The Library

[bellamarie]

I was just in the Non-Fiction section of our club and noticed Jean has much interest and knowledge on famous women, and has read many books on First Ladies.  Wouldn't it be a great idea to have a book discussion on them?  I am always interested in the woman behind the President.  We should consider this in 2019.

Tonight we go to my son's house to pass out candy to the trick - or - treaters while they take our grandkids around their neighborhood.  This is my least favorite holiday, but I manage to muddle through, and enjoy the cute costumes.  Ya'll have a Happy Halloween!

[PatH]

It was a nice halloween here.  My neighbors in my short block plunk down a table, a canopy, and a bunch of chairs in the middle of our short street, and sit and chat.  The trick-or-treaters have to get their treats from us in the middle.  Most years someone brings a portable fire pit, and we are warmed by a roaring blaze, but it wasn't needed this time.  Very pleasant.

[nlhome]

Pat, what a fun way to enjoy Halloween.

[PatH]

Yes, nlhome, thanks to the neighbors who started it.  Neighborhood bonding at its best.

Goodness, Jonathan, it’s probably been many decades since I thought about  A Child’s Garrden of Verses.  I bet almost nobody knows what a counterpane is now.             

[hats]

Path and nlhome,I suppose it's a sign of age. I am familiar with a counterpane. A Child's Garden Of Verses is the first poetry book I owned, and the first poems that caused a desire and need to read more of them. Bellamarie, I love the picture of your costumed animals. I like hearing about Path's way to celebrate Halloween with her neighbors.
 
In about a half an hour I will finish reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I've really enjoyed living with a preacher and his family and neighbors in Iowa. Also spent time in Kansas. Not having ever visited Iowa or Kansas I had time to think about and wonder about what it's like in those places. In the novel, there is talk of the drought they suffered. I don't know what is next in my reading. I have a copy of The Postmistress. I also have a small pile of library books. I've been thinking of award winning books simply because Gilead is on the Pulitzer Prize List. I have noticed the beautiful poetry over Barb's way.

[BarbStAubrey]

Looks like several of us had as a child A Child's Garden of Versus - found my copy today - what quiet joy to find a piece of your childhood - evidently I covered my book - had to be sometime during grade school days when we learned in school to cover all our books - Its covered in white but cannot tell if it was a white paper sack cut into or maybe butcher paper from the bakery that was always white - even has a sticker on it - a bunch of deep purple violets - not sure what that was all about either - it was just lovely to feel the pages again and read aloud to myself some of these poems - funny, as a child I never even thought of them as poems but as short stories. 

I'm exhausted this evening - even took a long nap but still done in - hired a young 6th grader from the neighborhood to help me - my goal is to organize all my books - so far all we did was empty and re-fill one shelf and three large rectangular baskets along with emptying another shelf but not yet filled - I've piles of books on the breakfast room table and on the floor in the 2nd living room - I'm trying to cull some - oh is that ever hard - like getting rid of mementos from when you or your kids grew up - but I need to get all these books down to a roar rather than tumbling out of every tiny space - two rooms that look like Shakespear's in Paris.

Looks like I am missing the Pow Wow again this year - I should have waited to start my clearing but somehow I have this weight on me to clear out this house - problem I missed the Pow Wow for the last 2 years and this makes it the third - loosing some of the sounds - I used to visit a healer on the Zuni Indian reservation in New Mexico but I could not drive over and after a few years we lost touch however, some of that group would come the the Pow Wow and now all those I knew are too old and I really do not know the younger men and women and so the incentive of meeting folks is no longer a big draw. Still torn but I just cannot make my body move - even ate an emergency frozen dinner - just too tired to cook. A good night's sleep and I will be fine - evidently this is the night we get another hour's sleep -

I sure wish they would stop this nonsense - it is long past WWII when all this started as part of the war effort - evidently it was adopted during WWI as well but everyone hated it and so it went away quickly. Never did have strong opinions over Nixon but for making this the law of the land, now years later I am quite annoyed with his directive. I always thought it was the farmers who wanted it - turns out they hate it as much as most of us hate it - would you believe it was the golfing community that had more daylight to play that keeps this nonsense alive.

Back to 'attempting' to get my books shelves to look like the book shelves in Virginia Woolfe's bedroom library  - ahum - I can dream can't I...

[Frybabe]

I agree with the time change business, Barb. It sure reeks havoc with my eating/sleeping habits. Never used to, but the older I get the more pronounced the change seems to mess with me. Oh, and not to mention the cats getting confused as to when to roust me out of bed in the morning for their morning fare.

[rosemarykaye]

I also agree about the clocks changing - what a totally unnecessary palaver. It's not as if we actually do save any time. My mother told me that in the second world war in the UK they had something called 'double daylight saving' - I'm not exactly sure what it was but she said it was a nightmare. She blamed the farmers - she'd be even more annoyed if she found out it was anything to do with golf!

Just read my second Hazel Holt Sheila Malory mystery and very much enjoyed it. I am staying with self-indulgence and reading a Penny Vincenzi novel. She was a prolific writer in the 1980s-2000s, They are big books with lots of wealthy, powerful characters who always have secrets. It's all nonsense but very relaxing! After that I'll try to bring myself back to something more substantial.

My house move fell through as the lady who was buying from me lost her buyer (typical British conveyancing chain - they are forever falling apart because someone further down or up the ladder pulls out). I'm not heartbroken but it's a bit annoying having to start doing viewings for my own flat again. In the meantime, though, I have found a house I like more to buy. It's smaller (and cheaper) than the last one, but has all the rooms we need and is in an area I really like. Not getting my hopes up unless and until someone buys mine though, and the Edinburgh property market is notoriously slow between December and February so if nothing happens over the next few weeks, I may as well sit back and wait. Someone really should write a novel featuring the British property market - it is so stressful, and is all anyone ever talks about, especially here in Edinburgh where houses are expensive and highly sought after (I'm just hope mine is going to be!)  I know most Americans find our houses and flats tiny - unless you live in a remote part of Scotland space is very limited here and we are used to 'compact' living, no garages, teeny refrigerators, etc. And no-one has a 'den' - any developer here would make the average US den into three 'spacious' bedrooms!

Tonight I am going to a book launch - someone in our congregation has written a book about the coal industry and its effects on public and personal health, from miners being in accidents or getting lung diseases to the rest of us suffering pollution and fumes. The author is a retired doctor and professor specialising in lung diseases. I probably wouldn't go if I didn't know him, but he's a very nice man and I think he will make it interesting. It is to be held in the Cathedral's Song School, which is a lovely old building, the former music school (the school is now housed nearby in [slightly] more modern buildings). The Song School is now where our choir practice. It has some amazing murals painted by Phoebe Ann Traquair, who was very famous in her day. Many visitors come to see them and one of our volunteers gives a llittle tour for them.

Rosemary

[bellamarie]

Oh Barb, good luck with sorting those books out.  I am realizing I have book shelves on all three levels of my house now, and can't stop buying books.  Oh well, who says we have to?  At my retirement age, I've decided I am going to stop feeling guilty for spending money on the things I enjoy.  My kids will ask me what I want for Christmas or my birthday, and then buy anything but what I wish for, so now I am just going to buy it myself. 

This time change has be all messed up too Frybabe.  My dog woke me up wanting to go outside this morning, I looked at the clock and thought, whoa it's too early to get out of bed, then realized he doesn't know we sat our clocks back, and his bladder says NOW!

Rosemary, I am so sorry to hear you lost the opportunity to purchase that charming idyllic apartment you described to us earlier.  Here in the U.S selling houses has gotten to be a bidding war.  A seller lists a price and places it on the market, and then interested buyers begin bidding beyond the asking price.  I so often consider selling and moving to the small town my son moved to, (they beg us to come there) but I just so love my house, yard and area that makes it fast and easy to visit my hometown thirty minutes away to be with my sisters, so I keep putting it off. 

I have to ask all of you who have made moves in your senior years or plan to, how do you adjust to letting go of the house you raised your children in, and all the memories it holds?  I realize your memories remain inside you, but gosh, when I look out at our pool and picture the years the kids couldn't wait to open it each summer, I worry I will lose that once it is no longer in my sight daily, and the family room where the boys had their sleepovers, banging into the walls playing basketball with a hoop we secured tightly to the wall because these boys played some serious dunking.  Then there is the kitchen where the grandkids and us hold so many baking moments.  Ugh.... just sitting here thinking about not having this home with all the memories, not to mention my enormous ever growing flower gardens I have accomplished over the past years makes me so melancholy.  As Barb says often.... Ah so.  I suppose I'll know when the timing is right, if it's meant to be. 

Rosemary, your Cathedral School Song sounds lovely.  You need to post some pics, I would love to see it, rather than imagine it.

As usual, I am reading two books at the present time. I began Danielle Steele's book The Ghost:

Troubled by the end of his ten-year marriage and career turmoil, Charles finds himself stranded in a small Massachusetts town, living in a house haunted for the past 200 years by a mysterious woman. Charles's fascination with her diaries leads him deeper into the quest to discover more about her.

Sounds pretty interesting!

[BarbStAubrey]

We never did give our opinion about the winners of the Great American Read out... Here is a link to the results or placement of the entire list of 100.      https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/results/

I thought, no surprise since the books that have received the biggest press and were made into either a book or TV series did the best - Never understood the voting to give our opinion of our favorite when we had not read all the books.

Did anyone end up reading a book from the list because of this contest?

And what about - are there any on the list that you plan on reading this winter?

Were there books on the list that were new to you that you had not heard of before?

I'm assuming there were some books we heard of but chose not to read. Which of the books will you probably never read?

I never did read Outlander and notice it is TV series - I never saw it on TV and so maybe you needed cable - I'm curious and will read it - not sure this winter or not since my 'tobe-read' pile already has about 20 books.

Always meant to read Atlas Shrugged - I think there is a copy among all my books that I should come across but I do not think I will ever read the Stephen King The Stand. Has anyone read it? What did you think?

Never read and in fact never heard of, A Prayer for Owen Meany or had I ever heard of The Outsiders.  Probably the last women in America not to have read The Handmaid's Tale When it first came out it reminded me of the books where life was bare-bones and all the social myths were the center of things - I just did not want to get into it. Without actually giving the book a chance I was so sure it was going to cast women as victims and I just did not want to get into all that.

Now here is one I really want to read Dune - had not heard of it either but there is something about reading the excerpt that says 'pick me up and read me'. So this is the book that the 'read out' introduced me to that I really want to read.

Given the economic and political climate in Venezuela today, this book sounds timely. I never heard of and glad to know about Doña Bárbára

And now that it is back in print I MUST read Their Eyes Were Watching God It must be a blockbuster with quotes like this, Love is like the sea. It's a moving thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from the shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.

A few more I had not heard about and a few that I doubt I will ever read - so what did you think of the order the books are shown as interesting and were placed according to how popular a read they were?

[Frybabe]

Barb, I really didn't bother too much with the Great American Read list. I remember looking it over and noting book I had already read on the list; that was about it.

Of the book you mention now, Atlas Shrugged has been sitting in my TBR pile for years. What a tome. Recently I discovered that it is including in the Science Fiction genre. I wonder how that happened. I never considered it a SciFi.

I did read Dune. It was very interesting. I also saw the movie (1984) and the TV mini series. The movie leaned more to the metaphysical, while the min series emphasized the political. I actually thought there was another movie, but maybe not. The first time I saw it, it was in B&W, so that may have confused me. Since the reviews of the following books said that the story gets darker as it goes, I didn't bother to read any of the following books.

I've read some of John Irving's short stories and saw movie version of The World According to Garp. While A Prayer for Owen Meany tugs at me sometimes, I doubt I could get through it. Too much, what is the word I want, angst?

[BarbStAubrey]

Perfect word frybabe for Irving's books - they are all filled with angst - I did like you see the World According to Garp and also, The Cider House Rules - there is a sadness to his book that also is like a twist in the gut - McCormick is a writer of rough emotions and sadness but it is straight on - even cruel at times but you come out the other side standing - where with Irving I feel like I need a bottle of wine to forget the feeling as if every nerve in my body had been subjected to finger nails on a chalk board.

So glad to hear your thoughts on Dune - more than ever now I want to get the book - so busy for now, I may treat myself for Christmas as my Christmas Day gift of reading the whole day. Think I will freeze some Turkey on Thanksgiving and use it to make a Turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce on some bread from the bakery and then just eat pie while I set back and read. Light my scented candle and have a pot of coffee as well as hot apple cider later in the day - yep that is it - just decided - no more fretting about how I will spend Christmas day. Plus I really like all the days of advent with all the decorating and baking and singing along with my CD collection of carols, wrapping and mailing and seeing all the little ones in Church so excited they look like they are going to bust - six of one and half a dozen of another if it is cold or warm enough for coffee on the patio - either way it is all just so special.

Two weeks from today is Thanksgiving - wow this last month just flew by - I was thinking in September it was too early with so many into wanting to get Christmas going this year and now the holiday season is on top of us - once Halloween is over its Katy bar the door...

[jane]

I'm like Frybabe...lists of "great books" or "books you must read" or whatever have never inspired me to read whatever someone else thinks I should read.  I left all of that behind when I graduated and no longer had to read somebody else's reading selections.   

I'm sure these lists inspire others...like some love the Best Seller lists, etc., but that's never been my thing.

My selections depend on what I will enjoy.  Yep, totally self-centered decision.  I figure if I pay for it, I get to choose what I like. 

[BarbStAubrey]

Love it Jane - you pay for it and you get to choose what you like - self-centered nah - just independent as all get out...

[bellamarie]

Oh Barb, you made me feel so comfy & cozy just reading how you came to decide how you will be spending your Christmas day.  It sounds absolutely wonderful!!!  I too love watching the little children at Christmas Eve Mass, they are so excited for the night before Christmas.  My family all meets at our church for Christmas Eve Mass, then we all come back to my house for dinner and gift opening.  My grandchildren are always bursting with excitement. 

Barb, I did watch The Great American Read, and posted earlier about it, but got so little response.  I was not surprised To Kill A Mockingbird was #1, as it should be.  I do plan to purchase the book and re-read it, because it's been so long ago that I have read it, and this made me want to read it again.  I have never heard of Outlander, or many of the other books.  I have to say I do agree with Jane and Frybabe, I am not always influenced by the Bestseller Lists, or this list of The Great American Read, I like to decide for myself what I personally am drawn to.  What I was a little annoyed with, was it seems celebrities were used to give their opinions on many of these books, and they seem to have politically correct agendas to push, in choosing their book.  I am so far from being "politically correct" and I get turned off immediately when celebrities are used to advertise or influence the public. 

I have read: 
To Kill A Mockingbird
Pride and Prejudice
Gone With the Wind
Charlotte's Web
Little Women
Jane Eyre
Anne of Green Gables
Wurthering Heights
Book Thief
The Help
The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer
Alice In Wonderland
The Joy Luck Club
Gone Girl
Fifty Shades of Grey, and I have seen the movie version of a few others on the list.

I must say, if it weren't for this book club there are books I would never have had the pleasure or displeasure of reading on my own. So, while I am not always influenced by Best Seller lists, I am always open to a book that is going to be discussed with others.  I love hearing how others perceive a story plot.  One book I wish would have been on the GAR list that was not is, A Gentleman In Moscow.  This book will stay with me for the rest of my life.  I can't wait for the TV series to begin.

Frybabe, I like your choice of word, "angst" in describing the book.  I avoid those type of books at all cost.  There are just so many more books to enjoy, learn from, or that challenge me, I do not want to waste my time with extreme sadness.  Cider House Rules was too depressing for me, and I could never get through the first few chapters of Catcher In The Rye.  Ughh....

Jane,

Yep, totally self-centered decision.  I figure if I pay for it, I get to choose what I like.

I like your thinking!

[BarbStAubrey]

Ah yes, Bellamarie A Gentleman In Moscow was one of the best reads and discussions - like you it will live within me - clearing out and trying to decide on keepers - no question that is a keeper!

I'm thinking the purpose of the Great American read was simply to get folks reading again - I was surprised at the number of books I had not heard of - and few Noble or Pulitzer on the list - as readers the list was not very inspiring was it...

[bellamarie]

The Classics were on the list, which we all would expect to see, but so many of the newer books are on issues that I don't want to read about.  I agree not very inspiring for me.  Yes, I think the list is to motivate people to read more.  I have been enjoying The Food Network's channel Holiday Baking Challenge and Christmas Cookie Challenge.  Gosh, these bakers have great skills, and come up with recipes that are mouth watering. 

[hats]

Barb and Bellamarie, I haven't read A Gentleman In Moscow. I think the cover looked so masculine and intellectual. This is the reason I didn't try very hard to get the book. Now, I will try and get a copy from the library or somewhere for a future read. Russia is always interesting. I loved Anna Karenina. The love tragedy still weighs heavily on my mind.

[ANNIE]

I suggested “The Man Who Invented Christmas” for a holiday read. I will look up info about it and put it in here.  Am on my way to a small concert right here in The Villas.  I believe the book is available at most libraries.  Back later!

[bellamarie]

hats, 

I loved Anna Karenina. The love tragedy still weighs heavily on my mind.

I just ordered Anna Karenina, it should be coming in the mail soon.  I hope I like it.  May wait til after the holidays to begin reading it.

Annie, I would love to read The Man Who Invented Christmas for the holiday.  I will check at my library for it.  Enjoy your concert.

[Tomereader1]

Just returning for a moment to the thread on The Great American Read, yes, the list was, in some ways, weird.
This is how they picked the 100.

The 100 books were chosen through a demographically diverse national survey of 7,200 Americans asked to name their favorite novels, conducted by YouGov. (Series with multiple titles, such The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, are counted as one title each.)

It’s an eclectic, sometimes surprising international list that ranges from the low-brow to the high-brow, from the contemporary to the classic. Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)? Check. Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)? Check. F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)? Check. Stephen King (The Stand) and James Patterson (the Alex Cross mysteries)? Check and check. J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter)? You bet.

The above info was from the PBS website introducing the series.

[hats]

Sorry for getting off topic. That link for the The Great American Read is a good one.  I tried reading A Separate Peace from the list. It didn't hold my interest. Might try again at a much later time. Finished Gilead last week. Really, really loved it. Have gotten another one of her books to start soon. Have discovered that Gilead is a series of three books. Surprised and happy. I think her first book is titled Housekeeping. Bellamarie, I hope you will like it. Years ago I did see the Anna Karenina movie. Can't remember who played the parts.

[bellamarie]

Hats, no need to apologize for getting off topic, we do it all the time.  I will have to look for the movie, but I always like reading the book first.

Tomereader, Good to know how they came up with the list.  I thought it was through our online voting at their site.

[hats]

Annie, I would love to read The Man Who Invented Christmas too. I had never heard of it. Is it short like a novella or a novel or...?

[PatH]

Tomereader, thanks for telling us how they picked the list.  But what did they do with the online voting?  Is that how they ranked the books from their survey?

It's an odd mix, and some of them aren't going to stand the test of time, like Ready Player One.  I've read 38 of them.

I was surprised at how many science fiction/fantasy books there were.

[Jonathan]

What do you remember about the gentleman in Moscow, the aristocratic Count Rostov, under house arrest after the revolution, and put to work as headwaiter at the Metropol? I was reminded of him the other day, reading Tina Brown's The Vanity Fair Diaries. Let me quote: 

'Before the VF party there was a seating meeting in the hotel with the team.  We assembled to do the the table placing with a wall chart at six p.m. and it was still going on at two a,m. It was an insane task - 240 guests, half of whom we didn't know, in an L-shaped room, with fifty maybes and a power structure so fragile that one false place card would throw the whole thing out of whack. Too late we realized  it was a futile idea to try to seat this at all. In the end we assigned each of the team to be a VF table host and built around that. The night began in chaos anyway because the seating frenzy was still going on after the first guests arrivevd or failed to do so. But the turnout was incredible. Two tables had to wait to be erected till the mob subsided, and since the mob never did, the tables never appeard. This meant we had a bunch of illlustrious floaters, one of whom was the head of the LA County Museum. The other hazard we didn't expect was what turns out to be an absurd Holywood custom - husbands and wives or people with their dates expecting to be seatd together, and moving place cards when they weren't. At my table I put myself between the 'superagent' Mike Ovitz-to romance him for covers-and Ray Stark, with Betsy Bloomindale, Dick and Lili Zanuck, Liz Smith, Oliver Stone, and Dennis Hopper. However, Oliver's wife  took one look at the table she wasn't at, made a scene, and insisted Oliver move to hers. Bob Colacello found chaos wreaked by some wannabe called Melissa Prophet who had to move her place card to be next to an equally illustrious nonentity named Craig Baumgarten who was seated somewhere else. Bob, forgetting he was supposed to be a table host, lost his temper and cried, "Well. This is sure not Europe. It's vulgar, pushy LA!" Then our cover-subject, Farrah Fawcett, sent a note to say she had swollen glands....' p261

If they had only availed themselves of the services of Count Rostov. He excelled at seatng arrangments that pleased everyone.

[PatH]

Barb, you asked if anyone had read The Stand.  I have; don't think I recommend it particularly.  I had a lot of issues with it, and it's very long, though King is good at spinning a yarn to keep you going.  Which books will I probably never read?  Maybe the ones I've never heard of, probably Fifty Shades of Grey, and I've been meaning to read Atlas Shrugged and not doing so for 50 years.  Frybabe, maybe it's classified as science fiction because the economic theory is invalid .

Frybabe, you did well not to continue with Dune unless it really grabbed you.  My children tell me the books steadily decline in quality, with only the first four being at all worth it.  I've read the first two.  They also have huge casts of characters, political factions, etc. that you have to keep straight, something I'm not good at.

The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a good read about the problems of a group of Dominican immigrants in New Jersey, and the conditions that made them flee.  The main characters are the teenage children of the immigrants, and you have to be patient with the amount of time they spend looking for other teenagers to sleep with.  It also helps to know a bit of Spanish, as some of the cracks aren't translated.  But it's well-written and vivid, a good book.

[PatH]

The Great Gatsby is a book I've read three times without feeling what most people admire.  I get what he's saying, but he doesn't make me feel anything.

Moby Dick is a book I've read three times because I love it so much, with it's long-winded interminable rambling, only coming down to the big action when you're already 4/5 of the way through the book.

I've totally lost track of how many times I've read Pride and Prejudice.

[BarbStAubrey]

Tomereader - you also saw the list as weird - I think Harry Potter could have put together a better list don't you?

Oh and thanks Pat for letting us know that The Stand takes a special reader - for some reason never could get into Stephan King and like you there are several I will not read including 50 Shades of Grey - but I admire you reading Pride and Prejudice over and over again - I like the various movie interpretations and I did like reading the book the first time but maybe that is it - there are only a few books I have read more than once. Ah but Moby Dick - yes - seems like with my aging I see many stories in a new light.

Ah-ha Jonathan the absorbed skills of a count - and the dilemma - generations and years of experience versus, a new group learning, adapting, re-arranging, creating, and developing the new. 

Ah yes Pat. Gatsby - I never could see why folks were glorifying Scott Fitzgerald. His stories and his life just went over my head - seems he was an icon of the 1920s but not the 1920s my family experienced - I guess a decadent lifestyle but then if it takes his treatment of a wife and child to be an icon of decadency then that reminds me of a Stephan King horror story - sorry try not to be judgemental about the moral behavior of others but cannot hold back on this one... sheesh...

Have not heard much about Autumn colors this year - here we still have green - green - green - with all the rain for two months we have all the debris from all the flooding and overgown grass everywhere - the oaks really let loose with acorns galore so that everyone's patio is marked dark brown and the deer have the darkest brown coats this year - looks like even nature is conspiring to ready us for winter without the long sigh and breathe of autumn.   

[BarbStAubrey]

hats, Looks like the latest translation of Anna Karenina was published this summer in June - I did not know that Anna Karenina was originally published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Nor did I know that Tolstoy clashed with editor Mikhail Katkov over political issues that arose in the final installment (Tolstoy's negative views of Russian volunteers going to fight in Serbia); therefore, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form in 1878.

That is one story that kept up appearances after 140 years - not many can do that with out lots of annotations.

[ginny]

Jonathan, I'm going to have to break down and get the Tina Brown book Vanity Fair Diaries  after all, after that intriguing excerpt.

I do have the Ma'am Darling and it's extraordinary, uniquely presented,  and very very sad.  That poor woman, what a horror Anthony Armstrong Jones was, unbelievable the hateful mental  cruelty. What a  tragic life Princess Margaret had. I don't care how vainglorious she may have been, she did not deserve that creep.  The perfect example of how money and position does not equal a happy life. Poor woman.

 I don't have much time to read  for pleasure,  and you can't get much done with 2 pages before sleep  but now that the face to face classes are out till January I am looking forward to the occasional book before the fire, literally. I finally finished Relic and now can't get into my old fave Reliquary so  have put it aside for a Ngaio Marsh oldie about the theater, which is lovely so far. I have all her books, it's time to reread them.   What's that expression, comfort me with apples? Well in my case it's comfort me with books and I get to pick them...no matter how old or crazy they are.

[Tomereader1]

Tomereader, thanks for telling us how they picked the list.  But what did they do with the online voting?  Is that how they ranked the books from their survey?

It's an odd mix, and some of them aren't going to stand the test of time, like Ready Player One.  I've read 38 of them.

I was surprised at how many science fiction/fantasy books there were.

PatH:  The online voting ranked the books.  Some of the original picks were surprising to me.  I have read a great number of the 100, have heard of most of them, but there were a couple that obviously, struck a chord with some folks, particularly the ones picked by celebrities, i.e. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  One book that I had read, at least partially (for a f2f book group) was " A Confederacy of Dunces" which I felt was the dumbest book I had ever read, or attempted to read.  The criteria for selecting books was interesting and I thought fair.  Each author was limited to one title; books published in series or featuring on-going characters counted as one eligible entry; books could be from anywhere in the world, as long as they were published in English.  Only fiction could be included in the poll; each advisory panel member was permitted to select one book for discussion and possible inclusion on the top 100 list, from the longer list of survey results.  All-in-all, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire program, especially the input from the authors.  The 2015 "teacher of the year" was a most impressive addition. 
Also, Pat, I have never been impressed with "The Great Gatsby", even in its movie iterations.

[Frybabe]

I read the whole Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and just loved them. A nonsensical, fun read. I also saw the PBS presentation many years ago. The original was a BBC Radio play. For those interested, here is the history of how it all came about: https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A943184

[BarbStAubrey]

Interesting - thanks frybabe - nice to know how it came about - started reading some years ago and something came up because my place mark is still exactly where I left it - now I probably won't be able to just pick it up without reading pages and pages I had already read just to refresh my memory and get the rhythm going again. Haha worse punishment, right

[PatH]

Hitchhiker's Guide was hugely popular.  I doubt it needed a celebrity recommendation to get a lot of votes.

Ginny, so you're a Ngaio Marsh fan too.  Which one are you reading?  Final Curtain?  Come to think of it, it's been ages since I reread one.  Maybe it's time.

[ginny]

I used to be a fan of Ngaio Marsh, Pat and I find I still am. No, it's Night at the Vulcan, and I very much like the way it started out.  I remember that house party The Final Curtain, too, I'll look for it.  And Spinsters in Jeopardy too, that was another good one.

I think I'm in some kind of retro  phase. It all started with a new "homage" to PG Wodehouse in a new Jeeves and Wooster coming out next week with a lot of great reviews: Jeeves and the King of Clubs.  I never liked that type of thing...continuing on a series by another author, other than Tom Holt's  (the son of Hazel Holt whom Rosemary mentioned) continuing two books on Mapp and Lucia,  which really  were perfect.  But Mark Gatiss and his Sherlock Holmes new series with  Benedict Cumberbach made a believer out of me, so I'm looking forward to the new Jeeves.

There's a nice one minute or so tour of Ngaio Marsh's house on youtube and it's the first time I heard her name pronounced, so now I finally know how to say it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDH9WCkEzPs

This time of year I guess I'm in a nostalgic mood, wanting the fire and something soothing and calm to read, to offset what's going on in the world, I guess.  Escapism for a bit.

[Tomereader1]

Ginny, who is the author of "Ma'am, Darling"?

[ginny]

Tome, Craig Brown wrote Ma'am Darling: 99 glimpses of Princess Margaret.

[hats]

Ginny, I first heard about Mapp And Lucia here. Read one or two of the book and laughed, laughed, laughed. I've not read Ngaio Marsh. I didn't know. It's a female. Thought of a male every time I read the name. Thanks for the link.

[Tomereader1]

Ginny, our library has it, but only under the 99 Glimpses,etc. title.  There are a few in line for it, but I got on the list.
Thanks for your help!