A pair of endearingly eccentric bachelors -in their fifties, and fraternal twins -own and operate a bed & breakfast establishment where people like them, the "gentle and bookish and ever so slightly confused," can feel at home. Hector and Virgil think of their B&B as a refuge, a retreat, a haven, where folks may bring their own books or peruse the brothers' own substantial library. An antic blend of homespun and intellectual humor, Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast is a place readers will want to return to again and again.

Purchased specifically to fulfill a wish for a wonderful BookCrosser that did something totally unexpected and amazingly nice for me!

Just received as a RABCK, from EllyMae58.
Will read soon. Thanks!

Just finished this nice, quick read. It wasn't quite what I expected, but I did enjoy it. Looking forward to the Pillow Book next.

(From the book)
Top Ten Authors over Ten Years at the Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast -
Margaret Atwood
A. S. Byatt
Robertson Davies
Michael Ondaatje
Marcel Proust
Barbara Pym
Leo Tolstoy
Anthony Trollope
Anne Tyler
Virginia Woolf

I especially enjoyed the way this book was written from different viewpoints - the 2 brothers, their various guests, and also people from the town.

Favorite parts included the story of the eggcups and the bathrobe, and Hector's Tired and Feathered.

I think if I were to go to this B&B, and go armed with a large tome to read, it would be the copy of Citizens by Simon Schama that I got from ResQGeek.

Starting a bookray with this book and also the Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast Pillow Book

Please PM me if you're interested, and let me know your mailing preferences.

When you receive the book, make a journal entry that you've received it.

Shipping order -
Nik-the-Stik - Ontario, Canada
JessiBud - Toronto, Canada
Sweetpea0678 - Florida
LPree - Maryland
Megi53 - Virginia
Ireland424 - Wisconsin
DHansen1019 - Wisconsin
Brookler - BC, Canada
Nikel27 - Germany
Maria-Nunes - Portugal
Miss-Gonewest - Australia
Elinell - Utah, US
NeedSun - Canada
Bookreadera - Pennsylvania, US
Lauraloo29 - Canada
Booknhand - California, US

New readers added May 2007
NuttyReader - Texas
BunnyLady - Wisconsin
Llednyl - Ohio
GooseinEngland - Pennsylvania
AriesGirl29 - Tennessee *
GrannyAnn - New York
DeeohTea - Rhode Island *

Received safely today! Will start to read these books this weekend, in order to pass on ASAP :)

Thanks for sharing them, MaryZee!

Just finished this last night. It was a fairly quick little read and quite enjoyable! At around page 1 or 2, I found myself thinking "what the heck is this all about?"; about 5 pages in, I was already charmed by it & hooked; didn't want to put it down :)

The story of the B&B and the Bachelor Brothers' life just ebbed and flowed together so charmingly & beautiful. I liked the author's knack/ability for descriptiveness, without undue/unecessary length; the storytelling/plot movement was 'just right', I found. I loved the way it was interspersed with little vignettes from various B&B guests; that really added nicely to the overfeel of the story. As I was reading it, I found myself thinking "so-and-so would just love this - I'll have to recommend it to them"; now that's always the sign of a good read, right? :)

Can't wait to see what's in store for the "Pillow Book". Will be starting it today.

Mailed this morning to JessiBud, via surface mail/Canada Post :)

Received this book (and its partner!) today as part of the bookring. I love Bill Richardson and can't wait to sit down with these!

Received this book (and its partner!) today as part of the bookring. I love Bill Richardson and can't wait to sit down with these!

Just finished this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it! In the interest of expediency, I will be sending this one and its companion, on to the next person in this bookring as soon as I get her address, as I own the second book, myself, and can read it at another time.

However, I just have to share a few of my favourite passages from this book. Bill Richardson always has a way with words and these fall into the category of *I wish I had said that* or...*now you know why he's the published writer and I'm not!*

(on memorizing poetry):
"I love the phrase *learning by heart*, especially when it is applied to poetry, because it seems such a perfect description of the process of memorizing words that have been carefully chosen and weighed and handled. The heart, I think, which is the home of all things rhythmic, is where learned poems go to live. Over time and repeated use, they are folded into one's being, are absorbed by the blood, and feed the rest of the mechanism: more subtle than oxygen, but as vital, in their way. Memorized poems become part of the whole, like reflexes. They surface as they're required."


(on whistling, and nature, sort-of!):
"It occurs to me that it is a fairly rare thing for a woman to be a whistler. Why should that be? Perhaps I should put that question to our musical guest, Joyce. She's an occupational therapist with an avocational passion for birdwatching, which makes her skill at whistling seem both apt and a telling illustration of the ongoing dialogue between art and nature."


(on finding *treasures* in old books):
"It pleases me so much to find odds and sods that have been left behind in books. This is evidence that books -- even bad books -- are organic: not just static and moribund repositories for calcifying ruminations. They grow and change as they pass from hand to hand. Here is a sign that readers, as well as writers, share the human need to leave some sign or symbol that we have passed this way. Nothing is more telling of this urge than marginalia: that cramped and often lunatic scribbling that some contentious soul has squeezed up against the sanctioned text."

(on watching his bed and breakfasters making and enjoying their own meals):
"I always enjoy watching people who are strangers getting to know one another. There is something about chewing in the company of others that breaks down that edge of froideur with which most of us shield ourselves."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I smiled all the way through this book!

Have already started it. Will hopefully be finished by end of week.

I could not get into these Bed and Breakfast books. Sending them to next in line in bookring.

Sent September 14, 2004.

This arrived in today's mail. I have some other bookrings ahead of it but will read as quickly as I can. Please check my profile to see where I am in my reading list as well as an expected finish date for this book.

UPDATED 10/1 - I started this book last night - it's a very interesting book so far though I keep having to remind myself that this is fiction... Anyway, I expect to finish it in a day or two.

I finished this book last night and have moved on to the Pillow Book. I enjoyed this quite a bit, but as I said in my previous entry, I have to remind myself that this is indeed fiction. What great little stories though! The book as a whole didn't really grab me all that much, but I love little stories about people's lives, so I enjoyed this book. I have to include one quote that made me giggle:

"Waffle arrives with the speed and assurance of a ballistic missile and dispatches the offender while Mrs. Rochester looks on, cackling and delighted, like an old duenna at a bullfight."

I will PM the next person on the list and mail both books out as soon as I have finished the second one.

Thanks very much for the opportunity to read this!

UPDATE 10/12 - This book was sent media mail today to Megi53.

Arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon. Looks like fun!

I zipped right through this funny little book!

One of the more amusing things was how the cover looked so innocent, with its pastel wallpaper background and elegant rendering of a coffee cup. I expected something on the order of *The Cat Who...* books... but ...

There was a quite of bit of that goodhearted rural folksiness (especially where Altona the cosmetics saleslady/newspaper columnist/realtor was concerned), yet we also had a cursing parrot using the "f" word, an engaged woman's one-day stand under a car with a traveling salesman resulting in the narrators' birth, and plenty of gays, including Kevin and Archie who, unbelievably, liked Liberace!!

My favorite part concerned the poetry of Solomon Solomon. Classic dry humor! (and with a little editing, that could be publishable, sellable rhyme!)

Will wait until I finish the *Pillow Book* to send both along in the same package.

Just received in the mail and can't wait to start reading this one and the one that follows it (included in the bookring)!

** I've already peeked a bit at both - specifically for the recipes...!**

RELEASE NOTES:

Released to continue the bookring.

I just received in the mail will read this book next.

I'm passing this on to Brookler I was unable to get in touch with Suefitz. It will be mailed today. I had a hard time getting into the book (I have been sick with the flu)and did not want to hold the books up.

Received this book a couple of days ago and I'm really enjoying it. Thanks so much.

What a delightful little book, the kind that you quietly chuckle through. Some books are a stretch to believe they could ever happen; this book, in spite of some pretty unlikely tales, is a stretch to accept as fiction.

It strikes me that this is a very Canadian type of book, that the "gentle and somewhat confused" character ascribed to many of the B&B guests is somehow typically Canadian. As a west coast resident myself, so many of the characters and happenings sounded familiar.

On to the "Pillow Book"!

I mailed these books yesterday. DHansen1019 asked me to send them to SueFitz who had been missed because by the time she sent her address, they were already in the mail to me. So that's what I did. Hope you like them SueFitz!

Received book Satruday - looks like a quick read

RELEASE NOTES:

Send on the Nikel27 - enjoy

arrived safe at my house, will start reading soon

update:
thanks for sharing this book with me, Great Weekend read....

RELEASE NOTES:

EnJoy the book as I did !!!!

received both of the books today.
After the currently reading, I'll read these.
Hope I won't keep them much time; so, I'll read them asap.
Thanks for sharing!

I really enjoyed readind this book :))
I wish I could go and stay in a B&B like this one...
thanks for sharing

How exciting, I arrived home today to find these two lovely looking books nesting in my mailbox...I've been looking forward to reading these, in fact I think this was one of the first rings I ever signed up for, so I'm delighted that they have arrived safely.

I am very nearly finished my current ring, so I'll be looking forward to starting this book over the weekend.

Many thanks to marianunes for posting these all the way from Portugal; I'll be back with a progress report shortly.

I am so so sorry for holding up these books, I just realised how long the Bachelor Brothers have been residing with me and I apologise to those who are waiting.

I read the first book and just loved it - I thought it was warm, intelligent and just like sitting down to chat with an old friend.

If only I knew where such a place was, I am sure I'd make it an annual holiday spot.

Many thanks for sharing this with me, I thought it a delight to read. Unfortunately I know that the next few weeks will be just as busy as the last few, so I am going to send the 2nd book along unread. Maybe one day I will find it in my library or 2nd hand store.

I will PM next in line and have these two little books moving along in no time.

Best wishes to all.

27/02 - Have PM'd Elinell for her details and these books will be in the mail shortly.

02/03 - I now have Elinell's address so will send these two darling books along to her in the next few days. Alas as payday is still a while away, these may have to go surface. Sorry for the further delay.

27/03 - My biggest apologies, I was SO sure I'd posted this and I have just found it in my cupboard at work... all packaged and addressed. I will zoom straight down to the post office at lunchtime (about 40mins) and get this in the mail to Elinell. I can't say how sorry I am to have further delayed this...

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted via airmail to Elinell... apologies again for delaying this ring.

just received...will read and journal when done...

Have finished...finally...I apologize for being so slow! Will be sending to next on list as soon as I get address.

I liked them but felt somewhat disappointed; maybe because I'd heard for so long about how terrific they were I had an expectation that couldn't be met. Thanks for the bookring!

Something strange has happened. I see that I am not on this ring at all but I received this and Pillow Book. If it is OK with MaryZee, I will read them since they look pretty interesting and then continuing with the ring.
It was postmarked Mar 8 2007.

What a charming little book. When I received them so unexpectedly and decided to read them, I had assumed that they were a cosy mystery series. This book was an unexpected jewel and I am now really looking forward to seeing what the next book has to add.

Are they supposed to be travelling together? I can post this one and hold off on the next one if you would prefer.

Edit April 18: Sent by air today

These two books arrived SAT. I can't wait to start them : )