert on the patio.  The sun has set.  The adults are sipping coffee by citronella candlelight.  The kids are  tramping in and out from the kitchen, clearing dishes and piling them in the sink and pinching ice cream sandwiches from the freezer.  They've derailed the sliding screen so many times as they go in and out, that we've given up and just left the door ajar.

 

Bats have begun flying overhead, but I have not drawn attention to them, as I know from experience that with this particular crowd, calling attention to them as they devour their quota of 1,000/mosquitoes each, will result in an abrupt cessation of our leisurely mood.  

 

(Y'all might have a prediction at this point, huh?)

 

 

My son, perhaps 7, has made an especially spectacular mess with his ice cream sandwich.  Not just his face, but his hair, his arms up to the elbows... he's a mess. I dispatch him to clean up.  The other kids run off to catch fireflies.  Jonah obligingly enters the kitchen, drags the stool over to the sink and turns the water on.

 

Now, my son.  He has always been prone, bless his heart, to get... mesmerized.  He starts playing with the faucet spray.  

 

After quite a few minutes, my sister-in-law asks incredulously, "Wait -- is Jonah actually doing the dishes without even being asked?  My boys would never --"

 

"Oh heavens I'm sure, not," I answer.  

 

"What's he doing in there, then?"  As one, the adults peer into the brightly lit kitchen.  Jonah, up on the stool, has his back to us.  He is holding the spray in one hand high above his head, creating a sort of indoor shower effect as he sprays down in the general direction of the sink.  I open my mouth to holler at him when I notice...

 

"--Wait," says my sister-in-law.  "Is that a bird flying around the kitchen in circles?"

 

Well, no.  No, that is not a bird, flying around the kitchen in circles.  

 

So far, it's just me and her, who've noticed -- all the other adults are focused on Jonah and the Interior Typhoon.

 

"Don't tell me that's a bat."

 

"JONAH!" barks my husband.  "YOU'RE MAKING A MESS!"  Jonah, riveted, does not respond.  He never does.  He can't hear us.

 

SIL, to me: "How are you going to get that bat out of your kitchen?"

 

Me, sotto voce, since I have a pretty good idea of how this is going to go once my MIL cottons on to what's happening: "Well, really all we have to do is get the lights turned off in there, and maybe open the rest of the screens, and then he'll find his own way out -- he doesn't want to be in there; he wants to get out --"

 

SIL: "So what you're saying is, you're OK with your young son in there ALONE WITH A BAT?"

 

Tom:  "JONAH!  I SAID, TURN THE WATER OFF!"  The boy hears nothing.  True: he's running the water.  Also true: the dishwasher is running the first round of dishes.  Also true: that's not why he can't hear us.

 

Me: "Well, I would prefer he come outside--"

 

MIL:  "What did you say about a bat?  Did someone see a bat?  Maybe we should head inside --"

 

SIL: "No, inside is where the bat is; we need to get Jonah out here--"

 

Tom: "JONAH! TURN.OFF.THE.WATER---"

 

MIL (Very Alarmed): "Jonah's alone with a bat??!!  TOMMY YOU NEED TO HELP HIM!"

 

Tom (tetchily): "He doesn't need help; he just needs to turn.off.the.water--"

 

BIL (another New Yorker)  (musingly -- he's a philosophical sort): "I don't know if us all staying outside is the right idea either... I mean, where did that bat come from?  I'm thinking, it must have come from outside, right?  And just flown in the door?  And it's highly unlikely that there's just one bat, right?  I mean, don't they live in herds?  So probably there are lots more bats, out here---"

 

SIL: "Don't be ridiculous.  I've never seen a single bat here before.  Pam, are there--"  She stops as soon as she sees my face.  "Ohmygod the kids are out there running around--"

 

The bat's careening pattern is becoming more and more erratic; his circles are getting lower.

 

Tom: "Oh look, there is a bat in the kitchen--"

 

MIL (peering into the darkened back yard, which is encircled by woods in every direction, in which the four other kids are running around whooping): "KIDS!  KIDS!  EVERYONE COME HERE RIGHT AWAY!  IT'S URGENT!"

 

Me, to Tom, as I stand up to go into the kitchen: "I think if we just get Jonah out here, and turn off all the lights in there--"

 

Tom: "Yeah, but wait, I'm afraid if we go in, we could scare the bat back into the main part of the house, and then we won't know where he is anymore--"

 

MIL (panic rising): "Well, we certainly can't sleep in the house if there's a bat in there; we'll have to go--"

 

FIL: "Calm down, dear, we'll figure something out--"

 

My younger daughter, and one of my nephews (the two Rule Followers) arriving on the patio: "Yes?  You told us to come in?"

 

SIL: "There's a bat in the kitchen with Jonah--"

 

 

~ and all of a sudden ~

 

Jonah steps down from the stool.  He stands in the center of the kitchen, spray faucet still running in his hand.  He looks up in wonder.  Time stops.  All eyes are on him. "Cool," he says aloud, awestruck, turning his head to track the bat as it careens around, streaming water on to the floor.  Then, elated:  "Hey MOM!!!  There's a BAT in the kitchen!"

 

It.was.awesome.

 

 

 

 

(Bat flew out no problem, as soon as we turned off the lights.  Turns out, turning off the lights is key.  PSA from the wilderness.  Kitchen floor was very clean.)

 

 

 

 

 

* That's actually US in the opening picture!!! The photo is at least 4 years old.  Too funny.  I'm the second from the right, in the purple cap, and my cousin Lisa is on the end with a black T shirt!  Stella is in the front row with an orange cap.  She's a good deal bigger now.  Note the World of Bats presentation on the agenda.  Good times.

[Nan in Mass]

What a great picture, Pam! The camp sounds awesome! We were just there, camping! Last weekend. We drove up Cadillac and watched the sun setting on one side and the shadow of the mountain rising on the other, sticking up above the shadow of the earth.

 

I got to you bil,s comment, and then had to back up and read both to my husband. The summer evening scene was so familiar. We had a similar problem in which one sister, who was working for Audubon at the time, played the country mouse and the rest of the family were the city mice. It was back when coyotes had first shown up in town. One sister had actually seen one walk out of the woods into her back yard. We were talking about how cool this was when it occured to me we had seven or so of our children, ranging from 2 to early teens, running around in that very same back yard playing flashlight tag. My suggestion that we might want to call them in set off a scornful tirade from country mouse sister, who had dealt with too many phone calls from the foolish public asking how to keep big bad wolves out of their yard. She finished by saying that unless our children acted like wounded rabbits, they were in no danger. My 7yo, who was tiny and had three tinier cousins outside, crouched down and said,"When I,m like this, I,m not much bigger than a bunny. And when I,m hiding in the bushes playing flashlight tag, I,m acting sort of wounded." That was the end of the flashlight tag. Country mouse was completely disgusted with us. (In everyone,s defense, we all lived in the same town, but country mouse hadn,t yet had children and we two city mice had spent a hellish evening a few years earlier when the flashlight tag players showed up saying they couldn,t find the two year old. She was tired from all the excitement of getting to play such a grownup game and had fallen asleep in her hiding place under a bush. (After thet, the very young were paired with an older child.))

 

I can,t wait for installment three! And I can just imagine the chaos millenium squirrel caused lol. We had a costume party. Lots of long skirts and robes. Scared squirrels and long anything aren,t a happy thing.

 

Nan

[idnib]

BIL (another New Yorker)  (musingly -- he's a philosophical sort): "I don't know if us all staying outside is the right idea either... I mean, where did that bat come from?  I'm thinking, it must have come from outside, right?  And just flown in the door?  And it's highly unlikely that there's just one bat, right?  I mean, don't they live in herds?  So probably there are lots more bats, out here---"

 

:lol: