Spring break allowed me to go on a small reading binge (of a day and a half).

Finished Death of the Party by Carolyn Hart.

Moving on from the mystery genre to some fantasy with The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan. Looked like an interesting read, so I picked it up on a whim.

Our library reopened today after being closed for 2 weeks. I had 4 books waiting to be picked up that I had requested and I have already started reading Split Second by Alex Kava which is the 2nd book in her FBI agent Maggie O'Dell series.
For my fellow mystery lovers if you haven't read Kava yet-I highly recommend her!

Pat

>Just finished "March" by Geraldine Brooks (good)

It was ok, but I am absolutely blown away that it received the Pulitzer, esp when it competed against Doctorow's The March, a much much better book on many different levels. Ah well.

Fingersmith is amazing. Its not for everyone, and might offend some people - so take a look at the synopsis in Amazon (just don't read the reviews, spoilers lurk there). But if you like suspense, mystery, well drawn characters and a plot that twists around like a roller coaster, this might just fit the bill.

She (Sarah WAters) has a new one out, Night Watch. Anyone know anything about it?

I'm reading The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. I have a certain fascination for dystopian fiction, and have slowly but surely been trying to incorporate several of them into my reading this year. After this, I will probably read Tamarind Woman by Badami for my book club.

I've read Night Watch and enjoyed it. Had some excellent reviews - some are talking about it as a possible Booker winner. I enjoyed Fingersmith but I couldn't take all the twists and turns seriously, and I thought it had a very poor ending.

Still ploughing through Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It's a very fat book! I'm still enjoying it though.

Thanks for the Kava recommendation, Pat. That is a new mystery author for me, and I'm always looking.

I saw Night Watch at the bookstore this week and was waiting for one of you all to say yes or no. Guess it's a go now. I'll try requesting it from the library.

>I enjoyed Fingersmith but I couldn't take all the twists and turns seriously, and I thought it had a very poor ending.

See that's what I am loving! Tho I am not finished yet and so might just end up feeling the same as you.

I am frustrated that I haven't finished it yet. The pace of this book is such that I should have finished several days ago. But this is my busy time of year, a thousand things must be done yesterday, and school is over in about a month. So by the time I get home, I'm not in the mood to read much. Hopefully - this weekend!

Glad to hear that Night Watch is good, thanks.

I am reading a wonderful book called Buried Treasure by Victoria Finlay. She is looking, chapter by chapter, at the history of jewels. So far, I have finished chapters on amber, jet and pearls, and it is all very interesting. Highly recommended if you like this kind of thing.

Ultramarathon Man

This book will get anyone off the couch.

Well I finally got around to reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which I greatly enjoyed. Great for reading in the car.

I started reading The Blind Assassin but I couldn't get through it. I may not have been in the mood for the book, so I might try picking it up again in the future. I think it sounds interesting, but it just didn't hold my attention.

Finished Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - thanks to everyone who recommended it - it was a compelling read and I'm looking forward to our bookclub discussion later this week.

I also read Everest. Mountain Without Mercy by Broughton Coburn & David Brashears - thanks PAM for recommending it - it is making the round of the bookclub members - an excellent companion read to Thin Air, with lots of photographs.

Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong, as I mentioned on the mystery thread, is in addition to the mystery a fascinating look at life in China.

The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes is a very disappointing Inspector Jury mystery - totally pointless, a real "shaggy dog story". I think I've now given up on her as an author.

I read Disgrace (1999 Booker prize winner) by J.M. Coetzee for my other bookclub. We haven't had our meeting yet so I don't know what the others think of it. I disliked it - found it depressing and the main character totally unsympathetic.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn was a rather fun and quick read - enjoyed both the satire and word play.

I've now started Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.

Finished The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes and I have to agree-what WAS she thinking? Figured it out about 1/3 of the way in, kept reading almost hoping I was wrong-even the "gang" in the pub was flat. There is obviously another one coming-do I care enough to follow along? Not sure.
On the other hand, Mistress of the Elgin Marbles was very interesting, if a bit lopsided-very detailed first two thirds, last third felt rather rushed-all of a sudden a 10 year old is 20 and on the Grand Tour, then married and with children-but over all I enjoyed it.
Next up-either The Plot Against America (not what you're thinking-Lindbergh is president and we're friends with Hitler) by Phillip Roth or Hardscrabble Road by Jane Haddam.

I read some of the earlier Martha Grimes-decided she was not my cuppa...

I finished my first read by Stephen Leather yesterday called The China Man and really enjoyed it, so I will definitely be looking for more of his books.

I just started Dirty Blonde the latest Lisa Scottoline, it starts out good-so we'll see how it ends!

Pat

mumby, I'd be interested in knowing your impressions of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Hope you'll post them here. I read it in the mid-1970s and would really like to know how it strikes a reader today.

I'm currently reading a nonfiction book, The Brightening Glance: Imagination and Childhood by Ellen Handler Spitz. I've read a couple of her other books, Inside Picture Books and Museums of the Mind and am quite absorbed by this latest one.

I've had a slow month compared to January - March, but I have managed to finish a few. I just finished Murder in a Nice Neighborhood by Lora Roberts. Thanks to whoever (or is it whomever, I never seem to get it right!)recommended her. I liked it enough to look for more by her.

Mumby and CindyDavid4, Thanks to your recommendations, I requested The Semi-Detached Couple (and in the same volume) The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden. I've only just begun the former and am enjoying it.

I also finished Anyone but You by Jennifer Crusie as well as her newest book which she collaborates with an author who's name I don't remember just now - Don't Look Down. Both were fun, but my favorite of hers is still Faking It.

In my TBR pile, I have a Louis L'Amour - The Riders of High Rock, Mercedes Lackey - Firebird, and Donna Andrews - Access Denied, all authors I have enjoyed reading but am just not in the mood for right now. sigh. Since they are all library books, I have to get myself motivated if I don't want to return them unread.

mumby, I also read Zen and the art of motocycle maintenance in the 70s. Loved it at the time. Tried to read it a few years back, didn't take to it. But I'm interested in what you find.

> I thought it had a very poor ending

Ok martin, now you are going to have to explain yourself :) I just finished Fingersmith, and loved it, and rather thought the ending was how it should have ended. How would you have written it?

This was quite a book - loved the rollercoaster ride (tho I admit I guessed a few things before they happened). What I found interesting was reading the Amazon reviews. Apparently this book has been marketed as 'Lesbian Lit'. I'm not sure I would have necessarily picked up the book if thats all I heard about it (in the same way that I don't tend to read Westerns, who-dun-its and romances). So anyone thats heard that and has been put off, don't be. Its good. Really good.

And of course, as usual when I read a most excellent book, every book I have picked up to day has been tossed aside. Usually the characters and the story stay in my head for a day or so, so I use the time to do other things like gardening or hiking. Something good will pop up, I'm sure!

One of them might just be Before the Sun Goes Down, which was recommended by several here. Just received it from ABE. Or Black Swan Green, which another online book will be reading next month. So....Nah, gorgeous day out, time to garden.

Georgia Peach, I'm so excited that you are reading The Dispossessed. It is one of my favorite books.

Woodnymph2, Janalyn, I'm just past halfway through Collapse, and so far find it fascinating. I will say it makes me want to go out and plant trees, something I am wont to do anyway. He suggests that complications from deforestation have wreaked havok in many societies.

I have noticed in myself a tendency to lose interest in some non-fiction books when I am nearly finished, and never read the last chapter or two. Who knows if it will happen with this one?

It's late April. Last Saturday, I was desperate for something to read so I picked up Clavell's Whirlwind. I had tried to read it a few years ago and I couldn't get into it. Now, it's actually palatable. It's not bad, really ....... ;-)

Oh, and I did finish Batman: The Complete History . It was a very interesting read on the history of Batman up to the late 1990s.

mumby, have you read Krakauer's other book, Into the Wild?

Adam

rouan, it was I who recommended Lora Roberts. My daughter loaned it to me, and she is looking for more also. The library appears to have some featuring another character but no more of this one. Glad you liked it.

Thanks Carolyn,

I couldn't remember in which post I had read the recommendation so I could thank the poster by name. :)

I've been following, but not contributing to this thread, in large part because I read massively, obsessively, essentially non-stop this winter and early spring...to the point where I can't even quite remember what I've read, except that a lot of it was good!! And I can't remember what I've posted so I worried about repeating myself. Ok, so those are actually kind of pitiful excuses! Maybe it was some laziness, too.... ;->

Anyway, with apologies for a lengthy, hopefully not repetitive and at least partial listing of readings for the last month or three-

Right now, I'm re-reading the Lymond Chronicles of Dorothy Dunnett. Figured since he accompanied me to the "February party", I ought to relive some times with him.

-All of the Daniel Silva books I could find. (I think it was most of them). Thank you to all who recommended them - I used to read a lot of the "spy thriller" genre - had gotten away from it, but liked these very much.

As long as I was going thru that "phase", I re-read Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady books (Gorky Park, Red Square, etc, and found a new-ish one (at least to me) that centers around Chernobyl: "Wolves Eat Dogs" Actually, I then realized there's one of that series that I missed some time ago.

Another (sort of) in this theme that I picked up at my folks' house was "Dark Star" by Alan Furst. I liked this a lot - there's a great deal of well-researched contemporary history (just at the outbreak of WW2)given from an ususual and very visceral perspective. I think I liked that aspect as much if not more than any "spy" sense of the story. I'm going to keep my eyes open for any more of his writings.

-A bunch of YA fiction - having borrowed from the kid's spring break outing to Borders - the sixth Pendragon book by D.G. McHale - (I like these, because the first-person character is up front with his mistakes, misgivings and is growing and maturing.) Dianne Wynne Jones' "The Merlin Conspiracy", and then Riordan's "The Lightning Thief" (this looks to be the first of a series, with a Harry Potter-ish theme of a 12 yr old finding himself a half-blood with odd powers, but the twist is that the Greco-Roman Gods are still very much around...it wasn't bad)

Jon Katz "A Dog Year"... very near and dear to my heart's experiences...

Bernard Cornwell's "Viking" series is well started with "The Last Kingdom". I'm looking forward to the others: I liked his Grail Quest series (I think I read that this winter, too), altho several years ago when I read his Arthurian series I didn't care for its style. I may have to try it again.

"A Rose for the Crown" by Anne Eastern Smith was historical fiction - a re-telling of RIchard III of England from the supposed perspective of a lover. It rang plausible (I won't say true) on some details, but was primarily a romance. Not bad, but not great.

As I mentioned on an another thread, I read most of Laurie R King's Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes' stories, starting with...

Instead of Roth or Haddam, a stressful end of the weekend led me to a Thirkell upstairs and a Pym downstairs-I was in desperate need of a massive dose of "All's right with the world." So Peace Breaks In upstairs and Jane and Prudence downstairs.

I just finished Radical Prunings by Bonnie Thomas Abbott. This is a mildly funny, quick read structured as gardening newsletters written by the "Contessa of Compost", Mertensia Corydalis, who is a low-grade Martha Stewart/Miss Manners of gardening ("A reminder that lawn care letters will NOT be answered!" "In next week's issue: creating a mossy dell ..."). The character's life story is deftly told between the lines of her newsletters. It was cute, and just the thing for a rainy, non-gardening weekend.

I STILL haven't finished the new Frances Mayes, A Year In The World. Though it's quite pleasant, it's just not really that engaging and I keep falling asleep over it. It will probably go back to the library unfinished.

lilbit (I had a friend in elem school named Elizabeth who was called lilbit by family and friends :) - Alan Furst is a familar sounding name to me. Do you know what else he has written? The Dark Star looks interesting. And that Cornwell series is splendid. My DH just picked up the last one - when he's done I need to read it. And do try the Arthur series - its one of the best Arthur series in terms of bringing to life the time period that he may have lived in.

Cindy - Yep, Elizabeth is my full name, altho' I generally go by a nickname. Litlbit early on was courtesy of my siblings , not friends!!

Alan Furst (according to the list inside "Dark Star") also wrote Night Soldiers, The Polish Officer, The World at Night, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows ... there may be more, since the copyright of my volume is 1991.

I have the Cornwell Arthur series on my shelf (I actually have one bookcase nearly entirely devoted to Arthurian tales) - as I said, I read them some years back, so I'll go back to them and see if I like them better now. Have you read Jack Whyte's Camulod series?

Litlbit

mollie_booklover, to reply to your question, I've read Celestial Navigation by Anne Tyler, as well as several of her other books.

I'm afraid I'm not a big Anne Tyler fan, and I read the book about seven years ago--so I may not be the best person to comment on it, but I did wonder if the "point" of the story was that a woman who tries to prove she can manage without a man is being egotistical and cruel. Aside from this possible point, I saw no particular value in the novel. It wasn't entertaining, the characters weren't fleshed out very well or interesting (to me), and the plot took some absurd turns.

Fished Tey's "Daughter of Time" and am on a Tudor jag. Have halfway begun a biography of Anne Bolyn. The wives of Henry VIII continue to fascinate. It's hard to come down to earth, however, after the suspense of "Shadow of the Wind." Whatever I pick up seems rather colorless, in contrast....

I was never an Anne Tyler fan, either, for whatever its worth. Her portraits of women just don't ring "true" for me.

If youÂre looking for a good page-turner, read The Delta Project by Mark Earnest. ItÂs a new mystery / thriller that weaves together two plots: a detective trying to solve a mystery of dead and disappearing bodies; and a post 9/11 military conspiracy. How they come together will blow you away! This is not the typical serial killer stuff. I couldn't put it down. It kept me guessing and wanting more.

I've just picked up a copy of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise, a novel set in 1940 during the fall of Paris and written in the months before she was shipped to Auschwitz. Her young daughter survived and saved the manuscripts which were first published 2 years ago in France.

Sheri, I'm falling asleep over Maye's newest book as well. I can't get that inane Tuscan Sun movie out of my head. ;-0

mummsie, I'm skipping to the England and Scotland chapters -- if those put me to sleep, the book goes back tomorrow!

>Have you read Jack Whyte's Camulod series?

No - I am not familiar with the writer, or the series. Tell me more....

I loved Anne Tyler's early works. My favs were Dinner in the Homesick Restaurant and Accidental Tourist. But her last several have been so much of the same, that I confuse the characters and the plot. So I don't read her anymore.

Someone in the Tivoli thread mentioned Benjamin Button. I just started with the first story, and look forward to reading the title selection.

Just recently finished The Scarlet Letter. The tastfullness of the writing demonstrates why it's a classic. I appreciated the elements of mystery in it too. The ending was a surprise to me. Pearl was an interesting character.

I am just about halfway through David McCullough's The Johnstown Flood. It's dry in some areas but feels well researched. I enjoy the personal accounts of the survivors.

To my surprise, I am absolutely loving Sebastian Faulks' "Girl at the Lion D'Or." His work is so evocative of WW II period France and his style is quite visual and almost like cinema, to me. I like this novel even better than "Charlotte Gray." Now I must look for "Birdsong."

Too funny, Carolyn. "The Tailor of Panama" was my favorite LeCarre. I have quit more of his books than I have read, but that character just appealed to me. Also liked "Absolute Friends" very much. This month I have read Marquez' "Melancholy Whores" which didn't do much for me, although his books are usually enthralling. Seemed as though he were anxious to publish something and pulled this out this story he had never dweveloped from somewhere. Also "On Beauty"by Zadie Smith which was very good but not wonderful. "Prodigal Summer" by Kingsolver was my favorite. The nature descriptions were so detailed I was amazed.

On the lighter side I have read two books by John Burdette--Bangkok 8, was the first and the other also had Bangkok in the title. Crime fiction but captivating description of local culture, religeon and views of the west. Terrific protag. Highly recommend.

Frances Mayes has been returned to the library unfinished, despite my best efforts. Oh well!

I'm now three-quarters of the way through The Conjurer's Bird by Martin Davies. Billed as a 'literary thriller' it's a good book telling a good, tight story, but it's certainly not edge-of-your-seat by any stretch. Chapters switch back and forth between a first-person, present-day narrator who's been drawn into a search for a legendary, one-of-a-kind bird specimen brought back from Capt. Cook's second south sea tour. The bird had vanished from naturalist Joseph Banks' collection in the late 1700's. Alternating chapters tell the third-person narrated story of Banks and his mysterious mistress who may or may not have wound up with the missing bird.

I'm keeping Horwitz's Blue Latitudes in the back of my mind as I read, and it's made this book all the more enjoyable. Definitely worth a borrow.

Cindy - re your comment about the end of Fingersmith - I don't actually remember the end of the book - it's a couple of years since I read it - I just remember feeling that I was getting more and more dissatisfied with the book, and eventually put it down feeling that it had a poor ending.

STILL ploughing through Jonathan Strange.... But the end is in sight! I'm using the word "ploughing", but it's a bit unfair - it's been a terrific read, which I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Mummsie-please let me know how you like Suite Francais, cindy david-funny but just today in a study hall I saw a student reading one of Jack Whytes books about King Arthur so could you say a bit more about them? woodnymph2-I personally didnt care for Bird Song but loved Faulks Charlotte Gray so think I'll look into Girl...I'm still loving The Morland Series by Eagles having just finished bk. 11. I also finished Ruth Reichel's second food memoir-now on to the third. I have enjoyed her writing for something light. I am looking for some good gardening "story" books-anyone have suggestions? They help me get into the gardening mode. Guess I may be a bit strange like that having also read many food books and knitting books . Does anyone else do that?

Just finished "The Art of Mending" by Elizabeth Berg. Usually I dislike dysfunctional family stories, but this one was so well-written it held my interest. I want to read more of Berg. Is anyone else familiar with her writing? She is a stated admirer of the works of Anne Tyler and Alice Munro.

Now I have started the quirky Robert Day novel: "The Last Cattle Drive." So far, very evocative of the American Western culture.

>Guess I may be a bit strange like that having also read many food books and knitting books . Does anyone else do that?

Yes all the time! Recently I've enjoyed "A Trip to the Beach : Living on Island Time in the Caribbean" by Melinda Blanchard, Robert Blanchard, about a couple from Vermont opening a restaurant in the Caribbean. Complete with recipes, great, because I love to read cookbooks too.

And, "Zen and the Art of Knitting, Exploring the Links Between Knitting, Spirituality, and Creativity" by Bernadette Murphy. Also, with pattern exercises..loved it!

And to stay OT, I just finished "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker. Great read, beautiful characterization.

I just started The Tomb of the Golden Bird the latest Amelia Peabody by Elizabeth Peters - this one is about the discovery of Tut's tomb-just like visiting old friends LOL!

Pat

Pat, I just finished The Tomb of the Golden Bird. Typical Peters. I keep wondering how much longer she can carry this off. I didn't think much of the "mystery," but as you say, the visit with the family was like one with old friends.

Been busy doing other things other than writing (traitorous,I know) so got a bit behind in my reading. Just finished "Good Harbor" by Anita Diamont which was a good story of friendship between two women in New England.

Now on to "Rabbit-Proof Fence" by Doris Pilkington (AKA Nugi Garamari, her Aboriginal name). A true story about three little girls who get taken away from their families to live in a camp miles away so they can learn to be more "white". Awful story, but well written. Hard to believe that these things happened in the 20th century and reminds me of what the US did the Japanese-Americans during the beginnings of WWII and after Pearl Harbor.

Very sad, but necessary that we don't forget.

Last month, I finished re-reading Robin Hobb's nine related fantasy novels, then I started once again on my TBR books. Since then I've read the following:

• The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and Modern Oblivion by Leo Steinberg. An examination of why for a couple of centuries artists felt the need to emphasize Christ's penis.

• Blake by Peter Ackroyd. A biography of the eccentric 18th-century artist and poet.

• The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. A survey of current undergraduate education.

• The Late Mr. Shakespeare by Robert Nye. A novel in which one of Shakespeare's actors writes a biography of the playwright.

• Memoirs by U.S. Grant. The recollections of the Civil War general.

• The Mind's I edited by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennet. An anthology of writings on the nature of consciousness.

• The Norton Book of Classical Literature A selection of excerpts of ancient Greek and Roman authors.

• Jerusalem Liberated by Torquato Tasso. A recent English translation of the epic poem about the conquest of Jerusalem in the First Crusade.

• The Collected Poems by T.S. Eliot

• The Abuzzo trilogy by Ignazio Silone. Three novels about the life of Italian peasants under the Fascist regime.

Right now, I've just started the accounts of William Bartram of his explorations of the American Southeast in the 1770's.

jwttrans & cindy david, I finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but I have to admit that I very nearly gave up. The book started out well but initially interesting ideas deteriorated into what appeared to me as complex nonsense. Perhaps I just didnÂt "get it". I was annoyed by the authorÂs self-absorption, his long monotonous attempt to define "quality" while he virtually ignored his young son. Perhaps there really is a fine line between genius and insanity.

Adam, I haven't read any other Krakauer books but I looked up Into the Wild and am adding it to my TBR list. Thanks for the suggestion.

I finished A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton which a friend lent me. An Oprah selection, it was rather depressing.

Carolyn - I finished Tomb of the Golden Bird today and wonder why Peters continues to write this series! I really enjoyed the earlier books in the series but the last couple just reinforce my feelings that she should retire Amelia! Having said that (!) while I was reading last night I had to stop and dig out my books on Tuthankamun to look at the pictures of the treasures and the old photos of Carter at the tomb...which brought back the wonderful memories of the '70's traveling tour of the Tut treasures that we had the pleasure of seeing in San Francisco.

I have just started The Doctor's Wife by Elizabth Brundage.

Pat

I've had sporadic internet access over the past month, since we are in the process of moving. As a result, I've spent much more time reading all the books I've been meaning to read. So, in April, I finished:

Naked by David Sedaris (he always cracks me up, though, the last chapter takes place in a nudist colony and sometimes his descriptions are a bit to apt to stomach)

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (it was on my husband's reading list for a world history class and I started reading it aloud to him during a car trip--then of course I had to finish it)

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka (I picked it up because it was short-only 144 pages-but what a beautiful book!)

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides (Not my favorite book ever, but lots to think about long after the book is finished)

Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli (I love her YA novels that are take-offs on fairy tales, but this was a much harsher book about an Italian boy kidnapped during WWII and forced into hard labor for the Nazis. It was okay.)

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst (It started gimmicky, but interesting. A man's wife falls from a tree in there back yard with only their dog as a witness, so he decides to teach the dog to talk. The story became really far-fetched with a weird society that surgically mangles dogs so they can talk etc. And it didn't even have a good ending.)

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (I loved this book. The entire novel takes place in one day as Maggie and Ira are going to a funeral for her friend's husband. Only drawback was that I had "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" running through my head for three days after reading it.)

Pat, Peters must keep writing Peabody books because people like us keep buying them. I may start getting them from the library, although I do buy them through the Mystery Guild. Guess I just hate to break the set since I have all of them.

cjoseph, that first book is a must read for me, if for nothing else, the title! Let me know what you think of it.

Gave up on Green Darkness, another book by Anya Seton. I loved Katharine, but this one was just too Harlequin for my taste. Now reading her The Winthrop Woman, which is written in a similar style to Katharine. Its a well written and well researched story about a woman who defied the powers that were in the Mass colony, mid 1600s. Now, this is more like it!

cindydavid and pam53 -- Jack Whyte's Camulod series takes a more "historical" rather than fantasy style look at Arthur. It starts out with Arthur's predecessors - grandparents even - as some of the last Romano-British families. It is a fascinating look (and seems to be fairly factual) of both lifestyles and thoughts of the waning times of the Roman Empire. The characters are well-drawn, and the story-line interesting. My main complaint is that it gets rrreeeeaaaalllllyyy detailed in terms of the blow-by-blow, day-to-day experiences of the characters. I got to the point where I just wanted to hurry them all up!! There are now, I believe, 6 or 7 books, and Arthur is still just a young man....

However, I'll still buy the new one, whenever it comes out in paperback, and will re-read all the others....I'm a sucker for Arthuriana. (!!)

take care, litlbit