Sunday Notes on Monday

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, 2013 post. 

No surprise I did not meet my goal this week.  I usually don't when it comes to the Hard Cover List.  But I did read one book on the fiction list and one on the non-fiction list both very good.  The fiction book is the Invention of Wings written by the same author who wrote The Secret Life of Bees.  The non-fiction book was Lean In.  I have really changed my way of thinking since I have read the book Lean In.  I make a bigger effort to "sit at the table". 

I have read two great books which I will blog about this week.  Still Life With Bread Crumbs which I chose to read for two reasons. The first is because I have read her book Black and Blue and thought it was a good book and the second was because the title fascinated me. You all know how I love a good book title.

The second book was King's Deception.  This a Steve Berry Novel and I really loved his other book The Jefferson Key.  I love how he winds his story around historical events.  The story is fast paced with his character Cotton Malone going after the bad guys yet again.  It is worth picking up and reading.

Have a great week.

The Orphan Train

Two orphans years apart develop a very special relationship. Vivian is an older woman.  Her life started out in Ireland but when her family experienced unfortunate circumstances they moved to America.  Unfortunately, things did not work out well in America.  Vivian loses her family and as an orphan is put on a train with other orphans that takes her to the Midwest.  Interestingly enough these orphan trains actually existed.  It was a supervised welfare program that moved orphans or abandoned children from highly populated cities in the East to foster families in the Midwest.  

Molly is in the present day foster program.  Like Vivian her foster families have not really proven to be a great experience.  What started as a community service project for Molly ends up to be a blessing for them both.

Seating Arrangements

Weddings bring people together to celebrate the union of two people.  Often there is a lot of "stuff" going on that is not really part of the ceremony.  What I mean is a group of people are gathering and anything can happen good or bad.  Family members who haven't seen each other in awhile are thrown together.  Sometimes that is not a good thing sometimes it is great.

In Seating Arrangements Daphne is getting married to Greyson. They are in love and she is seven months pregnant.  But they are cool with it. They are gathered at the summer home of Daphne's parents. Daphne's Mom has planned the entire wedding a long with a wedding planner of course.  Her Dad is clueless about most everything.  He also has been lusting after one of the bridesmaids and decides to act on those feelings.

And then there are the seating arrangements.  Who sits with who.  Who you can't seat together.  Anyone who has ever planned an event knows exactly what I mean.

 This is a day where you want everything to go perfect and according to plan. But in this book there is a whole lot of crap going on surrounding the big day. 

The book is a satire on the whole big event and it is interestingly written.

Red Velvet Cupcake Murders

Its been a long time since I read a book that qualified as one for my foodie quest.  In case you all have forgotten, I am on a quest to read books with some type of food or food reference in the title.  That is why when I saw the title of this book I had to dive right in and see what it was all about.  You all know how I love cupcakes.

And speaking of dive, that is what one of the characters does in the book.  There is a catered affair in the lobby of a condo that has just open up for business.  To feed potential customers while they look at the real estate, Hannah, owner of The Cookie Jar has been contracted to provide her always popular Red Velvet Cupcakes. 

The secretary of the police department takes a nose dive off the balcony of the penthouse.  It looks like she was pushed, but who did it.  She can't remember what happened.  She can barley remember her name.

Then the fiancée of a former boyfriend of Hannah's turns up dead.  Who is the suspect why Hannah of course. 

The story is pretty week but the recipes look DELISHOUS.

How Lean In Circles work

I had blogged about an article talking about Lean In and Lean In circles.  Here is how they work.

http://leanin.org/circles/

Until the End of Time

I have read Danielle Steele before but it has been awhile. So when I saw this book I thought I'd give it a shot.  I needed a book that was not to heavy and that had a happy ending.  Every now and then it is important to read a book with a happy ending.

The story focuses on four people; Bill and Jenny and Bob and Lilybet. I can't really tell you too much about the story or I will give the entire book away but I will give you a brief overview.  Bill is an estate attorney in his father's law firm.  He really isn't happy being a lawyer.  By chance he meets Jenny  who is a fashion consultant with clients who are up and coming fashion designers. For him it is love at first site.  They marry. How does their marriage turn out.

Bob is a book publisher.  He owns a small publishing firm that is just getting by.  Lily has a passion for writing.  She has been working on writing a book for awhile and wonders how she will get it published.  She is Amish and she knows that her strict father would most likely forbid her from having it published. 

One day she finds this book on a bench and looks inside to see who it is published by. It happens to be Bob's firm.  She sneaks the book to him and he loves it.  When they meet he realizes he loves her as well as the book.  What will happen to them?

If you need a light romance novel you might choose this one. It was number ten on the Washington Post Bestseller list this past week

A Year after Lean In

I read Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In and found it truly inspiring.  It definitely made me look at things differently in all aspects of my life, in a good way.  Almost two years ago I started working on an all male team, that is until I came onboard.  At first it was very hard but I think I am making some progress.  I kept a couple of things in mind.  I am a smart woman and I can do my job.  It got me through the tough times.

I have provided a link below.  It is to an article that was in the Sunday March 9th Washington Post. I found it in the outlook section which I read every Sunday to see what is cooking on the bestseller list.  It is a really interesting article on creating Lean In Circles.  It is an interesting read and if you haven't read the book yet, consider adding it to your must read list.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-year-after-lean-in-these-are-sheryl-sandbergs-truest-believers/2014/03/07/407b0e8e-9dac-11e3-a050-dc3322a94fa7_story.html