Long...Long...Really Long...Week!

Life!

It's not that I can't be by myself but it's just the amount of energy it takes to maintain this house and its kitty inhabitants when one of us is away. Den was in Chicago all week...he just walked in the door right now. He brought cans of wild caught salmon for the girls...two beautiful bunches of tulips for me plus Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Cups and Trader Joe's Almost Figgy Newtons!

I was up this morning at three because Lucy and Roxie were up this morning at three! What did they want? They just wanted to look at me and then have a kitty wrestling match on my head!

Why? It's what these two do...when they are bored at three in the morning!

This one is soooo loud!

Books!

I think I am reading this...actually I know I am reading this...I really am reading this.

"Debut novelist Shipman...chosen by memoirist Wade Rouse in homage to his grandmother--pulls out all the emotional bells and whistles here; his book reads like a fictionalized guide to living the good life ("Live! Love! Laugh!") and checks all the boxes--family, friends, God, love, and simply living--designed to warm the heart and fill the tear ducts...smooth writing...unabashed sentimentality...Kirkus Reviews"

And this one, too...

 

"Gripping...Shelter keeps excess at bay. Yun shows how, although shelter doesn’t guarantee safety and blood doesn’t guarantee love, there’s something inextricable about the relationship between a child and a parent…Shelter is captivating.”―The New York Times Book Review"

Food!

I really want to make this...from Bon Appetit...ricotta cheese, fontina cheese, arugula, crispy bits!

Have a wondrous week end! We are supposed to have a snowstorm on Sunday!

Hugs,

Patty

This was my Friday post which I thought I posted but apparently I didn't!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

My Pretties!

For some reason I never read the book that I think I want to read next...or rather I make a reading plan and then I discard it when something prettier and shinier appears...so here are my prettier shinier books!

From Amazon...

“… Incandescent, with visceral and gorgeous descriptions of flavors, pitch-perfect overheard dialogue, deep knowledge of food, wine, and the restaurant business . . . Danler aims to mesmerize, to seduce, to fill you with sensual cravings. She also offers the rare impassioned defense of Britney Spears. As they say at the restaurant: pick up!”

—Kirkus

 

OMG...this sounds sooooo delicious! My copy is from Amazon...but...first I am scanning this book for foods that pop up...and going to get them!

A missing professional problem solver and a quest to find him...in 1703...it's a series but a stand alone one...we shall see!

 

Ok...off to read for a while and then get moving...I am kind of unmotivated today but I can't tell you why until tomorrow! Heeheehee!

 

Hugs,

Patty

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

So...Up Next...

I finished my two lovelies...Modern Lovers and Everland. Both were hugely good...hugely entertaining...hugely contrasting...think flesh eating disease in dystopian London/Everland with engaging Peter Pan like characters vs gay foodies in NYC. The food descriptions in Modern Lovers were so delicious! Think artisanal toasted bread...smoosh an avocado half on it with salt, pepper and a splash of olive oil...then plop a free range fried egg on top...thank God I had everything to make it this morning! Now I need to rent a quaint little cottage in Montauk where I can grill some halibut and asparagus and make a peach tart.

Am I overly influenced by the books I read?

You bet I am!

So...here are my next choices...in no particular order...all of these are from NetGalley and Edelweiss...

From Amazon...

With the cunning of Gone Girl’s Amy Dunne, and as dangerous as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Lisbeth Salander, the femme fatale of this Talented Mr. Ripley–esque psychological thriller is sexy, smart, and very, very bad in all the best ways.

Do you think too many books are being compared to Gone Girl?

 

"Smoke is an addictive combination of thriller, fantasy, and historical novel, with a dash of horror. It’s chilling and complex and amazingly imaginative.’”

—Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness

I read the first chapter and kind of loved it...

The next blockbuster thriller for those who loved The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl...a novel with "an astonishing intensity that drags you in and never—ever—lets you go." (Daily Mail, UK)

Again with the Gone Girl comparisons...

“In this deeply satisfying novel about how unknowable people can be, intrigue builds with glass shards of dark humor toward an ending that is far from comic.” ―Kirkus

I just love dark humor.

Ok...so...I am roasting a lovely array of veg for dinner...it sort of looks like this...this photo is from Ella's blog...she is sooo great with toasty roasty veg!

I just tasted a carrot...yum!

Hugs and Bon Appetit!

Patty

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Tale Of Two Books...

Mostly in my reading life I rarely read two books at the same time...but...I can do it if one is on my Kindle and the other is a real book. And usually I am okie dokie with that but...not with these two books! Sigh! They are both too good...too yummy...too amazeballs! Now those are some great reviewing words!

Ok...this one...four friends who used to be in a band in college at Oberlin...I love this because half of my family went to college there...the band was called Kitty's Mustache. Elizabeth married Andrew and had Harry and Jane married Zoe and had wild child Ruby. Now...in their late 40's...everyone is having issues...Harry loves Ruby...Ruby doesn't have a clue what she wants to do after high school...Andrew is a confused mess...Zoe wants a divorce from Jane and Iggy Pop the Cat is missing. And some Hollywood Types are making a movie of the band! So good...great writing...I keep reading it because I can't stand that Iggy is missing!

And this one...

London is a wasteland of disease and destruction and Gwen Darling is left to care for her sister and brother...there is a Captain Hook character and a Peter Pan character actually named Pete. The Captain Hook character is actually named General Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer...aka Hook! When Gwen's sister is taken...the quest begins! It's really good! It's like Peter Pan and yet so unlike Peter Pan!

Ok...off to read one of these...Iggy or Pete?

Hugs...

Patty

 

Posted with Blogsy

Life...

Today had the makings of a rainy maudlin Monday...I couldn't find stuff...I accidentally deleted stuff...Den couldn't find stuff...it was wet and cold and totally miserable outside. I went outside to get the mail...it wasn't there...I had to go out again in the rain to take out trash bins and get mail...finally...and bring in packages. I couldn't get the front door open...it was stuck. I was trying to sign up for USPS tracking and I had to do it three times...and by the third time I was so mad I couldn't stop...I kept on trying.

My day was so disorganized I can't even think about it any more...

Then I started having mild panic attacks over my mom's afghans...I thought I could give them away but I can't. So...Den had to find them and I washed them and now they are in the dryer and that's as far as I got with them. Then the afghans led to other things that were in my parents' house that are now in my house. I love pulling out a cookie sheet or a pie pan that used to be my mom's. Vases and photos and dishes and those darn afghans! My mom loved afghans. She never made any but people were always making them for her. I have my mom's iced tea pitcher and her clear glass apple dishes and I know stuff and things aren't important but that pitcher...my mom would make iced tea every summer day and I would sit in the kitchen in the breakfast nook and draw faces on the pitcher and talk with her. I guess cleaning out a basement and a rainy Monday lead to jumbled memories of when my mom and dad were actually alive and I would talk to them every single day.

Oh...bed jackets! I think these are just little silky things that women used to wear? My mom had two and they were in one of my bins. They are still satiny and lacy and so feminine and pretty! My sister and I used to put them on our dolls and play with them but they survived and are still so beautiful.

Enough with these memories!

Books!!!

Read these two over the weekend...both were good. The Trap was a mystery about an author who was not able to leave her house for 11 years due to trauma after her sister's death.

This one was about a family and life in this valley and it was typical Anna Quindlen...lovely writing and a book that was smooth and lovely and hard to stop reading.

Reading this now...

I loved her book The Vacationers and this one is yummy, too!

This one is sort of dystopian and really good. London is destroyed and Captain Hook is still bad...really really bad!

I am tired...this was a long hard day and I want to play a few games and then grab my Paperwhite and read! And then sleep?

Hugs...

Patty

 

 

Posted with Blogsy