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Thank you, everyone, for your kind words.

Connie, I am sorry to hear of your loss. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

My condolences, Connie.

Thank you for your warm thoughts.

Sorry for your loss Connie.

On a side note, I am in France on work and this weekend I happened to visit a cemetery here called Pere Lachaise. It houses the graves of so many important writers that we have all come to admire - Oscar Wilde, Balzac... if anyone of you chances to be in Paris sometime in the future, do keep this place on your itinerary. Very poignant place.

This week is our homecoming week. Our theme is Level Up, a video game theme. My Class chose Pac Man. All the adults were fruits and all the kids were ghosts. I was a blueberry today. Tomorrow is our pep rally and we have an in school homecoming dance. Friday is our football game. I hope it doesn't rain. It will be colder. It will be below 50 degrees Farenheit.

That sounds like fun, Jayme! Enjoy the dance and the game :)

The dance was fun. My student had fun but got tired of dancing and sat down. Tomorrow is a homecoming themed movie.

Is everyone here okay in light of the recent horrendous weather and earthquakes?

For those of you who like Gerald Durrell, his Fillets of Plaice is $1.99 for the Kindle edition today in the US. I wish I knew if some of the Kindle specials I see are available in other countries (in Canada, Valerie?).

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "For those of you who like Gerald Durrell, his Fillets of Plaice is $1.99 for the Kindle edition today in the US. I wish I knew if some of the Kindle specials I see are available in ot..."

Often (or usually) we don't have the same specials on amazon.ca. That book is not on sale at the moment, for any edition.

So close to the halfway mark! How is everyone doing?

I'm scrambling to fit everything in because I keep finding new shiny ones.

As I predicted, this will be a low scoring season for me. Things have infringed on my reading time! I've also fallen prey to the 'shiny' new book problem! ha, ha..

On the other hand, this season has been very productive for working on my A-Z classic author challenge. The shame is that many of the books on my reading plan are ones I've been trying to get to for some time, and REALLY want to read.

I decided this morning that it might be a good (and doable) plan to finish the sub-challenge when we get back from our holiday. If I manage that I also get to 4 books on my real life TBR shelf.

Shiny new ones are the banes of my life! ha ha ha

I've really wanted to read this one book that I've fitted into sub-challenge. It's the first book chronologically and I'm only a few pages in... maybe I will finish, maybe I will not. Challenge is looking good otherwise :)

I seem to be in a slow period right now - too much still going on with my life. I've been reading based on my plan, but haven't been logging...

I am behind, due, in part, to shiny new ones, but also due to taking continuing ed classes (not sure why I took two--well, I am--they were offering them for 30 percent off if I added one more lesson with my voice teacher and they sounded good, but one is Very Hard and I've been out of school for a log time).

I used this season's tasks to help clear a couple books from my long-time TBR, but aside from that, I've been reading more or less whimsically lately, and seeing what qualifies for points once I'm finished reading.

I have only read 3 books that are on my plan. I checked my stats and found that my reading for this year (thus far) is the second lowest since 2011. I'm not fully sure why, but my interest in books is just not there, even though I planned books I really wanted to read.

I finally have my computer up and running, two and a half months after our move! I haven't managed much reading this time around. I wanted to focus on the subchallenge, but I got to my second book and just couldn't finish it, replaced it with something else and had the same problem. At this point I think I'll be cheering from the sidelines until the season is over, and I'll join back in for the Winter season!

I do enjoy my GR librarian work. Today's amusement was the title:

Told in the East: "Good women don't reform bad men, they only irritate them."

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I do enjoy my GR librarian work. Today's amusement was the title:

Told in the East: "Good women don't reform bad men, they only irritate them.""

LOL! I see the author was married six times which is not surprising!

The Fall Challenge is not going to be one of my best. Real Life took alot of my reading time, and while things are settling down now, the Challenge is half over. I'm going to shift to longer books for the next 6 weeks. I am also going to try to understand the poetry from a poetry collection. I just downloaded 101 Great American Poems to my kindle -- 98 pages long -- and poetry! -- not usually my thing. Poetry still seems like it is prose written in code, indecipherable unless you have the code book. I'll see how it goes. And, lastly, my eldest (disabled) son and my son-in-law both are into graphic novels; I'm going to try and read some of them. SAGA Series is amazingly good (adult themes, not for young readers). Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant was entertaining, even though it is aimed at a middle school audience.

Deedee wrote: "The Fall Challenge is not going to be one of my best. Real Life took alot of my reading time, and while things are settling down now, the Challenge is half over. I'm going to shift to longer books ..."

We're happy to have you in whatever capacity. Post what fits, and enjoy the journey.

Hope no one from California is in danger of the fires! And the smoke!

Rebekah wrote: "Hope no one from California is in danger of the fires! And the smoke!"

Seconded! Hopefully no news is good news?

Kazen wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "Hope no one from California is in danger of the fires! And the smoke!"

Seconded! Hopefully no news is good news?"

Agreed. It's so scary watching what's been happening.

My younger son, Tom, lives 100 miles south of Paradise, California. He tells me they have smoke in the air, and that he's keeping an eye on it. Last year, Tom lived near Seoul, South Korea -- at the time Trump was saying that the deaths of Americans living in South Korea was an acceptable cost to pay to confront North Korea. I figure Tom has a better chance outrunning a fire than outrunning a missile. (Tom is studying for his Ph.D. in Linguistics)

May Tom be safer here than there, but fires can move surprisingly fast. Prayers and thoughts for safety on their way to those in California.

Oh my goodness. You have a brave son, Deedee, but you must be worried. I trust all will be well for him and his neighbours.

HopeTom is safe!

Which debut novels are people looking forward to reading?

I found some debut novels that I have sitting in my bookcase on these lists. There are both classics and recently published books:

/list/show/6...

/list/show/1...

Nice lists, Connie! Thanks.

I also appreciate the lists! The one with the older books is especially helpful. I wasn't voting for that choice this time, but I think I'll go adjust my vote!

I have 'leftovers' from our summer season that I was excited about at the time, but just didn't get to:

The Piano Teacher
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Atomic Weight of Love
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

and I intend to read:
Homegoing for 20.2 (so will have a combo)

I also like those lists. I guess I don't pay attention to whether a novel is a debut or not because I was surprised how many I've read on the first list.

I see on the front page of the Globe and Mail that Esi Edugyan won the Giller Prize for Washington Black. This is the first time it has been won by the same author in consecutive years (and only the 3rd time it has been won twice).



I haven't read this book, but it sounds like it would fit 20.7.

I really liked Half Blood Blues (her first Giller win) and would recommend it, but can't see a task that it would fit yet.

Valerie wrote: "I see on the front page of the Globe and Mail that Esi Edugyan won the Giller Prize for Washington Black. This is the first time it has been won by the same author i..."

Yes, I think it does fit. I seem to recall seeing it on at least one travel adventure list when I googled for some ideas.

I’ve read Washington Black and would agree that it fits.

OH, and I'll add the 2018 Giller Prize later today.

I see there is a tie for poll 3. I realized that I don't feel strongly one way or the other. So, if anyone has a strong opinion about me keeping my vote with uncommon letter or changing it to GR author speak up! It might help your season go well ;)

Valerie wrote: "I see there is a tie for poll 3. I realized that I don't feel strongly one way or the other. So, if anyone has a strong opinion about me keeping my vote with uncommon letter or changing it to GR au..."

I just thought we'd get a better chance for combo points with a goodreads author

Well, I voted for Uncommon Letter. I have a lot of older books on my TBR and the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ author books tend to be newer, due to the authors having to be alive :) Also, Uncommon Letter would be a home for my Elizabeth Taylor monthly challenge books.

But I just did a quick count of my TBR and in fact I have over 3 times as many books by Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ authors. I don't plan to change my vote, but I don't have a strong opinion now either.

Rosemary wrote: "Well, I voted for Uncommon Letter. I have a lot of older books on my TBR and the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ author books tend to be newer, due to the authors having to be alive :) Also, Uncommon Letter would be a h..."

I know the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ authors are newer books. That's one reason I thought it would be good on this challenge since we don't get any Oldies Style points this time

Rosemary wrote: "Also, Uncommon Letter would be a home for my Elizabeth Taylor monthly challenge books."

I have books on my list by 3 different Elizabeth's - Elizabeth Taylor, Elizabeth Peters, Elizabeth Jane Howard. But all of those will fit the 1925-1995 task as it looks as if that will win, so I am assured of a place for them in any case.

Rebekah wrote: "That's one reason I thought it would be good on this challenge since we don't get any Oldies Style points this time "

This is true, but then most of them are younger than 75, too.

Well, I changed my vote to Goodread Author. I had a request; and I realized (before my post) I would probably be able to use this task as a 'fun' read from my TBR shelf on GR.

That's the way to do it, Valerie! Despite my posts above, I'm sure there are a couple I have on my list that would fit here, too.

Thanks for the reminder about 1925-95, Elizabeth! I'm happy to know I'll most likely have another place for Elizabeth Taylor :)

Valerie wrote: "Well, I changed my vote to Goodread Author. I had a request; and I realized (before my post) I would probably be able to use this task as a 'fun' read from my TBR shelf on GR."

So, over to you, Jennifer and Tien ;-)