Kathy, that sounds delightful, may I join in?

I decided on a cocktail length dress for my on-a-budget wedding so it would be useful afterwards. I saw the perfect one, a wasp-waist and full skirt style in cream tapestry brocade but it was too big and the saleswoman said she only had my size in grey. I couldn't find another I liked but she was determined to make a sale. As I was leaving, she walked backwards before me pulling dresses from the rack, even the grey one, which stopped me dead. "That is silver!" I said. "Yes, yes, silver" she gabbled in agreement.

I wore it on many occasions until I had a small bulge in my waist! Then I gave the dress to a charity and hope someone else enjoyed it too.

The Silver Fleece by Robert Collis is a book that has been languishing at the back of a shelf for years. It came out in 1937 and is an early autobio' of an Irishman, educated at Cambridge and at medical school in London. A Rockefeller scholarship to Johns Hopkins took him to the US then back to London and Dublin where he worked as a paediatrician. In between a busy medical life he was a great sportsman and played international rugby (football) for Ireland. Although this book doesn't cover the period from WWII I 'looked him up' and he was one of the first medics with the British Red Cross to enter Belsen where he treated typhus cases and 'saved' several orphaned children, adopting two and finding homes for the others. In later life he worked with cerebral palsy cases and 'mentored' the Irish writer Christy Brown helping him to publish My Left Foot

I often wonder how some people manage to pack so much into their lives . ..

Kathy.....what a great idea !

I once organized an "Old Brides Shower" for all the seasoned teachers. They were told to bring items from their wedding to display. Oh, wow. We had an actual wedding gown, headpieces , garters, cake toppers and albums. One disgruntled divorcee brought her wedding album in which she had cut her ex out of all the pictures ! We also had theme hors d'oevres , some of which were rather risque' !

Just a couple of comments here. I am thrilled that the second book in the Hild story is coming out--I've been waiting for it for years! (Big on late Roman/post Roman Britain up to the Conquest here). At 76, I hope I live long enough to read the third.

And re cataract surgery. My surgeon did the eyes a week apart--standard for him. And one eye sees distance, the other close middle distance. I love it! I had it done maybe 5 years ago, and for the first time since I was 13, I no longer need glasses, though I wear cheap reading glasses for small print, especially if I'm going to be reading for some time. Had to get a note from the doc to get wearing glasses requirement off my drivers license.

Two great books I read Jan into Feb were by Thomas Mullen--Darktown and Lightning Men. Now, Mullen is white and these books (a third is just out) are about the first Black cops in Atlanta, GA--late 40s and new one into the 50s-- and what they and their families endured. It was stunning that a white man could write so completely convincingly of their experiences. But after all, if a fine novelist couldn't write at all about lives other than his own, well.... we wouldn't have much in the way of fiction. (I feel these are the real deal--in contrast to The Help, which I felt was just trash.)

Laceyvail, I had to go for a checkup with the surgeon after a month and could have had the second surgery done as soon as there was an opening on her list. My lens will both be for long sight with reading glasses as prescribed by my optician about a month after the second operation.

I shall be so glad when it is over and I can see well again. You have no idea of the number of errors I am typing and correcting, also how little reading I can manage.

So I mostly watch TV at present and am viewing programs and movies I normally would not in the afternoon instead of resting with a book. I have followed recent US news shows from the previous day, like PBS which are mainly about the freezing weather, the election aftermath and Covid, of course.

I spent much of yesterday reading a short, entertaining book titled Kitchen Yarns by Ann Hood. It is a series of short memoir moments in Ms. Hood's life, all having to do with cooking and food. It was pleasant reading and I have marked a few recipes to copy before I return the book to the library. In addition, it inspired me to order from Amazon a used copy of The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso, a cookbook that was apparently wildly popular in my early adulthood, but which I managed to remain ignorant of until now. Is anyone else here familiar with this cookbook?

I'm having some trouble getting here again. My previous workaround is not working just now so I had to be a bit more creative. I do hope it is temporary!

I've taken a short break from disease books to re-read the last two of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books. I've dipped in to Twelve Diseases The Changed Our World and it is interesting - starts out with porphyria and hemophilia so a change from the epidemics I've been reading about. I've also taken a break from the podcast I was enjoying so much. I'm up to the point where they are discussing covid in the early days. We now know so much of it is wrong and it is annoying me. It's completely not their fault, I get it. That's what everyone thought in the beginning, but I have become impatient with it. It also reminds me that what we are thinking now might be equally mistaken.

I'm reading the latest Faye Kellerman, The Lost Boys. A man in a fairly open residential facility for the intellectually dysfunctional disappeared on a road trip with some of the people who live there to go hiking in a wooded area near where Decker is now living and working in upstate NY. In searching for him, the police find a body that has been buried for ten years.

Kathy.........I am familiar with that cookbook..... I browsed it and might have made a recipe from it. I liked the back story of the women who wrote it.

Yoyobon - Oh I see now that it has two authors - didn't realize that. Apparently the copy I ordered is the 25th anniversary edition "enriched with full color photographs throughout." (So glad the photos are full-color and not less-than-full color.) The author of Kitchen Yarns says she always gets raves when she serves the Chicken Marbella from The Silver Palate Cookbook and she included that recipe in her book.

I have a copy of the Silver Palate cookbook that I picked up after trying a couple of Sheila Lukins' recipes when she was food editor for the Sunday Parade Magazine. I still make her candied sweet potatoes every year for Thanksgiving (mashed with orange juice & maple syrup, yum).

I finished The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue the other day, and it was a standout. Imaginative and captivating - once started, I couldn't put it down for long, and ended up reading it in 2 days. Well-worth the 4 months I had to wait for it on the library holds list!

donnamira, I just requested the Addie LaRue book on line. I am No. 173 on 37 copies.

Carolyn, I just read The Lost Boys. There are some interesting developments!

I liked the Addie LaRue book as well.

Having trouble settling down to read today. I finished a chapter in my latest disease book, and moved on to sorting papers. Then Tom and I took a long drive over a mountain road. I'm getting restless, but then, aren't we all?

It's probably time for a comfort re-read of nothing very challenging.

I forgot to mention that I had no problem logging on today. Probably just something with my network the other day.

Well, Msmeow, interesting developments, indeed. I finished the book and was totally unprepared.

Now I'm reading Widow's Wreath, the last Martha's Vineyard mystery by Cynthia Riggs. I'm sorry to reach the end of this series.

I am continuing to read Modern British Classics, thanks to Vee's thread (September 2020) and the links she provided for lists to explore.

I have made a pretty good dent in those lists, but I have recently hit a snag because the books I've chosen -- two by Patrick Hamilton (Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky and Slaves of Solitude) and one by Brian Moore (The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne) have unsettled me a bit because they are about such sad and lonely people without much hope. Hamilton began his stories in 1929 and essentially wrote about the same sort of people until his own death in the early 1960s. Moore's 'Judith Hearne' was first published in 1955 and he, too, wrote many stories about the lives of sad, 'ordinary' people - particularly women. Both of these male writers seem to have had great empathy with their women characters.

Hamilton also wrote the play "Gaslight" which is considered the source for today's term gaslighting when someone is deliberately trying to make other people think a certain person is going crazy, as well as convincing the victim of her/his own mental instability. In real life, Lord Lucan tried this tactic on his wife, Veronica, and unfortunately he was successful to a certain degree.

All three books are set in boarding houses and the situations are so similar that I'm having trouble keeping them separate in my memory. They are good examples of "quiet desperation' novels with situations and characters that some British writers are so adept at depicting and portraying. I do recommend all of them, but not for reading one after another as I did.

Alas Grace by Margareth Atwood

Canada, 1843. Grace Marks has just turned sixteen
when she is sentenced to death - sentence then commuted to life imprisonment -
for complicity in murder. The murder is that of his employer, the landowner
Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper (and lover), Nancy Montgomery. With Grace,
his alleged accomplice James McDermott is sentenced to death, and this time
without penalty. But young Grace, a silent creature, with clear eyes and a
pure, almost angelic face, suspected of mental insanity, spiritual weakness,
believed to be a deceitful liar, a devious killer calculator, or, as the case
may be, a victim of society and a tempting devil, is he guilty or is he
innocent? Is it true that he remembers nothing about the murder? In the
meantime, she serves her sentence, in prison, sewing. Many would like to see
her free, first of all the young Simon Jordan, a graduate in medicine and
specialized in what is the nascent branch of psychiatry. What do the deep eyes
of the beautiful Grace hide? What did they see?

Frieda and anyone . . . similar books set in the England of the '50's are Mrs Paulfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor and A Change for the Better an early work of Susan Hill. Both rather down-beat but true to life 'as it was'. Also I might include almost anything by Anita Brookner.

Is Barbara Pym another candidate? Some/most of her women protagonists were rather sad and lacking in joie de vivre. Possibly the age in which these women lived. So many husbands, brothers, boy friends killed during WW1, little prospects for a woman on her own or married women just putting up with the greyness of day-to day life.

I just finished Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen. At first I was put off by the ridiculous names of people and places (such as Faye Alex Riptoad and Casa Bellicosa) but I ended up enjoying it a lot.

Donna

I just started The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and it's completely grabbed me. I have several things I need to get done this evening, and I don't dare pick it up again at bedtime (I'll never go to sleep) but I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

This morning I finished Thick as Thieves by Sandra Brown. Kind of a fluffy romance, but it had a decent plot and some good twists.

Next up is The Devil’s Punchbowl by Greg Iles. I saw the title on the game thread and realized I haven’t read any Greg Iles in a long time.

Donna

I'm reading A Crown of Lights, the third Merrily Watkins, Anglican priest, by Phil Rickman. It's not the best series I read, but the books are interesting.

Carolyn, Dido/Diana recommended the Merrily Watkins series sometime ago. They are set more-or-less in my neck of the woods in neighbouring Herefordshire, obviously an area full of things that go bump in the night. I found the first one rather over-long and a few months ago ordered the second from the library . . .so far with no luck. In fact they have deleted my request from the library site!

I remember Dido, but I didn't remember her recommendation. I don't know how I got started reading the Merrily books, but it hasn't been long. I like her family story, but the bump in the night doesn't do much for me. This one has a young pagan couple in it as well as a "happy-clappy" clergyman.

I've just finished the best read for ages . . . Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce (she who wrote The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Queenie Hennessy) A 'proper' story set around a middle-aged amateur entomologist and the journey she makes to New Caledonia. I wont give any details away but please borrow it from the library/buy it and enjoy it as much as I did.

Yesterday I finished Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. I've had it on my TBR list for several years. All I knew about it was that it's about the crash of a private plane off the U.S east coast. And that there were only two survivors - a man and a four-year-old boy. And that the man saved the boy's life and the boy was the child of very rich parents. That sounds like an interesting book, doesn't it?

Well ... although I did stick with it, I didn't much care for it. I had it in my head that story would be about the follow-up to the crash, about the relationship that developed between the man and the boy. But mostly it was about figuring out what caused the crash. I suppose that might be why the title is Before the Fall instead of After the Fall. Duh!

I finished CHAVS: The Demonization of the Working Class, Third Edition 2020 by Owen Jones. I don't recall who first informed me of this book. Vee, was it you? If so, what is your opinion of this writer and his conclusions. I will understand if you don't want to go into much detail --something simple, such as "thought provoking or it's about time someone tried to sort out this attitude" or even "utter drivel" will suffice for my purposes. I know it's a heavy subject.

I thought the term CHAV would have a more interesting etymology, but Jones seems to accept that its origin is either 'Council Housed and Violent' or 'Council Housed and Vicious'.

The Madeleine McCann case is well known the world over, but I've been completely ignorant of the case of Shannon Matthews.

I did hear about Jade Goody and how TV-watchers really loved to hate her. They chose not to believe that she was dying of cervical cancer when she actually was. Then after she was dead few owned up to their mean-spiritedness and blamed her for the type of cancer she had. Sheesh!

At any rate, I will be very interested in anything you, Vee, want to say . . . or anyone else.

I have started The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. It is . . . different. Pretty good, but different.

Carolyn, I listened to The Thursday Murder Club broadcast on the BBC's 'Book at Bedtime' slot. The parts I heard before falling asleep were enjoyable . .. it isn't on until 10.45 Mon - Fri!

Frieda I had to 'look up' Owen Jones as I had never heard of him or his book! From the comments I've read he seems to be a total pain the rear-end . . . Bigging up his Left of Left upbringing, writing for the Guardian, Tribune etc. One youtube video shows him at a Jeremy Corbyn (then leader of the Labour Party) rally but I can't find a 'follow-up' video of Owen explaining away the fact that Corbyn's Marxist policies led to a humiliating defeat for the party, nor Corbyn's later expulsion for his anti-Semitic views.

I always understood that CHAV is an old term for tinkers/gypsies; nothing to do with Council housing. I have heard of Jade Goody but knew nothing about her.

I had heard of the Shannon Matthews case and watched an informative TV prog on it.

And yes, her family certainly came from the wrong side of the tracks.

For anyone who might be interested. Shannon's Mother had heard of the case of the missing child Madeline McCann who was 'taken' while the family were holidaying in Portugal and is still missing presumed long dead.

Matthews thought to profit from this by making her daughter 'disappear' so as to get sympathy/money from well-wishers. Eventually the child, Shannon, was 'found' unharmed but the police had a 'wall-ful' of graphs/photos of the complicated 'family-tree' of the Matthews family. Inter-related, workshy, scroungers and known to the police (these were just some of the 'polite' comments) By her 30's Matthews had 8 children, most by different fathers and many were in care. Her 'partner' at the time of the event was much younger than her and, to his credit, the only person ever to have a job. Unfortunately he was found to be a paedophile so was 'removed' and taken into custody.

The children she had been allowed to keep were dirty, malnourished and living in some fear of her . . . .

I don't know what Owen Jones' take was on this story Maybe how biased the press and the righteous middle class were in their disdain of the family?

it's not all tea and cucumber sandwiches on the Vicarage lawn over here!

Vee - I love your way of putting things. After reading of the unpleasantness you described, I ended up laughing (still) over "It's not all tea and cucumber sandwiches on the Vicarage lawn over here!"

Vee, I wrote a brilliant reply to your post yesterday but it went 'poof'. Oh well. Maybe it will show up eventually. I appreciate everything you said in yours.

I had trouble trying to figure out Owen Jones' agenda, as he seems to contradict himself. But I think you 'pegged him right on the clothesline' with his take on the Shannon Matthews story as being blatant media bias and 'righteous middle class (British-style) disdain'.

One more thing: What do you think of Vicky Pollard, In Britain, and other such 'entertainment'? Funny or no?

Frieda, the Little Britain TV show was very popular over here some 10 years ago and the character of 'Vicky Pollard' (played by Mat Lucas) was an accurate though totally overblown portrait of a young woman from an inner city sub-culture (set in Bristol so notice the West County accent) of anywhere in England at that time. Though she never stops talking she is inarticulate, crude and aggressive. Partly because she is played by a man this, for the vast majority of the population, makes her appear funny. She would be recognised as the play-ground bully in any English-speaking country.

Did Owen Jones write in defence of 'her type'? Perhaps he feels we should only make fun of in-bred aristocrats, women at middle class tea-parties or boring old f*rts on the golf course.

Of course these days none of this type of humour would pass muster as woke-ness rules the airwaves, the press and especially the universities.

Is this the same in the US and elsewhere?

Below is a clip from the 'making' of the TV show.

I have just picked up Simon Brett's latest Fethering mystery "Guilt at the Garage." from the library.

I am not starting it tonight. I had a bad restless night yesterday and fell asleep around 5am. The driver who took me home from a doctor's post op check was sent all around the suburbs by the GPS to avoid road closures and we both got a bit of a fright suddenly driving up and down steep hills before we finally got to my place. It really unsettled me!

Annpan, have an early night. Do you have a book you can 'listen to' if your eyes are not quite in focus yet?

I'm reading Someone In The House by Barbara Michaels. I have always enjoyed her books and haven't read one in years. This one grabbed me right from the first page.

I read The Unwilling, new by John Hart, yesterday. Yes, the whole thing, and it was just two days ago that I commented on another forum that I don't like "mean" books. I couldn't put this one down.

Vee, I bought CDs of some favourite books in case I needed to listen but I prefer to read them, even with difficulty!

Vee, I've just finished Miss Benson's Beetle that you recommended so highly, and I want to thank you for that recommendation.

Carolyn, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was an excellent read partly as it was an 'old-fashioned story'. ie a beginning, a middle and an end and because it dealt with such a 'different' subject. Up to now the world of exotic insects has been unknown to me . . . except for being bitten or stung.

I found I had to limit how many chapters I read each day as I didn't want it to end!

Back on February 11, I mentioned that I had ordered a copy of The Silver Palate Cookbook after reading its praises in a book titled Kitchen Yarns by Ann Hood. Well, let me tell you, I feel as if I was totally flim flammed and bamboozled by the charming Ms. Hood. I definitely will NOT be making Baby Artichoke Fritters, nor Warm Sweetbread Salad (puh-leez!), nor Fiddlehead Soup, nor Poached Leeks with Pink Peppercorn Mayonnaise, nor Pale Almond Gazpacho, nor Roasted Lamb with Fig Tapenade, nor Persimmons and Figs Draped with Prosciutto (I don't drape food), nor Pheasant and Lentil Soup, nor Angel Hair with Foie Gras and Duck Cracklings (never duck cracklings), nor will there be Baked Kumquats and Parsnips on my Christmas table. Grilled cheese and tomato soup anyone?

I'm with you, Kathy. A niece once gave me a Julia Child cookbook, and Julia I am not! The old red plaid Better Homes & Gardens for me.

I went through a time when I bought or borrowed cookbooks and filled my cupboards with gadgets. I hoped it would magically make me a good cook.

No such luck. I have no patience and soon went back to putting easily prepared things on to plates.

I once had the bright idea that if I had a good collection of cookbooks, I would learn to like to cook, so I joined a cookbook club. Bad idea, for all I got was a bunch of books with no plot lines. I did eventually become a better cook, but I've never enjoyed the process. Right this minute I have the ingredients for Beef Bourguignon, a dish I loved at our Mimi's Cafe, a chain that just closed its local restaurant, and thought I would try to make. So what am I doing here?

Carolyn, Mimi’s locations in the Orlando area closed several years ago.

I’m glad to hear there are other women who don’t like cooking! I hate it, and I totally stink at it. My Crockpot is my favorite kitchen tool. That’s how I make beef bourguinon.

I finished The Devil’s Punchbowl this morning. I like Greg Iles’ writing a lot, but this one was too long (nearly 600 pages), and had too much graphic detail of dogfighting and torture.

I was going to start a Jack Reacher novel next, but those tend to be heavy on violence, too, so maybe I’ll find something else.

Donna

Re cookbooks:

in my opinion good cooks don't need them and poor cooks won't read them !

I finally have something to contribute. For the first time in almost a year I have been able to read, finish and enjoy books. I don't know what happened but I hope it never happens again. This months books include:

The Weight of Snow - Christian Guay-Poliquin

A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

The Wonderboy of Whistle Stop - Fannie Flagg

Setting Free the Kites - Alex George

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (first time read)

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Gabriell Zevin

Currently reading The Second Mother - Jenny Milchman

I can't tell you how good it is to be able to practice my favorite hobby after so long. I wasn't idle in the book arena though. I read here and participated in the book titles game. I bought a fair amount of books as well. I also reserved books from the Library this week. They only had 1 available out of the 6 I requested so they just made some selections of other books they thought I might like. Something to be said for living in a small town and being chummy with the Librarians. They did pretty well.

I loved all the books I read this month. I didn't post any review of them since I figured everyone has already read them. Glad to be back in the game. (knock wood)

That's quite a comeback you've made Skibby! Glad you are able to enjoy reading again.

Goodnight From London by Jennifer Robson, the same author who wrote The Gown.

Miss Kopp's Midnight Confession by Amy Stewart. Somehow I missed this one and have gone back to pick it up in the series. Miss Kopp is the first lady detective working in the sheriff's office in smalltown, NJ.