In December, my eldest son, a European photographer, vacationed in Barcelona.

Here are some of the shots he shared with me.

A Shop

Enjoying a musician called "The Captain"

And here’s the photographer himself, relaxing….

A Little Liquid Pleasure

What did the rest of you spotlight today?  I’m eager to see what you’ve got….

Themes: 

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

This week’s theme is very (!!!) easy Find the actual word ‘Very’

VERY

***

Today, I’m excerpting from Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan, her first novel and a 2006 Bellwether Prize winner.

It is 1946 in the Mississippi Delta, where Memphis-bred Laura McAllan is struggling to adjust to farm life, rear her daughters with a modicum of manners and gentility, and be the wife her land-loving husband, Henry, wants her to be. It is an uphill battle every day. Things started badly when Henry’s trusting nature resulted in the family being done out of a nice house in town, thus relegating them to a shack on their property. In addition, Henry’s father, Pappy, a sour, mean-spirited devil of a man, moves in with them.

The real heart of the story, however, is the friendship between Jamie, Henry’s too-charming brother, and Ronsel Jackson, son of sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm. They have both returned from the war changed men: Jamie has developed a deep love for alcohol and has recurring nightmares; Ronsel, after fighting valiantly for his country and being seen as a man by the world outside the South, is now back to being just another black “boy.”

Told in alternating chapters by Laura, Henry, Jamie, Ronsel, and his parents, Florence and Hap, the story unfolds with a chilling inevitability. Jordan’s writing and perfect control of the material lift it from being another “ain’t-it-awful” tale to a heart-rending story of deep, mindless prejudice and cruelty. This eminently readable and enjoyable story is a worthy recipient of Kingsolver’s prize and others as well. –Valerie Ryan

***

Snippet:  (In Laura’s voice) He took me to restaurants and the picture show, for walks along the Mississippi and day trips to the surrounding countryside, where he pointed out features of the land and the farms we passed.  He was very knowledgeable about crops, livestock and such.  When I remarked on it, he told me he’d grown up on a farm. (7% Kindle).

It took me several pages to find my first “very”!  What did the rest of you discover?

***

In Booking Through Thursday, here’s our thought for the day:

What’s more important: Good writing? Or a good story?

(Of course, a book should have BOTH, but…)

Oh, that’s a tough one….I really do enjoy a good story, but I revel in the beautiful prose that seemingly whispers like the wind, or thunders across the pages like an emotional cloudburst.

I must have both!  But if I had to live without the gorgeous prose, I guess I definitely do need a good story.  James Patterson is a good example:  his prose is not magical, but he can create a page-turning tale.

His famous short chapters seemingly add to the tension. 

But I still do adore those beautifully wrought tales…sigh.  Like this author:

She manages to give us beautiful prose and great stories.

What about the rest of you?  What do you say?

Cecilia and Isabelle are fraternal twins, but they often feel each other’s anger, pain, and sadness. Janie copes by counting, checking, and isolating herself; she also writes bestselling crime novels. Isabelle is a well-known photographer, now sidelined from that career due to the horror she has witnessed in troubled parts of the world and a secret pain she keeps to herself. She also deals with certain aspects of her history by “sleeping around.” Cecilia is the one who remained close to home, but copes by overeating and lashing out at those around her.

When River requires surgery, Isabelle and Janie come home to Trillium River, the small Oregon village where their grandmother has a house, and where River has been living for several years. They are needed to help care for Henry and their grandmother, who believes she is Amelia Earhart.

Coming home brings many of the childhood memories to the forefront, and as each of Henry’s sisters tries to deal with their mother and each other, they experience all over again the troubled and painful life brought about by their mother’s neglect, frequent verbal abuse, and the abandonment by their father.

Henry’s Sisters is narrated in the first-person voice of Isabelle, but we soon come to understand and know each of the sisters and feel their emotional connections; despite their pain and anger, sometimes directed at one another, they clearly love and need each other.

So when one crisis after another challenges them, what will they do to get through? How will the family bakery begin to inspire their creativity and feed their souls? And when an unexpected reappearance from the past brings up unwelcome feelings, how will they cope?

As one final sad blow brandishes its fierceness, bringing out the best and worst in them, what will ultimately remind them again of the strength of their love for one another?

I enjoyed meeting and connecting with the characters in this book, all flawed, somewhat quirky, and totally human. I was sad to close the final page on this family. I could relate to aspects in each of them, but felt especially connected to Isabelle, trying to make a life on her terms, even as she struggled with the demons of her past. Five stars.

Last week, I spotlighted some photos taken by my son of an old abandoned sanitarium.

This week, I’m showing some inside photos.

Inside the Sanitarium

And here’s another outdoor photo….

I can’t wait to see what the rest of you have spotlighted this week.

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.

Today’s Theme:

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

). This week’s theme is

COME (came, arrive, coming etc)

For a couple of days, I’ve been reading a chunkster (627 pages) called Almost a Crime, by Penny Vincenzi.

Meet Tom and Octavia Fleming. Attractive, rich and madly successful, the pair appeared to have the perfect power marriage until an affair leaves their lives in fatal danger. For this is no ordinary affair, but one that leads to life-threatening terror from which nothing and no one in the Flemings’ charmed circle can escape: not their children, not their friends, not even the one thing that seemed beyond reach – their own professional success.

Described by Dominick Dunne as a writer “with verve and heart, immersing the reader in a world of engrossing and unforgettable glamour and passion,” and praised by Barbara Taylor Bradford as “marvelously engrossing,” Vincenzi’s newest novel is a surefire winner with critics and readers alike.

***

In this part of the story, the MC Octavia Spencer has gone to Barbados with a new lover; he is meeting some of her wealthy friends, and feeling uncomfortable.

Theme Snippet:  He felt instinctively that even a new shirt would hardly cover a lunch party with the Richardsons.  His headache had come back; beating right through him, down his neck and his back.  As he got up to follow the Richardsons to their table, he saw Bertie turn, take in his baggy flannel trousers and distinctly crumpled white shirt, saw his expression of slight disdain. p. 440

I think this particular vacation might just be the death of this relationship!  What intriguing snippets do you have to share?

***

In Booking Through Thursday, our leader has posed this question:

I saw this article the other day that asked, “Are you ashamed of skipping parts of books?” Which, naturally, made me want to ask all of YOU.

Do you skip ahead in a book? Do you feel badly about it when you do?

Thinking about this makes me cringe, which tells you already that “skipping” does make me feel guilty.  I don’t usually skip parts of books, especially when I’m going to review them.

However, if there are aspects to the book that are really boring and not adding to the story (IMO), I might SKIM through those parts.  Even then, I do feel a bit as though I’m cheating!

Someone in another similar conversation talked about skipping over battle scenes…now, unless the battle details are important to the story, I just might do that.

However, I am unlikely to read a book about battles (although some of the classics I read back in the day often included some battle scenes), so this issue isn’t going to arise often.

Nowadays, I try really hard to choose books that I’m going to enjoy, which means there won’t be a reason to skip parts.

What about the rest of you?  Do you have a guilty secret?

Today I’m showcasing photos of Europe.  Two of them were snapped by my photographer son Craig, in Beelitz, a little village near Berlin.  The focus was an abandoned sanitarium.

Sanitarium in Beelitz

And next, I was clearing out some boxes in my garage the other day and found this photo taken years ago when my second son Brett visited Craig in a village near Prague.  It was 1998, and at the time,  Craig was living in the castle, along with several others, in exchange for their help with restorations.

In this photo, you can see that a lot still needs to be done.

I love found treasures.  I had totally forgotten that I had packed this photo, along with paperwork, in one of my see-through bins.

I also discovered my granddaughter’s Italian charm bracelet, which had been missing ever since my move 4 1/2 years ago!

What have the rest of you captured today?  I can’t wait to see….

Welcome to another Thursday Sparks, in which we spark our creativity and enthusiasm for writing styles in the books we read.

Theme Thursdays, hosted by Reading Between Pages, gives us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

TODAY’S THEME:

KNOW (aware, knowing, realize etc)

Today I’m featuring a book that has been on my TBR stacks for awhile, and is a chunkster, too.  If I complete this one next week, I will be adding it to lists for two challenges.  At 627 pages, it will be one that takes awhile.  But I love this author, so maybe the book will fly by.  Penny Vincenzi’s Almost a Crime is a book that immerses the reader in a world of engrossing glamor and passion.

About: 

Meet Tom and Octavia Fleming. Attractive, rich and madly successful, the pair appeared to have the perfect power marriage until an affair leaves their lives in fatal danger. For this is no ordinary affair, but one that leads to life-threatening terror from which nothing and no one in the Flemings’ charmed circle can escape: not their children, not their friends, not even the one thing that seemed beyond reach – their own professional success.

Described by Dominick Dunne as a writer “with verve and heart, immersing the reader in a world of engrossing and unforgettable glamour and passion,” and praised by Barbara Taylor Bradford as “marvelously engrossing,” Vincenzi’s newest novel is a surefire winner with critics and readers alike.

***

Snippet:  Tom was already in the American Bar at the Savoy when Octavia rushed in, almost fifteen minutes late, but he was not looking alternately at his watch and the entrance as she would have done, he was at one of the prized corner tables—of course he was at a corner table—reading the Financial Times, apparently perfectly relaxed.  Only a handful of people, Octavia concluded, would have known that Tom was never relaxed, any more than she was, but he was masterly at appearing so.  p.7

***

What did you find today?  I hope you’ll come on by and share….

Here we are, already finished with Week One of 2012.  I hope everyone is having a good one!

Two days ago, my youngest grandson had his ninth birthday, which made me think of birthdays past, as well as this one.

Here he is on his First Birthday, followed by a photo of him now at age nine.

This current photo wasn’t taken with birthday cake…that will come this weekend.  But he gives us a glimpse of how much he has changed….

What are the rest of you sharing today?  I can’t wait to find out!

Welcome to another Thursday Sparks, in which we spark our creativity and enthusiasm for writing styles in the books we read.

Theme Thursdays, hosted by Reading Between Pages, gives us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

Today’s Theme:

NEW (fresh, newest, latest etc)

***

Today I’m sharing the theme by excerpting from an Amazon Vine book on my list next week.

So Pretty It Hurts, by Kate White, is an ARC.

True-crime journalist and sassy amateur sleuth Bailey Weggins has scarcely begun her hard-earned weekend getaway when something comes up: a dead body, belonging to one of the world’s most glamorous supermodels. Now Bailey’s trapped at an upstate New York home amidst the glitterati—and any one of them could be a murderer. She’s determined to find out who’s responsible, but her investigation could provoke the killer into striking again… From Kate White, the New York Times bestselling author of Hush and the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, So Pretty It Hurts is an addictive addition to the Bailey Weggins mystery series, and the book that fans of If Looks Could Kill, Over Her Dead Body, and Lethally Blond have been waiting for.

***

Snippet:  “Oh, God, Bailey, are those the new Prada riding boots?”  Leo asked me as I pulled out my desk chair in the large open bullpen area.  Leo’s a photo editor, but there isn’t enough room for him in the overstuffed art department, so he was bumped to a workstation right behind me and my office bff, Jessie Pendergrass, a senior staff writer.  p. 3

***

I’d love to have those new boots!  What about you?  What snippets did you find today?

Welcome to another edition of Waiting on Wednesday, our opportunity to shout out about the wonderful books we are anticipating.  Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, you can join in, too; just follow the link.

Today I’m excited about a book by one of my favorite authors, Jane Green; Another Piece of My Heart is due out on 3/13/12.

From the New York Times bestselling author of JEMIMA J, and THE BEACH HOUSE, comes Jane Green’s most emotional and powerful novel yet:  a story that explores the complications of a woman marrying into a ready-made family, and the true meaning of motherhood.

Andi has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty-seven, she’s finally found him.  Ethan—divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia—is a devoted father and even better husband.  Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own. But in Emily’s eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father’s love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. When the dynamics between the two escalate, they threaten everything Andi believes about love, family, and motherhood—leaving both women standing at a crossroad in their lives…and in their hearts. ANOTHER PIECE OF MY HEART is a novel that illuminates the nuances and truths about relationships and is Jane Green at her absolute best.

***

I have already preordered this one…so I am very excited about it.  What are you drooling over today?  Come on by and share….