Woodnymph2, I had a similar reaction to Daphne du Maurier. I thoroughly enjoyed My Cousin Rachel and Jamaica Inn. I suppose her treatment of "sex and violence" is a bit dated, for which I am frankly grateful. She is a still an excellent story-teller, in my opinion.

I have not participated in the War of 1812 discussion, for fear of saying something inflammatory. I live in the Niagara region of Ontario, where the War still casts a very long shadow. My fourth great grandfather was killed at the Battle of Lundy's Lane in 1813. I live near two towns which were occupied by American troops. With the menfolk away fighting, these towns were occupied entirely by women, children, the elderly and the sick. As the American troops left, they burned both towns to the ground, an action which I find despicably cowardly. My cynical opinion is that the reason the War is not taught in U.S. schools is that it was not a war which the Americans won.

That wasn't really inflammatory, timallan -- and I agree; it was despicably cowardly. You might be right about not teaching about losing wars. I only have vague memories of learning about the War of 1812 in school. I also think that teachers teach about wars differently from country to country. My daughter visited Vietnam in 2004 and was interested to learn that what we Americans call The Vietnam War is known in Vietnam as The American War. Makes sense.

I finished reading "Amaryllis in Blueberry" and was somewhat underwhelmed. The whole thing was frustrating and grim. I'm now looking for something more fun to read after a run of rather depressing tales.

I am sure you are right, timallan. In recent years I have become more and more disillusioned and even angry about the way history was taught in our schools during the 60's and 70's. I have been seeking to learn more on my own about events in past centuries, which has become a little bit easier as it seems that others are trying to do the same thing.

Just finished Snowdrops by A.D. Miller which is short-listed for the Booker. I am a bit astonished by that as it is okay but in my extremely humble opinion not Booker material.

This seems a good time to confess a guilty pleasure - I have been working my way through George R.R. Martin's epic series and have A Clash of Kings waiting for me. Oddly, I have not read them in order, started with A Feast of Crows. I had tried to read these a few years ago and found them much, much too violent for my taste. Well, they are still too violent, but for some reason I am able to skip over most of the horror parts - at a certain point it is so predictable that it loses its impact. I am very much caught up in the story.

I'm reading The Beekeeper's Apprentice, the first Laurie King tale involving Sherlock Holmes. I just never thought I would like it and never really looked at it, but I find that I am enjoying it.

I finished Blood Royal by Diana Norman and quite enjoyed it. I like her heroines, although they are very 'alternative' for their time and place.

I have just started, and am very much enjoying, Priscilla Royal's Wine of Violence set in an Abbey of the Fontevraud order, which is mixed monks and nuns but ruled by an Abbess. This was common for this order, apparently. It is a murder mystery, in 1270, and I found out about this author on a Facebook page for Sharon Kay Penman fans, that Sharon posts on regularly. I hope it is as good as it promises, as there are several more.

Just finished V is for Vengeance the new Sue Grafton mystery. Grafton is "on" in this one and the mysteries keep getting more involved. Only four more to go in the alphabet series! I am really wondering how Grafton is going to wrap it all up in "Z".

PAM

Glad to hear the new Grafton is good. I thought it was going to be available in November but that might only be outside the US. She had a bit of a wobble a while ago but when she came back to more simple investigations, got quite interesting again.

My Hallowe'en book is Peter Straub's Ghost Story, published way back in 1979. It is scaring the bejezus out of me!

timallan, I just read a description of the book and it scared me. You are very brave!

A couple of days ago I finished listening to Lee Child's The Affair. This is his 16th Jack Reacher book and one of the very best.

Now I am trying to listen to The Redbreast, Jo Nesbo's first Harry Hole book, because I'm looking forward to The Snowman. However this book jumps around in time so much that it is very difficult to comprehend without actual printed pages to flip back and forth.

On paper, I'm starting to read Ruth Reichl's book, Tender at the Bone, recommended in the Cookbook thread.

I read Ghost Story a long time ago - it is REALLY scary. Good time of year to read it! Do you remember our ghost story thread? Now that I live in New England I practically live inside a ghost story, or at least inside a Stephen King novel. Most people around here have a very matter-of-fact belief in ghosts. As in "of course there are ghosts, you silly girl, you must have seen a few!"

I am halfway into the second book of George R.R. Martin's epic, A Clash of Kings and I am getting tired. Not sure I can go the distance. It is a great story but I am bored with the strain of arrested adolescence that runs through every other line and the weird sex references that constantly pepper everyone's speech. And even I am tired of the fashion show - how much silk and velvet and embroidery does he have to put in his books? I will motor through this one and take a break.

I have been reading the poetry of Tony Hoagland and really, really enjoying it. I wish I could write as he does.

I have to admit that I don't remember learning anything about the war of 1812 except the bit about Dolly Madison and the portrait of George Washington. I think it was covered a little during 5th or 6th grade (age 10-11) which may excuse ( a very little bit) my hazy memory. I must admit, I don't remember anything about Canada being included in it; my hazy memory has the British army being involved.

I haven't posted much for a while, my big excuse being that I have been very busy house hunting. I've finally found a house that I think will suit me (except it's very small and I'm still not sure how I'm going to fit all my books in yet) and am now waiting for a closing date.

While waiting for the new Madeleine Robins book to come out (the Sleeping Partner - a Sarah Tolerance novel) I picked up an old Mary Stewart to read. It's a bit dated by today's standards, but I am really enjoying My Brother Michael. She is so good at describing the scenery and setting the scene without going overboard that I feel as if I'm right there as the story unfolds.

Siobhan, How lovely to live in a community which accepts ghost sightings. Like them, I have "seen a few" but would not dare mention it. It would be such a relief to be able to!

annpan, the new Sue Grafton is due out in November. Mine is an advance copy. It was really, really, good.

Timallen, I may just join you in reading Ghost Story. I will check it out. Then again... maybe I won't. I am still scared of going down into the basement before the sun comes up or after it goes down. Ghosts are not the issue...

PAM

I unplugged the phone in order to have a few uninterrupted hours to finish Ghost Story, which has to be one of the scariest books I've ever read. It left me seriously spooked!

Siobhan, I fondly remember the ghost thread. I hope someone has saved it. On a related note, yesterday I had to drive out to an unfamiliar township in order to pick something up. On my way back I stopped at an old cemetery just off the highway. Exploring old graveyards is one of my favorite hobbies. The husband of a distant relative was apparently buried at this one, though I never found his grave. Anyways, for some reason I felt very uncomfortable in this burying ground. I wasn't scared, but had this creepy-crawly feeling like I was in the presence of something very nasty and unpleasant. I left after only a few minutes. (I suspect the Straub book had me a bit on edge.)

Hello all -

I have returned from England and got through the worst of the jet lag. (I think it's gets worse as you age. Seriously. I used to sail through it with little effect, but now..? Whoa.) England was great fun and good to catch up with friends and family.

I also went digging for misericords (with a nod to Cindy - where is she nowadays?). My mum had not heard of them, but when I told her about them, was very enthusiastic and we trotted off to the ancient church in the market place in my home town and started lifting up all the seats in the pews... People thought we were a bit nutty until we hit gold and found some under the choir seats. Then it became a sort of game looking for them any time we passed a church. Actually rather fun to do in a nerdy sort of way. :-)

Readingwise: I thought I would get quite a bit of reading done whilst I was over there, but life/friends/cups of tea and BBC sort of took over. So the reading was mainly on the way back but there was a lot of it.

Finished up Her Fearful Symmetry by Andrey Niffennegger. A good read which sucked me, and was particularly fun as I had just been walking around Highgate Cemetery the day before in London. (It's set in Highgate.)

Then finished up Ms. Hempel's Chronicles by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum which is a series of vignettes about a new middle school teacher. The author obviously has had some teaching experience as some of her descriptions are right on target. An ok book, but perhaps that was the timing not the book itself. She's a good writer though, and the stories were good by themselves.

Then we were shopping in Brighton in the Lanes (lots of little quirky shops) and came across a huge indoor market of second hand everything. Found some shelves of books (I know - shocker), and Mum pointed out a little orange paperback called Farewell Victoria by T. H. White (1933). An absolutely beautiful story of a man who is the groom from the Lord of the Manor type of situation. It is set in Victorian times (heart), and the reader gets to know the groom as the years go by. The descriptions of the rhythms of country life are stunning - up there with Cider with Rosie - and it was fun to read the book and then look out of the window of the train and see similar countryside. (A bit different from Tx.)

But the book is also an elegaic look at how times change - and how some people have a hard time adjusting to this. The groom grows up and signs up for the Army to go and fight the Zulu Wars. Comes back to a changed world: Victoria has died and her son is on the throne. No more horse and carriage as the King now drives a noisy motor car and so where does the groom fit in?

Like I said, a bittersweet and lovely book that I had not heard of before. Very glad my mum had Eagle Eyes and spotted it as I would not have picked it up.

And now, on to reading Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior can make you a better friend to your pet by John Bradshaw. Very good well...

Frances, over the past few months I've read all of the Harry Hole books in order. Redbreast was so hard to follow at first that I nearly gave up. I'm glad I did not as it turned out to be quite good, as are all of the Hole books--but I can't imagine listening to them as I am NOT a good listener and even while reading each one, had to flip back and forth to refresh my memory due to the plot details and twists. As soon the The Leopard is released in the US, I'll be reading it.

I finished up Peter Godwin's When a Crocodile Eats the Sun which chronicles his family's life in Rhodesia during the changeover to Zimbabwe and the rise of Mugabe; the novel Revenge of the Radioactive Lady, funny in a very dark way and draws on US gov't sanctioned medical experiments using radiation on unsuspecting folks and the fascinating case of the radioactive Boy Scout; Rita Mae Brown's Hiss of Death which is a book-long PSA; and skimmed the satirical Craig's List Murders, self-explanatory.

I just started Eleanor Brown's The Weird Sisters about three grown sisters' dysfuctional relationship, replete with Shakespeare quotes on every page..but so far pretty good. Also have in my bag are the novels White Woman on a Green Bicycle taking place in, I think, Haiti and The Sisters Brothers which I can't wait to read.

Very Clever title of this month's reading thread!

Pammyfay - Nice to find someone here who appreciates Isabel Wolff's writing like I do. She has a novel that just came out ... has enthusiastic reviews at Amazon. ... But not as much as "A Vintage Affair" received. The new one deals w/the art world -- a favourite of mine; so I'm intrigued.

"Making Minty Malone" - Isabel Wolff... A thirty-something single London gal is abandoned at the wedding altar. She goes off w/her maid of honor (!) to her pre-booked Parisian honeymoon. That's where her new life begins. ... An entertaining, lively story -- w/ light and deep parts. This is one of her earliest efforts -- so she was still developing her talent.

Wolff is so perceptive about people's underlying motivations. Her different plot streams seem to be coming to a resolution, when a twist arises. ... She shows the reader that the "apparent" resolution isn't genuine. Later on the true Answer happens ... and you feel its *rightness*. She really is no shilly-shally "chick-lit" writer.

P.D. James -- "The Private Patient"... the "last Dalgliesh book" according to James. Very intriguing story-line -- a highly-respected investigative journalist goes to a plush private clinic in the English countryside to get rid of a scar she's had for 30 years. She ends up being killed while recuperating there. I liked this book all the way through. ... But -- There's something kind of melancholy about the *tone* of PDJ's later books. This one was riveting -- not just good reading ... until Dalgliesh showed up. Then it became somewhat dreary. When he appeared for the first time after a few chapters I felt disappointed. It seemed as if he was getting in the way of the mystery of the story -- and he did! I'd like to hear anyone's experience w/this book.

The War of 1812 was most certainly taught in American schools and I assume still is. But the teaching was not focused on Canada. Great Britain was the enemy and the war was also called the Second War for Independence. We (America) won, by the way, despite what someone said earlier in this thread.

With the bicentennial of the war's start next year, the books and TV series have already begun to appear, for those who might like a refresher course.

Ginny, with all due respect the U.S. did not win the War of 1812. Jefferson's stated goal was to take Upper Canada away from the British. The U.S. failed in this objective. Sorry but otherwise there would be no country known as Canada.

The War of 1812 was not covered extensively in the American history classes I took in high school and college, but I do remember that it was a multifront war and Canada was not the only or primary focus for the U.S.

Great Britain had tried to help the Native Americans form a unified nation in the region that is now called the Midwest from Ohio to the Upper Mississippi. This was not benevolence on the part of G.B. towards the "Indians," the British wanted a buffer zone between their British North America holdings and the U.S., that the Americans could not expand into. If G.B. itself later expanded into this region would be a separate consideration. Of course G.B. did not win that part of the war.

Neither did they win control of the southern ports, e.g. New Orleans, Mobile. They did not capture Fort McHenry in Maryland either. The British government would not accept that people who were born British in North America were no longer British after they declared themselves independent, and that was their reasoning for press-ganging American sailors. The Americans won that part, because the U.S. today is American not British.

So it depends on what part of the War of 1812 is considered. The Canadian front obviously stayed with Great Britain, but that is just one focus. It is important to Canada, of course, but to say that Upper Canada was more important to the U.S. than the other fronts is simply wrong. The Americans overall won the War of 1812. Evidently from what I have read, Great Britain did not even consider it necessarily of great importance because they were embroiled at the time in the "more important" continent of Europe wars with Napoleon.

Lydia, I agree with your statement that the War of 1812 was a multifront conflict. The tensions between Britain and the U.S. were longstanding.

Thomas Jefferson's famous comment that "the acquisition of Canada...will be a mere matter of marching" makes it clear, however, one of the goals of the War of 1812 was take British North America for the U.S.

Reading my posting again, I fail to see where I stated that "Upper Canada was more important". What I did say, however, was the the objective to take Upper and Lower Canada for the U.S. did not succeed. I did not point out that the U.S. definitively lost at least half of the battles fought on Canadian soil.

Britain was not able to give military support until after the defeat of Napolean. Once this foe was defeated, troops and supplies were sent to fortify both Upper and Lower Canada.

Bookmom, thanks for letting me know that it isn't just me having a problem following The Redbreast. I've downloaded the book to my Kindle and have switched to the audiobook of The Detachment by Barry Eisler, the latest John Rain (an assassin) book.

Did you think The Snowman lived up to its publicity? Sometimes my expectations can ruin books.

I'm am reading The Book Thief right now. The style is different, but I am liking the book. I have several other books coming in the mail. I teach 4th grade, and our reading teacher challenged us to read along with our students. My goal is 1000 points so I need to get busy. I am reading the second in the diskworld series at school. The Light Fantastic is so funny, but I only get to read in snippets here and there. It is amazing how important it is for kids to see adults read.

Timallan, I was speaking in the general sense, not from something you said specifically, about the perceived importance of the "Canadian front" to the U.S. in the War of 1812.

I was keying off something that you had no way of knowing because I did not tell you - it is what my brother in law, who was born and brought up in Elliot Lake, Ontario, told me about the Canadian history he learned in school.

The way he remembered it was the War of 1812 was ALL about the confrontations between Great Britain/the Loyalists and the Americans. Naturally that would be the part that would interest Canadians most, but he did not realize - probably because it was not emphasized by his teachers - that there was more to the War of 1812 to Americans than just the Canadian aspect. He says he knew vaguely that the songs "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "The Battle of New Orleans" had something to do with the War of 1812 but he was not sure why.

The point I am too laboriously trying to make is the War of 1812 means quite different things to Canadians and Americans according to the way the history was taught to us. To Canadians who consider the Canadian part of the war as the most important, THEIR War of 1812 was lost by the Americans, but to Americans, who consider the Canadian front as one of many they had to deal with Great Britain over, they definitely won the "American" War of 1812 overall. They stopped the British incursions and acquisitions of lands to the south of the Great Lakes, they stopped the attempted takeovers by the British of southern U.S. ports, and most importantly they impressed on the British government that the U.S. was NOT British. The British had to acquiesce on those points, 3 out of 4 so to speak. As for the Canada front, the Treaty of Ghent pretty much called it a draw - the pre-war holdings of both sides were to remain the same.

Timallan, thank you for your personal perceptions. Before this conversation I was never especially interested in the War of 1812, but thanks to the lively debate I think I will delve more into it. I am intrigued about the legendary (in Canada) general Sir Isaac Brock. Brock is my maiden name. I wonder if he's a distant relation. He was born on Guernsey.

Tim,
Thanks for your perspective on the Canadian front of the War of 1812. I know that U.S. and British history as taught in America is, at best, spotty and incomplete. Some here went to private schools, others to public schools. Some lived in the North, others in the South, or West. I know, in my own case, growing up in the deep South, I was never taught anything other than the American perspective on the War of 1812. This thread has been most educational to me.

I have learned so much here that I would never have learned anywhere else and this is a great example - if I was taught anything about the War of 1812, I have forgotten it. So it is great to learn about it here, and from different perspectives.

Thanks to Frances, I am reading a great deal from my collection of cookbooks, and luckily I have developed an interest in getting my sad flabby aging body into some kind of shape which has led to reading back issues of Yoga Journal. My first couple of workout sessions were truly frightening, but have improved dramatically. There is hope yet.

Lydia, I apologize if my responses seemed a bit too opinionated.

For Canadians, the War of 1812 is often perceived as a failed attempt at an American invasion. Of course this viewpoint does not due justice to the conflict's complexity. I now feel that I have to fill in the gaps in my knowledge about American side of the War.

There is a short history which you might find interesting: Death at Snake Hill: Secrets from a War of 1812 Cemetery by Paul Litt, Ronald F. Williamson, and Joseph W.A. Whitehorne. In 1987, near Fort Erie, Ontario, an unknown burying ground was accidentally uncovered. The cemetery was likely near a temporary hospital for U.S. soldiers mortally injured in a little-known skirmish. The book is a painstaking forensic examination of the remains of these unidentified soldiers and all the miscellaneous artifacts uncovered at the site. The book leaves you with a real sense of not just the everyday realities for the soldiers on the front lines, but their lives before the war. (The remains were repatriated to the U.S. with full military honors on both sides of the border.)

General Isaac Brock casts very long shadow here in Niagara. He is almost a mythic figure, and there is seemingly no end to romantic stories about his life and death. (His grave is marked by a huge monument in Queenston Heights Park, a short drive from where I live.) I had a distant relative who once owned a beautiful home in Niagara-on-the-Lake, said home once belonging to the Shaw family, whose daughter Sophia is said to have been secretly engaged to Brock. The historical basis for this engagement is very unreliable; likely a tale embellished by an elderly niece of long-dead Sophia Shaw. She is sometimes described, rather unkindly I think, as "Sobbing Sophia". There is a romantic story, likely without historical basis, that he stopped to see her one last time on the morning of his fateful march to Queenston.

There is also another story, likely fiction, concerning a little boy raised at the garrison in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The rumour is Brock fathered said child out of wedlock, and his birth mother's family sent him to Upper Canada to be reared by his biological father.

It is interesting that Woodnymph mentioned the Southern U.S. states as Niagara-on-the-Lake became an enclave of Southerners during the Civil War. Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, had a niece who lived in Chippawa, Ontario. Near the end of her life, when she was giving public lectures to make ends meet, Varina came to stay with friends in Port Colborne, Ontario. She gave an interview to a local paper, and her interviewer wrote a flattering piece praising her intelligence and character.

Wait, how did I end up so far from the War of 1812?

Timallen, since you wandered from the subject, let me just tell you that a cousin told me he recently attended a meeting at Niagara-on-the-Lake and said it was the most beautiful place he has seen in a long time.

We made a family trip to New England last fall and came home through upstate New York. We stopped at Niagara Falls and crossed to the Canadian side, which is much the prettiest, of course. It had rained off and on almost all day but stopped just before we arrived, and we saw the most beautiful rainbow over the Falls that I've ever seen, including in Hawaii. You could see the whole thing, end to end, with all the colors in brilliant depth.

So much for war!

Frances, The Snowman, as I recall, had more icky details than did The Redbreast, which along with Nemesis were my two favorites. That being said, I wouldn't say Snowman was any better or worse than any other of the books and think that all the hype is really just an attempt to ride the train of Scandavian crime thrillers' popularity.

I am reading Murder on Sisters' Row by Victoria Thompson. She writes Victorian-era mysteries set in New York City. The heroine is a midwife, left widowed when her young doctor husband was murdered. She keeps helping the policeman who worked on his case solve other murders.

Still working on DogSense book and Cutting for Stone although for some reason, these are taking an age get through. They are both large books (for me) so perhaps that is it.

In the meantime, I picked up a Hemingway to read at the gym. Oh boy. A Moveable Feast is a memoir-ish book about his early years in Paris. This had so much potential to be great, but it got mired down in alcohol, horse gambling and other meaningless pursuits that actually it got really boring and I stopped. I think that's it for old Ernie. I have tried several times to like his work, but it's just not going to happen. He is too much of a misogynist and thinks he is "too cool for school"....

I'm with you on EH lemonhead. 'Nuff said. Also I couldn't make it through Cutting for Stone although it is a very good book and my two good friends adored it and constantly encouraged me. I don't understand why I don't enjoy some books that I really should.

Tim, I don't have the ghost thread saved on the computer but I have it printed out somewhere. We had some good stories in there! When I get some time I will write up a "true" ghost story I have experienced recently - working night shift in an old rural hospital is pretty much a guarantee of imagined brushes with the supernatural.

Speaking of cookbooks -- has anyone here read the classic "The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth" by Roy Andries de Groot? It's an old book but still available. It follows de Groot's happening upon this quaint inn located in the High Alps many years ago. It was run by two single women, who dedicated their time to foraging, going to farmers' markets, and even growing their own food. The meals he had there are described in mouth-watering detail. . . . So is the fabulous Alpine scenery. It's amazing to think the man was blind. This book was a favourite of Julia Child and M.F.K. Fisher. Yes, there are recipes!

I'm also reading "The Moving Toyshop" - Edmund Crispin. One of P.D. James top 5 mystery books of all time. About an Oxford don and an ex-student -- now a famous poet -- working together to solve a murder case. The poet, who lives in London, has come upon writer's block; so goes to Oxford for a change of scenery. There he comes upon a toy shop with an open door very late at night. He goes inside, looks around, goes upstairs and ... finds the body of a woman. But the next day when he takes his friend there -- not only is there no body, there's no toy store. ... It's now a grocery store!

lemonhead, we seldom disagree upon our taste in books. The reason I liked "A Moveable Feast" so much is that it reveals Hemingway's vulnerability, rarely seen. In this work, I could detect undertones of sadness, of regret, as if he knew that these were the best days of his life and that the rest was going to be downhill all the way (which it mostly was). I intuited from the way he wrote this work that he regretted the loss of his first wife, his first love, and "Bumby". Have you read "The Paris Wife"? (That novel sheds light on those early years in the City of Light).

Wood -

Thanks for that alternative perspective on old EH. You are definitely correct about that sense of regret in the book - I hadn't put my finger on it, but yes, that was what it was...Haven't read The Paris Wife, but looking for it at the library.

Speaking of libraries, I have ILL'd a request for the first season of the original Upstairs, Downstairs (made back in the 70's), but it is taking an age to get to me. Do all these other people want to watch as well as me??? .. weird.

Oh, and I have been hearing a mixed bunch of reviews for season two of Downton Abby, which I think is currently on at the BBC right now. Veer, Dido, or Jan: any of you seen it? Any thoughts?

Michael Pollan is in town tonight so going to see his talk on his various books, which should be interesting...

Liz, Downton Abbey is on every Sunday night . .. but on ITV, not BBC.
The 'critics' (newpapers) are very rude about it as the story-line is what you might call 'all encompassing'. Without giving away any plot, I'll say just about anything that happened between 1914 and whenever this series ends (1920's?) takes place here. Titanic, WWI, troubles in Ireland/Civil War?? Servants and masters all very matey.
I wouldn't be surprised if some nasty cases of Spanish flu don't lay low a few characters.
But the costumes are very good, the sets are pretty. Maggie Smith acts her socks off and it is an easy no-brain-needed watch.

lemonhead, Upstairs Downstairs is very very popular at my library. No matter which season I am looking to watch, invariably, it is checked out.

PAM

Inspired by a friend's suggestion, I am re-reading some of Barbara Michaels's ghostly mysteries for Halloween, particularly her Georgetown series. I've finished Ammie, Come Home and moved on to Shattered Silk. Several of these, her early books, had a delicious chill to them which I am enjoying.

Rosefolly

Finished "The Three Weismanns of Westport" last night. A quick read. I liked it pretty well, but was slightly let down by the ending. I would still recommend it, though.

Now on to "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," which looks to be an interesting read about the woman whose cancer cells have been used by researchers around the world to study everything from cancer to Parkinson's and diabetes.

Lemonhead, please tell us about Michael Pollan's talk, I am very interested.

Rosefolly, I read Shattered Silk when it was first published. I loved it and learned so much about fabric from it. I need to look us some of those books, and read and re-read them. Thanks for bringing them up.

I liked the Barbara Michaels persona better than the Elizabeth Peters one, and Ammie is my favorite.

I'm about half way through Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva. I know some people are tired of this series, but I still enjoy it.

Carolyn, I am stiil enjoying the Silva books very much.

I finished Elizabeth Chadwick's latest, Lady of the English, about Matilda and Stephen, and thought it very interesting, partly due to the inclusion of the life of Adeliza, the widow of Henry I and thus Matilda's MIL although she was much the same age. I have others of her books and must find time to read them.

I have now moved on to P D James's most recent. I read The Lighthouse a few years ago and swore never to read another of hers, but was so taken with the title - Death Comes to Pemberley - that I had to give it a go. The story is about the arrival of Lydia at Pemberley in a state thinking that Wickham has been killed - I'm not far enough into it to say what happens next. But she has captured Jane Austen's voice very well, and so far I am enjoying it.

So many new books in the shop this month -it will be very busy from now until Christmas.

Pollan's talk was a sold-out event (which is rather unusual around here except for Metal Music and rap like Snoop). The uni here had set one of his books for the Freshman Summer Read, so no doubt there were lots of extra credit opportunities being used. :-)

However, there were a lot of community people there as well, and I have to say that it was a pleasure to listen to someone who is a good writer and speaker. Pollan has a great vocabulary and it was wonderful to hear him use words that you don't hear very much. Nothing too fancy, but just really well selected vocab. Lovely.

He didn't really talk about his books that much, although there were various selected readings from some of his earlier work (like Second Nature) etc.). Most of his talk was about his path to being a writer (how circuitous it was etc.) and that you never really know what you are going to end up doing, career-wise, in the end.

Took loads of questions from the audience and was overall a pretty nice guy. He did thrown in a snippy comment about politics, which was unnecessary, but then, again, if his politics had agreed with mine, I probably wouldn't have minded. :->

Good stuff. I have moved In Defense of Food higher up the TBR pile now...

If you ever get the chance to hear him, he is worth the ticket price.

Was going to do a lot of reading last night, but took the dog for a walk at the park, it got dark, I dropped my house key somewhere in the park in the dark, and ended up sitting on my door step (avec dog) for 2.5 hours while the Pop-a-Lock people tried to open Fort Knox. (DH is out of town at the mo and I was trying not to let him know I had lost the key AGAIN...)

They couldn't open the super-duper special lock we have in the door, and in the end, I had to call DH and admit to losing my key and getting a long-distant friend to come over. Needless, I was cold and tired when I got in, so went to bed.

Sigh.

Anyone want to come to the park and walk all over the place to see if they can help me find my key? It's yellow.

Liz, obviously your dog isn't of that rare Keysnifferouter breed.
The only time I was locked out here was when I walked youngest son to school and left through the front door to which we have never had a key, not realising he had thoughtfully locked the back door from the inside. As all the downstairs windows were shut I had to break a small pane of glass in the back door near the key. The DH was nor best pleased when he came home that night and said I should have removed the metal bars from the very old-fashioned 'coal-chute' at the front, slid down onto the pile of anthracite and clambered over the heap and up the cellar steps . . in the dark; the electric wiring down there is very dodgy. Sometimes I am surprised to still be married.

Ha ha. Your DH has similar ideas to mine...! :-)

And yes, Avi Dog is missing that key finding trait. He can find food, but not keys (unless they are hidden in food)...

Lockout! I locked myself out when I lived in the UK. My husband had gone to work a night shift so my neighbour drove me all the way to the office in London to get my husband's key or I should have been on the doorstep all night!

Vee, I love your sense of humor.

My little two-year-old daughter locked me out once when I left her inside because it was so cold and went out to hang up a load of laundry. She was too little to manage to unlock the door, so I climbed in a kitchen window (fortunately unlocked), stepped onto the drain board, and jumped down onto the floor. (I was younger then, too.) She was laughing so hard that she was doubled over, and I was sure she would try such a good trick again, but she didn't.

My dog is German, but not a keysnifferouter. Last summer, I was walking my dog in a park at dusk, waiting to pick up my son. Go back to the car and can't find the keys... Mr bookmom had to drive up, with flashlights, so we could hunt in the dark for the keys which of course remained lost. Also "of course" is that the keys had the computerized chip in them, and the remote was also with them and cost me over $250 to replace the lot.

Vee, one of our favorite family stories is one about my father. As a young boy dressed up in his finest for some event, he was sent outside to wait on the sidewalk for the rest of the family. Unfortunately, temptation awaited in the form of a coal truck making a delivery next door and my father could not resist taking a ride down the slide. My dad figures prominently in many stories like these, so why his family sent him outside in dress clothing to wait for them is beyond me.

My late mother was watching my toddler daughter and decided to take her for a walk. She realized when she came back that she had locked herself out. This was pre-cell phone days. A neighbor was kind enough to take the hinges of the door from the alley into the garage and she got into the house thfat way. Made me wonder about our overall security, though, if all he had to do was remove hinges.

The worst, though, was when we had my 19-year-old niece house-sit for us. She locked herself out a day or two before our return ... with the cat inside -- without a letterbox! That was not a pleasant homecoming.

Still reading and enjoying "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."