Fun2BHere and TheFoxesPad, it's handmade ceramic. A piece of art, and a price tag to match. But DH insisted on keeping a roll on the counter and I wasn't having that. I'd love another one for the laundry room, but can't justify a second. mtnrdredux, I thought it might be a little bulky for your kitchen but thought I'd show you anyway. I love the painted ones you've found! juddgirl2, dish liquid is in a really thick glass wine bottle I purchased at POSH Chicago. The bottom has glass about 2" tall. The description said the bottles are not easily knocked over. Bought a cork olive oil spout for pouring. I've been using a bottle for dish liquid for 20 years. Love. DD2 has my last one, and it has an all plastic spout. Both spouts were purchased at a kitchen shop. I'd since added a very large mason jar for hand soap.

I would urge anyone interested in Bertazzoni to exercise CAUTION. I own their beautiful professional range, 90cm oven with induction top. When we first plugged it the fan oven is was so noisy it was virtually unusable, especially in an open kitchen. We got it "repaired" but it didn't change anything and the repairman gave up, saying there was nothing he could do with this machine. Two and a half years after getting it (and using exclusively the traditional oven) the induction packed up! But worst of all is the total lack of response and support from the company. Their distributor in my country seems to have changed or disappeared and Bertazzoni is totally ignoring my calls for help and information as to what to do. I'm left to call independent repairmen and nobody wants to come near it. I now have a 5K door-stopper. My Bertazzoni range is my worst purchase EVER, on EVERY level - build quality, customer service, you name it. That'll teach me buying something because it looks good. Go online (actually, just read this particular thread!), you'll find many, many people complaining how poor quality this brand is, which won't stop Bertazzoni from charging you big bucks and presenting themselves as a luxury brand. They've got a nice little system going, thinking there will always be suckers who will throw caution to the wind because their stuff looks really nice. And there are - I was one of them! I honestly feel I've been scammed. I live in Europe, an hour away from Italy, so I can only imagine that it's even worse if one lives overseas.

Thank you all for sharing! So many of you have mentioned excellent books that I had not mentioned. The Historian, for example. Others, like Kristin Lavransdatter, I still want to read, have gone through the trouble to buy, and look at them every now and again as they wait patiently on my shelf. Frieda, I have read Collapse and found it hard to put down. That book formed the basis for many side books into the societies mentioned therein. I have Guns, Germs, and Steel; see note in above paragraph re: books waiting patiently. As for 1491, I KNOW I read it. I remember bits of it, but cannot find it listed in my book journal. I have searched back to 2001 and found nothing. This is odd as I find a perverse sort of satisfaction logging a book into my journal. I also read Tony Horwitz's A Voyage Long and Strange (only 445 pages)which covers a bit of the same ground, but I do not believe I am confusing the two books. annpan, your post made my laugh. You've been robbed! Love it! I recently read the new Elizabeth George book. Most of her Lynley titles are doorstops. But I cannot truly put any of them on a "fan club" list. They were okay, some better than others, but nothing I truly remember, nothing that was thought-provoking. And this last one felt choppy, disconnected, and just plain "off". PAM

Just coming to the end of Edna Healey's Emma Darwin: The Inspirational Wife of a Genius. I think many readers would find it turgid and rather heavy going but I enjoyed it. Emma was born a Wedgwood of the famous 'pot-making' tribe and that family and the Darwins kept intermarrying for several generations; Charles was her first cousin. The book is about so much more than Emma and there is lots of info about all the various branches of the combined groups with the difficulty of working out who-is-who as many of them had the same Christian names eg six females called Francis/Fanny. Without Emma, Charles' great scientific works would probably never have been published as he suffered chronic ill-health and needed her near him at all times . . . which might account for the huge number of children she produced, many of whom were 'delicate' but much cherished. A little while ago I read a bio of Catherine Dickens and the contrast between the two families (much of the same age) is very marked. Mrs Dickens also had a huge family but her husband 'tired' of her and had her physically removed from her children and home, whereas the Darwins were loving, with children who went on to 'do well' in later life. Dicken's sons, except for the oldest, did badly and wasted their lives while his daughters were kept at home to wait on him and stoke his ego. Darwin led a quiet life of study and enjoyment of nature while Dickens was a great showman/showoff who burnt himself out when middle aged.