December 2011

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!

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

"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

...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

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

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

Intrigued!

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

...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

...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

...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

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

...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

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

...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

...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

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

...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

...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

...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!

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

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.