Life: it Goes On - June 23

Happy Sunday! It's hot and dry here (although humid) and the sun is shining. I'd far rather be too warm than too cold - thinking of days like this is what gets me through the winter. Now, if I had to be out in the heat too long, doing something where I wanted to look my best and couldn't because I was sweating too much, I might feel differently right now! But since my weekend consists of inside activities or working in the yard, I'm fine with it.  

I don't know if you've noticed; but I've been reading so fast lately that I've been able to find a common ground between the two books I've read each week. I'm going to try to make sure I let you know what that is, going forward, because they may not always be obvious to you. For example, this week's books both have ties to a friend; she was the one who introduced me to Lian Dolan and who recommended All You Have To Do Is Call.

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished All You Have To Do Is Call and started Nancy Horan's The House of Lincoln. I'm struggling with The House of Lincoln - I'm not liking the reading at all and I'm trying to figure out if I just need to pick up the book in print instead. 

Watched: As recommended, we watched the first episode of We Were The Lucky Ones. I don't know if I can continue with it, knowing that things will get so much worse for these characters (a Jewish family in Warsaw in 1939) and that some of them are going to die. 

Read: I finished Kathleen Grissom's The Kitchen House and Lian Dolan's The Marriage Sabbatical. Now reading Tea Obreht's The Morningside. So different from The Tiger's Wife, which is the only other of her books that I've read. 

Made: A pasta dish with caramelized onion, baked garlic and roasted tomatoes. So yummy but so much work! 

Enjoyed: Last night the temperature was absolutely perfect and there was no wind - it was the perfect night to enjoy a gin and tonic on the patio. It was lovely to sit and enjoy the fruits of our labors this spring and summer. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: We came to the realization that our old cat can no longer jump on beds; hence, there is no longer a need to keep the doors of our guest rooms closed to prevent her from getting on those beds. The doors being open, though, mean that I can see into those room every time I walk upstairs. So now I've got the urge to make some changes in both of those rooms this week, just some little things that won't take too much time. 

Thinking About: We've removed a small shed in our backyard that frees up some space for a new garden area. I'd like to make it largely perennial but leave some room for some annuals. The question is what to get? I would love to have some hydrangeas, but don't want something that large in the garden. I may just have to go browse the nurseries. 

Feeling: A little frustrated - didn't feel well yesterday and didn't get nearly as much done as I was hoping to get accomplished. Meanwhile, though, Big Guy has been working outside and has accomplished so much so I'm also feeling a little guilty! 

Looking forward to: Book club, which was postponed this past week due to forecasted storms. AND, Mini-me texted me that he and Ms. S will be coming for the week of Thanksgiving this year so I'm already looking forward to that and planning where everyone will stay and where I'll sit so many for dinner!

Question of the week: Do you have any perennials you'd recommend for my new garden? 

The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

Read by Kristen DiMercurio and Zachary Webber

7 hours

Published March 2023 by Penguin Publishing Group 

Publisher's Summary: 

Hallie Piper is turning over a new leaf. After belly-crawling out of a hotel room (hello, rock bottom), she decides it's time to become a full-on adult. She gets a new apartment, a new haircut, and a new wardrobe, but when she logs onto the dating app that she has determined will find her new love, she sees none other than Jack, the guy whose room she snuck out of. 

After agreeing they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie realize they're each other's perfect wing-person in their searches for The One. They text each other about their dates, often scheduling them at the same restaurant so that if things don't go well, the two of them can get tacos afterward. 

Spoiler: they get a lot of tacos together. 

Discouraged by the lack of prospects, Jack and Hallie make a wager to see who can find true love first, but when they agree to be fake dates for a weekend wedding, all bets are off. As they pretend to be a couple, lines become blurred and they both struggle to remember why the other was a bad idea to begin with.

My Thoughts: 

A friend recently met Lynn Painter (can't remember where or how) and asked me, the next day, if I'd ever read any of her books. I said I hadn't but since she's from Omaha, I decided I should give her books a shot, even if they aren't a genre that I regularly read. What better time than summer to read a rom-com? 

What Didn't Work For Me: 

• The great guy who's with a terrible woman (who he's poised to propose to in Chapter 1) is such a confusing trope for me. Painter has Jack explain this by saying that things just sort of progressed to that point because it felt like that should be what came next. But seriously, how? Wouldn't he have wised up to what kind of person she was LONG before it came to an engagement? 
• Both the almost-became-Mrs. Jack and a former classmate of Hallie's that we meet in the first chapter are terrible human beings. I felt like the same result could have been reached without making these women such reprehensible people. 
• I was never clear why Hallie and Jack decided they couldn't date when they found each other on a dating app.
• Ok, this is going to make me sound prudish, but the sex. Not that they had sex. Just that in the first chapter, things were largely left to our imaginations (although we learned a lot about what had happened as the book went on) and the focus was really on the friendship (and they way each of them begins to realize they have feelings for the other one but don't want to mess up the friendship so don't say anything). Then, suddenly, it's all about the hot, steamy sex that the two have one weekend while they are "pretend" dating at Hallie's sister's wedding. 
• The narrating. I really enjoyed having the dual narrators and both readers were solid. 

What I Liked: 

• While these two main characters had plenty of faults (Hallie actually moved out of an apartment she shared while the roommate was out of town without telling the roommate), I felt like they both showed some growth as the book went on. 
• I really enjoyed the banter between the two characters. I found it witty and fun and would have enjoyed more of it. 
• You know that the two will end up together in the end and you know that something will come up that will cause a deep rift before that can happen (and you even know well before it happens what it will be) and it still worked for me. 

I'll confess: I did look at Goodreads review before I wrote this and the reviews are largely very good (although a handful of people really disliked this one). I imagine a good many of them are fans of the genre in general and more are fans of Painter's in particular. So, while there was a lot that didn't work for me in this one, there was enough to like to make me consider trying another of her books. Those reviews that praised the book (and even some that didn't) recommended others of her book as better. So I'll give her another shot. In fact, I've just put another of Painter's books on hold. 

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

Read by Cynthia Erivo 

12 hours, 24 minutes

Published May 2023 by Atria Books

Publisher's Summary: 

1939: Fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora evacuate their London home for a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the Aberdeen family in a charming stone cottage, Hazel distracts her young sister with a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own: Whisperwood.

But the unthinkable happens when Flora suddenly vanishes after playing near the banks of the River Thames. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, carrying the guilt into adulthood.

Twenty years later, Hazel is back in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore for a career at Sotheby’s. With a cherished boyfriend and an upcoming Paris getaway, Hazel’s future seems set. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing a picture book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the storybook world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years? Or is something sinister at play?

My Thoughts: 

This book was suggested by a friend to whom it was recommended. You know, lately if someone recommends a book, I immediately request it from the library, knowing that if I don't, it will live on the TBR list for, perhaps, decades. Because I seem to be able to "read" a book much faster if it's audio these days, that's what I requested and I'm glad that I did because it's the perfect kind of book for listening. Cynthia Erivo is an excellent reader and her being British made that much more of a connection to the book. 

What Didn't Work for Me:

• That "cherished" boyfriend? It takes readers almost no time at all to figure out that he's going to be left behind, although he seems to have no flaws right up until the time that it's essential that he have them. And I didn't buy into the relationship that caused Hazel to leave him. 
• Aberdeen seems to have made such a deep impression on Hazel that she cannot let it go. But while Flora seemed equally attached to the people there, Hazel had to continually tell her that she could not go to Whisperwood (aka the river nearby) because Flora was so eager to get away. 
• Some things felt predictable, others a bit forced.
• Although the ending is unexpected, it is also a little disappointing, in that it doesn't tie together with the book that suddenly appeared other than having the book inspire Hazel to begin her search again. 

What I Liked: 

• The setting and the time frame. While I often feel I'm over reading WWII books, how the British survived still fascinates me, particularly the idea of Londoners sending their children off to the countryside to live with strangers. 
• The world of Whisperwood that Hazel created to help help both Hazel and herself survive the upheaval in their lives. It felt so natural that she would do that to protect her sister's peace and fit in so well with the world they were living in at that time. 
• Life in Aberdeen. There were plenty of interesting characters that felt just right for a small, countryside town and the descriptions of the land made me want to visit. 
• The story of the author of the book that Hazel discovers who has her own battles to fight. 
• Yes, I know I said the ending was a little disappointing, it was satisfying in other ways. The truth behind Flora's disappearance was a surprise to me and I appreciated the way that the characters involved in that piece reacted to the reveal. Things didn't end too tidily. 

It's not great literature but, as Kirkus Reviews said, it was enchanting for the most part. Book clubs would find plenty to talk about and, as I said, the reading is very good. 

Life: It Goes On - June 16

Happy Sunday and Happy Father's Day! Raise your hand if you sent the father in your life off with one or more of your kids so as that it feels as much like a treat for you as it does for them. ✋ The Big Guy and Mini-him headed downtown today with the goal of scoring some cheap College World Series tickets; if those couldn't be found, they would just hang out and soak up the atmosphere, which is a thing unto itself. They did manage to get great tickets for a good price so are busy watching the Virginia-Florida State game.  BG even swung by to see my dad earlier and dropped off (as in hung outside his bedroom window) his Father's Day present. 

Meanwhile, I have the house to myself. I'm waiting on banana bread to finish baking so I can take my dad a loaf, one of his faves. When I get home, I'm planning to whip up a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies with walnuts for BG. That's a cookie I don't care for so rarely make so it will be a great treat for him. Cooking/baking is my love language! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished The Keeper of Hidden Books and am now about 2/3 of the way through Kerri Maher's All You Have To Do Is Call, which was recommended to me and is exceedingly timely. 

Watched: Once again, lots of college baseball.

Read: Kris Carr's I'm Not a Mourning Person: Braving Loss, Grief, and the Big Messy Emotions That Happen When Life Falls Apart. Next up, Tea Obreht's The Morningside. Still buried in Netgalley and library books so I need to find more time (and attention) to read books in print. 

Made: Some salads, some pasta, and the aforementioned baking. 

Enjoyed: Miss H was in town briefly Friday/Saturday so we got some time with her and then I had a long-call with Mini-me today. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I've been putzing around, reorganizing and picking up some things to make that work better for us and that will continue this week. 

Thinking About: Trips we'd like to take yet this summer. 

Feeling: Like weekends are much too short. I need another day! 

Looking forward to: Dinner with our Shep family tomorrow and book club Tuesday! 

Question of the week: Do you have travel plans for this summer? If so, where are you headed? 

Table for Two by Amor Towles

Table for Two by Amor Towles

464 pages

Published April 2024 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.

The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles.

Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.

My Thoughts: 

You've long heard me say of short story collections that there are always some stories that are better than others, some that don't work for me. Not so with this collection and the novella that brings Towles back to where it all began. That last sentence of the publisher's summary? Spot on. 

I was enchanted with the characters and the circumstances of every story, from the first about a Russian man who finds his place in Bolshevik Russia as someone who will stand in line for others and eventually found himself doing the same thing in the United States:

"Though the peasant Pushkin did not share his namesake's facility with words, he was something of a poet in his sod - and when he witnessed the leaves sprouting on the birch trees, or the thunderstorms of summer, or the golden hues of autumn, he would feel in his heart that theirs was a satisfactory life."

To the woman who discovers the secret life of her stepfather only to have it cost her mother the marriage:

"But before she'd walked a hundred feet, the opening riff of The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive," suddenly started playing from a boom box to Nell's left, and that's where she saw him. If it weren't for his silver hairs, she would have missed him altogether. For the minutes that her stepfather had been out of her sight, he had experienced something of a transformation. Gone were the tan pants, white Oxford, and blue blazer. In their place, John now wore silky red jogging shorts, a blue T-shirt emblazoned with the figure of Mr. Met, a white headband a la Bjorn Borg circa 1975, and on his feet a pair of roller skates."

Every story was unique with a touch of philosophy, morality, and humor. None of the endings was predictable. I would have happily read more short stories. But, of course, the reason I was most excited to get to this book was to pick back up with Eve Ross who disappeared from NYC in Rules of Civility but not from readers' memories. Clearly not from Towle's, either. Expectations were high and I was not disappointed. Eve was exactly as I remembered her and the story is filled with all the glitter and seediness of 1938 Hollywood. Eve befriends a former police detective on the train ride across the country who, along with a portly former movie star, assists her when her new friend, Olivia de Havilland, is blackmailed. It give off the noir air of the films of an era that absolutely comes alive in Towle's hands. 

I checked this one out from the library. I might find myself buying a copy so that I can reread it (as much as I want others to read it, I might even loan it out if I own it). 

James by Percival Everett

James by Percival Everett

320 pages

Published March 2024 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

My Thoughts: 

In 1968 my family moved into the house my parents would live in for 54 years. In that house there was a bit of wall between the room my sister and I shared and our parents' room. After my siblings and I were bathed for the night and in our jammies, my dad would lean against that wall, with the three of us leaning into him, and read to us. We read the usual kid fare (Dr. Seuss' Yertle the Turtle was a particular favorite) and books my dad had grown up reading. But the real treat was when my dad pulled one of the red leather-bound classics off of the shelves and read a chapter of that to us each night. One of those books was Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I loved that book, in no small part, I'm sure, as much to the setting and my dad's wonderful reading as for the book itself. But that book pulled me into another world, where children were the center of the world and had marvelous adventures. It never occurred to me then, a girl growing up in the late 60's/early 70's and in a smallish city with very few persons of color, to question Twain's use of the "n" word or his depiction of Jim. 

For Percival Everett, Huckleberry Finn was a very different book. Fortunately for us, he decided there was another story to be told about Twain's characters, a story where the enslaved Jim is an intelligent, well-read family man who protects himself by code switching and playing ignorant. 

Having read Huckleberry Finn more than once, I couldn't help but track that book against the action in this one and I was pleased to see Everett follow that original story line; it allowed me to get an entirely different take on both novels (although reading Twain's work is not essential to enjoying this book). Here Huck is what he is, an largely uneducated, naive young man who relies almost entirely on Jim's ability to survive, even as Jim is forced to allow Huck to believe he is the one doing the thinking. With Jim as the central character in the events, though, slavery plays a much greater role - from Jim's usage of it to try to make the pair some money to the risk Jim is constantly in along the way to the way readers get a real impression of how enslaved people were used and abused to the abuse that James must watch others suffer in order for him to survive. 

“White people try to tell us that everything will be just fine when we go to heaven. My question is, Will they be there? If so, I might make other arrangements.”

Everett doesn't stick entirely to Twain's outline, though. Through all of the book, Everett finds room for humor, generally at the expense (justifiably) of the white characters. He also has some real surprises in store for readers and an ending that I couldn't help cheering for, even as I feared what would happen beyond the final pages of the book. This one is going on the best-of list for 2024 when it will likely end the year at the top of the list. It's a book I would reread, a book I want to discuss with other readers. 

Life: It Goes On - June 9

Happy Sunday! As I type, I'm watching out the window for a truck to arrive with my new washing machine. Mine decided it would tumble long enough to fill with water and it was fine with draining and spinning. It was just all of that stuff in the middle that it didn't want to do any more...like actually wash the clothes. I'd much rather be spending this money on a vacation! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Lynn Painter's The Love Wager and started Madeline Martin's The Keeper of Hidden Books. Quite the change in mood from one to the other!

Watched: Lots of college baseball (again), game one of the NBA finals, and Jerry Seinfeld's latest movie, Unfrosted (a little stupid, but also fun with a lot of sly things thrown in and Hugh Grant was hilarious). 

Read: I finished Julia Alvarez's latest, The Cemetery of Untold Stories and started Kris Carr's I'm Not A Mourning Person: Braving Loss, Grief, and the Big Messy Emotions That Happen When Life Falls Apart. 

Made: Ravioli - both a spinach/ricotta and a sweet corn/spinach/ricotta type, chicken nugget salads, and a chicken pasta dish. 

The way you dress for a matinee
when you're following it up with
a trip to an arts festival. 

Enjoyed: Yesterday BG, Mini-him, Miss C and I went to a matinee performance (matinee because I was more concerned about getting seats where I wanted them than to pay attention to the fact that it wasn't an evening performance!) of Moulin Rouge, which we all thought was excellent. We followed that up with a trip to the Omaha Summer Arts Festival where we ate African, Mexican, Southern, and Indian food and came home with some art purchases. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: This week should be quieter so I'm hoping to get caught up on paperwork, do some work in the basement, and get some extra reading time in because I have so many books I need to get read. 

Thinking About: Father's Day and what to get for my dad and my hubby. 

Feeling: Like a different woman. Got my hair done on Thursday and we went lighter than I have been in years (gotta move that way to make the grays not so obvious quite so soon!). 

Looking forward to: Evenings on the patio since we'll finally have evenings that are free this week when it's not raining. 

Question of the week: Have you seen the theatrical production of Moulin Rouge? 

Lucky by Jane Smiley

Lucky by Jane Smiley

384 pages

Published April 2024 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky—and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then—through a combination of hard work and serendipity—she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and back again. Jodie comes of age in recording studios, backstage, and on tour, and she tries to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell. Yet it feels like something is missing. Could it be true love? Or is that not actually what Jodie is looking for?

Full of atmosphere, shot through with longing and exuberance, romance and rock 'n' roll, Lucky is a story of chance and grit and the glitter of real talent, a colorful portrait of one woman's journey in search of herself.

My Thoughts: 

Read that summary and tell me what you would be expecting in a book. Here's what I was expecting: a book about a young woman who grows up to be a rock 'n' roll star, with all that implies - song writing, recording, touring, concerts, relationships. I expected interactions with the famous names that Smiley throws about. Have you already guessed that that's not what I felt like I got? 

After my first experience with Smiley (in 2015, Some Luck), I was pretty sure that Smiley wasn't for me. But Smiley is a prolific, Pulitzer Prize-winning author. It's clear she's well respected and loved by many and I assumed that one day I would at least read the book that won the Pulitzer, A Thousand Acres. Knowing that I was planning on giving her another chance, I figured this one might as well be it. 

What I Liked:

• Early on, I was drawn in to this one, to the details about Jodie's neighborhood and family and the vivid picture I was getting. I immediately texted a friend who'd moved here from St. Louis about it, certain that she would recognize the places Smiley was referencing. Honestly, if the story had never left St. Louis but focused instead on the family, I think I would have enjoyed this one more. It's truly what the book felt like it was meant to be. 
• The characters of the Jodie's family and the friends she made through her mother. These characters felt really well developed and felt like people I might know. 
• The ending, which was totally unexpected. Although you'll note that the ending also falls on the next list. 

What I Didn't Like:

• When I reviewed Some Luck (and discussed it with my book club), the word minutiae came up. This book seems to make it clear that including the minutiae of life is one of Smiley's hallmarks. This would work for me in a novel that didn't span decades. Smiley includes so much about the food Jodie eats, the walks she takes (sooooo much about the walks!), the men she sleeps with (more as a look how many and less about the relationships). 
• All of the song lyrics. To be honest, I didn't think any of them would ever have been made into a real song; and, for me, they added nothing to the story and took up room that could have been better spent in other ways. 
• The ending. Yeah, I know I said that I liked it. There are kind of two parts of the ending. One I liked (clearly Smiley - or at least Jodie - and I are of a like mind politically). The other I felt was something of a cop out. 

Now the question is - do I give Smiley a third chance? There are things that I really like about Smiley's writing. In some ways, that minutiae provides lovely, intimate details that allow readers to be absorbed into the character's lives. But...I keep expecting more than what I feel like I'm getting. 

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

Read by Lauren Ambrose

8 hours, 23 minutes

Published November 2023 by Random House Publishing

Publisher's Summary: 

Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead—very dead—on the hotel’s tearoom floor.

 
When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?
 
As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago, she knew J. D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery posthaste. Because if there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that secrets don’t stay buried forever.

My Thoughts: 

Once again there's been a murder in the Regency Grand Hotel; and, once again, Molly Gray has ties to the murder victim and becomes a suspect in the murder. But this time, Molly is not alone when the battle to clear her name begins. While Detective Stark may not be a fan, so many others who Molly works with are and they are more than happy to help Molly solve the mystery. 

Molly's ties to the murdered author aren't immediately known as her ties to him are in her past. Even as a young girl, Molly wasn't good at picking up on social clues, but she was very intuitive. It didn't take her long to figure out that she needed to get her Gran away from the Grimthorpes. When J. D. Grimthorpe is murdered at an event, all of that pain is brought back up for Molly and readers get another chance to learn more about Molly's past, including meeting her mother, and her relationship with her Gran, the woman who raised her. Gran has died before the book series begins but she looms large as a character as she remains so influential on Molly, who continues to her Gran's voice as she makes her way through life. It's a lovely relationship, a piece of the books that makes them so much more than merely cozy mysteries. 

Because we've already met Molly in the first book, this book lacks the joy of meeting her for the first time and, now that Molly has her allies, it lacks the tension of the first book. We know that Molly is going to be fine, with a little help from her friends. This time Molly actually plays a bigger role in solving the case, using her unique skills. While I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first book, it was still a delight as Molly is such an interesting character and Lauren Ambrose does such a great job of voicing her. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. 

Life: It Goes On - June 2

Happy Sunday! Here in Omaha we are stuck in a rainy cycle that's lasted more than six weeks now - we've already had thunderstorms move through this morning - so yesterday's beautiful weather was so appreciated. We got so much done outside - prep for a new patio area, transplanted perennials, trimmed shrubs. 

I'm hoping there will be some breaks in the weather today so that I can continue moving some plants. I generally transplant whenever the mood strikes and don't necessarily wait for the best time for the plant - if it survives, it survives; if not, at least the plant isn't where I didn't want it any more. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Patti Callahan Henry's The Secret Book of Flora Lea and started Lynn Painter's The Love Wager. 

Watched: Lots of college baseball. 

Read: Lian Dolan's latest, The Marriage Sabbatical. 

Made: I got a hankering for a wedge salad the other day, when The Big Guy was out of town, so I got the ingredients for that and ate wedge salad (albeit with chopped lettuce) for three meals while he was gone. 

Enjoyed: Went out to dinner with friends last night to a place we'd gone to for New Year's Eve and, once again, we all very much enjoyed our dinners. May become a go-to place! 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I'm going to have the house to myself for a couple of days this week so I'll be shooting to get some spaces cleared out while I don't have anyone here second guessing my decisions. 

Thinking About: Miss H called and talked last night while she was meal prepping for the week which got me thinking about getting back to doing meal prepping again. I never did it to the extent she does (she has meals ready to grab and go, for the most part), but I do really miss having a plan and having as much cooked in advance as possible. 

Feeling: Lazy. Yeah, I know I said earlier that I wanted to get out and do more lawn work. But there's another part of me that just wants to curl up in a chair with a book and a cup of coffee and read for a few hours. 

Looking forward to: We're going to see Moulin Rouge on Saturday with Mini-him and Miss C. 

Question of the week: Have any of you tried lasagna gardening? (How I wish that meant you could actually grow lasagna in your garden!)