Knit Two

It's a beautiful sunny day but cccccccold! -24 when we got up but it has warmed up to -15 now. Sounds like another good reading day to me!


I'm always a little leary about reading the second book in a series because I'm afraid it won't be as good as the original. And, at first, I was sure this one wouldn't live up to its predecessor.


For the first 10-15 pages or so all it did was rehash what happened in the first book and in the intervening years. It was all telling and no showing. I was very disappointed.


But then, it changed and I couldn't put it down. Dakota is now 18 and in college. Anita is about to marry Marty. Catherine is still searching for love not realizing that she has to learn to love herself first. Darwin is preparing for impending motherhood while Lucie is regretting her decision to be a single mother. Peri is still making her purses and KC is dealing with menopause. Kate Jacobs threw in some neat plot twists that really keep the story moving.


Will there be a third book? I'm hoping so and thinking that maybe a good title would be Purl Three. At the end of the book there is a pattern for a Georgia Afghan and most of the directions are knit two, purl three.


My husband just checked the temperature and it's up to -11. Downright balmy! I'm still going to tuck a quilt around me and read!


Hope you all have a good reading day, too!

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Good Morning Sunday Saloners. After a week of below zero temps (our coldest was -32 degrees on Friday morning), today it's snowing.

This is an amazing book. I learned so much about Chinese culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The novel revolves around two young girls, Lily and Snow Flower, who are "old sames" meaning that they share eight characteristics like birth month, day of birth, etc. Since they live in different towns and are unable to go anywhere on their own because their feet are bound, they communicate by writing messages on a fan in the secret women's language known as nu shu.

The book follows their lives and their friendship through foot binding to death and it was mesmerizing!

Enjoy your reading, everyone!

Teaser Tuesday

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!

Here's mine from Snow Flower and the Secret Fan page 30:

"By nightfall the eight toes that needed to break had boken, but I was still made to walk."

"The freshly created space where once there had been a joint was now a gelatinous infinity of torture."

Fearless Fourteen

I hope this series never ends! There is nothing like a trip to Trenton to relax me and put me in a good mood.

In this one Stephanie is looking for a silent partner in a bank robbery but there is so much more! Like Zook, the son of one of her skips (She's a bounty hunter) whom she takes in when his mom is incarcerated...Like Mooner, who befriends Zook...Like Grandma Mazur who gets addicted to Zook's video game...Like Lula who gets engaged to Tank, even though he can't remember the proposal...Like Ranger and Morelli, hot, hot, hot!

I actually laughed out loud this morning in first block during Silent Reading when I was finishing this book.

First Daughter

I'm sitting here looking outside at huge snowflakes coming down. We've got about 4 inches so far but it should wrap up soon.


I finished this book last night and was glad to be done with it. It contained just a little too many political scenes to please me. The story, itself, was good, though, and very timely. Basically, the president-elect's daughter is kidnapped and Jack McClure is asked to find her. Jack is dyslexic but has amazing intuitive powers. His daughter has died in an automobile accident and he has recently gotten divorced so he's a sympathic character.

How he figures out where the first daughter has been hidden and the maneuvers the powers-that-be go through with all their secrets makes for an interesting but disturbing read.

So, after all that seriousness, I figured something light was in order so I've started Fearless Fourteen. I needed a dose of Stephanie and Grandma and Lula!

Happy reading everyone!

Support Your Local Library Challenge

J-Kaye is hosting quite a few 2009 challenges. Since I go to the library every two weeks, I figured I might as well join this one. I'm just going to try the 25-book one to see how it goes.

1. First Daughter by Eric Van Lustbader 391 pages 1/10

2. Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich 310 pages 1/12

3. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See 250 pages 1/16

4. Foreign Body by Robin Cook 436 pages 1/28

5. The Night Stalker by James Swain

345 pages 2/3

6. Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper 370 pages 2/24

7. Midnight Rambler by James Swain 347 pages 3/3

8. Takeover by Lisa Black 337 pages 3/11

9. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

531 pages 4/2

10. Live a Little by Kim Green 364 pages 4/6

11. Cross Country by James Patterson 403 pages 4/14

12. Still Life by Joy Fielding 369 pages 4/18

13.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 371 pages 5/1

14. Night Walker by Heather Graham 300 pages 5/10

15. The Associate by John Grisham 373 pages 5/17

16. Don't Look Twice by Andrew Gross 372 pages 5/30

17. Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook 273 pages 6/1

18. Look Again by Lisa Scottoline 337 pages 6/6

19. Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich 307 pages 6/10

20. Intent to Kill by James Grippando 311 pages 6/15

21. Bel Canto by AnnPatchett 300+ pages 7/10

22. Peony in Love by Lisa See 370 pages 7/28

23. Dead of the Moon by John Sandford 371 pages 8/28

24. Long Lost by Harlan Coben 366 pages 8/30

25. Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich 308 pages 9/3

26. The Help by Kathryn Stockett 500+ pages 9/8

27. Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo 321 pages 9/19

28. The Angel's Game by Carlos Luiz Zafon 531 pages 9/25

29. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister 240 pages 9/28

30. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See 306 pages 10/6

31. The Last Child by John Hart 373 pages 10/14
32. Relentless by Dean Koontz 300+ pages 10/20

33. The Penny Pinchers Club by Sarah Strohmeyer 290 pages 10/24

34. Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult 476 pages 10/27

35. Against Medical Advice by James Patterson and Hal Friedman 279 pages 11/10

36. Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner 359 pages 12/4
37. Homeschooling by Greg and Martine Millman 259 pages 12/11

38. 13 1/2 by Nevada Barr 311 pages 12/18

First Sunday of the New Year

I spent all day yesterday finishing P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern. It was a pretty good book and I liked the ending which was a tiny bit of a surprise.




Holly Kennedy's husband, Gerry, dies of a brain tumor but before that, he writes 10 notes to Holly for her to open on ten consecutive months after his death. Each note contains a chore for her to do.



How she deals with the loss of her husband and begins to live again makes for an entertaining read.



I was glad to finish this book, though, so, now, I can begin reading for the 100+ Book Challenge. I know I'll never reach a hundred but it will be interesting to see just how many books I do get done in a year and this will give me a good place to keep them all listed.


Happy reading , everyone!