Owl's Feathers

December 2011

2011-12-31T04:37:00.003-05:00

Lots of 3 out of 5 reads for December. Keeping it simple, here's the list:

THE WHISPER by Carla Neggers

Rating: 3.5/5 (Romance Scale)
Source: Amazon
Format: eBook
The December 2011 selection for the Barnes and Noble (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers. We did not realize when selecting The Whisper that it was the fourth in a series. A little continuity was lost in not knowing the backstory of some of the characters. That aside, the Boston/Ireland setting, the suspense, and the hero/heroine romantic interaction made for a good read. Sometimes, after reading a later installment in a series, I'll go back to catchup up; however, this time I will not. Knowing who of the secondary characters in The Whisper ends up with whom would be definite spoilers for the earlier books.

AGAINST THE LAW by Kat Martin
Rating: 3.5/5 (Romance Scale)
Source: Library
Format: eBook
Third and my favorite in the Raines of Wind Canyon series.

WISHIN' AND HOPIN' by Wally Lamb
Rating: 3/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Amazon
Format: Trade Paperback
Reread for OTPS December Book Discussion.

EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN by Janet Evanovich
Rating: 3/5 (Mystery Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
Stephanie having an attack of conscience? I love him, I love him not. Oh, and the usual band of bad buys who can't shoot straight, a sunrise hairdo, Lula finds her man (or maybe not), and Grandma Mazur takes up bowling.

THEN AGAIN by Diane Keaton
Rating: 3/5 (Non-fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
Not what I expected, but a beautiful homage to Ms. Keaton's mother, Dorothy Deanne Keaton Hall.

V IS FOR VENGEANCE by Sue Grafton
Rating: 4/5 (Mystery Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
V also is for vortex as the characters in Grafton's latest alphabet entry are pulled and twisted into a plot full of action and connections none of them anticipated as May 1988 came upon them all.

I LOVE THIS BAR by Carolyn Broan
Rating: 3/5 (Romance Scale)
Source: Library
Format: eBook
A wonderful not much of a book. The story of the Honky Tonk Bar, Daisy O'Dell, and Jarod McElroy was the perfect accompaniment for holiday cooking.

THE SISTERS by Nancy Jensen
Rating: 4/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
Good intentions and a choice made in desperation set off the story of sisters Mabel and Bertie Fischer. Not a particularly happy family saga for Christmas week reading, but I'm glad to have spent time with these sisters and the consequences of their decisions that reverberated through three generations.

GOOD GIRLS DON'T by Victoria Dahl
Rating: 3/5 (Romance Scale)
Source: Library
Format: eBook
A good mix of characters, story, and romance. The next two in the series (Bad Boys Do and Real Men Will) are in my library eBook queue.

And with this December 2011 monthly reading report, Owls Feathers will end. Thank you to all who visited and who left comments. Reading and learning from your blogs will continue to be part of my daily routine. Wishing you all happy reading days ahead!

For anyone so interested, my books and reading comments can be found on Goodreads where my user name is Owlsfeathers.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T11:03:00.000-05:00

The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned

and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads

and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.

~Louisa May Alcott

November 2011

2011-12-02T14:27:00.000-05:00

"No heavy reading" was definitely the motto for my November reading. Lots of good romance, one fiction disappointment, and one outstanding memoir.

HUMMINGBIRD LAKE by Emily March
Rating: 3/5 (Romance Scale)
Source: Library
Format: eBook
The second in Emily March's Eternity Springs series. Not quite as good as the first (Angel's Rest), but good enough for me to reserve the third (Heartache Falls) and fourth (Lover's Leap) at the library.

First Line: The echo of the gunshot jerked Sage Anderson out of her nightmare.

ALREADY HOME by Susan Mallery
Rating: 3/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: eBook
A good story in need of some crisp editing. I did like the story of this unique family and circle of friends set against the background of a gourmet cooking/food store despite the sometimes endless passages moving me from event to event as the story played out.

First Line: "What do you think?" Jenna Stevens asked, doing her best to sound confident.

CREED'S HONOR by Linda Lael Miller
Rating: 3/5 (Romance Scale)
Source: Library
Format: eBook
In this installment of Linda Lael Miller's Montana Creeds Series, a cowboy (a Creed, of course)and a stray dog bring love and comfort to Tricia McCall. While the family interaction was interesting (loved Tricia's great-grandmother!), the stubborn hero and heroine made this story drag a bit. I know the HEA is inevitable, but I prefer storylines where the H&H work the inevitable out earlier in the book and then deal with the fallout.

First Line: Tricia McCall was not the type to see apparitions, but there were times--especially when lonely, tired or both--that she caught just the merest flicker of a glimpse of her dog, Rusty, out of the corner of one eye.

FALLING TOGETHER by Marisa de los Santos
Rating: 3/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
I fell into this author's first two books (Love Walked In and Belong To Me), but not so much her latest, Falling Together. Despite their weaknesses and the emotional hurdles they had to jump, these characters did not touch me at all. Their smugness irked me. Added to that, I didn't "get" the reasoning behind the initial breakup of the friendship. A disappointing reading experience.

First Line: Pen would not use the word summoned when she told Jamie about the e-mail later that night.

SWEET JUDY BLUE EYES: MY LIFE IN MUSIC by Judy Collins
Rating: 4.5/5 (Non-fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
With its many musical and musician references, reading Sweet Judy Blue Eyes was like déjà vu all over again. Some of what was included in the book, I knew; some, I knew once but now remember. Joy, sadness, success, failure--all covered openly and honestly in this book by the lady whose voice one friend described thusly: "If amethysts could sing...."

First Line: It's a Sunday night, and I am traveling from Hartford to New York City, heading in from a show.

COMING HOME by Mariah Stewart
Rating: 3.5/5 (Romance Scale)
Source: Library
Format: eBook
I was expecting one of those sweet hometown romances but instead got a really good story, a little suspense, a believable romance, and incentive to continue reading this series.

First Line: Diary--Whatever did we do here in St. Dennis before our little village was "discovered?"

DEEP IN THE VALLEY by Robyn Carr
Rating: 3.5/5 (Romance Scale)
Source: Library
Format: eBook
Having read all of Robyn Carr's Virgin River books to date, I thought I would go back to catch up on the Grace Vally series that introduced some of the secondary characters I met in the early VR books. I did like the way the romance played in the background while all of the characters and the town were introduced. Will put next two in this series on my library reserve list.

First Line: June stood in the shower a little longer than usual, preoccupied with a conversation she would have later in the day.

So, a comfortable November of reading. Just picked up EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN by Janet Evanovich and THEN AGAIN by Diane Keaton from the library, so December seems to be starting off with some promise!

Joy of Reading ~ Sweet Judy Blue Eyes

2011-11-22T06:33:00.001-05:00

...from Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music by Judy Collins

Upon hearing for the first time "Both Sides Now" (written by Joni Mitchell)--

A classic song has much mystery as well as mastery in its form; it sits still in the mind, throwing light on the past and the future, often bringing tears to our eyes, for it reaches into deep emotional wells that are often forgotten in the rush of the moment. The songs that touch me are on a very high level in terms of form and classic structure, and "Both Sides Now" has all of the requirements to make it irresistible. For me, it was an immediate love affair.

October 2011

2011-11-07T12:44:00.003-05:00

October - Average Rating = 3.39.

Often when looking at book ratings on sites such as Good Reads or Library Thing, I wonder why books that I love get a low average rating. Well, October answered that question for me. All it takes is a single one-star rating to make a month on the face of it look mediocre at best. Here's the math behind the average.

Haunting Miss Trentwood by Belinda Kroll
Rating: 1/5 Romance Scale
Source: Amazon Kindle
Format: eBook

Haunting Miss Trentwood was the October discussion book at On the Porch Swing (a Yahoo group dedicated to books and reading). Mere words cannot describe my reaction to this book--and I was the leader of the discussion!

First Line: At two in the afternoon the coffin of Mary Trentwood's father was lowered to its grave.

Wicked Autumn by G. M. Maillet
Rating: 4/5 Mystery Scale
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

What's not to like about an MI5 agent turned Anglican priest serving at St. Edwold's in the small English village of Nether Monkslip? Against the aftermath of the annual Harvest Fayre put on by the Women's Institute, Max Tudor faces old memories and new challenges as he solves murder of one of the village's prominent citizens. Great first in a new series. I'm looking forward to visiting Nether Monkslip again.

First Line: Wanda Batton-Smythe, head of the Women's Institute of Nether Monkslip, liked to say she was not one to mince words.

Angel's Rest by Emily March
Rating: 3.5/5 Romance Scale
Source: Library
Format: eBook

Second chances in life and love are among my favorite romance themes, and Angel's Rest (first in the Eternity Springs series) did not disappoint. These characters got to me right at page 1, and I'm looking forward to more visits to Eternity Springs.

First Line: Holding a 9 mm Glock in one hand and a tumbler of single-malt scotch in the other, John Gabriel Callahan stared out the mountain home's wall of windows and knew it was time to take a hike.

Death of a Gossip by M. C. Beaton
Rating: 3/5 Mystery Scale
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

Because I enjoy M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series, I decided to try her Hamish MacBeth series. In this first in the series book I was introduced both to MacBeth and to the village of Lochdubh. MacBeth's investigation of the murder at hand allowed for a great introduction to, shall we say, his idiocyncracies. While a terribly clever and unique character, Hamish has yet to charm me. I must read on in the series..

First Line: "I hate the start of the week," said John Cartwright fretfully.

Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean
Rating: 4/5 Non-fiction Scale
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

When reading blog postings and notes about Rin Tin Tin, I came across the observation that you were either a Lassie fan or a Rin Tin Tin fan. I beg to differ as I was both. In the 1950s, if a dog was involved, I read it or watched it--once the Royal Furniture truck pulled up our long driveway to deliver our very first TV. Fascinating read...Yo, Rinty!

First Line: He believed the dog was immortal.

Against the Fire by Kat Martin
Rating: 3.5/5 Romance Scale
Source: Library
Format: eBook

Second in the Raines of Wind Canyon series. Story pulled me in right away. A little tedious through the "I'll ruin his/her life if I stay with him/her" phase, but all in all a good read.

First Line: The screech of the siren didn't reach him at first.

Uncommon Grounds by Sandra Balzo
Rating: 4/5 Mystery Scale
Source: Library
Format: eBook

First in the Maggie Thorson coffee shop mystery series. All the requisite elements for a good cozy--small town, mysterious death, amateur sleuth. I'll continue reading this series.

First Line: I was late the Monday we were scheduled to open Uncommon Grounds.

As the Pig Turns by M. C. Beaton
Rating: 4/5 Mystery Scale
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

Just when you think you can't take any more of Agatha Raisin's tantrums and haughtiness, she says or thinks something that makes you forget why you thought her so odious. And thus, another enjoyable entry in this series from M.C. Beacon.

First Line: Agatha Raisin wearily turned onto the road leading down into her home village of Carsely in the Cotswolds and then came to an abrupt halt.

Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
Rating: 4/5 Mystery Scale
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

All of the usual hijinx you expect from Stephanie and crew. Although, babysitting a bear may transcend "usual."

First Line: My Grandma Mazur called me early this morning.

See what I mean about averages? Absent that one-star start to the month, it was (on average) a very good reading month! Life being what it has been lately, I'm totally into light, no investment reading. And that's OK. My Kindle is loaded up with lots of romance and mystery books. I just picked up Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos from the library. A mug of tea is just a few minutes away, and my favorite reading chair awaits. I think I'm cocooning my way right into winter....

Nothing whatsoever to do with my October reading report, but... For all Kindlers out there who don't already use this service, I urge you to check out your local library or regional library network to see if they utilize Overdive to loan eBooks on Kindle. The borrowing process could not be easier. Once your hold book is available, just click on the link the library sends you, and a couple more clicks and the book is on your Kindle, ready to read. No downloading to an Adobe interface, connecting device to PC or laptop, dragging and dropping. Nope. None of that. Just like Dorothy's ruby slippers--click, click, and you're home in your comfy chair ready to read.

Bookticipation

2011-11-04T15:54:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed The Violets of March by Sarah Jio and am looking forward to reading The Bungalow (in stores December 27, 2011).

Intrigued!

2011-10-28T11:01:00.000-04:00

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston. I think this might require a visit to a bookstore today!

From Amazon:
For her graduation from high school in 1920, Frankie Pratt receives a scrapbook and her father’s old Corona typewriter. Despite Frankie’s dreams of becoming a writer, she must forgo a college scholarship to help her widowed mother. But when a mysterious Captain James sweeps her off her feet, her mother finds a way to protect Frankie from the less-than-noble intentions of her unsuitable beau.

Through a kaleidoscopic array of vintage postcards, letters, magazine ads, ticket stubs, catalog pages, fabric swatches, candy wrappers, fashion spreads, menus, and more, we meet and follow Frankie on her journey in search of success and love. Once at Vassar, Frankie crosses paths with intellectuals and writers, among them “Vincent” (alumna Edna St. Vincent Millay), who encourages Frankie to move to Greenwich Village and pursue her writing. When heartbreak finds her in New York, she sets off for Paris aboard the S.S. Mauritania, where she keeps company with two exiled Russian princes and a “spinster adventuress” who is paying her way across the Atlantic with her unused trousseau. In Paris, Frankie takes a garret apartment above Shakespeare & Company, the hub of expat life, only to have a certain ne’er-do-well captain from her past reappear. But when a family crisis compels Frankie to return to her small New England hometown, she finds exactly what she had been looking for all along.

Author Caroline Preston pulls from her extraordinary collection of vintage ephemera to create the first-ever scrapbook novel, transporting us back to the vibrant, burgeoning bohemian culture of the 1920s and introducing us to an unforgettable heroine, the spirited, ambitious, and lovely Frankie Pratt.

Joy of Reading ~ Rin Tin Tin

2011-10-25T05:36:00.001-04:00

...from Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean

The Adventures of Tin-Tin-Tin was broadcast for the first time on October 15, 1954. The debue episode, “Meet Rin-Tin-Tin,” was the story of how the “Fighting Blue Devils” of the 101^st Cavalry came to be stewards of Rusty and Rinty—or, as Sergeant O’Hara puts it, “How we found them two little orphans.” …The show was an instant success by every measure. It had one of the fastest ratings climbs in television history and from its start was ABC’s second-highest rated show overall, trailing only the Walt Disney show. Nine million of the 30 million televisions in the United States tuned to The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, several million more than were tuned to Lassie, which had premiered on CBS a month earlier. It was also a critical success. “Crammed with action, gun-play, and chase scenes of pre-musical-cowpoke Westerns,” wrote a critic in TV Guide. “It makes fine viewing for kids and nostalgic viewing for grown-ups.” Even The New Yorker paid its respects, running a “Talk of the Town” interview with the “proud, tall, long, four-year-old, hundred-pound, gray-and-white great-grandson of the original Rin Tin Tin.” At the end of the piece, which was mostly an interview with Eva Duncan, the writer, Philip Hamburger, noted that after dinner at the Stork Club, where he turned up his nose at the roast beef, Rin Tin Tin “drank milk out of a champagne glass” and “pushed a molting goose called Susie down Broadway in a baby carriage.” …The show was broadcasting in seventy other countries besides the United States, including Canada, France, Lebanon, Kenya, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Cuba, Thailand, Germany, Bermuda, Brazil, Italy, New Zealand, Surinam, and Japan. Just as in earlier decades, Rin Tin Tin was everywhere. He was a single point connecting people all over the world, from all different cultures and circumstances, all of them watching as the camera angled up to the crest of a hill where a big dog stood at alert, a depthless silhouette against a western sky in a placeless place somewhere in the timeless history of America.

Joy of Reading ~ Lake of Dreams

2011-10-18T05:35:00.002-04:00

...from Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards

For me, that’s the power of stories—that you can’t quantify them. That they keep opening up and revealing something new.

Joy of Reading ~ Wesley the Owl

2011-10-11T03:37:00.002-04:00

...from Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien

Grandpa still played and taught drums and continued with his life. After an appropriate time had elapsed, the predictable “casserole brigade” started appearing at his doorstep. Unfailingly polite, he thanked each lady for her kind attention, but told her there was only one woman for him and that was Grandma. He had lived his lifelong love. This was the Way of the Owl.

This passage reminded me of my father whose nickname growing up in the 1920s was "Owl." He and my mother were married for 49 years. After she passed away, there appeared a steady stream of various pies and cakes on the deck of his Cape Cod home, all left there by a neighboring widow. One day while he was walking, his neighbor came out to say hello. My father thanked her for all the goodies she had been leaving for him. She then asked him, "John, do you like to dance?" He replied, "Why, yes, I do. And I like to do the asking!" Ah...the Way of the Owl.

Reading in the Shadows

2011-10-10T13:05:00.000-04:00

A perfect holiday weekend in New England. Windows open all day; light blanket on the bed at night. Reading and enjoying a new-to-me author, G. M. Malliet's Wicked Autumn.

Joy of Reading ~ Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

2011-10-04T04:22:00.001-04:00

...from Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

She opened the cover and ran her hand over the page, enjoying the paper’s smooth, cool texture under her hand. Chapter One. How many times in her life had those two words invited her to go to a different place, a better place than the one she lived in?

September 2011

2011-10-01T17:55:00.000-04:00

A new mystery series to follow and the third installment of a favorite mystery series were the highlights of my September reading.

Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien
Rating: 4/5 Non-fiction Scale
Source: Mt. TBR
Format: Hardcover

For a very special reason, all things owl are dear to me. Stacey O'Brien's life long devotion to Wesley was amazing. Learned a lot about owls, communication, love, and "The Way of the Owl."

First line: On a rainy Valentine's Day in 1985, I fell in love with a four-day-old barn owl.

One Coffee With by Margaret Maron
Rating: 3/5 Mystery Scale
Source: Amazon Kindle
Format: eBook

Margaret Maron is more well known for her Deborah Knott series. One Coffee With (1982) is the first book in her earlier series featuring Sigrid Harald, a NYPD homicide detective. Set on the campus of New York's Vanderlyn College, academic rivalry, petty jealousy, greed, and revenge form the backdrop to the murder of a prominent member of the Art Department faculty. I'm looking forward to reading the other seven books in this series.

First line: Few institutions of higher learning are content that their faculties do nothing but teach.

Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
Rating: 2.5/5
Source: Amazon Kindle
Format: eBook

The September 2011 selection for the Barnes & Noble (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers. Historical romances are known for their over-the-top sensuality, but Wicked Intentions bordered on the pornographically erotic. To paraphrase Nixon, I am not a prude; however, a very good story with a hero and heroine worth rooting for doesn't need the gratituous distractions.

First line: A woman abroad in St. Giles at midnight was either very foolish or very desperate.

Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher
Rating: 3.5/5 Fiction Scale
Source: Barnes & Noble
Format: Trade Paperback

An thoughtful story of grief, love, and secrets and a family's journey to acceptance of new loves and changes. I loved the author's dedication: This novel is dedicated to the reader. For this singular moment, it's just the two of us.

First line: Here is one way to say it: Grief is a love story told backward.

A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd
Rating: 4/5 Mystery Scale
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

The Bess Crawford series continues to intrigue me as once again in this third installment secrets of family and the war intertwine to provide a page-turning reading experience. A family mourning the death of a son and brother, a trusted friend, a portrait, and a French orphan--all seem to lead us to a murderer, or do they? And, is there a rival on the horizon for Simon Brandon's affection for Bess? The Australian Sergeant Larimore certainly seems smitten....

First line: A cold rain had followed me from France to England, and an even colder wind greeted me as we pulled into the railway station in London.

Joy of Reading - Left Neglected

2011-09-27T06:31:00.001-04:00

...from Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

We kiss good-bye. It’s our typical morning good-bye kiss. A quick peck. A well-intentioned habit. I look down and notice Lucy’s round, blue eyes paying close attention. I flash to studying my own parents kissing when I was little. They kissed each other hello and good-bye and good night like I would have kissed one of my aunts, and it terribly disappointed me. There was no drama to it at all. I promised myself that when I got married some day, I would have kisses that meant something. Kisses that would make me weak in the knees. Kisses that would embarrass the kids. Kisses like Han Solo kissing Princess Leia. I never saw my father kiss my mother like that. What was the point of it? I never got it. Now I get it. We aren’t living in some George Lucas blockbuster adventure. Our morning kiss good-bye isn’t romantic, and it certainly isn’t sexual. It’s a routine kiss, but I’m glad we do it. It does mean something. It’s enough.

Joy of Reading

2011-09-06T01:28:00.003-04:00

...from Joy for Beginners

Marion’s fascination with tattoos had always come from the stories that were held within the ink—the ones that were obvious, slamming into your vision with the force of a well-aimed fist, or the secret messages that hid, slipping out only for the moment it took for a shirtsleeve to move, a skirt to flutter.

August 2011

2011-08-31T15:04:00.000-04:00

Where, or where, has the month of August gone? Well, here's where it went reading-wise for me.

Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons
Rating: 3/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

A much anticipated book that fell far too short of my expectations. Book blurbs talked of Irish literature and mythology, and they were all represented--Yeats, Tir Na Nog, Oisin, the cattle raid of Cooley, Queen Maeve, and more. But this was Thayer Wentworth's story, and unfortunately for me, the story got away, lost in the dark side of the call to come "Dance with me in Ireland."

First line: We heard it first on an early morning in June.

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
Rating: 4.5/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

I laughed and cried with the Kelleher family as the story of their Cape Neddick, Maine, summer home unfolded through the characters of Alice, the matriarch; Kathleen, her daughter; Maggie, her granddaughter; and Anne-Marie, her daughter-in-law. Ms. Sullivan was spot on in her portrayal of growing up Irish Catholic in Massachusetts in the 50s & 60s. Anyone who's been there will see themselves on these pages. Iconic Boston personalities and events are seamlessly and importantly woven into the story. I sat quietly sobbing for an hour after this story faded to an end on the last page.

First line: Alice decided to take a break from packing.

The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff
Rating: 3.5/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

Heartfelt, difficult decisions reveal themselves through interwoven flashbacks telling the story of Roger Dykmans, a wealthy financier and brother of a Holocaust hero, accused of World War II-era crimes.

First line: "You know, don't you, that you're looking at twenty-five to life?"

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny
Rating: 4/5 (Mystery Scale)
Source: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook

Another wonderful expose of character by Louise Penny. Armand and his wife Reine-Marie are celebrating their wedding anniversary at remote Manoir Bellechasse and share the beautiful auberge with an eccentric family's reunion. More is revealed about Chief Inspector Gamache's history as he becomes the target of scorn by the Finney family. A Rule Against Murder is not set in Three Pines, but we do learn more about one of that village's well known couples.

First line: More than a century ago the Robber Barons discovered Lac Massawippi.

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
Rating: 3/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

Two things about this book. Thing 1: Writing was exquisite. Thing 2: Story was disturbing and bordered on the discomfort side of my comfort zone. Perhaps, though, reading this modern gothic tale of love and secrets set in Provence should not have been undertaken under the specter of Hurricane Irene's arrival in New England.

First line: Some scents sparkle and then quickly disappear, like the effervescence of citrus zest or a bright note of mint.

Kindred Spirits by Sarah Strohmeyer
Rating: 3.5/5 (Fiction Scale)
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover

Yet another, but very readable, group of friends novel. I liked these women and would love to have a copy of their martini cookbook. The book's epigraph summed it up perfectly: "Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief." --Cicero

First line: Lynne Flannery took it as an encouraging sign that the day of her last martini would be the anniversary of her first.

The library books due tomorrow are all in the bag, read and ready to be returned. I've just noticed that the leaves on the walnut tree outside my window have changed from bright green to a subtle yellow, signaling the imminent arrival of September. I am going to pull something that has been languishing in my TBR to start off my September reading. Decisions, decisions....

Joy of Reading ~ The Lantern

2011-08-30T12:58:00.002-04:00

...from The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

I have always been a reader. As a child, I loved books, though there weren't many at home. But as soon as I went to school and was given one to look at the lovely pictures, and turned the pages to find more of the same, I was happy. Such colors and strange and vivid images! I marveled at how they were all closed up, asleep with their secrets unseen until you reached up and took the book down from the shelf.

Joy of Reading ~ Maine

2011-08-23T04:32:00.002-04:00

...from Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

She opened the newspaper, which Arlo had set out for her. She flipped past the front-page news and the Arts section, landing finally on the Sunday circular. She didn't clip coupons, but the women in her family had always been so obsessed with them that she could never shake the habit of looking them over, just in case there was something amazing to be found, though of course there never was. One ad offered free floss with the purchase of five tubes of toothpaste. As if floss had ever broken the bank for anyone. Human beings were strange about free stuff. Her mother was the queen of it--I got four bottles of ketchup for the price of one, Alice had bragged over the phone a few weeks earlier. Who needed four bottles of ketchup?

Joy of Reading ~ Burnt Mountain

2011-08-09T06:38:00.003-04:00

...from Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons

I pattered down the steps and into high June on the river, buzzing with faraway insects and trilling with birdsong and smelling of wild honeysuckle from the river woods and cultivated blossoms from our garden, and fresh-mown green grass. I twirled around three times on my bare feet and toppled over into the cool, damp grass, head back, face tipped up to the sun, eyes closed under its gentle fist. It seemed to me at that moment that every atom in my body stretched itself up toward the sun, that my blood sang with the air and the running river, and that I would forever be as happy as I was at that moment.

Frenzied Reading No More!

2011-08-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

This morning I rearranged my reading table and surrounding book piles. Today's rearranging was needed to weed out those books due back at the library tomorrow, many of which will be returned partially or wholly unread. Sitting in the midst of book chaos, I realized that a sort of reading frenzy had overtaken me.

Overjoyed with the hours of reading spread out before me as I entered the retired phase of my life a couple of months ago, I went crazy on inter-library loan filling up my request list with all of the books due to come out in May, June, and July. With the proper nod to Murphy's Law, they have all be arriving in large clumps of four's and five's. So I've blown through many of them with the goal of finishing so I could get to the next one. This morning, the backlog burst through the dam. In the resulting flood, I realized that enjoying a book should be my goal, not finishing it on deadline. After all, the day I declared for Social Security, I left 45+ years of deadlines behind me!

So the list of books that tickle my fancy will continue to grow and change, but I will rely more on the serendipity of the books that reach out and grab me as I peruse the library shelves. Add to these unexpected gems my loaded Kindle and Nook together with the piles of books on my reading room floor that have been patiently awaiting my attention for some time, and I'm fixed for book elation until...well, until....

July 2011

2011-08-01T16:12:00.000-04:00

After a reasonably temperate June, the great heat dome of 2011 spread across the country and into New England. As temperatures flirted with 100 degrees and the humidity sat consistently in the unbearable zone, reading was the one true relief. Here's what accompanied glass after glass of iced coffee in July.

Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank
4/5 Fiction Scale
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
I was swept away with this mix of the historical story of Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, Porgy House, the production of Porgy & Bess, George Gershwin, and the Charleston Literary Renaissance and the current day story of Cate Cooper and how she puts her life back together after a series of life-changing events and comes to write Folly Beach, a play based on Dorothy and DuBose.
First line: Dorothy: I married an actual renaissance man.

Wild Man Creek by Robyn Carr
3.5/5 Romance Scale
Format: eBook
Source: Library via Overdrive
This visit to Virgin River for the story of Colin Riordan and Jillian Matlock has me up to date with this series by Robyn Carr. A good man with physical and emotional damage and a career driven woman with some legal baggage find love and happiness in an old Victorian home as she grows vegetables and he paints pictures. As always, the destination is known, and it's the trip that keeps you reading.
First line: Jillian Matlock was a natural in the business world and her ability to anticipate surprises and challenges was legendary.

One Night Is Never Enough by Anne Mallory
2/5 Romance Scale
Format: eBook
Source: Barnes & Noble
The July 2011 selection for the Barnes and Noble (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers. Regency is not my favorite historical period, and this book about a young woman of the Ton being won in a card game by a Regency rake (not of the Ton) did nothing to change my opinion.
First line: She needed to slow down.

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch
4/5 Non-fiction Scale
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Nina Sankovitch sets a plan to read a book a day for a year all in an effort to assuage the sadness and guilt (the guilt of the living) that overwhelmed her following the death of her sister. This book could easily have devolved into "I read [insert title]", "Then I read [insert title]"; but in the hands of this skillful memoirist, you are taken on a beautiful journey of books, reading, and how "words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living."
First line: In September 2008 my husband, Jack, and I went away for a weekend, leaving our four kids in the care of my parents.

One Summer by David Baldacci
3/5 Fiction Scale
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Heartbreak, loss, love, a family's renewal. A good story for reading on a summer afternoon.
First line: Jack Armstrong sat up in the secondhand hospital bed that had been wedged into a corner of the den in his home in Cleveland.

Rituals of the Season by Margaret Maron
4/5 Mystery scale
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series is one I've been wanting to get started on for some time. While browsing the library mystery shelves recently, Rituals of the Season jumped into my hands and begged me to just start reading. Dealing with the murder of a friend and colleague of many of the town's residents, this book was an excellent introduction to this popular series. I'm going to read forward from here and catch up on the backlist when I see them on the shelves.
First line: The white sedan was later than expected, so late that the driver of the nondescript car parked on the shoulder was beginning to wonder if something had already happened to her.

Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister
4.5/5 Fiction Scale
Format: Hardcover
Source: Barnes & Noble
The web of friendship and understanding untangles and strengthens in this gem of exquisite writing.
First line: Life came back slowly, Kate realized.
Epigraph: Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? --Mary Oliver

Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer
3/5 Fiction Scale
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Carley Winsted rebuilds her life and family after the unexpected death of her husband (not a spoiler--it's on the bookcover flap). Very appropriate to read Heat Wave as the legendary heat dome of 2011 dominated July in New England.
First line: Some days recently, Carley Winsted had experienced moments of actual happiness, when her heart gave her a break.

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
4.5/5 Fiction Scale
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
This is an artfully drawn story of Julia Stirling and what was before and what happened after the fateful events of the early 1960s. Features one of my favorite themes, but to tell you which would be a spoiler.
First line: October 1960 - "She's waking up."

A Creed in Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller
3/5 Romance Scale
Format: eBook
Source: Barnes & Noble
August selection for Barnes and Noble (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers. First in a trilogy about the Creed men, one further series extension of the McKettricks, Stone Creek, Montana Creeds books--about 26 in all. This may be why explaining the who's who of the secondary characters seemed so tedious. The main story about Melissa O'Ballivan and Steven Creed was ok. The real star of the book was Steven's adopted son, Matt. Of course, there was a loveable dog involved as well.
First line: Some instinct--or maybe just a stir of a breeze--awakened Steven Creed; he sat up in bed, took a fraction of a moment to orient himself to unfamiliar surroundings.

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, Joy for Beginners, and The Last Letter from Your Lover hit the reading high notes in July. One Night Is Never Enough was one night too many.

First up in August: Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons.

Joy of Reading ~ Joy for Beginners

2011-08-01T04:02:00.004-04:00

...from Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

At first Caroline had seen the job of used-book buyer as a stepping-stone to the more exciting world of the new releases displayed at the front of the store, their words freshly printed, their meanings clean as new sheets. But she quickly realized she had an affinity for the older books and their muted scents of past dinners and foreign countries, the tea and chocolate stains coloring the phrases. You could never be certain what you would find in a book that had spent time with someone else. As Caroline had riffled through the pages looking for defects, she had discovered an entrance ticket to Giverny, a receipt for thirteen bottles of champagne, a to-do list that included, along with groceries and dry cleaning, the simple reminder: "buy a gun." Bits of life tucked like stowaways in between the chapters. Sometimes she couldn't decide which story she was most drawn to.

Listening to... JD Souther

2011-07-31T15:12:00.000-04:00

Because he's no longer available on a local Boston radio station, I listen to Imus via podcast on my iTouch--not necessarily for his personal brand of humor, but for the guests he invites on who offer up food for thought that can sometimes take me out of my conservative thinking rut. Then, too, there is the music he nudges my way with a simple "Was that great or what?".

This time it was JD Souther's Natural History. As soon as I heard I'll Be Here at Closing Time, I immediately clicked on iTunes and downloaded the entire album and have been lost in these songs since.

From Amazon:
If you don't know JD Souther, you surely know his songs. In the renaissance of popular songwriting that occurred during the 1960s and '70s, his name looms large as one of the chief architects of the Los Angeles scene. JD is an artist whose spirit and influence has had an enormous impact on a full generation of this country's greatest musical names: The Eagles, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Roy Orbison, just to name a few.

Joy of Reading ~ Clara and Mr. Tiffany

2011-07-26T04:15:00.002-04:00

from Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

It was our books that remained. I was careful to pick out my own, leaving his. Into my carpetbag first went my mother's Shakespeare, the plays and the sonnets. I couldn't help but think of the first line of Sonnet Twenty-nine, which seemed to be aimed at me this last month as it never had before. "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes." In went my mother's etiquette book, The Habits of Good Society: A Handbook for Ladies and Gentlemen, which I read with some levity, and my stepfather's Bible and his Minister's Bible Concordance, which bristled when I put Whitman's Leaves of Grass next to it. My leather-bound Keats and Wordsworth came next, reminding me that it wasn't a bad thing to brighten one's days with snips of poetry, like my mother did. Then Ibsen's plays, Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and Henry James's Daisy Miller and The Portrait of a Lady. There stood Emily Dickinson. The 1890 collection, her first, Francis had given me. The 1891 collection I had given him. I took them both, wondering what follows The Sweeping up the Heart / And putting Love away.

Joy of Reading ~ Tolstoy and the Purple Chair

2011-07-19T02:20:00.004-04:00

from Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch

People share books they love. They want to spread to friends and family the goodness that they felt when reading the book or the ideas they found in the pages. In sharing a loved book, a reader is trying to share the same excitement, pleasure, chills, and thrills of reading that they themselves experienced. Why else share? Sharing a love of books and of one particular book is a good thing. But it is also a tricky maneuver.... The giver of the book is not exactly ripping open her soul for a free look, but when she hands over the book with the comment that it is one of her favorites, such an admission is very close to the baring of the soul. We are what we love to read, and when we admit to loving a book, we admit that the book represents some aspects of ourselves truly, whether it is that we are suckers for romance or pining for adventure or secretly fascinated by crime.

Joy of Reading ~ Folly Beach

2011-07-12T04:02:00.002-04:00

from Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank

When I was a little girl I spent hours wandering along the edges of this very shore, my sneakers sinking in the soft sand, my footprints filling quickly with the rising tide. It was hypnotic, watching tides roll in to wash the shore with their swirl and froth. The water chased the flocks of tiny sandpipers away, back into the salty air and they landed some twenty feet down the shoreline. Then the water pulled back only to slide in again, over and over, in its own measured time, covering the beach inch by inch, until it reached its high-water mark.

Blueberry Cake

2011-07-10T17:51:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, the Boston Globe G magazine had several pages of blueberry recipes, each presented as something new to the culinary world. Well, as we all know, there really isn't much of anything new in the recipe world. Oh, yes, there are those who "de-construct" or introduce the world of chemistry to their kitchen efforts, but what I'm thinking about is the more basic recipies. Sure enough, two weeks later, the Boston Globe G magazine reminded us of the "Confidential Chat" column which many of us remember fondly, and darn if one of those "new" blueberry receipes wasn't right out of "Cakes and Cookies" kitchen!

So, here's the Blueberry Cake with Streusel Topping receipe which I made (at family's request) for the third time this morning.

TOPPING
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut up

In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter. Work the mixture with your fingertips until well blended; refrigerate.

CAKE
Butter (for the pan)
Flour (For the pan)
1 pint (2 cups) fresh blueberries, picked over
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature

1. Set the oven at 375 degrees. Butter an 8-inch-square metal baking pan. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a bowl, toss the blueberries with 1 tablespoon of the flour.

3. In another bowl, whisk the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt to blend them.

4. In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until soft and light. Beat in the egg and vanilla until soft and light. With the mixer set to its lowest speed, blend in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with flour.

5. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand. With a rubber spatula, fold in blueberries. Transfer the batter to the pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the topping over the cake.

6. Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is brown.

My modifications: I do not have a stand mixer, so I carefully planned out and used the four sizes of my trusty Pyrex mixing bowls with my hand mixer. For the ingredients, I used 1% milk instead of whole. I used an eight-inch-glass baking dish and reduced the oven temperature to 350 degrees and baked for 42 minutes.

And in the background of some of the pictures, you'll see something that makes me smile every time I cook and use it: My mother's FireKing measuring cup.

Posting recipies is something new for me. I'm what I would label a "plain" cook--nothing fancy, nothing too challenging. So with a nod to those who are much better cooks and infinitely better bloggers than I, thank you for the inspiration for this post.

Visit Letters from a Hill Farm and see the recipe for Blueberry/Cranberry Muffins here or visit Lesley's Kiss the Cook blog and check out the Berry Best Bran Muffins recipe here.

June 2011

2011-07-02T18:39:00.000-04:00

June was a month chock full of memorable characters and luscious covers. With one exception, I was book elated through the entire month!

The Violets of March by Sarah Jio
(4/5 Fiction Scale)
Leave your need to ask "Really?" at the door and just sit back and enjoy this story of family, friends, and secrets all around.
First line: "I guess this is it," Joel said, leaning into the doorway of our apartment.

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson
(3.5/5 Fiction Scale)
Again, secrets…possibly the hardest to bear--secrets of survivors of war. This story of a post WWII reunion reveals in heartbreaking detail what it took to come to the house at 22 Britannia Road and the lengths a desperate family will go to to preserve its promise. The revelation begins with the opening line: "The boy was everything to her."

Vision in White by Nora Roberts (1st in Brides Quartet)
(3.5/5 Fiction Scale)
First in a quartet of books featuring four lifelong friends who own Vows, an all-inclusive wedding service. Light romantic read and a good inbetween book.
First line: By the time she was eight, Mackensie Elliot had been married fourteen times.

Beach Roses by Jean Stone
(3.5/5 Fiction Scale)
My "this is really over the top" initial reaction to this book was soon overcome as the story of each one of the strong (even if she didn't realize it in the midst of overwhelming problems) women unfolded.
First line: Dexa-scans and mammo-scans and ultra-scans and everything.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
(4/5 Mystery Scale)
Series came highly recommended by another reader whose opinion I value, and this first installment didn't disappoint! Russ Van Alstyne, police chief of Millers Kill, and Clare Fergusson, new-to-town Episcopal priest, first meet when she reports a baby abandoned at the church. And so the story begins with mysteries of wrong doing and personal conflict. Very much looking forward to the next in the series, A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD.
First line: It was one hell of a night to throw away a baby.

South of Superior by Ellen Airgood
(4.5/5 Fiction Scale)
McAllaster, described as a beautiful and hardscrabble town on the southern edge of Lake Superior, is the setting for the story of Madeline Stone and how she comes to find the meaning of "tzadik." The characters jump of the pages and invite you into their world, and you go willingly with hope of finding out their secrets. Best last line of a book ever.
First line: The letter from Gladys Hansen was written in blue ink in an angular hand, on one sheet of plain white paper.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
(5/5 Fiction Scale)
For me, this book had it all--characters and setting that jump off the page and grab you while telling a story that leaves you gasping as it unfolds before your reading eyes.
First line: The news of Anders Eckman's death came by way of Aerogram, a piece of bright blue airmail paper that served as both the stationery and, when folded over and sealed along the edges, the envelope.

Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews
(3/5 Fiction Scale)
Lifelong friends with secrets + one newcomer on the run + one hunky neighbor (with a secret, of course) + "charming" rental cottage in Nags Head = typical, if sometimes tedious, summer beach read.
First line: It was not an auspicious beginning for a vacation, let alone for a new life.

Best Staged Plans by Claire Cook
(2/5 Fiction Scale)
That it took me three days to read 238 pages of fluff is a good clue to my feeling about this book. I liked Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook; I really liked Multiple Choice by Claire Cook. Her more recent efforts have been, well, meh. Best Staged Plans struggled to achieve "meh" status for me.
First line: Okay, so I accidentally wrapped my reading glasses in one of the packages I mailed.

State of Wonder was tops for the month. I'm still pondering some of the conflicts that confronted the characters in this book. Sadly, Best Staged Plans just didn't do it for me--not even sure I would go back and give it a second try just to see if it wasn't the book for me at this time. Too many cutsey asides and too little story to suit my fancy.

So, I'm off to Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank to start July.

Bookticipation

2011-07-01T01:01:00.002-04:00

Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons

In stores July 19

From amazon.com.

Growing up, the only place tomboy Thayer Wentworth felt at home was at her summer camp - Camp Sherwood Forest in the North Carolina Mountains. It was there that she came alive and where she met Nick Abrams, her first love...and first heartbreak. Years later, Thayer marries Aengus, an Irish professor, and they move into her deceased grandmother's house in Atlanta, only miles from Camp Edgewood on Burnt Mountain where her father died years ago in a car accident. There, Aengus and Thayer lead quiet and happy lives until Aengus is invited up to the camp to tell old Irish tales to the campers. As Aengus spends less time at home and becomes more distant, Thayer must confront dark secrets-about her mother, her first love, and, most devastating of all, her husband.

I was totally gobsmacked by Off Season and am looking forward to Burnt Mountain. With a main character named Aengus who tells old Irish tales, I'm hoping for allusions either to The Song of Wandering Aegnus (Wm. Butler Yeats--sigh...) or Tir na nog, the mythical Land of the Young. Hoping usually doesn't get me anywhere, but maybe this time....

August 7 Update: Just finished Burnt Mountain and while the hoped for allusions were all there, the book was a bit of a disappointment for me.

Joy of Reading ~ A Fatal Grace

2011-06-28T01:00:00.003-04:00

From A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

The store felt like an old library in a country house. The walls were lined with warm wooden shelves, and they in turn were lined with books. Hooked rugs were scattered here and there and a Vermont Castings woodstove sat in the middle of the store with a sofa facing it and a rocking chair on either side. Gamache, who loved bookstores, thought this was just the most attractive one he'd ever met.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

2011-06-23T17:35:00.002-04:00

Every so often as you read your way through the year, one book just reaches out, grabs you, and doesn't let go until the last heart wrenching page has been turned. For me, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett was one of those books.

From Booklist (via amazon.com)
Marina Singh gave up a career as a doctor after botching an emergency delivery as an intern, opting instead for the more orderly world of research for a pharmaceutical company. When office colleague Anders Eckman, sent to the Amazon to check on the work of a field team, is reported dead, Marina is asked by her company's CEO to complete Anders' task and to locate his body. What Marina finds in the sweltering, insect-infested jungles of the Amazon shakes her to her core. For the team is headed by esteemed scientist Annick Swenson, the woman who oversaw Marina's residency and who is now intent on keeping the team's progress on a miracle drug completely under wraps. Marina's jungle odyssey includes exotic encounters with cannibals and snakes, a knotty ethical dilemma about the basic tenets of scientific research, and joyous interactions with the exuberant people of the Lakashi tribe, who live on the compound. In fluid and remarkably atmospheric prose, Patchett captures not only the sights and sounds of the chaotic jungle environment but also the struggle and sacrifice of dedicated scientists.

Passages

Marina - her relationship with her father
Marina did not forget her father in his absence, nor did she learn to accept the situation over time. She longed for him. Her mother often said that Marina was smart in just the way her father was smart, and that explained why he was so pround that she excelled in the very things that interested her the most: earth sciences and math when she was a little girl, calculus, statistics, inorganic chemistry when she was older. Her skin was all cream and light in comparison to her father's and very dark when she held her wrist against her mother's. She had her father's round, black eyes and heavy lashes, his black hair and angular frame. Seeing her father gave her the ability to see herself, the comfort of physical recognition after a life spent among her mother's people, all those translucent cousins who looked at her like she was a llama who had wantered into their holiday dinner.

Marina - her relationship with Dr. Swenson
Marina waited for a moment, hoping for more than a one word affirmation. She was on an unnamed river in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night feeling very much the same way she always felt with Dr. Swenson, like Oliver Twist holding up his empty bowl.

Marina - her responsibility
Marina looked at the crowd and then at the Indians and the message on every face was exactly the same: no choice. And so she took the chief's hand which he then held high above his head, about the level of Marina's cheekbone, and together they did the slow skip forward while the men beat their drums and the tourists took their pictures and the children followed with their dances, their snake and their sloth. In this group Marina danced with the people who were not white while the white people watched them. It would never have been her preference to be part of a tourist attraction. One of the children handed her the sloth and she took it. She hung it around her neck and continued her dance, feeling the soft, warm hair against her skin. Had anyone given her a choice, she would have chosen instead to be back on the porch behind the storage shed beneath her mosquito netting reading Little Dorrit. Still, she knew it was somehow less humiliating, less disrespectful, to dance with the natives than it was to simply stand there watching them.

Then there were those exquisitely written passages that just made me sit back and sigh.

   Pickles [a Golden Retriever] leaned up against marina now and he batted her hand with his head until she reached down to rub the limp chamois of his ears.

   From the grand exterior she entered a lobby of palm plants and tired brown sofas that slumped together as if they had come as far as they could and then given up.

   Marina had been a very good student, but she only raised her hand when she was certain of the answer. She excelled not through bright bursts of inspiration but by the hard labor of a field horse pulling a plow.

   There was no one clear point of loss. It happened over and over again in a thousand small ways and the only truth there was to learn was that there was not getting used to it.

As hard as some of this story was to read, there was no denying the joy of spending reading time with Drs. Singh and Swenson along with Milton, Easter, and the Bovenders. Each small event, nuance, or description drew me in like the constant churring of one of the unnamed, unseen insects of the Amazon.

Visit the author's website here.

First Day of Summer

2011-06-21T04:34:00.004-04:00

Frank W. Benson - The Reader

Summer reading…hammocks, lounge chairs, porch rockers, iced coffee. Is there any more enticing image for an avid reader? Planning the summer reading selections only adds to the anticipation of those long, lazy days. There will be a few best sellers and favorite authors on the list…Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister, Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons, or Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand. The summer reading project…The Greater Journey by David McCullough. What about those new-to-me authors…The Soldier’s Wife by Margaret Leroy or The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene. Perhaps a classic or two…Jane Eyre for a reread or Pride and Prejudice for a long overdue first read. But best of all…the serendipity of an unplanned perfect summer reading experience!

Joy of Reading ~ South of Superior

2011-06-20T07:42:00.002-04:00

From South of Superior by Ellen Airgood

She felt the sun on her back, smelled pine needles and hot sand, heard the breeze whispering in the trees. The rustle of grasses echoed the long-gone water. She was in this clearing deep in the woods in a forgotten place, and for at least this moment needed nothing more or less. She walked, and with each step she let another inch of the long furl of her expectations go. The place itself was like a steady hand, a low voice, a very old person who'd seen too much to get overexcited anymore. Stop now a minute, it said. Stop searching.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-15T04:52:00.002-04:00

Bookbag Goodies

Joy of Reading ~ The Seasons Hereafter

2011-06-14T04:46:00.003-04:00

from The Seasons Hereafter by Elisabeth Ogilvie

Whenever she came near the table, she touched the books with nervous, sinewy hands. Suddenly she seized one and opened it and became instantly hypnotized by the print. She stood entranced until she was freed by the noise of the kettle boiling. Hurriedly, she took a thick heel of bread from the box, spread it with jam, and poured hot water over the coffee in the mug. She dragged a chair across the aged linoleum and settled herself, the books about her plate and mug like ramparts. There was the long ineffable moment of delicious indecision, fingers hovering over one binding and then another. She finally opened one book and propped it against the others, and as definitely as if a sound proof door had swung shut behind her and locked, she had left the world.

Bookticipation

2011-06-10T15:47:00.000-04:00

Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank

From Barnes & Noble...

Dorothea Benton Frank's latest inviting beach read introduces us to Cate, a mid-life widow whose squandering husband bequeathed her with mountains of debt. Broke and desolate, she returns to the idyllic South Carolina seaside community that gave her many of her happiest childhood memories. Don't forget the sunscreen

...and those of you who know my weaknesses know that the cover alone puts Folly Beach on my Bookticipation list!

Joy of Reading ~ The Arrivals

2011-06-07T03:48:00.003-04:00

from The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore

"Why are you taking it so personally?"

She thought about that. Then she took a deep breath and touched her hair. She didn't look directly at William when she answered, because she thought that if she did she might begin to cry.

"Because they're my life's work."

He remained silent, watching her, listening.

"If they're not happy--if they're not capable of living on their own, and being happy--it means I've failed. I should take it personally."

"Oh, Ginny," He reached across the table and laid his hand on her cheek. She pressed it in closer.

"This is it," she said. "I'm sixty-three years old. This is what I've done with my life. They're my masterpiece, and they're broken."

Sunday Snippet

2011-06-05T04:58:00.001-04:00

Edna Earle could sit and ponder all day on how the little tail of the "C" got through the "L" in a Coca-Cola sign. --Eudora Welty, The Wide Net

May 2011

2011-05-31T10:06:00.000-04:00

Time for the May reading recap already? Yikes. Someone please slow down those flipping calendar pages!

MOURNING GLORIA by Susan Albert Wittig (3.5/5 Mystery Scale)
Solid installment in the China Bayles series.

THE OLIVE FARM by Carol Drinkwater (4/5 Non-fiction Scale)
Drinkwater does a wondeful job of taking us to Appassionata and showing us all the beauty--some a bit hard to uncover--and the dedication it took to own this unique property. I don't like olives, but I sure did like this book!

HARVEST MOON by Robyn Carr (3.5/5 Romance Scale)
Interesting set up in that the H/H hit it off right away--no annoying will they/won't they--and the conflict comes from other influences in their lives. Enjoyable entry in the Virgin River series.

STAY by Allie Larkin (4/5 Fiction Scale)
Perfect escapist fiction about family and friendship with a romance tossed in for good measure. And, Joe the German Shepherd--he's everything you love about dogs.

IF YOU ASK ME by Betty White (4/5 Non-fiction Scale)
Charming. You hear Betty White on every page. Photographs are wonderful.

THE ARRIVALS by Meg Mitchell Moore (4.5/5 Fiction Scale)
The story of what happens when the (adult) children come home. Some scenes in this book tore at my heart; others made my heart sing. I've always said that you never know when the phone rings or the back door opens what your children will bring home to you. Ginny and William get the phone calls and open the back door, and how the Owen family deals with the summer of their discontent made for an excellent reading experience.

So, a little bit of everything in May. Favorite had to be The Arrivals. I totally identified with Ginny Owen probably because while they haven't come home, the phone never stops ringing.

Sunday Snippet

2011-05-29T00:39:00.001-04:00

Light filtered in through the lace curtains and made patterns on the polished wood. The air smelled of dust and old paper. Rows and rows of books lined the shelves and I let my eyes linger on the sturdy spines, thinking how human books were, so full of ideas and images, worlds imagined, worlds perceived; full of fingerprints and sudden laughter and the sighs of readers, too. It was humbling to consider all these authors, struggling with this word or that phrase, recording their thoughts for people they'd never meet.

~Lucy Jarret from The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards

Bookticipation

2011-05-16T10:49:00.001-04:00

JOY FOR BEGINNERS by Erica Bauermeister

In stores June 9

A group of seven women gather for an outdoor candlelit dinner in Seattle to celebrate their friend Kate’s recovery from cancer. Wineglass in hand, Kate makes a pact with them: to start her new lease on life, she’ll overcome her fears and go white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon. But if she goes, each of them must also do one thing in the next year that is new or difficult or scary – and Kate gets to choose their challenges.

Knowing how much I liked The School of Essential Ingredients, June 9 can't come soon enough for this reader!

April 2011

2011-05-01T18:18:00.000-04:00

Ten books read in April. I should be a happy reader, but I'm not. Not to slight WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau, the only real star in the list was MARCH by Geraldine Brooks, and this was a re-read for a class I took. Everything else was just fair to middling.

AGAINST THE WIND by Kat Martin (3.5/5 Romance Scale)
This first book in the Raines Brothers Trilogy was the April selection for the Barnes and Noble (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers. All in all, this story of a Sarah Allen's escape from an abusive, criminal husband back to her hometown and into the arms of local rancher, Jackson Raines (who she knew from high school days) was a good start to the series. I will want to read both Gabe's and Devlin's stories to round out the saga of the Raines' family.

DEAD BY MIDNIGHT by Carolyn Hart (3/5 Mystery Scale)
Normally, I love settling in with an installment in the Death on Demand series by Carolyn Hart. This time, not so much. It seemed to me that the plot elements were stretched to the extreme in order to fulfill the 200+ page usual length of a book of this type. While I love the references to Annie Darling's mystery bookstore and mystery books and authors, I was driven to distraction by the cat paintings with cute sayings done by Annie's mother-in-law, Laurel---and I love cats!!!

PROMISE CANYON by Robyn Carr (3.5/5 Romance Scale)
Enjoyable trip to Virgin River with Clay Tahoma (Navajo) and Lily Yazhi (Hopi) as they found each other and reconnected with their Native American upbringings. It was nice to have one of the secondary series couples (Nate Jensen and his fiancee Annie) featured in the main plot along with two subplots that allowed updates on Jack and Mel as well as the Riordan brothers.

MARCH by Geraldine Brooks (4.5/5 Fiction Scale)
March was a book that I just held in my hand and sighed when the final word was read. This is the story of John March, the father from Little Women, and covers his life from the age of 18, his meeting and marrying Marmee, his Civil War experiences, and return to Concord and his family--and so much more. Were his letters home deceitful or protective? And can one of moral certainty become a ruined dreamer?

CLEANING NABOKOV'S HOUSE by Leslie Daniels (2.5/5 Fiction Scale)
A quirky, interesting start that quickly turned boring, annoying. Enough with the cutsey angst; give me a real story with characters I truly care about. Best of the book? The young son who wanted to name his cookbook "Ate It Anyway." Cleaning Nabokov's House will, I think, appeal to many readers who enjoy stories of thirty-somethings seeking the perfect life balance. It just didn't do it for me. Now, if we were talking about sixty-somethings seeking whatever we are supposed to seek, well, that would be another story.

CHASING FIRE by Nora Roberts (3/5 Fiction Scale)
Good story; traditional NR characters and plot development. 472 pages? Would have enjoyed this story of smoke jumpers in Montana even more if it had ended about 100 pages sooner.

44 CHARLES STREET by Danielle Steel (3/5 Fiction Scale)
Story of friendship and love as four strangers come together under the roof of 44 Charles Street. Another easy, enjoyable story from Ms. Steel.

THE LADY MOST LIKELY by Julia Quinn, Connie Brockway & Eloise James (2/5 Romance Scale)
May selection for the Barnes and Noble (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers. This story, told by three different historical romance authors (Julia Quinn, Connie Brockway, and Eloisa James), revolves around a country house party. The Earl needs a wife, and his sister obliges by inviting several damsels and a few other gentlemen to what promises to be the event of the season. Spare me the invitation next time, please.

BEAUTY IN SCIENCE AND SPIRIT by Paul H. Carr (Read as course material)
Interesting take on the mathematical beauty of modern science emerged from the mystical beauty of ancient stories, illumined by art, with some good old random vs. order in the universe side trips included. A lot of in-class discuss on beauty and what it means to each one of us.

WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau (Read as course material)
How do you rate/review Walden other than to say that it was (and will continue to be) a thoughtful reading experience. Whenever the opportunity arises to read/think about all of the Concord, MA, residents of the late 1800s, I am amazed and grateful, too, knowing that a visit to their homes is but a 15-minute drive away.

One DNF for the month: THE KITCHEN DAUGHTER by Jael McHenry. There has been a lot of on-line buzz for this book. 100 pages convinced me that I just didn't get what the buzz was all about.

So there you have my April--heavy on pages, light on enthusiasm.

Bookticipation

2011-04-20T11:00:00.000-04:00

From Indiebound.org

Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure.

The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island's glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribe's shaman, against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. There, Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper and can closely observe Caleb's crossing of cultures.

Like Brooks's beloved narrator Anna in Year of Wonders, Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Martha's Vineyard and the intimate spaces of the human heart. Evocative and utterly absorbing, Caleb's Crossing further establishes Brooks's place as one of our most acclaimed novelists.

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

In stores Tuesday, May 3

Where You'll Find Me

2011-04-08T00:32:00.004-04:00

Time again for the annual escape weekend in Rockport. Lots of reading, some shopping on Bear Skin Neck, relaxing on the verandah, eating a lobster roll, enjoying fish chowder, spending time with my best friend. Ahhhhhhhhh....

March 2011

2011-04-06T12:05:00.001-04:00

AUNT DIMITY AND THE FAMILY TREE by Nancy Atherton (3.5/5 Mystery Scale)
"If one lives in Finch, one learns to expect the unexpected." So says the Epilogue in this latest installment of the Aunt Dimity series from Nancy Atherton. This was a playful village romp with all of the usual Aunt Dimity characters (with one mysterious stranger thrown into the mix) who, as usual, fall prey to that most tittilating talk--gossip. Quibble: A book put out by Viking and they don't catch "accomodate"?

WATER BOUND by Christine Feehan (2.5/5 Romance Scale)
This was the March selection for the B&N (Burlington, MA) romance readers group. A heroine with a special gift to control the element of water; a broken hero who cannot remember who he is or what he was. An intriguing romance somewhat spoiled by the author's unwillingness to trust her readers to recognize the basis of the heroine's problems. The repetition of character development in the first 200 pages was unnecessary, resulting in the low rating.

AND FURTHERMORE by Dame Judi Dench (3.5/5 Non-fiction Scale)
As an avid fan of As Time Goes By and the movie Mrs. Brown, I happily read the story behind the actress, Dame Judi Dench, as a follow-up to James Miller's Scenes from My Life, which I read last year.

THE NOMINATION by William G. Tapply (4/5 Fiction Scale)
This fast-paced suspense novel weaves together the lives, history, and fates of many people after Thomas Larrigan is nominated to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. The Nomination (not part of Tapply's Brady Coyne series) was the last novel from this popular New England author who sadly passed away in July 2009.

A KILLER PLOT by Ellery Adams (3/5 Mystery Scale)
This is the first in the Books by the Bay mystery series. It was a good first installment given that I definitely want to learn more about Olivia Limoges (a kinder, gentler Agatha Raisin) and her dog, Captain Haviland. Despite a few "huh?" moments in story inconsistencies (mostly descriptions that didn't match up), the mystery held true. And, as always, I didn't guess whodunit.

THE PARIS WIFE by Paula McLain (4.5/5 Fiction Scale)
You know going in how this book ends, but you go in anyway. Then you leave, angry at the hubris of this literary giant and breathless with the strength of his Paris wife. In the end, I cried for these incredibly fascinating lovers who were "beautifully blurred and happy."

TO HAVE AND TO KILL by Mary Jane Clark (3/5 Mystery Scale)
First in a new series/new direction for Mary Jane Clark, author of the KEY News mystery series. It fell somewhere between a cozy cozy and a cozy crime mystery, and I wasn't sure which direction the author really wanted to take me. Will read 2nd in series when it comes out just to see if Piper Donovan, her family, and friends are taking me somewhere I want to go.

THE PEACH KEEPER by Sarah Addison Allen (3/5 Fiction Scale)
Perhaps I'm missing something. I've read all of SAA's books, and she does write a good story; but it's just that for me--a good story. She's a library request author for me; not at all (IMHO) in a league with Alice Hoffman, an author with whom she is often compared. The theme that did resonate for me in The Peach Keeper was the aspects of friendship--how it begins, how it changes, and how it renews.

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

2011-04-06T11:41:00.000-04:00

There have been two books this year that took my reading breath away. The first was Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland, and I will post separately about this. The second, and most recent, was The Paris Wife by Paula McClain.

From Booklist (via Amazon)
History is sadly neglectful of the supporting players in the lives of great artists. Fortunately, fiction provides ample opportunity to bring these often fascinating personalities out into the limelight. Gaynor Arnold successfully resurrected the much-maligned Mrs. Charles Dickens in Girl in a Blue Dress (2009), now Paula McLain brings Hadley Richardson Hemingway out from the formidable shadow cast by her famous husband. Though doomed, the Hemingway marriage had its giddy high points, including a whirlwind courtship and a few fast and furious years of the expatriate lifestyle in 1920s Paris. Hadley and Ernest traveled in heady company during this gin-soaked and jazz-infused time, and readers are treated to intimate glimpses of many of the literary giants of the era, including Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. But the real star of the story is Hadley, as this time around, Ernest is firmly relegated to the background as he almost never was during their years together. Though eventually a woman scorned, Hadley is able to acknowledge without rancor or bitterness that "Hem" had "helped me to see what I really was and what I could do." Much more than a "woman-behind-the-man" homage, this beautifully crafted tale is an unsentimental tribute to a woman who acted with grace and strength as her marriage crumbled.

Passages
Hadley viewing narcissus
The Rhone Valley was in top form just then, with narcissus blooming in every bare patch of meadow and in the jagged crevices of rock. The first time I saw a narcissus pushing through ice and thriving, I thought it was perfect and wanted that kind of determination for myself.

On laughter
Everyone laughed, and it was one of those domino moments. That laugh would eventually set off an entire series of events, but not yet. It just stood there in the room, tipping and tipping, but not falling. Not falling yet. Not quite.

Hadley on Ernest’s The Torrents of Spring
It wasn't until that moment that I fully understood how hurt he'd been when everyone, including me, had disparaged the book and shut it down. He loved and needed praise. He loved and needed to be loved, and even adored.

On Ernest’s hubris
I knew Ernest's bravado was almost entirely invented, but I hated to think of all the good friends we'd lost because of his pride and volatile temper, starting in Chicago with Kenley. Lewis Galantiere, our first friend in Paris, had stopped speaking to Ernest when he'd called Lewis's fiancee a despicable shrew. Bob McAlmon had finally had enough of Ernest's bragging and rudeness and now crossed the street to avoid us in Paris. Harold Loeb had never recovered from Pamplona, and Sherwood and Gertrude, two of Ernest's biggest champions, now topped the long and painful list.

Bicycles as metaphor
On the crushed rock path along the windward side of the hotel, three bicycles stood on their stands. If you looked at the bicycles one way, they looked very solid, like sculpture, with afternoon light glinting cleanly off the chrome handlebars--one, two, three, all in a row. If you looked at them another way, you could see just how thin each kickstand was under the weight of the heavy frame, and how they were poised to fall like dominoes or the skeletons of elephants or like love itself.

On believing
People belong to each other only as long as they both believe. He's stopped believing.

Hadley & Ernest

A summing up
In the end, Ernest didn't have the luck I did in love. He had two more sons, both with Pauline, and then left her for another. And left that one for another, too. He had four wives altogether and many lovers as well. It was sometimes painful for me to think that to those who followed his life with interest, I was just the early wife, the Paris wife. But that was probably vanity, wanting to stand out in a long line of women. In truth it didn't matter what others saw. We knew what we had and what it meant, and though so much had happened since for both of us, there was nothing like those years in Paris, after the war. Life was painfully pure and simple and good, and I believe Ernest was his best self then. I got the very best of him. We got the best of each other.

There was always this picture of Ernest Hemingway in my mind—the older, bearded literary giant. Here in The Paris Wife, the picture sharpened with the details of the younger, insecure struggling author. This fictional rendering expanded and enhanced my mind picture of Hemingway and urged the taking up of The Moveable Feast as well as revisiting The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Perhaps there are clues there that will add nuance to the picture of Papa Hemingway.

April Is Poetry Month!

2011-03-29T17:17:00.000-04:00

Bookticipation

2011-03-20T15:41:00.001-04:00

Mameve Medwed's review of Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan appeared in The Boston Globe today. The review starts, "What a relief: No vampires, zombies, fashionistas, shopaholics; no child abuse, alternative universes, cyber anything; and no violent crime (only a scratched car door) mark Stewart O'Nan's lovely, lyrical, leisurely paced portraint of 80-year-old Emily Maxwell." Sounds perfect to me! (Read the entire review here.)

Bookticipation will be quickly sated. Emily, Alone is in stores now and, if plans hold, will be in my hands on Tuesday.

Bookticipation

2011-03-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen
In stores Tuesday, April 12.

February 2011

2011-03-02T16:37:00.001-05:00

THE LAKE OF DREAMS by Kim Edwards
4.5/5 Fiction Scale
Family secrets, hidden windows, an old lover, the suffragette movement, and futures told in comets and constellations--all these confront Lucy Jarrett who goes home to upstate New York for a two-week visit with her mother and instead finds a lifetime awaiting her.

EDGE OF SIGHT by Roxanne St. Clair
3.5/5 Romance Scale
This was the February 2011 selection for the B&N (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers group. His scars of war + her scars of their relationship + her witnessing a murder + some criminal elements = your basic romantic suspense plot. Toss in an extended family with plenty of characters ripe for featuring in an on-going series, and you have a somewhat enjoyable afternoon of predictable reading.

A CUP OF FRIENDSHIP by Deborah Rodriguez
4/5 Fiction Scale
Set against the backdrop of war torn Kabul, Afghanistan, A Cup of Friendship is the story of Sunny (an American who has opened a coffee shop), the people who work at the coffee shop, and the many others who frequent the coffee shop. How they come together to form that most special of friendships--a family of sorts--makes for an excellent reading experience. Deborah Rodriquez, whose first book was the memoir Kabul Beauty School, uses the fictional A Cup of Friendship to chronicle the never simple lives of women in Afghanistan as well as the always complicated inter-generational relationships in a changing society.

THE CRUELEST MONTH by Louise Penny
4.5/5 Mystery Scale
A third visit to Three Pines to answer the question of who killed the much loved Madeleine Favreau and to understand the "near enemies" of attachment/love, pity/compassion, and indifference/equanimity. Possible cracks in the pedestal of the esteemed Inspector Armand Gamache and figuring out the true roles of interlopers on his faithful staff provide a secondary--and troubling--story.

EDGE OF SIGHT was the least interesting among the four. All of the other books took me to places and introduced me to characters who made February, albiet short on days, long on reading enjoyment.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-16T17:43:00.000-05:00

Today, The Beatles Sing My Song

2011-02-09T00:32:00.001-05:00

Will you still need me, will you still feed me,

When I'm sixty-four?

February 9, 1964

January 2011

2011-01-31T15:42:00.004-05:00

2011 started off with an excellent month of reading that carried me far and wide in time and geography. My hope is that this streak of good books continues through to the final seconds of the year.

THE RECKLESS BRIDE by Stephanie Laurens

3/5 (Romance Scale)

This was the January 2011 selection for the local Barnes & Noble romance readers group. After a start as slow as the hero & heroine's journey by river to Rotterdam, the story finally picked up; and we were given what we had been anticipating in this, the final installment in the Black Cobra Quartet: The identity of the Black Cobra and assurance that all's well that ends well.

GLORY IN DEATH by J.D. Robb

3.5/5 (Mystery Scale)

Eve takes on a devious killer of powerful women; Roarke takes on a powerful woman. Series is set in 2058 New York, so it is interesting to note details new in the copyright date of 1995 (reading newspapers on a monitor) are now common in 2011. Following Eve and Roarke is going to be so much fun!

RESISTANCE by Anita Shreve

4.5/5 (Fiction Scale)
Resistance is one Anita Shreve book that had been lingering on MtTBR far too long. The book captured me on page one and didn't let go until the final word was read. The tense and haunting story begins in 1943 in Belgium when Claire and her husband Henri are asked to house a downed American pilot until he can travel to safety in France. As always, Anita Shreve drew me in and made me care about these characters as their fate unfolded.

LEFT NEGLECTED by Lisa Genova
4.5/5 (Fiction Scale)

Genova has a real gift to take the reader via her characters into the experiences of unfamiliar medical conditions. In Left Neglected, we journey with Sarah as she works to recover from a traumatic brain injury caused by a devastating traffic accident. I took exception to The Boston Globe reviewer who labeled the plot elements "contrivances." I would imagine that we all know of a family inexplicably hit with a series of life hurdles. Left Neglected tells the story of one such family and how these hurdles were met and overcome. Not contrivances--just real life. This was an amazing follow-up to Still Alice and already has me eagerly awaiting Lisa Genova's next novel.

EGGS IN PURGATORY by Laura Childs
3.5/5 (Mystery Scale)

This first book in the Cackleberry Club series was loaded with characters and relationships. At the mid-point, I wasn't sure how it would all be straightened out. But straighten out it did and in a way that prompted me to put the second book in the series on my library reserve list.

A FATAL GRACE by Louise Penny

4.5/5 (Mystery Scale)
A FATAL GRACE was my second trip to idyllic Three Pines, PQ, Canada, traveling along with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team to answer the question of who killed CC de Poitiers. This quiet man, Gamache--loved for his doubts as much as his convictions--does "transfix me quite." Quoting Leonard Cohen's "Anthem" and allusions to Wm. B. Yeats' "A Cradle Song" carried me beyond the printed pages of this book.

CLARA AND MR. TIFFANY by Susan Vreeland

5/5 (Fiction Scale)

Love, loyalty, and labors placed before us in the luminous Tiffany windows of our minds.

After discounting The Reckless Bride must read, selecting a favorite from the remaining choices isn't easy. Each one--for very different reasons--was sigh inducing, book stroking reading.

Bookticipation

2011-01-21T13:40:00.000-05:00

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

Small New England town, years of secrets and history, garden with a hint of magic--sounds like vintage Hoffman to me!

Available Tuesday, January 25.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-12T11:21:00.000-05:00

Outside My Window...

Bookticipation

2011-01-03T15:03:00.002-05:00

The Violets of March by Sarah Jio

In bookstores Tuesday, April 26

December 31, 2010

2010-12-31T16:25:00.001-05:00

The last day of the last month of 2010, a day of reflection.

I spent hours today visiting various blogs and jotting down book titles that appear on "best of" or "top [insert number here]" reads of 2010. Then I looked at my list, and all in all, felt pretty good about my Year in Reading--the 2010 version. While I didn't blog on each and every book, I managed to finish 75 books this year, an all-time high number for me. Of course, reaching that number is far easier when that pesky little thing called a 9-5 job doesn't interfere (probably the only plus of being unemployed). Lack of that "little thing" allowed me to become much more familiar with my local public library, and that reacquaintance was one of the highlights of the year. Inter-Library loan rocks!

Favorite reads of the year include The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, Every Last One by Anna Quindlen, The Search by Norah Roberts, A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, and How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O'Neal. The biggest surprise of the year was finally reading--and liking!--Naked in Death by J.D. Robb, first in her In Death series. With 32 waiting in the queue, catching up on this series and the uber-couple, Eve and Roarke, will be fun!

The year in numbers:
Total Books: 75

Category:
13 Non-Fiction
16 Romance
19 Mystery
27 Fiction

Source:
6 Mt. TBR
32 New
37 Library

Format:
5 Trade Paperback
8 Mass Market Paperback
14 Kindle
48 Hardcover

Total Pages: 23,978

Looking ahead to 2011, my library request list already has sixteen books listed including Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt, Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland, and Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Heading into the new year, my reading resolution, as always, is to read whatever I want whenever I want with no apologies for my selections. Added to that this year will be the resolution to spend more time reading and less time writing about what I read. To that end, I'll post a monthly reading summary here at Owlsfeathers and perhaps a separate post now and then on a book that particularly captures my reading fancy or on an event of note. (And, of course, any post-worthy pictures of the extended family of dogs and cats.) My booknotes will also be updated at Shelfari as well as at Goodreads.

Wishing everyone health, happiness, and unending pages of reading joy in 2011.

What I've Been Reading

2010-12-12T18:15:00.001-05:00

I've come to the decision that while I want to keep my reading history current here at Owl's Feathers, not every book merits a unique posting. Going forward, I'll post these cumulative updates and, every now and then, post on a book that has been an especially rewarding reading experience. So, here's what's been keeping me reading lately...

MAYBE THIS TIME by Jennifer Crusie

3.5/5 (Fiction Scale)

Hero and heroine were vintage Crusie. Just enough of a woo-woo element to be interesting and not put the book into the fantasy category. All in all, a good afternoon's read.

PAINTED LADIES by Robert B. Parker

4.5/5 (Mystery Scale)

Reading Painted Ladies after a long stretch of no Spenser/Robert B. Parker reminded me how much I love Parker's writing style. Or, perhaps more specifically, how much I love Parker's writing Spenser and Susan Silverman. In interviews upon the release of Painted Ladies, Joan Parker indicated that there is still one more Spenser to be published next year. So we readers get to stay the inevitable last Spenser just a little while longer.

LEGACY by Danielle Steel

3/5 (Fiction Scale)

You know what you are getting when you open a Danielle Steel novel to page 1. Sometimes, the reading experience is exactly what you need at the time. This time, however, the details fell in place a little too obviously and tidy. Not sure why I keep reading her books--maybe just the comfort of the known.

INFAMOUS by Suzanne Brockman

3.5/5 (Romance Scale)

This was the November selection for the local Barnes & Noble Romance Readers group. Take one legendary U.S Marshal and an historic shootout in a saloon and mix well with a wronged descendant (our hero), a historian (our heroine), then toss in a ghost who knows the story behind the story, read 'til done, and you have Infamous. Some obvious social opinion preaching from the author; otherwise, a fun read.

THE HEALER by Carol Cassella

3.5/5 (Fiction Scale)

Healer tells the story of Claire and Addison Boehning and their daughter Jory and what happens when their lives fall apart around them--how each of them adjusts to the new financial reality facing them, but better still, how each of them opens up to new opportunities. A short, quick read that takes you into the core of this family in transition.

BUSY BODY by M.C. Beaton

3.5/5 (Mystery Scale)

Another visit with Agatha Raisin and her detective crew--a visit much more rewarding than the last (There Goes the Bride). And, what's this? Agatha pondering a la Stephanie? Camp James or Camp Charles?

STILTSVILLE by Susanna Daniel

4/5 (Fiction Scale)

This is a book where nothing happens and everything happens. It is the simple, complex story of Frances Ellerby and Dennis DuVal, their marriage, their families, their friends, the lives--all set against the vividly written background of Miami, South Florida, and Biscayne Bay. My favorite passage from the book: This is what it means to be part of a family. There are no maps and the territory is continually changing. We are explorers, traveling in groups. And how's this for a word picture: She'd done more packing after getting home: there was a row of three suitcases just inside the room, facing the door like eager dogs waiting for it to open. Les of Lesley's Book Nook has written a wonderful review of Stiltsville. Click here to enjoy her review.

YOU HAD ME AT WOOF: HOW DOGS TAUGHT ME THE SECRETS OF HAPPINESS by Julie Klam

3.5/5 (Non-fiction Scale)

I can't help myself. As soon as I hear about a new dog or "amazing" animal book, it immediately goes on my library reserve list. And I know I will have to read it with a box of tissues handy because no matter how upbeat and happy the owner and [insert animal name here] are, there always is that inevitable sadness. But, as in most animal books, when things are good in You Had Me at Woof, they are very, very good. If you've been around dogs at all, you'll laugh and giggle your way through Ms. Klam's experiences with her not always well-behaved pack.

THE BLESSINGS OF THE ANIMALS by Katrina Kittle

4/5 (Fiction Scale)

Another family in transition spun into motion by a sad man. A large Italian family ("the Sopranos without the guns"), a small Indian family, assorted relatives and friends, and best of all a home and barn filled with an ever-changing assortment of animals--each bringing special blessings. A favorite character for me was Muriel, the goat.

I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU by Fannie Flagg

4/5 (Fiction Scale)

Well, bless her heart. Maggie Fortenberry has the weight of her world on her shoulders and is contemplating very drastic action to alleviate that weight. Then there's the pressure of being a former Miss Alabama--the crown and that sash, you know. Oh, and don't forget the other characters: Brenda Peoples, Maggie's best friend; Hazel Whisenknott, founder of Red Mountain Realty (who died five years before the story begins); and Ethel Clipp, Red Mountain realty's purple-haired, of-a-certain-age office manager. Why did I like this book? Because, like watching It's a Wonderful Life every year, it just felt good.

DAYS OF GOLD by Jude Deveraux

3/5 (Romance Scale)

This was the December selection for the local Barnes & Noble Romance Readers. Days of Gold, Book 2 in Jude Deveraux's Edilean Series, takes us to Scotland 1766 where we meet the ancestors and founders of Edilean, VA, featured in the contemporary romance, Lavender Morning. The story of Angus McTern and Edilean Talbot is told with a humor that easily carries you through the many pages where the lovers at first sight waste so much time saying, "I hate you" countered with "I hate you more." Convenient and somewhat obvious plot devices lead us to the inevitable happily ever after ending.

I REMEMBER NOTHING by Nora Ephron
3/5 (Non-fiction Scale)
Not as good for me as I Feel Bad About My Neck…maybe because of the "inside baseball" presentation of some of the essays. However, the more general essays hit the mark--especially the closing lists of "What I Won't Miss" and "What I Will Miss" or "Twenty-five Things People Have a Shocking Capacity to Be Surprised by Over and Over Again" (e.g., 16. Mary Matalin and James Carville are married). This passage sums up my current state of mind: I have been forgetting things for years, but now I forget in a new way. I used to believe I could eventually retrieve whatever was lost and the commit it to memory. Now I know I can't possibly. Whatever's gone is hopelessly gone. And what's new doesn't stick.

Pink Martini!

2010-11-03T14:25:00.000-04:00

Tonight - The Orpheum Theater, Boston

You'll find my daughter and me in Row L in the Balcony.

Tuesday, November 16

Release date for new holiday album!

29: A Novel by Adena Halpern

2010-10-02T19:03:00.001-04:00

Did you ever wonder what would happen if a birthday wish really came true? That is the question answered in 29: A Novel by Adena Halpern.

From Publishers Weekly (via amazon.com)
The proverbial search for youth's fountain manifests itself in Ellie Jerome, a 75-year-old woman who has employed every available artifice to remain young. Identifying more with her stylish young granddaughter, Lucy, than with her abrasive middle-aged daughter, Barbara, Ellie's 75th birthday wish is to be 29 again, for just one day. When her wish comes true, hilarious problems arise, as the young Ellie must create a new persona in order to enter and leave her apartment in a neighborhood where everyone knows the old Ellie. Choosing to let Lucy in on her secret, Ellie persuades her to be her guide on a youthful adventure in pursuit of stylish looks and a trendy life. While the dynamic duo romp through Ellie's magical day, Ellie's daughter and her dearest friend, Frida, a 75-year-old worry wart, having decided that Ellie was kidnapped, embark upon their own misguided adventure before the old (now wiser) Ellie returns at the end of her big day. With this rollicking, if familiar, offering, Halpern...sets out to prove that you're only young twice.

Passages
On Gershwin
Whenever I hear Gershwin in my head it means I'm having a good time. (By the way, if you're too young to be familiar with Gershwin, plese get yourself some CDs. You'll thank me later.)

On that "moment"
A moment comes in everyone's life when they realize they're old. I'm not talking about the day you see your first gray hair or the day you see the hint of a crow's foot. What I'm talking about is the day when you realize you've grown out of being able to adapt to something new.

On lipstick (Hello, Lancome? Why did you discontinue Risque?)
I almost had a heart attack when Lancome stopped making my favorite lipstick. I was on the phone with Lancome for three hours, with four different operators, trying to get to the bottom of why they discontinued my color, when the last person finally said, "No one wears that color anymore, ma'am." "I do!" I said.

On using your "stuff"
I walk into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea. I put some water in the kettle, turn on the stove, and grab some tea bags. I go into the cabinet and take out a cup and saucer. I use my good bone china every day. You should, too, if you don't have small children. It's a lesson I've learned: enjoy the things you have.

In her acknowledgements at the end of the book, Ms. Halpern thanks, first and foremost, "...the amazing seventy-something women I interviewed for this book. Your generosity, honesty, and frankness were more than I could ever have asked for. I hope I've done you proud in creating a character that captures the best of who you are." I think the author accompished this. The dialog between Ellie and Frida as well as incidents in the story are all spot on.

Most of the wisdom passed on by Ellie Jerome was obvious, but it never hurts to be reminded again and again about the value of family and friends.

20th Century Fox has obtained the movie rights to 29, so let's play the "Who Would You Cast in the Movie" game. Here are my choices:

Ellie Jerome - Florence Henderson
Young Ellie Jerome - Cameron Diaz
Lucy Jerome (Ellie's granddaughter) - Anne Hathaway
Barbara Sustamorn (Ellie's daughter) - Susan Sarandon
Frida Freedberg (Ellie's best friend) - Olympia Dukakis
Zachary - Chris O'Donnell

If you read 29, please come back and let me know your dream cast!

Rating: 3.5/5 (Fiction Scale)
Dedication: This book is lovingly dedicated to my mother, Arlene Rudney Halpern
First Line: I'm jealous of my granddaughter.

Book Extras
Visit the author's website here.
Visit the publisher's page here.
Read a review at Musings of a Bookish Kitty here and another at Book Addiction here.

Three September Also Reads

2010-09-26T17:19:00.002-04:00

A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg This was a reread for the September book discussion at On the Porch Swing (Yahoo group). I liked this culinary memoir even more the second time around and have flagged several receipes to try out now that the fall cooking season has arrived. Click here to check out some of Molly Wizenberg's recipes and writings at her blog, Orangette.
Rating: 4.5/5 (Non-fiction Scale)

Most Eagerly Yours by Allison Chase
This was the September selection for the local Barnes and Noble Romance Readers group. Most Eagerly Yours is the first in a new series about four sisters who have the confidence of young Princess Victoria to carry out investigations with the utmost discretion. Nothing in this book tempted me to seek out/eagerly await the next installments.
Rating: 2/5 (Romance Scale)

Death on Demand by Carolyn Hart
After reading the 19th and 20th installment in the Death on Demand series, I thought it was time to go back, start at the beginning, and read forward. It was fun meeting Annie Laurance and Max Darling at the outset of their crime solving capers. Several of the recurring Broward's Rock regulars were introduced here, too. I read Death on Demand on my Kindle and appreciated very much not having to chase around the used bookstores or haunting inter-library loan to get this book. One click and I was good to read!
Rating: 3.5/5 (Mystery Scale)

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd

2010-09-26T16:25:00.001-04:00

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd is the second installment in the Bess Crawford series. Readers first met Bess, a WWI army nurse, in A Duty to the Dead; and if you're a fan of the Masie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear, you will probably like Bess as well.

From Publisher's Weekly (via amazon.com)
Starred Review. Set in the summer of 1917, Todd's excellent second mystery featuring British nurse Bess Crawford (after 2009's A Duty to the Dead) smoothly blends realistic characters with an intricate plot. When Bess accompanies Lt. Meriwether Evanson, a severe burn victim, from the Continent to England, she's surprised to spot the pilot's supposedly devoted wife, Marjorie, crying on another man's shoulder at a train station. After returning to saving lives under German fire in France, Bess is stunned to read in a newspaper that Marjorie has been stabbed to death in London. Soon after, the depressed lieutenant commits suicide by cutting his own throat. Unable to resist involving herself in the murder investigation, Bess seeks to identify Marjorie's unknown companion, the possible killer. In addition to supplying a challenging puzzle, Todd (a mother-son writing team) does a superb job of capturing the feel of the battlefield and the emotional toll taken on those waiting back home for a loved one's return.

When reading a mystery, I'm not obsessed with trying to outsmart the author's revelation of events and am content to wait to see the whodunit it play out. I did, however, have some inkings when reading An Impartial Witness; and I was almost right! :) The only thing I really wondered about was all the traveling around that Bess and her cohorts did. Driving up to London and back again and up again and back. To the battlefield in France and back to Portsmouth and back to France and back again. Would petrol have been so easily available for all these trips? Were the trips back and forth to France convenient to the plot or the reality of WWI nurse assignments?

I like my mysteries gentle and readily admit that I avoid any mysteries with the words "chilling," "sinister," or "dark and violent" in plot descriptions. Both the Masie Dobbs and Bess Crawford series fit my comfort zone. I'm looking forward to the third Bess Crawford and also want to check out Charles Todd's other series about Inspector Ian Rutledge.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Mystery Scale)
Dedication: In remembrance...Samantha June 1995 5o September 2007 and Crystal November 1995 to March 2008 who gave so much to those who loved them.
First Line: As my train pulled into London, I looked out at the early summer rain and was glad to see the dreary day had followed me from Hampshire.

Book Extras
Charles Todd is the mother/son writing team of David Todd Watjen and Carolyn L.T. Watjen. Click here to visit the author's website or click here to see a listing of books in both the Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford series.

For more information on An Impartial Witness, visit the publisher's page here.

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

2010-09-26T15:41:00.000-04:00

Several years ago I tried to read In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. Perhaps being the mother of a single, out-on-her-own daughter colored my reaction, but I just couldn't bring myself to read past the opening sequence of events. So, I stayed away from Jennifer Weiner until I read the description of Fly Away Home. Granted, the pulled from the headlines plotline of the disgraced politician may have made this another pass; however, I put it on my library reserve list and did find the story good enough to keep me reading on a Saturday afternoon despite the less than enthusiastic editorial review from Publishers Weekly.

From Publishers Weekly (via bn.com)
Weiner weaves a forgettable family drama with three weakly connected storylines: mother Sylvie Woodruff long ago sacrificed herself to become the perfect politician's wife, but the revelation of her husband's infidelity sends her off to reconnect with her old self. Her daughters aren't faring any better: recovering addict Lizzie is pursuing an interest in photography, but a childhood incident continues to trouble her; and dutiful older daughter Diana, an ER doctor, is escaping her blandly offensive husband via her own affair. The three women's crises function in parallel, and Weiner is unable to keep the narrative tension going when she hops from one character to another, largely because their issues are so tidily resolved and the women are never in real emotional danger--Sylvie's husband's affair is a "one-day story," Lizzie's narcotic slip is to take a couple of Advil PM (and an apology resolves the unresolved past), and the breakdown of Diana's marriage is dispatched as easily as Diana making a resolution to change her life. The lack of conflict and strong characters, and the heavy dose of brand names and ripped-from-the-headlines references, make this disappointingly disposable.

When all was said and read, it was wrapped a little too nicely. I'm much more intrigued with watching the tensions in The Good Wife. How will Alicia Florrick handle things this year?

Rating: 3/5 (Fiction Scale)
Dedication: For Joanna Pulcini and Greer Hendricks
First Line: Breakfast in five-star hotels was always the same.

Book Extras
Visit the author's website here.
Visit the publisher's page here.

Les at Lesley's Book Nook has written a review of Fly Away Home which pretty much echoes my experience. Please click here to read her review. While you're there, be sure to check out Les's new wheels!

Wordless (Workless) Wednesday

2010-09-08T07:00:00.002-04:00

A Summer in Sonoma by Robyn Carr

2010-09-01T11:03:00.004-04:00

After reading all of Robyn Carr's Virgin River books, I was looking forward to this stand alone, A Summer in Sonoma.

From Publishers Weekly (via amazon)
Carr (the Virgin River series) brings four high school friends together in a slow-moving but charming story set in beautiful Northern California. Cassie is sick of searching for Mr. Right and ending up with Mr. Very Wrong. Julie wishes she didn't worry about money all the time. Marty misses romance to the point that she's considering cheating on her husband. Stoic Beth quietly struggles with health problems. Cassie tries to understand her feelings for a ponytailed biker, Julie deals with an unexpected pregnancy, Marty attempts to save her marriage, and Beth realizes breast cancer is not something she can hide. Though the leading ladies are not terribly well developed, their stories will strike a chord with readers. Male supporting characters add spark and help propel the plot to a predictable yet satisfying happy ending.

In retrospect, I should have let more time elapse between bidding farewell to Virgin River and welcoming another group of slightly flawed characters looking to find the perfect life. Don't get me wrong, A Summer in Sonoma was a good story and true to Ms. Carr's form. I have The House on Olive Street waiting in Mt. TBR, but I think I'll let some time pass before pushing it nearer the peak of the mountain.

Rating: 3/5 (Romance Scale)
First Line: Cassie and Ken walked out of the bar together at seven-thirty.

Book Extras
Read Frech Fiction's review of A Summer in Sonoma here.
Visit the author's website here.

As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs

2010-08-25T14:12:00.003-04:00

On the inside front cover flap, As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs is described as "a rare mix of wit, social satire, and suspense...an irresistible story about a love that just won't give up." Happily, the book lived up to this description.

From Publishers Weekly (via amazon)
Bestseller Isaacs draws on tony Long Island, gritty New York City, and a tabloid-friendly murder for this smart-alecky whodunit/surprisingly sweet love story. Susan is left alone with her three boys, big suburban house, and nagging questions when plastic surgeon hubby Jonah Gersten turns up dead in a hooker's Upper East Side apartment. Though the police and prosecutors wind up their case against call girl Dorinda Dillon, it's far from settled for Susan. It simply didn't add up, in either my head or my heart, she confesses. And what better sidekick to track down the truth than Susan's rogue granny, Ethel. What follows is an intricate and fascinating dissection of Susan's marriage, family, husband's medical practice and partners, and the unwitting call girl at the center of it all. Isaacs (Past Perfect) brings it all together in this fast and furious ride through wanton greed, fragile relationships, and love worth fighting for.

Ms. Isaacs is the author of twelve novels; however, As Husbands Go was my first experience with reading one of her books, and an excellent one at that. At first, I was put off by the stylish name dropping and scene setting, thinking, "Oh, here we go. Another Gucci-Manolo Blanik laden story." But not so. Oh, there were style references aplenty written with pointed lifestyle skewering--not snarky, just obvious.

I'll be looking to catch up on previous titles from Susan Isaacs as well as anticipating her next book.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Mystery Scale)
Dedication: To St. Catherine and Bob Morvillo with love.
Epigraph:
   Here, take this gift,
   I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or general,
   One who should serve the good old cause, the great idea, the
   progress and freedom of the race,
   Some brave confronter of despots, some daring rebel;
   But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as
      much as to any.
          -Walt Whitman, "To a Certain Cantatrice," Leaves of Grass
First Line: Who knew?

Book Extras
Visit the author's website here.
Click here to read a review on Bookreporter.com

Delicious and Suspicious by Riley Adams

2010-08-23T16:48:00.003-04:00

It's always fun to discover a new mystery series! Delicious and Suspicious is the first in the Memphis BBQ Mystery series from Riley Adams.

From Publishers Weekly (via amazon)
In this sassy first in a new series from Adams (the pseudonym of Elizabeth Spann Craig), Lulu Taylor, owner of Aunt Pat's, a Memphis, Tenn., rib eatery, is all aflutter because the Cooking Channel has sent food scout Rebecca Adrian to check out Lulu's down-home specialties for a future show. Too bad Rebecca's searching for dirt as well as the best BBQ in Memphis. She quickly insults a number of people, including Lulu's daughter-in-law, Sara, and Lulu's son, Seb, who happens to be Rebecca's former boyfriend. When Rebecca's poisoned, chaos reigns. Lulu later uncovers the corpse of Mildred Cameron, an elderly bookseller and aspiring romance author/sleuth, who was also offended by the tart-tongued Rebecca. Aiding and abetting Lulu's investigation are the Graces, docents at Graceland, whose devotion to Elvis adds some goofy firepower to this sometimes poky paint-bythe-numbers cozy.

Passages
On dogs' behavior
Sara tore out after Derrick, red curls bouncing on her back. The screen door slammed again, and the Labs hid their heads under a table. The dogs' law of physics was "If I can't see you, you can't see me!"

I've been watching Memphis Beat on TNT, and it was nice to have the music from Memphis Beat rolling around in my head as I read Delicious and Suspicious.

This is a great first entry, and I look forward to more in this series. Oh--you may want to read Delicious and Suspicious just to find out if that cause-for-celebration bottle of The Domaine Vincent Dauvissat Chablis Les Preuses ever gets cracked open!

Rating: 3.5/5 (Mystery Scale)
Dedication: For my family, with love.
First line: Memphis, Tennessee, is a little bit of heaver in the springtime.

Book Extras
Visit the author's blog here.
Visit the author on Mystery Lovers' Kitchen here.
Check out Lesa's Book Critique's review here.
Read more about TNT's Memphis Beat here.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-18T07:03:00.001-04:00

Carousel

Old Orchard Beach, Maine

Welcome, Lucy Begonia

2010-08-14T18:56:00.000-04:00

Yes, dear Juliette, we did say that you would never be replaced--and you haven't. Lucy Begonia is her own girl with her own story.

Lucy was originally adopted from the MSPCA Nevins Farm shelter by friends of our son. Although just a kitten, she quickly became the companion and comfort for one of Brian's friends--a friend that left this life all too young. The ensuing changes left Lucy living with two other cats, and she was not happy at all. Then, I got the call: "Mom, just go see her. She's really a nice cat." So I did, and she is.

Four-year-old Lucy has been with us just over a week and has found her favorite window, a nice hidey hole when she wants to be alone, and (best of all) she's drawing a bead on our resident mouse.

So, dear Juliette, you haven't been replaced. We've just opened up a new place in our hearts for Lucy Begonia. We know you will understand. Besides, you never really did get that whole "the cat in the house is supposed to catch the mouse" thing.

Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr

2010-08-02T14:00:00.001-04:00

Moonlight Road, the final installment in Robyn Carr's Virgin River series, gives us the story of Erin Foley and Aiden Riordan and the complication of the return of Annalee Riordan, the woman Aiden believed was his ex-wife--emphasis on "ex."

From the publisher (via bn.com)
With her beloved younger siblings settled and happy, Erin Foley has empty nest syndrome. At age thirty-five. So she's hitting the pause button on her life and holing up in a secluded (but totally upgraded—she's not into roughing it) cabin near Virgin River. Erin is planning on getting to know herself…not the shaggy-haired mountain man she meets. In fact, beneath his faded fatigues and bushy beard, Aiden Riordan is a doctor, recharging for a summer after leaving the navy. He's intrigued by the pretty, slightly snooty refugee from the rat race—her meditating and journaling are definitely keeping him at arm's length. He'd love to get closer…if his scruffy exterior and crazy ex-wife don't hold him back. But maybe it's something in the water—unlikely romances seem to take root in Virgin River…helped along by some well-intentioned meddling, of course.

Moonlight Road was the August selection for the Barnes & Noble (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers and has all the usual Virgin River characters--more babies are born, and there's more on the original perfect couple, Jack and Mel. As readers, we may have dallied too long and will be somewhat happy to see the "Leaving Virgin River" in our rearview mirror. But, then there's those two last Riordan brothers....

Rating: 3.5/5 (Romance Scale)

Dedication: For Tonie Crandall, because the world would be a dimmer place without all the love you have in your heart. Thank you for being even more than a friend--thank you for being a sister.

First Line: In the two weeks Aiden Riordan had been in Virgin River, he'd hiked over a hundred miles and grown himself a pretty hefty dark red beard.

The Search by Nora Roberts

2010-08-02T11:52:00.002-04:00

The Search by Nora Roberts--classic NR romantic suspense.

From Publishers Weekly (via amazon)
The serviceable latest from Roberts centers on Fiona Bristow, a professional canine search-and-rescue trainer, who moved to Orcas Island in Puget Sound eight years earlier, just after barely escaping from a serial killer. The story opens with Simon Doyle, an artisan cabinetmaker who arrives on the island with a puppy in tow. It's the puppy that brings Fiona and Simon together, and the romance gets off to a rocky start; he's grumpy and plainspoken; she doesn't scare easily. Then a serial killer begins operating within striking distance, and all Fiona's hard-won peace and equanimity begins to wobble: the man who almost killed her is in prison, but he's got a disciple on the outside. The serial killer plot is very familiar and without much to distinguish it, but the romance is finely done, with Roberts's trademark banter lighting up the page. Fiona and Simon are the main attraction, but the setting and the supporting characters—with paws and without—provide a vivid backdrop.

Passages
For anyone who loves dogs, there are passages galore that will make you knowingly nod. This was the first of many for me:
"Peck found him. He's the one. He'd be pleased if you shook his hand."
"Oh." Devin scrubbed at his face, drew in a couple steadying breaths. "Thank you, Peck. Thank you." He crouched, offered his hand.
Peck smiled as dogs do and placed his paw in Devin's hand.

Roberts has been hit or miss for me lately, but The Search was an absolutely perfect reading choice for a few hot, humid summer days. Looking back at my reading journal, I see that Nora Roberts turns up consistently in the summertime. One especially favorable entry was about a summer weekend a few years ago when I read the entire Gallaghers of Ardmore trilogy (Jewels of the Sun, Tears of the Moon, and Heart of the Sea).

Rating: 4/5 (Romance-Suspense)
Dedication: To Homer and Pancho, and all who sweetened my life before them.
First Line: On a chilly morning in February with a misty rain shuttering the windows, Devin and Rosie Cauldwell made low, sleepy love.
Epigraph, Part 1: Properly trained, a man can be a dog's best friend. -Corey Ford
Epigraph, Part 2: The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. -Samuel Butler
Epigraph, Part 3: Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? -The Bible

Extras
Click here to visit the author's website.
Click here for information on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Click here or here for more information on search and rescue dogs.

Other Reviews of The Search
All About Romance
Bookreporter.com

New (to me) Word
The copper would verdigris over time, he thought, and add to its appeal.
verdigris: [vur-di-grees, -gris] a green or bluish patina formed on copper, brass, or bronze surfaces exposed to the atmosphere for long periods of time, consisting principally of basic copper sulfate.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-28T02:00:00.003-04:00

A bench-eye view...

Rose Kennedy Greenway

Boston, MA

Click here to read more about the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

Lowcountry Summer by Dorothea Benton Frank

2010-07-22T16:38:00.001-04:00

In Lowcountry Summer by Dorothea Benton Frank we return to Tall Pines Plantation and revisit the Wimbleys and other characters introduced in the 2001 novel Plantation.

From Publishers Weekly (via amazon)
Here's one for the Southern gals as well as Yankees who appreciate Frank's signature mix of sass, sex, and gargantuan personalities. In this long-time-coming sequel to Plantation, opinionated and family-centric Caroline Wimbly Levine has just turned 47, but she's less concerned with advancing middle age than she is with son Eric shacking up with an older single mom. She's also dealing with a drunk and disorderly sister-in-law, Frances Mae; four nieces from hell; grieving brother Trip; a pig-farmer boyfriend with a weak heart; and a serious crush on the local sheriff. Then there's Caroline's dead-but-not-forgotten mother, Miss Lavinia, whose presence both guides and troubles Caroline as she tries to keep her unruly family intact and out of jail. With a sizable cast of minor characters with major attitude, Frank lovingly mixes a brew of personalities who deliver nonstop clashes, mysteries, meltdowns, and commentaries; below the always funny theatrics, however, is a compelling saga of loss and acceptance.

Passages
On a hurricane meal
Orders were taken and eventually we sat down to what could be characterized as a hurricane meal, which would be one prepared with whatever could be found but with no electricity or water, having boiled the pasta in Evian on a charcoal grill or whatever we had on hand, although Trip would have been apoplectic if we had used bottled water to cook. The cost, you know.

On a new-to-me word (scrying)
"Don't make me go scrying in my bowl this morning, you 'eah me? What's going on 'round 'eah?" (Millie)
"Scrying?" Rusty said.
"The art of predicting the future by staring into water. Nostradamus did it all the time. Very handy for predicting the end of time and all that I [Caroline] said.

On mother's sending children off to wherever
...I turned around one day and saw that he had grown peach fuzz above his lip and on the sides of his face. On and on it went until he towered over me and melted my heart every time I heard his man voice say, "I love you, Mom."
"I just hate for you to leave, Eric." I couldn't help pouting.
"Yeah, me, too. But you know I'll be back as soon as I run out of clean socks."
"All over the world, mothers depend on that."

On another foodie description
For dinner today, Millie had baked a fruited ham and made red rice, deviled eggs, green-bean salad, a zillion biscuits, and brownies that were so rich and chocolaty they made you literally drool for another cold glass of milk.

Revisiting and catching up with the Wimbley family and the goings-on at Tall Pines definitely fell into the category of a good summer read. Most everyone was still doing what they do best, whether that be Millie's holding everything together or Frances Mae's wreaking havoc. Add to that the less than genteel or appreciative daughters of said Frances Mae, and you have the makings of a good family-in-turmoil story.

My only real problem with Lowcountry Summer? Where was Dr. Jack Taylor? When last we left Caroline Wimbley Levine in Plantation, she seemed to be in a committed relationship with Jack. Fast forward to Lowcountry Summer, page 3, and we are introduced to her current beau, "a wonderful guy named Bobby Mack" without so much as a fleeting reference to the fate of Jack.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Fiction scale)
Dedication: In loving memory of my sweet brother, Billy
First sentence: It is a generally accepted fact that at some point during your birthday, you will reassess your life.

Extras
Click here to visit the author's website.
For more information on the Ashepoo, Combahee and South Edisto (ACE) Basin--the setting for Lowcountry Summer and Plantation--click here.

Other Reviews & Information
Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews
Publisher's Page

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

2010-07-20T16:04:00.000-04:00

Are you keeping track of this series? We're now at Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich...wherein we learn why Ranger keeps giving cars to Stephanie.
From Booklist (via amazon)
Stephanie Plum, half-Italian, half-Hungarian, a shrewd mixture of smarts and dumb luck, works for her cousin Vinny as a bail bondswoman in Trenton, New Jersey. Vinnie, however, is in deep fecal matter, owing too much money to the very scary guys who have kidnapped him. Stephanie, office manager Connie, and Lula, plus-sized and focused (if not on the job at hand), manage to spring Vinnie (more than once) and find a lot of money to pay what he owes. Along the way, they facilitate a cow stampede and an alligator escape; are assisted by a bunch of Hobbit con-goers; and find their office going up quite thoroughly in flames. Stephanie wrecks the usual car and ping-pongs between the hot and dangerous Ranger and the hot and domestic Morelli. In the first few pages, Evanovich both catches readers up on the hilarious and cockeyed history of the preceding 15 books and gives fans a little more of everything they want, including the return of beloved stoner Mooner. Funny, scary, silly, and sweet.

Passages
On Ranger
Ranger was my mentor when I first went to work for my cousin Vinnie. I suppose he's still my mentor, but now he's also my friend, my propector, from time to time he's been my employer, and on one spectacularly memorable occasion, he was my lover.

On home (Stephanie reflects on her parent's house)
The house hasn't changed much over the years. A new appliance when needed. New curtains. Mostly, it's overcrowded with comfortable nondescript furniture, cooking smells, and good memories.

On Lula's "one of" diet
Minutes after Ranger left, Lula hauled herself up into the Jeep. "The best I could do was blueberry," Lula said. "They didn't have no vegetable doughnuts. And I got a strawberry jelly-filled, and a pumpkin spice, and a banana scone. Wait a minute. Is pumpkin a vegetable? Does that count?"
"You must have eight hundred calories in that bag." (Stephanie)
"Yeah, but the diet says I can have one of anything."
"One doughnut! Not one of each kind." (Stephanie)
"You don't know that for sure," Lula said.

On the kind of Italian restaurant we all know (even if we don't live in the Burg)
Pino's serves Italian food Burg-style. Greasy pizza you have to fold to eat, meatball subs, sausage sandwiches, spaghetti with red sauce, worthless uninteresting salad with iceberg lettuce and pale tomatoes, Bud on tap, and red table wine. It has a dark, carved, mahogany bar and a side room with tables for families and couples who don't want to watch hockey on the television hanging over the liquor collection.

On relationships
...I was in a state because I had two men in my life, and I had no clue what to do with them. I loved them each in different ways, and I was too traditional and Catholic to just enjoy them. How sick is that? I wasn't a practicing Catholic, but I had guilt. And I was stuck with all these rules about relationships. And then there was my mother, who I suspect was mortally afraid I'd end up with Ranger. And my grandmother, who probably thought I was an idiot to to be sleeping with both of them. And my father, who didn't think there was a man alive who was worthy of me.

Team Joe vs. Team Ranger heats up. Lula's wardrobe gets more outrageous. Vinnie's in BIG trouble. Rex just keeps that wheel movin'. And then there's that lucky bottle inherited from Uncle Pip....

Rating: 3.5/5 (Mystery Scale)
Dedication: Thanks to Laura A. Koppe for suggesting the title for this book.
First Line: My Uncle Pip died and left me his lucky bottle.

Extras
Click here to link to author's website.

Other Reviews
I'd So Rather Be Reading (I do disagree with reviewer's saying this is appropriate for younger audiences!)
Bookreporter.com

Library Riches

2010-07-16T19:22:00.002-04:00

Amazing thing, that inter-library loan. Just go on line, login to your library account, enter a book title, click once, and it's added to your reserve list. Then you sit and wait, and wait, and wait some more. And then the email alerts hit your Inbox. First just one. So you go to pick up that book, and there are two other books waiting for you. (Plus I just couldn't pass up the Judi Dench biography.) Then two more email alerts. Again, you go to the library to pick these up only to find that, yes, the books ready for pickup have multiplied in the time between logging off your computer and driving the 2.3 miles to the library.

Here's Wednesday's books

Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson

Darling Judi by John Miller

A Little Bit Wicked by Kristen Chenoweth

Lowcountry Summer by Dorothea Benton Frank

And today...

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

Dead Head by Rosemary Harris

The Search by Nora Roberts

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

Hannah's List by Debbie Macomber

Fortunately, the forecast for the weekend is hazy, hot, and humid--perfect for planting myself in my favorite chair with an ice cold beverage at hand, putting the AC on medium high, and enjoying the riches given to me from the library.

July 31 Update: Finished Lowcountry Summer and The Search. Bookmarks still working their way through Darling Judi and A Little Bit Wicked (both were renewed). Did the 100-page test on Backseat Saints and couldn't really get into it. Weed That Strings... got almost halfway through; put on my list to check out again when it goes of the 14-day list; same for Dead Head. Wasn't in the mood for either The Mountain Between Us or Hannah's List, although The Mountain Between Us does deserve a second try. And when I went to return these yesterday, The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree by Susan Wittig Albert and This Must Be the Place by Kate Racculia (a local author) were waiting for me.

Bookticipation

2010-07-15T14:06:00.001-04:00

Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship
by Gail Caldwell

Release Date: August 10, 2010

Bookticipation

2010-06-29T20:38:00.002-04:00

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman.

This novel seeped into me slowly, but ultimately, I was as utterly absorbed in it as it was in me. Goodman skillfully mingles high-tech IPOs, motherless daughters, tree-sitting environmentalists, mystical Judaism, foodie sensuousness, and three distinct love stories--and all with none of the usual head-spinning associated with that list. I was rapt, and truly delighted.
--Becky Dayton, The Vermont Book Shop, Middlebury, VT

Release Date: July 6, 2010

July 13 Update: The Cookbook Collector is sitting on my reading table. I've fondled it, read some random pages, and my bookmark is now making its way through the pages.

Plantation by Dorothea Benton Frank

2010-06-28T14:55:00.003-04:00

Plantation by Dorothea Benton Frank has been on the "gotta get to this book" list for some time. Now that a follow-up book, Lowcountry Summer, has just come out, I figured it was time to get to Plantation which I had downloaded to my Kindle last year.

From Publishers Weekly (via amazon)
...this colorful contemporary romance effortlessly evokes the lush beauty of the South Carolina Lowcountry while exploring the complexities of family relationships. When Caroline Wimbley Levine learns that her mother, Miss Lavinia, has supposedly gone mad, she leaves the big city bustle of Manhattan and returns to Tall Pines Plantation. Caroline originally left Tall Pines to escape her feisty, eccentric mother and her drunken brother, Trip, but when Miss Lavinia dies, Caroline is forced to come to terms with her family's troubled history as well her failing relationship with her husband. As Caroline reminisces about her past rebelliousness and her childhood, she realizes that her father's sudden and tragic death many years before served as a catalyst for the family's disintegration. Caroline and Trip also learn that their seemingly selfish and self-assured mother was not so uncaring after all. While most of the story is told from Caroline's point of view, journal entries written by Miss Lavinia open several of the chapters, providing the narrative with additional texture and warmth. Although the novel is short on plot, readers will enjoy immersing themselves in the lives of these deftly drawn, heartfelt characters.

Passages
On bookshelves
Turning out lights, I looked around at what Richard and I had built in the last thirteen years. We had six rooms of travel memorabilia from our wanderings. Our bookshelves were crammed with learned opinions on every area of psychology and psychiatrics in and out of print. Those were Richard's. They were his library and his weapons. My books were on textiles from around the world, Japanese gardens, obscure religions such as the cargo cultures of West Africa. Sometimes it seemed that he focused on the mind of man whereas I studied the spirit and what man held sacred. Our bookshelves were as good a starting place as any to see the differences between us.

On a doctor's office
His walls were covered with diplomas and citations and photographs of what appeared to be open-air-market people in Istanbul and Greece. He apparently liked to travel and to read. In addition to bookshelves of reference materials on various skin diseases, he had a small collection of leather-bound old books--classics--probably first editions. He treasured books. He couldn't be all bad.

On appreciation and simplicity
But when the red ball of the sun slipped under the Edisto River that evening, I was pretty sure that life didn't get much better than being in the place you loved most, surrounded by the people closest to your heart.

Plantation was a story of a family finding its true self again after years of misinterpretations and misunderstandings. I enjoyed seeing Caroline Wimbley Levine find her heart and home, although it seemed at times that she certainly was taking a lot of needless side trips along the way. I have put Lowcountry Summer on my library reserve list; however, I see from many reviews that this follow-up to Plantation is getting some of the same bad reviews as did Return to Sullivan's Island. Sometimes, unless it is clear that the author set out to write a series, characters may be best served by our remembering them as we last knew them in print or as we, the readers, chose to imagine what happened next.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Fiction Scale)

Dedication: For Peter

First Sentence (from Prologue): This story I have to tell you has to be true because even I couldn't make up this whopper.

Personal note: Lavinia Boswell Wimbley took a fancy to the poetry of Rod McKuen.

Father's Day

2010-06-20T02:00:00.011-04:00

John Murphy, the original "Owl"

(Rockport, MA ~ October, 1965)

In one of the stars I shall be living.

In one of them I shall be laughing.

And so it will be as if all of the stars

were laughling when you look at the sky at night.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

The Deadly Dance by M. C. Beaton

2010-06-19T18:43:00.001-04:00

There are 20 books in the Agatha Raisin mystery series by M. C. Beaton (Marion Chesney). With The Deadly Dance, I now have read five--not in order. A double volume of the first two (Agatha Raisin and the Quice of Death and Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Pet) just arrived, and will be next up in my education on the life and times of Ms. Raisin.

What can we say about Agatha? You may like her, you may dislike her--either way, she's a bit addictive as a character. You want to know more about her and her men. You want to zero in on those characteristics that make her so very unlikeable--the same characteristics that keep her loyal friends close to her despite constant rebuffs and slights.

In The Deadly Dance, there is this one sentence that portrays Agatha to a fine point: "Dripping with sweat and bad temper, Agatha erupted into the entrance hall." Erupted: Yes, that's Agatha!

This fall, The Agatha Raisin Companion will be published in the UK. Early blurbs promise a celebration of all things Agatha--recipes, biographies, the Cotswolds, and, of course, Agatha's men. I'm just wondering about those recipes...those of you know know Agatha know that if it can't be microwaved, she doesn't cook it--not to mention the disasterous results when she does try to cook. How many kitchens have fallen prey to her attempts to cook a turkey?

The Deadly Dance--a quick, easy read and an enjoyable hour spent in the Cotswolds.

Rating: 3/5 (Mystery Scale)

Dedication: For Richard Rasdall of Stow-on-the-Wold, his wife, Lyn, and children, Luke, Samuel and Bethany, and with many thanks to Richard for freeing up Agatha's brain.

First line: The thing that finally nudged Agatha Raisin into opening her own detective agency was what she always thought of as the Paris Incident.

Seaworthy by Linda Greenlaw

2010-06-16T16:36:00.001-04:00

Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm, described Linda Greenlaw as "one of the best captains, period, on the entire east coast." Now, after ten years away from the helm, Greenlaw has gone to sea again and chronicles her return to the Grand Banks in Seaworthy - A Sword Captain Returns to the Sea.

From Publishers Weekly (via amazon)
After a 10-year hiatus from blue-water fishing, Greenlaw went cautiously to sea, seeking a payday and perspective on her life. Thanks to The Perfect Storm phenomenon (both book and film), she was celebrated as America's only female swordfish boat captain. She was now also a mother and an author who relished a new challenge, traveling 1,000 miles from her Maine home with an eager crew of four guys—three of them experienced sailing buddies—looking for swordfish on the 63-foot, six-and-a-half–knot steel boat Seahawk on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. It was a 52-day trip—and a sensational misadventure. Nearly everything that could go wrong, did, including her arrest for illegally fishing in Canadian waters. Greenlaw chronicles it all—a busted engine, a malfunctioning ice machine, squirrelly technology—with an absorbing mix of nautical expertise and self-deprecation. After inspecting the Seahawk, Greenlaw calls it rough, but stable and capable. Then she writes, "Although I was referring to the boat, I couldn't help thinking the same could be said of her captain." From mishaps to fish tales, Greenlaw keeps her narrative suspenseful. Between bad luck and self-doubt, she moves from experience to wisdom, guiding both crew and readers on a voyage of self-affirmation.

Passages
On returning to the sea
The obvious risks inherent in commercial fishing--like those to life, limb, and livelihood--are concerns of mere mortals. Real fishermen risk other things that are less easily explained. In my present situation, the risks involved in returning to something I'd once felt so passionate about were many and not as tangible as fears for personal safety or pocketbook. I risked falling out of love with fishing itself. I'm good at catching fish. Is this why I like to do it? What if I were to suddenly realize that I did not enjoy the hunt? What if I were absolutely turned off by blood and guts? What if my heart didn't race with the tugging of a fish on the line? And, God forbid, what if I'd lost the ability to catch fish? My entire identity and self-definition were at stake. Disillusionment, should it occur, would hit hard. The half-full glass was not my style. Perhaps the same scenario could be seen as enlightenment. Either way I spun it, learning the truth was worth the risk, I concluded.

On making decisions
Maturity can't hold a candle to youthfulness. Unless, I considered, it's a mental/emotional thing. This endurance test would certainly go beyond physical. Mentally I needed to be stronger and wiser. Decisions were once based on gut reaction. I'd often made the right decision for the wrong reason. I'd done things purely from the strength of knowing that I could. Now maybe I would be more thoughtful with the realization of the possibility that perhaps I could not. I hoped that the past ten years had taught me something. I must be smarter now than I was when I'd last captained a swordboat. But what about quickness of mind? Would I react to emergencies fast enough? I had always prided myself on my mental reflexes in the face of danger or disaster. I had always been confident beyond reason. Maybe it was healthier to be wiser, more mature, and less confident.

On swordfish (vs. clams)
When I say "I love swordfish," I am not necessarily commenting on them as a meal, although I surely do enjoy them in that capacity. Swordfish are the most interesting creatures! They are fascinating and intriguing in their unique combination of fish and sword--like a unicorn, but real. The facts and figures surrounding swordfish perhaps explain what makes them so worthy of my life-time pursuit of them. The speed at which they travel, the distances they cover in their migration, and their strength all contribute to the quality most frequently attributed to them, elusiveness. I can't imagine a life spent digging clams or trapping slime eels--they're just so...ordinary. What's to know about a clam? You traipse around the clam flats looking for holes in the surface of the mud. One hole, one clam, as my Aunt Gracie used to say. You see a hole, you dig, and you find a clam. Big deal. A clam does not possess the ability to dodge the digger. Swordfish, in contrast, are mysterious and challenging and sexy. You never hear stories about the giant clam that got away. Clams have no personality. You've seen one clam, you've seen them all.

On a relationship with fish
This game is a dance of sorts, or a collaboration. We, the fish and I, both have our jobs to do. Any given day it's a toss-up which of us is doing our job better. Sometimes I feel like a gallant saltwater cowboy busting broncos. Other times I just wait for my horse to be shot out from under me. Damn fish. I laughed to myself. Our relationship is weirder than any I'd had with humans of the opposite sex. And I'd had some weird ones.

On a sunrise
Darkness waded in cautiously and headed west. Hesitating waist-deep, then plunging into the murky chill, the diving night splashed light onto the opposite horizon, which swam like spawning salmon up the riverlike sky. The sun hatched as if it were a baby chick, pecking from within the shell until fully risen, yellow and warm, and as unsure as I was. Quite a grand entrance....

Ahhh phrases

Ripe and one sliver shy of full, the cantaloupe moon shone a flashlight beam along our path as we steamed east through the Gulf of Maine.

Far from worrying, I didn't have a care in the world as the Seahawk glided effortlessly along, bobbing slightly as if nodding her head or tapping a foot to some unheard music.

My mood wasn't made any lighter by the bickering that rose from below. The crew sounded like young brothers in the backseat on a long car ride.

When he sang a ballad about the hardships of life at sea and harsh treatment by superiors, I felt as transparent as the gal in "Killing Me Softly."

I am a fan of Linda Greenlaw's writing and have attended three of her book readings/signings. Each time as I sat in the audience, I marveled at the tenacity and strength of this seemingly slight woman standing in front of me. She fishes, hauls lobster traps, cooks, manages crews of salty fisherman (some loyal and hardworking; others, not so). And, she writes--from the most technical details on commercial fishing and seamanship, to the mysterious escapades of Jane Bunker, and finally to a turn of phrase about the moon or the ocean that causes you to stop reading and just be in the moment of that phrase.

Yes, if Linda Greenlaw writes it, I will read it.

Rating: 4/5 (Non-fiction Scale)

Dedication: This book is dedicated to the hardworking men of the Seahawk: Arthur Jost, Tim Palmer, Dave Hiltz, Mike Machado, and Nate Clark.

First line: The cell door closed with the mechanical, steely sound of permanence.

Books by Linda Greenlaw
THE HUNGRY OCEAN: A Swordboat Captain's Journey
ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS: True Adventures at Sea
THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES: Life on a Very Small Island

Jane Bunker Mystery Series
SLIPKNOT
FISHERMAN'S BEND

Co-written with her mother, Martha Greenlaw
RECIPES FROM A VERY SMALL ISLAND

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

2010-06-15T18:26:00.002-04:00

Heart of the Matter, the latest from Emily Giffin--what can I say? I had a coupon and the cover is purple, and so went my pledge to library more/purchase less.

From Booklist (via amazon)
Tessa Russo is celebrating her wedding anniversary with her handsome husband, Nick, a pediatric plastic surgeon, when his pager goes off. At the hospital, he meets his new patient, six-year-old Charlie, who has been badly burned while roasting s’mores. Charlie’s mother, Valerie, a high-powered lawyer who has raised Charlie on her own, is wracked with guilt. As Charlie goes through various grafts and surgeries to repair the damage done to his face and hand, Nick and Valerie become close. Tessa, a stay-at-home mom who has misgivings about leaving her professorship, recognizes the distance growing between her and Nick but isn’t sure what to attribute it to or what to do about it. The premise is a familiar one, but Giffin injects freshness by getting inside both Tessa’s and Valerie’s heads and by making both sympathetic, fleshed-out characters. Giffin’s talent lies in making her characters believable and relatable, and readers will be enthralled by this layered, absorbing novel.

Passages
On becoming your mother
On Sunday afternoon, Nick, Ruby, Frank, and I are shopping for Halloween costumes at Target--our idea of quality family time--when I realize that I've officially become my mother. It's certainly not the first time I have sheepishly caught myself in a "Barb-ism" as my brother calls such moments. For example, I know I sound like her whenever I warn Ruby that she's "skating on thin ice" or that "only boring people get bored." And I see myself in her when I buy something I truly don't want--whether a dress or a six-pack of ramen noodles--simply because it is on sale. And when I judge someone for forgetting to write a thank-you note, or driving a car with a vanity license plate, or, God forbid, chewing gum too enthusiastically in public.

On what women do (My comment: They do?)
...all women compare lives. We are aware of whose husband works more, who helps more around the house, who makes more money, who is having more sex. We compare our children, taking note of who is sleeping through the night, eating their vegetables, miding their manners, getting into the right schools. We know who keeps the best house, throws the best parties, cooks the best meals, has the best tennis game. We know who among us is the smartest, has the fewest lines around her eyes, has the best figure--whether naturally or artifically. We are aware of who works full-time, who stays at home with the kids, who manages to do it all and make it look easy, who shops and lunches while the nanny does it all. We digest it all and then discuss with our friends. Comparing and then confiding it is what women do.

My plot summary? Take a single mother with a badly injured child and mix with a somewhat happily married renowned pediatric surgeon. Toss in a the surgeon's wife who's wondering "is that all there is," and you have the Heart of the Matter.

While Giffin explored in depth the single attorney mother and the former college professor housewife and made each of these characters evoke sympathy from me, I felt some annoyance that the story never really got inside the doctor's head to understand what he was thinking and feeling.

Next time, I'll be strong and remember my pledge...or I'll just honestly admit that I may have aged out of this kind of story regardless of the come hither purple cover.

Rating: 2.5/5 (Fiction Scale)

Dedication: For Sarah, my sister and lifelong friend

First line: Whenever I hear of someone else's tragedy, I do not dwell on the accident or diagnosis, or even the initial shock waves or aftermath of grief.

Playlist
Lullaby of the Leaves, Vince Guaraldi
Unchained Melody, Righteous Brothers
Jupiter Symphony, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Johann Sebastian Bach
Night Swimming, REM
Sarah Smile, Hall & Oates
Beck CD (unspecified)
Georgia on My Mind, Willie Nelson version

Angel's Peak by Robyn Carr

2010-06-14T19:20:00.003-04:00

Angel's Peak by Robyn Carr was the June selection for the Barnes & Noble (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers group.

Product Description (via amazon)
Four years ago, Air Force sweethearts Franci Duncan and Sean Riordan reached an impasse. She wanted marriage and a family. He didn't. But a chance meeting proves that the bitter breakup hasn't cooled their sizzling chemistry. Sean has settled down in spite of himself—he's not the cocky young fighter pilot he was when Franci left, and he wants them to try again. After all, they have a history…but that's not all they share. Franci's secret reason for walking away when Sean refused to commit is now three and a half: a redheaded cherub named Rosie who shares her daddy's emerald-green eyes. Sean is stunned—and furious with Franci for the deception. News travels fast in Virgin River, and soon the whole town is taking sides. Rebuilding their trust could take a small miracle—and the kind of love that can move mountains.

Passages
Nothing flagged.

Interesting that while the reading group generally liked this latest installment in Carr's Virgin River series, we really tore the book apart and spent well over an hour hashing through the details--attention usually reserved for books we DON'T like! The book is 373 pages long; however, Sean and Franci's story is pretty well tied down and resolved on page 283. So why the need for almost another 100 pages? We felt information on the other characters of Virgin River was somewhat lacking in Forbidden Falls; however, Angel's Peak was more about catching up on everyone with Sean and Franci's story thrown in for good measure.

Moonlight Road, the August group selection, will be our final visit to Virgin River. We're all ready to pack up and hit the road for another town and new loves and lovers.

Rating: 3/5 (Romance Scale)

Dedication: For Beki Keene, who remembers every detail. Thank you for your lovely, committed, local friendship. I treasure every e-mail and visit.

First line: Once the sun sent down in Virgin River there wasn't a whole lot of entertainment for Sean Riordan, unless he wanted to sit by the fire at his brother Luke's house.