Peacefield

I suppose it does, Sousa! It's the largest indoor shopping mall in the United States. I'd say the largest in North America but I believe there is an even larger mall in Edmonton, Canada. It has tons of shops, and a hotel connected to it as well, which is where we stay.

The Mall of America, Anna? That's a fun place to visit . It's on the opposite end of town from me but I always go at least once a year when my out-of-town relatives come to visit. We stay at the hotel there and make a weekend of it. New England! I love it up there too I'm hoping to go to Upstate New York next fall and visit some of my ancestor's graves. I've been to NYC but never ventured out of Manhattan. Saturday was pretty successful, but lordy there were SO many people! I think I stood in line waiting to check out longer than I perused the book selection! I ended up getting 4 books for myself, 2 for my mom, and a movie for me; 'Underworld.' I could probably have gotten more books but TBH my bag was getting heavy and some of the people were really starting to annoy me The American Patriot's Almanac - William J. Bennett & John T.E. Cribb Persuading Annie - Melissa Nathan The Magnolia League - Katie Crouch Paul Revere and the World He Lived In - Esther Forbes

Congrats on a successful movie, Sari!! Sounds like it was the best kind, too, smooth and fast! I'm sorry the stay at your friends' ended on a sour note. Hopefully with time you two will be able to talk! Are you going to be working somewhere close by? If not it's great you have the tram near you. Maybe you could work at the used book shop! :D

That road trip sounds like so much fun, Anna! Can I ask where abouts in MN you visited? I've done many road trips but never across the US at one time. I had the best time when I flew out east and we took 2 weeks driving through all of New England. Talk about amazing! I'm getting excited for the book sale tomorrow! I'm meeting my friend and her husband there and we are also grabbing lunch.

MN is very comfy, Sousa, I agree. Well except maybe during winter when it's below 0 temps outside. They do like to make fun of our accents in movies/TV sometimes! We don't all sound like that, just the rural folk and people who live really far outside the city like 'up north.' I hate bulky jackets and coats in the winter, Frankie, so I usually wear my thinner fall stuff too. I know it's warmer but when I get in my car I hate being constricted by more than just my seat belt when I'm behind the wheel. It's not like I walk far when I'm outdoors anyway, since I run out and start my car and get it very toasty before I hit the road and I park in a parking garage at work so what's the point of a coat?! I do keep one in my car in case of emergencies, though. You never know! After running to the grocery store and then the gym after work yesterday I was wiped when I got home. All I wanted to do was relax and play with my new phone, but I forced myself to read and actually got pretty far before I went to bed! I'm on part 2 already, surprisingly. Instance of the Fingerpost is about one event that's told from 3 different perspectives all in parts with the final and 4th part being the true telling of the event. I love it!

Yeah for getting the moving and van sorted, Frankie! You couldn't have asked for it to work out better and I'm so, so happy for you . Do you have to pay a damage deposit when you rent a place furnished? If you decide to party hard one night and totally break the person's furniture?? LOL I would be all about the garbage books too! As long as they didn't smell...

I'm sorry I'm late to the party, but congrats on getting your own apartment, Frankie!! When do you move? It's very rare to rent a furnished apartment here in the States. I only ever see it on TV when I'm watching House Hunters International! Good luck with your continuing online-dating. I've never done that sort of thing but I have friends who have and one who just got married to someone she met online!

Hey BCF friends How is everyone doing? There I went and got busy again, so I'm sorry I haven't been posting much. This weekend I'm going to a big used book sale put on by Half Price Books. It's at the local fairgrounds and promises to have every book at $2.00 or less so I'm pretty excited! I was at the cabin this past weekend and two of my friends were reading Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears and since it's one of my all time favorite books I naturally had to pick it up too I've been very wishy-washy lately when it comes to reading so I'm glad to read something I know and love. One of my sisters used to live in Northern California, Anna, but I only visited once before she moved down to the San Diego area. I was 12 or 13 at the time but I remember going paddle-boating in Capitola and I loved it! It was beautiful there.

Me, me, me! I'm up for it!

I like that phrase "Nordic crime thrillers," Frankie! I've often wanted to learn a bit of Norwegian, just so I could do a more expanded search on my family history. If I knew Finnish though I'd definitely read some of the books on that list! Are you going to frame your diploma?? You could hang it when you eventually get your own place. You could even put a spotlight on it! Yeah! I'm pretty sure we call courgettes zucchini here, or zucchini squash. I just shredded some up tonight so I could make blueberry and raspberry zucchini bread this weekend, in fact! Yum.

Hey, guys! Oh I'm sorry I haven't posted in a couple days! I came to sneak a couple of peeks but it's been a bit of a crazy week. After tomorrow though it's the weekend and I have Monday off so yahoo for that! Right, Frankie, lots of miserable weather in the winter so I'll be working on my 'indoor' activities, keeping myself busy while I'm in my powered-down and just a wee bit grumpy winter mood. It's one thing about living here is that we really enjoy the summer months as long as we can before hell literally freezes over . If only there was such a thing as a perpetual autumn! I'm looking forward to reading Jonathan Strange and then seeing the mini-series. I get Midsomer Murders on Netflix. We stream it on the Apple TV usually and I believe there are 14 seasons and both my mom and I are hooked! You are a fan, I take it? Anna, yep, I'm in Minnesota. Are you in So. Cal? I have 3 siblings who are all in So. Cal. I was out in May and was laughing at them because it was cold to them but for me it was perfect! They've been away from a MN too long, methinks I'll confess, guys, I've never done a read-a-thon. I'm not even sure I know what it is! Do you just try to read as many books as you can in a certain time period? I might not finish, but I'd certainly be up for trying! I haven't read a scary book in a long time, Noll, so that'd be fun!

Yes, lots of sparkly good luck vibes coming your way, Noll! Mmm, blackberries. Homemade gifts like that are lovely! My sister has a couple pomegranate trees in her garden so we get jam every Christmas as well. She also made a pomegranate vinaigrette dressing last year and that was tasty! It was back to work today for me after a 3 day holiday weekend up at the cabin. Nothing too exciting planned for me this week besides work and the gym. Have a good one, everyone!

I'm glad to hear you loved Girl on the Train and Jonathan Strange! I admit I started the latter at one time but was not in the right mood so I put it back on my shelf. I had a feeling I would probably enjoy it though so I kept it for a later date Which Pearl book? The Dante Club? Frankie, Frankie Frankie... I was up at the cabin this weekend and surprisingly didn't get much reading in! I was busy enjoying the weather and doing yard work followed by evening-watching of Midsomer Murders so by the time I went to bed I was wiped. On Friday before I went up I ran to Half Price Books and managed to find a copy of Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger, the 2nd book in the Cork O'Connor series so that was very exciting! I also found out that Iain Pears' new one, Arcadia, isn't out here in the US until 2016 but in the UK it came out last week, so I wandered over to the Book Depository site and ordered it . Can't wait! How was everyone else's weekend? Did you get lots of reading in?

Oh no, not at all, Anna! As you can tell I do like a bit of historical fiction Variety is the spice of life, though, right? It's all good and I'm glad you pop in my thread

That definitely sounds like something I would enjoy, Muggle, thanks! Even if it's a fictional account (based on various events), it's always so interesting to me to get some insight on what life was like in the earlier centuries. I've added this one to my wishlist . I was standing waffling in front of my bookcases last night, not knowing what book to start. I decided to read the first page of The Last Bookaneer and it felt right so I read until I turned the light out. I haven't read any Pearl in a few years so I'm looking forward to it! London, 1890—Pen Davenport is the most infamous bookaneer in Europe. A master of disguise, he makes his living stalking harbors, coffeehouses, and print shops for the latest manuscript to steal. But this golden age of publishing is on the verge of collapse. For a hundred years, loose copyright laws and a hungry reading public created a unique opportunity: books could easily be published without an author’s permission. Authors gained fame but suffered financially—Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, to name a few—but publishers reaped enormous profits while readers bought books inexpensively. Yet on the eve of the twentieth century, a new international treaty is signed to grind this literary underground to a sharp halt. The bookaneers are on the verge of extinction.

I love autumn, but I hate what follows Work for me this week plus the gym, bringing in my car for a service appointment, a hair cut, seeing friends and on Friday heading up to the cabin. Monday is Labor Day and I'm off work! Yahoo!

Books make good nemeses, don't they, Anna? I finished Iron Lake over the weekend and am still thinking on what to read next. I feel like I'm still in the mood for a fast-moving, suspenseful book, so I might pick up the second William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series, Boundary Waters. Is anyone on the board an Iain Pears fan? His new book called Arcadia is due out very soon and I'm pretty excited Here's the blurb from Amazon: This is a captivating adventure story with huge heart and dazzling imaginative power, from the best-selling author of An Instance of the Fingerpost. Three interlocking worlds. Four people looking for answers. But who controls the future - or the past? In the basement of a professor's house in 1960s Oxford, fifteen-year-old Rosie goes in search of a missing cat - and instead finds herself in a different world. Anterwold is a sun-drenched land of storytellers, prophecies and ritual. But is this world real - and what happens if she decides to stay? Meanwhile, in a sterile laboratory, a rebellious scientist is trying to prove that time does not even exist - with potentially devastating consequences. Pears wrote one of my favorite novels, Instance of the Fingerpost but hasn't released anything since 2009 so it's thrilling now that there's something new!

Muggle - I've been looking forward to reading One Thousand White Women so I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! Pioneering/old west stories really appeal to me and it sounds right up my alley! Both Jasper Fforde books I know will be great; with him you can't go wrong, right?! Anna and Bobbly - I first read Fountainhead during college and really liked it but like you, Bobbly, I wasn't sure I grasped the concept. I read it again a few years later and loved it. I didn't enjoy Atlas Shrugged as much, and that was mostly due to the female protagonist (I think her name was Dagny), who really rubbed me the wrong way. Thank you for warning me about Popco, Bobbly. I started it in the past and wasn't in the mood so I put it back on the shelf, but a book that turns preach-y like that I'm pretty sure I won't enjoy. The Morton books both sound interesting to me! I don't think I've heard anything negative here on BCF about The Forgotten Garden, in fact . Thanks, Athena, I'm looking forward to working on my lists!

Hey, guys! I thought it was time I revive my own personal book blog after not having done so in a year or two. What I slacker, huh? Between work and other hobbies/interests I can't seem to keep my hands out of, my reading life is steady although a bit slow at times. I also may have many books on my wishlist and TBR shelves, but my mood dictates everything so when I finish one book it sometimes can take me a bit to decide what to read next. I also might look at my shelves and think everything is all wrong so I'll go out and find something new or re-read a book, which I like to do too, if I'm in the mood . I really read any genre of book, with a heavy bent towards historical fiction or any type of mystery to do with art or literature. Until a few years ago I never even so much as dipped a toe in the supernatural world but now I love it, and the same goes for YA. I've never read any fantasy (i.e. George R.R. Martin-type books) but I'd be open to it. In short, feel free to throw recommendations at me, I love them! Below is a a combo of my wishlist and TBR books, plus some re-reads I'd like to do in the future. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern Glassblower of Murano - Marina Fiorato High Fidelity - Nick Hornby Lake of Dead Languages -Carol Goodman Let's Kill Uncle - Rohan O'Grady Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton House at Riverton - Kate Morton The Last Bookaneer - Matthew Pearl Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami Luncheon of the Boating Party - Susan Vreeland Bellman & Black - Diane Setterfield One Thousand White Women - Jim Fergus Delicate Edible Birds - Lauren Groff Arcadia -Lauren Groff Conversion - Katherine Howe The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen - Katherine Howe The Art Thief - Noah Charney How to Buy a Love of Reading - Tanya Egan Gibson The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins Nerd Do Well - Simon Pegg The Eye of Zoltar (Chronicles of Kazam book 3) - Jasper Fforde Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde Forever - Maggie Steifvater Sinner - Maggie Steifvater Boundary Waters - William Kent Krueger Popco - Scarlett Thomas Underdogs - Marcus Zusak The Emigrants - Johan Bojer Peder Victorious - O.E. Rolvaag Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke Cut to the Quick - Kate Ross (re-read) Broken Vessel - Kate Ross (re-read) Whom the Gods Love - Kate Ross (re-read) The Devil in Music - Kate Ross (re-read) The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (re-read) Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears (re-read) Physic Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe (re-read) The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand (re-read) The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl (re-read)

Ordinary People, yet another fantastic book, Frankie! I'm glad another 'Ordinary' title made your wishlist 4 out of 7 books is great! I'm lucky if I can get 1 book read a month, so you did well, IMO. It's hard when you're contending with noisy children or events/parties with friends, and I understand where you're coming from. It all comes down to what you think is a valuable way to spend your time, you know? No matter what others expect of you.

'Magical Mr. Mistoffolees,' Lillywhite! I loved Cats We won the game last night, yeah! 3-0 against the Houston Astros. There were fireworks afterwards which was fun, and it was a beautiful night with the full moon and downtown as the backdrop. I had delicious lobster tacos when I went out for lunch today, and the weather was lovely on the patio. I did all my boring weekend errands afterwards plus the gym so tomorrow I don't have to do anything unpleasant .

I'll wave from the Midwest when you fly over, Alexi I finished Iron Lake today and loved it. Kept me on the edge of my seat and was very un-put-down-able! Not sure what to start next...

Excellent choice with the Oreo, Athena It's one of my faves! I also won't refuse a scoop of peppermint bon-bon (aka mint chocolate chip). HBD to your bro and I hope your headache goes away soon. I totally forgot that I'm going to a baseball game tonight! Sadly it's probably going to be my only game of the season since it's winding down now, but I'm still looking forward to it. Our team is doing pretty well so hopefully we'll make the play-offs . I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

I'm working from home today so comfort is the name of the game! That means black yoga pants and a purple v-neck tee.

Oooh, ahhh, Mr. Vincent Gallo! It's true, that is definitely another thing we have in common I wonder what he's been up to lately? I'll start my book blog before the weekend is out, I assure you! During 2 years of my college years I lived with my brother and his family during the week and I know what you mean about having to use ear plugs! It wasn't always my nephew yelling, but my bedroom was right below the dining room and I swear he loved to move chairs around on the wood floor non-stop. Oy! I don't know if you saw my posts about reading this book called Ordinary Grace, Frankie, but I think it would be one you might like. Take a look at the synopsis when you have time and maybe it'll end up on your wish list