My M-i-L watches the TV evangelists-one that she watches enjoyed the movie, becuase "it is all fiction-not one true word in the book or movie-it's a good story, that's all." Another one was highly offended by both the book and the movie. What I find interesting is that in the first book written about the main character, Angels and Demons, the Catholic Church is the innocent victim-in the DaVinci Code she is the perpretator of all nefarious deeds...Brown clearly just wanted to write thrillers, not necessarily attack the church. But we hear little mention of the first book. Mind you, it was as much a strain to the logic as the DVC...how he escapes so many death-assuring situations without super powers boggles the mind.

I read a lot about food and can recommend a few. Notable 2006 releases: I second The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - extremely influential and basically THE food book of 2006; Heat by Bill Buford - v. entertaining, especially the whole bit apprenticing in Mario Batali's kitchen, and I learned a failproof way to braise; The United States of Arugula by David Kamp - The history of eating in the USA; I confess I skimmed it and was a bit bored b/c it was so US-centric but it has gotten v. good reviews from USians; The Ethics of Eating by Peter Singer, vegan and animal ethicist - didn't get as much press as it deserves b/c it was overshadowed by the Pollan book; Real Food by Nina Planck, founder of Greenmarket in NYC - got me checking dairy labels and refusing to eat anything with modified milk protein; What To Eat by Marion Nestle - also contributed to changing my food habits. After reading the Pollan, Nestle and Planck books, I will never view industrial food the same way ever again. The Ethicurian blog has a very good food news digest also.

It's good to be back - I've been having so many probs with aol etc., and hopefully going to Pembrokeshire in a couple of days. Small world - another of my lit group's friends is in 'Another Life' - I watched it on TV a few months ago. Rene has been and is still researching Edith Chapman as you will see from his email to me yesterday. "... It was a great pleasure this morning. I should be delighted to come and talk about Edith Thompson whenever you want me to. As Barry may have told you, she is commemorated in the very church in which she was married every 9 January; the church being Barry's beloved St Barnabas in Manor Park. I was very pleased when the present incumbent kindly agreed to carry on with the tradition. The very first sentence of Edith's sister Avis's will (she died in 1977) refers to 9 January and her desire for her adored sister to be remembered in perpetuity..."

I'm not sure that I can really choose a "best book" ever read either. Because when I start thinking about it, then more and more books enter the competition, and then I start reading the thread, and books discussed by the rest of you (like The Pillars of the Earth ) need to be seriously considered. I think I prefer to answer the question as if it had been worded, "If I were to ask you what is the best fiction book you ever read, which book comes to your mind first?" It is always, for me, The Count of Monte Cristo. The language is elegant. The story captured me and wouldn't let go. And finally, it is exquistely constructed. There are no superfluous details that are there to distract the reader from the story. It all comes around at the end, there are no leftovers, and nothing seems awkwardly stuck in to make it fit.Whenever I think of it, I can remember small details as well as the main themes. And thinking of it still takes my breath away.