BOOKISH THURSDAY #26: SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS

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.

 

 

My foodie excerpt today comes from I Found You, by Lisa Jewell, the story of a single mum, Alice Lake, who finds a nameless man outside her house on the beach.

 

In this excerpt, Alice’s friend Derry has come over for tea and a chat, with her son Danny.  They talk a little about the man Alice found, and then they prepare tea.

 

Derry and Danny stay for a couple of hours.  The little ones play in the living room while Derry and Alice sit in the kitchen and drink tea.  Jasmine returns at four o’clock, soaked to the skin with a wet rucksack full of GCSE coursework, no coat and no umbrella.  Kai comes back at four thirty with two friends from school.  Alice makes spaghetti for tea and Derry stops her opening a bottle of wine on account of her having to go home.  She and Danny leave at six o’clock.  It is still raining.

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Spaghetti sounds good, but it would have been better with the wine…sigh.

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My TBR book today is Dream Lover, by Elizabeth Berg, a book I bought in April 2015.

 

 

I don’t know why I haven’t read this one, because I love this author.  Perhaps it’s the historical element that has put me off.  Here’s the synopsis:

 

At the beginning of this powerful novel, we meet Aurore Dupin as she is leaving her estranged husband, a loveless marriage, and her family’s estate in the French countryside to start a new life in Paris. There, she gives herself a new name—George Sand—and pursues her dream of becoming a writer, embracing an unconventional and even scandalous lifestyle.

Paris in the nineteenth century comes vividly alive, illuminated by the story of the loves, passions, and fierce struggles of a woman who defied the confines of society. Sand’s many lovers and friends include Frédéric Chopin, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugène Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Marie Dorval, and Alfred de Musset. As Sand welcomes fame and friendship, she fights to overcome heartbreak and prejudice, failure and loss. Though considered the most gifted genius of her time, she works to reconcile the pain of her childhood, of disturbing relationships with her mother and daughter, and of her intimacies with women and men. Will the life she longs for always be just out of reach—a dream?

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It sounds good, doesn’t it?  I think it’s a buried treasure that I must bring out.  What do you think?

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• My week has gone by fast, as usual, with triple digits again;
• I had a dental appointment, and will have two more before the treatment is done.  I’m not a fan;
• My daughter is on her cruise this week; she left last Thursday, so she may be home tomorrow.  Here’s a photo she sent from the ship.  It looks like they’re having fun;

 

• I finished The Truth-Teller’s Lie, from Sophie Hannah; what a great and twisty novel.  (Click title for my review);

 

 

 

• Currently I’m reading Siracusa, an electrifying novel about marriage and deceit from bestselling author Delia Ephron that follows two couples on vacation in Siracusa, a town on the coast of Sicily, where the secrets they have hidden from one another are exposed and relationships are unraveled.

           Alternating narrators tell the tale, and we get to see the secrets and flaws of each character, and although I’m loving the story, I am not fond of any of the characters.  Especially the one child, Snow, who is spooky strange.

 

 

• Today I watched another episode of Vexed on Netflix, and I think I might just abandon it.  The two detectives are kooky and a little inept, which doesn’t work for me in the long haul;
• I switched over to Parenthood.…and then decided to watch an Amazon Prime video, Shattered, with Gerard Butler and Maria Bello, two parents who are held at gunpoint by Pierce Brosnan, while a woman cohort has abducted their child;
• Now I plan to watch American Gothic on TV, a show that I inadvertently got addicted to, while not planning to watch more than the first episode;

 

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That’s it for this week….what has yours been like?  Lots of iced tea kept me hydrated on this hot day.

 

 

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