C. (Comment, never msg).’s Comments (group member since Jan 30, 2014)

C. (Comment, never msg).’s comments from the Gentle SPECTRUMS group.

P.S. I love the new photograph of yourself! I can't comment on it. Most people don't know (I simply figured it out): these options become available and you don't lose photos you switch from, if you put them in an album first.

I know my whole country well in music, literature, film, and television and of course, specializing in home artists. Do you ever read mystery, paranormal, fantasy, non fiction? There is an abundance from which to choose. I read nothing harsh or depressing and strive for enouragement, education, empowerment, and fun.

Welcome to "Gentle Spectrums", Sarah! What kinds of books are you looking for? Whether it is general fiction, mystery, paranormal, non fiction, classic, humour, biographies, fantasy.... let me know. That removes the work and gives you paths to pleasure. :) Obviously, I know my home province, Manitoba best but shall direct you anywhere in Canada. Name what you are in the mood for.

The three provincial folders are authors I have in each, not necessarily favourites. I haven't touched our neighbour, Ontario, where many of my favourites are. Or, was it the buddy reading categories you explored? If you looked up the books and they interest you, I am glad. Be aware that I named the books I am at next. Start with the first, in series.

This is our 2024 buddy reading list. They are books I have in unabridged copies. If some author’s books aren’t shown, I do not have them or am uninterested. I reflect the volumes we are at per author. Please defer to our “Canadian” category ahead of biographies, series, non-fiction, and classics.

This list is from the more recent “Buddy-Reading Suggestions” thread but it is a good idea to add it here, in case this old one is browsed. Sincerely, your hostess, Carolyn.


~ CANADIAN ~

Jann Arden “Feeding My Mother”
John Buchan “The 39 Steps”
Margaret Buffie “My Mother’s Ghost” (Winnipegger!), “The Watcher”
John Candy “Laughing On The Outside”
Michael G. Coney “Celestial Steam Locomotive”
Biruté M.F. Galdikas “Reflections Of Eden” (wildlife activism)
Maureen Jennings “Let Loose The Dogs”
Lyn King “Walking Into The Night Sky” (poetry)
Lake Winnipeg Writers’ Group “Voices: Volume Ten, Number One”
Margaret Laurence “Heart Of A Stranger”, “Dance On The Earth”
Janet Lunn “The Unseen: Scary Stories”
Susie Moloney “A Dry Spell”, “The Thirteen” (Winnipegger!)
Lucy Maud Montgomery “Anne’s House Of Dreams”, “The Blue Castle”, “Along The Shore”, “Among The Shadows”
A.S. Mott “Gothic Ghost Stories: Tales Of Intrigue & Fantasy”


~ SERIES ~

Nevada Barr “Track Of The Cat”
S.J. Bennett “The Windsor Knot”
Anne Brashares “The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants”
Agatha Christie “The Mystery Of The Blue Train”, “Partners In Crime”, “The Seven Dials Mystery”, “The Murder At The Vicarage”
Cassandra Clare “The Mortal Instruments”, “The Bane Chronicles”
Eoin Colfer “Artemis Fowl”
Chris D’Lacey “The Fire Within”
Frances Fyfied “Shadows On The Mirror” and “Half Light” in her real name, Frances Hegarty.
Sue Grafton “A Is For Alibi”
David Handler “The Burnt Orange Sunset”
P.D. James “Cover Her Face”
Sophie Kinsella "Confessions Of A Shopoholic"
Christopher Paolini “Eragon”
Ian Rankin “Tooth And Nail”
Rick Riordan “The Maze Of Bones”, “The Lightning Thief”, “The Sea Of Monsters”
Michael Scott “The Alchemyst”
Trenton Lee Stewart “The Mysterious Benedict Society”
Maggie Stiefvater “Blue Lily, Lily Blue”
Garcia Stohl “Beautiful Creatures”
Rex Stout “The Rubber Band”
Carlos Luiz Zafón “The Angel’s Game”.


~ VARIETY ~

Kate Atkinson “Behind The Scenes At The Museum”
John Berendt “Midnight In The Garden Of Good & Evil”
Chris Colfer “The Land Of Stories”
Blake Crouch “Recursion”
Anthony Doerr “All The Light We Cannot See”
Barbara Erskine “Lady Of Hay”
Cornelia Funke “The Thief Lord”
Hazel Gaynor “The Cottingley Secret” 2017
John Green “The Fault In Our Stars”
Michael Gruber “The Book Of Air And Shadows”, “The Forgery Of Venus”
Joanne Harris “Chocolat”
James Herbert “Haunted” (David Ash #1)
Khaled Hosseini “The Kite Runner”
Barbara Kingsolver “The Bean Tree”, “Homeland And Other Stories”, “Animal Dreams”, “Pigs In Heaven”
E.L. Konigsburg “The Second Mrs. Gioconda”, “The Mysterious Edge Of The Heroic World”
Katherine Kurtz “Chamber Of Culdi”
Ursual Le Gun “Wizard Of Earthsea”
Kate Mascarenhas “The Psychology Of Time Travel”
Jennifer McMahon “The Winter People” I’ll save the same Phyllis A. Whitney title for later.
Erin Morgenstern “The Starless Sea”
Sōsuke Natsukawa “The Cat Who Saved Books”!
Audrey Niffenegger“The Time Traveler’s Wife”, “Her Perfect Symmetry”
A.J. Pearce “Dear Mrs. Bird”
Kate Quinn “The Alice Network”
Nicole Richie “Priceless”
Anne River Siddons “The House Next Door”
Amy Tan “The Kitchen God’s Wife”, “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”
Donna Tartt “The Goldfinch”
Gemma Townley “When In Rome....” (Sophie Kinsella's Sister ~ what fun)!
Sarah Waters “The Little Stranger”
Barbara Wood “The Dreaming”.


~ BIOGRAPHIES ~

Jeanne Cooper “Not Young, Still Restless”
Kirk Douglas “My Stroke Of Luck”
Goldie Hawn “Goldie: A Lotus Grows In The Mud”
Elton John “Me”
Anna Kendrick “Scrappy Little Nobody”
Amy Poehler “Yes, Please!”
Amy Schumer “The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo”.


~ NON-FICTION ~

James Bowen “A Street Cat Named Bob”
Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Junior “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life Of Huguette Clark And The Spending Of A Great American Fortune”
Anne Frank “Diary Of A Young Girl”
James Herriot “All Creatures Great And Small”
Kathleen Jamie “Sightlines”


~ CLASSICS ~

Isaac Asimov “Prelude To Foundation”
Jane Austen “Pride And Prejudice”, “Emma”
Frank L. Baum “The Wizard Of Oz”
Emily Brontë “Wuthering Heights”
Geoffrey Chaucer “The Canterbury Tales”
Wilkie Collins “The Woman In White”, “The Moonstone”
Charles Dickens “A Tale Of Two Cities”, “The Pickwick Papers”
Kenneth Graeme “The Wind In The Willows”
Thomas Hardy “Far From The Madding Crowd”, “Tess Of The D'Urbervilles”
Shirley Jackson “The Woman In Black”, “We Have Always Lived In The Castle”
Norton Juster “The Phantom Tollbooth”
Anna Sewell “Black Beauty: The Autobiography Of A Horse”
Robert Louis Stevenson “Treasure Island”
Jules Verne “10,000 Leagues Under The Sea”!
Virginia Woolf “Orlando”.

Thank you, Kerri! :) Here is hoping there will be another letter to enjoy from you this long week-end, especially Sunday or Monday morning. Your friend, Carolyn.

Happy Thanksgiving Day this holiday long-weekend, from your friends in Canada! Sincerely, Carolyn & family.

You are worth the wait, my friend Shirin. Kerri & I have many other books to enjoy and learn from in our respective homes.

I am happy that with your house is less busy, you still enjoy your extended family for a longer time. Also, maybe there is a chance you can film me a tour of your home, family, and Tehran to go to Turkey or Germany when they do move. :)

Kerri, I am glad you loved my tribute to Anne Perry and that you were compelled to read about Phyllis Ayame Whitney. I am the opposite about John Ritter. I feel sad to confirm that I recently found and copied Anne's e-mail address. I took my time simply writing to tell her what she meant to me during Love's sudden passing. It needn't have been long. Now Anne can see Love for herself.

"Three's Company" was a daring show when I was a little girl but it mainly comprised mock horror facial expressions, about ridiculous things like unmarried couples being intimate or people being openly gay. It is one show that wouldn't work now. I have loved seeing "Night Court" with Melissa Roach and "Fantasy Island" rebooted. I was too young for their original airings but saw a scene here & there. You know our slow internet doesn't let us into the downloading generation who can access any era's entertainment. We see what is on. We finally saw "Juliana And The Medicine Fish" two weeks ago and it was better than the novel! Ron loved it and it appeared to actually be filmed in Lake Of The Woods.

I was aware of John Ritter's new show but did not watch "Eight Rules", which I recently learned had Katy Segal and Kaley Cuoko in it. I only know Kaley from "The Big Bang Theory" and I often disliked Penny's character. I saw an interview about how happy Kaley was about Katy as "her TV Mom again" and figured out what she referred to, when she added "John Ritter must be looking down on us". I am a smart cookie who connects the dots. What can I say? :)

It is hilarious that you like Tim Curry and I wonder from where. I only know him as a bad guy but can't remember what the most recent film was, that turned me off of him. I know him from "Clue" and of course, loved that mystery and board game. He was a good guy in most of the scenarios but there was an alternative solution in which he was a villain. So when he was a villain again in another film, it was too much for me to like him anymore, hehe.

I am excited you have Pamela Anderson's autobiography and pleased that you & I are so often intrigued by the same authors and subjects. I put it on my birthday list and think Ron will find it easily. We scored did at the recent charity sale again! I would like to read "Spare" and soon, will easily find it everywhere second-hand. I except to be sympathetic as usual, not scorning as people were towards Matthew Perry, for reasons I don't get. People write their autobiographies to be properly understood in their own words and their audience is those among us who do sympathize, respect, and understand them.

I hope you took my advice and got birthday photographs of yourself and all your animals and other family. I feel relieved and gratified to have had a lovely photo session with Angel, Petal, and Ron. With so many of our pets gone suddenly, I am glad we always have photographs of each other together at the most recent birthdays and Christmas. If I dress less casually around our yard, I should go back to having candid photos of us too.

I am interested in which artists you have seen in concert, however small but that and a lot of this conversation can be in our letters. I hope you had fun with my list of arists I have seen live. I am happy to say it includes Gordon Lightfoot! I'll have to research if Tina Turner set foot in Winnipeg after I was old enough to see her. I was a baby when my friends & I convinced our parents to let us see Corey Hart. Midnight Oil played small venues here a lot, which I wish I had gone too. It used to be so common, I didn't consider the treat of them coming all the way from Australia.

I think our book conversation is concluding with your point here.
I appreciate your insight, that Marianne & Ulrich reunited prior and waited for a certain resolution to stick, like him surviving or her dying. It is an interesting extreme of opposites, looking at that sentence now. It doesn't seem that they wanted to ascend to the afterlife together, or she wouldn't walk into the ocean. It doesn't suggest that she gave up to join Ulrich in the lifetimes in which he died. Thus concludes my response to you and I can't think of anything you missed, either.

The one new thought that occurred to me, proves the value of mulling things over with time and consideration. That fucking jerk who was in our group briefly, was insulted by my advice that he whipped back replies too quickly to think anything over with any degree of seriousness or flexibility. The conclusions that have come to me prove him wrong to be sure.

It has dawned on me that it is not only the familiar association of a face that makes us equal in struggling with distortion. A person who did not slow down to think, would assume that a musician or carpenter would have more trouble losing their hands, or a dancer or athlete their feet. I understand now that none of that is so. What my hands and feet mean to me is no less important or vital than how anyone else uses theirs. Making an income from them does not make it easier for us to lose our mobility or dexterity, our daily functions. What say you?

I have an example that may not seem related but I remember Oprah Winfrey laughingly telling the story of when trainer, Bob Greene politely dared to chastise this prominent figure for tardiness. He said "My time is as valuable to me, as your time is to you" and it was one of her "aha moments".

Also having the appearance of being unrelated, is a fun example from "Sex And The City". New Yorker, Carrie kept going to expensive wedding and baby showers of city friends. One Mom insisted that shoes be removed and her Manolo Blanicks (I don't know how to spell it) were stolen. The Mom said she would replace them but the price was crazy and I agree with the price part. However, people without kids are sometimes outnumbered by those who have them.

I remember our former friends, early in our friendship, bluntly asking if we wanted to buy Christmas gifts for their Sons as well! It was our first gift exchange and I wish she had thought of a less direct way of asking, if she felt it appropriate to ask at all. We lived in an apartment because we couldn't yet afford our first house and they were in a pretty pricey place. Should we really buy for four? We didn't know their kids since they were babies and have that bond. They weren't little kids then. They were about 12 and didn't care to be included. So I stammered that it was just us couples and hated being put on the spot.

This former friend (you know who) often disregarded me as a future Mom, even though I had years ahead for it. Later, she disregarded my niece & nephew. A few times, I asked for help with her van, to pick up a used rack I found for my fledgling card business. You could hear by her tone that she thought her Grandkids (not even children who lived with her!) should have books or toys that were in those racks. I didn't work this out in my mind until years later. When she nearly took off with my baby blanket and clothes home made by Mom!

I usually gave her some, without much chance to look over the merchandise myself, privately. I felt I should thank her for driving me. She was usually an hour late and I wound up with a $50.00 parking ticket one time! I realize now and didn't tell her, that her suggestion that she had more use for children's items than we did, was inappropriate. There is a little time for us to have kids if the situation were right and if we don't, I have a niece & nephew.

You might remember the way the "Sex And The City" dilemma was solved boldly, for the sake of Carrie's friendship. She decided that her attendance of supportive gatherings was uneven. So she whimsily wrote that she was getting married to herself and was registered for only one gift: the thousand dollar shoes. The woman got the hint and mailed them to her.

Whether or not I compose music, literature, furniture, or architecture with my hands or accomplish daring skills with my feet: they are 100% valuable to a healthy, comfortable, fit life for me and no less important than anyone else's body parts. I imagine all these examples make sense to you too. It was fun to think something over for a long time and see my mind change.

Thank you for sharing this book with me and for enjoying my roundabout, colourful examples. :) With love, your friend, Carolyn.

Shirin, we did not read this. Please see messages #9 and 10. :) Tell us when you are available on-line several days in a row, to read our much awaited sequel. Hugs, your friend, Carolyn.

Happy birthday to your Mom, Carolyn! 💖

Thank you for thinking of Mom along with me, my friend, Kerri! Love, Carolyn.

I wish a very happy birthday to our dear Mom and think of her with love today! May Sandy, Thumbelina, our Candys, McCartney, Spirit, Marigold, and Love celebrate with her in Heaven. Love, your Daughter, Carolyn.

We did not start our excitedly anticipated sequel, Shirin. Kerri is taking long to write the last post or two of "The Gargoyle". ;> I have been reading health books for our cats & us.

I had an idea of how you could finally send mail to me. You have guests who are soon leaving the country. Maybe it occurred to you that this is a wonderful opportunity to make me a video tour of your home and animals (and whichever rocks or postcards you wanted to give me. Get them to mail your package from Turkey and Germany. :) You only need to give them my mailing address and e-mail, in case they wanted to verify anything. Your friend, Carolyn.

alexis wrote: "CAROLYN!! Thank you so much !! I indulged myself in reading your book reviews - they are always so helpful and detailed."

This is sweet, Alexis. I hope to find beautiful comments like this on my actual reviews. It is rewarding to know you admire them, which a 'like button' click does not tell me.

Anne Perry was not only original, compassionate, well varied, and prolific. She kept going: similar to David Bowie, who produced his dream play when he knew he had terminal cancer. It feels like a cut-off, harder than the eventual departure of an author or artist whose work we love and remember. Anne released her newest novel the week before she went. Daniel Pitt, a future hero, is still a toddler where I am, in 1994. The novels are exactly 100 years behind. :)

My other heroine, Phyllis A. Whitney, stopped a few years before her death but was the same. We certainly excuse her: she lasted until 104!

Isn't it freaky how much I am running into Melanie, after shuddering about her Juliet Hulme and "Ever After" portrayals? I did not know she was married to Jason Ritter, whom I hardly know. But I had a feeling he was John Ritter's Son and see that it was true. Wow, she married television royalty's Son. I grew-up on "Three's Company", although the humour sources don't hold up and he was unforgettable in the uncharacteristic film "It".

No wonder Melanie is in the US and can imitate them. When I saw her profile with Jason's, it told me she is in another freaky show called "The Yellowjackets". So that was she on "Celebrity Family Feud" - sigh. I don't watch it and only turned on the TV, to get out of the room while Ron put away laundry.

I saw a sweet interview by Drew with Pamela Anderson and want both of their books, especially Pamela's. Pamela is the opposite to Melanie; she is home in British Columbia most of the time, growing and preserving her food, caring for animals. Yes, I saw "Sweet Home Alabama" and enjoyed it. I don't recognize actors in until I know who they are.

"The Riel Rebellion ~ 1885" was good. I knew the tragic end of Louise Riel and that he used to be mistaken for a villain, instead of the hero as whom he is recognized now. Metis history was important to Mom after she clued into our roots, which Timmy has surprised me by taking up seriously. Help maintaining and expanding our history is good; especially someone to appreciate it with me.

I think this outline is enough regarding rebellion and execution. I don't want to read Mom's longer books on the subect, although more about family roots would be different. A few years ago, I reviewed the short story of Louis' Grandmother, "Marie-Anne Lagimodiere" and appreciated learning our history going as far back as Manitoba goes, which Louis made into a province. He was defeated against defending Metis and Aboriginal land though. That rural Dawson Road written about in that history, is a walk from us! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Having mixed roots is wonderful, so your Dutch Grandpa is a fun surprise. I feel for people who only claim to have one bloodline or language ability. Knowing other languages and owning other cultures is like a wider world to walk through and a more highly tuned awareness and understanding of hints and flavours all over the place. This was one of my favourite things about "The Gargoyle" and I urge you to try "The Magic Circle" by Katherine Neville, Andrew's only other content rival. If you feel like learning a language at a flexible pace, just say which one. :) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am glad you are willing to get up and dance if it moves you. If you would do it for Elvis, you would certainly do it for our modern music and the fun stuff of our childhood eras!

I was thinking you should videotape part of your birthday celebration, so I can see it later! My way of attending your 30th extravaganza! I also know about now, you are honouring and missing Stevie very much.

Figuring out this misperception is becoming interesting. I truly remember Marianne was the one in hell having conversations with various people. And was it also the devil or some other manager there? She was not someone I interpreted in the cameos of the past but the actual protagonist at that time. Either I made a mistake at the time of reading, which my review corroborates, or you made a mistake; or they both had scenes in hell. I was surprised when you said Ulrich experienced it.

I also remember him as connecting with Marianne's memories eventually, which is why he believed her. I think he did remember something after she described it. I am glad I have kept up well, despite planning to ride along!

I guess a life mission can exhaust us. We might wonder why a subject feelings trying, including in the present life we are consciously and currently living. However, if Marianne is not extending one life but giving those hearts away over several, she restarts every time. Remembering her mission should not tire her but make her eager to start each time she has a fresh life.

In case you are used to reincarnation stories, I thought it went without saying that the Ontario boy discussed on the television program was afraid of water. I think it stopped after he understood this happened to a past person, not the person as he stood now. These stories are many but it must be rare to meet still living parents and how his heart must have lurched! This is why I still feel moved to think of their story.

I wish he had stayed to talk with his parents. I'll bet their feelings about him woud convince them of who he was. They could have filled in his blanks, answered questions, and healed themselves. Imagine the comfort of seeing before them that the Son they mourned, truly continued to live, like Jesus tells us our loved ones will. Although "The Dead Zone" was fictional, I wish the doctor who discovered his Mother survived the holocaust would have spoken with her and reassured her of his safety too.

It sounds like you think the 2008 of our story is when Marianne found Ulrich. I understood their past occasions to indicate that they continued to reunite in different places. However, made like that "Circle Of Eight" movie, the conscious people involved are tired of hoping their scenario will go right.

What you propose at the end is a new thought for me. I wonder if knowing other lifetimes or missions crowd our minds and be tiring, quantitatively, like a load? My capacity for having a lot of memories feels nice to me but they aren't of 600 years. However, I think we fit things into our lives and understandings. Marianne too knew which information belonged to whom but maybe general fatigue is possible. I will mull this over for awhile.

The gauge for good faith is if you are happy and healthy in its guidance and practice. You don't fault someone for not squeezing beliefs into the gospel book, for example. If you believed in a purple being and care about people, animals, trees and are living a good life; something we don't need to understand is working.

I would miss one baby or husband, except I believe we see them immediately when we ascend to Heaven. If they are living a physical life at that moment, it won't seem a long wait there. It is in physical life, I guess because we are limited, that we feel years. I also believe she must have reunited with her "soul mates" in other countries or centuries. Either we or Andrew would misunderstand the afterlife, if we thought you waited and waited on Earth to find someone. She must have had other children and loves too.

The true definition of a "soul group" or "mate" is not romance but our most beloved soul family, whom we sometimes gather with on Earth. You must be a part of my personal soul family, which is why we click and love sharing life with each other!

I think I have pondered as far as I can, unless more impressions of these awesome subjects form. We seem to finish when we can't tell if an author was misinformed about subject matter, or we have discussed everything to the extent we know. Your last point is fantastic too, that she knows how things work enough to know that Earth is not predictable for anyone, even those with previous life recall. If you soak thoughts in enough to share more, I am here.

Fair enough if singing isn't for you. You obviously relish the singing of others. Do you love live concerts? Are they regular in New Zealand? Winnipeg gets great names. Well, you know I have seen even Gordon Lightfoot with Ron in the early 2000s! In your memory stick is a list of "people I have seen in concert" that I thought you would get a kick out of.

With a surprising but worthwhile Louis Riel interlude, I will finish "The Hyde Park Headsman" (resembling Anne's first 1979 title that meant a lot to me during Love's last day). I will also get a little further in "The Wisdom Of Menopause". Dr. Christiane Northrup is spending a chapter listing hormone therapy options, even though neither of us believe in it. If it makes sense, I want to get those 40 pages out of the way and have NATURAL care options to look forward to.

It is our babies' birthday tomorrow! :) I will make sure I have a lot of space on my digital camera. I use a real camera.

When I start "The Dream Thieves", I will gobble it, won't you? Easing up here makes resuming e-mail easier. :) There is a ton of fun stuff to talk about privately. You know how you laughed at my "Hardy Boys" review for writing boldly: "Just fucking get a bigger boat"? I am happy to be back to my humour and the light, bright side of life, which I want you to know me for. I hope you always have seen it. Your friend, Carolyn.

I wonder why you didn't remember Anne Perry is one of my favourites but guess I don't mind not knowing of her ascension any sooner. I wonder how you came across it, since for me it was seeing the past-tense as I checked her series. I looked at my review of "The Cater Street Hangman" and you are not among the commenters. You probably visited me on succeeding volumes.

It seemed like subjects were missing but I did a lot of conversing in our book reviews yesterday. I'll gather relevant things here. You will be surprised to find when you revisit comments of "The Changeover" that there is something creepy going on with Melanie Lynskey! I even saw her AGAIN last night, more randomly than any other of the five times this week! I discovered the was the crazy neighbour in "Two And A Half Men", then saw her on "The Drew Barrymore Show". It was a cast reunion of "Ever After", which I hated because I am against disrespecting anyone's sacred keepsakes and couldn't focus on the movie after that awful scene with the blond stepsister.

Already surprised that an American sounding actress I do not know is Kiwi in reality and showing up so much; it creeped me out to discover she was in the disturbing movie about Juliet Hulme, in which Peter Jackson disturbed Anne Perry's privacy! The next morning, I found your comment on "The Changeover" with pleasure, already suspecting you would say there was a movie about it. But I could not believe that you mentioned Melanie Lynskey!!!! That is crazy enough as it is.

Unbelievably, last night, Ron needed me out of the bedroom while he changed linens. I put down my book and browsed TV for a few minutes, where nothing interesting was on but "Celebrity Family Feud". As it ended, someone in the background looked like Melanie Lynskey but they didn't focus on her. Oh, you can't be serious! I finally saw her name tag and yes, it said "Melanie". I don't want to search the show "Yellowjackets" and see if she was indeed a cast member of it. It is bizarre to see someone who creeps me out. It was fun to often run into Rob Lowe!

I am glad to remind you to review "The Haunting Of Maddie Prue". It is partly for this pleasureable chance to understand it with a friend who knows it. The other part is for the reason you recognized too: those who do know this novel need to promote it.

The most important update of our Andrew Davidson discussion was in my reply to your review comment, which is what I sensed was missing so I will paste it here. "The line between interpreting the divine and mental stability is a good discussion". I am glad I am reminded of one more subject I had looked forward to discussing! It is in our conversations but I worded it just right here.

I seemed to confirm Marianne visited hell like I recalled. Could I misread that part of the book, or did you? I thought it must be a mistaken impression across four years but my impression of Marianne seeing her spirit guides in hell is there in my review. There is a reason I understood that this is who they were too. Would you please check whether or not she visited hell, even if Ulrich did too in the part you were thinking of?

I don't think we question that she received messages from God. Someone raised in the spiritual would find that normal. How she did the task and did not care for herself or others, is not what God would want. Her guidance from God and spirit guides or angels and coming back to Earth were real but she was emotionally sick too.

Yes, it is a big question and complaint from all of us, that there is a way God could answer our prayers, instead of offer a degree of comfort. As you suggested: why not save the couple, the pregnancy, and all the horses.

Of all the things I have explored since childhood, seeing something off about what my religious relatives thought, I was slow to believe in reincarnation. My little self matters and so do each of us. I slowly understood that our soul is one unique identity the way I hoped it is. However, our being goes into a few physical lifetimes that most of us don't remember. There is in between time and maybe a few of Marianne's dramatic lives were colourful enough experiences to give her growth.

I am trying to teach my angel-reading friend, who has used the "it is for a reason" stalemate, that we can ask for changes! To grow, we propose challenges before starting a life. We can't fathom their hardship, until we are a part of Earth. Our spirit guides can negotiate with Heavenly elders. Love ascending young and Conan missing were enough. Still; McCartney, Spirit, and Marigold went and Mom! I have asked God to please draw the hardship line there (as well as after the other problem). My friend who is religious also used the "it was God's plan" assumption. I said: there would be no use for prayer if change wasn't possible. Apparently, only souls who have lived as people or animals can be spirit guides. Only they understand what it is like to be here among negative and positive atmospheres. We have that advantage of understanding, ahead of the Heaven elders who have not given Earth a try.

I love the idea of someone planning for returns, who remembers her residency in Heaven and other personages. Storage or knowing how to repurchase or manifest items that please Marianne must have been possible.

I will share how I began to believe in reincarnation, after being reassured there truly is only one Carolyn in my pure soul. It is hard to think that I have been someone else but I can accept it if there is only one me, at the root. I did not need to be taught to care about animals, plants, and emotionally significant belongings and record-keeping.

In the early 2000s, I saw a Canadian show about a young Ontario man stopping in a small town to see a dentist at his house. His wife answered the door and he knew these had been his parents. He was too uncomfortable to stay with them for some reason. As he left, he observed a river in the backyard and knew he had drowned in it. The amazing thing is that this was a short turnover. Those elderly people were that boy's parents, still living! He met his actual parents physically! What a powerful and certain feeling that must be, far more convincing that land, a building, or story feeling familiar.

Since you & I want the same question answered, one of us ought to e-mail Andrew Davidson and ask if finding Ulrich was luck, or if Marianne sought him or sensed his proximity. Was it in a draft that was not printed?

Now you know someone from French immersion. I only spoke Spanish to our teachers and pupils in Spanish classes too. I started in high school and continued in university, which I think you know. It did not feel daunting for long in grade 4 because everyone else was in the same Anglican boat and teachers would say or write English words for us at first. They certainly knew English but the sooner we turned to French as our communicating resource the better.

In Spanish, learning on paper first was the method with which I started in grade 9 and I love it. You don't want to parrot words you don't know. I could teach either one but have more resources ready and honed for Spanish. I gave Ron a primer before going to Mexico and did the same for a former boyfriend.

I hoped you wouldn't say you were someone who didn't sing or dance. I don't mean professionally but if we were at a social or pub and I wanted to hit the floor for a great song; there would be no fuss about joining me, I hope! The same with singing along to a CD or something. I'm not saying anyone should get up for a karaoke solo if they aren't comfortable. Music lovers have to move and sing along, don't you think?

In terms of awkwardness, please know the person who doesn't think they are great dancers but gets up and participates, blends in beautifully. The one staying off the dancefloor is disappointing and they stick out. As long as you sway along without silly self-consciousness, everything is good. :) I love hearing that instruments interest you without hesitation. You'll find on the memory stick (look forward to those e-mail conversations) that I shared Crowded House sheet music with you.

It is cool that you have heard of Andre Rieu! It is through my parents, who were introduced by "mes tantes", that I know him. I can't wait to watch Mom's two DVDs. Dad loves the music but finds it easier to draw from whatever is on his TV programming.

I love that you are taught basic Maori in New Zealand schools! I wondered if you learned from your Dad and how much he knows. It is cool that his or your Mom's Dad is Dutch. Yes, I see how silly English is every time I consider antonyms and homonyms. Isn't that the most telling? Who uses one word to mean tons of things? At least the Chinese give different intonations, which is the reason their tones rise and fall expressively.

I was drawn to read "The Riel Rebellion ~ 1885" from atop my nearest bedroom shelf simultaneously since last night. It is short and fits nicely in pauses from Anne Perry's "The Hyde Park Headsman". Then I will work through "The Wisdom Of Menopause" after we begin "The Dream Thieves". I mix stories with education just like you do. I think we are winding down and I am enjoying our conversation very much all along the way, Kerri. I hope, as I asked, that I kept up well enough to hold up a pleasant conversation for you as well.

Hi Kerri,

I will write only a short bit to allow you to follow-up the rest of what I offered. I scooped it up and summarized it in the last couple of posts and leave it to you. I see that you graced many of my reviews with your eyes and your words and after breakfast, I will treat myself to reading all of them! Thank you for this, my friend.

I remembered the pregnancy part as soon as you wrote of it the other day. Things come back to me, except for negative things I am interested to see I successfully blocked. Parting from a baby is poignant to me, even if it is sad.

I appreciate the summary (or did you quote?) of the hearts from the ice. It clarifies that there were thousands but I have no memory of this at all. Maybe because there was no character growth in Marianne that we could sense, owing to the author not achieving it I guess, therefore the mission with the hearts did not gel in my mind. I am glad for your explanation and will think about it, until you have written about the rest.

My knowledge of God, different perhaps from how nuns and othe christians were taught to think of Him / Her, is that they do not punish. It is part of our life plan, "blueprint" on Earth to overcome some things. We can credit Marianne for getting through the loss of her pregnancy and for this love in many lifetimes.

Yes, I am glad you remember now that Anne is one of my most personal favourites; that special author we all cherish who cheers me up anytime, anywhere. They are also enormously well written portraits of life in those mysteries. Remember that I don't care for historical fiction? An exception for me lets you take notice, doesn't it! She was a compassionate woman who has earned her peace.

I wish someone would write a eulogy in which the mistake of her childhood, for which she paid 5 years, was not considered an "interesting event" to bring up again. She didn't even marry because she didn't think she deserved it. May she know now how much I appreciate her and will remember her fondly: for her work. I meant to e-mail her but tried drumming up what to say to encapsulate how much she means. Anyway, they see all about us from Heaven, so that is fine.

You looked up Andrew Davidson. I would love to see what he ommitted. It couldn't be more burn healing descriptions. If it was an additional country or story from the past, or better elaborations of explanations we need in several places, I am right there with you, Kerri.

Yes, was a psychologist with the physiotherapist. We realized an appearance is connected with one's self, so it is good he had one. It also helps me figure out who the male was.

Museums are fun if they have artifacts, even though I prefer standing on the land and buildings of history. I have visited them in a few Canadian towns and Inverness, Scotland; London, England; South Dakota, USA; and California, USA. Castles are very much museums as well as monuments. Our parents took us to the Manitoba Museum Of Man & Nature numerous times but the more I learn, the more it is worth going back. You know art galleries are my goal too.

Home records and keepsakes are personal museums. Our library is in the ways outside of age or monetary value. If you remind me how big Marianne's library was, we likely match her in number. I need to clean up our library building and start selling our discards to locals soon. The gift pile for you and family is in the hallway behind me.

Isn't it cool, my parents joined me to see Corey Hart & Chris DeBurgh and treated Timmy & I to seeing Andre Rieu? I have Mom's DVDs of his now, my exception of liking some classical music. He is fun to watch as a conductor and player. Corey & Chris are obviousy unforgettable and personal to me to the core.

Languages are an expertise of mine, with a proven way to approach them. I am a great teacher. Are you more interested in French or Spanish? I let a person learn on paper first and set their pace through some basic vocabulary and sentence building, with a little feedback from me. Then, when you approach how words are pronounced, you are not meaninglessly imitated what you hear. You will know these words and probably remember how to say them better. Where did you learn Maori words?

Additional languages is easier for a few reasons. One one hand, if you have a natural talent or passion to learn languages, it always serves you well. You will find working your way to comprehension a delight, not a chore. No one grades you by a certain date, so you are free to persist until you get it! I would have loved home or remote schooling. Not being a morning person and not being interested enough in some subjects was my performance problem.

The romance languages and some German look alike in their roots. It becomes easy to recognize the words of neighbouring languages. It also hones your skill to learn the concept of article genders so that they are old hat in other languages. English is so undisciplined, contradictory, and recycles so many sounds and words; I don't know how foreigners learn it.

Maybe a brain muscle is turned on that gets you good at this thinking, which might be true of playing musical instruments too. Do you sing, dance, or play any? These are yeses for me.

Yes, immersion helps. Are you familiar with the program? Instead of taking one French, Spanish, or German class no matter how advanced the level; students have their whole day in the language. It was considered rude to speak to teachers in English, even passing staff or other teachers in the hall. We also got in trouble if we did not speak in French to each other, except outside at recess. So you get a ton of practice from the first day, when you know no words. We must have absorbed what we needed fast because I don't remember resorting to English for long in grade 4, when many Anglophones started the program. Gym, science, music, math, sewing, wood shop, typing were all in French too. Marianne obviously had time and immersion in each country.

Do you concur with my clues, that Marianne had to have reincarnated and not lived 600 years? You are unsure she was among the hell visitors. Are you also unsure she was the person we visited in other countries? Why else would Marianne tell the story? If they were friends she made, wouldn't that have been clear in the narrating and her placement in the story? If you don't think she was a companion to those people, she must have been the protagonist, musn't she? Thus, different genders, races, and ages means she was born in different epochs.

If Andrew studied how reincarnation seems to work, he would know some traits or situations go from one life to another. But we are new, different people housing our common soul. I am Carolyn but must have been called other names previously. When you consider this, is it likely Marianne was referring to her previous names? Sylvia Browne studied birthmarks as sometimes being the places where individuals were impacted by death in the past. However, because these are fresh new lives and personages; unless Motherhood was a quest that needed resolving, Marianne was likely fertile in every other lifetime.

I don't remember the 2000s film title or know the actors. I searched a broad synopsis. A dropped toothbrush was not mentioned, which I remember instead bodies but it sounds like "Circle Of Eight", 2009. Perhaps I can block out things I disliked.

Rechecking might be handy but I trust you have a detailed, intelligent eye for gaining information from even a small cue. If you aren't seeing an answer, it isn't there. Do you think Andrew surmised too much that readers would fill in blanks he implied? Do you think he explained too little to keep size down, pace up, or from thinking he would never release the book if he persisted in tuning details? What is your impression of what the novel tried to do or lacked? Is it likely he did not research the angles enough and got sloppy enough to let in some plots that don't fit?

It sounds like you don't see enough information to decide if Marianne was lucky to find Ulrich without trying, or was hoping to find him. If there was Germany, Italy, England, Japan, Iceland, and presumably California in 2008; were they all her lifetimes? Were there others and did she only recount those in which she shared with Ulrich? I think this cycle could stop when she saved him, or did something better than she did before; maybe less dumb or selfish like you put it.

In our "life blueprints" or as some call it "life contract" that we design before coming to Earth, most of our living and life improvement themes are for ourselves. Maybe getting something right with Ulrich was a bonus if they met and she recognized him. Maybe God made sure she did.

Most of us don't remember our goals because that the lesson is developing and growing without our universal knowledge and full senses. When we sense déjà-vu and something clicks; proof of a past life seeps in for us. I have only experienced that a little here & there over years, in short feelings or images that only build a little picture. I have read that it is odd for children to keep the ideas they had. For me, the morals and sense of what is right about animals and stuff has stayed with me all the way through life. Have I developed over time? Am I remembering lessons as I am going along and learinng?

Please remind me when Ulrich started remembering what Marianne told him: which country or story, for example? I think I have added the tidbits that weren't picked up today. Please let me know if there is anything I missed of yours.

An ice scene is familiar. Is it when Marianne stopped being pregnant? Did God say she was given more hearts to blanket that loss? You wrote "She revived the hearts under ice". I need a reminder of that reference please. It sounds like you know where the hearts were from. Did they appear in the ice or in her arms?

I have needed a few refreshers but am glad I remember enough to have kept up with you. If we weren't blessed with thousands of books, I would reread this to glean meaning after conversing with you, at least the parts that interest me.

A book I want to discuss with you, in e-mail or anywhere, is "The Haunting Of Maddie Prue". There are no other peers. Please let me know when there is a review because I am eager to read it. Don't worry about the time past. I hope you left notes at Goodreads or elsewhere but when you begin writing, your opinions and impressions will likely return to you. They do for me, sometimes after six months.

Hello, my dear! I hope I am giving you a good conversation, despite planning to be a background contributor. It is wonderful that you are sending Andrew around New Zealand and any other Canadian books or CDs you don't need to keep. I replied about "Breathe" at your update of the other book.

You don't mind continuing "The Dream Thieves", even though Shirin concurs wistfully? I won't start it as immediately as we considered it and need a few more days.

I feel the need to turn to my next Anne Perry novel. I just found out she has ascended to Heaven and she is one of my dearest, favourite authors since 2014, when Lovey ascended shockingly, so young. Anne's first mystery cheered me up with real sympathy for loss in the characters and I am forever grateful for it.

Oh, no! The wonderful Anne Perry, whose primary home was Scotland but lived in New Zealand and England, ascended to her next chapter of life in April! She was 84 1/2 and her work means a lot to me. I am glad I read it slowly but I need to read a novel of hers now, when I retire to bed tonight.

I have been a fan since "The Cater Street Hangman" 1979, helped me get through a shocking personal time in 2014. Her novel kept me sane, focused on something besides anguish and fear and was also a balm of compassion and understanding I did not expect from mystery fiction, when fear became agonizing loss of a young family member. I ever shall be Anne's fan.

Rest in peace, gifted lady! Your past matters not and you have earned peace and joy! Sincerely, Carolyn.