Wondrous Words Wednesday 7-22

Linking up some new to me words from a recent read. Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Kathy at BermudaOnion's Weblog. It is a place to share words your discovered while reading or just to highlight words you like.



My words today are a few I found in Fifty Shades Freed, the 3rd in the Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James. There were a few others that I was unable to define, but I know all you word nerds would know them right away.  NO...NO...not those kinds of words!!   They were hyperbole and alacrity. 

 - a signature from a email.

Christian Grey
CEO & Hoplophobe, Grey Enterprises Holding, Inc.


This word was not in my regular dictionary so I checked the Urban Dictionary.

hoplophobe - someone with an irrational fear off firearms.

                         hoplophobia  -coined by Lt Jeff Cooper from  the Greek hoplites, or warriors.




a conversation between Christian and Anastasia.

"Well, Mr. Grey, I'm glad one of us is punctilious.


punctilious   adj    very careful about behaving properly and doing things in a correct and accurate way.


What interesting or new to you words do you find in your reading?



Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Garden Spells

Linking up with Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea for this week's First Chapter First Paragraph.

Garden Spells
Sarah Addison Allen
Bantam Books 2007
A Division of Random House


           Chapter 1

Every smiley moon, without fail, Claire dreamed of her childhood. She always tried to stay awake those nights when the stars winked and the moon was just a cresting sliver smiling provocatively down at the world, the way pretty women on vintage billboards used to smile as they sold cigarettes and limeade. On those nights in the summer, Claire would garden by the light of the solar-powered footpath lamps, weeding and trimming the night bloomers--the moon vine and the angel's trumpet, the night jasmine and the flowering tobacco. These weren't part of the Waverley legacy of edible flowers, but sleepless as she often was, Claire had added flowers to the garden to give her something to do at night when she was so wound up that frustration singed the edge of her nightgown and she set tiny fires with her fingertips.

Have you read this one?   Would you read on?   Sarah Addison Allen also wrote The Sugar Queen, which I read in  February 2014.

I'm off to see what others are featuring today.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wrap Up Post - What's In A Name 2015

Here are the categories and my selection, when I read it and a link back to my review

1. A book with "ing" in the title: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs 1/12/15

2. A color in the title:  The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls 1/6/15

3. A familial relation: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards 1/3/15

4. A body of water: Shem Creek by Dorothea Benton Frank 7/20/15

5. A city:  The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant   6/28/15

6. An Animal:  Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West   3/31/15


I am already looking forward to this challenge in 2016.  

Shem Creek - What's In a Name 2015 - I'm finished.

Shem Creek
Dorothea Benton Frank
Berkley Publishing/Penguin Group
2004


from Goodreads:

Linda Breland has no experience managing a restaurant, but then neither did Brad Jackson, and he owns the place.

Meet Linda Breland, single parent of two teenage daughters. The oldest, Lindsey, who always held her younger sister in check, is leaving for college. And Gracie, her Tasmanian devil, is giving her nightmares. Linda's personal life? Well, between the married men, the cold New Jersey winters, her pinched wallet and her ex-husband who marries a beautiful, successful woman ten years younger than she is-let's just say, Linda has seen enough to fill a thousand pages.

As the story opens, she is barreling down Interstate 95, bound for Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, the land of her ancestors. Welcomed by the generous heart of her advice dispensing sister, Mimi, Linda and her daughters slowly begin to find their way and discover a sweeter rhythm of life.

And then there's Brad Jackson, a former investment banker of Atlanta, Georgia who hires her to run his restaurant on Shem Creek. Like everyone else, Brad's got a story of his own-namely an almost ex-wife, Loretta who is the kind of gal who gives women a bad name.

The real protagonist of this story is the Lowcountry itself. The magical waters of Shem Creek, the abundant wildlife and the astounding power of nature give this tiny corner of the planet its infallible reputation as a place for introspection, contemplation and healing. 

My thoughts:

I fell in love with South Carolina and the characters of this story. Linda Breland, mother of 2 teenage daughters has decided that life in New Jersey is for the birds. She needs to go back to her roots and so she packs her daughters and her car and leaves her house and her job to head to Charleston, to Mount Pleasant and the shores of Shem Creek. 

Linda is brash, bold, and a bit irreverent. She is also fiercely loyal, a loving mother, a devoted sister and a downright valuable employee. Just give her a chance and she will have you falling in love with her. 

This is one of the rare books that put a tear in my eye. That never happens to me anymore. This story was mostly believable, had the ending I expected, but it took a few twists and turned that were unexpected. The minor characters, Louise, Duane and Mimi were likable and believable too. I do believe I have found a new favorite author.

It gets 5 Happy Hands 


This is the final entry in the What's In a Name 2015  challenge that is hosted by Charlie at The Wormhole.

If you click on the link above ( not the picture), it will link you to the gateway post and there will be the links to the various categories of this challenge. This is the first challenge I ever participated in when I started blogging in 2011 and it is a favorite. 



Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Saturday Snapshots - July 18 - Removal

Today I am linking up a variety of shots to Melinda's blog. The rules for this Saturday event are few. Read about them at West Metro Mommy Reads then link up you own photos to share. 

 A week before the 4th, you will remember that I posted pictures of our neighbors shrubs on fire and threatening our back yard.  We had previously decided to have a few trees removed, and this is the week the Tree Trimmers scheduled us. Our lot had 16 trees when we moved in. Lots of lovely shade, but had to grow most things. That is not the reason we are removing trees. They are dying, from age and from a disease ( according to the tree guy). The above picture shows the small tree almost gone.

 Here is Mr Busy sitting on our back deck with his coffee watching them take down the huge tree behind our garage. He says, "Work fascinates me, I could watch it for hours!". (haha)   He is retired you know. His dog, Emma, could watch him for hours. She hardly lets him out of her sight. He inherited her a little over a year ago, when his mom passed away and she attached herself to him immediately.

 This is the dying old tree in our backyard. You can sort of see the man lift extending it's blue arm so the tree trimmer can reach the top. You can't see the trimmer, but this one is young and female. She can really handle that chainsaw.


Thursday this week there was removal of another sort in my life.

In May I had a small red bump biopsied from my jawline.  The biopsy showed it was basal cell carcinoma, so on Thursday the dermatologist did the surgery. It was in his office and painless. The incision is about 2 inches long and he took 13 stitches. So I don't think there will be much of a scar, if I follow all the post-op instructions. It looks bad here, but today the compression bandage is off and there is just a 2.5 X 3.5 inch regular bandage. I am a red-head with freckles and spent lots of time on a motorcycle in past summers, so it was bound to happen I suppose. I am also a breast cancer survivor, so this is nothin'! I will be checked regularly for other skin cancer. And I will continue to use sunscreen when I go out. Always a good idea!

That's all I can share this week, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 7-15-15

Linking ups with Kathy at Bermudaonion's Weblog today. I have been very neglectful in tracking the words I find while I am reading. It seems that I am reading at night, in my bed and there is not a pencil or paper in sight. I have kept a small notebook on my nightstand in the past, but lately it is missing!  

So today I will share a couple of words from my Word of the Day emails this month.

July 15th

innocuous -   adj 

: producing no injury : harmless

: not likely to give offense or to arouse strong feelings or hostility :inoffensive, insipid
This one is not unknown to me, but I decided to share it anyway. After all, it is the Word of the Day!

July 13th

estival -   adj

: of or relating to the summer
This word sounds and looks like festival but Merriam Webster says this"
Estival and festival look so much alike that you might think they're very closely related, but that isn't the case. Estival traces back to aestas, which is the Latin word for "summer" (and which also gave us estivate, a verb for spending the summer in a torpid state—a sort of hot-weather equivalent of hibernation). Festival also comes from Latin, but it has a different and unrelated root. It derives from festivus, a term that means "festive" or "merry." Festivus is also the ancestor of festive and festivity as well as the much rarer festivous (which also means "festive") and infestive, meaning "not merry, mirthless."

So what are your estival activities this year? Are you gardening, or traveling, or spending most of your time chauffeuring children to and from their estival activities? 
I had to giggle as I wrote this, Word has underlined this word every time I typed it. It thinks I want to say festival!!
Have a great week.Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Shem Creek by Dorothea Benton Frank

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea shares the first paragraph (or maybe two) of the first chapter in a book she is currently reading or hopes to start soon. She invites us to join her. Just share your first paragraph and link up at Diane's blog.

Shem Creek
Dorothea Benton Frank
Berkley Publishing Group
  a division of Penguin Group
August 2004

A Post Card from Linda

Can I just tell you why I am so deliriously happy to drive all through the night from New Jersey to South Carolina? Here we are, boxed in between this wall of eighteen-wheelers on our left and right, in front and behind, in this little pocket of flying road, racing down I-95 at seventy-six miles an hour. My daughters are asleep beside me and in the backseat. On another night, I would be terrified out of my skin by the blasting of horns. But not tonight. Let me tell you something. These trucks are like huge guardian angels rushing us to safety and the rain is washing us clean. Life has been a little rough around the edges and it was time to break out. Yeah. A little rough would be one way of understating it. 

Oh, eventually you'll hear the whole story, because this is a long ride and there ain't much to do besides tell secrets and link about life. Thinking about life is what I had been doing for a very long time. I finally decided to quit the thinking nonsense and do something. I mean, I was even driving myself crazy from my own whining.  Then I came to this conclusion.  You don't like your life? Go get another one and the shut the heck up already, right?

So what do you think?  Would you continue with this one?

I am already hooked!  I have not read Dorothea Benton Frank in the past, but I like the voice of this Linda person very much. I am pretty sure I will like this one.

When I finish and write a review this will complete the What's In A Name 2015 challenge of a book with a body of water in the title. It is also a library loan, so it will add to my library list. Whoop! Whoop!!  3 in 1.

Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy