Saturday Snapshot last one for August

Saturday Snapshot

is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books.

Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

This is a short sample of my TBR shelf. Except, Fall of Giants, which I just finished, these are all TBR or ones I go back to time and time again, Like The Language of Letting Go  Daily Meditations for Codependents  by Melody Beattie. I really enjoyed reading the Fall of Giants. I am looking forward to the next one. 

I have lots of bookmarks.  Does everyone seem to collect bookmarks too? Since my husband hates piles of anything, I have this "row" on top of our headboard. Also, the lower portion is full of books too, but that's another picture.

Happy Saturday!  I am off to take my MIL out to watch my husband fly his radio controlled airplanes. His club is having their annual fun fly this weekend.  I may get some snapshots there for use in coming weeks. 

Til Later

Stay Busy

Judy B

Thursday Review

A Good American

Alex George

I wanted to check out the copy of A Good American by Alex George from my local library, but it was unavailable. So I checked out the Audio CD’s.  I proposed listening to them as my husband and I traveled back and forth to another city to ready his mother’s house for sale. It is really not a book he would have chosen. However, we were both pleasantly surprised.  It is a really good story.

The story begins as a beautiful love story between two people who come from two different backgrounds in the early 1900’s in Germany. I quickly came to love both Fredrick and Jetta.  The author describes Jetta as a big woman, who did not conform to the  wasp-like figures of most women of that time. I loved her at once, as a rebel who was happy in her own skin.

I also learned that many immigrants did not land in New York, but in some rather unusual ports such as New Orleans or Galveston.  The fact that they entered the US from New Orleans shaped their destiny. They settled in Beatrice Missouri.  The story stays in Missouri as it tell the story of Fredrick and Jetta Meisenheimer and their family.  All the family members were very real to me.  I could see my parents in Joseph and Cora, though they would have been a few years older.

The Meisenheimer family experienced many of the same things that my own family experienced. Strong love between a man and a woman, children who were a challenge, hard times in keeping a business going, and even family secrets that were kept secret at all cost. 

I enjoyed this story very much. I would recommend it to any reader. Some of the themes are adult, but are dealt with as “normal”.  I would let my high school age grandchildren read this wonderful story.

I originally chose this selection as part of the  Amy Einhorn Reading Challenge at Beth Fish Reads. I have read 4 of the books on the lists and have not been disappointed by any of them. I will definitely continue to read my way through the list of books published by Amy Einhorn .

Tuesday Reading Challenge

In early June I joined a Summer Reading Challenge sponsored by Reading Writers. I really intended to complete the list. But alas, life got in my way. Some of you have read about my summer already, but this post is to show what I have/have not complete on the reading challenge. So here is the challenge:

Get Ready! Get Set! Read! Summer Reading Challenge 2012

Last year was so much fun we just have to do it again! With nine new categories, this challenge is sure to keep your summer filled with great books! So here's to an exciting summer of reading!

GOAL: Commit to completing 8 titles that you have never read before! (10 for a bonus.)

CRITERIA: Choose any title in the following categories:

1. A book in an unfamiliar genre [Read outside your comfort zone!]I read Tales of the Vampires ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer Comic #2)by Josh Whedon and I hated it. It was a cartoon format, and maybe it was just me, but it didn't know how to read it, left to right, top to bottom...... and I did not follow the story??? Trash!!!

2. A book that is part of a series  I am reading Dove in the Window by Earlene Fowler. I am enjoying it as much as the 4 previous in the series. typical and predictable, but I could use an easy read and fun read. Just a footnote, I enjoyed it as I did all the other 4. There are a whole lot more Benni Harper mysteries  I intend to read. 

3. A book that your friend or wider society has been raving about!  “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyers
4. A book that ‘could’ [This category is open to your interpretation*] I had listed that I would read When Mars and Venus Collide by John Gray Ph.D., but as I was going through some of my mom's things after her death, I came across When Good People Have Affairs by Mira Kirshenbaum. I think it was put in the box as we were sorting though Mom's things with my sister. I sort of remember her giving it to me and I hid it in the box ( a year ago). I hoped it "could" help me understand, but it did not!

5. A book from the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels List. [See NY Times link below]

                      "Wide Sargasso Sea," Jean Rhys

6. A book that reminds you of your childhood.  

    Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl, I Learned From Judy Blume by Jennifer O’Connell
7. A banned or contested book, OR a book that lied to us* 
                    Beloved by Toni Morrison.  
8. A book you judged by the cover. [For whatever reason, the cover attracted you.]
                
               The Room by Emma Donoghue
9. Bonus: A blog turned book [OR a book turned blockbuster movie]
  
          Still deciding. Probably Hunger Games.
10. Bonus: Free choice!  Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

Start date: May 28
End date: August 31

*Fulfill the categories in any order
Don't forget to share why you chose the titles you did. Also, share comments about the books you're reading! We invite conversations :)


Anyway, I did not finish this challenge. Although August is not quite over, I will press on. After all, I want to read all the books that I picked.  I will post again, as I finish the challenge. 

Mailbox Monday #3 August

Mailbox Monday is on tour for the month of August at 5 Minutes For Books. Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.



Last week I received NO books in my mailbox. "sigh"!   I did however receive a copy of

Night by Elie Wiesel, loaned from a friend. She warned me that is powerful and disturbing. So I have read the prologue, but cannot read it before bed, as is my usual reading time. I will make time during the day this week to get it read. It is a slim volume, so I should be able to do it in a day or two of daytime reading.

Snapshot Saturday Fat Kitty

Saturday Snapshot

is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books.

Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

   

This is a picture of my granddaughter's girl cat. She sleeps most of the day, anywhere she can find a spot. This day she chose a dining room chair that was much to small to be considered a proper bed!!! I'm surprised she actually fell asleep and didn't fall off.  LOL.

A Week in Review

Monday morning I was again in the pool. It is sooo hard to get up now that it is dark at 4:50am.  I love how I feel when I am finished, but it is hard to get going. 

Tuesday was a day of appointments and meetings. Went to AVBP office to sign checks, and visit with former work mates. Then there was our August PPQG meeting. One of our members had a quilt that she made using some of her mother's doilies.  She had another one at our annual quilt convention, she won 1st place in the quilt show. I wish I had taken a picture of that one too, but here is the one she had at our meeting. 

Notice the orange doily. The colors she used are black, brown, purple, golds. It is amazing, she was putting a scalloped border and edge on it at the meeting. 

Later Tuesday afternoon, I attended a meeting of the N.E.W. Quilt Show committee. We hashed out a few

problems and then I hurried to a GWRRA motorcycle group meeting.  WHEW!!

Wednesday, was a day of cleaning. Mr. Busy worked in the garage, trying to clear out more stuff, so we have room for his mom's stuff. I spent most of the day in my sewing room. Just when I think I have it under control, I get overwhelmed and QUIT. So now I need to get back in there and get a handle on the organization of the mess!

Today, Thursday, I got my Bernina ready to go to the shop in RC. It is time for a good going over. Cleaning and checking the needle threader. We are going over again tomorrow to check on getting the wood floors refinished in Mr. Busy's moms house. We have spent on ton on gas going back and forth. Good things, we will listen to more chapter of A Good American audio CD, and I will get to see my sister for a minute. 

We will be back Friday night, tired but hopefully with a floor finisher hired. 

Till next time,

Judy

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY