Family Reunion 2011

We had a lovely time with a good number of the families represented. The weather was very nice - for a change!

A part of the family  celebrating Bill's 80th!

If all had been able to come, there would have been twelve more of our children and grandchildren. 

Maybe next time!

HOOKED ON NOOK

I recently got a Nook for my birthday, and I'm saving the books I've downloaded to read on our trip to Alaska. We'll be away for fourteen days, and normally I would have at least ten books in my suitcase. Of course I wouldn't read them all, but I'd be sure to have something to read just in case the first five weren't exactly what I wanted to read! Now with the Nook I have seven books available, and can download new ones if necessary!!

My Nook also has the feature of getting my emails, so I won't be wondering what catalog has arrived - or maybe even an email from one of my children. I could even download some music from my iTunes and not take along my iPod! What riches! I'm very happy with my new toy.

This week - the week after our family reunion week - has been quiet. Almost too much so. I've started a new book after not reading for quite a while. I found it hard to get started on These Lovers Fled Away, by Howard Spring, but I'm enjoying it very much now. It is a comfortable story set in Cornwall and Yorkshire at the time of the Boer War and on into the 20th century. I love the descriptions of the countryside. Spring makes you really see what the moors, glens and all the flowers and animals look like. A lovely book - so far.

And the Last Two

I don't understand blogging. I saved the last reviews to come back to, but wasn't able to tack on the next two, so will start anew!

Two Rivers - t. greenwood - An involving story of a young widower with a twelve-year-old daughter. He is trying, but not very hard, to get over the death of his wife. He has loved her since they were twelve years old.
The book goes back and forth from the present to the past telling the story of Betsy and Harper and their growing up together, and the story of today when a train derails in the town of Two Rivers and brings a young pregnant woman into Harper's life. This was somewhat slow going in spots, but picks up the pace later in the story.

Mind's Eye - Hakan Nesser - And now for another Scandinavian mystery! This author also has a middle-aged, overweight and overworked Detective Chief Inspector. In this case he is Van Veeteren. He and his team set out to solve the murder of a beautiful teacher whose husband remembers nothing of the night in which she died. The case becomes more involved as the book progresses. Do they have the right suspect? Why would the victim become a victim? The twists and turns make this a good quick read.

The Rest of June

I've only read four more books this month. With a cousin reunion in California and preparing for our family get-together in early July, I found my reading taking place mostly late at night. Two of the books were passed on to my sister before I could form my thoughts about them, but I'll try to remember a bit about both.

Other People's Children - Joanna Trollope - A story about "extended families" and the repercussions when a parent marries, has children, divorces and then marries someone new who has also married, had children, divorced etc.  Following the lives of the children and the parents was sad, but I'm often what happens. I thought this was a good book, but as my husband says "Not a Jane Austen."

The King of Liars - John Hart - I found the plot of this mystery to be quite good, but the flowery prose left me very irritated. Hart seemed to be trying too hard with his descriptions of a woman crying. Why not just say she was crying instead of saying "silver tracks made their way down her cheeks." Maybe he is paid by the word because most of the book is filled with these things! But the story itself was okay...

MORE READING

I started this month with a bang – one good book after another - almost. The first had me “on the edge of my chair” from page one.

Blood Harvest – S. J. Bolton – This is the third of her books I’ve read, and by far the best. I had to stop reading every so often because it was so tense – but I had to go back almost immediately to see what was going to happen next!

The Fletcher’s new house – built between two churches in a small village – out to be paradise, but they’ve barely settled in before they find that someone seems to be trying to drive them away with increasingly dangerous threats targeting their oldest child, ten-year-old Tom.

Bolton has won various awards for her thrillers, and with good reason. She keeps you guessing and keeps you from reading late at night with her tales. Scary!!

Tomorrow River – Lesley Kagen – I bought this ARC from our book sale at the library because I had read one of her books before and liked it well enough. I had a hard time at the beginning hearing the “voice” of Shenandoah Carmody. Shenny and Woody are twin sisters living at Lilyfield – a beautiful home in the country, but Woody has become mute since their mother’s disappearance, and Shenny has to speak for both of them. The girls start searching for their mother with very little help from their father who has become a drunken, mean person, and not the loving father he had been. The search includes a varied group of friends of Shenny’s, but no one can really help her – or will. The family seems to disintegrate and Shenny faces many heartbreaking times ahead.

I See You Everywhere – Julia Glass – I liked The Three Junes when I read it several years ago, so looked forward to this new book. It was a book that held my interest, but I had a hard time identifying with the two sisters who tell the story in alternate chapters. Both Louisa and Clem are very flawed people, and not too fond of either each other or of their parents. Louisa has always been jealous of her younger sister, and through the years the jealousy continues. Early in the book is a chapter about a great-great aunt who is ninety-eight. Clem comes to be her companion for a summer. I could have read a whole book about Clem and her aunt Lucy! There are chapters about ecology and conservation that involve Clem, and chapters about art and Louisa, but overall the book doesn’t hold together very well – at least for me. Sometimes if felt as if I was reading a lot of short stories.

Now to see what the next book will be!

LOVELY JUNE – AT LAST

I think our weather may finally be improving. We seem to have some sunshine between rain showers, and that makes the rain less depressing. It has been a very wet spring, and now the snow in the mountains is melting and all the rivers are running high.

Our rhododendrons are in full bloom. The white ones have finished, but the reds and pinks are beautiful, and we have one small lavender that has two blooms. Some of the hydrangeas have beginning buds, so they may bloom eventually.

We planted some annuals in pots, and they look quite sad. Not enough sun to bloom, although there are lots of buds. Maybe by July!

I am reading a “thriller” and find I have to put it down after each chapter and take a break. It is very tense. Think of “The Turn of the Screw” and you will get some idea of what awaits you, if you read this book. I won’t give anything more away about it until I’m ready to write my review at the end of the month. A very, very good and frightening book!

MAY READING

The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott – Kelly O’connor McNees – This is a “what if?” story. McNees imagines what might have happened to Louisa May Alcott during the summer she was twenty-two. Did she fall in love? Might she have married instead of going on to write “little Women” and other books? It is an interesting imagining, and I really enjoyed reading more about the Alcott family and the times in which they lived. If I were rating books, this would probably get an 8/10. I did like it.

A Soft Place to Land – Susan Rebecca White – Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help, said “Book Clubs: This is your next pick. I loved this book.” So did I. When I began it I was afraid it was going to be too fluffy, but it has depth and brings quite a bit of history of our time into play. The two sisters in the story handle their lives quite differently, but stay close in spite of their differences.

As Always, Julia – Food, Friendship & the Making of a Masterpiece – Edited by Joan Reardon. What a fascinating book! Not only interesting letters written between two friends, but politics, gossip about people of note, government postings in various foreign lands and above all publishing, and the problems encountered in getting a book in someone’s hands. I read As Always, Julia as if the letters were arriving at intervals. I kept it by my spot on the sofa where I picked it up during the days over a period of four months and a bit. Julia Child and Avis Devoto didn’t even meet for several years after they started corresponding, but became close friends and confidants as the years went by. I wish I had been able to read this when I was younger and still enjoying cooking!

The More Deceived – David Roberts – “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” I wasn’t sure I was going to like this mystery because the cover seemed dated. “A murder mystery featuring Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne” – It is a very good mystery with spies and much history and historical figures from just before WWII. Lord Corinth is somewhat like Lord Peter Wimsey, but not pretending to be dim. The Spanish Civil War has a large part of the story, including the bombing of Guernica. Quite a good book.

The Tapestry of Love – Rosy Thornton – My daughter gave me this novel for my birthday this month, and I had read reviews of it in several blogs, so I dove into it right away. It is so good. This is the story of a woman leaving England to live in France in the mountains of Cevennes in her new home Les Finels – the haylofts. She meets and makes friends with her few neighbors, and starts up her business – making soft fabric covers for pillows, curtains and her real joy, needlepoint from designs in her mind’s eye. (What a talent – to be able to visualize a design and then execute it in silk thread!) Her son and her sister come to visit her, but she spends most of her time alone – and liking it. This is a very satisfying novel.

The Spice Box – Lou Jane Temple – “A historical mystery – with authentic recipes of nineteenth-century New Your City.” The time is during the Civil War. Bridget Heany, an Irish immigrant of twenty, is starting a new job as assistant cook in a very wealthy home owned by Mr. Gold. On her first day of work she discovers a body in the pantry. She and Mr. Gold set off to discover who the murderer was – and also look for Bridget’s sister who has been missing for several years. This is a simple story in many ways, but I enjoyed it – and the recipes in the back of the book might get a try-out someday.

Voices – Arnaldur Indridason – Erlendur is back with Elinborg and Sigurdur Oli to solve the next Icelandic mystery. This time it concerns the murder of “Santa Claus” – the doorman in a busy hotel in Reykjavik, who had been a boy wonder with his astounding voice - during the days leading to Christmas. Erlendur stays at the hotel, holed up in a small cold room, while the three work to discover more about the victim, and who wanted him dead. Erlendur meets a woman who gets him to talk about his solitude and why he can’t forget his brother who was lost in a blizzard. These are very low-key books, but very involving and interesting.

A Rare Interest in Corpses – Ann Granger – My friend, Kate, has introduced me to Ann Granger’s mysteries. It looks as if she found another winner. The story centers on Elizabeth Martin who has come to London as a companion to her god-father’s widow. Within hours of arriving she discovers her predecessor had eloped, but now things look as if she was actually kidnapped. Elizabeth and Inspector Ross work together to discover the person involved in the disappearance of the former companion to Aunt Parry. This is an old-fashioned “cozy” sort of mystery. Not too gory and not very suspenseful, but very readable.

This was a good month for reading. I only had one book I started and didn’t finish. The rest were all quite good. This week I decided that my bookshelves were too crowded, and I was buying duplicates because books were stacked two deep – so we bought another bookshelf for the bedroom. There are five in the room now! There are seven in the study, and one in the loft and one in the second bedroom. I hope I can read all the books some day – and even re-read a few that are favorites.