These are two of my favorite books both to read (She is HILARIOUS) and for the FABULOUS watercolors!
Besides that it just makes you feel good to open them up again, and again, and again. There are books that I buy that I look at once and never open again. But not these babies! They sit on the side of my bed and are revisited often like an old friend.
The author Vivian Swift is delightful and talented and has a wry wit - my kind of gal!
Summer for me is a time to find a cozy chair and read ...
I must say I LOVE MY NOOK - never thought I would say those words as I love the feel and smell of books (which I will always buy) but for the amount of books I read - novels that is - the nook is so great for carrying them around and having it in my bag whenever I want to read a few lines. I always have several books going at once so this really works for me.
Right now on my Nook ...
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Anthropology of an American Girl
Lowcountry Summer
The House at Riverton
A Vintage Affair
This is one of the best books I have read in awhile - and I read A LOT of books. I actually downloaded off of audible and listened to it - and must say it was the best reading I have heard - it really makes the book come to life - I didn't want the story to end.
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
So far I have finished 4 books on the trip and yes, yes, bought countless more ...
But for the moment here is the Review - in my humble opinion
**** Rosie by Ann Lamott - fabulous - wonderful writing - went and purchased the only the other they had on the shelves here - the blue shoe - starting it tonight - and yes went and ordered 3 others off of Amazon.
*** Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen - nice story - enjoyable read - very warm view of books in one's life - definitely do not judge a book by its God Awful Cover - for cryin out loud it looks like a harlequin romance novel!!
* Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs - Don't bother
**** The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein - lovely novel - well written and lyrical - think memoirs of a geisha meets Georgia O'Keefe.
I will leave you with this from the Sugar Queen - when one of the character's is asked why they have so many books that are unread and that they keep buying more - why? The answer is that they are like family or old friends in the house they are a comfort company for loneliness
I couldn't agree more ...
A trip to B&N ( Barnes and Noble that is) resulted as always in too much money being spent but alas in my opinion you can never have too many books! So the results were these
a schmultz book - for fun and laughs Little Pink Slips
,
The Billionaire's Vinegar -a book of intrigue and wine - for richness,
A Photographer's Life - Annie Leibovitz (one of my favorite photographers of all time(
a photo book - for art's sake
and some books for the boys ....
The Boy's Doodle Book - for creative imagination and fine motor skills
The Candy Shop War - for reading's sake - Gosh darn those Stinky Boys I want them to love reading gosh dangit! - I guess I will bribe them with some Legos if I have to.
*** Pet peeve - you read a review of summer reads in a magazine and go to get them - BUT THEY aren't released until AUGUST! What's up with that!
This is my latest stack of books - I kind of have been saving up for summer - you know those long glorious days when you sit on the beach all day with a glass of ice tea til the sun goes down and read - HA HA HA! It is more like - hope the kids will wake up late this summer and have some peace in the morning and while they are occupied on our annual trip to Priest Lake where there is no tv and video games but just simple quiet time. Ok who am I kidding my boys are not quiet but you get my drift. So here is the latest tomes -
Belong to Me
Comfort food
The Sugar Queen
Run
I was told there'd be cake
Mermaids in the basement
the way the crow flies
A Horse of Course
Dog- O- Pedia
What is in your stack?
A trip to the Book Store - Novels, and art books, and magazines - Oh My! Here are some of my finds.
Somerset Life
Somerset Digital Studio
Altered Curiosities by Jane Wynn
Collage. assemblage and altered art
The Third Angel - Alice Hoffman
The Art of Seeing - Cammie Mcgovern (this month's book club pick)
Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri ( one of my favorite authors)
Now to some this may not look like bliss but for me it is a luxury. Our family goes to Mammoth Mountain every year for the week after Christmas til after New Years to ski. I also get time to do things I usually don't have time for - like this little project. I have been buying magazines and keeping a stash just for this. My idea is to take last years desk calendar (which I love btw as it looks like a vintage ledger) and cut out my favorite images and make a sort of journal out of it.
Here is the lovely journal and pics of the inside - you can purchse this years (already have of course and several for my friends) from amazon here
In Tune with Nature: 2008 Desk Calendar
Many Many luscious mags filled with eye candy.
