First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - If I Stay 7-28

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this place to share a bit of the book you are currently reading or on you hope to read soon. It is fun to read about what others are reading and test the waters a bet to see if you might be interested in that particular title. Share the first paragraph or two of the first paragraph of the book you are reading and then link up at Diane's Blog. 



If I Stay
Gayle Forman
Penguin Goup 2009

7:09 AM
Everyone thinks it was because of the snow. And in a way, I suppose that is true.

I wake up this morning to a thin blanket of white covering our front lawn. It isn't even an inch,  but in this part of Oregon a slight dusting brings everything to a standstill as the one snowplow in the county get busy clearing the roads. It is wet water that drops from the sky - and drops and drops and drops - not the frozen kind. 

These first two paragraphs don't really give you an idea of the subject of the book. Maybe most of you have read this one or have seen the movie.

                       

When I purchased this book at a local store the clerk asked me if I had seen the movie. I said I hadn't and that I usually liked to read the book first. The lady behind me, with a walker (so she wasn't young), said "Definitely read the book first, but see the movie too."   I am finally finding time to read the book and it is so engrossing, I am having a hard time putting it down to go to sleep. I will rent the movie too.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy
Judy

Saturday Snapshots 7-25-15 Sweden Vicariously

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Melinda at West Metro Mommy Reads. The rules are few, check them out at Melinda's blog.



I rummaged through my photos (there were very few) and decided I did not have anything of note to share. So I am sharing photos taken by my brother and sister-in-law on their recent vacation in Sweden. They were accompanied by their son and his wife. You may remember that last fall I shared photos from Seth and Mollie's honeymoon in London and Paris. Now they have traveled to Sweden. My sister-in-law has cousin in Gotland ,Sweden and so they spent several days visiting family, enjoying new foods and even picking strawberries. They also spent several days in Stockholm before flying home to Minneapolis for Seth and Mollie and Rapid City SD for my brother and SIL.

 This is a church in Gotland. My SIL's relatives helps maintain this one and I think 3-4 others.

 I am not sure where this deli is. It is  The Hairy Pig Deli, but they enjoyed the food there very much.

This is what was brought to their table.  Interesting I think. Don't your like the pig shaped bread or cracker. (At least I think that is what they are made of)

 My SIL post photos of hearts that she finds in nature and other unexpected places. She even found a heart shaped rock with a wild flower in Sweden.

 Another picture of food they ate. She commented that it was"Reindeer for dinner...please don't tell Santa!"

This photo was taken on their last day in Stockholm. I love the various colors on the buildings and the outdoor dining.

OK, so much for my photo trip to a place I'll probably never get to visit. Have you ever been to Sweden or Norway ( the land of my heritage)?

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