Interesting subject Yvonne, as I have been planning to buy a copy of Jane Eyre for a friend who, somehow had never read it. She claims her class never 'did' it at school, which seems a feeble excuse for never reading it. ;-) Anyway I was looking at the Book Depository site (free delivery to Canada being too good an offer to turn down) and came up with over seven hundred choices . . . If you had never heard of Jane Eyre and looked at even 20 of them, I wonder how many of those covers would give you a clue to what lay inside? May be the ones showing a single female, or the 'artist's impression' of a busty female and a hunky guy. But what about rugged mountains, coastal scenes and ones so 'obscure' they have no 'meaning' at all? Answers on a post card please. Here is a link that might be useful: Will the Real Jane Eyre . . . .

I just finished reading the first Maisie Dobbs book and rather enjoyed it after all. I had read one of the later books a few years ago and did not much like it, but decided to give her another chance. I had heard a very positive review on the radio recently, and hear such positive reactions here on RP, so I thought I'd see what I was missing. Rosefolly

Kathy, some years ago I borrowed from the library Florence Nightingale by Mark Bostridge. An amazingly detailed, and somewhat daunting bio. In fact it had to go back before I had got half way through it . . . I didn't even reach the time when she went out to the Crimea. An amazing woman who didn't believe in germs because she had never seen one. But through her belief in cleanliness and order greatly she improved the filthy Army hospitals and once home, and prone on her couch, used her considerable influence to start training for nurses. She lived to be a great age and there is still a recording of her from about 1900.

So many authors and titles mentioned here I've never heard of, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I'm living in a different world from y'all! I am going to be looking for several that sound interesting to me. I just finished "Lilac Girls", by Martha Hall Kelly. A very moving book. Prior to that was "All the Light We Cannot See", by Anthony Doerr, another thought provoker. Currently reading "Vinegar Girl", by Anne Tyler. Seems silly after those other two, but maybe something light is what I need right now. It will do until I get to the library tomorrow, though. I read Kristen Hannah's "The Nightingale" a couple of months ago. The first few pages were a little hard to get into, for me, but once past that, it was hard to put down. I read a pretty wide variety, but I rarely, if ever, look for 'recommended' lists, or such as that. For years I bought all my books at garage sales, or from Half Price Books, or Sam's Club, or Walmart, and just chose whatever looked interesting. Now I use the library mostly, and I do check out the best seller shelf, but often just browse the aisles to see what catches my eye. Rusty