Sunday Salon: Mixed Genres, Again

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Also visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer; It's Monday: What Are You Reading? at Book Journey. Also visit Mailbox Monday.

Isn't it exciting about the canonization of two Popes today? Brings back memories -  I remember John XXIII being considered as a candidate to become the new Pope; I was just a young kid in school then. Later, we saw John Paul II celebrate Mass in the stadium in Bangkok on May 10, 1984! Who knew these two would later become saints in the Church!
At home, we planted a vegetable garden, a medium sized raised bed, and seeded another round bed with flowers. Can't wait to see what will come up after all our digging in the soil and watering!

A few new books this week:

Where Earth Meets Water

"In this poignant and breathtaking debut, one man searches for meaning in the wake of incomparable tragedy…

Karom Seth should have been in the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11, and on the Indian shores in 2004, when the tsunami swept his entire family into the ocean. Whether it's a curse or a blessing, Karom can't be sure, but his absence from these disasters has left him with crushing guilt—and a belief that fate has singled him out for invincibility. " (goodreads)

Queen's Gambit

Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived...

This is the story of the last wife of Henry VIII, the one who survived.

Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. However, she attracts the attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful monarch Henry VIII, who dispatches Seymour to the continent. No one is in a position to refuse a royal proposal so, haunted by the fates of King Henry's previous wives, Katherine is obliged to become his sixth queen. (goodreads)

Herbie's Game

It’s everyday business when Wattles, the San Fernando Valley’s top “executive crook,” sets up a hit. He establishes a chain of criminals to pass along the instructions and the money, thereby ensuring that the hitter doesn’t know who hired him. Then one day Wattles finds his office safe open and a single item missing: the piece of paper on which he has written the names of the crooks in the chain. When people associated with the chain begin to pop up dead, the only person Wattles can turn to to solve his problem is Junior Bender, professional burglar and begrudging private eye for crooks. (goodreads)

What new books are you reading this week?

Book Teaser: The Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

Teaser Tuesdays  is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers. First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Title: Queen's Gambit: A Novel by Elizabeth Fremantle
Published August 6, 2013; Simon and Schuster
Genre: historical fiction
Source: publisher

page 56/teaser:

"Kit," he says, eventually, "you can trust me." His voice has a supplicant's tone.
"How can I?"
"I didn't know you then...I know you now."

First chapter:

The notary smells of dust and ink. How is it, Larymer wonders, that when one sense blunt another sharpens. He can pick up the scent of everything, the reek of ale on the man's breath, the yeasty whiff of bread baking in the kitchens below, the wet-dog stink of the spaniel curled up in the hearth. But he can see little, the room swims and the man is a vague dark shape leaning over the bed with a grimace of a smile.

Publisher description:
"Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. However, obliged to return to court, she attracts the attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful Henry VIII, who dispatches his love rival, Seymour, to the Continent. No one is in a position to refuse a royal proposal so, haunted by the fates of his previous wives, two executions, two annulments, one death in childbirth, Katherine must wed Henry and become his sixth queen. 

Katherine has to employ all her instincts to navigate the treachery of the court, drawing a tight circle of women around her, including her stepdaughter, Meg, traumatized by events from their past that are shrouded in secrecy, and their loyal servant Dot, who knows and sees more than she understands. With the Catholic faction on the rise once more, reformers being burned for heresy, and those close to the king vying for position, Katherine's survival seems unlikely. Yet as she treads the razor's edge of court intrigue, she never quite gives up on love."

Katherine Parr was Henry VIII's last queen, one who survived his reign and married again. I am eager to read this one.