The Sunday Salon: Speed Reading

I've been perfecting my speed reading and went through two thick historical novels, getting the meat of the stories and liking them both as well.

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Lady of the Butterflies by Foina Mountain, July 15, 2010, tells the true story of Eleanor Glanville, a 17th-century naturalist whose lifelong interest in studying butterflies was thought to be so unnatural for a woman, she was thought to be mad. Afer her husband dies of the "ague," she marries his best friend but also develops a close professional relationship with a young scientist who also studies butterflies. In later years her son unsuccessfully tried to have he put away for insanity, so that he might seize her property and drain the boggy, marshy fens on her lands for profit.  It is unknown what happened late in her life or where she is buried, but the novel supplies a plausible answer and an escape for Eleanor.

Cloud Mountain by Aimee Lui, Oct. 1, 1998, is based on the life of the author's grandparents, a Chinese student and an American woman who met in California in the early 1900s. The story follows their marriage, her grandfather's return to China with his American wife, and the turbulent history of China undergoing revolution, invasion, war. A page and a half at the end of the novel helped me with the historical events and their dates. A good book for understanding Chinese history from the overthrow of the Ching dynasty to the uneasy years when China tried to establish itself as a Republic. It's also a love story.

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I am listening to the audio book of Janet Evanovich's Finger Lickin' Fifteen (Stephanie Plum Novels), a mystery series which is fun as always in spite of the same characters, situations, slapstick humor which hasn't varied much from No. 1 to the present 15.  I wonder if No. 16 will be much different!  Great to listen to though.

I have more books and audio books in my handy dandy red book bag, which I filled up at the library last week. Getting back into reading after my eye surgery, successful so far by the way, and perfecting my speed reading.  Thanks for all the kind words re my eye surgery everyone :)

Almost forgot- I wrote the first 5 days of NaNoWriMo and rested on the 6th day. Today is the 7th day, so I I had better get back to it! Even if I don't finish 50,000 words by the end of the month, I will at least have started a fictionalized memoir.

What have you read/done this past week?

Sunday Salon: Halloween Grinch

 
 Halloween Grinch
Click on the name to see.
Though I may change my mind,
You may very well find
A darkened door,
A displeasure even for me

- Harvee Lau

Halloween Grinch has spoken. What about this Grinch in November? After eye surgery I can barely see and decided not to give out treats this year, so I don't fall over myself trying to fill blurred hands and bags in a darkened doorway.

I'm also listening to audio books, though I sneak every now and then, in between multiple eye drops, a quick read of more pages of a novel set in the French mountains, The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton.

I'm also fascinated by The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and am on chapter 3. The audio book is read by a young girl who is superb in getting the nuances of the novel down.

What did you read/do last week?

Book Review: The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate

"Dear Diary:.... After a week of my recipes, they come with different expectations than a scotch and a newspaper. They come home kinder. Peering into the mysterious pots on the stove. Sniffing the air and smiling."(Camilla Constantina's diary, ch. 5)

Broken hearted after a failed love affair in California, Holly Maguire is glad to find that her grandmother Camilla has left her a pastry shop and kitchen thousands of miles away in Maine. Holly leaves California, finds friendship in Maine but also competition in work and in love.
Her grandmother, whom she called Nonna, was known as the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island and was famous for her Italian cooking, her cooking classes, and her fortune telling. Nonna had told Holly that the right man for her would love eating sa cordula, a traditional but unusual Milanese dish. Many people found the dish unappetizing, but the right man would love it!

Holly has to learn to cook and give cooking lessons at her shop, Camilla's Cucinotta, just as her grandmother used to do. When Holly discovers Nonna's private diary, she realizes her struggles to become a successful cook mirrors what her grandmother went through years before.

Comments: A light but pleasant read about women, food, friendship and love.  Add Italian and Milanese customs, adjusting to a new environment, and a good story.  Recipes and a reader's guide are nice extras at the end of the book.

Title: The Love Goddess' Cooking School: A Novel
Author: Melissa Senate
Published October 26, 2010, Simon & Schuster Gallery Books
Objective rating: 4 out of 5

Book provided for a virtual blog tour by Gallery Publicity of Simon & Schuster, Oct. 28.

Burmese Lessons by Karen Connelly

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose two sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Burmese Lessons

"I don't want your protection, Maung, I want to keep doing my work. I need to spend more time eating, drinking and breathing Burma." (ch. 23)

Goodreads description of Burmese Lessons: A true love story by Karen Connelly, May 18, 2010: :"Unlike conventional love stories, this one takes the reader into a world as dangerous and heartbreaking as it is enchanting.
When Karen Connelly finds herself in Burma in the late 1990s, she is immersed in a world of students staging mass demonstrations in opposition to Burma’s dictators, revolutionaries fighting an armed insurgency against that same military regime, and refugees living in hellish limbo in Thailand. Connelly first comes to love a wounded, remarkably beautiful country, then a gifted man who has given his life to its struggle for political change. Burmese Lessons is illuminated by the sensual language and flashes of humour that have won her fans around the world."
 
Publisher: Nan A. Talese, 2010.
Source: Personal copy

Sunday Salon: New Reads

 



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I'm reading several books at once, nothing unusual for all of us, I'm sure! Reviewed The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, the second book with 11-year-old genius sleuth, Flavia de Luce. Loved it.

Have started reading a novel that just arrived from the author, Rosy Thornton of Cambridge, England. A history professor, Rosy has turned her hand to writing novels as well. Her latest, The Tapestry of Love will be released Dec. 14 in paperback. It's set in the rustic mountains of France, where a retired Englishwoman has bought a farm and house in order to make and sell tapestries and drapes. The cover suggests that life in the French countryside may be a bit more challenging than it would seem. I suspect this is also a love story, from the title. Armchair traveler that I am, I'm enjoying the book so far.


I've borrowed a few audiobooks from the library, an M.C. Beaton among them,  Death of a Dreamer (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 22), set in the Scottish highlands. Inspector Hamish Macbeth is such a colorful and eccentric character, both in how he solves crimes and in his up and down love life! A confirmed bachelor, he is always just escaping the traps laid for him by would-be brides.

Am continuing to scribble little verses, some that are okay and some that may be just so-so, on my new poetry blog, Strummed Words. Hope you will visit and leave a hopeful comment or two :)

What have you been reading/doing this past week?

Book Review: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia De Luce Mystery) by Alan Bradley is the follow up to the successful  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and is just as good. In fact, it's better.

About the book: Flavia once again gets involved in solving a murder. Because she is only 11-years-old, she can often go snooping around and asking questions without arousing any alarm or distrust. Besides, she always has good excuses for being in places she shouldn't be. Her escapades and getting out of them are part of the amusement of the book. Her ongoing competition with her older sisters should get a sympathetic nod from younger sisters everywhere.

Rating: Glad I found the book at our local library. I gave this a 5!

Author:  Bradley, who lives in Malta,  is now writing the third in the series, A Red Herring Without Mustard.  It will be out on Feb. 8. Can't wait!

Harvey: Wordless Wednesday

More Wordless Wednesdays.


Other dogs remind
But never do replace
A central place for you,
On hearth and in mind.