re: The Stranger in the Woods. I believe I've changed my mind about reading this one.

Kathy, I just want to thank you for spelling "wracking" correctly. :) I get tired of seeing nerves being "racked."

Donna

Skibby - We've provided TMI, I imagine. Sorry about that!

Donna - LOL, but thank you!

Skibby, my apologies for not posting a big spoiler alert! I confess that I didn't think of it because The Stranger in the Woods is nonfiction, and the story has been all over the news media for quite a while, even here in Hawai'i where things that happen on the mainland aren't always heard or read on a timely basis.

Donna, do you follow the AP Stylebook? I ask because "nerve-wracking" is the preferred in-house style of the Associated Press. In most American and British English dictionaries and other grammar guides, "nerve-racking" is the standard spelling for the adjective defined as causing stress or anxiety, with "nerve-wracking" as a variant. So either is considered correct!

On the contrary Kathy & Frieda - you saved me a trip and perhaps some disappointment.

Wouldn't nerves be racked? I imagine the saying would be derived from the torture. People often refer to nerves being stretched.

Or was the medieval instrument spelled with a W originally? Interesting ...

Wrack is also the name of several types of brown shore-line seaweed including the sort that has little 'air-bubbles' which are great fun to burst.

Vee, I remember doing that! And better than bubble wrap as some juice would spurt out too! Simple pleasures...

Funny thing is, I didn't give the spelling of "wrack vs. rack" even one second of thought. It's just what flowed out of my fingertips on the keyboard.

I've started reading Before the Fall by Noah Hawley, but at page 72 I'm about to abandon it. It has an intriguing plot: only two people survive a plane crash, a man and an unrelated four-year-old boy. (For a more intriguing description, Click Here.) However I am put off by the use of crude male locker-room language in the backstory of the boy's father. If anyone has read this book and has reason to encourage me to continue, please speak up.

I finished reading my first Brunetti mystery set in marvelous Venice. Now, I've just started "The Woman in the Window" which is an early Xmas present. I am liking it thus far and it has been described as "unputdownable."

Kathy, I read Before the Fall for some reason and finished it. I had some reservations about the plot and will mention it if you do finish it. I don't recall the bad language though! Perhaps I ignored it...

I have started Long Road to Mercy, a David Baldacci book that my daughter thought she had loaned me, but I've never read it and she can't find it at home. So, as she collects his books, I bought it for her for one of her Christmas gifts and decided to read it first to eliminate the back and forth.

I had also begun Pack up Your Troubles, new in the Cynthia Harrod-Eagles War at Home series, but wasn't far enough into it that I couldn't lay it aside temporarily. I'm getting behind in my library books due to the busyness of the season, and I have just got notices that two more are in for me to pick up. What sorrow--masses of unread books. And I probably have enough new bookmarks to put in all of them. Thanks, RPers.

I'm about 2/3 through Old Bones by Douglas Preston & lincoln Child and I am really enjoying it! It's pretty close to "I can't put it down".

Maybe SPOILER ALERT!

A historian who is a decendant of a member of the Donner party enlists an archaeologist to lead a dig to find the "Lost Camp" of part of the Donner group and the fortune in gold that was supposedly lost with them. At the same time, there have been three grave robberies where the upper half of the torsos were stolen. The deceased were all members of the same family, descended from another member of the Donner party. There is also a living member of the same family who has gone missing, and a rookie FBI agent on her first investigation is trying to figure out how or if it's all connected.

Donna

I have just read a short story which features a girl who comes into a book shop and chats with Dylan, the non-reading assistant. He has an artistic mother, no father and a clever older brother. He likes to run.

The girl is obviously Jo March but I can't place the young man. Anyone spot the clues?

Annpan - I am continuing with Before the Fall. The objectionable language seems to have been confined to that single chapter. I've read more, but the going is slow - definitely not a "can't put it down" book like I was expecting. To be fair, holidays and attitude are also slowing me down. I will check back when I've finished to hear your reservations about the plot.

Annpan - Okay, this is how fickle I am. It's 2 hours since my last post. I just read another chapter of Before the Fall and decided I just don't like it. I'm headed to the library to pick up a couple of holds, and I'm going to return Before the Fall. After I gave up on it, I flipped to the end to see the outcome. I couldn't tell what had happened, so feel free to provide your comments to satisfy my curiosity if you care to.

Kathy, I am writing this at 3am, awake on a hot night!

I vaguely recollect that I was surprised that the child was living with people who didn't seem to guard him although he (or was it a sister) had been the subject of a kidnap before. That is all I can remember from a book I read some time ago!

If you have returned the book, you can't refresh my memory!

A quick read Paris for One by Jojo Moyes. A selection of 'longish' short stories with the general theme of Paris ( I don't need to add France do I? I notice most Americans include the name of a country when mentioning a city)

An undemanding read, rather like the stories found in women's magazines. OK in very small doses.

I re-read "To Love and Be Wise" by Josephine Tey and went to Goodreads to see what others thought of the book. To my annoyance, several readers got the plot wrong! How can I take their comments seriously when they can't even give a proper account of the story? Pay attention, people!

I have Tiger in the Smoke waiting for me at the library (thank you Carolyn) They send an email when a pre-ordered book arrives and always seem to wait until I have returned from a trip to our local town to post the information. This time we had parked right outside the building. I think the librarian sees the car outside and presses PING. The book will have to wait until the New Year for collection as the library will be shut over the hols.

Vee, we have poached many city names from Europe over here in the US, so that's probably why we tend to include the country name. Florida has a Venice and Georgia has a Rome and I think there's a Paris in Texas. :) Plus we want to be snobby and point out the fact that we've been to "Paris, FRANCE". LOL

I'm reading The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda. I believe the description said it's a psychological thriller. There are definitely a lot of strange things going on, but I don't know that I would call it a psychological thriller. It bounces back and forth between the present and a party that took place a year ago, and the main character is filling in the story in bits and pieces. I'm liking it enough to finish it, but the fractured storytelling is getting a little old.

Donna

Finished The Last House Guest. It was okay. Now on to the next Louise Penny, Glass Houses.

Donna

I've been binge reading Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret books because I got ten of them as Christmas gifts. They are only about 170 pages each, so I need to slow down a bit or I will have them all read by New Year's day. Of course, this series is making me a liar because I usually say that I don't like series. While that is generally true for me, I think the Maigret books are my exception. Simenon wrote 75 or so Maigret cases from 1931 through 1972. I have read about 40, so far, in English translations and a half dozen of those in Simenon's original French. I've heard of readers getting addicted to Simenon's writing; now I know why!

My serious reading is currently Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang. It's a triple biography of the Soong sisters and also the history of 20th-century China. It's going slowly for me, because I get sidetracked in Internet searches about the sisters. I had just barely heard of them before and my ignorance is hampering a smooth flow to Chang's narrative. That's not her fault -- it's entirely mine! This is excellent reading about fascinating subjects. It may even be the best book I read in 2019, if I finish it in time to count as a 2019-read book.

I just finished another Victoria Thompson Gaslight Mystery, Murder on Gramercy Park. I'm officially addicted and now request them in multiples from the library so I'll have the next one on hand as soon as I finish the one I'm reading. The mysteries are clever and I'm enjoying the gradual development of the relationship between police detective Frank Molloy and midwife Sarah Brandt.

Murder on Washington Square is up next, then on to the lovely stack of Christmas books.

Sheri, I'm glad you are enjoying the Thompson books. I do, too. I'm currently reading Lethal Pursuit by Will Thomas, set in Victorian London.

My Christmas book was England and Wales, a coffee-table-size book with gorgeous pictures and text that I haven't read yet.

Two books for Christmas. The first a local history Tradition Reformation and Reaction in the Forest of Dean 1450 - 1603 by Joyce Moss. We have been trying to obtain information on the ancient Preaching Cross in our village (c13 something or other) and hoped to find a few clues in the book. It mostly contains long prose sections and interesting little snippets from Church records kept at our local cathedral . .. Both pre and post Reformation clergy took rather too much interest in the moral welfare of their parishioners, especially fornication. Other than non-attendance at church (which could result in a fine for RC's) the sight of some penitent woman clad in nothing but a sheet, prostrate in front of the altar, appeared to have gladden the heart of the local priest.

By contrast Dancing by the Light of the Moon by Gyles Brandreth claims that "poetry can transform your memory and change your life" I must study it before any further loss of grey cells. Plus I don't read/remember much poetry and haven't had to learn any since school days.

Is/was this sort of 'learning by heart' important during your education.

Vee, I don't remember having to learn poetry at school, possibly we didn't have enough books we could learn from when I was young. It was read to us by a teacher in class and my mother, who loved poetry, read it to us at home. I recall enjoying "The Lady of Shallot" with our afternoon tea.

I might have done some memorising at Grammar School, 11 to 16 years old. It hasn't stuck though!

I have written some poetry in the form of lyrics for my son to put to music. However he is off on a round-Australia caravanning trip for a year or more so I haven't done anything for a while.

Annpan, we too were read to by the teacher; I don't remember any text books at junior school (except for those containing arithmetic 'problems'). We listened to poetry, especially narrative verse . . . 'Hiawatha' etc and took in quite a bit by osmosis! Usually lessons ended with her reading a few chapters from 'Kidnapped' 'Treasure Island' and similar classic works.

Secondary school . .. lots of passages from 'The Merchant of Venice' "Twelfth Night' 'A M S's Night Dream' . some horrible Wordsworth, G M Hopkins . . . whatever was on the syllabus.

After finishing The Storied Life Of AJ Fikry ( which, as it turned out, I'd already read ! ) I have decided to return to my favorite place, Three Pines and begin The Nature Of The Beast by Louise Penny. I considered reading The Night Circus but will let that one stay on the pile until I've had my Three Pines fix :0)

I'm currently reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. It's different from anything I've read in recent years. I can certainly see why it's popular. It reminds me a bit of reading a Dickens novel, though I haven't read one of those in so many years, that may not be an accurate comparison. Maybe a better way to say it is that, to me, it doesn't feel like a modern novel at all, yet it was published quite recently.

Still lurking here. Many thanks to all of you for the many books I have heard about here, read, and enjoyed.

Vee, memorizing poetry or passages was required while I was in primary school (grades 1 - 8) but not once I was in high school. I can still recite from memory passages from "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" and "Romeo and Juliet" much to the amusement of my husband who can't believe that all these decades later I can still remember them.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

That passage from MacBeth is the last thing I remember having to memorize in my senior year of high school English, and I only remember the first two lines of it without looking it up. We did learn a few poems over the years, but they don't remain in my memory--gone along with a lot of other stuff.

I do remember September by Helen Hunt Jackson, which I learned in fourth grade up to the last eight lines that I have never heard until just now when I googled it.

Thank you Carolyn. Apparently Judi Dench is able to recite whole plays by Shakespeare but now she has lost most of her sight, has to have a 'reader' to help memorise new lines.

I once had to memorise some lines for a Shakespeare play we were performing at school. I struggled to get them right and practiced so many times at home that the whole family, including my kindergarten-aged sister, knew the lines and could recite them better than I could! I have always had problems with Elizabethan English.

Actually, when I went to a drama school and performed in 18th Century Restoration plays, I found the 17th Century dramatists easier to understand, they helped to bridge the language gap for me.

Annpan, drama school? You have certainly led a varied life! Have I seen you perform with the RSC?

Vee, no you have not! Going to drama school evening classes after my day job as a Civil Servant was an eye-opener. I realised I wasn't that good, when I saw how the others were.

Brava Carolyn ! Not one of the cheeriest passages at our ages :0))))) ...but such is life.

Vee, I wanted to add a comment about the variety in my life but the laptop wouldn't continue typing for some reason.

I have always been rather impulsive (like my mother was) and will try anything! Instead of counting sheep to get to sleep, I can try listing the things I have tried to do, both as an employee, business woman and socially.

I almost took up rifle shooting and horse riding but other things got in the way. Sadly the riding gear got soaked and ruined in a rain storm but I had moved on anyway after buying it by migrating to Australia suddenly when I was offered a late berth on a Xmas sailing.

Not only a life of variety, Ann, but interesting variety. To get to sleep, I have tried counting backward from 100 as well as trying to remember from the earliest forward the most beautiful flowers I've seen in bloom. For instance, at my childhood home we had a mock orange bush that smelled heavenly in the spring, and it is still alive and blooms. My youngest aunt married a well-to-do man, and the place they bought had a curved row of wonderfully fragrant lilacs leading into a flower garden. At my present house, the former owners planted a row of different colors of peonies across the back of the house. They are gorgeous in the spring. (It doesn't take a lot to please me.)

Carolyn, you just recalled my three most favorite fragrant flowers : mock orange, lilac and peony.

Sadly, there are few mock orange bushes that are fragrant now unless you know which ones to look for. There are more strains that have no fragrance.

When I was a little girl we lived in an apartment that had a huge mock orange bush in the front and a gigantic cluster of old-fashion lilacs in the back. To this day I love them and the smells take me back with wonderful memories. Dad always had a long bank of huge peonies along his driveway which smelled like roses. Luckily I thought to dig some up and plant them at my home when we had to sell his house.

I'd better post now before year's end so this month my book club discussion book was March book One - John Lewis which I already mentioned previously but needed to review it for the meeting. I also picked up The New York Public Library Guide to Reading Groups - Rollene Saal. The 25 cents I spent was worth the 35 + annotated books lists divided into genres (and subgenres) to suit a wide range of interests. The book was good however, so I read the whole thing. This will make for a nice reference book.

There were many Christmas books, mostly children's/YA but there were three that were particularly good:

A Forest Christmas - Mayling Mack Holm. A very cute story about animals in the forest that was beautifully illustrated with complex pencil sketches.

The Gift of Christmas - Christine Leeson. This had lovely color illustrations about a mouse family's Christmas.

The Very Best Christmas Tree - B.A. King. A very nice story that was a little bit different but the best part were the wood engravings that were absolutely stunning. I've never seen anything like them. Those were done by Michael McCurdy.

Up next for Book Club is Beneath a Scarlet Sky - Mark Sullivan. I'm not looking forward to this but I don't know why since I know nothing about it. Perhaps because it's required reading with a deadline. I do hope I like it since it's 500 pages. If you have any words of encouragement, don't be shy.

I finished Bloodroot by Cynthia Riggs. This series is set on Martha's Vineyard and features a 90+ year-old heroine who knows everyone and everything about the island and is a deputy sheriff and a tough old bird. The author is the eighth generation to live in the family home on MV and runs a B&B in the house. The books are delightful. Might be something you would like, Ann.

Carolyn, Thanks, I will check Riggs out to see if I can get any of those books.

At present I am reading the Mike Rigby "Allingham's Campion" series. I think he has her style very well, so I am enjoying them.

Skibby,

"Absolutely stunning" is an apt way to describe Michael McCurdy's engravings. I haven't read The Very Best Christmas Tree, but I saw his engravings in Walden then and Now... and wow (I saw the book at the library, but didn't check it out. Next time I looked for it, it was not in that branch anymore). Thanks for reminding me of him. I'm going to see what other books illustrated by him the library has. Unfortunately, they don't have the book you just read.

reader and Skibby I have always been interested in book illustrations since childhood (I was a slow reader and preferred to look at the pictures) and enjoyed the work you mentioned of Michael McCurdy.

An English artist who also produced wood engravings was George Mackley. I first heard of him as the headmaster of my DH's junior school during the 1940/50's. John had no idea he was 'famous' but knew he had been a friend of his late Father. We were able to trace some of his limited editions of prints originally stored in J's childhood home and have had a couple framed and hung. Beautifully detailed yet simple in design.

George Mackley prints

Carolyn - The Cynthia Riggs books look interesting. Is there any reason to try to read them in order? By the way, after looking at a "books in order" website, I see that the heroine sleuth of these books has been 92 years old for about 20 years now. Ahhh … if life were just a little more like fiction!

Vee - Those George Mackley prints are gorgeous! I can't imagine what it must be like to have that kind of talent and skill.

Vee, thank you for the George Mackley link, his images are amazing. There's a clarity in his work that is very appealing. Just lovely!

Kathy and Sheri I think a very steady hand is called for and the 'inner-eye' to see what the end result will be as positives become negatives and vice-versa.

Vee, I appreciate you posting that link. I just spent a long time there. I'm tempted.....

RinT - re: The Very Best Christmas Tree Ever. More info: copyright 1983; David R. Godine, Publisher. Added in case it's helpful in finding the book.

My copy has an inscription written inside that says: June 1987 to Nadine from Sam Bones.

Bones is the last name of the Christmas tree farmer in the book but his name isn't Sam. I wonder what this means.....

Kathy, there is some character development in the Riggs books, but reading them in order is not as imperative as in some series. Try the first one and see if you like them.

I have begun The Night Bell by Inger Ash Wolfe. Her books are set in Canada, and she tells good stories. The main character is an older female detective, and in the first book she has had back surgery. Her mother is old and ailing and can't care for her, so her only alternative is to stay with her former husband and his new wife. It makes for some funny experiences!