FRIDAY POTPOURRI: FILLING THE SHELVES — JULY 26

 

Despite my recent purges, I continue to add new books to my shelves.  Soon I will have to build shelves around the doors, like in the photo above.

But then I remind myself that the reason behind the purges was to make more room for books!  Yay!

Here are some books soon wending their way to me from Vine.  I could not resist!

Amy Falls Down, by Jincy Willet, is the story of an aging novelist (I can relate!) with writer’s block and recent unsettling events.

 

Amy Gallup is an aging novelist and writing instructor living in Escondido, California, with her dog, Alphonse. Since recent unsettling events, she has made some progress. While she still has writer’s block, she doesn’t suffer from it. She’s still a hermit, but she has allowed some of her class members into her life. She is no longer numb, angry, and sardonic: she is merely numb and bemused, which is as close to happy as she plans to get. Amy is calm.

So, when on New Year’s morning she shuffles out to her backyard garden to plant a Norfolk pine, she is wholly unprepared for what happens next.

Amy falls down.

A simple accident, as a result of which something happens, and then something else, and then a number of different things, all as unpredictable as an eight-ball break. At first the changes are small, but as these small events carom off one another, Amy’s life changes in ways that range from ridiculous to frightening to profound….

 

Then I’m eager for the new Wally Lamb book, We Are Water.  It’s been eons since I last read this stunning author.

 

 

After 27 years of marriage and three children, Anna Oh—wife, mother, outsider artist—has fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her success. They plan to wed in the Oh family’s hometown of Three Rivers in Connecticut. But the wedding provokes some very mixed reactions and opens a Pandora’s Box of toxic secrets—dark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohs’ lives.

We Are Water is a layered portrait of marriage, family, and the inexorable need for understanding and connection, told in the alternating voices of the Ohs—nonconformist, Anna; her ex-husband, Orion, a psychologist; Ariane, the do-gooder daughter, and her twin, Andrew, the rebellious only son; and free-spirited Marissa, the youngest. It is also a portrait of modern America, exploring issues of class, changing social mores, the legacy of racial violence, and the nature of creativity and art.

 

And finally…Necessary Lies, by Diane Chamberlain, is a book I preordered, but since it is available on Vine, I’m getting it sooner.  Like next week!  Yay!

 

 

 

After losing her parents, fifteen-year-old Ivy Hart is left to care for her grandmother, older sister and nephew as tenants on a small tobacco farm.  As she struggles with her grandmother’s aging, her sister’s mental illness and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can give.

When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County’s newest social worker, she doesn’t realize just how much her help is needed.  She quickly becomes emotionally invested in her clients’ lives, causing tension with her boss and her new husband.  But as Jane is drawn in by the Hart women, she begins to discover the secrets of the small farm—secrets much darker than she would have guessed.  Soon, she must decide whether to take drastic action to help them, or risk losing the battle against everything she believes is wrong.

Set in rural Grace County, North Carolina in a time of state-mandated sterilizations and racial tension, Necessary Lies tells the story of these two young women, seemingly worlds apart, but both haunted by tragedy.  Jane and Ivy are thrown together and must ask themselves: how can you know what you believe is right, when everyone is telling you it’s wrong?

 

***

 

I would clear out even more shelves, if necessary, to accommodate new books like these.  Do you have any books you’re excited about?  Do tell….

 

Here are some empty shelves waiting!

 

 

 

 

 

THURSDAY POTPOURRI: A BONANZA OF GIFTS IN THE MAILBOX — MAY 30

Today has been lovely.  Not that hot yet, but just right.  Spring-like, and I approached the mailbox with a “spring” in my step, feeling quite sure that I would receive at least one goodie in the box.

Imagine my surprise to receive a bonanza of three books and one pair of pants that I’d ordered.

Two Vine books and one author review request:  Lovely!  And the ARCs all had their pretty covers on….that always makes me happy.

Coming Clean, by Kimberly Rae Miller, is a story about recognizing where you come from and understanding the relationships that define you. It is also a powerful story of recovery and redemption.  Yes, my first “hoarder” book of the year…I think.

Flora, by Gail Godwin, is a darkly beautiful novel about a child and a caretaker in isolation; it evokes shades of The Turn of the Screw and also harks back to Godwin’s memorable novel of growing up, The Finishing School. With its house on top of a mountain and a child who may be a bomb that will one day go off, Flora tells a story of love, regret, and the things we can’t undo.It will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.

I know I’ve written about ordering these two books from the Vine newsletter….but I couldn’t resist sharing their arrival.

This next book I haven’t mentioned anywhere yet, as I didn’t know that I’d be getting it for sure. 

Innocent Little Crimes, by C. S. Lakin.

Six naïve guests plus revenge served cold equals a recipe for disaster…

Lila Carmichael may be a rich and famous comedienne, but she’s hidden her greatest talent from her adoring fans–her ability to simmer, spice and serve a carefully constructed tour de force at a cozy reunion on her private island in the Pacific Northwest….

The Pacific Northwest is one of my favorite novel settings.  Seattle is gorgeous, despite all the rain, or maybe because of it….plus the islands evoke such mysterious feelings.  The isolation alone hooked me, the first time I visited one of them.  And who doesn’t love that feeling of being all alone in the world, completely cocooned in a special little nest?

What are you enjoying on this last Thursday in May?

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MONDAY POTPOURRI: MUSING ABOUT A BOOK I HAD TO BUY! — APRIL 1

Good morning and welcome to another Monday Potpourri, in which we must about bookish things.  Click on over to Should Be Reading to find the other participants.

Here’s our list of topics:

Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

***

Today I’m going to chat about a book I recently purchased.  I’ve been drawn to it for awhile, and even requested it from the library, but even after several other books came in for me, this one still eluded me!  So when I saw it on Kindle on Saturday, I downloaded it onto Sparky.

The Good House, by Ann Leary, has a tantalizing blurb.  And I have read and enjoyed this author in the past.

Now a New York Times Bestseller!

How can you prove you’re not an alcoholic?

You can’t.

It’s like trying to prove you’re not a witch.

Hildy Good is a townie. A lifelong resident of an historic community on the rocky coast of Boston’s North Shore, she knows pretty much everything about everyone. Hildy is a descendant of one of the witches hung in nearby Salem, and is believed, by some, to have inherited psychic gifts. Not true, of course; she’s just good at reading people. Hildy is good at lots of things.  A successful real-estate broker, mother and grandmother, her days are full. But her nights have become lonely ever since her daughters, convinced their mother was drinking too much, staged an intervention and sent her off to rehab.  Now she’s in recovery—more or less.

Alone and feeling unjustly persecuted, Hildy needs a friend. She finds one in Rebecca McCallister, a beautiful young mother and one of the town’s wealthy newcomers. Rebecca feels out-of-step in her new surroundings and is grateful for the friendship. And Hildy feels like a person of the world again, as she and Rebecca escape their worries with some harmless gossip, and a bottle of wine by the fire—just one of their secrets.

But not everyone takes to Rebecca, who is herself the subject of town gossip. When Frank Getchell, an eccentric local who shares a complicated history with Hildy, tries to warn her away from Rebecca, Hildy attempts to protect her friend from a potential scandal. Soon, however, Hildy is busy trying to cover her own tracks and protect her reputation.  When a cluster of secrets become dangerously entwined, the reckless behavior of one threatens to expose the other, and this darkly comic novel takes a chilling turn.

THE GOOD HOUSE, by Ann Leary is funny, poignant, and terrifying. A classic New England tale that lays bare the secrets of one little town, this spirited novel will stay with you long after the story has ended.

***

How could I resist it?  Come on by and share your thoughts….

SATURDAY POTPOURRI: BLOG ACTIVITIES & READING — MARCH 23

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on this sofa today, reading and watching shows on my DVR.  But I’m also in my office spiffing up some blogs for Bloggiesta.  Check out my plans.

Over at Curl up and Read, I’ve been doing a makeover.  I changed the theme and header (of course!); I uncluttered my sidebar just a bit, updating some of the widgets.

And I’ve been lurking at other bloggers’ sites, trying to find great ideas.

My reading this week has taken an odd turn. Usually I stick to my planned list of reads, occasionally adding a book that wasn’t on the list.

But this week, not only did I add a book, I’ve changed another one completely.  I won’t go into detail about the book I’ve abandoned, but suffice it to say that I just wasn’t connecting to it.  Maybe later.

Meanwhile, I’m enjoying this one:

Ctrl Z, by Danika Stone

There’s a connection brewing between Indigo, the female protagonist, and a computer techie named Jude (think “Hey Jude”).  There is going to be some hacking, I’m pretty sure.  I’m only 50 pages into it so far, interrupting myself periodically to do some blog stuff.

I’m also eagerly anticipating a new book I’ve ordered that should arrive in the mail today…but if not today, surely on Monday.

Lucky Me, by Sachi Parker (Shirley MacLaine’s daughter), was a book I wasn’t certain I wanted to read.

I hope this is not going to be a whiny diatribe of her mother’s choices….but even so, I’m looking forward to the photos.

I’m also expecting two new Amazon Vine reads:

The Time of My Life, by Cecelia Ahern

Lucy Silchester keeps receiving this strange appointment card and sweeping its gold embossed envelope under the rug. Literally. She busies herself with a job she doesn’t like, helping out friends, fixing her car, feeding her cat, and devoting her time to her family’s dramas. But Lucy is about to find out that this is one appointment she can’t miss, when Life shows up at her door, in the form of a sloppy but determined man.

Life follows her everywhere – from the office, to the bar, and to her bedroom – and Lucy learns that some of the choices she has made and the stories she has told aren’t what they seem. Now her half-truths are about to be revealed, unless Lucy tells the truth about what really matters to her.

***

And Life After Life, by Jill McCorkle (I’m also soon getting the book by the same name by Kate Atkinson)

Award-winning author Jill McCorkle takes us on a splendid journey through time and memory in this, her tenth work of fiction. Life After Life is filled with a sense of wonder at our capacity for self-discovery at any age. And the residents, staff, and neighbors of the Pine Haven retirement center (from twelve-year-old Abby to eighty-five-year-old Sadie) share some of life’s most profound discoveries and are some of the most true-to-life characters that you are ever likely to meet in fiction.
There’s retired third-grade teacher Sadie Randolph, who has taught every child in town and believes we are all eight years old in our hearts; Stanley Stone, a prominent lawyer, now feigning dementia to escape life with his son; Marge Walker, the town’s self-appointed conveyor of social status, who keeps a scrapbook of every local murder and heinous crime; Rachel Silverman, recently widowed, whose decision to leave her Massachusetts home and settle at Pine Haven is a puzzle to everyone but her; C.J., the pierced and tattooed young mother who runs the beauty shop; and Joanna Lamb, the hospice volunteer who discovers that her path to a good life lies in helping people achieve good deaths. As each character 
begins to connect with another, the mysteries and consequences of their lives are revealed. What they eventually learn about themselves and one another will profoundly transform them all.

***

I think I’m in for a treat!  So what books are you eagerly awaiting?  What weekend plans are consuming your time?

As a nod to spring, I’ve changed from my dark nail polish to this lavender shade: (Please overlook the weird, wrinkly knuckles!  lol).

TUESDAY POTPOURRI: A MORNING WITH BOOKS, COFFEE, & THE DVR — FEB. 19

Yesterday was one of those stay-at-home days; because of the holiday, I didn’t even go to the post office.  Just the supermarket for supplies.

But today I’m getting an early start so I can mail things.  First I’m enjoying some coffee in one of my favorite mugs.  Note the stack of books ready to go out to giveaway winners.

In my restlessness yesterday (that’s what happens when I stay at home!), I did some more rearranging of the entry/dining area space.

In this photo below, note that the wicker loveseat is once again up next to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf.  From the dining room, you can see the angled sofa table and the little dropleaf table where I pay bills.

Earlier I was blogging my Teaser Tuesday meme….and finding new books to add to my list.  But before that, I woke up in the middle of the night to keep reading Evil at Heart.  And then had nightmares when I went back to sleep.  EEEEK!

Now I’m going to finish watching my favorite TV shows that are on my DVR from last night:  Switched at Birth, The Carrie Diaries, Monday Morning, The Following, Deception, and Castle.  Yes…a lot of shows for one night!

I watched Dallas live.  Love that show!  Here are my thoughts about the show over at Chocolate & Mimosas, my “guilty pleasures” blog.

What is going on in your world on a Tuesday?  Busy things?  Relaxing?

 

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI: SHOWCASING AN AUTHOR, HER BOOKS, & MY PLANS FOR THE DAY — AUGUST 29

Welcome to another Hump Day Potpourri, with some creative explorations….along with a new book I’ve downloaded on Sparky.

Today I posted an interview over at my group blog, featuring Author Carol Kilgore.  After reading about her writing, her life, and what’s up next, I had to check out her first book.  I downloaded it.

In Name Only is the story of one young woman’s quest for home and connections.

 

No home. No family. No place to hide. For Summer Newcombe, that’s only the beginning.

The night Summer escapes from a burning Padre Island eatery and discovers the arsonist is stalking her, is the same night she meets Fire Captain Gabriel Duran. As much as she’s attracted to Gabe, five years in the Federal Witness Security Program because of her father’s testimony against a mob boss have taught her the importance of being alone and invisible.

No matter how much she yearns for a real home, Summer relinquished that option the night she killed the man who murdered her father. But Gabe breaks down her guard and places both of them in danger. Summer has vowed never to kill again, but she’s frantic she’ll cost Gabe his life unless she stops running and fights for the future she wants with the man she loves.

***

Have you acquired any new books lately?  Books that you couldn’t wait to read?

***

I’m spending the day indoors as triple digit heat sweeps over the valley.

How do you beat the heat?

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: BOOKISH TREATS COMING SOON! — AUGUST 17

 

Welcome to another Friday Potpourri!  Today I’m chatting about books that are coming my way, via Amazon Vine.  I do love getting that wonderful newsletter full of choices.

Both books were on my wish list, so woo-hoo!  I’m going to enjoy.

Love Anthony is another delightful story from Lisa Genova.

Olivia Donatelli’s dream of a “normal” life shattered when her son, Anthony, was diagnosed with autism at age three. Understanding the world from his perspective felt bewildering, nearly impossible. He didn’t speak. He hated to be touched. He almost never made eye contact. And just as Olivia was starting to realize that happiness and autism could coexist, Anthony died.

Now she’s alone in a cottage on Nantucket, separated from her husband, desperate to understand the meaning of her son’s short life, when a chance encounter with another woman facing her own loss brings Anthony alive again for Olivia in a most unexpected way.

Beth Ellis’s entire life changed with a simple note: “I’m sleeping with Jimmy.” Fourteen years of marriage. Three beautiful daughters. Yet even before her husband’s affair, she had never felt so alone. Heartbroken, she finds the pieces of the vivacious, creative person she used to be packed away in a box in her attic. For the first time in years, she uncaps her pen, takes a deep breath, and begins to write. The young but exuberant voice that emerges onto the page is a balm to the turmoil within her, a new beginning, and an astonishing bridge back to herself.

In a piercing story about motherhood, autism, and love, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova offers us two unforgettable women on the verge of change and the irrepressible young boy whose unique wisdom helps them both find the courage to move on.

And When She Was Good is another promising read from Laura Lippman.

Perennial New York Times and nationally bestselling author and acclaimed multiple–prize winner Laura Lippman delivers a brilliant novel about a woman with a secret life who is forced to make desperate choices to save her son and herself.

When Hector Lewis told his daughter that she had a nothing face, it was just another bit of tossed-off cruelty from a man who specialized in harsh words and harsher deeds. But twenty years later, Heloise considers it a blessing to be a person who knows how to avoid attention. In the comfortable suburb where she lives, she’s just a mom, the youngish widow with a forgettable job who somehow never misses a soccer game or a school play. In the state capitol, she’s the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record.

But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she’s the woman of your dreams—if you can afford her hourly fee.

For more than a decade, Heloise has believed she is safe. She has created a rigidly compartmentalized life, maintaining no real friendships, trusting few confidantes. Only now her secret life, a life she was forced to build after the legitimate world turned its back on her, is under siege. Her once oblivious accountant is asking loaded questions. Her longtime protector is hinting at new, mysterious dangers. Her employees can’t be trusted. One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, a suicide. Or is it?

Nothing is as it seems as Heloise faces a midlife crisis with much higher stakes than most will ever know.

And then she learns that her son’s father might be released from prison, which is problematic because he doesn’t know he has a son. The killer and former pimp also doesn’t realize that he’s serving a life sentence because Heloise betrayed him. But he’s clearly beginning to suspect that Heloise has been holding something back all these years.

With no formal education, no real family, and no friends, Heloise has to remake her life—again. Disappearing will be the easy part. She’s done it before and she can do it again. A new name and a new place aren’t hard to come by if you know the right people. The trick will be living long enough to start a new life.

***

What exciting books are coming your way?  What are you reading and loving right now?  Come on by and share….

 

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI: HAPPY DAYS AHEAD! — JULY 25

When book lovers think of delightful and happy days ahead, it usually involves a book we’re eager to read.

For awhile, I’ve been drooling over this one….and because it’s payday today, I ordered it for Sparky.  Yay!

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, is a tale of a marriage gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Marriage can be a real killer.
One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.

Don’t you want to read it right now?

Other books coming soon on Sparky:

You Are the Love of My Life, by Susan Richards Shreve is from an author I enjoy.  Plus…it will satisfy the “Y” title in my A-Z Challenge…lol

It is 1973 and Watergate is on everyone’s lips. Lucy Painter is a children’s book illustrator and a single mother of two. She leaves New York and the married father of her children to live in a tightly knit Washington neighborhood in the house where she grew up and where she discovered her father’s suicide. Lucy hopes for a fresh start, but her life is full of secrets: her children know nothing of her father’s death or the identity of their own father. As the new neighbors enter their insular lives, her family’s safety and stability become threatened.

Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You, by Joyce Carol Oates. (Coming August 21, 2012)

It wasn’t like she had not warned us.

It wasn’t like she had not prepared us.

We’d known that something was wrong those last several months.

But then, Tink hasn’t actually vanished. Tink is gone, and yet—she is here somewhere, even if we can’t see her.

Tink? Are you—here?

***

What new books are on your horizon?  What other treats are coming soon?

Bookish Delights

THURSDAY POTPOURRI: A WISH THAT CAME TRUE! — JUNE 21

You know the saying:  Be careful what you wish for.

Well, sometimes wishing can lead to good things, too.  In yesterday’s Hump Day Potpourri, my eagerly anticipated book (on Kindle) was due to release in 2/2013.  I preordered it, expecting to wait quite awhile.

I heard from Patty, at Books, Thoughts, and a Few Adventures that it was already out in hardcover.

Guess what?  I opened Sparky (my Kindle) this morning to find it there.  Already!  Tumbleweeds has a gorgeous cover, and the blurb captivated me when I read it.

How did that happen?  Did wishing bring it to me faster?  Well, I seriously doubt that, but I’m willing to accept the “gift” of a wish come true.

While thinking about wishes, I’m reminded of guilty pleasures from the past.  This morning, I wrote at Chocolate & Mimosas about Another Guilty Pleasure.

Actually, the post includes a couple of them…and poses the question about what “floats your boat” these days.

That expression alone is a blast from the past.

When the days bring heat at ever early hours, we have to grab our pleasures where we can find them.  And in my fridge is a large pitcher of iced tea…just waiting.

Another arrangement of the space where I curl up to read….

 

The big sofa is still angled, but the love seat is now in a different position.  Will I ever stop rearranging this space now that I know I can?

What I’m reading now:  Gone to Ground, by Brandilyn Collins.

What are you reading?  And what do your pleasures look like today?

 

MONDAY POTPOURRI: MUSINGS — LONGEST BOOKS — JUNE 11

Welcome to Monday Potpourri.  Today’s event is Musing Mondays, hosted by Should Be Reading.

Prompt:

What is the longest book you have ever read? How long did it take you to read it?

Wow, that’s quite a question!  I know that I did read the whole Bible when I was a teenager, and can’t remember how long it took.

Another long one was Gone with the Wind, and again…I don’t know how long it took, since I read it in high school, sandwiched in between homework, school, etc.  But I do recall that I read it about three times!  On Amazon, it lists the number of pages as 960…I do recall the book I read had more than 1,000 pages.

I bought it a few months ago so that I could reread it.

I also read Forever Amber in high school; Amazon shows 976 pages.  Again…sandwiched in between other activities.  I can barely remember high school…lol; but I do remember reading those two books, along with many other favorites.

I almost forgot:  War and Peace, at 1296 pages and Atlas Shrugged, at 1200.

Nowadays, when I have a chunkster to read, I usually read it only occasionally, in between other books.

What about the rest of you?  What’s your largest chunkster?