Sunday Notes on Monday So long 2013

It is hard to believe that 2013 will be over at midnight tomorrow. Personally I am glad, I have no problem saying goodbye to the year.  It just seems that years that end in an odd number aren't as much fun as those that end in an even year.  That's a ridiculous statement but none the less I will stick with it and hope that 2014 turns out to be a good one.

So if you have been reading my blog by now you know that  every Sunday I play this little game with myself. On Sunday the first section that I read of the Washington Post is the Outlook section, it contains the book section. I go to the last page and read the Washington Bestseller list. This week the bestseller list focused on paperbacks but it alternates between paperbacks and hardcover. You can check my scoring system on the May 6th post. 

I met my goal this week having read 3 out of the ten but the books on the list were not that exciting.  I did manage to add one to my must read list Where'd You Go, Bernadette. I am always glad when I can add a new book to my must read list.  Lucky for me that list never grows any shorter. I would be lost without a good book to read.

This week I am finishing up the book Deadline by Sandra Brown.  I have read several of her books and I like her.  This book has a mystery, some murders,  a suicide or was that a murder too and of course a little romance. It is always good to have a little chemistry going between characters.  So look for that post mid week.  Two books that I have in my reading queue are Tell The Wolves I am Home which by the way is for my book club this month and The Final Cut which is written by Catherine Coulter.  If you have been reading my Blog I have talked  about her books before and enjoyed them.  Again they contain mystery, adventure, murder and chemistry. 

So I leave you all by saying have a safe New Year's Eve and a Healthy and Happy New Year. And to all of you who have been reading my blog thank you.  Have a great year!

 

Phyllis Richman. You go Girl!

If you are from the Washington DC area and have been around for awhile and you read the Post or if you just happen to read the Washington Post than most likely you have read or heard of Phyllis Richman.  Until 2000 she was the food critic for The Post and I remember reading her reviews. Being in the food industry at the time I looked forward to and loved her column.  If she gave a thumbs up to a restaurant than most likely that restaurant would do well.  Thumbs down, oh my not good.  I often went to check out a restaurant that she gave a good review and she pretty much was spot on. 

Recently, while reading the Washington Post I came across this article about Ms. Richman which I really loved.  In 1961 she applied to Harvard.  Harvard wrote her a letter about how she planned, as a woman to balance her time at Harvard and her family obligations. Shame on Harvard but I guess that is what women faced at the time.  It took fifty two years for Phyllis to respond.  The response was brilliant and I say GO GIRL!. What boundaries the women before us faced and to all of them I say thank you.

Follow the link below to read the article.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/answering-harvards-question-about-my-personal-life-52-years-later/2013/06/06/89c97e2e-c259-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html

The Longest Ride

I have read several Nicholas Sparks books.  In fact I keep coming back to his books.  Why?  He rights human emotion so well.  If you read The Notebook you know what I mean. Once I started reading I couldn't put the book down and of course I cried at the end.

The longest ride in this book is a metaphor for one journey in life.  Ira is a man who is in the later stages of his life.  His wife died and he is on his own.  He set out in his car one wintery night and end up in a ditch after miscalculating a curve.  He is badly hurt, pinned behind the steering wheel unable to move.  He is hurt, he is cold and he wonders whether this will be the end for him.  His wife Ruth appears next to him and they start to "talk"  about their life together.

Meanwhile the author switches to a young couple at the beginning of their relationship.

If you like Nicholas Sparks books you will like this one.

Happy Holidays.  A Happy and Healthy New Year!

Sunday Notes

So if you have been reading my blog by now you know that every Sunday I play this little game with myself. On Sunday the first section that I read of the Washington Post is the Outlook section, it contains the book section. I go to the last page and read the Washington Bestseller list. This week the bestseller list focused on hard covers but it alternates between paperbacks and hardcover. You can check my scoring system on the May 6th post.

You know me and hard covered books, I usually  wait until the book comes out in paperback or I download them onto my kindle.  Two books that are on the list this week are Sycamore Row and The Goldfinch.  I have downloaded both onto my kindle.  My problem, I have about six other books on my reading list first.  This week catch my post on The Longest Ride.  I am also reading Deadline by Sandra Brown so look for my post on that soon.  Surprisingly I did read one book on the list Inferno. Can't go wrong with a Dan Brown book.

This week and next things should be slamming busy with the holidays and being on call but I am taking the first full week of January off and looking forward to a staycation.  That means more quality reading time for me.  So I am checking my list and checking it twice to see which books will make my staycation list.  I can hardly wait.  Have a great week and happy reading.

     

Candlelight Christmas

Another Hallmark script.  He is a divorced dad trying to spend as much time with his young son as possible.  He has dated other women but has not found THE WOMAN.  She is a freshly divorced woman who is taking a respite from relationships.  She had loved her husband but alas he cheated on her and left her. His sister, which happens to be her best friend, just happens to get them together.  This happy meeting takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Oh Joy!  I can tell you no more.

Gourmet Rhapsody

Once again I have chosen a book where the main character is an arrogant self centered individual.  He is what he has deemed in his mind "The King of the Table".  He is the best food critic in Europe and elsewhere, at least in his mind, who has had the ability to make or break an eating establishment by using his words. He loves no one except perhaps himself and feels no remorse for this lack of feelings.  The things he does love is himself and food.  And as he lays dying he thinks not of people he has met, lovers he has been with or his relationship with his family but of a food or the taste of something that he can not seem to place and it is driving him crazy.

I find the main characters obsession with food very frightening.   Food has never been my friend.  I have lived on a diet all my life and to have someone who lives to eat with such great abandonment  as he does is scary. Actually I find it repulsive  which in a way is I think what the author might be trying to say.  Just my opinion.

This book loosely fits into my foodie series.  While there is no food in the title, the main character talks about food in great deal.  In fact the descriptions are so detailed that you can almost see and smell them yourself.  You almost can taste them yourself.  That is how amazing the writing is.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is the other book written by this author and if you haven't read that book I highly recommend it.  It was a well written book with a great story and great characters.  This book is the pre-quell to that book and is also well written.  What I find especially great is that both these books were written in French but are translated by someone who really understands both languages well.

Sunday Notes

So if you have been reading my blog by now you know that  every Sunday I play this little game with myself. On Sunday the first section that I read of the Washington Post is the Outlook section, it contains the book section. I go to the last page and read the Washington Bestseller list. This week the bestseller list focused on paperbacks but it alternates between paperbacks and hardcover. You can check my scoring system on the May 6th post. 

I hit pay dirt this week having read five out of ten of the books on the list. I have read the top two, Dark Witch and Notorious Nineteen and the bottom three, The Christmas Wedding, Ender's Game and To Kill a Mockingbird. I always like when I go above 30%.

This week I will be blogging about the book Gourmet Rhapsody.  I found this book fascinating.  It is all about a food critic whose whole life is food.  Food is ecstasy beyond all else and he has shut everything else out of his life.  The author also wrote the Elegance of the Hedgehog and if you were to ask me which book I liked better it would have to be Elegance of the Hedgehog.  The characters in this book set in France were written so well.  I am also finishing up The Longest Ride so take a look at that when I post it.  As always have a great week!

Orange Is The New Black

She was young, fresh out of college.  She had no idea what she wanted from her life, no direction.  She was unclear about her sexuality.  She gets involved in a lifestyle and people who just happen to be enmeshed in drug trafficking.  She did not willingly run drugs or drug money she was coerced into it and when she realized what was going on desperately tried to distance herself from the situation She thought she had until one day federal agents came knocking at her door and she ended up in jail. 

Even if the jail is known as Camp Cupcake, I can't imagine what it would be like to be in jail. But this author had enough experiences to write about and to have a cable TV show so in the end, I think she came out of the experience OK.  Don't you think?

 

 

 

The Happiest Season

Can you say Hallmark Movie?  This book is part of my holiday book quest. A widow and her five year old son are home baking cookies for a Holiday party when the little boy starts screaming there is a camel in their back yard.  Maggie the Mom ignores the commotion thinking the camel is a figment of her son’s imagination.  Here’s the thing there is a camel in the backyard.  Maggie immediately calls 9-1-1.

Mr.  Hunkey donkey Police Officer John shows up at her door a little skeptical about the whole camel thing when low and behold the camel.  I didn’t mention it was not hump day it was Friday.  As you can imagine there is an instant attraction between the two and the Holiday becomes happier for both of them and the five year old who just happened to ask for a Dad for Christmas.

Sunday Notes on Monday

So if you have been reading my blog by now you know that  every Sunday I play this little game with myself. On Sunday the first section that I read of the Washington Post is the Outlook section, it contains the book section. I go to the last page and read the Washington Bestseller list. This week the bestseller list focused on Hard covers but it alternates between paperbacks and hardcover. You can check my scoring system on the May 6th post. 

As is usual with the hard cover list, I have not read any of the books on the list.  It is pretty typical since I usually do not buy hard cover books so I generally have more success with paperbacks.  The books that I am in the midst of reading are Orange is the New Black a non fiction book about a women who goes to prison for running drugs.  It's an easy read and I will get back to you when I finish.  My holiday reading choice this week is Candlelight Christmas.  In case any of you have read any of Susan Wiggs Lakeshore Chronicles, this is one in that series. Also on my list is the Nicholas Sparks book, The Longest Ride.  I am a sucker when it comes to Nicholas Sparks and my all time favorite of his is The Notebook.  I sat and read that book in a few hours.  Putting it down with out finishing it was not an option.

Going to go curl up on the sofa, watch the snow fall and read my book.  Have a great week everyone.

   

The Husband's secret

Secrets are a funny thing.  Once you know someone’s secret you cannot stop thinking about it or ignore it.  It doesn’t matter whether it is a good secret or a bad one.  It is always there.  You know it and the person whose secret it is knows it as well. Dealing with the secret is another matter.  Do you keep it to yourself or do you share it with someone? Sometimes knowing someone’s secret is a burden that feels like at times it is going to crush you.

I seem to have picked two books in a row that deals with peoples’ secrets.  In The Dinner family members shared the burden of a secret amongst themselves trying to rationalize what it meant and also trying to figure out how to deal with it.

In The Husband’s Secret, wives have to deal with what they have learned.  Cecelia finds a letter from her husband when she is up in the attic looking for something for her daughter.  The letter falls out onto the floor.  It is addressed to her and is from her husband to be opened in the event of his death.  He is very much alive and she wrestles with the idea of opening the letter now.  It is so tempting.  What should she do?

Tess thinks she is in a happy marriage until one day her husband comes to her with a confession.  Her world shatters and she packs up her son and leaves the house.  The separation from her husband gives her time to really examine herself and actually discover things about herself.

How does the book end?  You will have to read it.

Nothing Better than Mac and Cheese

When it comes to food, I am such a kid and so easy to please.  Three things that always put a smile on my face are grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza and macaroni and cheese. In the macaroni and cheese category while I might go to the box of Kraft macaroni and cheese in a pinch, it is not the really the real deal.

 I have a friend who makes the real deal.  His macaroni and cheese is so good it brings tears of joy to my face just thinking about it.  It is oozes cheese.  I can’t talk about it anymore because I am getting too emotional.  It is that good.

But there are many variations on this amazing dish and while perusing the internet I found these.  So enjoy!

http://www.delish.com/recipes/cooking-recipes/grown-up-mac-n-cheese#slide-1

Starry Night

This is book two in my holiday reading quest.  For those of you who are familiar with Debbie Macomber this is more of the same.  You have a hunky reclusive he-man Finn living in Alaska who has written a wildly successful book called Alone and that is how he wishes to stay.  Many reporters have tried to grab an interview with him but have not succeeded. 

Carrie is the society writer for the Herald.  It's been ok to write this column but she wants something more meaty.  She goes into her bosses office to turn in her resignation and try her luck elsewhere when he proposes something she can not resist. Get an interview with Finn and she can write any article she wishes. Can you say dream come true.  Off she goes to Alaska and finds Finn and there is a lot of Snap Crackle Pop that is not only coming from the fireplace.  

The book is corny but it does have that holiday feel.  If I hadn't been able to finish it quickly I would not have finished it. 

 

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Sunday notes on Monday

So if you have been reading my blog by now you know that  every Sunday I play this little game with myself. On Sunday the first section that I read of the Washington Post is the Outlook section, it contains the book section. I go to the last page and read the Washington Bestseller list. This week the bestseller list focused on Hardcovers but it alternates between paperbacks and hardcover. You can check my scoring system on the May 6th post. 

Wow what a crazy weekend.  Did a little black Friday shopping.  Hope I got a few good deals.  Amazon had some great deals on ebooks.  Picked up a couple of those and I will keep you posted. Looked at the list of paperback bestsellers and I met my goal.   I have read three of the books starting with the book sitting in the number one spot, Dark Witch by Nora Roberts.  It is not surprising that this book is sitting in the number one slot.  Nora Roberts has a huge fan base.  I usually am one of those fans but lately I find her books a little boring and a lot predictable. This book is part of a trilogy and I think I probably could tell you the outline for the other two.  I would never be so presumptuous to say I could write them because after all I am not her.  Ordinarily I would be looking forward to reading the others but I think that this time I will take a pass.

This week stay tuned to my posts on The Husband's Secret and Starry Night. Starry night is one of the books in my holiday quest.  So stay tuned and have a great week.