Welcome to Thursday, a day that once seemed lost, with nothing exciting happening anywhere. But then that changed, and today I am celebrating some of the bookish events around the blogosphere, like Lexxie’s Thirsty Thursday & Hungry Hearts; Kimberlyfaye’s TBR Thursday; and Christine’s Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts.
Today I’ll be featuring two books: One True Loves, by Taylor Jenkins Reid, for its foodie snippet, and the other, The Shadow Tracer, by Meg Gardiner, because of the length of time it’s been on my TBR.
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For Thirsty Thursday & Hungry Hearts:
In this scene, Emma is finishing up dinner with her family, ready to celebrate her dad’s sixty-fourth birthday:
The cake arrives, we all sing loudly, and my father turns beet red. Then the servers turn away and we are left with an oversized piece of chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.
The waitstaff left five spoons but my father immediately grabs them all. “Not sure why they left so many spoons. I only need one,” he says.
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The Shadow Tracer has been on my stacks since August 2014. Why have I waited so long? Here’s the blurb. Tell me what you think. Have you read it?
Sarah Keller is a skip tracer, tracking criminals who have gone on the lam. She’s also a single mother to five-year-old Zoe, living quietly in small-town Oklahoma—until an accident sends Zoe to the ER, and their life changes in a heartbeat. Medical tests reveal a desperate secret Sarah has been hiding for years: Zoe is not her daughter, but rather a girl once rescued from a nightmare of murder, vengeance, and harrowing family ties she can’t possibly remember. Sarah does. And someone wants to make sure she never forgets.
Now Sarah must abandon her carefully constructed life and take Zoe on the run. Using her knowledge as a skip tracer to stay off the grid, she must remain one step ahead of her pursuers if she is to stay alive, save Zoe, and bury the past once and for all.
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I am liking the sound of this one!
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Let’s share some Bookish (and Not So Bookish) Thoughts:
- It has been another busy week, although a little bit cooler than the triple digits we were enduring. I got a new office chair from Amazon Vine, so my granddaughter put it together for me on Saturday. But first, we had lunch at Chevy’s;
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- See the newly rearranged nook (with my roll top desk). In last week’s Bookish Thursday, I shared photos of my reshuffling;
- Today, the new bench arrived…I had ordered it to go with the little drop leaf table I had moved from the office nook. My granddaughter put it together, too, although I might have been able to manage this one. But I like having an excuse to enjoy an afternoon with her;
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- My reading has been fairly slow this week. I finished The Girls on Monday (click for my review), but I’m still plodding along with my second book, Tuesday Nights in 1980;
- This weekend, a Mini-Bloggiesta has come around again, and I’ve already started doing my “improvements” on my Curl up and Read site.
- I’ve finished Season II of Revenge, on Netflix...looking forward to Orange Is the New Black’s Season IV;
- My eldest grandson turned twenty-one on Monday! Below is a photo of him taken a few months ago on the terrace of his dad’s place in Hollywood. During the school year, he is at University of California at Berkeley, where he will be starting his senior year in August;
- That’s pretty much all I have to share today, except that it’s hot, even at 10:00 p.m.! Here’s the margarita I had on Saturday at Chevy’s. Enjoy the rest of your week!
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SERENDIPITY 
I liked the birthday cake scene from One True Loves 🙂 Nice pic of your grandson – such exciting times ahead for him. Hope the temps come down soon!
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Thanks, Mary, I liked that scene in One True Loves, too, and I’m eager to keep reading.
I can’t believe that the little baby boy pictured on one of my collection of mugs is now a grown-up! Yes, it happened gradually, but so quickly. But he is delightful as a young man, too, no bias here, of course. lol
It has been cooler here, but it is supposed to go up again this weekend. Thanks for stopping by.
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I’ve just started The Girls and really enjoying it so far. You mention plodding along with Tuesday Nights – I got bogged down a little with this one but know that it does pick up. In the end, I found it an odd book – I thought some aspects of the story were really well written and others seemed a bit underdone.
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Yes, even though I ended up enjoying The Girls, Kate, looking back I realize that nothing was very intense. It all seemed a bit underwhelming, considering what had happened. Perhaps because the narrator was reflecting on events rather than living through them. Thanks for stopping by.
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What a nice looking young man your grandson is! And spending some time with your granddaughter arranging stuff sounds like a fun afternoon! I loved the cake scene and I definitely understand. I’m not a dessert sharer! If anything I’m a dessert stealer.
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Thanks, Katherine, I enjoyed the nice break from the usual routines…and I always love spending time with Fiona…or any of the other grandkids, like Alec, pictured, who is away most of the time. We are having a get-together soon. Thanks for stopping by, and I don’t like to share desserts either! lol
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