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-

Hi Rob, Not much to add ... and hope that you're back at least part way out of your blue funk. Brother, retired farmer who lives 1600 miles way, has one son, only child, in a city 100 miles from here, a couple of small grand-daughters from son's second marriage, and comes to visit them a couple of times a year. He'd called to say he was to be in the neighbourhood, and we got together on Friday, I called son and he and his partner were there for lunch, as was brother and wife ... and a couple of favourite cousins were, as well. Brother spent a few years when he was very young with the family of our Mom's brother and their two children when she was ill, so he considers one as almost a sister: the son, a local farmer, died several years ago. The other cousin lives locally and I see her at church fairly often - she, who had voice training, has sung in the choir for 75 years. The brother and I went to deal with some complications over inheritance of cemetery plots that Dad owned ... and it looks as though resolution is to be easier than we figured. Then we sat and had a chat ... and he's rather worried about future viability of his son's marriage. We don't see one another often, but we've been close, over the years. Our brother died over forty years ago, when his kids were in their teens, and our ready-made sister that came with our stepmom lives near brother in Saskatchewan. It's a red letter day when we get together. ole joyful

This question comes up a lot! The two most commonly suggested books are Ortho's All about Orchids and the Sunset publisher's book on Orchids. Several forum members, including me, are also quite fond of Orchids Simplified by Henry Jaworski. FLAME 747 suggested "An Introduction to Orchids" published by the South Florida Orchid Society. Other excellent sources include: Taylor's "All About Orchids" (great pictures); Rebecca Northen's "Home Orchid Growing" Orchid Growing Basics (Schoser) Gardener's Guide to Growing Orchids (Ritterhausen) Orchid Growing for Wimps (Zachos) Jack Kramer's "Orchid Growing Indoors" In addition, Mary Noble has several good books for beginners: You can Grow Orchids, You Can Grow Cattleya Orchids, and You Can Grow Phalaenopsis Orchids." All are excellent for the beginner. If you want to know more about species, then The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids, edited by Alec Pridgeon is also a good source. For a more detailed listing, and a suggested reading list for more experienced growers (intermediate level and advanced), check out Linda's Orchid Page at She has many good suggestions.

Thank you so much for all the recommendations. I'll be traveling a lot soon and I'm sure I'll read a lot of these. I have Aunt Dimity queued up to read, along with the first Ngaio Marsh book. I'll probably try Miss Read next and/or Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Many of those mentioned I have read. Rhys Bown mysteries, Amelia Peabody mysteries, Georgette Heyer, Mitford books, etc. But it was helpful to have those recommendations because it was lovely to see there are others who enjoyed those books as well. And I will try the audiobook of the Amelia Peabody mysteries because I often fall asleep to an audiobook, so it's helpful to have a good recommendation. I tried A Man Called Ove and I'm sure I'll finish it, but it is unbearably sad to read it right now so I laid it down. I have a friend who has cancer and also a suspicious spot on her liver and she is the light of her husband's life. I want to escape from pain and loss right now. A murder mystery like Agatha Christie writes should be sad, I guess. It's murder, but somehow that doesn't reach out and snatch my heart out like the pain of Ove losing his wife. Another time in my life I would probably have liked A Gentleman in Moscow and A Man Called Ove. So thank you so much to all of you for taking the time to respond. It will be nice to have this thread to check when I finish the stack of books I have now.