WOW, another new month!!!!  Hope Spring sees everyone a little early this year!!!

Reading the most recent Dr. Siri book, The Woman Who Wouldn't Die -- always fun to hang out with the irreverent doctor.

I bailed on After Rome by Morgan Llewelyn. Boring! The first 3 chapters read like a dry history text.

Now, I need a break from HF, so I picked up Still with Me by Thierry Cohen. Whizzed through half of it last night and had trouble putting it down to go to bed. It's being hailed as an international publication and it won France’s Grand Prix Jean d’Ormesson in 2007.

I'm not quite sure where it's going yet, which is in large part the intrigue for me. The story is told through a man who is (I believe) mentally unstable. Either that, or along the lines of Lovely Bones, he's dead. A little bit weird, which is right up my alley.

I'm about half way through Outlaw now, and still like it, but not pursuaded it's Robin Hood.  It's not a long book, but I haven't read much the last couple days.  I got a new eyeglass prescription and I haven't fully adjusted yet. My eyes are tired enough just working at the computer. 

I am reading a YA that is Historical and paranormal  Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, Bk 1) :: Robin LaFevers. It is set in 1485 Brittney, France. Very good story, plot line keeps you going. Characaters we multidimensional. I put book 2 coming out in April on my WL

Alice

I'll finish the first Sparrowhawk book (Jack Frake) today. Has anyone else read this book (and/or others in the series)? I've enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one in the series. It's been a good read; but the pacing is a bit slow in some areas.

Kelly

Almost to the halfway point of Sunne in Splendour...if this doesn't build up my wrist muscles, nothing will!    SKP does spoil other authors for me; or rather, she makes me almost intolerant of less talented writers.  It's another snowy day here, and I'm planning on heading back to London with Ned, Richard and Anne, and that weasel George...

 and that weasel George...

Lol Vicky - you have a way with words!!!!

I'm still working my way thru Queen of Bedlam and India Black Shadows..... I'm loving both of these but just have had almost no reading time.

@ Kelly, I've eyed those Sparrowhawk books for years. Glad to know the first one is going well. I'm reading Looking Glass Years by Jill Gregory. Not sure yet if it will go more towards romance or historical. Late 1870s, more later. Off to read. 

I've started Dissolution by C.J. Sansom. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown was wonderful!

I am reading Lily Cigar.  I'm halfway through.

Excellent, excellent book.  It had me crying within the first 10 pages.  It's a very good sign if a book reaches out and grabs you that soon in. 

I am reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell.  I have no idea about this book beside the synopsis, and that it is a Booker Prize winner.  I haven't had all that much luck with "prize winning books"  but I thought I would give it a try.

The first historical romance I have to read and judge is actually pretty good.  Lessons in Loving a Laird by Michelle Marcos.  I've never read Scottish romance before, but I'm a sucker for the gallant lord falling in love with the poor but smart and sassy servant girl.

Not sure why I'm doing this to myself, but I'm reading Heart of a Hunter by Betty Davidson. Wars of the Roses setting, and laugh out loud silly medieval setting, especially the heroine. Earl's daughter, 18 and unmarried and determined to elope with her groom. True love and all that. 

I'm still in non-fiction land. I've let myself get behind in my reading and have some box books to finish. Luckily, today is a cold, damp, gray day in southern Georgia, so I have a window of opportunity to catch up. A perfect day to do nothing but read and drink tea.

I've started The Passing Bells by Phillip Rock. You know how sometimes you can tell that a book is going to be one of those that you can just sink yourself into; become completely immersed so that when you look up, you will wonder how in the world you ended up in a present day room that sorts of looks familiar, but is not necessarily welcoming? I think that's what this book is going to be!

Kelly

Well Kelly your book has just been added to my neverending wishlist!!!!!  It sounds like one I will really enjoy.

Today is the day "The Winter Queen" will be completed and posted.  It has been a better than okay read, but do not feel pulled to continue with the series.  It is the police procedural set in 1870s Russia.

I finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.  His prose are nearly breath taking, I found myself going back  to read passages several times.  His style in this instance was not ponderous nor pretentious, or that the thesaurus was his very best friend, (that is my usual feeling when I read prize winning novels) I learned a great deal about the Dutch East India Company, the love story seemed to be culturally and historically accurate.  A solid 4 stars. 

Great review, Letty.  I will move this up on Mt. TBR.

I am starting a biography of Emily Post, by Laura Claridge.

I have so many books that I ordered over the years, I went through them today and I just have lost interest in them so I will be posting a bunch this week. I have to get an ink cartridge from my printer first. 

.@Genie, glad to hear that turned out well. I snapped that up when it was a freebie. Just starting the new India Black book.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power are done.   Both are five star reads.  WC is such an outstanding author and few can compare to the plots or the writing.  And, TJ?  One can only admire the prodigious task of researching the life of such a man.  How I wish I had lived to know him.  If you're up for a couple of long reads I highly recommend both.  

I finished the delightful and poignant The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa which is about an uneducated woman who finds herself keeping house for a man whose memory was damaged in an authomobile accident.  He can remember current events only eighty minutes so each day when she arrives she reintroduces herself.  However, his long love of math and baseball are the threads throughout this little read.   He teaches math to her son who he names Square Root and his mother.  Math becomes a fascinating subject for both of them because according to the professor they never make a mistake.  His methods make the subject fascinating and he applies them to his favorite sport, baseball, as well.  I guess I would call this an enchanting read.   

The Scar by China Mieville was an awesome fantasy/science fiction read that is probably the best I've read to date (2013).  The characters, the complexity, the plot are just outstanding.   The narrator and primary character is Bellis, a woman who is fleeing her beloved city only to be captured by pirates on the sea and finds herself living in a city composed of captured vessels that floats about the oceans.  So much occurs within each one hundred pages (what I try to read in each novel before making notes) that it's difficult to write about the novel.  There is an attack by the navy, invasion by sea creatures, fire, storms, mutiny and more.  Throughout all, however, Bellis, remains determined to return to her home.  I find myself tongue-tied in even trying to give a brief view of this novel.  I loved it.

The Secret Keeper, Kate Morton's new novel, is wonderfully well done.   The daughter, Laurel Nicholson, an accomplished actress, finds herself drawn to the past as she watches her mother fade away.  Who was she?  What do these memories mean?  Who are the people she calls for as she lays in her bed dying?  The moving back and forth between lives and memories by those involved in the story is fascinating and it kept me on my toes to keep the story straight.  It's a good, good read.

Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang is a fascinating look at China and its migrating young women who fill the factories work forces.  Learned so much about how the culture of this huge country is changing.  Well done.

Now I need to finish The Pie Lady from Winthrop and Other Minnesota Tales by Peg Meier and Dave Wood.  The Eagles' Brood by Jack Whyte is quite good.  I'm going to have to read the rest of the Camulod Chronicles.  Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant is a read that meets none of the needs of my challenges.  Just had to read it because it was on my WL for so long.  I laughed and laughed and then the tears came.  All of that before I finished this novel by a Canadian author.  Bound by Sally Gunning is quite well done - a story about an indendentured girl and her experiences.  Lady of the Butterflies by Fiona Mountain is a wonderful wonderful read, a fictionalized version about the life of Eleanor Glanville who was fascinated by butterflies.  Am also into The Crazy Years Paris in the Twenties by William Wiser.  Completed Amandine by Marlena De Blasi which reminded me so much of Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky because both focused on the Nazi invasion of France and it affected thosThe Eagles' Brood by Jack Whyte.   high school with all the angst, fears, drama and excitement of those emotionally charged years.  Well done.  The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne was a most challenging book because of Hawthorne's writing style but the story was quite interesting.  In addition, I read Wings, a YA by Aprilynne Pike, which is a rather simplistic tale that doesn't get moving until one is sixty percent through the novel.  Also read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, a YA book that reminds one of what it was like to enter high school when you don't fit, don't have the right clothese, don't like your teachers, and everyone seems to hate you.  Good realistic read.