The Sunday Salon: waiting and planning

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.
(for grandbaby girl D to arrive)
That is what I am doing today.

Amongst the waiting I have managed clean the kitchen and assign cleaning duties to other members of this clan. Now the "men" are watching and yelling through the Sounders game and I am holed up in the den--listening to the cries of "Lebeck! Lebeck! Aughh!!!" over and over. We must be getting close to scoring.

On a personal note, I am still not feeling 100% and frankly am getting tired of that!

Reading wise, I am just about done with The Lucky Ones by Rachel Cusk. For now all I will say is that it is a good thing the book is not too long. Otherwise I may not have been able to stick with it.

Up next is, Night of Many Dreams by Gail Tsukiyama. She is an author whose works I have always enjoyed to the max, so I am really looking forward to this one. It has been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years and I can think of no good reason why I have not read it before!













I also want to point out that there is a lot of activity in the book blogging world regarding challenges for 2010! If you have never been to A Novel Challenge, you must! I am pleased that a couple of my favorites are being offered again.
Here is a glimpse of my favorites so far:








































There are lots of challenges being listed and some fun Christmas events coming up. I wrote about a couple of them which I am participating in here.

So, off the computer for me and on to the rest of the day. I am so happy we have lots and lots of homemade chili for dinner tonight so I don't need to cook!


So, what are you up to on this fine November day??

hard to concentrate on reading--

39 weeks
and still waiting

I am more than ready to become Mimi!

Bargain Days

Today I decided to go browse a bit at our local TJ Maxx, a store I very rarely frequent.

You know, to look for a few little baby things in my hopes to urge this little bundle of sweetness to hurry up her appearance. And while I did find a couple of little items in glorious, delicious pinkness,









I was also pleasantly surprised to find a couple of book deals!
TJ Maxx has books?
Who knew?

What did I find?
Well, one book to add to my Grandma library and one book which I have been wanting to read for over a year but the hold list at my library is always so long I never bother to hold it. I will let you decide which book is which!

$2.00 (normally $8.99)














$3.00 (normally $13.99)












Apparently I need to frequent this store a bit more often!

We are getting close!

I may be just hours away from being able to read this gem of a book to a wee little one again!!!

My daughter is having contractions. We are hoping they are the real deal!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!!

a-z Wednesday: "m" books

Hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach

To join, here's all you have to do:

Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:1~ a photo of the book

2~ title and synopsis

3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: M

My "M" book is Maid Marian by Elsa Watson

I have not read this and it sadly has been sitting on my tbr stack for a couple of years. Maybe next year it can be my M book for the A-Z Challenge.

From Booklist

Watson provides an intriguing new twist on an old legend in this reworking of the classic Robin Hood tale. Narrated by a refreshingly bold and independent Maid Marian, the familiar story is retold from a woman's point of view. Virtually sold into marriage by a scheming Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marian Fitzwater enjoys a brief moment of liberty when her teenage husband dies under mysterious circumstances. Her sense of personal fulfillment is short-lived, however, as Marian realizes that another loveless mercenary marriage is being arranged for her. Traveling to Sherwood Forest to seek assistance from the notorious outlaw known as Robin Hood, she hatches a scheme to win her freedom. Meeting as intellectual and spiritual equals, Marian and Robin forge an instant bond that deepens from friendship into love. As the two lovers join forces to thwart the queen, who wields tremendous influence during Richard's absence, a romantic new chapter in the Robin Hood mythology is written.

Wordless Wednesday: explosion of color

my neighbor's tree
November 2009

'Tis the season (almost!)

Tuesday.
Day 2.
Home again with sinus infection/eye infection and child #2 down with the flu. Most probably the swine variation

I have spent some time blog surfing this morning and thought I would do my duty in publicizing some fun Christmas events coming up! (Even though, as evidenced by the picture above, the leaves here are still in the process of falling---picture taken yesterday, November 2nd in front of my house)

First up:

The annual Book Blogger Holiday Swap has been announced and sign ups have begun. In fact, you need to hurry up because sign ups close on November 12th. I participated in this last year and not only did I receive a fun little gift in the mail that included bookish things and coffee, I also found 2 new blog friends to follow!

1.Dawn from She is Too Fond of Books
&
2. Laura from lines...in pleasant places

I for one am happy to see this event is happening again and I just want to say a big Thanks to the organizers.




Buying Books for Holidays is happening again. You can read all about it by clicking here! Not only are we encouraged to buy books as gifts for those we love, but also if possible, give to a literacy promotion cause and if possible shop Indie. Lots of good information can be found on the homepage. I must say that everyone in my immediate family gets at least one book every year for Christmas from me!

Review: The Chili Queen

Book: The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas
Pages: 292
Finished: October 2009
Challenges:
** Read and Review ** A-Z ** Fall Into Reading ** Support Your Local Library **

First Sentence: "As the train pulled into the shabby station at Palestine, Kansas, the pin-faced farmers and their wives in their rusty black-wool best lined up along the tracks like the teeth of a rake."

Winner of the Spur Award for best Western novel, this romp of a story is set in the American West sometime in the 1880's. This book brings the tale of friendship, trust and the sense of justice. Full of memorable characters with cons conning cons, sensationally sinister evil crooks, and the underlying need we all have to be loved.

There are twists and turns to the plot, and even though it is an easy read, and lighthearted at times, Dallas doesn't shy away from portraying the violence and lawlessness of the place and time of the setting. I have been a fan of Sandra Dallas ever since reading her Persian Pickle Club and this one did not disappoint either!

From Booklist

The author tweaks the Western genre with her newest historical novel. Retired shortchange-artist-turned-madam Addie French meets Emma Roby, a meek and ladylike mail-order bride on the train to Nalgitas, New Mexico. Deserted at the train station by her groom, Emma makes her way to the Chili Queen, Addie's "boarding house." There Emma meets Welcome, the mysterious cook, and Ned Partner, an amiable and talented bank robber. At Addie's suggestion, Ned agrees to rob a local bank to avenge an insult made to Addie and takes Emma for his partner. The robbery ends with unexpected results, and the trio hatches another scheme to fleece Emma's brother out of his inheritance. The payoff from this last swindle will allow Addie to open a restaurant, Ned to buy a ranch, and Emma to live independently. Dallas fleshes out the kind of background characters found in a L'Amour or Grey novel with affection and zest.

Tss and monthly recap

Yes.
It is true.
Another month of 2009 has flown by.
This month will be an exciting one, as we await the birth of our first grandchild! We got our daughter and her husband moved into their new apartment yesterday. It was a day of hard work and keeping the mama-to-be calm and laying/sitting down. She is on modified bed rest for high blood pressure and of course the moving day was not without its share of plans gone awry and drama. But it is done and baby is still baking nicely inside her mommy!

I ended the day at urgent care as the eye which I woke up to as being a bit crusty and gooey was so swollen and oozy that everyone around said I needed to get it looked at ASAP. So off to the germ incubator Urgent Care we headed at 8:00 at night. I was told that I had a nasty infection. And by this morning? I had TWO nasty infections. Thankfully the eye drops are working well and the first eye is feeling better even though it still looks gross. On top of that, I have had my 17 year old son sick with the H1N1 flu since Friday and child #2 is running a temp today.

Onto the books.
October was a better month than September was for me and not just in the book list arena. I was also able to knock out a couple more challenges. (Along with dropping a couple)

The October Book List:
Foreign Affairs
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (a whim book-not reviewed)
Last Night at the Lobster
The Zookeepers Wife
The Chili Queen

I am currently reading:
The Governess: The Little Female Academy
The Lucky Ones













Challenges Completed:
Support Your Local Libray
TBR 2009
War Through the Generations

Challenges I had to let go:
The Everything Austen
The Genres (I really enjoyed this one, and would have finished it if had ended in December, but I could not meet the October deadline.

Challenges I have recently joined:
Awesome Author (for 2010)
Christmas Reading Challenge (runs from November 26 through December 31)

I am also planning on joining the November Novella challenge--just haven't gotten around to officially joining.

Happy Reading!

Jingle Bells?

I am really excited about this little challenge as I have never done a Christmas one before! Christmas is my favorite holiday of all, and I will confess right now, that I will start playing Christmas music either tomorrow or the day after! My family laughs at me, but they still love me!
I have a little collection of Christmas books which I never seem to have time to read.
I hope to have time to read 3 books for the challenge--

Here are the titles I have to choose from, the italicized being ones I want to read for sure:

The Xmas Factor by Annie Sanders
Journey into Christmas and Other Stories by Bess Streeter Aldrich
This Year it Will be Different by Maeve Binchy ( a collection of short stories)
The Quiet Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott
On Strike for Christmas by Sheila Roberts
Christmas on Jane Street by Billy Romp
Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews
'Tis the Season by Lorna Landvik (an epistolary story)

Want to know more? Then keep reading or click on the button above to be taken to the challenge post. It is being hosted by The True Book Addict.

The Christmas Reading Challenge:

• will run from Thanksgiving Day, November 26 through New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009
• you can choose 1 - 3 books...I know it seems a small amount, but it's a busy time of year and the challenge is only a little over a month.
• These must be Christmas novels, books about Christmas lore or a book of Christmas short stories (sorry, no children's books, but YA novel is okay).

Just looking ahead, guys...!

I keep telling myself that I am going to scale down my reading challenges for next year. And I am.
Really.
But this one looks like fun and not too hard!
I am choosing the Easy level and my author picks are:
1. Evelyn Waugh
2. Elinor Lipman
3. Charles De Lint



Hosted by Alyse
The idea behind this challenge is to read works by authors who have been recommended to you time and again, yet somehow you haven't managed to read any books by those authors. These are the authors that everyone else tells you are awesome, thus the "Awesome Author Challenge" title.

The Rules:

The challenge starts January 1, 2010 and ends December 31, 2010.

Crossover from other challenges is allowed.

Choose the level at which you would like to participate, post about it and come back and leave a link to your post in Mister Linky.

Titles and authors do not have to be predetermined, and can change at any time.

Books can come from any genre or reading level, the only requirement is that you have heard great things about the author, but haven't yet read any of their works.

The Levels:

Easy: Choose three authors and read at least one title from each author.

Moderate: Choose six authors and read at least one title from each author.

Challenging: Choose ten authors and read at least one title from each author.

Over-Achieving: Anything over ten authors.

Unfinished Challenges

Sadly, I just realized that there are a couple of challenges I will not finish.

1. The Genre Challenge


This one runs until November 1st and there is no way I will be able to finish the 3 books I need to in order to complete it.








2. The Everything Austen Challenge


While I have Emma on my list to read for a few other challenges and feel confident I will get it read, I don't feel that confident that I will get the rest of the requirements completed in time.

Both challenges are great ones, and I enjoyed the books I have read for the Genres one already.

I hate quitting and not completing things, but sometimes it just can't be helped.