| Author |
Message |
Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Saturday, February 13, 2021 - 8:13 pm 
Ric, that is absolutely wonderful! š
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, February 13, 2021 - 10:31 pm
Thanks Rieann! I was very surprised, but thrilled, too. And I just figured out that the Bijould whoās been liking some of my recent tweets is you, my dear ā thank you!
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Saturday, February 13, 2021 - 10:34 pm
Haha. Youāre welcome. Iāve been enjoying your spelling bee challenge. 
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, February 13, 2021 - 10:55 pm
Thatās right! Thank you for tolerating all of that madness. Can you tell that when I get a ābeeā in my bonnet, itās almost impossible for me to rest until Iāve conquered it. Itās all that Josh Charlesās fault (love him!), but if I hadnāt noticed him tweeting about it, I never wouldāve known the SB existed! Now Iām an obsessed wacko. Iāve really lost a lot of valuable reading time because of all the hours I devote to playing it. Iāll have to check into SB rehab soon! š
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Sunday, February 14, 2021 - 9:56 am
But you are our obsessed wacko, Ric, and we love you.
That is such a great tweet back from Mr. Boyne!
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, February 14, 2021 - 9:58 am
Awesome Ric! What a thrill for you.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, February 14, 2021 - 10:50 am
Awww, now donāt make cry now (you know how easily I cry)! š. Thank you both - I love you all, too! Happy Valentinoās Day! ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Sunday, February 14, 2021 - 12:03 pm
Itās hard to imagine a much more special feeling than knowing youāve made an author whose writing you love, feel good about what theyāve done.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, February 15, 2021 - 2:07 am
I couldnāt agree more, Jim!
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - 12:19 pm
Ric, now I am hooked on Spelling Bee. Today is my third day playing and I hate todayās letters. Argh! Lol
I keep forgetting you can use letters more than once.
Sorry for mini hijack of reading thread.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - 2:56 pm
Oh no! I know the feeling. Letās hope we get it out of our systems soon! I miss reading! š°š°š°
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Thursday, March 04, 2021 - 4:42 pm
What is this Spelling Bee I read of? Do you know I won a real one when I was in third grade over the whole school (including 5th graders) and went on to a local district bee. Lost, alas.
Finished another Nora Roberts book that could've been a stand alone book, though it was part of a trilogy. Key of Knowledge. It was okay.
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Thursday, March 04, 2021 - 5:13 pm
Well I just finished An Echo in the Bone which is the 7th book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.
Approximately 1,400 pages. Quite a few reviewers seemed bothered that she branched out more and didn't focus as much on the two main characters and spent time on their family instead. I actually enjoyed it more for that reason.
Once again, another reason I enjoy these novels is her focus on the mundane aspects of life in the late 1700's.
I also admire her bravery in having two main romantic characters who are getting up in years and still enjoy each other's company (if you know what I mean).
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, March 06, 2021 - 3:11 pm
Yikes! ā thatās a lotta pages. Iām glad you enjoyed it ā itās always nice when a book that long doesnāt disappoint!
Heckagirl, the Spelling Bee is an online game offered within the stable of games at the New York Times website. Created by the same folks who manage the NYT daily crossword puzzles, it premiered in 2018 and has become wildly popular.
Thereās a fee (something like $5.99 per month). Thereās a new Spelling Bee every day. You start with a ābeehiveā of 7 letters. One of those 7 letters remains locked in the center of the Hive. From that base, you start trying to spell as many words as possible, but each word you spell *must* contain the letter locked in the Hiveās center. Each word you spell must be at least 4 letters long. A 4-letter word is worth 4 points, a 5-letter word is worth 5 points and so on. A typical game has 4, 5, 6 and 7-letter words as well as 8, 9 and 10-letter words, but these latter three word-lengths are limited to just one or two words, whereas there can be 20 to 25 four-letter words (because theyāre much more common).
A typical game can require you to spell 25-to-30 total words, but on a different day you may have to spell 55-to-60 words. The words of each game are pre-determined. As you start spelling each word, the game validates the word youāve spelled and also tells you if the word you have spelled is not one of the pre-determined words. The object is to spell as many words as possible. The game ranks your expertise as you move along. If you only spell 2 or 3 words in a game, then youāre a ābeginnerā ā if you spell over 90% of that dayās words, then youāre ranked a āgeniusā ā and if you spell 100% of the words in one Gand, then youāre a āQueen Beeā which is the climbing-to-the-top-of-Mount-Everest equivalent. Iāve gotten two Queen Bees since I started playing last month and Mamie told she had nailed a few QBs herself when she used to play. Itās an extremely addictive game, mostly because you get consumed with trying to spell all the words to get to QB status. Thereās a new game every day, so you essentially have 24 hours to find/spell each dayās total words.
Be forewarnedā playing the game robs you if valuable book-reading time! š°š°š°
P.S. Belated congratulations on winning your Spelling Bee! š
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Sunday, March 07, 2021 - 4:20 pm
Sounds interesting. Thanks for the information. Thanks for the congrats too. I still remember one of the 5th graders saying he couldn't believe that little 3rd grader beat him.
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - 10:36 am
Thanks for the recommendations of The Midnight Library which I enjoyed. Also finished The Overstory beautifully written novel about trees and people who love and study them. I can see why the author received the Pulitzer Prize for it.
Now onto another Liane Moriarity novel, The Husband's Secret this time.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Friday, March 19, 2021 - 10:44 am
Yoo-hoo, Uncle-ricky, I need a new book or author, please.
I have 1 unread Steve Cavanagh and am finding a couple of Linwood Barclay that interest me and then...? I believe you suggested both of these authors and I have enjoyed reading them. Any ideas?
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Friday, March 19, 2021 - 2:30 pm
Sugar, I know I'm not Uncle Ricky but can I jump in, lol? Have you read Liane Moriarty? Big Little Lies and What Alice Forgot were two good ones. Kristin Hannah is another good one. I enjoyed The Nightingale and am now waiting for two of her other books from the library.
I finally got around to reading The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg and really enjoyed it. It was a great introduction (for me at least) as to what the members of WASP went through.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Friday, March 19, 2021 - 4:58 pm
Yes, thank you, I appreciate all input.
I haven't read Liane Moriaty but have seen some of the movie adaptations of her work. I think I have read some Kristin Hannah but don't recall which books.
I have liked almost all of Fannie Flagg's work.
I learned that Lorna Landvik wrote a sequel to Patty Jane's House of Curl called Once in a Blue Moon Lodge. I'm surprised I missed it as it is a few years old. I requested it from the library today.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, March 19, 2021 - 6:47 pm
Totally endorse Liane Moriarty ā Iāve read every one of her books ā scrumptious! ā all of them!
That wicked NYT Spelling Bee has me *completely* under its spell. I havenāt even reported the last two books I finished reading because I canāt remember what they were at the moment. š°š°š°. I got my first Covid-19 vaccine shot earlier today so Iām taking it easy tonight. Iāll post my reviews of those two books after I consult Goodreads to refresh my memory!
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, March 19, 2021 - 9:27 pm
Walk AWAY from the spelling bee, Uncle Ricky. Do not get yourself vaporized in a syzygy.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, March 20, 2021 - 1:09 pm
I found Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata to be an offbeat but enjoyable read, however, her new book, Earthlings was just a bad book. I had hope for it at the start but it just got weirder and weirder. I did not care for it at all, along the lines of, bummer a couple hours of my life wasted.
Books I did enjoy so far this month are:
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh
The Liar by Seve Cavanagh
A "meh" rating for
Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella.
I started Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn and it is not a good read so far. I have mentioned my astonishment of bad editing over the last year or so and this book may take the prize. Poor grammar and punctuation, using the wrong character's name, stopping sentences mid phrase and then a 2 or 3 word sentence that should have been part of the first bit to form a complete sentence and spelling the name of the town differently. Rather shoddy work in my view.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, March 20, 2021 - 8:07 pm
I just finished Little Bookshop of Murder, it was a sorry excuse of a book. The poor editing continued, it was not well written and the murderer was obvious from the start.
I am generally quite fond of books set in book shops or libraries. I'm a bit miffed that such a great location was marred by such crappy writing.
Perhaps my next read, Then We Come to the End by Joshua Ferris will be enjoyable.
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Ocean_islands
Member
09-07-2000
| Sunday, March 21, 2021 - 7:58 am
I just finished "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys, an unusual tale imagined as the life of the first wife of the character Rochester from "Jane Eyre". It's been sitting on my bookshelf for quite some time, but the time was right . . .
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, March 28, 2021 - 12:56 pm
I've finished (FINALLY)The Midnight Library and Anxious People. Both were completely delightful (though the first was a bit heavy-handed at the end).
On audiobook I also finished Allende's In the Midst of Winter. Rather intriguing storyline.
Working on finishing up Shuggie Bain that I started months ago. It is really good, but it takes emotional investment that I simply don't have during the school year. Now that spring break is here, I've got a million things to do because state testing is still fully in swing, but I'm determined to finish this gem.
Current audiobook is Sword of Destiny of the Witcher series and new Kindle book is Girl, Woman, Other. I'm also a couple of chapters into Conundrum by Jan Morris for CB_BookClub (Caitriona Balfe's online book club).
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