Naturally the slide shows the secret plans for a Cold War weapon, or is a picture of a crime in progress, and you're going to be driven to find the story behind the picture?

Nope. A girl with a puppy and In one she is holding a toy guitar.

For those that have expressed interest in my themed book salon in the past, I’ve decided to take it online at Goodreads. If you’re interested, you can sign up here.

As a reminder, the salon concept is simple: instead of reading and dissecting one book, as in a traditional book club, everyone selects whatever book they want that fits the theme of that session. Examples of topics include quests, crime and punishment, food and drink, memoirs, classic boys adventure, and eponymous heroines.

Our upcoming theme for the month of January is Upstairs/Downstairs. Book selections should be works about life in upper-class or aristocratic homes, either above or below stairs. The suggestions on the proposed list mostly take place in England, but there’s no reason why other countries and time periods couldn’t fit the theme.

For the moment, I will be introducing new topics as they are chosen by the Salonistas, but I hope to go back and reintroduce some of the more successful themes we have undertaken. Each topic will have its own folder, with a kick-off discussion thread for book suggestions. Further threads for more specific questions and themes can be added as needed.

Note: This group is a private Goodreads group, so anyone can see group information, but only members can see the discussion board.

Ooh, megan - that sounds very interesting.

Is there any particular English translation of Les Miserables that's supposed to be good?

I joined Good Reads about this time last year, because I had resolved to keep track of my reading. I then did nothing with it all year. As people were listing their "best of 2012" books, I realized once again that I could only call up the names a few, even though I read at least 150.

Some of you may have noticed that I've been adding GR friends, in the hopes that it will keep me more motivated. I fear it may turn into another time suck, though. As with everything in my life, I am searching for the elusive happy medium. Anyway, if I've missed you and you're interested in the omnivorous reading of an sf-mystery-fantasy-science-history reader, my user name is ginger-k. (They wouldn't let me use gingerk, even though there isn't another one. I don't have the hang of Good Reads yet, though.)

Ginger, feel free to message me with any Goodreads questions. As an active librarian, I'm on there quite a bit.

Hil, I can't recommend any particular translation, but I can suggest that you avoid abridged versions. Hugo does overwrite (I'm still not sure why he included a hundred pages centered around the Battle of Waterloo), but abridged versions tend to lose something vital.

(And apropos of nothing in particular, not to mention that I've probably said this before, but never, ever read an abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo if you're older than, say, 12. Abridged versions are less abridged than bowdlerized.)

The first book in Gillian Bradshaw's Arthurian trilogy is one of the Kindle Deals of the Day - $1.99. (Apparently, the trilogy has a name- I was unaware of that.)

Oooh, Hawk of May: I loved that when I was younger. I shall snap it up.