Loved the animal stories too. When in England, one of my planned stops was Harriot's vet hospital. It was wonderful, fascinating...everything was just as it was when he practiced there and even had the original TV setting where they filmed. The people in the little town loved visiting Americans and would repeat that we were the reason his books become popular. A book I recommend to many is Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition (tis a "he" though). It is about the cat on Shackleton's Antarctica expedition, brought aboard by the ship's carpenter. Written with the cat's view, has wonderful pics of the expedition, ship, men and history story of this sad event. Although a teen level book, highly read by adults and found in the adult section. Be ready for a very sad ending, but truely a worthwhile read.

Finished Steve Jobs, and I highly recommend it. It was one of the best liked books my book club has read, right up there with Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Now that may be in part because everything in the book is so familiar to residents of Steve Jobs's home turf. One member even remembers him from high school! We found ourselves wondering if people from other parts of the country would find it as fascinating as we did. Fascinating or not, I'm confident that any reader would find it to be well written. Now I have moved on to American Eden by Wade Graham. I like this too but suspect you would have to have some interest in gardening or landscaping to want to read it. Perhaps not; an interest in cultural history might be enough. The author examines how trends in what people do with their gardens reflects what they think about themselves and the society they live in. Again, it is well written. It reminds me how much a clumsy style or dreary pedantry can throw a barrier between a reader and even a topic that intrigues him. Fortunately neither of these books has that problem. Finally, as a quick light read, I re-read Elisabeth Ogilvie's Dancer in Yellow. I like most of Ogilvie's books, though not so much the Bennet Island series. Perhaps that is because I could never keep the family relationships straight. This one I enjoyed. Rosefolly

In 1969, in a tiny bathroom that lacked a sink, located in the hall outside our tiny apartment. I was recently married and a teacher when I learned of a book that was written as a hoax, each chapter by a different writer. "Naked Came the Stranger" was written in the attempt to prove that any book could sell, no matter how badly written, if it included enough trite sex. I took the book to the bathroom to read the first chapter while I was otherwise occupied, and after that chapter I never deemed the book worthy of escaping the bathroom. Here is the Wiki description of the book and its authors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Came_the_Stranger I'm amused that the title came to me as soon as I read this thread's question. The book did sell well even before the hoax was revealed.

Pammyfay, I have only sniffed around the edges of Trollope's Barchester series, but many years ago in the early '70's the BBC made a TV series of the Palliser novels, which was very well done. Not quite off topic: I was visiting the City of Gloucester for the first time and was quite alone walking round a quiet corner of the Cathedral exterior, when a be-whiskered man appeared dressed in a high 'stove-pipe hat' and frock coat. I momentarily thought I had entered a time warp but followed him, to find a wedding scene was being filmed for the series . . . of which I then had never heard. The public were able to enter the Cathedral and watch the filming which was taking place in the Choir. During a pause someone came over and said 'Hallo' and I was surprised to see my God-Mother's s-in-Law, Martin Lisemore, who was the producer of the series. He had been an assistant producer on The Forsyte Saga (the late '60's b&w version) and went on to do I Claudius, but was sadly killed in a car accident just as filming finished. A terrible waste of a young talent. And I still haven't read the Pallisers . . . but recommend you start with the first novel and work your way through and/or get the DVD's. I have read Fanny Trollope's (A's mother) The Domestic Manners of the Americans which paints an interesting picture of that country during the 1830's when the T family lived there. Not well-received by the Americans as she showed them as rather 'rough and ready', but a useful 'historical document' today. Here is a link that might be useful: The Pallisers on DVD