Don't Try To Find Me

Every parent’s worst nightmare is to come home and find their child missing. The child might have been kidnapped or just left on their own.  Either way they are gone.  In today’s world there are so many ways this can happen but the Internet and social media have added a whole different dimension to this dilemma.  Teens are very susceptible.  Middle school and High school can be very hard for teens. Many are subjected to bullying but for some it is losing friends they grew up with who have decided they have nothing in common any more.  They may say “it is going to be different in our new school and I don’t think we will be friends any more”.  How confusing, how mean.

Social media like Facebook allows predators to hide behind a false identity or create an identity to lure susceptible individuals into doing something they would not ordinarily do.  Once they are drawn in they get trapped. On the other hand Facebook, twitter and instagram can reach a large number of people in a large geographical area very quickly. The net can allow you to create liaisons shrouded in secrecy, on the other hand if you have secrets these may be revealed much to your dismay.  Privacy in today’s world is a double edged sword.

This book has two interesting stories.  One is about this fourteen year old teen Marley.  It is obvious that she has emotional issues and has been in therapy.  The other story is about Rachel her Mom. There are secrets that will come out.  I found the relationships between all the characters extremely fascinating.

The author does a great job of slowly weaving the stories.  I admit I had a problem starting the book, only because of the disappearing teen but I got drawn into the story and really wanted to find out what happens to all the characters.  For more info click on this link Don't Try to Find Me

It is every parent’s nightmare to have a child go missing Don't Try to Find Me

The Last Time I Saw You

High School Reunions gotta love them or not.  It is great to see people who you hung out with in your youth.  Then again it is sometimes  not so great to see people who possibly made your life miserable. But that is High School.

In this book by Elizabeth Berg the main focus is on a 40^th High School reunion, the last one that will be held for this graduating class.  She takes you through the lives of several people who are contemplating attending the reunion, what they are doing and what they are thinking about.  Trying to decide what will happen when they see people they knew forty years ago has them feeling very conflicted.  It focuses on choices that were made by the characters, missed opportunities and some regrets. This is a good beach read.

Find out more  by following this link .The Last Time I Saw You

A Wedding In Provence

Summer is coming and I am switching into my summer reading mode. What this means is finding books that I can just read and relax.  Imagine it is a nice warm day on the beach.  Maybe there is a slight breeze. You have your SPF 30, 40 or 50 slathered on, an ice cold beverage in your hand and you are comfortably settled into your chair under a beach umbrella.  You whip out your book and the world slowly melts away.  You are in the zone.  When I am in the zone I am either reading a light beach read or I am reading something really meaty.  Either way there is nothing I would rather be doing at that moment than to read. 

At the moment I am doing some light reading and I will share the books with  you as I finish them. These are the kind of books that you can read in a couple of hours or maybe a few days depending on your reading speed. 

The book  A Wedding in Provence is an example of the lighter reading choice.  It takes place as the title suggests in Cassis, France part of Provence. It is a beautiful coastal town with pretty colored buildings of yellow, beige and salmon with white boats dotting the coastline. I can just picture myself there.

Olivia is here to get married to Brody.  After her divorce she never thought she would marry again but she is wildly happy. Crazy things happen at weddings and this one is no exception. She is having the wedding at a B an B owned by her best friend Emily.   The wedding is small, just family but each family member carries their own baggage and I do not mean suitcases.  Her daughter Nell shows up with a man she met on the plane. Her daughter Carly ends up coming alone because her significant other bales on her just as they are to leave for the airport. Sounds like he and she are on different wave lengths.  There are other guests as well and so Olivia finds herself in the midst of all these characters.  Trying to deal with them and her wedding is making her life very interesting. Weddings seem to bring out the best in worst in family.  If you have had a wedding I think you know what I mean.

This author is the author of the book  French Lessons.  These two books would be good to put on your beach read list.

Sunday Notes on Monday

It has been a long time since I have played my little book game.  I will catch you up if you are not familiar with how I play. 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 6, 2013 post. This week I scored 4 out of 10. Not too bad. In case you haven't read David Baldacci's new book The Escape it is a good beach read or airplane read.  It is one of the John Puller books and John is one of my favorite characters.  You can check my blog post for more info.  Also on the list is Nora Robert's Whiskey Beach. 

I thought I might give up Nora Robert's but I just can't seem to let go.  I was doing a lot of driving this past week and I picked up the audio book Shadow Spells which is the second book in the O'Dwyer series.  Again a very light summer reading choice.

It seems like I will have a long list of summer reading to share with you.  I am finishing up the book A Memory of Violets which I will post about this month and I had the opportunity to preview a book for Penguin Random House entitled A Wedding n Provence.  Look for that post this week.  I have also been asked to preview a book called Don't Try to Find ME, a story about a 14 year old who disappears.  Isn't that every parent's nightmare.

One more book of interest on the bestseller list is To Kill a Mockingbird.  Many of you I am sure have already read this book in High School, but I just read it again and I am amazed at how great a read it is.  The author has been getting a lot of press lately since there is talk about publishing her original manuscript.  I am very curious about how that will read.

In addition to these I have a very long, long, long list of books that I hope to share with you so stay tuned and check back often.

 

Warm Weather and the Farmer's Markets start to open

It is May which means the weather is warming up nicely.  Actually it has been downright hot here in the District which I am sure many people love. Warmer weather signals the start of the Farmer’s Markets.  There are many in this area so I have a lot to pick from.  If you are visiting DC you may want to check some of these markets out. This list was in this weeks Washington Post and highlights some of the markets in the area.  Farmer's Markets.

I found a more comprehensive list Comprehensive list of Farmer's Markets in the DC area .

I just Finished reading the French Market Cookbook and I am armed with great recipes containing fresh produce (check out my blog post from 5/7).  The best part of the book is it is divided by season so I have a good idea what to look for when I go to the market.  I can tell you that strawberries and blueberries are at the top of the fresh fruit list. 

French Market Cookbook

Often with French cuisine the meal is centered on some type of beef, chicken or fish.  This author has chosen to focus on entrees featuring fresh produce.  What I like about this book is that it is organized by season which really helps when you are planning your meals and you want to use readily available ingredients.

One of the chapters I really enjoyed was the one on shopping for produce. You would think that going to a supermarket or produce market to pick out fruits and vegetables would be fairly straight forward, but really it is not. There is a method.  One of my favorite quotes from the book is “avoid going with a list that you follow rigidly.  Instead go with your eyes and mind wide open and let yourself be surprises and seduced by the ingredients.”  It is almost like being a jedi knight.  You need to open yourself up to possibilities and let the force be with you and in this case the force is your creativity.

The key to buying produce, according to the author is to buy a combination of produce that is sturdy and some that is fragile.  Those that are fragile would need to be used first and those that are sturdy can be used for a longer period. 

I learned a lot reading this book and found some good vegetable recipes such as Swiss Chard Turnovers and Vegetable Couscous

Don't take my word, check it out The French Market cookbook.

Here is another link as well that talks about produce and when they are in season Produce Seasonality

Things You Have Been Doing Wrong All Your Life

 

I had to share this slide show with you I just had to.  I know it is hard for someone or something to tell you that you have been doing things wrong your entire life but I read this and I feel I will have to make some corrections to the way I do things.  One of the big surprises is how to eat things like cheetos or cheese puffs.  I don't know about you but I am a cheetos addict.  I have learned that the only way that I can control my intake is to take a handful and then clip the bag and put it away.  The whole time I am eating them I am saying to myself "enjoy these because you will not get anymore". One of the things I don't like about eating cheetos is the mess they make on your hands, you know that orange stuff that ends up on your finger tips.  I usually just try to lick it off but it is messy.  Do you know how you are suppose to eat cheetos,  with CHOPSTICKS.  Do you believe that! What a great idea.

And here is another suggestion I liked on how to eat a cupcake.  You know how when you are eating a cupcake you get all cake or all icing.  That is the wrong way to eat it. The right way to eat it is to cut off the bottom and make it into a sandwich with the frosting in the middle.  Brilliant.

Another suggestion was on how to pack your suitcase.  I was half right on how to pack a suitcase. You roll everything.  I only rolled certain items but apparently when you roll everything you can fit more into the suitcase.

Here is the link Things You Have Been Doing Wrong All Your Life.  Let me know what your favorites are. Enjoy.