The Color of Water in July by Nora Carroll

From Goodreads: Hemingway Point and The Color of Water in July are alternate titles to the same novel.

When Jess spends the summer in her late grandmother's rambling Victorian summer cottage, she uncovers heart-rending mysteries and lost love. It has been seventeen years since Jess has last visited the elite lakefront summer club where she had spent the summers of her youth. Now, she returns with her photographer boyfriend who wants to write an article about the distinctive old house. Sifting through old letters and pictures she finds in a hidden trunk, Jess unravels long-hidden family secrets. Including, just maybe, the secret to her own heart. In this vivid, cinematic debut, Nora Carroll tells the story of love lost and found in lyrical and evocative language that touches the heart. Sure to please readers of Anita Shreve, Jodi Picoult, and Lou Ann Rice. 


My thoughts:  The Color Of Water In July by Nora Carroll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought when I started, that this was going to be a chick lit summer read. It is all that and more. Nora Carroll tells a story of Jess from the when she spent summers at the lake with her grandma Mamie at 17 and then again as she comes back to the elite cottage community with her boyfriend, after her grandmother's death. She tells of story of family, community, and hidden secrets.

Without giving any of the story away, there were twists and turns that I did not see coming. I thought I knew how the story was going to end, but I had no idea how Jess was going to get there. I really like the format of the story, with the POV going back and forth with Jess at 17 and again at 34. Then the details were filled in with Mamie telling the parts that Jess did not, could not know.

I have not read Nora Carroll in the past, but I will in the future. 


View all my reviews

My Monday Reading - and a plan for the summer!

This rainy Memorial Day finds me achy and tired. Maybe a perfect day to just read. I currently have a bookmark in The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen. It was the March read for my book club but we were in Arizona and so I did not read or participate in the discussion. A fellow "Page Turner" shared the book with me to read this summer. I am so far enthralled with Mary El's story.

Based on a remarkable true story, The Secrets of Mary Bowser is an inspiring tale of one daring woman's willingness to sacrifice her own freedom to change the course of history.

All her life, Mary has been a slave to the wealthy Van Lew family of Richmond, Virginia. But when Bet, the willful Van Lew daughter, decides to send Mary to Philadelphia to be educated, she must leave her family to seize her freedom.

Life in the North brings new friendships, a courtship, and a far different education than Mary ever expected, one that leads her into the heart of the abolition movement. With the nation edging toward war, she defies Virginia law by returning to Richmond to care for her ailing father—and to fight for emancipation. Posing as a slave in the Confederate White House in order to spy on President Jefferson Davis, Mary deceives even those who are closest to her to aid the Union command.
Just when it seems that all her courageous gambles to end slavery will pay off, Mary discovers that everything comes at a cost—even freedom.

I plan to read The Ticket by Karen Schutte also and the following 2 titles in the trilogy. When Karl Kessel receives another man's ticket to emigrate from Germany he leaves behind his young wife and two small sons, all for the promise of the opportunity he covets. Arriving in America, Karl is obsessed with becoming the owner of a farm--to be his own man. When Karl's wife Katja steps off a train with their sons in the wilds of sparsely settled Wyoming, she questions, "Is this where I am to spend my life?" Katja soon discovers that it is not only the geography of her situation which will make her life difficult, as she gives everything her husband demands of her, but it is never enough.

In her debut novel, Karen Schutte spins a compelling family story, based on the true story of her own great grandparents' life in rural Wyoming. Her unvarnished narrative exposes the harsh realities of life in the last century.

"The Ticket" is an unforgettable and touching account of a true American family, filled with ambition, promises, love and loss, and ultimately, a legacy of survival. 

 

I hope it will be a great historical somewhat true account of the immigrants that settled the part of the country where I live. 

Also this week, we will begin some redecorating in our Master bedroom. So first that means cleaning the closet out to ready for paint. I am looking forward to downsizing and painting a sunnier cream or yellow color. I have a quilt that I made a year ago that I will use as my inspiration. 

Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? again not much progress

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted every week by Sheila at Book Journey. This is the place to find title to add to your Want List!  Log on to Book Journey, grab the button, post what you are reading then link up with the rest of us.


Reading did not take precedence this week. I was at a quilting retreat, then Thursday & Friday, we watched our great grandson while his mom had some doctor appointments.  Saturday and Sunday our grandson-in-law helped Mr Busy put up insulation and sheet rock in the addition to our garage. Why he waited until winter to do that is still a mystery to me!  But it is getting done. That meant our granddaughter and gr grandson were here all day too. No reading except at bedtime and that is minimal. I am nearly finished with Traveling With Pomegranates,

then I will give The Poisonwood Bible my full attention.

I still have Christmas gifts to finish and get in the mail. I am really hoping to complete my Goodreads Reading Challenge of reading 72 books, but I may fail again. I may have to lower my goal for next year. That saddens me. Oh well!!



Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? no progress!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted every week by Sheila at Book Journey. This is the place to find title to add to your Want List!  Log on to Book Journey, grab the button, post what you are reading then link up with the rest of us.




The first three days of this week, the 17th through the 19th, I will be away from home. I am attending a small quilt retreat with 9 friends. We are sewing at a resort called The Ranch at Ucross. It is 83 miles from home, 30 miles from the next nearest town. I will take some pictures to share when I get back. I am hoping there is wifi there. I am going to prepare this post and ones for First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros and  Wondrous Words Wednesday. If there is no internet I will not be able to link my posts up to the host blogs. So my fingers are crossed.


This has been a difficult week for reading. We has sub zero temperatures and snow. Our granddaughter and her family visited all day Tuesday and Wednesday, so no reading then. On Thursday I always stitch with several friends. I needed to join them this week. I had a touch of "cabin fever". Then I went to the grocery store and home to read a little bit before going out again to play Bunco.  Friday I spent most of the day in my sewing room, I needed to do that to get ready for the upcoming retreat. Whew!  Are you tired yet?

All that being said, I am still reading Traveling with Pomegranates and Poisonwood Bible. Both are very good in very different ways.



Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - Kingsolver & Monk Kidd

It's Monday!  What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. She provides us a place to share the books we are reading or hope to start soon. Join us .... it will definitely add to the list of books you want to read!


This week I will start Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. My Face to Face book club read Animal Dreams earlier this year. I really enjoyed it and one of the members stated that Kingsolver is one of her favorite authors. So when I ran across this one the other day, as I was browsing the library shelves, I decided to check it out.

Today I picked up Traveling With Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor. I need another non-fiction book for a challenge I am doing and also need a book with a food in the title. I really enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings., so I think it is a win/win for me. 

This week it is supposed to get really cold in our area. Good weather to stay indoors and read. However, I am attending a quilting retreat, the 17th  through the 19th, so I need to prep my projects for that time. Since I don't cut well with others ( smile) I will cut my fabric before I go. I will work on two Christmas quilts. One is in progress and the other is a new project that has been on deck for a bit. It is a small tabletop or wall hanging size. So it should be fun. 

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Moyes, Kingsolver, Lavene, Edwards, Wiggs

A place to share what you are currently reading and to see what others are reading this week. Check in with Sheila at Book Journey and link up and see what others are reading.

I finally got brave and took this one down off the bookshelf. I bought it for myself for my birthday in 2013, so it has been almost 2 year. Sheila encouraged me to try it!  So far I am loving it. 

Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes (Goodreads Author)

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

This one is the November selected read of the Goodreads group Love of Reading. I have been wanting to read it for sometime so was glad to do it now. 

from Goodreads:

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

It was an unusual week in that I also brought 3 new books to my stacks. Two were titles that were passed on to me by friends:

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

The Goodbye Quilt by Susan Wiggs

And the 3rd one was ordered from Amazon when I ordered a couple of other non-bookish things. I have read the other 4 in this series so ,of course, I had to have it.

A Corpse for Yew ( A Peggy Lee Garden Mystery) by Joyce and Jim Lavene 

This one came from a marketplace seller on Amazon and she enclosed a gorgeous bookmark in the book . A really neat surprise.

Thanks, Kim. I love bookmarks!!!!

I found Mailbox Monday again. I had lost track of it and hadn't linked up there is a long time. I will today. 

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday!. What Are You Reading? Yellow Crocus & The Little Bookstore in Big Stone Gap

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a fun weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Join us and link up your current reading list. I guarantee you'll add to your reading lists.

Saturday I started two new books. The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap is the November selection of my F2F book club. It was recommended by the daughters of our oldest member. So we decided it might be worth a look. I put on hold a copy from our library and when I picked it up, it was a Big Print edition. Yea for me! I don't normally find books I want to read in Large Print, but sometimes it a rest for these old tired eyes. And I am really liking the story so far.

A book about losing your place, finding your purpose, and immersing yourself in what holds community, and humanity, together—books

Wendy Welch and her husband had always dreamed of owning a bookstore. When the opportunity to escape a toxic work environment and run to a struggling Virginia coal mining town presented itself, they took it. And took the plunge into starting their dream as well. They chose to ignore the “death of the book,” the closing of bookstores across the nation, and the difficult economic environment, and six years later they have carved a bookstore—and a life—out of an Appalachian mountain community.

A story of beating bad odds with grace, ingenuity, good books, and single malt, this memoir chronicles two bibliophiles discovering unlikely ways in which daily living and literature intertwine. Their customers—"Bob the Mad Irishman," "Wee Willie," and "The Lady Who Liked Romances," to name a few—come to the shop looking for the kind of interactive wisdom Kindles don't spark, and they find friendship, community, and the uncommon pleasure of a good book in good company.
The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap will make you want to run to the local bookstore, and curl up in an arm chair with a treasure in bound pages.

And I downloaded Yellow Crocus on my Kindle back in August. I was needing to read a book whose title started with Y as part of The Mega Mix II Challenge on Goodreads. I know, I know but I like this particular challenge. It stretches me. I have read lots of books I would never have tried with out the challenges that I participate in. I had no real idea what this book was about, but it had a gorgeous cover and the title started with Y and it was not expensive to download. I am really enjoying it, so I guess I "did good"!!

Mattie was never truly mine. That knowledge must have filled me as quickly and surely as the milk from her breasts. Although my family ‘owned’ her, although she occupied the center of my universe, her deepest affections lay elsewhere. So along with the comfort of her came the fear that I would lose her some day. This is our story...

So begins Lisbeth Wainwright’s compelling tale of coming-of-age in antebellum Virginia. Born to white plantation owners but raised by her enslaved black wet nurse, Mattie, Lisbeth’s childhood unfolds on the line between two very different worlds.
Growing up under the tender care of Mattie, Lisbeth adopts her surrogate mother’s deep-seated faith in God, her love of music and black-eyed peas, and the tradition of hunting for yellow crocuses in the early days of spring. In time, Lisbeth realizes she has freedoms and opportunities that Mattie does not have, though she’s confined by the societal expectations placed on women born to privilege. As Lisbeth grows up, she struggles to reconcile her love for her caregiver with her parents’ expectations, a task made all the more difficult as she becomes increasingly aware of the ugly realities of the American slavery system. When Lisbeth bears witness to a shockingly brutal act, the final vestiges of her naiveté crumble around her. Lisbeth realizes she must make a choice, one that will require every ounce of the courage she learned from her beloved Mattie.

This compelling historical novel is a richly evocative tale of love, loss, and redemption set during one of the most sinister chapters of American history.

This week I also will put the finishing touches on a quilt for a challenge in my quilt group. I will post a picture after I do "show and tell" on November 2nd. 


Until next time, 
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday. What Are You Reading? Walls & Walter

This meme is brought to you by Sheila at Book Journey.  Click on over and join us in sharing the book were are reading this week, or at least hope to get read.



I finished reading :

I have not written a review as yet. It is still swimming around in my head. I did like it a lot, not because the story was wonderful but because the writing was beautiful.




This week I will start a print book, that I picked up from the library. Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls .

Lily Casey Smith, this novel's feisty Texas protagonist, is a frontier teacher, a rancher, a rodeo rider, a poker player, and bootlegger. In Half Broke Horses, she survives droughts, tornados, floods, poverty, and whatever else fate can throw against her.
Based on author Jeannette Walls's grandmother, Lily is a plausible character because she has a voice that synchronizes with her history.

This novel lives up to the still gathering acclaim for Walls's novel The Glass Castle.

On my Kindle, I will be reading Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set ofCleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.

Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Until next time, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Pausch, Brink and Morrison

Sheila at Book Journey hosts a weekly meme to share what you reading this week and encourages all of us to visit others participating. Fair warning - this tends to add to your reading list! ;)



This week I am in the middle of

from Goodreads:

"Jai is such a giver that she often forgets to take care of herself," Randy Pausch wrote about his wife. "Jai knows that she’ll have to give herself permission to make herself a priority."
In Dream New Dreams, Jai Pausch shares her own story for the first time: her emotional journey from wife and mother to full-time caregiver, shuttling between her three young children and Randy’s bedside as he sought treatment far from home; and then to widow and single parent, fighting to preserve a sense of stability for her family, while coping with her own grief and the challenges of running a household without a partner.
Jai paints a vivid, honest portrait of a vital, challenging relationship between two strong people who faced a grim prognosis and the self-sacrificing decisions it often required. As she faced life without the husband she called her “magic man,” Jai learned to make herself a priority to create a new life of hope and happiness—as she puts it, to “feel a spark of my own magic beginning to flicker.”
Dream New Dreams is a powerful story of grief, healing, and newfound independence. With advice artfully woven into an intimate, beautifully written narrative, Jai’s story will inspire not only the legions of readers who made The Last Lecture a bestseller, but also those who are embarking on a journey of loss and renewal themselves.

And I will start tonight: on my Kindle-

From Goodreads:

Jessica Hart is new to Seattle, days away from the big Three-O, and just months away from marrying the perfect man. But, when her fiancé, Jim Carozza, gets into a car with a creepy stranger who looks like a Vegas pit boss her perfect life takes a bizarre turn.
Her brother tells her to go home. The police tell her to go home. Her inner voice even tells her to go home. Unfortunately, Jessica has never been the kind of girl to do as she’s told. Instead, she jumps feet first into trouble looking for answers just to find out that every answer leads her into more trouble.

Before she knows it, her world has turned upside down. Jim is missing and he’s got secrets. Greg has moved in and he’s got secrets. Her new friend, smoking hot and mysteriously irresistible Eric Wolf, even has secrets.
Now, a crazed killer is stalking Jessica and he wants something that she doesn't have. Wolf wants something that she knows she shouldn't give. And, the police, the FBI, the mob and a bunch of scary looking mercenaries are watching her every move.

Greg thinks she needs to let the police handle things.
Her best friend thinks she needs to let Wolf seduce her. Jessica thinks she needs some retail therapy, a manicure, and a margarita.

And I hope to start:

I did not get to this one during Banned Books Week, and the copy I borrowed from my public library looks different that this, but the page numbers and the ISBN match. It has been on my TBR list for some time. I am anxious to get to it, hope I can get through it.

I finished The Book of Ruth and had trouble finishing it. It was hard to read and very depressing. If you are interested my Goodreads review is here.



Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday. What Are You Reading? - 9-29-14

Each Monday, Sheila at Book Journey host It's Monday. What Are You Reading? It is a place to share your current reads and see what other are reading. Join us.

I am still reading The Book of Ruth. 

 Saturday, I went to the library to pick up a Toni Morrison book that I had placed on hold. While there I checked out their Banned Books Week display. See  my post here.  I also took a minute to peruse the shelves, looking for the Jeanette Walls book, The Glass Castle.  I did not find that title but I did find 2 others and the 2 title I had on hold.  I will share the rest of them later this week.
 Jai Pausch's book has been on my TBR list since I first heard of it after reading The Last Lecture by her husband Randy Pausch.

Dream New Dreams: Reimagining My Life After Loss

by Jai Pausch   3.5 of 5 stars

A remarkably frank, deeply moving, and inspiring memoir by Jai Pausch, whose husband, Randy, wrote the bestseller The Last Lecture while battling pancreatic cancer.

"Jai is such a giver that she often forgets to take care of herself," Randy Pausch wrote about his wife. "Jai knows that she’ll have to give herself permission to make herself a priority."
In Dream New Dreams, Jai Pausch shares her own story for the first time: her emotional journey from wife and mother to full-time caregiver, shuttling between her three young children and Randy’s bedside as he sought treatment far from home; and then to widow and single parent, fighting to preserve a sense of stability for her family, while coping with her own grief and the challenges of running a household without a partner.
Jai paints a vivid, honest portrait of a vital, challenging relationship between two strong people who faced a grim prognosis and the self-sacrificing decisions it often required. As she faced life without the husband she called her “magic man,” Jai learned to make herself a priority to create a new life of hope and happiness—as she puts it, to “feel a spark of my own magic beginning to flicker.”
Dream New Dreams is a powerful story of grief, healing, and newfound independence. With advice artfully woven into an intimate, beautifully written narrative, Jai’s story will inspire not only the legions of readers who made The Last Lecture a bestseller, but also those who are embarking on a journey of loss and renewal themselves.

I am really looking forward to this memoir. So what are you reading this week?



Until next time, 
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 3 new starts

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is hosted every Monday by Sheila at Book Journey. This is a very active meme and one sure to entice you to add to your list of books to be read. Join us at Sheila's blog and check out what other bloggers are reading this week 

I finished all the books I had been reading, so started 3 new ones this week. 

First on my Kindle:

This one has been on my Kindle for a while. In fact I think it was the second one that I downloaded. I am not a Stephen King fan. I have not read any of his other books, but I thought maybe I could get through this one.  I was a senior in high school on November 22, 1963 and I remember the day in great detail.  This book will fill two challenges that I am working on too. One is the 2014 Ebook Challenge hosted by 

Sarah at Workaday Reads  and the other is the Mega Mix Challenge II on Goodreads. I need a book with a title that starts with E to spell out the title of my favorite TV show. When I started the challenge I selected Downton Abbey. You wouldn't think it would be so hard to find a book title that starts with E, but I have had a difficult time. So creative license, Eleven/Twenty-two/Sixty-three!. 

I also started Copycat Killing, #3 of the Magical Cats Mystery by Sofie Kelly. This one has been on my TBR shelf for a long time. I decided I needed a book to carry in the car and I may need a diversion from the Stephen King novel. 

I really enjoyed the other Sofie Kelly book I read earlier in the month, Sleight of Paw. I own(or am owned by) a black and white cat, who looks very much like Hercules in this series. He cannot,  however, walk through doors. Thank goodness!. 

And just to round things out, because heaven forbid that I should have time to clean or sew, I decided I had better start on the first book in the fall lineup for my bookclub. We chose 

I read The Secret Life of Bees and bought the movie in preparation for this one. I have it as an audible on my kindle and given the trouble I had finding listening time when I was "reading" The Goldfinch, I wanted to give myself a time cushion. This one is only 13 hours as opposed to 30 hrs, so maybe I will be fine. 

Until next time, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

IMWAYR? The Goldfinch, Sleight of Paw and Peony in Love ( again)

Join us at Book Journey, where we all share the books we are reading or listening to this week. Sheila hosts this delightful meme and her posts are fun. Link up at Book Journey and see what everyone is reading.

Not much has changed in the last week in the reading department.  I did finish The Secret Life of Bees and  I listened to a few more pages of The Goldfinch.  

 I liked this book at the beginning and even through the middle, now I am at 70% and I am not liking Theo Decker very much right now.  I am hoping for redemption for him by the end of the book. We will see. 

Sophie Kelley's book Sleight of Paw still resides in my car. It is an interesting story with a middle aged librarian who "owns" cats. Well not really owns them, but shares her home with them. There is a love interest that I am hoping evolves to a real relationship, but I am not sure if it will or not. There has also been a murder, hence the cozy mystery genre.    

I am about 1/3 of the way into Peony in Love.  Lisa See tells the history of life in China in the 17th century with great detail. You are transported there, you can practically smell the ginger and jasmine. Peony falls in love with a man she can never be with. Her marriage at age 16 is already arranged. How will she survive?

Hopefully I will make some strides this week. I have not been very productive at all. 

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy