It was fun reading all these titles, so many of which are favorites of mine. And one un-favorite: I hated Memoirs of a Geisha so much, I wanted to write to the publisher and demand my time back. I can forgive a lot of things, but not bad writing! It prompted me to send out an email to my friends and relatives asking them what book they hated to the point of outrage. (Clear winner: The Celestine Prophesy -- boy, do people hate that book!) I adore Bryson. I am just finishing A Brief History of Nearly Everything, and I love love love it. I won't repeat the ones others have mentioned. Here are a few you may not have heard of that are absolutely wonderful: A Lesson Before Dying New York Trilogy (read them as one book) The Metaphysical Club (don't let the name fool you) Defining the Wind (beautiful writing and hilarious) The first two are novels, the other two are sort of history of ideas. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Don't give up on War and Peace! It's just long, not hard, and it's terrific. He LOVES people -- if you like Ann Tyler, you'll like Tolstoy. The only tricky part is the names. One edition of W&P even comes with a bookmark that keeps them straight, or you can keep your own chart. But new translations of Tolstoy simplify the names as a matter of translation, which made Anna Karenina very easy to read. Reread Charlotte's Web now that you are an adult and can appreciate what an incredible piece of writing and philosophy it is. Some book!

Xminion, have not heard about Larson's latest book and I hesitate to buy and put it on my "TBR" (to be read) pile which already requires me to use a step stool to reach the top. :-) I'd love to see the Chicago Museum building. I take it it is no longer white? It really must have been breathtaking to see the whole fair in white. A gal in our book club, and the one who chose this book, grew up in Chicago and her grandfather worked on the fair buildings so she shared some photos and old movie footage from back in the day. So interesting. Jodi-

Technically, I didn't "read" Jaycee's book. I listened to the audiobook, read by Jaycee. I think that made it even better for me. I know Nancy and Phillip Garrido personally (worked with them at the convalescent hospital for quite a few years, but haven't seen them in more than 10 years now) and it still amazes and sickens me that I could know these people and not really know them at all. It was kind of weird though, when Jaycee quotes Phillip or Nancy, I could actually "hear" their voices saying those words. It's difficult to say that I enjoyed the book or that it was a good book, because what happened was truly horrible, but it did hold me riveted. And I read Room: a novel a couple of months ago, because it reminded me of the DuGard case in a lot of ways. I really liked it, too. See, I can say "like", because it was fiction, LOL. I also recently finished reading Water for Elephants and loved it.

I wanted to give an update, and thank everyone again for their thoughts and prayers for my mom. She seems to have done a full recovery. I call her the energizer bunny, she just keeps going, and going.... If you could all see how utterly frail she is, you could really appreciate that! Anyway, she seems none the worse for wear, and I expect her to see her 92nd birthday in April. ;) I would have posted sooner, but a week ago this last Monday, my best friend (the one I mentioned in this thread) called to say her oldest son was at the ER. He had passed away suddenly at the young age of 39. So needless to say, my life was put on hold til a couple days ago. I have not seen my sister much, which has been good. Some of the things I got out of this thread, and in particular the Gray Rock link, will follow. I highly recommend reading the comments at the end of that article, I got as much out of them (and am still reading) as I did the actual article. This is what I have come away with so far. 1. One reason I have responded to my sister in the past when I shouldn't have, has been pride. She has always lorded over me, in my mothers own words. And I suppose a certain part of me just doesn't want to let her have the last word. I'm not some dumb little sister, though she can often treat me as such. And has for most of my life. So, there's one thing I have recognized, admitted, and need to work on. 2. There is a part of her that appears totally normal. So much so, that I find it really hard not to hold her to the same rules that every one else has to follow. She can definitely discern right and wrong at times, and she can realize there are consequences to actions. Which is why I didn't just give her the silver. I wanted her to understand she had given them away. That she can't go through life throwing temper tantrums one minute and then be sorry and expect to be bailed out of whatever mess she made during previous said temper tantrum. Whether it was wrong or right what I did doesn't matter now, it's over. But she did contact me after the fact and ask if she could have one of two certain spoons. These were not with the set, and I had repeatedly offered her one at the time but she had declined. She acknowledged that I was not bound to give them to her, and if I chose not to she would understand. So see, she does "get" stuff. And for the record, I did give her one, and the one I thought she'd like most. She seemed really happy, as it was a really neat spoon. 3. Part of my problem is, I wear my heart on my sleeve. That only sets me up for more trouble and confrontations. I am not used to having to guard my words. This is something that is going to take some work, I am an open person by nature. So it's a real mental exercise to calculate my words. I'm working on it. But it doesn't help that she picks up on my "quietness"....... I don't know that all this will work quite like it did for others, but I definitely got some help out of it. See, she wants a relationship with me to some degree, so I don't see her just going away after she gets" bored". Maybe more so in anger or frustration because she will sense I don't really want to be her "friend". Which I hate. I don't want to hurt her feelings, but it almost seems inevitable. I love her, and desperately wish we could have had a real relationship. But, that was not to be. Thank you again for all your thoughts and suggestions and links and prayers and well wishes. It never ceases to amaze me how caring some people can be to a complete stranger. :)