Below is a link to BBC Radio 4 and a reading of 'And His Letters . . .' by the actor Nigel Havers who btw is appearing as Maxim de Winter in Rebecca on the London stage. Perhaps not quite Olivier but he does have that aristocratic 'something' about him. At the BBC site click on Monday And regarding aristocrats, Frieda, maybe some people in the UK feel that a hangman's gibbet should stand outside the House of Lords or that hereditary peers should be replaced by friends of the Government with deep pockets . . . not so different from the old system when you consider how many 'top people's' ancestors obtained their titles. Either way, arriving with William the Conqueror or slightly more recently when various Royal Mistresses demanded positions for their offspring, this group is part of the Establishment. No amount of money, delicacy of character, nobleness of soul makes it possible for the rest of us to join this elite group (and it is amazing how many would like to be Up There). Top actors, pop singers, Party Girls etc hang round the edge but they are almost never admitted into this inner-sanctum. Of course there are some very wealthy people in this bracket; mostly from ownership of land and lots have 'Stately Homes'. Many of you have probably been to Chatsworth, Castle Howard, Warwick Castle etc. who's owners have wisely turned their properties into money-making enterprises. Interesting about the story of the student and her father. Surprisingly over here, for everyone below Royalty if such a thing had happened (a father writing in on behalf of his daughter) any university would have put the application straight in the bin; there is no automatic right of entry to any uni' for sons/daughters of alumni. Re adoption: there are certainly far fewer babies available these days. Although many many more babies are being born 'out of wedlock' (for want of a better expression) this is usually by choice . . . of at least one parent . . . and in both big cities and small country towns the sight of groups of very young females pushing baby buggies, smoking, chatting to boys (the possible fathers?) is very common. Our Govt gives out vast amounts of benefits to this group so the need to put a baby up for adoption is very low and many people only want healthy white children. The Social Services who are usually the first port of call in these matters make the 'process' very very difficult, especially for middle-class couples. It seems that if a child comes from a poorer, perhaps racially mixed background the social workers wants it to be adopted by people from that 'class' without considering whether the child might stand a chance of a better life. Some parents look abroad as I expect they do in the US, but this can lead to even more problems . . . and cost far more than going through the usual channels. When the cases of the Romanian orphans was first aired on TV some people tried to adopt a child, thinking with their hearts rather than...

Hello all, Time to pop this thread back to page one since my FoL sale is this week. It starts on Saturday (with crowds waiting at the doors) and ends tomorrow. I confess that I left with far more titles than I should have but then again, I do the same thing every year. My haul: Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart Geisha by Liza Dalby (this one looks "iffy" but my daughter said, "go for it, Mama", so I did.) How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffet by Lawrence Cunningham (yea, well, reading about this stuff is kinda fun for me...) Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick Green, Inc by Christine MacDonald In the Beginning (the story of the King James Bible) by Alister McGrath Down the Nile by Rosemary Mahoney Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox The Boy and the Samurai by Erik Christian Haugaard Changes at Fairacre by Miss Read Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym Main-Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood and The Writing Life by Annie Dillard A Moment on the Earth by Gregg Easterbrook Book Business by Jason Epstein In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu by Tony Ardizzone Life of Pi (illustrated hardcover edition) by Yann Martel Whew... now it is time for tea, popcorn, and an evening of reading! PAM

Honestly, I read a lot. I should make a list and keep track because I am not sure if I read a book in 2012 or the first part of 2013. So, I will be choosing books from the past six months. Science fiction: The Windup Girl I loved the setting in a futuristic Thailand, the plot, just a great read. "The Windup Girl is a biopunk science fiction novel written by Paolo Bacigalupi and published in September 2009. It was named as the ninth best fiction book of 2009 by TIME magazine,[1] and as the best science fiction book of the year in the Reference and User Services Association's 2010 Reading List.[2] This book is a 2009 Nebula Award and a 2010 Hugo Award winner (tied with The City & the City by China Miéville for the Hugo Award), both for best novel.[3] This book also won the 2010 Compton Crook Award and the 2010 Locus Award for best first novel." A Tale for the Time Being I had a lot of fun discussing this one here so perhaps that has something to do with this choice! The Orenda by Joseph Boyden. He is a Canadian author, and this novel is "a defining epic story of first contact between radically different worlds, steeped in the natural beauty and brutality of our country's formative years." There are three narrators, a captive Iroquois girl, A Huron leader and a Jesuit. Boyden did his research, I found it fascinating and learned a lot. Also I just finished it last night, so it is very fresh in my memory, lol.

I keep a reading journal and it has a place to rate your reads on a scale of 1-10. So, I'll list the books I read this year according to how I rated them. (I know this message is way too long, but hey--I hardly ever get a chance to post, horrible lurker that I am, so a once-a-year overly long posting isn't too horrible, right?) 10-Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Sentimental 10 rating--remember reading it as a child and it held up. Good fun. 10-Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell What a mind-blowing book with so many layers and connections. LOVED IT! 10-Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Such a beautiful and contemplative book that examines aging, new life, regrets, families, grudges, grace and God. Particularly loved how the main character finds beauty in sunlight catching a sprinkler's spray or birds roosting on a phone wire (two things that would have been impossible to see in the 1800s). 10-Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Company: A Road Novel with Literary License by Maria Amparo Escandon This is the "One City, One Book" pick for 2009 in our town. It is such a page-turner! The main character is in a women's prison in Mexico for a crime that remains a mystery for most of the book. She starts a reading group for the inmates, only she doesn't actually read the text, rather tells her story. 10-I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith This book has been mentioned time and again on this forum and I finally got around to reading it this year--THANK YOU to whoever recommended it. I loved it so much! 10-There is Room for You by Charlotte Bacon Such beautiful descriptions of India, both in the 40s and the 90s. Loved the two intertwining narratives of mother and daughter, both outsiders in India but at two different times. A very lush book. 10-The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys I'm sure everyone in the world had read this but me. Written in the 1960s, it imagines the story of Mrs. Rochester (Mr. Rochester's crazy wife that he kept locked in the attic in Jane Eyre.) It was hard to read and I gave it a 10 not because I loved it, but because it did perfectly what it meant to do. It said so much about patriarchy, post-colonialism, feminism, and madness in ways I'd never thought of. I need to re-read. 10-The Woman I Kept to Myself by Julia Alvarez This book of poems was so great that I am going to buy the book. There's one poem in the particular about how she can tell who her husband is talking to on the phone by the tone of his voice. Another one talks about how she can't bear to throw out her headbands, even though she has short hair now, because they are such a symbol of her girlhood. You have to read these poems out loud so that you can hear the sound of them. 9-Five Skies by Ron Carlson Loved this book! Three men out on the plains building stuff and eating really good food. I have no idea why I related so strongly to them! It was downgraded to a 9 because of the...