Well, they can get quite large but it is not usual or healthy. I have had several, they are wonderful companions, very involved with people, the opposite of the aloof, independent stereotype. I am enjoying the book, even though the Maine Coon cat has now grown to a size of 35 lbs. My current Maine Coon is only around 11 lbs, although he has very long legs and a long body and looks enormous. The fluffy hair makes them look even larger, of course.

In addition to the silly book, I have Maine 101 by Nancy Griffin, which answers many questions I have about my new home. Very entertaining and informative. Also I picked up Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires which has been mentioned here. Wonderful!

Vee, not into witches or devils. All we do is turn on the porch light to indicate that little children dressed up in costumes for trick or treating can ring the bell for treats. My husband usually asks a small one what trick he has in mind and gets a blank stare. They only know about the treats. Our new neighborhood mostly runs to older people. We are not sure how many t-o-ters we will have this year, so Bud bought a big bag of the candy he likes.

I finished Descendants today and liked it a lot. The Sea is up next.

I am reading and loving "Dahlia's Gone" by Katie Estill, it is a murder mystery and very had to put down.

Finished the cat mystery book, very disappointing denouement. Still, I don't regret it, rather amusing and somehow satisfying to read a 300 page book in a couple of hours.

I am almost through with Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires. I can't put it down. Although sometimes it borders on meanness as it seems an inordinate amount of harrassment is directed at waitpeople. One segment had me wishing that Reichl had to work for six months or so with a healthy sprinkling of the type of person she became at a particular restaurant. I can only hope she gave that poor man a very, very large tip. This book also contains some very nice recipes and the actual reviews that came from her adventures in disguise. Her championing of the everyman doesn't really come through for me, but I am willing to cut some slack there.

I read The Sea last weekend, returned it to the library and then decided to get it back for our discussion - it was gone! Seeing it on the 'recently returned' shelf must have piqued someone's interest. I ordered it from another library and am about to go out in a nor'easter to retrieve it.

Siobhan-Did you read Reichl's first book, Tender at the Bone? It was about her growing up years and I found that to be good reading too.

Vee, is the "Vows of Silence" the newest Simon Serailler mystery by Susan Hill? Is this no. 5? I read the other 4 and have been eagerly awaiting her to write another in the series, having become addicted.

I finished Garlic and Sapphires, actually a very quick read despite looking somewhat hefty (double spaced pages, large margins, recipes, etc. taking up lots of space). Really wonderful, and I was happy that at the end she explained that many people have been changed to protect identities, which made me feel more kindly towards her. She really doesn't come across as a diva or as a really unkind person. The book is very entertaining, and I will read her other books. I have read her memoir of her mother, and I was pleased to see that her books Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me With Apples are on the shelf at the tiny local library.

I went to pick up The Sea and found Daniel Silva's The Rembrandt Affair waiting for me. Very nice surprise. And I have just received a call that The Sea has also appeared. I am on my way back there now!

Not Vee, but the newest Simon S. book is The Shadows in the Street. I ordered it from Book Depository in England. They price in quite reasonable US$ and don't charge for shipping. I really don't know how they do it. It's very easy to order unless you don't like using a credit card online.

Stop You're Killing Me lists it as No. 5. In order, they are:

The Various Haunts of Men (2004)
The Pure in Heart (2005)
The Risk of Darkness (2006)
The Vows of Silence (2008)
The Shadows in the Street (2010)

I thought this one had a little glimmer of light at the end. She does write such dark stories, but she is so good.

Carolyn, thanks so much! I guess I have read the first four and need to look for no. 5. The stories are bleak, but I love the settings and the characters. Hill is currently my favorite mystery writer, and usually I am not a "Mystery fan."

Siobhan,

I've read all the Ruth Reichl books, except the latest one about her mother (who sounds like "a real corker"!).

"Tender at the Bone" is such an exciting book about her growing up in New York City -- w/her parents in the Bohemian Greenwich Village of the 1950s and 1960s. Sounds like such fun!

My favourite part -- when one day her mother picked her up at school, took her to the airport, and -- w/out warning -- sent the 14-yr.-old Ruth off to Montreal TO LIVE at a French-Speaking, all-girl School ! She'd never been to Canada -- knew none of her new classmates, teachers, hadn't any relatives in Canada. It turned out to be a fabulous adventure for her !

As for her being a restaurant worker -- For a year or so, she waited table at Chez Panise, Alice Waters' ground-breaking restaurant in San Francisco. When she was a student at the U. of Michigan, she was a waitress. So, with all that experience waiting on the general public, it's a sure thing that she had to deal w/customers who were A PROBLEM!

Also: At CharlieRose.com, you can play her interviews from over the years.

Have Fun!

We live at the top of a very steep hill, so we usually don't get any trick or treaters. When there were young children living in the neighborhood I would buy a few candy bars in case they rang the bell, but they are all in high school or college now. I do like Hallowe'en and dressing up in costume, but I haven't done it for a long time. Maybe next year someone I know will give a Hallowe'en party.

I'm now reading and liking Connie Willis's Black Out. I waited until now to read it because I knew that the story arc covered two books, and the second, All-Clear, comes out next week. It is written in her usual complex, multi-storyline fashion and I thought I'd enjoy it more if I read it more or less continuously. So far I'm liking it.

Rosefolly

Mary, you're welcome. The Susan Hill book is not out in the U.S. yet; hence, my directions of how to order cheaply from England. I wish we didn't have to wait so long.

It takes even longer to get the Morland Dynasty books by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. I have reserved the next paperback through Book Depository, which told me when I did so that there were only 114 more days to wait!

I finished The Blackhouse by Peter Hill, and thought it wasn't bad. It had a fair bit of information about a yearly gannet chick cull on a rocky outcrop off the Outer Hebrides, which I felt was a bit forced - one of those occasions where the author knows something and you are jolly well going to learn it too.

Now reading Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig, which I think Liz read not so long ago. I am enjoying it immensely. There are five main characters living in London whose stories are linked, and I am keen to see how they come together in the end.

Darn, I finished Black Out and have to wait several days until All Clear is released. I'm so glad I didn't read it last spring when it first came out! Meanwhile I am re-reading another Connie Willis favorite, a book that I have read about ten time already, and on my personal list of the ten best SF novels of all time, Doomsday Book.

Rosefolly

I have been captured by a delightful little book "Fasting,Feasting" by Anita Desai. Set in India, it follows the life of Uma the plain spinster daughter who lives in the shadow of her beautiful young sister.A fascinating look into traditions and family life.

Astro - Glad you are enjoying "Hearts and Minds". I really had a good time reading this, and am having a tough time trying to decide whether to lend it to my sister. Doing so will mean never EVER seeing it again... Or do I keep it in my crowded bookshelves for a re-read?

Finished up the narrative nonfiction called "Welcome to Utopia" about how the twenty-first century is affecting one very small town in central Texas. Interesting with well documented characters (oral interviews etc.)

Then the library called with Bill Bryson's new one, "At Home", which, in typical Bryson fashion, covers history in very manageable bites. He is working his way through his old Rectory in Norfolk where he lives, going room by room and discussing the history of things in that room. If you like Bryson, you'll like this..

And then it's the FoL book sale this Friday ...

Finally finished the long novel "Swan Thieves" by Eliz. Kostova. Having loved and re-read "The Historian" prior to this, I felt let down, somewhat. It's a complicated plot veering back and forth between various complex characters, across times and continents. I don't think it hung together as successfully as her previous work. If you are an art historian, however, this is the book for you!

What to read next, after I finish the biography of Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis, is the big question....

I just re-read an old Isaac Asimov SF novel, The End of Eternity. The plot was as clever as I had remembered it being. However I was disappointed in the writing style, which I found a bit stiff. I last read the book when I was in my teens, and I suspect it just suffers from the fact that I've read a great many other books in the interval. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I did first time around.

Rosefolly

Pillars of Gold by Alice Thomas-Ellis was a strange plotless but dialogue-strong read. Set in some up-and-coming area of North London about twenty years ago where the local women have swapped husbands for newer models, left their children to their own devices and now meet for long booze-fueled chats about the pointlessness of life.
I checked this at Amazon and several US reviewers seem to see it as a working class story, but this is how the urban chattering middle classes in the UK seem to spend their pointless days.
The saving grace for me was some sharp, witty dialogue.

Finished "The Messenger", a Daniel Silva suspense novel. Good tension, exciting plot. Am dubious, though, about some of the politics in his books.

Am all caught up in "The Debutante" by Kathleen Tessaro -- a couple of art experts go to a once-fabulous seaside estate in England to make a catalogue for auction. The place was owned by one of a pair of sisters who were the most glamourous debutantes of their "season" -- in 1920s London. The young single woman (working on the auction catalogue) becomes fascinated with the younger of the sisters, a famous society beauty who lived a wild and extravagant life in London between the 2 World Wars -- then suddenly disappeared. The debutante's story unfolds through letters she wrote to her sister (who lived at the estate) in the 1920s - 1941 (when she disappears forever).

The story of the modern couple -- the two who are putting the auction catalogue together, is just as compelling. She was a promising painter living in New York City, when she met a couple of men who swerved her world and her talent into a head-on collision w/life. (It would take just too much space to explain it all here.) She's now back in her home country (England), trying to put her life and her self back in order.

I am reading a non-fiction book! "The Man Who Lost Himself" by Robyn Annear about the Tichborne Claimant. I came across a reference to this case in one of my usual mystery novels and have been so engrossed that I almost missed the new series first episode of my favourite TV comedy "The Big Bang Theory" which I have been eagerly anticipating!
What with the Book Depository deliveries (thanks to whoever recommended this site) and some charity shop bargains, I actually have a TBR pile! Usually I borrow one library book at a time but I know some of you keep several books on the go. Having no 'upstairs' simplifies my life!

I am reading "Old Filth" and loving it. I have checked and there are two other books that follow Filth, the second is "The People From Privilege Hill" and the third is "The Man in The Wooden Hat" I have the third from the library, have any of us read the three? If so would you suggest that I try for number two next?

I like the way that Jane writes, looking at her long list of books a favourite of mine was "Crusoes Daughter". I shall be following this lady up!

June, I too loved Old Filth and recently read The Man in the Wooden Hat (which apparently is a reference to a small statue/piece of sculpture in an Amsterdam museum) and found it very strange with some of the storyline quite difficult to follow and disjointed. She does, however give a good picture of Post War Hong Kong with its contrasts of wealth and squallor, heat and smells. I'd be interested in what you think.

I have finished The Sea for our discussion and started Bad Boy by Peter Robinson. Since Ian Rankin seems to have finished with Rebus, the Robinson books are filling the gap for me.

annpan -

"The Big Bang Theory" is one of my favourites, too! In the past year I haven't watched it as much as I used to, though, because the plots seemed to be repeated so often. But the guy who plays the skinny, really nerdy one won the Emmy Award (this year, I think) for his role. If you go to the National Public Radio website you can probably download the interview they did with him last month. I heard it when it came on the radio, and was struck by how different he was from the character he plays.

Happy viewing!

And speaking of radio -- David Sedaris was interviewed today (National Public Radio). It was riveting listening, as usual, when DS is talking! I plan on buying his new book in a few days when I'm back at the bookstore.

I didn't realise that "People on Privilege Hill" came before "Man in a Wooden Hat". Hmm. I really enjoyed "Old Filth", didn't quite enjoy "Wooden Hat" as much, but still thought it carried the plot forward and I found it interesting to learn more about Betty... I own "People.." but it's in the TBR pile and you know how that goes...

Speed reading Bryson's "At Home" because I couldn't renew it and it's a 7-day book and due tomorrow. Good job the library sends reminder emails to renew your borrowed goods - I would have kept it another week!

After that, it might be back to the Raj for my next read as it's an ILL and due back at the beginning of November.

Lauramarie - I *adore* David Sedaris. He used to come quite regularly to Austin's big independent book shop called "Book People", but I haven't made it down there for that yet. I hope to in the near future though...

Here is a link that might be useful: Book People

Hi lemonhead101 --

Yay! ... someone else here who likes David Sedaris -- A LOT. Thanks for the link. It's * important * to keep those independent booksellers going strong, isn't it? A wonderful "olde world" bookstore here is the Strand, which also has its own Website. It is still owned by the Bass family, whose great-great grandfather began the business with a wooden street-sellers barrow, 4th Street (the old "book district"). They sell used and new books, and carry reviewers' copies of newly-released hardcovers -- 50% off !

Sorry to go on so much about it, but I'm in love w/the Strand -- it's truly a one-of-a-kind place.
BTW: It was announced on the radio last week that the HUGE B&N store across from Lincoln Center is going out of business. HOORAY ! !

Here in NY City, quite a good number of "mom-and-pop" bookstores went out of business when Barnes & Noble put up HUGE stores in practically every single neighborhood in Manhattan. It was really disgusting. The last time I bought a book at B&N was in the 1980s ! ... and it shall remain that way.

Thanks to Rosefolly, I have Blackout and can't put it down. I was going to clean the house tonight (don't I know how to party on Saturday night?) but the dust bunnies will have to wait for another day.

I also read a couple of Susan Hill's ghost stories, very spine-tingling, thanks to Martin for reminding me of them.

At CornflowerBooks.com -- discovered from someone at this site -- the woman who runs it just interviewed Alexander McCall Smith ... on her site ! First time I've seen a Web creator do this.

I have finished "Old Filth" it was a wonderful read. I am to collect "The People On Privilege Hill" by Jane Gardam from the local library to-morrow. It seems to be second in the trilogy.

Veer I shall be in touch.

I finished Little Girls Lost by J A Kerley, and thought it was a good read, although a bit far-fetched at times.
Still trying to decide what to read next. I am on holidays for 3 weeks, and have time for any number of books which are calling from my TBR pile, which makes it harder!

I spent a lazy weekend and read "Minding Frankie" the latest Maeve Binchy,also some of "Murder in the Rough" Otto Penzler's anthology of golf-based short stories. This kind of book is useful in that I find authors I have not read before, as well as favourites like Simon Brett and Jonathan Gash.

I just finished Susan Hill's "The Shadows in the Street" and liked it less well than all her others. Carolyn, what did you find in it at the end that was a "glimmer of hope"? I could not find one redeeming theme in this work and thought it bleaker than all her others.

I think my next work will be the historical biography of a Southern family of Charleston, SC.

I finished Blackout by Connie Willis, what a terrific read! The cliffhanger ending almost had me in my car, driving fifty miles to the nearest B&N or Borders as the local shop doesn't have the next book All Clear. I am also dying to get my hands on Susan Hill's Howard's End Is On The Landing. Both of these books, however, are available on ILL and will probably be in my hands later this week so there is no reason to squander time and money today. Besides, I really do have to get some chores done - like paying some bills so the electricity doesn't get turned off. Although I do have a battery-powered reading light...

I sent the silly cat detective book to my mom, who loved it, so I feel okay about buying it.

I am almost done with The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, which is a memoir of her time fighting a very serious neurological illness with a little snail on a violet plant by her bedside. Bailey was so ill she could not move, could not care for her beloved dog or even sit up to look out the window. Snails are actually very interesting creatures, or at least Bailey makes them so. And in the course of my work I often have patients with similar illnesses, so that was very interesting to me as well. The book is beautifully written, quite short.

Siobhan - Your snail book sounds good; I may to have to see if I can find that in the ILL system...

I have been reading The Children of the Raj by Vyvyen Brendon, a non-fiction about one of my favorite historical times (at the moment) of Victorian/Edwardian times in India. This book is quite dense to read (but not boring at all - just a lot of text) so it's quite slow going. May have to balance this out with a little light read of something...

Oh, and I did The Fiction Class by Susan Breen about a grown up daughter having a difficult relationship with her mother at the same time as she (the daughter) is teaching a "Writing Fiction" class to adult learners. Not bad, but not as good as I was hoping for...

Mary, sorry to have gotten your hopes up with Simon! I thought his making peace with his stepmother, asking Sam to go along on one of his always private walking tours in order to help him get over the trauma of seeing his mother hurt, and agreeing to attend a wedding abroad boded well for him. I haven't given up, but Ms. Hill does love an unhappy story.

I have finished Bad Boy and really liked it and have now started The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue, picked up while waiting on a very long list for Room. It's women's rights in the late 19th c. and so far not too intriguing.

I just finished a marathon read of Tess Gerritson's Rizzoli and Ilses novels, except the last which is on reserve at the library. So I am happily back to Abigail and John which is an interesting story. The Adams are a family and a parr of history that I am fairly knowledgeable about. This is a different presentation, and I am learning even more. It's fairly well written, and not dry and intellectual.

Siobhan, so glad you liked Black Out. There is a pleasure in someone else liking the same book.

I saw Tess Gerritsen about a month ago; she was signing books at my local bookstore. I bought one for my brother.

I thought I had already posted this, but I finished Art is My Life by William Zorach, a book I had started on my holiday last month. Excellent, revealing autobiography of this artist/sculptor who truly lived for his art. His daughter, the artist Dahlov Ipcar still lives near here, on the farm that first her parents and then she and her husband have owned for many, many decades. One thing that was very interesting to me is that he had the opportunity to earn a good living as a lithographer/illustrator, but his artist wife insisted that he turn it down and devote himself to art. They lived very simply and frugally for much of their lives in order to reach for their dreams.

Happy October everyone! I just finished reading "The Town" by Chuck Hogan (formerly "Prince of Thieves") which has been made into a movie starring Ben Affleck. I enjoyed it very much although I found it could have been condensed a wee bit. Fans of Dennis Lehane's Boston-based novels should enjoy it: a bank robber at a turning point in his life falls in love with one of his hostages, as does an FBI agent on his trail...

Now to my TBR pile to pick my next book - Fun! I decided to take back all my library books; I found I was coming home with piles of them and then being unable or unwilling to start reading the vast majority of them because I was afraid I would be unable to finish them before the due dates. Starting to simplify my life...hopefully I will get more reading done this way.

Siobhan - it's so funny: I had that Connie Willis book in my hands today at the local bookstore and made a note of it. I can't tell you how many times I have come across an interesting book and then someone here at RP has mentioned it. I was surprised I hadn't heard of Connie Willis before and will make sure to put her books on my wish list.

Stoneangel, my library allows renewals of a book until it is requested by someone. For the second renewal, after six weeks of being kept, the book must be personally presented rather than done by phone. I usually only borrow one or two at most but after giving the poor librarian a long list from the STKM site when a lot of my favourite authors were mentioned, I got a load of books turn up at the same time!

I finished reading "Belong to Me" although entertaining nothing special.
Reading now "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky. I've just started it but looks like a fascinating book.

That sounds like a great policy, Annpan. In my library system we have to renew every three weeks (can be by phone or internet) and can only renew twice - unless someone else has requested the book in the meantime. I tend to take out a lot of books that others are also after :c( Once I had trouble checking out a book because it hadn't been input into the library system properly and the librarian said: 'just take it - books are for the people'. I did return it when I finished with it!

I have Connie Willis's Passage. I read her Blackout as though the book were on fire, foregoing sleep, meals, and phone calls, but this one I am poring over as though it contained the secrets of the universe, reading each page and thinking about what is happening. It is set in a hospital, a very familiar environment to me, and I feel as if I am there, and as if the people are real, and are in fact living out this very interesting plot right in front of me. So you probably won't be hearing much from me here at RP for awhile!

The article below might interest Susan Hill aficionados. There is also a chance to enter a ghost story writing competition. Scroll down to 'Related Articles' on the left and click onto 'Ghost Story . . .'

Here is a link that might be useful: Susan Hill

I have just finished a collection of short stories by Jane Gardam "The People Of Privilege Hill" 14 in all. There are a few of them that will stay with me for a long time, they are so moving. My next will be "The Man In The Wooden Hat", I am hoping to catch up with Betty and her doings with Veneering from "Old Filth".

Veer I shall be in touch with this one.

Siobhan...a nice little drive west on Rte 1 for Gerritson. I am jealous...of her with the ride and you for seeing her. A plethora of my favorite authors live in or near Camden, and I often laugh as I know I could be standing next to one of them in the bookstore or the market and probably wouldn't even recognize him or her.

I've had Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip on my TBR pile for several months now and finally got around to reading it. It's not my favorite of hers, but I enjoyed reading it.

I also finished Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn. I started it (as I mentioned on another thread) last night and didn't put it down until I had read the last page, well after midnight. It was worth staying up late to finish it.

Earlier this month I read the newest Jennifer Crusie; Maybe This Time. It's a fun, light read, and is very appropriate for October (ghosts in the house!). :)

Vee, I am not a ghost story aficionado, but thanks for the Susan Hill link. She is a very interesting woman.

Finished Kathleen Tessaro's "Debutante". Not exactly "chick lit." since it doesn't stress designer clothes or "looking for 'Mr. Right' ". Has depth of character and good background development. One of the characters is partly based on the Mitford sisters. It jumps back-and-forth from a modern-day woman to a back-in-time woman. The woman from the past is revealed through a series of letters she wrote, which pop up in each chapter. A unique, intriguing way to tell a tale; but then I like these sort of parallel universe stories.

In the Author's Note section I was disgusted to learn of how people (mostly women, it seems) were locked away in institutions for no good reason. In one case they only had typhoid (no mental problems), and after they were cured, they were kept locked up ... some of them for 60 years ! ! The cure for typhoid was discovered in the 1950s ... some of those women were locked up till the 1990s !

And this -- two women were listed in Burkes Peerage as having died, when they were very much alive -- were cousins of the late Queen Mother. It seems the girls' parents didn't want to deal with their upbringing; so just left them at an "institution" for life. They were later joined by three of their first cousins -- also retarded. One of those girls was sent on to Ketwin House, which was closed down amid allegations of sexual and other abuse. Her "stay" there had been paid by the NHS !! -- even though her family was wealthy.

These sorts of things make my blood run cold. And to think, these are perpetrated by intelligent people. And -- worst of all --- in the case of children -- they were put there -- and abandoned, sounds like -- by THEIR OWN PARENTS.