The Sunday Salon

Hard to believe summer’s over here on the island.  The tourists are still doing their tourist thing and I am so going to miss watching their antics out on my front deck.  The one thing I won’t miss is having the tourist kidlets riding their bike through my carport, but what I will miss more than anything is the walk down my dock to sit on the bench to get a little reading done.

Speaking of reading, as you know, I’m so into A FULL HOUSE – BUT EMPTY by Angus Munro.  If I can get my tours finished, I can jump back in it.  Angus writes with such natural style…it’s a treat if you ever were to pick up the book and read it yourself.  It’s set in the depression years, which so few people nowadays can remember because that was oh so long ago.  I might even get Angus to write us a guest post about growing up in the Depression years…would you like that?

I got an interesting book in the mail about a week ago.  SADDLE UP YOUR OWN WHITE HORSE – 5 PRINCIPLES EVERY WOMAN NEEDS TO KNOW by Saundra Pelletier (and it came autographed!).  It’s definitely on my TBR list for a review, but I couldn’t help but to sneak inside to see just what this book was all about.  It’s about empowerment.  Who doesn’t need that in their life?  It’s going to be a good one and I’ll be giving a review soon, but I especially like the chapter titled “Women Must Lead in Their Relationships with Men.”  My kind of thinking.  I’ll let you know more about the book in a future post, but I think it’s going to be good.

The one thing I’ve not liked about this island is that you just can’t get any inside work done and if you saw my TBR pile, you’ll see what I mean.  I’ve got to be OUTSIDE constantly!  What a pain when you have so much inside work to do!  The kids are out on the boat with their father and I so would have loved to join them, but ack, work comes first.

So, what did you do over the weekend?  And, please, drive safely!

In the Mailbox: Easy Entertaining for Beginners by Patricia Mendez

I have a funny story to tell before I introduce today’s book that was in my mailbox the other day.

When I first got married, I couldn’t even boil water. My new husband wanted me to make some tea and I had to ask him how to do it. That’s when I became the relative who couldn’t even boil water which my new husband couldn’t wait to share with the Thompson flock.

I remember making Hamburger Helper one day and it was so horrible, the dogs wouldn’t even eat it. I didn’t know you had to drain the grease out before you served it. As in, ych.

You want me to go on?

I made chili for the first time and instead of putting 3 teaspoons of chili powder into the mixture, I put 3 tablespoons. Needless to say, the dogs wouldn’t eat that either.

I eventually learned how to cook, but wouldn’t it have been neat if I had had this book I got in the mail the other day, Easy Entertaining for Beginners by Patricia Mendez. Patricia knows her stuff; but more importantly, she knows just what recipes to include in her 172-page book so that the aspiring Betty Crocker can not only feed her family, but throw a fabulous party, too!

I’m browsing now…all these recipes are great for entertaining. Easy, too! I’ll be giving Patricia a nice review on October 17, just in time for those Halloween gatherings and before the Christmas holidays so stay tuned for that!

Also, I will be turning the pages of her new book in upcoming blog posts to let you know just what’s inside! You’re in for a treat!

Booking Through Thursday

Today’s topic: If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?

As I’m reading, no, I’m not paying attention to character development, although the end, I might notice that the characters were fantastic or not fully developed. I’m reading Angus Munro’s book, A FULL HOUSE – BUT EMPTY, and you know, I’m not realizing it but it’s the character development that is keeping me turning pages. There are some things I can’t wait to find out, like does he ever make amends with his mother or maybe I am turning pages to find out what happens to him as he grows up? This is a fantastic book so far. Now, there was another book where I was turning pages because of interaction between two characters who were madly in love and I really wanted to see how these characters progressed as we went along – what flaws did they have? Did they conquer their fears to be with one another? But I guess to answer your question, I do mainly read for the storyline of course, but the characters play a huge part in whether I keep turning or not. If they’re boring from the get go, no storyline is going to save this book.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

My two (2) “teaser” sentences for today:

“My father, like so many others, gratefully worked hard and long hours during the war years after experiencing a terribly long Depression and mass unemployment.  Although my father was basically soft-spoken, he was an excellent conversationalist on both topical and historic issues, and he presented his views effectively.”

(from page 25 of A Full House – But Empty by Angus Munro)

BOOK GIVEAWAY: READ WELL, THINK WELL by Hal W. Lanse

It’s time for a book giveaway! Education expert Hal W. Lanse is giving away copies of his latest book, READ WELL, THINK WELL!

In order to win, here are the rules:

• You must comment below with your working email address so that we can contact you.
• If you blog about this contest, leave a comment, telling us where you are blogging about it and that gives you 2 entries!
• Contest starts today and ends on September 29. The winner will be announced on this blog on Sept. 30.

Others are joining in the fight to help kids learn how to read! Visit their stops, too, leave a comment and you could win a copy there, too!

Participants in the READ WELL THINK WELL BACK TO SCHOOL BOOK GIVEAWAY EXTRAVAGANZA include:

Amateur de Livre
Cheryl Rainfield
Plot Dog
The Book Connection
The Book Stacks

If you would like to offer this free book giveaway on your blog, contact us and we’ll add you to the lineup!

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Angus Munro’s A FULL HOUSE – BUT EMPTY

I started on this book a few days ago and because of work commitments, I haven’t been able to pick it back up but let me tell you, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Little Angus Munro was brought up by his father because his mother left the family when he was just three. I have to tell you, I cried on the first page…and this is only because I was relating because it’s not a depressing book at all; in fact, it’s quite an uplifting book.

It’s set in the Depression years when food was scarce and poverty was at an all-time high, but somehow the families, including the Monros’, survived and made the best of it using what resources they had or could get. It’s quite a remarkable story and I’m really enjoying it.

I have talked to the author and I told him how much I was enjoying the book and I think it made his day. I’ll be discussing this book more in detail, but I do have to mention that he will be on a virtual book tour next week and you can find out more about him and his book then.

Meanwhile, more book talk coming up on…

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Welcome to my book blog!

I’m so excited! I have a brand spanking new book blog where I will be discussing…books, of course! I have so many wonderful books that have been sent to me for review and this is going to be the place where I will be talking lots about them! We’ll have book giveaways, too, so stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting…