Lyrical Pat Conroy

Mandy had left a comment asking if I had read South of Broad by Pat Conroy yet and did I enjoy it. Yes and yes! I have read every one of Pat Conroy's books and was so excited he had a new one coming out. It has been 14 years since Mr. Conroy has written a novel and this one was worth the wait.

My friend Jean from church, a retired librarian, was reading it the same time I was and we had a hard time hushing up when our Bible study started because we were too busy comparing notes and finding out where the other was in the book, what was happening at the time and the crazy emotions we were feeling. Jean believes Mr. Conroy is definitely going to be remembered as one of the great American writers of this century. My mother even remembers his newspaper columns when he began writing for the Atlanta Journal/Constitution probably 40 years ago.

Mr. Conroy's writing style is a beautiful, lyrical prose that sings to you every sentence. You will remember his characters the rest of your life, every dysfunctional thing that can happen, will inevitably happen to one of his characters some time, but you will cheer them on regardless.

So yes Mandy, this would be an excellent book to take with you to the beach in a few weeks. You will be unable to put it down.

...and Mr. Conroy, please don't make us wait so long until your next book!

Savannah looking in the cannon in Mont St Michel, France 2009Savannah looking in the cannon in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland 2008
...the things she does for her mom and a photo.

North and South

I think Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South ranks right up there with Austen's Pride and Prejudice. What a wonderful Victorian period piece of film!

A Bug

Pardon the break. We have all been felled by the stomach flu this week. Things are almost back to normal. I did the grocery shopping today and almost passed out by the time I got home. Took a rest and then cooked a healthy dinner for us. My southern cornbread came out of the oven so golden and crispy on the outside and like cake on the inside, my dad would even be impressed. Poor Savannah had to miss her 3rd and 4th day of school, but was back better than ever today. It was strange and pitiful to see DH down for the count yesterday and today he is a new man. He is the worst patient. Are all men that way? Anywho, we are thankful for healthy days again!

E.A.T. With Leslie

I was thinking of a delicious lunch Les and I had in New York a couple years ago. Eli Zabar's E.A.T. on the Upper East side. We had been to a church on 81st and were wanting a good place to eat lunch, turned a corner and saw this darling restaurant packed with people, yummy breads and even darling large napkins. After lunch, we went next door to his gift shop and oooohed and aaaahed over so many cute things. What a fun Sunday afternoon!

Cute Squirrel

This cracked all of us up! This squirrel "weaseled" his way into this family picture in Canada. It's all over the news right now. Curious little thing, isn't he?

August Book Group Meeting

Last night Jodie and I hosted our August book club. The book discussed was The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. We had fourteen members which we thought was a good turn out because of school starting. We have quite a few teachers in our group, so there was talk of first days and classes. Most were quite tired already.

For a book that is around 1000 pages long, probably 12 out of the 14 finished it. This was probably the 2nd longest book our group had read after Katherine Graham's A Personal History. Everyone enjoyed the character developments, the building of a cathedral details and medieval history. We all had enough of the detailed explicit attacks that were carried out against women of that time. Once was enough Mr. Follett, we get it.

In September we move from England to Russia in The Madonnas of Leningrad.

Which Austen Heroine Are You?

I took this quiz twice (once today and once about 6 months ago) and I still came up 'Elizabeth Bennet' of Pride & Prejudice. Which Austen heroine are you?




Take the Quiz here!

Excited Seniors

Senior Year...1st Day

Here are Savannah's first day of school pictures. She is officially a Senior in High school and I am in shock. She is so excited to see her friends again, but a little sad summer break is over. We all remember those feelings don't we? I wonder if she will let us do 1st day pictures on her first day of college. I'm sure her Daddy will insist. We are proud parents.

As If You Were the Only One

"He who calls the stars by their names is in no danger of forgetting His own children. He knows your situation as if you were the only creature He ever made and the only saint He ever loved." --Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Reading Next

Summary: Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt — a passionate man with his own dark secrets —has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.

With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis. -- Algonquin Books

Irish Nightshirts

My all time favorite nightshirt is one that my friend Debbie gave me for Christmas one year. I have literally worn it out until it has holes in it and is on its way to being a dust cloth. It is a cotton on the outside and a brushed cotton (flannel) on the inside. She gave Jodie & Elaine one too and theirs is also in tatters. Elaine said she even painted in hers because it was so comfortable.

Well, I finally found a new one. Magee of Donegal is the Irish brand name and I can't wait for it to get here. I ordered it from the Woods of Shropshire store in England. I look forward to having this one for years too.

The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century

Selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association

(listed by author; current paperback publisher is noted for in-print titles)

Allingham, Margery. The Tiger in the Smoke (Carroll & Graf)
Ambler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios (Carroll & Graf)
Armstrong, Charlotte. A Dram of Poison (currently unavailable)
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Death (Penguin)
Ball, John. In the Heat of the Night (Carroll & Graf)
Barnard, Robert. Death by Sheer Torture (currently unavailable)
Barr, Nevada. Track of the Cat (Avon)
Blake, Nicholas. The Beast Must Die (currently unavailable)
Block, Lawrence. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Avon)
Brand, Christianna. Green for Danger (Carroll & Graf)
Brown, Frederic. The Fabulous Clipjoint (currently unavailable)
Buchan, John. The 39 Steps (Dover)
Burke, James Lee. Black Cherry Blues (Avon)
Cain, James M.. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Vintage/Black Lizard)
Cannell, Dorothy. The Thin Woman (Bantam)
Carr, John Dickson. The Three Coffins (currently unavailable)
Caudwell, Sarah. Thus Was Adonis Murdered (Dell)
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep (Vintage)
Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (HarperPaperbacks)
Connelly, Michael. The Concrete Blonde (St. Martin's)
Constantine, K.C.. The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes (David R. Godine)
Crais, Robert. The Monkey's Raincoat (Bantam)
Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop (Penguin)
Crombie, Deborah. Dreaming of the Bones (Bantam)
Crumley, James. The Last Good Kiss (Vintage)
Dickinson, Peter. The Yellow Room Conspiracy (currently unavailable)
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles (Berkley)
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca (Avon)
Dunning, John. Booked to Die (Avon)
Elkins, Aaron. Old Bones (Mysterious)
Evanovich, Janet. One for the Money (HarperPaperbacks)
Finney, Jack. Time and Again (Scribner)
Ford, G.M.. Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? (Avon)
Francis, Dick. Whip Hand (Jove)
Fremlin, Celia. The Hours Before Dawn (Academy Chicago)
George, Elizabeth. A Great Deliverance (Bantam)
Gilbert, Michael. Smallbone Deceased (currently unavailable)
Grafton, Sue. "A" is for Alibi (Bantam)
Graham, Caroline. The Killings at Badger's Drift (currently unavailable)
Grimes, Martha. The Man With the Load of Mischief (currently unavailable)
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon (Vintage)
Hare, Cyril. An English Murder (currently unavailable)
Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs (St. Martin's)
Hiaasen, Carl. Tourist Season (Warner)
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley (Vintage)
Hill, Reginald. On Beulah Height (Dell)
Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time (HarperPaperbacks)
Himes, Chester. Cotton Comes to Harlem (Vintage)
Innes, Michael. Hamlet, Revenge (currently unavailable)
James, P.D.. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Warner)
Kellerman, Faye. The Ritual Bath (Avon)
Kellerman, Jonathan. When the Bough Breaks (Bantam)
King, Laurie. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Bantam)
Langton, Jane. Dark Nantucket Noon (Penguin)
le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came in From The Cold (Ballantine)
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird (Warner)
Lehane, Dennie. Darkness, Take My Hand (Avon)
Leonard, Elmore. Get Shorty (Delta)
Lochte, Dick. Sleeping Dog (Poisoned Pen Press)
Lovesey, Peter. Rough Cider (currently unavailable)
MacDonald, John D.. The Deep Blue Good-by (Fawcett)
MacDonald, Philip. The List of Adrian Messenger (currently unavailable)
Macdonald, Ross. The Chill (Vintage/Black Lizard)
Maron, Margaret. Bootlegger's Daughter (Mysterious)
Marsh, Ngaio. Death of a Peer (St. Martin's)
McBain, Ed. Sadie When She Died (currently unavailable)
McClure, James. The Sunday Hangman (currently unavailable)
McCrumb, Sharyn. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (Ballantine)
Millar, Margaret. Stranger in My Grave (currently unavailable)
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress (Pocket)
Muller, Marcia. Edwin of the Iron Shoes (currently unavailable)
Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel (currently unavailable)
O'Connell, Carol. Mallory's Oracle (Jove)
Padgett, Abigail. Child of Silence (currently unavailable)
Paretsky, Sara. Deadlock (Dell)
Parker, Robert. Looking for Rachel Wallace (Dell)
Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Club Dumas (Vintage)
Perry, Thomas. Vanishing Act (Ivy)
Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank (Warner)
Peters, Ellis. One Corpse Too Many (Mysterious)
Pronzini, Bill. Blue Lonesome (Walker)
Queen, Ellery. Cat of Many Tails (currently unavailable)
Rendell, Ruth. No More Dying Then (Vintage)
Rice, Craig. The Wrong Murder (International Polygonics)
Rinehart, Mary Roberts. The Circular Staircase (Kensington)
Robinson, Peter. Blood at the Root (Avon)
Rosen, Richard. Strike Three You're Dead (currently unavailable)
Ross, Kate. A Broken Vessel (Penguin)
Rozan, S.J.. Concourse (St. Martin's)
Sayers, Dorothy. Murder Must Advertise (HarperPaperbacks)
Sjowall & Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman (currently unavailable)
Stout, Rex. Some Buried Caesar (currently unavailable)
Tey, Josephine. Brat Farrar (Scribner)
Thomas, Ross. Chinaman's Chance (currently unavailable)
Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills (Bantam)
Turow, Scott. Presumed Innocent (Warner)
Upfield, Arthur. The Sands of Windee (currently unavailable)
Walters, Minette. The Ice House (St. Martin's)
White, Randy Wayne. Sanibel Flats (St. Martin's)
Woolrich, Cornell. I Married a Dead Man (Penguin)

Posted by David J. Montgomery in Reference | Permalink

Happy Birthday Leslie

Happy Birthday to my Best Friend Today! My Sister!

Love You Lots Les!

xoxo,

Juls

The 70's in Atlanta

Aaaaah the 70's! Leslie and I had so much fun becoming teenagers in the 70's. Listening to our 45's and then our 8 track tapes. The Monkees, Three Dog Night, "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night", "We had joy, we had fun, we had Seasons in the Sun", "Little Willy Won't Go Home!"

The original wedges, shag haircuts, bead belts, elephant pants (very wide leg), street parties, $1 Monday night roller skating...There was soooo much fun stuff at the time!

Did any of you use any of this stuff too?

Gee, You're Hair Smells Terrific!

Love's Baby Soft

Jean Nate After Bath Splash

The original Indian Earth in the little pot (the 1st bronzer, blush mineral make-up)

...and who can forget our orange hair with Sun In! Eeek!

Cutie Sydney

Here is my precious niece Sydney getting her picture made with her Daddy at the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile. Isn't she a cutie?

Have a Perfect Day

I am into happy things right now. There are too many sad things going on in the world right now.

One thing Sav and I share is our love for the group Coldplay. Check out this video Chris Martin made of the song Strawberry Swing. Click here and then on the "video/stawberry swing" for the extremely creative video to play....I can't imagine the time, art and hard work put into this delightful video!

Hope it makes you feel happy too.

Sky Miles Shopping and Free Tickets

Lots of times we have been able to get our plane tickets through Delta free. One of the ways we do this is to make purchases through Delta's sky miles shopping website.

For example, I needed a few things from Target and I ordered it through the sky miles shopping website and Target gave me 8 miles per dollar spent. There are TONS of stores, anything you can think of. I ordered a Cold Water Creek gift card for an upcoming birthday and got 2 sky miles per dollar.

DH is all over this. We went to Best Buy and bought a couple things and he was so mad at himself when he got home and realized he could have ordered the same thing on sky miles shopping.

All you have to do is have a sky miles number which is free, punch it in and presto, by next April our plane tickets to Savannah, Georgia will be free!

If you have any questions about redeeming sky miles, DH is the man! One time one of the legs of our flights got cancelled and he got on the phone and got our sky miles back! Smart! I think he gets that from his Mama.

Lots of Love Going Around