Sunday Salon - August 26

Ah, Sunday - I never know what to make of you. I don't have to work and I generally try not to clean on Sunday but you mean I have to go back to work tomorrow. I shall endeavor to make the best of you.

The Big Guy raced through The Lighthouse Road last week. Like me, he liked it (although maybe not as much as Safe From The Sea). He liked the movement in time and thought Geye did a great job with a work of strictly historical fiction. Now, like Safe From The Sea, this one will now make its way out into the world - first stop, my parents. The Big Guy isn't necessarily what I would call "a reader"  (he can't sit still long enough most of the time) but he does love books. He will pick up and put down books on a whim and entirely reads what ever appeals at the moment. Sometimes that means he's grabbing books from my shelves instead of his nightstand - case in point, he recently picked up Julian Barnes' The Sense of An Ending. I haven't gotten to it yet but if he delivers it back to me in the same shape as he did The Lighthouse Road, he is in big trouble!

I came home from work to find Joanne Harris' Peaches for Father Francis in my mailbox the other day. What a nice surprise - I've really enjoyed the books I've read by her and this was a complete surprise. And it will fit in perfectly with my plans for Fall Feasting reading coming up in October and November again.

Late last night I completed my eighth pin for the Pin It and Do It challenge. On a whim, I decided to make granola at 11:30 p.m. - given that it needs to bake for an hour, you can imagine how late I went to bed!

It wasn't the recipe I had initially pinned but it seems to be one that we will all like and it was one for which I had all of the ingredients on hand. Since I'm actually typing this up while I'm waiting for it to finish cooking, I can't give you a verdict on it yet. But I'm already imagining the variations on the basic recipe I can make: different fruit, different nuts, a batch with coconut for those in my family who like it, different grains. The recipe call for rolled oats but I used half rolled oats and half rolled barley. If we like it, I'm going to have to work in bigger batches; the recipe I used only makes enough granola for each of us to have about one bowl.

I neglected to mention, when I reviewed it, that Sea Escape by Lynn Griffin was my seventh pin. It was one of the books I took on vacation but I didn't include it in my vacation Pin It and Do It post because I wasn't done with it yet then. Since I still have about five more days this month, I may just be able to knock out another pin or two. I've got a party coming up with weekend and I might have to try out a couple of new recipes.

This week I'll have reviews of The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I'm hoping to get some pictures of the cats who aren't supposed to be living here but who are, so far, not bothering my allergies and working their way into our hearts. This week I'm reading The Mirrored World by Deborah Dean and The Bookie's Son by Andrew Goldstein for TLC Book Tours next week. What are you reading this week?