I always love visiting with Precious Ramotswe in Alexander McCall Smith's series The #1 Ladies Detective Agency.

It is so fun to witness all the laughters ... Thanks !

I was just struck with the most delightful sense of irony as I simultaneously watch your discussion and swatch with my beautiful, just delivered yarn... it's like knitting with friends who also made my yarn! Love you guys ❤️

Have you read Louise Penny's mystery series...based in Quebec...so good!! Those characters will be your friends for sure ❤ I really enjoy your podcast....thank you!

I just have to share this - one of my book club members is a high school teacher and she was sharing that most of the young folks in her class choose a book by thickness and she didn’t mean thicker was better😂. I love these chats. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. Enjoy!

Best of the episode - Simone saying “keep on reading” - no spoilers from her! I read an essay yesterday bemoaning that even a 2 hour movie seems long to watch and how sad it was that this meant reading a book was even less likely - I can’t imagine not reading, but as a 30+ year librarian…kind of in my blood. LOVE all episodes, but the new book segments…a special place ❤️

Looking forward to hearing more stories of your reading journey in 2024!

Very enjoyable discussion, yet again. I'm keen to hear how Moby Dick goes - I never could get started on it. Loved the Rick Mercer book. He's always laugh-out-loud funny. Betsy's pioneer book reminds me of Michael Crummey's The Innocents, about a very young brother-sister pair surviving in the Newfoundland wilderness. I've loved all his books. And for a historical series you can really get deeply into, I'd suggest Hilary Mantel's series about Cromwell and Henry VIII, starting with Wolf Hall. Made into an excellent TV series by BBC. Happy Reading!

Fun to listen to your thoughts - I love the classics. Melville!

The Gentleman from Moscow by Amor Towles; The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey; The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny - so good!!!

Thanks ladies!

So entertaining! Thank you. Suzanne

Loved listening to your friendly banter :). There are endless things to discuss with books!

Love this series you started! I wait to savor it on Saturday mornings while I drink my coffee.

Always entertaining... and educational. Eating Crow is an interesting saying, one that I had to look up to see the real meaning of it. Admitting you were wrong is certainly hard to swallow for many.

Love this: so glad you're doing these episodes! Keep up the great work and continue to share your reading experiences!

You three are such a delight! My grandma used Scrabble to teach me spelling and vocabulary. If I found a word in her Scrabble dictionary, I couldn't use it unless I looked it up in the table side dictionary to learn its meaning. One of my memories is the word "quoin," worth a lot of points. Thanks to my grandma, I know what it means! I'm part way through a recommended novel that's quite good: "A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst Pyrates, Written by Herself" by Katherine Howe. The main character is on a ship before page 100! 😊

Some of my favorite historical series are: MAISIE DOBBS, the heroine, WWI and post-WWI British stories, by Jacqueline Winspear. The Maggie Hope series, WWII era adventures by Susan Elia MacNeal. MR CHURCHILL'S SECRETARY is first I confess I listen on audiobook so I can also knit😅

Betsy I have a historical series recommendation for you, “The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael” by Ellis Peters. This is a historical mystery set in the early part of the 12th century England. This was also made into a PBS series which closely followed the books starring Derek Jacobi.

Hi Betsy, I really like medieval historical fiction. Sharon Kaye Penman’s trilogy on Wales is good. Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning.

Just finished “Plainsong” by Kent Haruf and really enjoyed it. For fantasy series, two of my favourites are the Daughter of the Forest trilogy by Juliet Marillier and the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb (begin with Assassin’s apprentice).

I love all of Ken Follett and Jeffrey Archer. They have lots of epics. Dan Brown also has great books.

I’m enjoying this so much. Betsy I read this series back in the early nineties and it’s called The Clan of the Cave Bear, 3 books if I remember. I started reading Helen Humphrey’s book And a Dog Called Fig after your recommendation, very enjoyable. Enjoy your Day🙌

Betsy you should try the Edward Rutherford books, they are a type of historical fiction. I’ve read four of them, New York, Sarum, London and Paris, all great reads. Another author is Phillipa Gregory, her novels are set in England around the English nobility. I’ve bought the first three books in The Wheel of Time series, saving them for January.

For a fun reading aloud experience, try to the kids ( and grandma's) book, The Wonky Donkey, by Craig Smith and Ms. Katz Cowley. Impossible to read without at least laughing - and at best getting the giggles.

Thanks for another entertaining podcast! Betsy, although these are not series ... a few recent top of mind suggestions are; The Book of Speculation, Women Who Run With The Wolves (not what it sounds like ;), The Seven Husbands of Eveyln Hugo, The Travels of Marco Polo. When looking at my read list, I was surprised to see how varied it is ... hmmm I like it lol. Until next time ... Donna

Betsy...same here...i am only 5'4" and have 3, 6' brothers , and always got called to help around the house to lift, move do everything?...ME! Maybe because my Mother could never find anybody else...i was always hanging around in plain sight where my Brothers were always locked up in thier rooms. My Sister was always in bed reading a book🤔 or was she🤨. Then again I always enjoyed helping my Mother...she deserved it, and still does at 89 yrs old this month❤ Sharon.

The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley - Really well researched and great stories

My Granny was a veeeerrry serious Scrabble player and she had both a French and English 'Scrabble' dictionary. The players had them on the table during games and would voraciously look things up to be sure the spelling was correct and the actual word existed. Who knew...lol.

Outlander of course! And my daughter (35) has me reading A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas… enjoy your suggestions! Thanks for sharing

Two of my favorite series are The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel and The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. The Vorkosigan series is science fiction but I enjoy it despite that, not because of it (if that makes sense). I admire your perseverance with Mobey Dick. It sounds worse than Dickens which I can never make it through.

Regarding the foliage thing- when I hear 'foilage' I picture ladies getting highlights at the salon. Lots of little foil bits covering their heads like leaves.

I remember really enjoying The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies. Your book shows are so interesting even if I haven't read the books or don’t plan to anytime soon.

My friends and I are currently reading a memoir, Educated by Tara Westover...it's very good so far. She is brought up with "survivalists", and doesn't really experience any proper schooling or medical care, etc, until she is an older teenager.

The Louise Penny books of Inspector Gamache are great and so are the CJ Boxx book series of Joe Pickett.

And let's not forget the Outlander series. The first 3 books were written as a trilogy but then totally expanded to at least 10 or 11 books. Time travel , stone circles, is involved beginning in WWII era back to time of Culloden and the Scottish clearances and moves from one era to another. The TV series, very well cast, covered books 1-3 pretty closely and then veered madly off. I prefer the books for that reason

Love laughing with you and - well too long a list to share. For Betsy's next list, I have a recommendation which is not big in length or epic in nature. I just rewatched the movie 84 Charing Cross Road, starring Anne Bancroft, produced by Mel Brooks, based on the book by Helene Hanff. There are three small books: 84 Charing Cross Road, The Duchess of Bloomsbury, and Que's Legacy. What a character! A real life character and her ability to make friends through letters and kind acts. Edifying, laughability, and more emotions. I enjoy both, your knitting stories and your reading adventures. Now, I am returning to watching Kansas City Chiefs football on KZfaq and reading Regency Romance and Mystery on my KIndle ereader here in the middle of the "lower 48 {US} states" Missouri. These days I read with Google maps nearby so I can locate borders between South and North Carolina! Or find New Beford, Connecticut and its relationship to Nantucket Island and the whaling off New England. The whales still congregate in the waters off Boston Harbor and can be visited by excursion boat.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelts. Loved this book. Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes. Also a good book.

You should read Wilbur Smith books. One of my favourites is River God.

That was fun Wilbur smith is a good author I ve read lots of his earlier ones and if u want to cry p s I love you it’s also a film but a friend bought me and said you will cry reading this and laugh I did cry as being a young widow then 39 years ago I could relate when the character in the book couldn’t face certain biscuits as had been hubby’s fav and I was the same never bought or looked at a mint cream choc biscuit til last year took me 38years to face them😂sad in many ways x

A Discovery of Witches is a fascinating trilogy with several different time period, time-travelling and characters who call to be remembered. I did not like the movie/series version though...some huge gaps in the characters in the screen play vs the novels. I'm enjoying this vlog a lot! HUgs

My "to eat crow" hypothesis: if you crow about something, the inference is that you are being loud and bragging. If you have to eat crow, you are having to pay for being full of yourself- taking back all of your pompous bragging.... Thoughts?

Have you read Jeffrey Archer the Clifton Chronicles. Likeable characters. Not too heavy.

By the way, our Mother has cheated at Scrabble in the past! Just so ya know. Haha!

If you start putting knitting markers every inch I will get worried I love reading Sir Terry Pratchett’s books out loud . Train of thought lost War of 1812 English soldier made an American soldier eat the Crow that the Hungry American soldier shot when he was hunting behind the Enemy lines. I just asked alexia on my echo dot any way Sir Terry adds a lot of foot notes so when not if I make a mistake I add my own footnotes for example Granny Weatherwax didn’t say s,ex she said six I don’t know what I was thinking when I read sex for six 😮 I think that I can easily make the book at least a third larger. Now looking at what I just wrote no commas necessary in the middle of sex… lol . . I also read books aloud to my grand child we stop and talk about the intentions of the author and why he chose to use unusual words or my unusual pronunciation. Gents looking for their marginalia that sounds uncomfortable 😅😮🤷🏼‍♀️👋🏻🧝🏼🤚🏻🌺🌟🌺👍👍👍🍀🐑🍀🖖🖖🖖🌺🌟🌺