TSS: ENJOY YOUR DAY! — MAY 26

Good morning to all those who enter!  Sunday Salon is our weekly gathering place….and a kind of respite from the week behind us.  What lies ahead?  What happened before?  That’s what we’re here to discover.

And to chat….we do love our beverages, like coffee, tea, or even mimosas.

First of all, I hope everyone had a great week.  I’m so out of it that I thought last weekend was Mother’s Day…I feel as though I lost a week in there.  LOL

My blogging week included these posts, among others:

Tuesday Potpourri:  Lusting After Books

Author Interview:  Ruth Francisco

Thursday Potpourri:  Not Hump Day, and Not Yet Friday

Sweet Saturday Sample (Excerpt):  The Guardian Angel

And for next week, watch for my guest post from Author Lisa Ellis, along with a review of Finding Lily — at Rainy Days and Mondays, on May 30 and 31.

Reading:Click Titles/Covers for Reviews:

1.  Don’t Go (e-book), by Lisa Scottoline

 

2.  Some Are Sicker Than Others(e-book), by Andrew Seaward

 

 

3.  The K Street Affair (e-book), by Mari Passananti

 

And I’m currently reading Sweet Salt Air, by Barbara Delinsky.  This book feels like a vacation from reading, from blogging, and from everything.  Interestingly enough, the two MCs are writing a cookbook, and one of them is a blogger.  Fun?

 

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Now…breakfast in bed, with movies!

Enjoy your day!  Come on by and let’s chat….

SERENDIPITOUS TUESDAYS: INTROS/TEASERS-MESSENGER OF TRUTH — MARCH 19

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

Today I’m sharing from Messenger of Truth, by Jacqueline Winspear, my first foray into the Maisie Dobbs series.

Intro:  Romney Marsh, Kent, Tuesday, December 30th, 1930

The taxi-cab slowed down alongside the gates of Camden Abbey, a red brick former mansion that seemed even more like  a refuge as a bitter sleet swept across the gray, forbidding landscape.

“Is this the place, madam?”

“Yes, thank you.”

The driver parked in front of the main entrance and, almost as an afterthought, the woman respectfully covered her head with a silk scarf before leaving the motor car.

“I shan’t be long.”

“Right you are, madam.”

He watched the woman enter by the main door, which slammed shut behind her.

“Rather you than me, love,” he said to himself as he picked up a newspaper to while away the minutes until the woman returned again.

Ooh….what do you think?  I’m feeling a chill here…..

***

Teaser:  Stratton allowed a few seconds to elapse, seconds in which Maisie was sure he was composing a response that would have been acceptable to his superiors, had he been called to account for his actions.

***

Amazon Description:  London, 1931. On the night before the opening of his new and much-anticipated exhibition at a famed Mayfair gallery, Nicholas Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police declare it an accident, but the dead man’s twin sister, Georgina, isn’t convinced. When the authorities refuse to conduct further investigations, Georgina takes matters into her own hands, seeking out a fellow graduate from Girton College: Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator.

The case soon takes Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, as well as the sinister underbelly of the city’s art world. She again uncovers the dark legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself in difficult times. But to solve the mystery of the artist’s death, she will have to remain steady as the forces behind his death come out of the shadows to silence her.

***

Now I’m eager to make the rounds and see what the rest of you are sharing…come on by and chat!

SERENDIPITOUS TUESDAYS: INTROS/TEASERS — THE ACCURSED — DEC. 4

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

Today I’m excerpting from an ARC from the Amazon Vine program:  The Accursed, by Joyce Carol Oates.

Intro:  (Prologue):

It is an afternoon in autumn, near dusk.  The western sky is a spider’s web of translucent gold.  I am being brought by carriage—two horses—muted thunder of their hooves—along narrow country roads between hilly fields touched with the sun’s slanted rays, to the village of Princeton, New Jersey.  The urgent pace of the horses has a dreamlike air, like the rocking motion of the carriage; and whoever is driving the horses his face I cannot see, only his back—stiff, straight, in a tight-fitting dark coat.

I’m not sure about this opener…but I will keep reading.

***

Teaser:  He didn’t like the tremulous way in which Wilson was staring at him, or the twitching motions of Wilson’s lips, that appeared caked at the corner with a powdery white substance.  p. 213

***

Amazon Description:  This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel ‘The Jungle’, has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community – elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated – until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset by a powerful curse. The Devil has come to this little town and not a soul will be spared. ‘The Accursed’ marks new territory for the masterful Joyce Carol Oates – narrated with her unmistakable psychological insight, it combines beautifully transporting historical detail with chilling fantastical elements to stunning effect.

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Now I’m eager to see what the rest of you are offering.

SERENDIPITOUS TUESDAYS: INTROS/TEASERS — SLIGHTLY CRACKED — NOV. 20

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

Today’s spotlight shines on Slightly Cracked, by Susan Whitfield.

Intro:  “I’m fixin’ to take him out.  I promise you Clayton’s mincemeat!”  Mackie Sue Beanblossom snatched her towel off the Butt Buster handle at The Second Wind Gym, flipped off her tortoise shell spectacles, and buried her pudgy sweaty face in it.

“Now, Sugar Babe, you need to calm down.”

“Don’t call me that, not ever again.”  Mackie Sue put both hands on her hips—never a good sign.

“Why not?  I’ve called you Sugar Babe most of your life,” came the Southern drawl from her best friend, Daisy, also overweight and patting sweat from a spill of cinnamon freckles across her cheeks and over the bridge of her nose.

“How dare him!  The very idea that Clayton would cheat on me.  And I’m exercising every day after work trying to keep my thighs and posterior tight so he can bonk a forty-something.”  Mackie Sue picked at a dark tufted mole on her chin and huffed up beside Daisy, who shook her head in bewilderment.

***

I’m very sure this is going to get funny, as well as dramatic, before long.  What do you think?

***

Teaser:  “My terminally white belly looks like a fanny pack since gravity got hold of it.  I’m built like a coffee mug with a large handle.”

***

Amazon Description:  Sugar Babe Beanblossom and Daisy Marie Hazelhurst are lifelong friends, sharing happy and sad times, enjoying outrageous antics, and enduring hot flashes. When Daisy gets sick, Sugar Babe encourages and protects her friend, and DRIVING MISS DAISY takes on a whole new meaning.

***

Now I’m off to check out your excerpts!

TSS: A PRODUCTIVE WEEK — AUGUST 12

Good morning!  Welcome to another Sunday Salon, our place to meet and talk books, blogging, etc.

In spite of triple digit heat and a week spent with my youngest grandson, I managed to get in some blogging and reading.

Over at Creative Journey, I posted my check-in for Row 80; at Snow Chronicles, I posted an excerpt from Interior Designs; and my Weekend Potpourri took us on a journey via photos, books, and movies.

Earlier in the week, I started watching a recording of the movie Gone with the Wind.

I read the book several times over the years, but haven’t yet managed to watch this four hour movie.

I watched about half of it, and plan to finish it today.

Yesterday I went to the theater to watch Hope Springs, with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.

Great movie!  Loved the awkward and funny moments that characterized the marriage for these two characters.  Both were absolutely at their best in their performances.  Nuanced and quiet moments showed the inside of a very ordinary marriage.

Books Read-Click Titles/Covers for Reviews:

Grace Grows, by Shelle Sumners

The Next Best Thing, by Jennifer Weiner

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple

Safe Within (e-book), by Jean Reynolds Page

***

What a week!  Hot, busy, but somehow productive.

Today I was planning to read a book from next week’s stack, but then this download arrived on Sparky, and greedily, albeit unexpectedly, I had to start reading it.  And when I finish it, I will have completed my A-Z Challenge, with the last letter of “Y” fulfilling that list.

You Are the Love of My Life, by Susan Richards Shreve.

So far, we’re in the era of Watergate and a young mother who also writes children’s books has just returned to Washington, D. C., to the home where she lived when her father died.

What does your Sunday look like?  Come on by and chat.

SERENDIPITOUS FRIDAYS: BOOK BEGINNINGS & THE FRIDAY 56 — JUNE 29

Welcome to some serendipitous fun today as we share Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and as we showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

Today is my first event since Monday.  I’ve been learning to navigate on my laptop, after many years on a desktop, and I must say, I’m not enjoying it!

So here goes:  Today I’m excerpting from Terminal Ambition, by Kate McGuinness.

About:  Maggie Mahoney wants justice for women at her law firm. 

                        The firm chairman wants to be Attorney General. 

                                          Only one can win in this legal thriller. Sweeny, Owens & Boyle sits at the top of Wall Street law firms. Brilliant and beautiful, Maggie Mahoney became a partner and the trophy wife of its managing attorney. Her husband’s death renders Maggie an outsider with the firm’s male establishment and creates a power vacuum.Obsessed with his dream of becoming the next Attorney General, firm chairman, Andy Anderson, chooses a surprising replacement: Jack Slattery, a reputed sexist. Jack’s background hardly qualifies him for such a prominent position. Maggie suspects Jack has something on Andy, but what is it? Forced to become a sleuth, she stages a break-in to gather evidence.Andy’s ambition drives him to desperate measures. With proof of misconduct in hand, Maggie demands justice, but it comes at a high price.

***

Beginning:  August 16, Saturday

Maggie Mahoney

Maggie Mahoney bit back a smile at her client’s frustration.  She’d watched Wade Johnson coolly negotiate deals worth billions of dollars, but he had just been shut down by their helicopter pilot, a grizzled Vietnam vet called Stoney.  Shaking his gray ponytail, Stoney gave the same response to each of Wade’s offers:  “Not worth it.”

***

56:  Bull’s practice and his sympathies lay with management.

***

That’s it for today!  Now I’m ready to visit some blogs!

TSS: NO FOOLIN’, IT’S A GOOD DAY! — APRIL 1

Good morning, Sunday Saloners, and welcome to another weekend chat.  Grab some coffee or favorite beverage, and let’s talk about our weeks.  And Happy April, and I’m not foolin’ about that!

As many of you know, we’re doing Bloggiesta this weekend.  You can still join in, if you haven’t yet.  Just click the link to take you to Suey’s place and have fun!

My focus has been over at my Curl up and Read site; but I’ve also meandered over to a couple of other sites, too.

While I was scurrying around at Curl up and Read, I managed to post my March Reading Wrap-Up.

You can also find some assorted posts around, beginning with Thursday Potpourri, followed up by Another Cozy Mystery at Chocolate & Mimosas; then I did a Weekend Potpourri.

I managed to have lunch out with a friend this week at The Elephant Bar, one of my favorite neighborhood places.

 

So now let’s talk book reading for the week!  Click the titles or covers for Reviews:

1.  Good-Bye and Amen, by Beth Gutcheon

2.  Lone Wolf, by Jodi Picoult

3.  Witch Woman (e-book), by Jeanette Baker

 

***

I could blame Spring, or Bloggiesta…for not finishing my fourth book, but I’ll be reading it today.

The Secret Garden is one I missed out on in childhood, but downloaded it recently as a free classic.

I also plan to watch some more movies today.  I started what felt like a marathon yesterday and really got into the groove of it.  What are you planning for today?  I hope you’ll stop in and share….

 

 

TSS: READING,WRITING, & LIFE — MARCH 4

Welcome to another Sunday Salon, our cozy reading room where we gather around with our coffee, tea, or other favorite beverage.

Sometimes we chat about our lives during the week; we definitely talk about books; and blogging is right up there in our thoughts.

I was just over at Sheila’s Sunday Salon, and she reported that Bloggiesta is coming!  Yay!

Remember that event?  It’s been awhile, but it’s a great time to do blog changes, repairs, etc.  Here’s the sign-up link.  Thanks, Sheila!

Now…let’s chat.

This week, I had some fun on the blogs.  I pondered some questions in Serendipity?  Fate? Choice?

Then I created my February Reading Wrap-up.  I had a pretty good reading month, despite the shortness of it.

On one of my writing blogs, I excerpted from my WIP Defining Moments, in Life Changing Moments.

Since I haven’t been as focused on my writing lately (it’s editing/tweaking time!), I wrote A Writing Journey — What Drives Us?

Meanwhile, I took some moments for life…and spent a couple of days with my granddaughter Fiona.  We did a little shopping, watched some movies…and had a lovely brunch at Mimi’s.

I know…I went there last week, too, I think…lol

But someone mentioned egg white omelets and I was drooling.  And Mimi’s is just around the corner.

So now let’s talk about books.

Books Read/Reviewed-Click Titles for Reviews:

1.  7th Heaven, by James Patterson/Maxine Paetro (Women’s Murder Club) (Quick and riveting)

2.  Marilyn Monroe, by Barbara Leaming (A very sad, detailed read)

3.  Unbroken, by Jamie Lisa Forbes (Review will be up during blog tour – 4/10/12, at Rainy Days and Mondays.

Today I’m reading Alice in Bed, by Cathleen Schine, and so far, it’s kind of unusual, but it’s drawing me in.

And that’s my week!  What was yours like?  Did your books transport you, or simply plod along?  What’s up next?

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY — THE RED BOOK — FEB. 15

Welcome to another edition of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine.

Each week, we share our excitement about upcoming books, and visit everyone else to see what they’re celebrating.

Today I’m spotlighting The Red Book, by Deborah Copaken Kogan, a book dubbed “The Big Chill meets The Group.”  To be released on 4/3/12.

The Big Chill meets The Group in Deborah Copaken Kogan’s wry, lively, and irresistible new novel about a once-close circle of friends at their twentieth college reunion.

Clover, Addison, Mia, and Jane were roommates at Harvard until their graduation in 1989. Clover, homeschooled on a commune by mixed-race parents, felt woefully out of place. Addison yearned to shed the burden of her Mayflower heritage. Mia mined the depths of her suburban ennui to enact brilliant performances on the Harvard stage. Jane, an adopted Vietnamese war orphan, made sense of her fractured world through words.

Twenty years later, their lives are in free fall. Clover, once a securities broker with Lehman, is out of a job and struggling to reproduce before her fertility window slams shut. Addison’s marriage to a writer’s-blocked novelist is as stale as her so-called career as a painter. Hollywood shut its gold-plated gates to Mia, who now stays home with her four children, renovating and acquiring faster than her director husband can pay the bills. Jane, the Paris bureau chief for a newspaper whose foreign bureaus are now shuttered, is caught in a vortex of loss.

Like all Harvard grads, they’ve kept abreast of one another via the red book, a class report published every five years, containing brief autobiographical essays by fellow alumni. But there’s the story we tell the world, and then there’s the real story, as these former classmates will learn during their twentieth reunion weekend, when they arrive with their families, their histories, their dashed dreams, and their secret yearnings to a relationship-changing, score-settling, unforgettable weekend.

 

What are you waiting for?  I hope you’ll stop on by and share…..

TSS: MORE CHANGES AHEAD — FEB. 5

Good morning, Sunday Saloners!  Are you awake?  Had your coffee?  Well, grab a cup, and let’s chat about our weeks.

First off:  what do you all think about the mandatory timeline coming to Facebook this next weekend?

Are you excited?  Rolling your eyes?  Wondering what they will change next?

Well, when I heard, I must admit I wasn’t happy.  I have visited a few pages with timeline and…well, sort of got lost.  The page seems to have too much STUFF.

But, since it’s coming, I decided to jump the gun and create mine.  I’m in control that way…right?

So…any thoughts?

Meanwhile, my week hasn’t been outstanding, but not too bad, either.  I read three books.  But the good news…they were all from my Old TBRs, which are now numbering in the thirty-somethings.

Here’s My Week in Review-Blogging:

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI-JOURNEYS

JANUARY READING WRAP-UP

DAWN IRELAND:  WHO IS SHE & WHAT INSPIRED “HOT CHOCOLATE”?

 

My Reading Week- Click Titles for Reviews:

1.  Atonement, by Ian McEwan

2.  Jonathan’s Story, by Julia London

3.  The Importance of Being Kennedy, by Laurie Graham

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I’m really happy to have cleared three books off my Old TBRs (the ones that have been around for YEARS!).

Today I’m reading a book from next week’s stack…getting a jump start on the week.  And it’s really good so far.

Rainshadow Road (a Friday Harbor book), by Lisa Kleypas

 

Isn’t that a lovely cover?

So what are you reading/watching/doing today?  What are your thoughts about the upcoming week?  I’d love to know….