Starting this thread a few hours early because I'm drumming my fingers waiting for the clock to strike midnight so I can start my first read of the year.  First up for me is Roselynde by Roberta Gellis.  Happy New Year everyone!

I will start with a "Queen for a Day" book - The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn. I offered it in the WL Box and it has been claimed, so I'll hit 2014 running with that one. I've been wanting to read it for a while, so I'm excited to begin!

Imperial Winds by Priscilla Napier. WWI Russia.

Game of Patience by Susanne Alleyn. Rediscovered after touring my TBR stack(s).

I need something light and fluffy to start the year off so I went with a cozy mystery A Potion to Die For (Magic Potion, Bk 1) :: Heather Blake.

I will be switching to Historical Fiction soon as I will be opening another HF swap in a few days.

I tried reading Elizabeth Chadwick's Daughters of the Grail. I gave up (I have never given up on  Chadwick book). I know it is one of her earlier books but it just wasn't good. so sad....

Alice

Reading Owen Parry's Faded Coat of Blue, the first of the Abel Jones mystery series set during the Civil War -- am enjoying it tremendously. And listening to Pat Conroy's The Death of Santini.

Happy New Year to all!

Starting 2014 with an historical mystery:  "Dying in the Wool" by Frances Brody.  The  main character is Kate Shackleton, a 31-year old WWI widow with a penchant for finding "lost" people.  We shall see how she goes!!

A quick but heartfelt thank you to all of my "Historical" pals for all of the prayers, kind thoughts, messages, cards, etc. that helped keep me going in 2013.  May 2014 be a better year for each one of us.

Have any of you read, or have an opinion on, "The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton.  It won the Man Booker Prize.  I just read a blurb about it in the Stop You're Killing Me newsletter. 

I've just begun a full -on historical (as in, no fiction   ) called The Peabody Sisters, by Megan Marshall. It's a fantastic tale of 3 sisters who, after the revolution in Boston, have a huge effect in shaping the literary-intellectual climate of the day.....very interesting!

Happy New Year, everyone!  I'm going to try to pop here in more often this year.  We moved in September, and I got a job (back to full-time, sniff) in October, so I've been busy.  Our house in our former town hasn't sold yet, and we are living in a temporary rental, which is very small and crowded.  Life seems a little out of whack right now, but we are basically very happy in our new city.

I started Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo Rising a few days ago but bailed after 35 pages or so.  I just couldn't get into it.  There are a ton of characters, and I am not real familiar with the setting and the time period, and it seems like the book assumes the reader has that knowledge.  I know Dunnett's books are HF favorites, so I do plan on trying it again at some point. I think part of the problem is that I've only been reading at night right before bed when I'm tired, and my powers of concentration and comprehension aren't at their peak.

So, night before last I picked up Michener's Alaska and got a few pages into that.  It's my first Michener if you can believe it. I recently finished listening to Bryce Courtenay's Tommo & Hawk, and am going to start The Son by Philipp Meyer today or tomorrow.

I have started When Mountains Move by Julie Cantrell. It's the sequal to Into the Free which I read last year. Very beautiful writing set at the end of the depression. I found the first book to be sad and a bit hard to read. I'm hoping this poor girl can find some happiness by the end of this book.

I started Stoner by John Williams, which is this odd little obsure classic about the life of an academic in a small midwestern university set in the early 1900s and first published in 1965.  Apparently, the book has had some recently revived interest and is a group read on one of my GR groups.  It's on my Kindle and I can't seem to put it down but not sure what my final verdict will be.

Donna --- For some reason I think they might have made a movie of "Stoner" --- but might be thinking of something else. 

Shelley --- I tried the Niccolo book two times as a friend of mine just thought they were the best.  So do not feel sad if you cannot manage it. 

Becky, I found an article about Stoner stating that this "rediscovered" novel has won Waterstones Book of the Year for 2013, which I am assuming is a British award.  In the article, Tom Hanks was quoted as saying it's "one of the most fascinating things you'll ever come across" - so maybe a movie will be in the works?

Becky - Thanks for the heads up!  I'll try it again when I feel I can be more focused, but if it doesn't grab me, I guess I'll have to write Dunnett off as not for me.  I would love to hear what others think of Dunnett.

Niccolo didn't work out well for me either, it is the only Dunnett I've read.  I like Edward Rutherford, but I know what you mean, as I never finished his London.

I'm still working on, and am about half-way through, the third Gulag Archipelago.

Just finished "The House at Tyneford".  What a lovely book.  Recommend this one to any and all. 

I loved Dunnett's Lymond books, but the Nicollo series doesn't interest me in the least. I finished Imperial Winds by Priscilla Napier, Russian Revolution. It most definitely is a historical novel, and not a romance like the MMPB cover would suggest. Some parts were just gripping (that train ride trying to get to safety was a nail biter), but there were other parts where the author went on way to long showing her historical knowledge or whatever. Can't decide yet how to rate it, but I would recommend for those interested in the revolution, or would like to learn more.

Due to your recommendation, Misfit, it's on my Wish List! It sounds good.
I call those "good books with bad covers"
 

Cathy - that does sound good but where the heck did you find it? (Imperial Winds)

@Jeanne, found it on my feeds at goodreads. I really did expect more of a romance. @ Mimi, my copy is destined to be passed along to my once a year lunch n book swap pal, but I can loan it your way via the Fire package express if you're interested. Just drop me a PM.

Started a book on Kinde this afternoon, "Searching for Pemberley" by Mary Lydon Simonsen.  Think it must have been a freebie.  Set just after World War II in Germany and mosty England.  Interesting theory of someone searching for the real  folks Jane Austen was writing about in "Pride and Prejudice". 

I was going to start "The Last Aloha" first for this year, but it was in the back seat of my car when I was ready to read, and I was snuggly warm in my jammies and ready for bed. I wasn't going to go outside and get it! LOL...sometimes I'm so lazy.

So instead I pulled another book off of Mt. TBR - The Glory Cloak by Patricia O'Brien. A quick, interesting "what if" kind of read about Louisa May Alcott and Clara Barton set during the Civil War era. Since I've been fighting a cold the past few days, I didn't do much but lay around and read around my naps. I liked it quite a bit...a solid 3.5/5, possibly even a 4. And then I got a brilliant idea and I checked...there's quite a few memorials to Clara Barton, along with a statue of her outside of the American Red Cross headquarters, so it can be a challenge book for #3 - American Idol. Yay!

Now I'll move on to the queen. I've rescued her from my car.

Oh Misfit, thank you for the offer, but I am just swamped with books to read, so I'll let it go to your reading buddy and then when it comes into my life, enjoy :)