First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - 12/22/15

This isn't the last Tuesday of the year to share a first paragraph but almost! Today I want to share the first paragraph of the first chapter of a book I hope to read very soon.  I bought this book for my Kindle in December 2013.

Across the Miles

Jill Buck

December 20th 2013

Kindle 

Chapter 1

              Emily and Julia stood outside the over packed car. Everything Emily currently owned was stuffed inside the station wagon. The beginning layers had been neat and orderly and then later items had been stuffed in wherever a spot could be found. It had felt like an impossible task, but now it was done. On the front seat were Emily's packed bag, some snacks and a bunch of CD's, some of music and others of novels, for her to listen to while traveling. It was like she was ready for a summer vacation, except they both knew this was no summer vacation but something a lot bigger.


So am I the only one who buys books and then doesn't read them for two or more years?  I am guessing we all suffer from this dilemma. Would you continue with this one? I am intrigued now that I have reread the first paragraph.

Share the first paragraph of a book you are reading or maybe will read soon. Then link up with Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea.  It's a chance to check out the first chapter and the first paragraph of a lot of titles you might not have considered.



Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/21/15

Join Kathryn at Book Date and share what you are reading this week. Just share a post about what you are reading then link up at Book Date. After you finish that be sure and check all the other posts, I am sure you will find more than one new title to add to your list of Books To Read. I know I always do!!

Today I am just getting started on Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline.

Here is a link to Goodreads. Every Fifteen Minutes.

I am also continuing to read Emma by Jane Austen. I have never read it and a fellow blogger, blogging at Dolce Bellezza was doing a read along. I thought, what a great way to read this book and get to experience what others think. It is taking me longer that most of the other read along participants. But I will continue and I will get to the end. I am pretty sure I won't review it other than to maybe share my own thoughts, but it won't be until 2016 for sure.

Emma: 200th-Anniversary Annotated Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

by Jane Austen, Juliette Wells (Introduction)

With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work. Now, with the BBC's superior adaptation, this captivating story is sure to win the hearts of countless new fans.

Beautiful, smart, rich-and single-Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegée, Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. 

So what are you reading this busy week of Christmas? Or maybe you don't celebrate Christmas and are having an ordinary December week. Either way, hope your week is awesome and you get to have some time to do what you want to do. 

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy!

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros Dec 15th Every Fifteen Minutes

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a place to share the beginning of a book you are reading or one you hope to read in the near future. Write a post and then link up with the rest of us at Diane's blog, Bibliophile By the Sea.

Every Fifteen Minutes

Lisa Scottoline

St Martin's Press 2015

  I'm a sociopath. I look normal, but I'm not. I'm smarter, better, and freer, because I'm not bound by rules, law, emotion, or regard for you.
    I can read you almost immediately, get your number right away, and push your buttons to make you do whatever I want. I don't really like you, but I'm so good at acting as if I do that it's basically the same thing. To you.
  I fool you.
  I fool everybody.

What do you think? Would you read on? Have you already read this one?  There is a quote in the front of the book that got me thinking.

              Unexpressed emotions will never die.
              They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.

                  --  Sigmund Freud

I haven't started this book yet, but I have a hunch that the first two paragraphs and the Freud quote are connected.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/14/15

Kathryn of Book Date is the current host of It's Monday! What Are You Reading?  Share what you are reading this week or hope to start and then link up with the rest of us at Book Date.

This week I am plodding along reading Emma by Jane Austen. I joined a Read Along hoping that reading with others would entice me to read this much loved and talked about book. It is still slow going for me. I never read it as a teenager, I took American Literature in high school and I did not go to college. So this is my first exposure to Jane Austen. I really want to enjoy this book, but it is difficult to read. Any thoughts?

I even bought the 200th Anniversary annotated edition. I did find the reading of the introduction by Juliette Wells and the tips for reading Emma did give me some insight. I also appreciate the glossary and the list of unusual spellings.

I also want to start on Every Last One by Anna Quindlen. Lots of you liked this one.

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Saturday Snapshots Dec 5 2015 Old Fashioned Christmas Card

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Melinda at West Metro Mommy Reads. Go to her blog, read the few rules and shares some photos from your life. 

My Dad was a amateur photographer. In those days it was mostly black and white film. He built a small darkroom under the stair in our basement and sometimes let us help. It was like magic.

This photo was made into a family Christmas card. I have one sister and two brothers. My youngest brother was born in January 1955 and I think he looks about 2 here. So I think this is Christmas 1956. We all have names that start with "J", Judy, Jane, Judd and Jeff, so this card said Merry Christmas from Lorraine, Tommy and the 4 Jays.  My mom borrowed the capes from the children's choir at church and I remember my mom standing on a chair so we would all look up at her.

I would be fun to get a similar picture now, but the boys are taller so they would have to be in the back or sitting on chairs in the front. I will have to approach my siblings to see if they are up for recreating this one.

This is the closest I have, it was taken at our mom's funeral in July of 2012.  Judd, Judy, Jane and Jeff.

Until next time

Wondrous Words Wednesday 12/2/15

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative! If you want to play along, write a post then go to Kathy's blog, BermudaOnion's Weblog and link up.

I came across this word while reading the blurb and intro from Laurel-Rain Snow's post about The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian.
What she does not expect is this: bacchanalian drunkenness, her husband sharing a dangerously intimate moment in the guest room, and two women stabbing and killing their Russian bodyguards before driving off into the night.

I was pretty sure I understood the word as used in the sentence , but I was unfamiliar with the word. So I went to my Merriam Webster online dictionary.

bacchanalia - noun : A Roman of festival of Bacchus celebrated with dancing, song and revelry and as an adjective.   bacchanalian . The dictionary also defines this word as orgy 2 and orgy 3. I probably don't need to go into the definitions of this word. Either 2 or 3.  

Another word from my MW Word of the Day: from November 27th  -  

Minatory  - adj.        having a menacing quality. 

In the moonlight, the twisted winter trees took on a particularly baleful and minatory appearance.

Did you find any extra special words this week? 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros. December 1 Every Last One

Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this meme as a way to share the beginnings of a book you are currently reading or hope to read soon. It's a great way to get a peek into a book that you might not have considered trying. 

Every Last One

Anna Quindlen

Random House 2010

     This is my life: The alarm goes off at five-thirty with the murmuring of a public-radio announcer, telling me that  there has been  a coup in Chad, a tornado in Texas. My husband stirs briefly next to me, turns over, blinks, and falls back to sleep for another hour. My robe lies at the foot of the bed, printed cotton in the summer, tufted chenille for the cold. The coffeemaker comes on in the kitchen below as I leave the bathroom, go downstairs in bare feet, pause to put away a pair of boots left splayed in  the downstairs back hallway and to lift the newspaper from the back step. The umber quarry tiles in the kitchen were a bad choice; they are always cold. I let the dog out of her kennel  and put a cup of kibble in her bowl. I hate early mornings, the suspended animation of the world outside, the veil of black and then the oppressive gray of the horizon along the hills outside the French doors. Bit it is the only time I can rest without sleeping, think without deciding, speak and hear my onw voice. It is the only time I can be alone. Slightly less than an hour each weekday when no one makes demands. 

So would you read more. This sounds like the life a lot of us lead or maybe led in the past. I know I still get up early just to have some time alone with my computer and my thoughts. Ms Quindlen dedicated this book to her children, "who saved my life."  I hope to start this one later this week. 


Stay Busy and Stay Happy