>15 jnwelch: Joe, you get a cookie! Not only for being the first but for finding me in the wrong group. 'Yes Madam and you're ugly', he replied 'but in the morning I shall be sober'. 17 years married and it doesn't feel a day over 150 years ago.Д®njoyed the insults and Churchill really was the doyen of them wasn't he? One not included:Д¬hurchill worse for wear at a party is accosted by an irate lady: She broke her engagement to the state Chief of Police's son after my persistent calling - she ran away to Kuala Lumpur as her parents didn't approve - (they approved reluctantly when I brought her home to them months later) and I removed myself to Singapore to avoid trouble from the policeman's son and very extended family giving up the security of a job with one of the world's largest companies in the process. We got together more than a year later but that is a story and a half on its own. At this stage in 1994 I didn't understand the smiling expletives as she was forced to count tens of thousands of the local currency before me only to find it right to the cent. I made sure that she remembered me because I checked out after a month in the hotel by paying the bill for myself and a colleague in cash using small change (company money, I hasten to add). SWMBO and I met when she was working as a receptionist in the then only 5* hotel in Johor Bahru. To catch up with the old one for a second or two. Morphy - congratulations on the new thread. What am I? A masochist?ДЎ star - No book ever gets this rating. Nothing to recommend it though.Дў star - I can't believe I finished this book. Would not recommend.ДЈ stars - Had some redeeming qualities or else I couldn't have finished it. Probably will not recommend.Д¤ stars - Finished but did not like. Some aspects of the story, characters or writing troubled me. Recommended for entertainment value to readers with similar interest.ДҐ stars - Slightly lower than average. An entertaining read but probably forgettable. Highly recommended.Д§ stars - Better than average but with some flaws. I will actively push this book on my friends and family.ДЁ stars - A really great book in all respects with perhaps some minor flaws. Will keep forever and never loan it out.Д© stars - Not quite perfect but almost so. Can definitely see myself reading it again. Got something more out of it than just entertainment - it enlightened or educated me in some way. I can't give credit because I don't remember who I copied it from! Since I started using this I've noticed I've been handing out more 6's and less 7's.ДЎ0 stars - The book completely enthralled me. I stole this from someone else at LT and tweaked the last few ratings. The LT Green Dragon Book Club's next meeting is at the Ridgedale Barnes & Noble on Saturday, January 18th at 2pm. SayersДecember (111 Nonfiction) - Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat November (50 Mystery) - The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. October (111 Science Fiction) - The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham September (1001 Fantasy) - Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny July (50 Mystery) - Gorky Park by Martin Cruz SmithДЄugust (111 Nonfiction) - The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman June (111 Science Fiction) - A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge May (1001 Fantasy) - Till We Have Faces by C. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall SmithДЄpril (111 Nonfiction) - The Great Influenza by John M. BeagleДЇebruary (111 Science Fiction) - The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. January (1001 Fantasy) - The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Morphy's Mighty Monthly Reads for 2013 (Green Dragon Group Reads)

My favorite books from the years before that were:Д®x Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman

What I Eat by Menzel, Peter and D'Aluisio, Faith The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by McKillip, PatriciaДivine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Wells, Rebecca I have more challenges and lists than I know what to do with and am not going to list them here except as notes to the books I've completed. I don't so much review books as leave some sparse comments. I prefer story over language and my favorite books are the ones I just want to hug after I'm done. I mostly read fantasy, preferably urban, but also enjoy general and genre fiction, historical romance, classics, popular non-fiction, and will honestly try any genre at least once. I read about 250 books a year, so I'm not worried about meeting the challenge! Morphy at Her Little Brother's First Christmas (Age eight years)

Jewel mania level 113