For 3 weeks now we have been having issues with our DSL service. We are hoping/planning to switch to cable internet (and therefore, providers) this week. That should alleviate much of the issues with our connection.
I'm going to postpone the start of Summer Reading until... July 7th. That should give those participating enough time to get a copy of [insert your own personal drum roll effect] A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines.
Feel free to e-mail me at anytime: kylee [dot] books [at] gmail [dot] com It may take me a couple of days to access and respond to your e-mail (until our provider issues are resolved), but I WILL e-mail you back. =)
Apology
Game
I found this game at Reading Adventures. It looked fun so I gave it a go. It took longer than I though, but it was fun!
The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker. {Since there are 12 ?s I did a 3x4 like Marg did.}
The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name
Vacation!
Matt and I have been together for 3 1/2 years and haven't once taken a vacation; not even as a family. Thursday morning (early morning.... 5 o'clock in the morning!) the four of us (Matt, me and the girls) are going get into the car for a 5 1/2 hour drive to my mom and step-dad's house in Maine. I cannot wait. I have all these visions in my head of hanging out reading, peace and quiet. I'm sure it won't happen quite the way I see it in my head, but a girl can dream.
Those of you on my Notify Me list will not be getting an update e-mail this Friday. There isn't anything to update. =)
I posted my review of Meg Waite Clayton's The Wednesday Sisters earlier today. I was planning on offering the ARC as a raffle, but (due to an unobservant delivery man) it was left where it could get wet and it did. So, I'm planning on waiting until it comes out and buy a copy to raffle off.
I got my ARC of Farworld: Water Keep by J Scott Savage yesterday and I'm SO excited!
Back Monday!
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
Title: The Wednesday Sisters
Author: Meg Waite Clayton
ISBN: 978-0-345-50282-7
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Ballantine Books (division of Random House)
Price: $23.00
Release Date: June 17, 2008
Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton’s beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.I loved this book from the second paragraph. The book is mostly told from Frankie's point of view, but each of the other 'sisters' gets their turn. For reasons I will keep to myself for now (wouldn't want to spoil anything) I most identified with Ally. Though there was a connection with Frankie as well. I finished The Wednesday Sisters 4 days ago and those women are still with me and I think they will remain for quite awhile.
For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature–Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens–and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.
As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.
Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful, mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.
This isn't only a book about the relationships these women have with each other, but also about their relationships with BOOKS! Each of these women's favorite book has an influence on the way that they see life; the color of the glasses that color their world view.
Being that I was born in 1976, I was born after the main part of The Wednesday Sisters is finished. However, Meg Waite Clayton did a great job of giving the reader enough information to understand our culture at that time (1968 to 1974).
There are so many things that I want to say about The Wednesday Sisters, but I don't want to give away all of the best/juicy parts. This is a must read!
Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill by N.M. Kelby
Title: Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill
Author: N.M. Kelby
ISBN: 978-0-307-38207-8
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books (division of Random House)
Price: $23.00
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Take a slasher-movie actress, a Scottish circus clown, an FBI school dropout, a blind heiress, a junk-food-loving millionaire developer, and a Buddha-quoting bluesman, add a couple of murders in a normally sedate retirement community in south Florida, and you get an irresistible tale that’s part Carl Hiaasen and part Gabriel García Márquez. It all goes down as easy as a Key lime pie martini, the signature drink of the Bad Girl’s Bar & Grill.I have not read any of her other books so I cannot compare this to any of N.M. Kelby's other 3 books. This is one of the most refreshing mysteries that I have read in awhile. This is not one of the niche-cozies that seem to be everywhere (not that I don't enjoy those as well). Not that it doesn't have a food connection. Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill has it's own BBQ sauce. The characters are well written, the mystery is just that (she lets out just enough to keep you interested; keep you guessing).
N. M. Kelby’s last three novels have received glowing reviews in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, People, and the Atlantic Monthly. Carl Hiaasen has called her “a natural-born writer,” and Kirkus praised her “black humor that sizzles.” Sit back, put up your feet, and get ready to lose yourself in a rollicking good story.
Danni Keene slasher queen is an interesting protagonist. I mean that in a good way. I want to be her friend, I want to hang-out in her Tiki bar - drinking Key lime pie martinis (ingredients are listed in the book, but no recipe), even if I do have to wait until 'Wheel of Fortune' is over to have someone to sit next to. The Buddha-quoting bluesman, Jimmy Ray, is someone else I really enjoyed getting to know. Laguna Key itself is a character in this book.
Not only is the story inside terrific, but look at that cover! You can't tell me that those colors don't scream the Florida Keys. I will definitely look for Mrs. Kelby's other books and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel to Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill.
UPDATE: I found some Key Lime Pie Martini recipes online. Both of these use cream/heavy cream and the one in the book uses the kind in the can (like Reddi Wip)
Reminder
Don't forget: This is the final day to take the second survey for Summer Reading. As of now there is 1 book in front, but a 5-way tie for second place. I'm working on a 'button' for the Summer Reading group. {like the 2 in the right sidebar for "It's the End of the World" and "Weekly Geeks".
More other stuff
Yesterday was a great book day!
- When the mail came I had not one, but two (!!!) books waiting for me. My copy of Unholy Domain by Dan Ronco arrived. (read here to find out how this book fell into my lap) I may have to wait until the end of the week to start it though. I owe Enchanting Reviews a review of Anna's Secret before I leave them.
- The second book is Finn by Jon Clinch. I entered a contest on Shelfari and I was one of 50 winners!
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