Like Vee, I did not make it to midnight. Just 45 minutes short of the mark, a tiredness came over me that seemed more important to address than greeting the arrival of the new year. In the short time I remained awake, I read several pages of my Christmas gift, The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. I'm not expecting it to be as good his A Gentleman in Moscow (How could it be?), but it has started out quite promisingly.

Vee - I agree that The Midnight Library does indeed seem the perfect title to be reading as the new year makes its way into our lives.

Happy New Year to all!

I spent New Year's Eve with new friends. One is French and we all speak it a little, so that was part of our conversation. We drank Prosecco and shared a sausage and cheese spread while watching from the 10th floor some light displays. In between falling asleep, later on, I regaled myself with the inimitable New Yorker magazine, always a favorite.

I'm pleased to report that I received several books as Xmas gifts.

Sheri - I like the idea of starting off the New Year with One Good Turn! We would all do well to make that a resolution (to do a good turn, if not read about one).

Woodnymph - Your New Year's Eve activity sounds like it was fun. I would have enjoyed your party as I speak French passably well also. And I agree, You can't beat the New Yorker for reading material. Enjoy your Christmas books! I only received one, but I also received a B&N gift card which I'm looking forward to spending.

I am another one who didn’t stay awake until midnight, though I woke up when all the neighbors started launching fireworks. I fell asleep reading Vortex by Catherine Coulter. I don’t know why I keep reading her books - the writing is terrible!

Donna

You made me laugh, Donna! But hey, we all know it's better to pick up any old book and start reading, rather than not read. I don't suppose Vortex refers to how we all continued to be sucked into the covid vortex in 2021 ... right?

I did stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square, and I'm pleased to report that I have passed the halfway point in Go Tell the Bees I'm Gone. I got one book for Christmas, The Paris Library, a B&N gift card, and a throw pillow for the window seat that says, "Books Are My Happy Place." They know me well, my family.

Carolyn - It's nice to be known as a "reading lady," isn't it? And you, if anyone here, deserves that title. I will be interested to hear what you have to say about The Paris Library. I noticed that Skibby included that one in her list of favorites for the year. I'm thinking it might need to be placed on my TBR list soon.

Haha, Kathy! No, Vortex is a two-track story; one is about a CIA agent trying to find an international arms dealer, and the other is about a reporter who finds out that a guy running for mayor of New York is a serial rapist.

Donna

Like a few others, I am also reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. As I am only a few chapters in, I will hold onto my opinions for the other thread. I haven’t stayed ip until midnight in years - the perks of being an introvert, I guess. But when I woke up, it was still 2022.

intrigued by The Paris Library, Carolyn - looking foward to hearing your thoughts!

Happy New Year!

PAM

The Only Woman In The Room by Marie Benedict.

The story of Hedy Lamarr's marriage to the Purveyor of Death in Austria prior to WWII.

PAM - You just can't hardly go wrong with a book that has "Library" in the title!

Yoyobon - I read a book titled The Only Woman in the Room some years back and I was puzzled by your post because I didn't remember it being about Hedy Lamarr. So I checked my reading journal (which apparently I keep for just this type of situation) and discovered that the one I read was a memoir by and about Beate Sirota Gordon, a woman who translated Japanese radio broadcasts in WWII. So not the same book. That's good because according to my journal, the one I read was "interesting but not compelling." Here's hoping yours is compelling!

Kathy.......it is very compelling. Marie Benedict always selects a strong woman from history about whom to construct her tale. All are historically accurate and researched.

Yoyobon - Thanks for the tip!

Kathy....However, I could not finish Lady Clementine. I found her completely unlikable and decided she didn't deserve my time ! Bon

Yoyobon, I have been puzzling over the title of Marie Benedict's book Lady Clementine as she was for most of her life plain Mrs Churchill and her husband was just Mr Churchill. It was not until the 1950's that Winston was given a knighthood and only then would she have been know as 'Lady Churchill' (not Lady Clementine) . . . just wondering how well MS Benedict has done her homework.

Vee, she portrayed her as a selfish, cold woman when it came to her children and a doting, controlling wife partner with regard to Churchill. I don't recall that anyone in the book ever called her Lady Clementine. Perhaps that was Ms. Benedict's own creation.

Thanks yoyo. I don't know much about Clementine, but would have thought Winston was a difficult person to 'handle'. Her older children seemed to have plenty of problems although the youngest Mary had written a couple of interesting books about the life of her family.

Vee...It was my impression that both Winston and Clementine, or Pug and Cat as they called each other, were both searching for a mother figure to love them , dote on them and make them feel cared for. She filled his need and he made her feel necessary and allowed her to fulfill her desire for power. She was a very opinionated woman who viewed motherhood as a burden and was by all accounts very cold and distant, leaving her children to the care of a Nanny . The issues of the parents were visited upon the children in many respects.

Applause, please! I have finished Go Tell the Bees That I Have Gone. It was sort of a slice of life in the next-to-last year of the Revolutionary War. Except for the battle of King's Mountain and some newborns, it didn't really advance the story, but the last paragraph is a cliffhanger. Wonder if it will take her as long to write the next one? This one has many, many paragraphs about the most mundane things.

My house is completely deChristmased as of today. The tree was the last thing to go. Vee, there are some people who leave their decorations up until Epiphany but most do not.

I have taken down the outdoor wreaths but left cards on display, alas a lot fewer each year. Even the stores I shopped at regularly have stopped sending them. I do get a charming Jacquie Lawson e-card from a friend in the UK which always cheers me up!

I was able to get three books from the library today. Our TV programs are a disgrace of repeats. (How is that for a collective noun?)

Vee , was there a special Xmas play this year, like a reworked Christie or a Dickens?

Carolyn, I have to admit that our Christmas tree's needles had given way to gravity and most were on the floor so we were forced to get it outside on Monday; but I love the smell of a 'real tree'. I know we will find 'prickles' in odd places around the house until June. The lights and mistletoe (cut from our old apple tree) will be taken down on Thursday.

Annpan, no there were none of the usual 'classic' Xmas TV dramas. A Call the Midwife special with lots of fake snow and an obligatory happy ending and the endless repeats of films . . .everything from 'Top Hat' to 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.'

At least we were spared the gloom-instilling Nordic/Scandi crime shows. Why are they so popular? Are they shown over the Pond?

Annpan......I like to recycle greeting cards into little gift boxes . I keep a basket brimming with these small boxes to admire and use for little gifts. They are fairly simple to make.

Here's a link to an easy method. I make the folds crisp and prefer to trim about 1/16" from ONE long and ONE short side of the BACK of the card piece before proceeding so that it isn't a really tight fit. I'm always pleasantly surprised at the beautiful little boxes that happen !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHi5KL-IQDg&ab_channel=ChantelleK

I orginally posted that I had forgotten but then I remembered. How could I forget? I read Between Kings, the final installment of W.R. Gingell's City Between urban fantasy series and one of my all time favorite series of any type.

I absolutely loved it, and floated around thinking about it all New Year's Day before reluctantly turning to my book club book to prepare for Tuesday's meeting. To be fair, the book club book was actually rather good as well, but the two should have been read a bit further apart in time.

Just started reading The Secret Life Of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams and think I am going to enjoy it ! Had me chuckling in the first several pages.

Fresh from college, irrepressible Vivian Schuyler defies her wealthy Fifth Avenue family to work at cutthroat Metropolitan magazine. But this is 1964, and the editor dismisses her…until a parcel lands on Vivian’s Greenwich Village doorstep that starts a journey into the life of an aunt she never knew, who might give her just the story she’s been waiting for.

In 1912, Violet Schuyler Grant moved to Europe to study physics, and made a disastrous marriage to a philandering fellow scientist. As the continent edges closer to the brink of war, a charismatic British army captain enters her life, drawing her into an audacious gamble that could lead to happiness…or disaster.

Fifty years later, Violet’s ultimate fate remains shrouded in mystery. But the more obsessively Vivian investigates her disappearing aunt, the more she realizes all they have in common—and that Violet’s secret life is about to collide with hers.

Yoyobon, the box illustration was great--so simple and so pretty that I think even non-craftsy I could do it. It always makes me a little sad to throw away the prettiest of the cards I receive.

Carolyn, you absolutely CAN do it ! I make mine by adjusting the back piece, as I said, then instead of making the X , I lay a wood ruler along each edge and draw the line on the card......for all four sides , then cut as shown, fold on lines , however, I use tacky glue to hold the flaps together on the end and don't fold that small bit over or tape as she shows. I hold the flaps together with clips until glue sets.....very quickly. I love seeing what happens when the boxes are folded.......I've had some really beautiful surprises.

Vee, we do get some of the Scandi mysteries but I avoid them. I tend to avoid anything set in darkened places too which seems to be in vogue or was in vogue when filmed!

I couldn't find any UK Christmas specials shown here, other than Ghosts which is great fun. I loved watching the Horrible Histories and the old cast have done a good job with this series.

There has been mention of a filming of Christie's Death comes as the End but it doesn't seem to have gone any further. If it is a reworking I would watch but I don't like them really.

I did like Witness for the Prosecution though as it elaborated on the original short story.

Annpan, I should have mentioned A Very British Scandal although not a very seasonal theme. The story of the messy divorce of Margaret Duchess of Argyle and the Duke. Both nasty characters, he only interested in marrying money (and lots of it) and his wife portrayed in court as a nymphomaniac. Much of the evidence hung on a certain very intimate photo (much sniggered at by the public at the time) With hindsight someone should have suggested the Duchess remover her pearls before the shot was taken.

Claire Foy plays the Duchess and looks good in a fur coat but doesn't quite get that clipped upper-crust accent.

I think you have to watch old films to see the actresses who got that right. It is almost painful to hear the "cut-glass" words spoken now. Didn't the Queen soften her speech some years ago after criticism?

Goodness knows when it will be shown here. The programming is all over the place. Sometimes we get quite a recent show and more often not! It might be a budgetting issue.

I buy the DVD of Death in Paradise as soon as it gets released as the show can be on the National Broadcaster a year later! I think the streaming services get the good stuff first but I am not subscribing as I don't like all the programs shown.

Annpan, the Queen certainly speaks in a lower register than she did when young; she was practically squeaky back then. I don't know if she has conscientiously changed though. The younger Royals tend to speak more like the man on the Clapham omnibus. And don't get me started on the BBC radio presenters. Some of them sound as though they can barely string two words together!

I believe the Queen did change as a result of some criticism and it was a bit of a scandal at the time that she was attacked!

I get annoyed at presenters too, also people who should know better getting caught out with the "I or me" construction. A lot of shouting at the TV goes on in my place at times!

My late husband, who was a broadcaster was very strict about good grammar and my daughter swears she hears him sometimes when she has said something incorrectly!

I have just skipped through a heist mystery where a young girl acting as a temporary concierge has taken a case containing a King's ransom in jewels down to the hotel safe by herself after a photo shoot. My belief boggled. What, no security attendants? Surely the insurance company would have insisted? I couldn't take the story seriously after that.

Ann, I have seen a tee shirt for sale in catalogs that says I Am Silently Correcting Your Grammar. My mother was a strict grammarian, I had an excellent English teacher in high school, and for English 101 and 102 in college I had the department head, all of which make me very conscious of grammar errors. I have been known to shout at the TV also and silently correct speakers at podiums. My daughter looks at me and grins at some errors.

Carolyn, I would buy that tee-shirt if I still wore them. My D shook her head last time I put one on, not for my lumps and bumpy figure any more! I had a lot of promotional ones given to my husband, memories of old advertising campaigns and TV pilot shows that never made it!

Now I wear loose polo shirts with eye-distracting patterns for everyday with my elasticated -waisted pants. (Sighs!)

Carolyn......Love that motto.....but I do not go "silently" into the world !

One of my favorite quotes :

" Eunice's brain is modeled on a reference library--holding an unnecessary amount of facts, a clinical retrieval system and an advice desk that won't shut up."

- from Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson

I love that!

Ann, lumps and bumps is the name of the game these days, isn't it?

I just got an email saying that our public libraries are closing again for two weeks due to the number of omicron cases.

We are having trouble with supplies as so many people are off sick in those States where we get a lot of our manufactured goods from. I had better do a T/P stock-up! We are still behind almost closed borders until February and have kept the Covid numbers low.

My eldest GD and family were able to fly back from another State but had to jump though a lot of paperwork hoops and they are presently in home quarantine. As they had a "Close Contact" notice about a fellow plane passenger, they must keep getting regularly tested as well.

Carolyn - Oh gosh. I don't blame them one bit, but that's discouraging.

I'm so happy my younger relatives made me get a laptop! I can sit in my reading chair and download books at will.

I finished The Paris Library last night and gave it four stars on Goodreads. It is so good.

Annpan, just in case you look-in here. I read in the paper that your old mate Nigel Reece is giving up his popular radio quiz show 'Quote Unquote' because he has been told to choose guests of 'diversity', rather than people who will have a chance of actually knowing the answers. The bosses at the Beeb have become SO woke and politically correct in recent years that programmes often no longer reflect the interests of listeners.

Vee, I don't recall knowing Nigel Reece! However I am with him on this!

Later...

I checked and I think you mean Nigel Rees but I don't know him either! Why do you think I should do?

My son rang last night and was very excited to have come across someone he thought I knew from years ago too.

I didn't!

It must be my week for not knowing people!

Sorry annpan, it should have been Rees. It must have been some other Nigel who you mentioned and had emailed, who writes whodunnits!

I love eavesdropping on Vee's and Annpan's conversations!

kathy, perhaps Annpan and I should try and have conversations with a bit of juicy scandal to liven things up!. As it is I don't know how to email anyone directly from this Houzz/Gardenweb site and don't know Annpan's email address and anyway she would probably mock me something cruel for the abject performance of the English cricket team, who are being severely thrashed by the Aussies!

Vee, I think you mean Simon Brett! I have written to him and received replies. He writes mysteries set in the Littlehampton area, where I once lived.

I wouldn't dream of mocking the cricket team. I have no interest in sport in spite of editing a car racing magazine and being the local correspondent on horse racing for a national newspaper. Proving that a journalist can do anything if they have to!

I once wrote an article on cavies/guineapigs, again knowing nothing about them at the beginning! Also an Astrology column. I was temping on a local newspaper when the Editor tossed me a book on the predictions for that year and told me that I was the current Madame Whatever! I always wrote uplifting things as people like my mother firmly believed in the Signs!

Obviously a woman of many talents!

On the 'prediction' theme. I was passing the entrance to a local club the other day and saw on one gatepost a notice with a photo saying "Have You Seen This Man Missing in the Area . . ." On the other gate post was an advert for a clairvoyant appearing there in a show each night. I wondered if she could provide the clue to the whereabouts of the missing man.

Vee, I don't know about talent, it was more like trying in desperation. My husband used to think I could do anything when he started one of his schemes when he got bored with his current radio or TV job. Hence the journalism and courier work.

I finally drew the line when he wanted to open a shoe shop in a new estate that was still in the building stage, due to be completed in two years! I got a friend in the shoe trade to have a talk with him and I severely scolded the Agent who was trying to sell him the idea.

I have just taken three lovely brand new books from the library. Requests are like buses...