Handle With Care and The Road

Happy Sunday morning! I love this long weekend when we get an extra hour. I know it's not much but it feels like more. When I woke up I looked at my clock and it said 6:48. Then I realized that it was 5:48 and I was well rested, ready to get up and start my day.



I pretty much gulped this book. I love Jodi Picoult's writing and this one is beautiful and interesting all the way through. Sometimes it's hard for a writer to do both but she blanaced them with finesse.

Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe's second daughter is born with osteogenesis imperfecta or OI which means that she lacks collagen and her bones are very brittle and break easily. When her ultrasound showed this, poor little Willow already had 7 broken bones and she hadn't even been born yet. How they and their older daughter cope with this disease and what they are willing to do for Willow makes this a book where the pages practically turn themselves.


The second book I finished this week is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I had heard good things about it so when a friend at school loaned it to me, I got right into it and could barely stop reading. It's about a post-apocalyptic America where there is no sun and everything is colorless with ash. Nothing grows, nothing lives except for a few stragglers, some good and some bad. Two of the good ones are a man and his son. How they survive in this bleak world and how they remain human and caring is the glue that holds this novel together.

It's cloudy here in NH so I think it's going to be a good reading day. I've got laundry to do and bread to bake and an extra hour to use any way I want!

Relentless and The Penny Pinchers Club

It's Saturday afternoon. I just kneaded bread for 10 minutes and, now, am hoping it rises!

It's been pouring all day and is in the 30s. All the foliage is gone. The world is dull again. Good reading day, though! I finished a book and will start a new one later.

I finished this book earlier in the week. It took me a few days to get into it but then I couldn't put it down. I had a preconceived notion of what it was going to be about and, for the first eighth of the book, I was right and, honestly, was disappointed in it.

Then, it changed and went in a totally different direction than I was thinking and I loved it. Koontz has such a gift for creating lovable characters and he does it again here.

Cubby is a writer. His wife, Penny, is a children's book author, and their son, Milo, is a genius. The nation's leading book critic writes a scathing review of Cubby's latest book and Cubby has the audacity to try to get a look at him when he is dining. Wrong move! What follows is a nightmare. But, Cubby's humor and his wife and son's support make this a truly entertaining book.

The second book I read this week was The Penny Pincher's Club. This is a light-hearted book about a woman, Kat, who has never saved a penny in her life and all of a sudden realizes how stupid she's been with money. She joins the Penny Pinchers Club and tries to change her life.

I like a quick read like this once in a while. It was refreshing and humorous.

The Last Child

Good morning. It's cloudy and 20 degrees here in northern NH. I'm thinking it's going to be a perfect day for reading!


I LOVED this book! It is so well written with believable characters. Thirteen-year-old Johnny Merrimon's twin sister disappeared a year ago. Overcome with guilt because he hadn't picked her up at school like he was supposed to, their father abandons them. That leaves Johnny and his mom who is a wreck.

Johnny believes his sister is still alive so, with the help of his only friend, Jack, they embark on a mission to find her.

The Last Child is mysterious, and mystical, and human, and wonderful! I'll be looking for John Hart's other books, for sure.

Wishing you all reading weather!

Shanghai Girls

This is our last weekend at camp. We'll be closing up tomorrow and I won't see the ocean again until May. Sad, sad, sad.

Shanghai Grils is a very interesting book. I had no idea what immigrants went through when they entered our country. This book tells the story of two sisters, Pearl and May, and how they escaped China at the beginning of WWII.

The characters are well drawn and the writing is excellent, like I've come to expect from Lisa See. I thought the ending was a bit abrupt but, other than that, this is a great book.

Another Rainy Sunday

My husband has gone fishing and I'm being nice and lazy. I do have to drive 2 1/2 hours to get home from camp but, other than that and some laundry and blogging, I plan on reading.

Shangai Girls is turning out to be an excellent book. I wasn't sure after the first chapter but, then, it got really good.

Happy reading!

The School of Essential Ingredients

This isn't a novel; it's a poem! It's that beautiful!

Lillian owns a restaurant and on Monday nights, when the restaurant is closed, she teaches a cooking class. This book tells the story of the members of the class and the teacher.

That sounds pretty simplistic but what makes this book so mesmerizing is the writing. It's sumptuous! Every page contains so many delicious metaphors and similes that you just want to eat them.

If you're looking for a book to get lost in for an evening, pick this one up and you won't stop reading until it's done...and then you'll want to start cooking!

The Angel's Game

Good rainy morning. Yesterday was gorgeous with not a cloud in the sky...and then we woke up this morning all wet.

I did manage to sit in the sun yesterday reading for about an hour. Felt wonderful!

I'm glad I'm done with this book. I'm still not sure if I liked it. I'd be all set to give up on it when a really interesting scene would take place so I'd continue on.

It was mysterious, and ghostly, and very well written. The writing is what really sucked me in because the premise just didn't appeal to me.

David Martin is commissioned to write a book unlike any other ever written. But, who is the person who commissions him? Is he real or an angel or the devil? It all comes together at the end and makes sense but it was a long route to that point.

I started The School of Essential Ingredients yesterday and am over halfway through already. I'm loving it!