THURSDAY SPARKS: THEMES & BOOKING — APRIL 26

Good morning!  Welcome to another Thursday event, in which we spark some creativity and dig into the books we’re reading for our Thursday Themes, hosted by Reading Between Pages ; or explore our thoughts and feelings about bookish topics in Booking Through Thursday.

Our themes give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

Theme Thursdays:

Today’s Prompt:

YES!!! Okay, sure, etc.

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Today’s snippet is from Love in a Nutshell, by Janet Evanovich & Dorien Kelly.

About the book:

Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she’s been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents’ summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene’s Harbor, Michigan. Kate’s plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory.

Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees. Someone has been sabotaging his company, and Kate is just new enough in town that she can insert herself into Culhane’s business and snoop around for him. If Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus. Needless to say, Kate is highly motivated. But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss.

Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate’s family home, and keep a killer from closing in…all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another? Filled with humor, heart, and loveable characters, Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun.

***

(In this excerpt, Kate is hoping for a job and approaches an interview at the Brewing company like it’s her last chance).

(Matt hears someone approach)

“Is Matt Culhane in?” a woman asked Jerry.  “I need to talk to him.  His office is in the back, right?”

“Yes,” Jerry replied.  “But…Wait, you can’t….”  (1%-Kindle)

***

Booking Through Thursday:

Here are some prompts for the day:

Two people asked a similar question:

Charlie Quillen asks:

Has a book ever inspired you to change anything in your life, fiction or non-fiction alike?

Lindsay asks:

There have been books I loved, books that I fell in love with, and books that changed my life, and they’re not always the same nor mutually exclusive.

***

Many books probe the mind and push us into exploring thoughts and feelings by helping us connect with the characters in their explorations.

Some authors present these kinds of issues better than others, in my opinion, like Margaret Atwood.

In Cat’s Eye, she shines a spotlight on bullying, among other things:

In Handmaid’s Tale, she probes a dystopian world that doesn’t seem that implausible:

Jodi Picoult is another author who shows the reader issues and a point of view that might change how we think about some things.

In Sing You Home, she takes on controversial issues.

In my younger years, some of my favorite authors made me wonder what it would be like to have the talent to reach out to people through the written word.

These inspirational authors included Daphne Du Maurier, whose Rebecca and Jamaica Inn left an indelible impression on my mind, even all these years later.  Recently, I bought these two books to reread them.

Little Women, Gone with the Wind, Uncle Tom’s Cabin...all touched me in special ways.  One could say they inspired me.

What books inspired you?  Were there authors whose work did that better than others for you?