I Am Blog Hopping!!!

Today is a great day to blog hop...head to parajunkee.com for a lovely list of blog hoppers!!!

What I Read And Why I Read It...

  I am trying to vary my book choices and break away for a bit from my fascination with YA Fantasy but it is really difficult. 

I was looking at the archived books on my Kindle and most of them are women's fiction or great mysteries.  I love English mysteries...Deborah Crombie is one of my favorite authors.  I always have read lots of books about family dysfunction.  I love light fiction...Jane Green, Sophie Kinsella, emily giffin.  My friends and family laugh at the sheer number of YA Fantasy that I read and now own.  My sister had to coax me into reading Harry Potter and Stephanie Meyer...I did not want to read The Hunger Games at all.  Now...I need werewolves and shapeshifters and my beloved vampires.  And after reading A Discovery Of Witches I even have a fondness for daemons...but they were really likeable in that book.  I have not yet developed a fascination with faeries and goblins and I am kind of thankful for that.  Anything fae sort of creeps me out...

For some reason I began reading fantasy when my dad became ill.  It was the only thing I could read while waiting for good news or bad news about him.  He died not long after he became ill and I have not stopped reading fantasy...it fascinates and soothes in a weird way.  I didn't opt for therapy or meds or groups...I just loaded up my Kindle and I am still doing it.

In an attempt to break away from fantasy for at least a book or two...I read this book.

It was intense, provocative, disturbing and very sad.  It was very very good.  It was about bullying and what it can do to everyone involved.  I found the author to be mesmerizing and masterful.  I found the story to be sad and honest.  The characters were deeply flawed and very interesting.

It was an excellent book.

But if you look at my sidebar...I am back to my old haunts again!!!

What is your favorite genre and do you ever ask yourself why?



OMG...Does This Photo Just Break Your Heart?

This was in my mail yesterday...if you are a cat owner you will know how difficult it is when you have a cat or kitten underfoot.  They have a tendency to walk right where you are walking.  Even now when I am running up or downstairs,  Lucy is on every step I am on and I am constantly trying to make sure she is not stepped on!!!  And I have to work out on my treadmill when she is sleeping.  It is a source of much fascination for her and I am always worried that she is going to jump on it.  This poor little guy must have just run out of luck!!!

I Love Lunch...I Love Being A Lady Who Lunches!!!

For as long as I can remember I have loved going out to lunch.  All the time that I was teaching second grade,  I yearned to be free to go to lunch.  I love lunching out.  It is such a fun and relaxed time.  Most people are not out to lunch...especially in the middle of the week.  I go out to lunch with my family, my husband and various friends.  But one of my favorite lunch outings is with my friend Jane.  We try to go to somewhere new whenever we can.  We don't put any pressure on us.  If it works out fine but if something comes up for either of us we just reschedule.  We talk about anything and everything...books, kids, husbands...it really doesn't matter. 
Today was a "lunch with Jane" day...we went to a bistro nearby and lunched...  We lunched and munched and chatted a bunch!!!  I first met Jane when we moved into our neighborhood over fifteen years ago.  We were both much younger then.  We weren't looking for the fountain of youth from Philosophy, La Mer and Murad skin care.  Our memories were much better. I say this because we spent most of lunch trying to think of the name of a restaurant in town and neither one of us could come up with it.   I don't think either one of us had a gray hair then...cough cough cough...now we have just a few!!!  But they are discreetly hidden, colored and highlighted.
It was a wonderful day. 

Do you like lunching with friends?  Do you have a favorite lunch spot?

Power Foods...My New Cookbook...

I know I have far too many cookbooks and cooking magazines.  My sister loves food magazines, too, but she is capable of tearing out the recipes she wants and tossing out the rest.  I ache to do that but I cannot.  I admire her for this quality.  I quiz her about it.  How can she not want the amazing photos and what if she needs something else in the magazine...but she remains firm and ruthless.  I wish I could be this way.  Maybe some day I will be strong like my sister. 

Tonight's dinner comes from my new cookbook.  There is a lovely Salad Nicoise chilling in the refrigerator.  I spent much of the morning cooking fresh tiny green beans and farm fresh hard boiled eggs.  I made a dressing from scratch and tiny fingerling potatoes are ready for roasting. 

It was fun and it is healthy and fresh and organic. 

And I am all done...that is the best part.  The kitchen is in order and I am relaxing with my laptop and my Kindle.

What are you making or doing for dinner tonight?

Plus...technically...doesn't a salad for dinner mean you can have ice cream for dessert?

Hurray for ice cream!!!



Kindle And Twitter...An Awesome Duo!!!

I love the new 3.1 download for Kindle 3...it is awesome.  Once you get the download it is simple and quite great!!!  Most books will have page numbers but I do believe that this is an massive task for Amazon.  I also believe that books will be numbered in a certain order.  Perhaps Amazon's top sellers first and then eventually all of them.  I worked with an amazing Amazon technician on Friday in order to get my update working.  He literally called me back to make sure that my update was working.  I know that some people are not fans of Amazon but I love this company.  I love my Kindle, I love their customer service and I have only had great experiences with them.  Now if only they would invite me to be an Amazon Prime member...I would be ever so grateful and appreciative.

My most favorite aspect of the new update?  When you are finished with a book you can connect to Twitter or Facebook and add a quick review with links to the book!!!  There are even some book recommendations, too, not that I need any but they were interesting.

Yeah, Amazon!!!



Simple Pleasures...

I love Sunday's...all of them.  No pressure to do much of anything except make a yummy breakfast and collapse in the family room with the New York Times...I read it once a week and always on Sunday.  My husband will go to the ends of the earth to get it for me.  He is my hero.  If we are away or traveling or anywhere...he will find me the Sunday New York Times.  I love everything about it...the Style section, Arts and Leisure and the Book Review.

I love to read it in a certain order always saving the Magazine, the Book Review and the Style section for last.  We have the same routine every Sunday.  The only variable is what I make us for breakfast.  Sometimes yummy pancakes, sometimes a huge frittata and every once in a while apple cider and chocolate covered doughnuts from Northbrook Orchards.  Double yum...maybe next Sunday...

We love to go upstairs early on Sunday night.  When I was still teaching it was the height of the awful Sunday night blues.  Now I just sympathize with my husband and tell him to suck it up...we go up early and read and play games on our Nintendos and watch tv and life is good.

I just love it when life is good.

Do you have a special Sunday routine?