Happy Valentine's Day!! Your favorite 'romantic' movie?

Wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!

I was at a meeting earlier this week and was talking with a friend there who revealed that she'd never seen the movie of The Princess Bride!  I said - oh, you must see it - it's very romantic.  Another friend added - no, it's very funny.  The first friend then asked 'what's it about?'.  Well, we told her, it's the story of Buttercup and her Westley, but they are not the only romantic ones.  There's also Miracle Max and his Valerie.  I said there are swords and adventures and pirates and giants and death (or maybe only 'mostly dead') and love of a grandfather for his grandson.  There is 'twue wuv'!  So, my answer to the 'favorite romantic movie' question, at least for today, The Princess Bride!  

Tell me some of your favorite romantic movies for Valentine's Day!  

Miracle Max and Valerie

Westley and Buttercup

Can't Wait Wednesday - Cemetery Road

I'm posting a 'soon to be released' book on Wednesdays.  These will always be books that I am particularly looking forward to.  I'll be linking up to Tressa's blog at Wishful Endings and plan to take part in this each week.

The author of this week's book is a definite favorite of mine.  He tells stories from the South so very well.  He should.  He's a Mississippi guy and he reveals stories about the Southern way of life, the good ones and the definitely the bad ones.  This week I'm waiting on:

Cemetery Road

by Greg Iles

Publication Date:  March 5th

When Marshall McEwan left his hometown at age eighteen, he vowed never to return. The trauma that drove him away ultimately spurred him to become one of the most successful journalists in Washington D.C. But just as the political chaos in the nation’s capital lifts him to new heights, Marshall is forced to return home in spite of his boyhood vow.

His father is dying, his mother is struggling to keep the family newspaper from failing, and the town is in the midst of an economic rebirth that might be built upon crimes that reach into the state capitol—and perhaps even to Washington. More disturbing still, Marshall’s high school sweetheart, Jet, has married into the family of Max Matheson, patriarch of one of the families that rule Bienville through a shadow organization called the Bienville Poker Club.

When archeologist Buck McKibben is murdered at a construction site, Bienville is thrown into chaos. The ensuing homicide investigation is soon derailed by a second crime that rocks the community to its core. Power broker Max Matheson’s wife has been shot dead in her own bed, and the only other person in it at the time was her husband, Max. Stranger still, Max demands that his daughter-on-law, Jet, defend him in court.

As a journalist, Marshall knows all too well how the corrosive power of money and politics can sabotage investigations. Without telling a soul, he joins forces with Jet, who has lived for fifteen years at the heart of Max Matheson’s family, and begins digging into both murders. With Jet walking the dangerous road of an inside informer, they soon uncover a web of criminal schemes that undergird the town’s recent success. But these crimes pale in comparison to the secret at the heart of the Matheson family. When those who have remained silent for years dare to speak to Marshall, pressure begins to build like water against a crumbling dam.

Marshall loses friends, family members, and finally even Jet, for no one in Bienville seems willing to endure the reckoning that the Poker Club has long deserved. And by the time Marshall grasps the long-buried truth, he would give almost anything not to have to face it.

First Chapter First Paragraph - The Lost Man

I am linking up with Vicki @ I’d Rather Be At The Beach who hosts a meme every Tuesday to share the First Chapter First Paragraph or two of the book you are currently reading or plan to read soon.

I have really enjoyed the books that Jane Harper has written so far.  Both were set in Australia and both featured Aaron Falk, an Australian with the Federal Police.  The book I'm talking about today is a standalone, but I understand that a few characters might be familiar.  Here's a bit about...

 

The Lost Man

by Jane Harper

First Paragraph(s):

From above, from a distance, the marks in the dust formed a tight circle.  The circle was far from perfect, with a distorted edge that grew thick, then thin, and broke completely in places.  It also wasn't empty.
     In the center was a headstone, blasted smooth by a hundred-year assault from sand, wind, and sun.  The headstone stood a meter tall and was still perfectly straight.  It faced west, toward the desert, which was unusual out there.  West was rarely anyone's first choice.
     The name of the man buried beneath had long since vanished, and the landmark was known to locals--all sixty-five of them, plus one hundred thousand head of cattle--simple as the stockman's grave.  That piece of land had never been a cemetery; the stockman had been put into the ground where he had died, and in more than a century, no one had joined him.
     If a visitor were to run their hands over the worn stone, a partial date could be detected in the indentations.  A 'one' and an 'eight' and a 'nine', maybe--1890-something.  Only three words were still visible.  They had been carved lower down, where they had better shelter from the elements.
     Or perhaps they had been chiseled more deeply to start with, the message deemed more important than the man.  They read:
     who went astray

Blurb:

Brothers Nathan and Bub Bright meet for the first time in months at the remote fence line separating their cattle ranches in the lonely outback.

Their third brother, Cameron, lies dead at their feet.

In an isolated belt of Australia, their homes a three-hour drive apart, the brothers were one another’s nearest neighbors. Cameron was the middle child, the one who ran the family homestead. But something made him head out alone under the unrelenting sun.

Nathan, Bub and Nathan’s son return to Cameron’s ranch and to those left behind by his passing: his wife, his daughters, and his mother, as well as their long-time employee and two recently hired seasonal workers.

While they grieve Cameron’s loss, suspicion starts to take hold, and Nathan is forced to examine secrets the family would rather leave in the past. Because if someone forced Cameron to his death, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects.

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I'm beginning to hear some very positive things about this book, most notably this review by my friend Cathy at Kittling: Books.  I have this one on audio and will listen to it at 'just the right time'.

A Cold Day In Hell - Lissa Marie Redmond

A Cold Day In Hell by Lissa Marie Redmond

First Paragraph(s):

'You got a man here to see you, Lauren.'
     Detective Lauren Riley put her coffee cup down on top of a mound of paperwork that was inching its way toward the ceiling.  It swayed there perilously for a second as she juggled the receiver, then settled.  'Did he ask for me?  By name, specifically?'
     Linda, the round little secretary who manned the front desk, handled the walk-ins, but she never called upstairs unless she absolutely had to.  'Yes, you.  By name.'
     'Who is it?'
     She could hear Linda covering the mouth piece with her hand, and then, 'He says if I tell you who he is, you won't see him.'
     Lauren frowned into the phone.  'That's odd.  Hold on. I'm coming down.'

My Thoughts:

A Cold Day In Hell is Lissa Marie Redmond's debut crime novel and it's a good one.  Really good, in my opinion.  First of all, I'll tell you that Lissa is from Buffalo, New York.  She's a retired Cold Case Homicide Detective with the Buffalo Police Department.  She's married to a fellow detective and they have two kids.  After retiring, she decided to become a writer.  Now I'll tell you about her protagonist, Lauren Riley.  Lauren is a Cold Case Homicide Detective with the Buffalo Police Department and she has two daughters that are in college.  What I'm saying is that Lissa knows her subject matter.  So, what about the story?

Lauren Riley is an interesting and complicated detective.  She's very gifted in police work, maybe not so much in decisions for her personal life.  She raised her two daughters as a single mother and has been married a couple of times and had relationships that were less than ideal.  In this debut book, Lauren is asked by a defense attorney she's dealt with before to investigate his client's case, privately.  Lauren does have her private investigator's license as well and the crime is from another city.  Frank Violanti has sparred with Lauren over cases, but he respects her skills.  He wants and needs her help.

I was quickly drawn into the story and found it very hard to put down.  Though Lauren annoyed me and made me shake my head at times over her personal decisions, I sympathized with her life and the fact that she was quite lonely.  Her Cold Case partner, Reese, is great, but he has his own life.  Her daughters are now gone.  As she delves into the private investigation, she discovers some ties that she didn't expect.  Things might be one way, but they might not.  Did Violanti's client murder a woman or is he being framed?  Meanwhile, Lauren is getting pressure from the DA's office about this case and also some push back on her own cold cases.  Oh, and there is someone watching her house, someone that is taking a little bit too much interest in what Lauren is doing.

The last few chapters of the book relate the trial of the young man accused of murder.  They are very compelling.  And then there's the ending.  That's all I'll say.  Lissa Marie Redmond's second book in the series, The Murder Book, came out last week.  Will I be reading it?  Oh, yes.  I definitely will. 
 
Blurb:
   
Lauren Riley is an accomplished detective who has always been on the opposite side of the courtroom from slick defense attorney Frank Violanti. But now he's begging to hire her as a private investigator to help clear his client of murder. At first Lauren refuses, wanting nothing to do with the media circus surrounding the case—until she meets the eighteen-year-old suspect.

To keep an innocent teen from life in prison, Lauren must unravel the conflicting evidence and changing stories to get at the buried facts. But the more she digs, the more she discovers that nothing is what it first appears to be. As Lauren puts her career and life in danger, doubt lurks on every corner . . . and so does her stalker.

Farewell, Rosamunde Pilcher...

Yesterday, Robin of A Fondness For Reading shared a very sweet post about the passing of author Rosamunde Pilcher.  I told her that I was so sad to hear this too.  Robin and I both loved her writing.  I had a special 'favorites' post about Rosamunde Pilcher a couple of years ago here and I decided to include part of it below.  Farewell to a lovely author.  She was 94.

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Rosamunde Scott Pilcher was born on September 22, 1924 in Lelant, Cornwall.  She grew up in Cornwall and attended a secretarial college.  Ms. Pilcher served in the Women's Royal Navy Service during the years 1943-1946.  She married Graham Hope Pilcher in 1946 and they moved to Dundee, Scotland, where she still lives.  They had 4 children, 2 daughters and 2 sons.  Author Robin Pilcher is her eldest son.

Rosamunde's first book was published in 1949 under the pseudonym, Jane Fraser.  It was called Half-Way To The Moon.  Ten books were published under the Jane Fraser name, but in 1955, the first Rosamunde Pilcher book came out.  It was titled A Secret To Tell and Ms. Pilcher wrote another 17 books with her own name as author in upcoming years.  Probably the most famous of her novels is The Shell Seekers, written in 1987.  And that's where I come in... 

The first Rosamunde Pilcher book that I devoured was indeed The Shell Seekers.  It was extremely popular and I can remember hearing a lot of talk about it at the library, which is where I got my books at that time.  All my books.  I was a young mother, working full time, with a 5-year-old and little time to read longer novels.  However, I just hadn't yet met Penelope Keeling and heard about the beautiful painting that her father had created - The Shell Seekers.  This is a family story that tells of Penelope's life, her parents, her children, and what will happen to her most prized possession, the painting.  Set in Cornwall, it was filmed for TV and Angela Lansbury played the part of Penelope.


Another book that I loved so much was Coming Home, written in 1995, and an even longer tale, something like 1,000 pages or so.  Just a wonderful story of a young girl named Judith Dunbar, who is left behind by her family at boarding school, again in Cornwall, during the years before WWII.  Her family is stationed in Singapore and Judith stays for school.  She meets another girl, Loveday Carey-Lewis, and becomes involved with Loveday's family, joining them at their home filled with aristocracy.  The war comes and Judith and Loveday are caught up in the events and the novel turns into quite a saga.  It was great!  This book was written in a time period (80's, 90's) when many long, long books were so popular and I loved stories that went on and on and on.  Coming Home was also made into a TV movie.

I have two more favorites that I won't say too much about, but both are very good.  September is a sort of sequel to The Shell Seekers.  One of the characters carries over, Penelope's son, Noel.  This book is set in Scotland in the fall.  And the last book written by Ms. Pilcher in 2000, Winter Solstice, is another favorite.  Also, set in Scotland in the winter this time, it tells a story from the viewpoints of 5 characters when their lives cross in a big old house in the fishing town of Creagan.  It may be chilly outside, but it's homey inside. 

So, if you like family sagas or wonderful books with lovely Cornish or Scottish settings, if you like Maeve Binchy's books, you might try a tale by Rosamunde Pilcher.  She has many other shorter books that I have not sampled as yet.  Maybe one day. 

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Have you read any of Rosamunde Pilcher's books?  Do you have favorites?  I'd love to hear.  

The Comforts of Home - Susan Hill

The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill

First Paragraph(s):

For a long time, there had been blackness and the blackness had no form or shape.  But then a soft and cloudy greyness had seeped in around the edges of the black, and soon, the images had come and these had moved forward very fast, like the pages of a child's flip book.  At first he could not catch any, or distinguish between them, but gradually their movement had slowed and he had made out faces, and parts of bodies--a hand, a thumb, the back of a neck.  Hair.  The images had begun to pulse, and balloon in and out, like a beating heart, the faces had swirled together, mingled then separated, and once or twice they had leered at him, or laughed silently out of mouths full of broken teeth.  he had tried to back away from them or lift his arm to shield his eyes, but he was stiff, his arm heavy and cold, like a joint of meat taken out of the freezer.  He did not know how to move it.
     The faces had split into fragments and begun to spin uncontrollably, and he had been looking down into a vortex.
     A flash of light.  Inside the light, millions of glittering, sharp pinpoints.  Another flash.  The pinpoints had dissolved.
     Simon Serrailler opened his eyes.

My Thoughts:

It's been a long time since Susan Hill added to her DCI Simon Serrailler mystery series.  I read the last book, The Soul of Discretion, in mid-2015 and wrote about it here.  I wasn't sure that there would be any more visits with Serrailler, his sister Cat and her family, and crime-solving in Lafferton.  I'm glad that we weren't quite through.

Simon had been asked to go undercover in prison in the previous book and things had gone very wrong.  Most of The Comforts of Home relates his recovery and he spends much of the book on Taransay, an island in the Outer Hebrides.  Those islands are a favorite location of mine to read about.  In actuality, Taransay is uninhabited for the most part since 1974 except for people on holiday.  Simon is asked to help the Scottish Police with an investigation on the island, he's visited by his nephew Sam, and then his new brother-in-law (and boss) Kieran Bright also wants him to look into a cold case.  Cat has changed jobs, is considering a new venture and she is getting used to her new husband.  Their father, Richard, is a big pain, as usual.

I liked this book and it suited my mood very well.  However, it was not particularly suspenseful.  Most of the story was about the Serrailler family and two cases that were not all that complicated to solve.  As I said, it suited me, but it might not others.  I was glad to catch up with the characters.  In previous books, this author spent a lot of time relating her opinions of current medical ethics and care in the story, probably too much.  She included an update on her medical care opinions here, but didn't beat the reader over the head with it quite as much.  I can see where there might be more books, but maybe not.  I'll continue to try them as long as she wants to write them.         

Blurb:

DCI Simon Serrailler's last, devastating case was nearly the death of him and left him confronting a new reality

Recovering on a remote Scottish island, his peace doesn’t last long. He is pulled in to a murder inquiry by the overstretched local police. A newcomer, popular with the islanders, has died in perplexing circumstances. The community's reactions are complicated and fragile.

It’s good to be back on the job. And when Simon returns to Lafferton, an arsonist is on the rampage and a woman whose daughter disappeared some years before is haunting the police station seeking closure. She will not let it rest, and Simon is called in to do a cold-case review.

At home, Simon is starting to get used to having a new brother-in-law – in the form of his Chief Constable Kieron Bright. His sister Cat has embarked on a new way of practising medicine, and his nephew Sam is trying to work out what to do with his life. And then their tricky father, Richard, turns up again like a bad penny.

Can't Wait Wednesday - The Cold Way Home

I'm posting a 'soon to be released' book on Wednesdays.  These will always be books that I am particularly looking forward to.  I'll be linking up to Tressa's blog at Wishful Endings and plan to take part in this each week.

Early last week, I shared my thoughts about Julia Keller's latest Bell Elkins book here.  There have been a lot of changes for the characters and I was worried that we might be at the end of Bell's story.  Happily, that is not the case.  This week I'm waiting on:

The Cold Way Home

by Julia Keller

Publication Date:  August 20th

Bell Elkins and Jake Oakes make a good team, so good that they decide after years of working together to hang out their shingle: BJ Investigations, LLC. With his former-cop’s instinctive approach and her former-prosecutor’s affinity for facts, they’re a perfect fit for the routine clients who come their way. It’s not until Amber Slight’s body is uncovered face down in the West Virginia woods that they get their first real challenge.

With most of the forensic evidence at the scene destroyed by a week of rain, Bell and Jake have to rely on their wits to figure out what really happened to Amber, a mystery that may lead back to the halls of Ackers Gap High School. As Bell tries to uncover the truth, an old friend returns to town with motives Bell doesn't quite trust. It’s up to Bell to face both challenges, those that could impact the living and those that honor the dead.

Pulitzer-prize winner Julia Keller returns to her acclaimed series that is as much about the life of a small Appalachian town as it is about the lives and deaths of its citizens.

First Chapter First Paragraph - Women Rowing North

I am linking up with Vicki @ I’d Rather Be At The Beach who hosts a meme every Tuesday to share the First Chapter First Paragraph or two of the book you are currently reading or plan to read soon.

I first read about this book on my friend Lesa's blog here.  Lesa did a great job sharing what she thought and felt as she read this new book by Mary Pipher - yes, the same Mary Pipher who wrote Reviving Ophelia many years ago.  I read that one too.  Here's a bit about...

Women Rowing North

by Mary Pipher

First Paragraph(s):

'I have everything I need to be happy right between my ears.' -- Jane Jarvis

Women Rowing North is about the specific issues women face as we transition from middle age to old age.  The core concern of this life stage, with all of its perils and pleasures, is how to cultivate resilient responses to the challenges we face.  Resilience is built by attention and intention.  We can take responsibility for our attitudes and focus on our strengths and our joys.  We can go deep and face truth squarely.  We can learn the skills that allow us to adapt to anything.  Yes, anything.

     With each new stage of life, we outgrow the strategies that worked for us at an earlier stage.  We find ourselves in an environment that pelts us with more challenges than our current self can manage.  If we don't grow bigger, we can become bitter.  When our problems become too big for us, our healthiest response is to expand our capacities.  That growth is qualitative.  We become deeper, kinder to ourselves and others, and more capable of bliss.

     Attitude is not everything, but it is almost everything.  In fact, in many situations, it is all we have.  Especially as we age, we can see clearly that we do not always have control, but we do have choices.  That is our power.  These choices determine whether we stagnate or grow into fully realized people.

Blurb:

Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny, and loss. Yet as Mary Pipher shows, most older women are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic, and wise people they have always wanted to be.

In Women Rowing North, Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age. Drawing on her own experience as daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, caregiver, clinical psychologist, and cultural anthropologist, she explores ways women can cultivate resilient responses to the challenges they face. "If we can keep our wits about us, think clearly, and manage our emotions skillfully," Pipher writes, "we will experience a joyous time of our lives. If we have planned carefully and packed properly, if we have good maps and guides, the journey can be transcendent."

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I know that not everyone who stops by here is of a 'certain' age, but many are.  I think this book sounds quite interesting and hopeful.  Have you read anything by Mary Pipher?  Would you keep reading?

My oldest books...had them all for 50-ish years...

My good friends Nan and Les both recently talked about some 'old' books on their blogs.  Nan had received a box of books from a sister-in-law and she shared about it here.  She had pictures of her 'new to her' treasures and they looked like treasure indeed.  Les recently reread her old copy of Anne of Green Gables and shared that experience here.  She also talked about what a treasure that book was to her, how she had moved over and over and included the book each time and had owned it for 50 years.  Such wonderful stories and pictures.

It made me think about my own shelves and the books that have traveled with me from house to house.  I've collected a number of old copies of books that I enjoyed as a young girl and teen,  However, what I'll share today are the 9 books that I've owned for over 50 years - each of them gifted to me by someone special - a relative, a neighbor, a friend from school. 

First of all, I'll talk a little about my wonderful parents - neither of whom were readers at all.  At all.  They both were great and very proud of my love of reading, but....they didn't understand why I needed, craved, wished for books that were my very own.  I did not grow up in a house that had a lot of books.  We visited the library frequently in my early days, but my folks never considered buying me a book.  Never.  They were thrifty and frugal and said why would you buy something that you could get for free - even if you had to give it back at the end of the check-out period.  So, when I was gifted these books, I read them again and again.  I wasn't quite like Gollum in Lord of the Rings, but almost...ha!  My precious....

An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

I also bought the sequel to Eight Cousins with my own money probably when I was about 11 or so.  It's called Rose in Bloom and I still have that one too.  I just discovered when I was looking for a link to the Five Little Peppers - there were 12 books in the Peppers series.  I had no idea. 

The Charmed Circle by Dorothea J. Snow

Donna Parker On Her Own by Marcia Martin

That Certain Girl by Dorothea J. Snow

These were all teenage girl romance-type books.  The Donna Parker series had 7 books, I think.  I own 3 of them.  I also loved the books by Rosamond du Jardin and Janet Lambert.  Both of those authors wrote lots of teen girl growing up stories.   

Trixie Belden and the Mystery on the Mississippi by Kathryn Kenny

The Hidden Window Mystery by Carolyn Keene

Robin Kane - The Mystery of Glengary Castle - by Eileen Hill 

I'm not sure how many Trixie Belden books there were eventually.  I read a bunch of them.  And Nancy Drew - I read a lot of those too.  I only own a couple of additional Nancy Drew books, but at one point I thought about buying the whole set.  I loved Robin Kane too, but I don't think those books were quite as well known.  There were only 6 and I own all of them.  I've picked them up at various places selling older books.  

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So, there you go.  My oldest books.  Thanks for joining me on my trip down memory lane.  What are your oldest books and what did you like to read as a kid?  I'd love to know.  

Six Degrees of Separation - From Fight Club to Where The Crawdads Sing

I'm here with Six Degrees of Separation, a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. She chooses a book as a starting point and then links to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

The starting book in this month's chain is not one I've read.  I might have watched the movie, but I can't quite remember - it's Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

And going with the word 'club' in the title and in a completely different direction (trust me on that!), my next link is to The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick.  This is the first in a series of 7 books that I have read (or most of them anyway).  I'm very fond of it.

In the first of the The Mother-Daughter Book Club series, the characters are reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  I've certainly read Little Women more than once, though not for a while.

Little Women is set in the state of Massachusetts, which is where one of the main characters in the next book lived.  Of course, that character was accused of murdering her parents and she was acquitted.  The mystery of what actually happened is still unknown.  The book is Miss Lizzie by Walter Satterthwait and Miss Lizzie is Lizzie Borden.  I've also read this book.  It tells of Lizzie's later years and is set 30 years after her trial.

So, 30 years after Miss Lizzie's trial would be the 1920's - our next link.  Another book set in the 1920's is Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood.  This is the first in her Phryne Fisher series.  It's also a book I've had for years, but have not yet read.  I have watched all the TV episodes filmed up to now.

Another series that I recently talked about is Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series.  And I also shared that the first two books are being adapted for TV.  That first entry into the series is In The Woods, a book that I liked very much.  Can't wait to watch the TV episodes.

In The Woods was nominated for and actually won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 2008.  Another very popular book has been nominated for that award for 2019.  It's Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.  I know many have really liked this book and I hope to read it this year.  Wishing Delia Owens best of luck with that award.

And that's the end of my chain.  From 'club' to 'characters reading' to 'Massachusetts' to '1920's' to 'adapted for TV' to 'nominated for Edgar Award for Best First Novel'.  I've read 4 of the 7 books.  And I put this post together really quickly this morning.  I hope it all makes sense.  Ha!

I'll try to be back next month with 'Six Degrees...' when the starting book will be The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper.  I don't think that book is available as yet in the US, but Kate says it is a front runner for the Stella Prize and is a true crime book.