So Carolyn, are you happy you did?

janalyn and Tim, if you want a 'real' ghost story set at Versailles you might enjoy An Adventure by Morison and Lamont pseudonyms under which Eleanor Jourdain and Charlotte Moberly, two respected Oxford academics, wrote about their 'psychic' experiences while visiting the Palace in 1901.
Eventually doubts were expressed about what they claimed to have seen/felt but it is still a fascinating story. The BBC did an interesting programme about it some years ago.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ghosts at Versailles

Carolyn, I have to admit, I've done the same thing myself, especially if I'm having trouble getting involved with the book. If it doesn't have a satisfactory ending I don't want to waste my reading time on it.

I finished Royal Airs last night and I did not love it like I did the first one. In fact, I wish the author had left Troubled Waters as a standalone. It's not that she wrote a terrible book, it just didn't flow well for me and I'm not sure I like the direction she took for this world. The way it ended left no doubt in my mind that there will be at least one more sequel if not even more.

I finished The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and found it just fair to middling. However, it led to a really good book group discussion because two of us thought it was just meh and the other four were swooning over it. So, despite not loving it, it was a worthwhile read.

Next up is the newest Gail Carriger (YA) from her Finishing School series, Curtsies and Conspiracies. I need to re-read the first book, Etiquette and Espionage to refresh my memory first, but both should be great fun. I really enjoy her writing and sense of humor.

I also just bought the newest Bill Bryson book, One Summer: America, 1927, which I can't wait to start.

Vee, here's a challenge for you because you are so good at tracking down books and stories:

Some years ago I read an account that was supposed to have been true about a mother and daughter (I think they were, but two women anyway) who registered at a Paris Hotel. They shared a room and soon went to sleep. When they awoke the next morning, they found themselves in a completely strange room -- different furniture, different wallpaper, and perhaps the lobby was different too. Confused, they asked for an explanation from the hotelier who could only tell them that he had no explanation. If I remember correctly, the women's names did appear on the hotel register but no one seemed to recall them actually signing in nor did anyone admit to showing them to any room in the hotel. The women went home to England(?) and thought about the oddness of their experience (they both seemed to have remembered the same details very vividly), so they did some research about the hotel and found some photos they recognized, photos that were many decades old, and not the way the hotel looked in their present day. I think the present day for them was early 20th century; the photos they recognized were from the 19th century. So, the question is: Did the women share a hallucination or did they time travel?

The story, in some ways, is very similar to that of the English women claiming to see 'ghosts' in the gardens of Le Petit Trianon. But I'm wondering if the book/story I read was fiction inspired by Moberly and Jourdain's account or this was a completely separate 'incident'.

Somewhere I have photos I took at Versailles in 2009. I had rented a golf cart to tool around the pathways while my companions went inside the buildings (I have seen the interiors too many times and prefer the outdoors). Anyway, that particular morning was damp and foggy and I actually got a crawly sensation at the nape of my neck. Because of it, I hurriedly returned to the more public, paved areas and courtyards.

That was fascinating Vee- thanks for the link. Frieda, we spent the whole day in Versailles, and we walked and walked and walked...the gardens are massive, I would have loved to have seen the fountains actually working. I will put up some Paris photos later, with some reading suggestions. I read a lot about Marie Antionette :)
Carolyn, that is the reason I dont read mysteries. I have a bad habit of peeking at endings...just in mysteries.

If you want to take a peek at the end of a book, make sure you are reading the same story and not a "teaser" first chapter from the next book in the series soon due to be published! I did this and wondered who the new characters were!
Another French mystery concerns a girl whose brother and his hotel room go missing during the Paris Exposition in 1867. This was made into a film "So Long at the Fair" and was the basis of several stories. I won't spoil it by telling you the explanation!

Yes, I'm glad I looked. It relieved some tension as I finish this very good book. I don't plan to make a habit of peeking, but in this case the remainder of the book was just too long to be frustrated.

Annpan, I ran across "So Long at the Fair" when I was searching for the tale that I recall. I enjoyed watching the film. There seems to be quite a story collection of weird happenings in French hotels and at French landmarks, observed mostly by English people for some reason! :-)

There are so many, in fact, that I had to go into more detail than I would've liked to so that Vee -- if she wants to try to search -- would know what to look for. If I knew the name of the hotel, it would be much easier I'm sure, but I don't remember it. However, I really didn't give the whole story away for those worried about spoilers. Actually, I don't know what the conclusion was! It may have had one or maybe it was like Picnic at Hanging Rock. I just wish I could find it and read it again.

Janalyn, hopefully somebody wrote a book about poor Monsieur Fouquet! His chateau looks gorgeous. Of course an army of underpaid servants would be needed to keep a house like that running smoothly!

I would be interested in hearing more about the mysterious French novel discussed above. French literature and history has been a running theme in my reading this year, for some unknown reason. I recently ordered a book called Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon. Feneon was a reporter for a French provincial newspaper, and the book is a collection of his reports he published (in 1906), mostly about murder, crime, and the everyday life of French people. Old newspapers are among my favourite reading material, so this book is right up my alley.

I would love to read the Versailles book, having already encountered Eleanor Jourdain in Hilary Spurling's biography of Ivy Compton-Burnett. Ivy's longtime companion was Margaret Jourdain, a younger sister of Eleanor. The sisters disliked each other intensely.

In regards to Veer's question about Canadians using American spellings, I can attest that it seems to depend on the writer's age. When I went to school, English spellings were rigidly enforced. But I don't think younger Canadians had this experience. I notice a lot of younger Canadians casually using American spellings.

At the moment I use both English and American spellings, depending on to whom I am writing. I have a friend who lives in Leeds, and I use English spellings for letters, cards, email, when I write her.

Ironically, I went through a terribly affected phase in my youth when I adopted the English use of the letter 's' instead of the North American 'z'. So I would spell words like "advertize" as "advertise".

Back to reading, I have started my first Gladys Mitchell mystery, The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop. It's a bit offbeat, but is very enjoyable.

Timallan, I read a lot of Gladys Mitchell's books once and found a man who has an interesting blog about her. He listed all her books with a summary etc. She was very prolific.

Frieda, your French hotel story doesn't ring any bells in my cobwebby brain. I wonder if you read it in a newspaper/magazine article or in a book?
Interesting what you said about Versailles and the 'sensation' you got while in the grounds.
I'm not given to psychic premonitions nor am I the seventh child of a seventh child but I have had a couple of unpleasant feelings when visiting old churches. And almost all English churches are 'old' . . . maybe it was caused by the 'shut-up' musty, airlessness with their smell of damp hymn books and mouse-chewed hassocks, but it wasn't a 'happy' sensation' I just needed to get out in the fresh air. Luckily I was only looking round and I wasn't part of the congregation.

Janalyn, re the US/English spelling. I am sent copies of the Canadian Geographical Magazine by a Toronto-based friend and have noticed the learned articles are written and spelled in 'English' English while the letters are more likely to be in a mixture of both; often will very 'casual' grammar. Now and again they get their metres/miles etc mixed up and have to post an apology the following month.

Vee, I have had creepy feelings in old Australian buildings and also on untilled ground. I understand that this is common but I don't know the reason for this idea. However I once sat on the ground in a place near the ocean and got a very strange sensation of being connected to the Earth. Something to do with magnetism, perhaps? It made me understand a little of what the Aboriginal people try to explain about their feelings for the land.

To return to the subject of this thread: I am reading my first "Graphic Novel". "Safe Area Gorzade" by Joe Sacco, is a B & W study (in cartoon format) of the wars in Bosnia in the 1990's. It's not a cheerful read, but it is for the college class I'm taking. I'm astonished at little I knew about this period, despite having traveled in the former Yugoslavia earlier.

I'm sure you will all be glad to know that I finished Just One Evil Act today and found it to be the best of her books since she killed Helen off.

A cold, wet November morning here today, so I went back to bed and finished The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop by Gladys Mitchell. I can't remember the name of who (on RP) recommended her books to me. But whoever you are: thank you! A definitely offbeat, peculiar mystery novel, but very fun! The plot is almost hilariously complicated, and the sleuth Mrs. Bradley is a bit sinister, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it very much.

I needed something a bit lighter after the Joan Didion, and the book about poisoning!

Timallan, I might have recommended the Mitchell books as I am a fan. Anyway, I am glad you liked it. There is a series on DVD but the Mrs. Bradley, played by Diana Rigg is very glamorous in it! Good fun, though!

The Oracle Glass is a historical novel by Judith Merkle Riley that is based on the Versailles poisoning scandal. I enjoyed it very much, but do not remember whether or not Fouquet featured very strongly in it. I read it (twice) some years ago, and did enjoy it. JMR died rather young a few years ago, so unfortunately we will have no more of her clever, quirky period novels.

I just finished reading the latest novel by Robin McKinley. It was neither her worst nor her best; somewhere in the so-so region. I haven't loved anything she's written since Sunshine. This was readable, but I'm glad I got it from the library rather than purchased it, and I doubt I will re-read it. McKinley is a case of "When she is good, she is very very good". Alas, she is not always good. I'm liking the episodes she is posting on her blog better than anything she has published in recent years.

Rosefolly

Thanks for the recommendation, Annpan. Diana Rigg is certainly a lot more glamorous than how Mrs. Bradley was described in the book. I think it is intriguing how both Mrs. Bradley and Christie's Miss Marple made their fictional debuts about the same time.

Rosefolly, thanks for the recommendation about The Oracle Glass. It sounds interesting.

As usual, I'm reading about two or three books at the same time. One of these right now is Alistair MacLeod's "Island". What marvelous writing! I weep when I read it, and since it is a series of short stories, I can put it down and get back to it after I have "healed" a bit. Another book that I am reading is Elizabeth George's "The Body of Death", but only about half way through it. I also just finished Sinclair Lewis' "Cass Timberlane" and Steinbeck's "Wayward Bus", and enjoyed both of them.

I want to highly recommend Tim Bonyhady's "Good Living Street: Portrait of a Patron Family in Vienna 1900." I am interested in Vienna, Klimt, and the "decadent" elite culture leading up to the disaster of the Anschluss. This book is meticulously detailed and beautifully written, so much so that I am now eager to read anything else by Bonyhady. At the same time I also read another nonfiction book about Klimt's women, "The Lady in Gold," and found it much inferior, especially in its poor writing.

Someone recommended "Longbourn" by Jo Baker which is another take on "Pride and Prejudice" from the servant's point of view. I have tried to read a number of this genre and usually can't get past a few pages!
This one isn't too bad although it starts out with a grim picture of washday in the Bennet's Georgian house. I don't know much about the setup with servants in that time but it seems odd to me that one girl does the work of several, kitchen maid, parlour maid and even helping the young ladies get dressed!
The good part is that the author is detailed in her household descriptions but didn't give me the smug "Look how well I researched the period" impression in her writing that some do!
I am finding the book interesting but not really an enjoyable read. It is on the requested list at my library so I may have to skip through the 365 pages to finish it quickly or it could be months before someone at the end of the queue gets to borrow it.

Ann, I too have problems reading books written in the 'style' of Jane Austen and trying to carry on the story; it seldom seems to work. And regarding 'washday' I'm sure for people of 'those days' and not living in a mansion with an army of servants, a 'washerwoman' (think Mr Toad) would come in to do the work, or the washing would be 'sent out' to her own house.
In our very run-of-the-mill village we still have a 'Big House', home to what might have been called in the past the Lord of the Manor, but certainly the family who own most of the agricultural land in the area and continue to employ many 'locals'. Set next to what was once the stable block (now a Craft Centre) is the old laundry in which the village women would have boiled, scrubbed and ironed. This then became the Estate office and is now home to a flourishing Nursery School! Meanwhile Lord and Lady B use a washing machine like the rest of us. ;-)
How do I always get so off topic?

So, I am reading.
Stet by Diana Athill. DA was editor at the well-know publishing house of Andre Deutsch from the late 1940's and before the days of huge conglomerate empires (stet is a printing term meaning 'let it stand').
For anyone interested in more than just the 'book' they are reading, but likes to know how books were chosen, how authors were treated/wooed/paid, this is an informative and beautifully written read. The second half of the book deals with the more personal side of the job and DA's friendship with various authors . . . and she dealt with many: John Updike, V S Naipaul, Helene Hanff, Laurie Lee, Norman Mailer, J K Galbraith . . .

Here is a link that might be useful: Diana Athill in her 90's and still going strong

Vee, yes, there was a mention that a house such as Longbourn should have a washerwoman. I was astonished that the author only gave the housekeeper, Mrs Hill, two young servant girls to look after such a place! A footman is employed later and is the "downstairs" hero of this story which nicely mingles the P&P events.
I found only a couple of things to query and I am on shaky ground there as I am not so familiar with Georgian times as Victorian.
Was "Sunday travel" not frowned upon then? The eldest Bennet girls return from Netherfield after Jane's illness on a Sunday. Also the mixing of indoor and outdoor servants at meals in the great mansion of Pemberley, for example. I believe that an upper servant like Sarah, the heroine, would normally dine in the housekeeper's room along with the other ladies' maids.
However I did manage to get through this book with a bit of skipping, being reading time-poor at present. The weather here is now hot and I flake out mindlessly in front of the TV instead watching the US court cases in the afternoon and trying to guess the outcomes.

I should have checked with P&P before I wrote about the Sunday travel because Austen herself has the girls travelling home on that day! So she would know if a short journey was acceptable under the circumstances. She couldn't be wrong, surely!

Question: Do Canadians always use US spelling? After reading this book it feels as though they are ready to become the fifty first state.

Vee, when I read this I laughed so hard I spit my tea across my keyboard!

Siobhan, that didn't seem to hurt your keyboard as you are still able to use it!
I recall the days when people would say that we in Britain were turning into the 49th state of the US. That dates me a bit but I don't remember quite why this was said.

Now steady up there Siobhan. As we say over here "You should have put more water in it."

Ann,I think the xx State number refers to the idea that we are very influenced by whatever trends/fashions are taking place in the US. Think of those mid Atlantic accents used by pop singers and DJ's.
I remember watching on old WWII English film in which the pilot-hero says to his crew "That was swell, you guys." I'm sure retired Forces officers humphed in horror and wrote strong letters to their MP's about the Americanisation of the language and what our country was coming to . . .
I think these days it has levelled out perhaps because drinking coke and wearing jeans has become so universal and maybe the Mighty Dollar no longer holds sway as it did in the '50 and' 60's.
We used to think Australia was becoming very influenced by the US. I don't know how true this is.

Vee, I honestly can't answer you truly about that! Australia seems to take what it's people like about a number of cultures! As you say, jeans and Coca-Cola, but also European migrants have been a big influence on cooking as have more recently Asian foods. TV programs come from all over the world.
A merry mixture to enjoy!

I'm re-visiting Thomas Cahill's "Mysteries of the Middle Ages". I have found all his work fascinating and scholarly.

Finished reading In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld, and I am glad I didn't buy it, but got it from the library. One of the main characters is a bird artist and environmental activist possessed by a "righteous anger", as her husband puts it. I never warmed up to her, though I liked the other characters and the birds descriptions.

Vee, I can only agree with Ann that Australia just picks up bits and pieces of other cultures.

Lots of the 'good old Aussie' slang and sayings have fallen by the wayside (you beauty, cobber, bloke etc) and my boys picked up some Americanisms from TV ('wait up' instead of 'wait for me' was the one that irked me the most) but other phrases have never caught on. I've never heard an Aussie say 'in back of me' for instance, or gas for petrol (maybe because some cars here run on liquid gas) or sidewalk for footpath. But young men call each other bro and say 'wassup?' And then there are the phrases that just seem to spring up. No one says 'come over to my house' any more, it's 'come to mine'.

I was once quite worried that we were becoming Americanised but not any more. I hasten to add I don't have anything against the USA or Americans, it's just that I want my country to maintain its individualism.

Kath, we seem to have dropped "Have a nice day" here in Perth in favour of "Enjoy your day". Is it the same In SA?
Also a person is greeted with "Hello (name) how are you?" I usually reply "I'm good, how are you?" by saying "good" it seems more general than "well" which I think sounds more like a health enquiry response!

Janalyn,

I was fortunate to be able to visit both Versailles and
the Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte...both beautiful.

What always boggles my mind is the size and grandeur of these places.

The wealth it took to create them is staggering to consider.

However, my most favorite was the Petit Hameau of Marie Antionette. A perfectly recreated little farming village just for her. I found it interesting that the people were almost instulted by it's creation, thinking that she was somehow belittling their life style .
In fact, she was such a child in so many ways, she wanted an escape from the tedium of the court life which was dominated by a language that was not her own nor easy for her to use.

I'm engrossed in "We Took to the Woods" by Louise Dickenson Rich, written in 1942, and re-printed. It's an account of a young couple who deliberately moved into the outermost far reaches of the Maine forests, raising children, living in 2 cabins, in the wilderness. It's really a "back to basics" and back to nature account: dealing with bears, deer, unbearable winters, logging camps, and giving birth at home with no midwife, before the doctor could arrive. Both spouses make their living by writing and a lot of bartering goes on. I'm finding it quite refreshing and learned the official way to prepare the famed Saturday night fare of Baked Beans.

Ann, I don't think 'have a nice day' ever took off in a big way here. I think I hear 'have a good one' more often now.

As you know, I work in a shop, and I make a point of just saying 'helllo' and not adding 'how are you?' unless it is a customer I know and I am genuinely interested in the answer.
On the other hand, if I am asked, I always say 'I'm well thanks', as if you ever said 'I'm good' to my father, he would answer, with a smile, 'I asked after your health, not your morals'.

Kath, sometimes a health enquiry isn't wise in a retirement village, it can get a 'too much information' response!
I am reading "Maeve's Times" extracts from Maeve Binchy's writings for the Irish Times. A mixture of stories and comments. Some are quite sad.

I'm reading the second book in The Kingkiller's Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. this one is about 1000 pages, so I would call this epic fantasy. Very epic. Anyway, I read the first one two weeks ago. It's good, if you have any older teenagers who liked Harry Potter (this book is a bit more grim) they would probably like this under the Christmas tree. I looked up the author to find out when the third and final book released and it looks like sometime in the spring of 2014. He looks to have a bit of a cult following, not in the pagan sense, just a lot of fans. I had never heard of him but I haven't been reading a lot of fantasy the past five or six years.

I just finished reading Longbourn but had a completely different reaction. I really liked it. I had just finished Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger, so perhaps I am on a run with this theme. Unlike other Austen inspired novels, it does not feel remotely like fan fiction to me and there is absolutely no attempt to mimic Austen's style. In fact there is more sympathy for Mrs. Bennet and a bit less for the Bennet sisters and their father. I have not liked any of the few copycat novels I've read, not even Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James, but I was quickly drawn into this one.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, I didn't dislike "Longbourn", in fact I finished it, which I don't think I have ever done with any of the others of this kind!
I agree that it was kinder to Mrs. Bennet than even Austen was!
I think that I have only read one writer who said that she had sympathy for her and her problem in marrying off five daughters with small dowries.
In the last TV version the actress made her sound like Edna Everage!

A few days ago I finished Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty about the England in the mid-1980s. It was very good, though was pretty explicit in parts. I am still experiencing an afterglow from this novel. I am also reading Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, which is mercifully short for a nineteenth century Russian novel.

I will probably skip Longbourn. Is anyone else getting thoroughly sick of all the current "Austeniana" novels? I was in a large chain book store last week and noticed no less than three best-selling books with "Mr. Darcy" in the title. Enough already.

I'm about half way through An Old Betrayal, the latest by Charles Finch. In 1875 London, Charles Lenox is now a busy member of Parliament but still likes to get involved in detection.

Janalyn, I read and enjoyed Patrick Rothfuss's first Kingkiller novel, but the second one did not engage me. Perhaps I'll try again later, especially since you enjoyed it.

I did, Paula. But I also love fat books which I can wallow in. The author did say that the third book is the last which I appreciate - I am not a fan of these series books that go on and on and on. In the second one, there is some clever writing that gives hints how this story may develop. I also like the little stories that are contained in the novel and some people may not.

I took the top fifty sci-fi and fantasy list to the local library. Of the sixteen I hadn't read, my library had six. I did find one that had been added to the library since the last time I had looked for it: Little, Big by J. Crowley. Russ highly recommended that one long ago, so I am reading that now. It isnt at all what I expected. Have any of you read it?

Janalyn, I read Little, Big about 15 years ago, and all I remember now is that I was lukewarm about it. Since so many people had praised it so highly, I assumed the problem was me! I have tried 1 or 2 other Crowley novels, but none has really stuck with me. Maybe my taste is too lowbrow. :)

On the other hand, I am currently reading China Mieville's The City & the City, also on the SFF list, and liking it very much indeed.

So nice to have my login problems solved!

Stayed up into in the wee hours finishing Buried in the Sky by Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan, the story of the Sherpas during the 2008 climbing season on K2. I have a fascination with this type of story. Despite the late (early!) hour, I pulled another book off my shelves, K2, Triumph and Tragedy by Jim Curran, a book I read years ago. Spent some time looking at the many color photos and reading bits of this older tome until I started to sneeze. This is an unfortunate problem I seem to have developed - my old books are causing a mild allergic reaction!

Still, the mountaineering books are great. A couple of days ago I polished off the classic Annapurna by Maurice Herzog.

So - back from our trip to Blighty and recovered from the dreaded jet lag (which seems to get worse as I get older!) Had a great trip with lots of reading and drinking cups of tea and eating Jaffa Cakes. (Yum.)

Reading included a re-read of Bram Stoker's Dracula (which I still enjoyed), In Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate (Nancy Mitford) and an Agatha Christie (And Then There were None).

I also picked up and put down a collection of non-fiction bits called The Countryman Cottage Life Book by Fred Archer. A bit of a hit-and-miss anthology of memories and notes from people who hailed from tiny villages and crofts across UK. This was a good idea, in concept, but very uneven as the editor (Archer, I presume) could not seem to decide whether to make this an academic tome or a chatty "when I grew up in the cottage" type of book. However, I found this copy marooned on an out-of-the-way shelf at the library and thought I'd help it feel wanted so checked it out. :-)

I am attempting to read The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick and highly recommended on Book Lust. Ms. Puttermesser so far is taking Hebrew lessons from her great uncle who died before she was born and has built a golem--and I'm only on page 49. The end flap says it is a brilliant literary tour de force, wildly inventive, wicked, wise, and funny; so I will struggle on for awhile.

To preserve my sanity, I'm interspersing it with Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express by Start Kaminsky, which is much more my cup of tea (or vodka).

Just finished a quite enjoyable read called "The Great Filth: The War Against Disease in Victorian England" by Stephen Halliday (2007). (The same author wrote "The Great Stink" about that hot summer in London when the Thames smelled horrible and affected the politicians at the Houses of Parliament enough to get them in gear about the city drainage system.)

The topic was great and I'm always up for a delve into Victorian times, social history and medicine, and so most of this was truly fascinating. And I liked the approach that Haliday took which was more of a big-picture approach and gave appropriate kudos to engineers and architects and some reform-minded politicians who all helped to make public health safer.

One ongoing thing that kept annoying me (and this is my permanently switched-on Editor self talking) was the actual format of the book. You could tell that Haliday had done his research - this is good. However, you could also tell that this book was a bunch of essays written at different times and then patched together. There was a lot of repetition and only some vague continuity between the different topics, and I think it's a bit lazy for an author to do this instead of finding new material or reworking the info differently.

The thing that galled me the most was that Haliday (writing in 2007, mind you) kept referring to men and women in different ways. When males were first referenced, they had both their first name and their last name (surname) and then after that first mention, were called by their last names only.

The women, on the other day, were first mentioned with first name/last name, but then referred to thereafter by their first names. This struck me (as an editor) to be infantilizing for these brave and smart women of the times in comparison to the male characters who were featured.

I saw this early in the book, and then saw that it continued as a formatting choice throughout, and it started to quite irritate me. I don't know why Haliday made this choice (or perhaps his editor did). Published in 2007 means that it is recent enough for people to be aware of gender bias in writing, so I don't have an explanation for this.

I know - nit-picky, but it affected my overall reading experience. Why not first name/last name as first ref and then revert to last names for everyone regardless of gender?

So - content was good (apart from the repetition) and there was a nice bibliography at the back for further reading. And I learned things - but it was all a bit marred by this gender bias thing that has little excuse for existing in this day and age.

Speaking of Victorian medicine, whilst we were in London, we visited the Hunterian Museum (housed by the Royal College of Surgeons) and packed with historical medicine artefacts. Fascinating.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hunterian Museum (London)

We had early snow here in Southern Ontario. Not sure how I feel about it frankly. It seems a little early for that kind of weather, though it is pretty to look at (I guess).

I did not have to go to work yesterday, so I spent the day curled up with another Gladys Mitchell mystery, The Saltmarsh Murders. Her books are an acquired taste, but nonetheless I think I may becoming addicted to them. I loved the book, and found the ending to be a genuine surprise. (When I read Agatha Christie, I am usually pretty good at guessing the killer's identity.) The Saltmarsh Murders was published in 1932, so I am also a bit surprised at some of the subject matter she was able to raise.

I have ordered a few more of her books for myself as a Christmas gift for myself.

Lemonhead, the book you mention sounds very interesting. I find medical history to be fascinating. I have a copy of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer on my shelves. I was going to read it this year, but three people I knew died from cancer in the past few months. I just don't think I can handle the book for awhile.