MONDAY POTPOURRI: MUSINGS…

It’s time to muse!  Join me and others over at Jenn’s Books and a Beat, and check out these prompts:

 

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought (received) the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Finish the sentence: “If _____ and _____ were to get together and write a book…”

***

I’m loving my current read, Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler.  I can’t think of any of her books I haven’t loved, but from the very first page, I felt connected to the MC Kate.

 

 

Pulitzer Prize winner and American master Anne Tyler brings us an inspired, witty and irresistible contemporary take on one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies…

***

Last week, I received these books:

 

Falling, by Jane Green (Amazon Vine)

 

 

 

***

Leave Me (e-book), by Gayle Forman (NetGalley – 9/6)

 

 

 

***

Kindle Prime:

Everything We Keep (e-book), by Kerry Lonsdale

 

 

 

***

Purchases:

 

The Girl You Lost (e-book), by Kathryn Croft

 

 

 

***

The Coincidence of Coconut Cake (e-book), by Amy E. Reichert

 

 

 

***

They May Not Mean To, But They Do (e-book), by Cathleen Schine

 

 

 

 

***

What did your week look like?  Stop on by and let’s chat…My book mascot Liberty (below) will join in.

 

***

TUESDAY POTPOURRI: EXCERPTING “NO ONE KNOWS”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Jenn, at Books and a Beat.

Today’s featured book is an e-ARC from NetGalley, to be published on 3/22/16:  No One Knows, by J. T. Ellison.

 

 

Intro:  (Aubrey – Nashville – Today)

One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five days after Joshua Hamilton went missing, the State of Tennessee declared him legally dead.

Aubrey, his wife—or former wife, or ex-wife, or widow, she had no idea how to refer to herself anymore—received the certified letter on a Friday.  It came to the Montessori school where she taught, the very one she and Josh had attended as children.  Came to her door in the middle of reading time, borne on the hands of Linda Pierce, the school’s long-standing principal, who looked as if someone had died.

Which, in a way, they had.

***

Teaser:  (Chase)

He tapped the keyboard again, pulling his notes together.  Cursed his naivete for thinking he could play fast and loose with his own reality. (49%).

***

Blurb:  In an obsessive mystery as thrilling as The Girl on the Train and The Husband’s Secret, New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison will make you question every twist in her page-turning novel—and wonder which of her vividly drawn characters you should trust.

The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared dead by the state of Tennessee should bring closure so she can move on with her life. But Aubrey doesn’t want to move on; she wants Josh back. It’s been five years since he disappeared, since their blissfully happy marriage—they were happy, weren’t they?—screeched to a halt and Aubrey became the prime suspect in his disappearance. Five years of emptiness, solitude, loneliness, questions. Why didn’t Josh show up at his friend’s bachelor party? Was he murdered? Did he run away? And now, all this time later, who is the mysterious yet strangely familiar figure suddenly haunting her new life?

In No One Knows, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Nicholas Drummond series expertly peels back the layers of a complex woman who is hiding dark secrets beneath her unassuming exterior. This masterful thriller for fans of Gillian Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Paula Hawkins will pull readers into a you’ll-never-guess merry-go-round of danger and deception. Round and round and round it goes, where it stops…no one knows.

***

What do you think?  Do these excerpts make you want to keep reading?  Let’s chat.

 

***

MONDAY POTPOURRI: COMPULSIVE BOOK BUYING DISORDER

The new header here (above) tells a story about me, my compulsions, my obsessions, etc.

The stuff of this blog.

While I do try to get as many review books as possible, to cut down on the compulsive book buying disorder…sometimes the books I want are just not available to me unless I buy them.

Of course, I could wait until they show up in the library.  Right?  Wrong.  I must read them as soon as possible!

A strange malady, this one.  Since I can download a new book…or ten…in any given month, and not read any of them for several months.

Which is why I am participating in Kathryn’s (Book Date) reading challenge:  Read the Books You Buy.  So that I can focus on reading the ones I bought that are lingering on my shelves.  So far this year, I have read and reviewed 15 books from those shelves.

 

Another fact:  This year, I have read FIVE books purchased in January and February.  The others have all been purchased some time between June to December 2015.

One of the ways I deal with my book buying urges is to bookmark them on Amazon instead of immediately buying them.

But then, at the beginning of each month, when I have more money in my account…I start downloading them.  Tomorrow, I plan to download this one, from a favorite author:

Somewhere Out There, by Amy Hatvany.

 

 

What happens when two sisters who were torn apart when their young mother abandoned them—and grew up in tragically different circumstances—reunite thirty-five years later to find her? For readers who love Jodi Picoult, acclaimed author Amy Hatvany fearlessly explores complex family issues in her gripping, provocative new novel.

***

From another favorite author, Lisa Scottoline, I have bookmarked Most Wanted, coming out on April 12.

 

 

Christine Nilsson and her husband, Marcus, are desperate for a baby. Unable to conceive, they find themselves facing a difficult choice they had never anticipated. After many appointments with specialists, endless research, and countless conversations, they make the decision to use a donor.

Two months pass, and Christine is happily pregnant. But one day, she is shocked to see a young blond man on the TV news being arrested for a series of brutal murders—and the blond man bears an undeniable and uncanny resemblance to her donor.

Delving deeper to uncover the truth, Christine must confront a terrifying reality and face her worst fears. Riveting and fast-paced with the depth of emotionality that has garnered Lisa Scottoline legions of fans, Most Wanted poses an ethical and moral dilemma: What would you do if the biological father of your unborn child was a serial killer?

***

Okay, now could you resist either of these books?  I love every book by these authors…and the rest of my bookmarked tomes are offerings from several other favorites.  Some I hope to get from NetGalley or Vine…but if I can’t, guess what I’ll be doing!  BOOK BUYING!

***

Do you have a similar compulsion?  Do you obsess about books you want to read?

***

MONDAY POTPOURRI: MUSINGS

Welcome to a Monday Potpourri in which I muse along with Jen at A Daily Rhythm.

Check out some possible topics:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

 

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What do you do with your books once you’ve read them?

***

I mostly read e-books, so when I finish them, I send them to the “cloud.”  No worries, they aren’t on shelves cluttering up things.

I do have some print books, and now that I’ve purged hundreds of those books in the past few months, they go on the shelves.  Here is my latest purged shelf, happily showing off a few books and some fairytale figurines.

 

***

I am currently reading The Crossing Places, by Elly Griffiths, Book One in the Ruth Dalloway series.  Loving it already!

 

 

 

Forensic archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties. She lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter—exactly like the ones about Lucy.

Is it the same killer? Or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to the site near Ruth’s remote home?

***

What are you musing about today?

***

MONDAY POTPOURRI: MUSINGS

Welcome to another Monday of Musings, hosted by Jenn, at a Daily Rhythm.  Last week, I rambled on about the past in Monday Ramblings: Past, Present, Etc.

This week, I am studying the list provided by Jenn, and I’m going to touch on a couple of topics.

 

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Do you review books? If so, who do you review for? If not, was it by choice? Why?

***

I am currently reading The Accident Season, by Moira Fowley-Dowd.  I purchased this one in August of this year, so it hasn’t been languishing on Pippa all that long.

 

 

I was drawn to the cover and blurb:

Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably and unavoidably accident-prone. Some years it’s bad, like the season when her father died, and some years it’s just a lot of cuts and scrapes. This accident season—when Cara, her ex-stepbrother, Sam, and her best friend, Bea, are 17—is going to be a bad one. But not for the reasons they think.

Cara is about to learn that not all the scars left by the accident season are physical: There’s a long-hidden family secret underneath the bumps and bruises. This is the year Cara will finally fall desperately in love, when she’ll start discovering the painful truth about the adults in her life, and when she’ll uncover the dark origins of the accident season—whether she’s ready or not.

***

I love secrets!  I hope to spend time reading this one today, although I am also caught up in my DVR recordings…

***

As for the Question of the Week:  I used to review books when authors requested it, and if the book appealed to me.  But nowadays, I only respond to the occasional author request, usually authors I have read and enjoyed.  I also review for Amazon Vine and NetGalley.

But I try to keep the numbers down…too many ARCs with impending deadlines drive me a little bit crazy.  I also like to read from the TBR list of  my books purchased.

I no longer accept reviews from unknown authors, and while that may not seem fair to those authors, I have been burned too many times.  I also don’t do blog tours…I don’t like the deadlines.

Yes, Vine and NetGalley have deadlines, too, but I can manage those.

***

What is your reading and reviewing like these days?

***

MONDAY RAMBLINGS: PAST, PRESENT, ETC.

Today my musings have taken me to the past…and here’s what I discovered.  Check in with Jenn, at A Daily Rhythm.

For the past few days, I have been searching my Archives, discovering little treasures from my early days on this blog.  Like the post in which I shared the photo and books above,  Odds, Ends…Ah, Potpourri.

The books were old favorites:  Marge Piercy’s memoir “Sleeping with Cats” is near the top of the stack, beneath a copy of “Open House,” by Elizabeth Berg.  And who could ever forget “The Golden Notebook,” by Doris Lessing.  I recall reading that in college.  I recently bought another copy from Amazon, because, despite my obsession with my books, I couldn’t find my original copy!

The  doll makes me think of Ireland, so she fits right into my Ireland Room, where I have hung several photos from my eldest, Craig, the Photographer.

***

In this next photo, I have placed an “Irish” doll next to one of his photographs: set in a cemetery. I have the photo in my bedroom.

The three-dimensional plate features an Irish cottage.

 

 

I still have the dolls, but the one in the top photo is packed away in a bin in the garage.  The dolls were overflowing into any empty spaces available.

Today I’ve been visiting blogs and thinking about the present, but while taking out my Thanksgiving decorations, I stumbled upon this old photo of three of my grandchildren, Alec, Aubrey, and Aaron…when they were much younger.  They are now 20, 18, and 17.  So I placed it in my office.

 

Here is a close-up:

 

***

And here are the Thanksgiving Jim Shore figurines, the search of which brought me to an unexpected place:

 

***

What are you musing about today?

***

ANTICIPATING THE BERLINERS’ RETURN! – MONDAY POTPOURRI

 

Good morning, and Happy Labor Day to all who celebrate it!

When I opened my front door this morning to retrieve the newspaper—and yes, I am subscribing again—I felt a cool breeze.  What fun!  So I then slid open the patio door to let the breezes in.  They won’t last long, of course.  But while I was there, I snapped the above photo, enjoying the play of light on the objects, and smiling a bit at the “weed” that thinks it is a tree.

Here is another shot from the patio door:

 

 

 

I swept and dusted the patio yesterday, in anticipation of the Berliners’ Return on Friday.  My DIL Gabi loves sitting out on the patio to read.  Even when it’s warm, as she loves our hot summers here, so different from the cooler climes in Berlin.

They are coming back on Friday!  After spending the week going down the coast of California, from SF to Morro Bay.

Last week, their car was stolen from the front of my ex-husband’s house….and so much sadness ensued.  But then it was recovered the next day, and surprisingly, it was intact!  While mourning the loss, my son had his head shaved…as you can see in this “happy photo” after the return.

 

 

 

The car is an oldie…they just needed something like this Honda to get them around for the three months they are here.  They will sell it before returning to Europe (Prague, this time).

Meanwhile, in anticipation of their return, I have cleared out the office again.  Note the filing cabinet, ready for some of their things, and the trunk, mostly empty…it will be shoved into the Nook when the sofa bed is open:

 

 

Stuff from the rest of the room ended up in here (below)…all the dolls are in a nearby closet.  Sorry, girls!

 

 

 

This week will involve a bit of cleaning and polishing, ready for more fun and frolic.

Meanwhile, I will read like crazy, knowing that next week will probably not be a reading week.

 

Today I’m reading The In-Between Hour, by Barbara Claypole White, which I am enjoying…but scarcely got into it over the weekend due to my Mad Men bingeing on Netflix.

 

 

 

 

***

What are your Labor Day plans, if today is a holiday for you?  Reading, bingeing, whatever?

***

MONDAY POTPOURRI: OBSESSING ABOUT “PHOEBE”

 

Some of you may know that I broke down and got an iPhone on Saturday, and after a few lessons from my granddaughter Fiona, I felt as though I could somehow learn how to use it.

Well, there have been frustrating moments…but then I started practicing with the texting…and sending photos via text.  I then moved to sending photos to my e-mail (like the photo above).

Here is a visual of my phone, as shown on Amazon.  I have named her Phoebe.  Or should that be iPhoebe?  I do love naming my devices.

 

 

 

While I was clicking away on Amazon, I ordered a stylus set, to help with my clumsy texting.

 

 

 

And while I was practicing my camera usage (and sending), here is a stack of goodies on my coffee table:  a book I’ll be reading next, and a box of chocolates I got for Christmas.  Talk about obsessions.

 

 

 

***

What new goodies are you obsessing about today?  Or are you perfectly normal, without any compulsions or obsessions?  LOL

***

MONDAY POTPOURRI: BOOKISH SPACES

 

This photo above, from Pinterest, is one of my favorite bookish spaces.

As much as I love being surrounded by books, especially when creatively arranged, as in this photo, I am committed to an ongoing book purge.  This shelf (below), is one of my favorites, and it is full.  So I am determined not to add more books to this shelf…unless I remove other books from it.

 

This is another favorite:  my son built it, and gave it a little shabby chic look.  I haven’t added any books to this shelf in a while, and want to keep it that way.

 

 

In my bedroom and in my office are several smaller shelves, and there are some in the hallway, too.  From these shelves, I am now regularly purging…and here is what I did Saturday.  I brought a box of books to the neighborhood library.  It was a fairly large box, and you can only see the top layer…but I felt very productive after unloading them.

 

 

Hopefully my ongoing purge will keep my shelves manageable.  I am also tossing out the ARCs regularly…and trying to order new books for Sparky.

Except for these two that are in print format and vying for The First Book Read in 2015, Sheila’s Challenge.

 

 

***

What do your bookish spaces look like?  Do you add to your shelves, or purge?

***

MONDAY POTPOURRI: I LOST MY HEAD!

As I sit here on a Monday morning, clicking away to visit blogs while sipping my coffee, I am madly writing down the titles of books I want…and then clicking over to Amazon.  Sometimes I bookmark them and return another day.

But at other times, I click the “deliver to Laurel-Rain Snow’s Sparky now” button!

Have I gone mad?

I do keep a list on Curl up and Read that shows my purchases, as well as review books received.  Would it surprise you to discover that, in May, I purchased 16 new books; in June, there were 14; and so far in July, 13?  And most of these are e-books.

It is too easy!

The “Sparky is hungry” excuse is probably not cutting it.  The worst part of it all…when will I read them all?  I’m still working on books I bought in 2013, under the guise of a Mt. TBR Challenge.

Of the 81 books purchased so far this year, I have only read and reviewed 23!

And yes, I have been busily reading review books and Mt. TBR books, and the paltry new books listed above, for a total of 102 read and reviewed so far.  Okay, must have another sip and a munch as I contemplate these numbers.

 

 

Should I be sitting on my hands instead of clicking to buy?  For a while, I did simply bookmark the pages, but then—suddenly, it seemed—my restraint was gone.  Shriveled.  As if I had lost my head.

 

 

Is there any hope?  What do you do to curb those impulses?  Or do you?  I definitely want to know!

***