The Scent of Rain and Lightning.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Nancy Pickard
Ballentine Books  2010
5/5 stars


On a warm summer afternoon, Jody Linder is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents house. From her upstairs window she wonders why they are here, do they know about her liaison with Red Bosch.?  No, that couldn't be it, they are dressed in polished boots, pressed jeans, fresh white shirts....her uncles suspiciously clean visiting clothes disturb her.

The three bring news she never wanted the hear. The man, Billy Crosby, convicted of murdering her parents has been released from prison.  Would he dare come back to Rose, Kansas, where her grandparents ranch has been her safe haven?

I fell in love with spunky Jody Linder. She is living her life with a catastrophic past. On a stormy night 23 three years ago, her father was murdered and her mother disappeared.  She has lived just a few doors down from the wife and son of the man accused and convicted of the murder. Jody and Collin Crosby have spent their growing up years avoiding each other in this small town. Now she may have to come face to face with Collin and his father.

This is a wonderfully written story that tells of what can happen when people are quick to judge and slow to look for the truth. And it tells of the healing power of truth if we can open our hearts and minds to look for it.

This book is set in Rose Kansas

and will fulfill the "book with an element of weather" in the title section of

Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 4.30.14

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion's Weblog each week.  It's an opportunity to share new and different words you have encountered in your reading or to highlight words you particularly enjoy. 



defenestration- noun  

1. throwing of a person or thing out of a window. 
2. a usually swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office)


Last week I encountered this word in a game I play on facebook. I had to look it up. Who knew there was an actual word for throwing someone out a window.  The detective says, "guess we know what the murder weapon is-- defenestration!"

Then while listening to The Collectors by David Baldacci, the bad guy, Jerry had one of his goons throw a poor little maid out a window. 



This word comes from my current read: The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard.

avuncular - adj

1. The definition of avuncular is acting in a manner similar to the way a person's uncle would act, specifically with kindness and indulgence. 
      A person who treats everyone with kindness is an example of an avuncular person. 



"There they were, the avuncular blessings and banes of her life: Chase, who got more handsome every year...; Bobby, muscular and taciturn, .....;Meryl, with his kind, canny eyes and a girth that came from Belle's fried chicken..."



There are a few more wondrous words in this book, I will share them next week. Did you find any wondrous words this week while reading?



Until next time, 
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intro The Scent of Rain and Lightning.

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile By The Sea hosts this meme where we can share the first paragraph or two of our current read, or one we expect to start soon. It is a great place to check on some new titles, and get an idea of the first chapter.  Join us at Diane's blog every Tuesday and link your first paragraph of the first chapter.

1
June 9, 2009
Until she was twenty-six, Jody Linder felt suspicious of happiness.
She hated that about herself, because it tended to sour some otherwise pretty damn fine moments, but this was Rose, Kansas, after all. Only the year before, a pencil tornado had dropped down and killed three people only a few miles from her hometown. A tornado, when the sun was shining! In the winter, there were ice storms. In the summer, there were grass fires. At all times, people she knew went bankrupt, lost their homes, their ranches, their jobs. Or, they died just when you least expected them to. A person could, for instance, belong to a nice family living an ordinary life in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and on some innocent Saturday night, violent men could drop in like those tornadoes and turn nice people into the dead stars of a Truman Capote book. Such things happened. That wasn't paranoia. It was a terrible fact that Jody knew better than anybody - or at least better than anybody whose father had not been murdered when she was three years old and whose mother had not disappeared the same night. 

I started this book on Friday night. I am nearly 1/2 finished. It is really good and I am enjoying it a great deal. It will complete an item in the What's in a Name 2014 challenge sponsored by Charlie at The Worm Hole. This is the gateway post. . A book with a weather element in the title. What do you think? Would you continue on?




Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is sponsored by Sheila @ Book Journey. Click on over to Sheila's blog and see what everyone else is reading. 

My new read this week is The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard. 

From Goodreads:

The Scent of Rain and Lightning

by Nancy Pickard

One beautiful summer afternoon, from her bedroom window on the second floor, Jody Linder is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents’ house—or what she calls her parents’ house, even though Jay and Laurie Jo Linder have been gone almost all of Jody’s life. “What is this fearsome thing I see?” the young high school English teacher whispers, mimicking Shakespeare. Polished boots, pressed jeans, fresh white shirts, Stetsons—her uncles’ suspiciously clean visiting clothes are a disturbing sign.

The three bring shocking news: The man convicted of murdering Jody’s father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-six years since that stormy night when, as baby Jody lay asleep in her crib, her father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody’s uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents’ ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby on that catastrophic night.

Now Billy Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence. As Jody lives only a few doors down from the Crosbys, she knows that sooner or later she’ll come face-to-face with the man who she believes destroyed her family.

What she doesn't expect are the heated exchanges with Collin. Having grown up practically side by side in this very small town, Jody and Collin have had a long history of carefully avoiding each other’s eyes. Now Jody discovers that underneath their antagonism is a shared sense of loss that no one else could possibly understand. As she revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous truth about her family’s tragic past.

Engrossing, lyrical, and suspenseful, The Scent of Rain and Lightning captures the essence of small-town America—its heartfelt intimacy and its darkest secrets—where through struggle and hardship people still dare to hope for a better future. For Jody Linder, maybe even love. 

In addition, I am still listening to The Goldfinch on my Kindle, The Collectors by David Baldacci on our boombox (while sewing) and I have a paperback in the car that gets picked up when I have downtime while waiting for Mr. Busy or in line at the bank or wherever. That one is a wonderful cozy mystery by Joyce Lavene called Poisoned Petals. It is a easy read, easy to pick up when I have a few minutes.

Until next time.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Saturday Snapshop - when I'm not reading!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda at West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky (at West Metro Mommy). 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 BOW ( Block of the Month) that was sponsored by my local quilt shop in 2011. It is called America Modern by Bernatex and the fabric is Nancy Halvorson.  I got stopped on it in 2012 and finally finished it this week. The original pattern stopped at the pieced red/gold/teal border, but it did not fit the bed where I want it to live. So I added a 10" border all around. It is now ready to go to the long arm quilter and then I will have to put on the binding. There was barely enough room to lay it out on our family room floor. You can see my antique cedar chest corner peeking out. :)  I also have plans to make a contrasting dust ruffle following a tutorial I found on Pinterest. It will be attached to the box spring with hook and loop tape. I hope it will work. Of course all this will necessitate new paint on the walls, new curtains and a total redecorate of our guest room!!  

A Time to Dance : What's in A Name 2014 and Mega Mix II.

A Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 from the book: "They are the perfect couple-envied by their friends, cherished by their children, admired by their peers. But John and Abby Reynolds know they are pretending to be happy. In fact, they're waiting for the right time to tell the kids they're going to divorce. But at the family meeting where they plan toe tell their children, Nicole shares a surprise of her own; she's getting married. How can they spoil her joy with their announcement? They can pretend a little longer - until after the wedding. But questions begin to haunt them as the date draws nearer. What happened to the love and commitment that held them together for so long? Is it still there somewhere under all the pain and misunderstanding? And is it still possible, alone in the moonlight on an old wooden pier, to once more find..a time to dance? "

my thoughts:  This story is very close to home. I understand the pain and misunderstanding. I understand the hurt and the loss of trust. I understand the anger and the vindictiveness. This story touched my heart. I picked up this book at a bookstore on the sale rack. I had not heard of Karen Kingsbury, but the title spoke to me. "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance." Ecclesiastes 3:1,4. I had no idea what the focus of the story was, but I needed to hear it.

Mega Mix II Challenge on Goodreads



Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 4-23-14

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion each week. It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.

Here are three new-to-me words (plus an extra one) from Comfort Foods by Kate Jacobs. You can read my review  here on Goodreads/


On page 15 :


"All followed by a rich buttery financiere with homemade raspberry sorbet "

A financier is a small French cake. The financier is light and moist, similar to sponge cake, and usually contains almond flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavoring. The distinctive feature of the recipe is beurre noisette. Wikipedia


So then I needed to look up beurre noisette.

Definition: Beurre Noisette - French term for "brown butter" or literally "hazelnut butter". Butter is cooked in a pan until it turns a golden brown. The resulting butter has a nutty flavor.

Pronunciation: burr-nwah-ZET


Neither of these words were in any dictionary that I looked in. So I just Googled the words and this is what I got.

Next  found on page 21. "Having the Internet as her main companion all day only encouraged her cyberchondria."

This one I thought I could have deduced by the use in the sentence, but decided to look it up anyway.

Cyberchondria is the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomology based on review of search results and literature online.[1][2] Articles in popular media position cyberchondria anywhere from temporary neurotic excess to adjunct hypochondria. Cyberchondria is a growing concern among many healthcare practitioners as patients can now research any and all symptoms of a rare disease, illness or condition, and manifest a state of medical anxiety.

Last but not least on page 130. " Oliver, looking stressed, took up a place at the Aga stove. He'd been working frantically setting up the kitchen, putting together a mise en place of salt, pepper, spices and olive oil.....

Mise en place (French pronunciation: ​[mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) is a French phrase which means "putting in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that are expected to be prepared during a shift.[1]The practice is also effective in home kitchens.[2]

I suspect that Paulita from An Accidental Blog is laughing at me right about now!  Her blog and her books are about all things French. I am sure she knew all the words above.  I learned a few things and that is always good. I wonder if I could improve my cooking if I put together a mise en place everyday in my kitchen. Surely, it would help!



Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy