It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Posted: A desperate plea for vacation advice! My husband and I are supposed to be heading out to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Parks soon. We’re looking for alternate recommendations, just in case the National Parks are still shut […]
So, with impeccable timing, my husband and I are going on vacation in about a week. To the National Parks of the Southwest. A few of them anyway. Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion. Do you see where this is going already? Yup. The government shutdown. I am generally an optimistic person, but I’m also […]
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. I seem to be settling into a biweekly routine with this meme, don’t I? Here’s what’s happened over the past two weeks. Posted: Review: The Fountain at St. James Court; or Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman by Sena Jeter […]
A group of friends travel to Pamplona, Spain for the annual running of the bulls and subsequent bullfights and fiesta. I didn’t like it. Not one bit. We read this for my book club because one of our members remembered loving it when she read it in an English class and had been wanting to […]
Georgia Nicolson is fourteen and full of typical fourteen-year-old girl drama. Through her hilarious diary entries, we learn about her disastrous attempt at plucking her eyebrows, her fantasies about a guy she calls the Sex God (even though she doesn’t seem very clear about what sex actually involves), her fights with friends, and her triumphs […]
Tom Joad, just released from prison, heads back to his parents’ farm only to find that they have been evicted from their land and are on their way to California in search of a fresh start. Thousands of families are in a similar situation and there are many ruthless people along the way who take […]
Set in the early days of the USSR, Doctor Zhivago is the story of the doctor and the sweeping changes he bears witness to. Oh, I had a hard time with this one. It was sheer stubbornness that got me through. I didn’t particularly like Doctor Zhivago, I thought Lara was crazy, and I couldn’t […]
Lucy Armstrong is a director who makes dog food commercials–by choice, not lack of talent. Her ex-husband has asked her to come in and finish directing an action flick that he’s coordinated the stunts for. The real director has just died with only four days of shooting left to go. She reluctantly agrees. Things get […]
In a dual narrative, author Sena Jeter Naslund explores the lives of a modern-day fictional author, Kathryn Callaghan–a “woman of a certain age,”–and artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, famous for painting portraits of Marie Antoinette. Both women are looking back over their lives, evaluating their choices and reflecting on their losses. I am not the […]
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Again, I haven’t posted in a little while. But I passed a big test for a certification at work, so my studying paid off! Woohoo! Here’s what’s been going on over the past 2 weeks. Posted: Review: Orphan Train by Christina Baker […]
Max Trader is a luthier who wakes up one morning in a body not his own. After the initial panic and a little further investigation, Trader finds out that charming, womanizing rake, Johnny Devlin, has wished for a different life and somehow they have traded bodies. Devlin has no intention of trying to switch back. […]