Saturday Snapshot: June 2014

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy.

Last year's yellow rose.
Waiting for this year's to blossom fully.

Also waiting for these multicolored daylilies to show up later in the summer.

And waiting for this round flowerbed to fill out again...

Margarita Wednesdays by Deborah Rodriguez

Friday 56 Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice.

Also Book Beginnings by Rose City Reader.

Title: Margarita Wednesdays by Deborah Rodriguez
To be published June 10, 2014; Gallery Books
Genre: memoir, travel

page 56:

"Yes. I mean, no. Oh, Mom. I just don't know what's wrong with me. I'm miserable, and I have no right to be."

Book beginning:

The explosions seemed to have come out of nowhere, their familiar pop-pop-pop catapulting me from under the covers and onto my feet in a flash. I instinctively dropped down and covered my head with my arms, through knotted wool of the Afghan rug scraping my bare knees as I slid to the floor. The cool air from the open window did little to calm my racing heart. I tried to breathe, but couldn't. I tried to call out, but nothing came from my mouth My eyes were sealed shut against the flash of light still visible through the lids. 

Deborah Rodriguez is remembering in her dreams the drama of Afghanistan, where she had opened a beauty school for the local Afghan women, a story she told in her 2007 memoir, Kabul Beauty School: An American Goes Behind the Veil. But now she opens her eyes in Mexico, where she is attempting a new life after being forced to leave Afghanistan and her school behind.

Book description:
After returning from Afghanistan, Rodriguez finally packs her life and her cat into her Mini Cooper and moves to a seaside town in Mexico. Despite having no plan, no friends, and no Spanish, a determined Rodriguez soon finds herself swept up in a world where the music never stops and a new life can begin. Her adventures and misadventures among the expats and locals help lead the way to new love, new family, and a new sense of herself. (goodreads)

I haven't read Kabul School of Beauty but I think I can read Margarita Wednesdays without having read it. Her Mexican adventure sounds like a good alternative after the danger of her former life.
What do you think?

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review/feature.

Wordless Wednesday: In My Garden

Visit
Wordless Wednesday  for other photo submissions. Photos by Harvee Lau.

Finch at the birdbath

Baby cottontail rabbit

Armchair BEA Giveaway Winner

 Armchair BEA 2014 was an event for those who didn't attend Book Expo America or the BEA Bloggers Convention in NYC 

The winner of the giveaway of A Roux of Revenge: A Soup Loving Mystery by Connie Archer and
Ghost of a Gamble: A Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery by Sue Ann Jaffarian is

Carol N. Wong #14

Sending you an email. Congrats! 
Thanks for participating, everyone who entered the giveaway.

Sunday Salon: Gardening and Reading

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.

My only activity for  Armchair BEA 2014, this year was a giveaway of two cozy mystery paperbacks for U.S. residents which ends tomorrow, June 1. Be sure to enter, in the previous post!

Can't believe I didn't get any new books last week, but then I'm trying to cut down on review books and will visit the library or raid my TBR shelves  in the future. There are a few book tours I have scheduled (I couldn't resist some of the books offered) for the summer, but those come later.Good news on the home reading front - DH has decided to pick up books again after a long hiatus. He is now back to reading Robert Parker and a new suspense author.

 We have also been busy in the garden, which we missed during the long winter. Climbing poles went up for the two variety of beans in the raised veggie bed, and we planted marigolds all over in the hope of discouraging critters from eating flowers and plants (in case this works). The clematis is splendid this year with more buds and flowers than we have ever had.

I am reading a book from the library: a translated novel from German about a Burmese woman who returns home after living and working in NYC: A Well-Tempered Heart by Jan Philipp Sendker. There is some element of magic in it and am enjoying it so far.

Think Like a Freak

Also finished (most of it anyway) is 

Think Like a Freak by the authors of Freakonomics, sent to me by the publisher. The authors tell anecdotes, stories, cite various events to show how thinking outside the box can lead to better results and conclusions and allow you to approach problems and solutions in a more realistic way than the norm. The book's engaging and easy to read. Now, I want to their previous books.

Next to read: a couple of cozies, for variety. 

What will you be doing or reading this week?

Armchair BEA Book Giveaway: Two Cozy Mysteries

 Armchair BEA 2014, an event for those who can't attend Book Expo America or the BEA Bloggers Convention in NYC this week. 

THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014: GIVEAWAYS GALORE! 
I am giving away two brand new paperback cozy mysteries:
 A Roux of Revenge: A Soup Loving Mystery by Connie Archer and
Ghost of a Gamble: A Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery by Sue Ann Jaffarian

Leave a comment on this post with your email address by June 1 to enter, U.S. addresses only. A winner will be announced on June 2, with two days to respond before another winner is chosen. Good luck!

This giveaway has now ended. The winner of the books is Carol N. Wong, #14.

Book Review: You Cannoli Die Once by Shelley Costa

You Cannoli Die Once

Title: You Cannoli Die Once by Shelley Costa
Published May 28, 2014; Pocket Books
Genre: cozy mystery

My thoughts:
I learned not only what cannoli was but how to make it! A clever former dancer now turned chef in her family restaurant near Pittsburgh, Eve Angelotta is busy and pretty happy cooking Northern Italian food even with her seventy-six-year-old mother Maria Pia keeping watch that she does not make the dreaded dessert, cannoli. For some reason, Maria Pia has made Eve swear not to serve this at their restaurant.

Everything is going fine with a restaurant full of staff that seem musically inclined and ready to drop their aprons, bring out the tambourines, and sing Italian music or dance the tarantella for customers. That is, until Eve walks into her kitchen one morning and finds a dead man lying on top of a rare 78 disc of the only song recorded in English by the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso. The disc is part of Eve's collection of opera memorabilia handed down to her by her great-grandfather.

The unknown dead man was killed by a mortar from the restaurant kitchen, so Eve and all her staff are suspects, including her mother, whose alibi begins to fall apart the closer Eve and her love interest, attorney Joe Beck, look at it.

The book is full of clever and witty conversation and zany but entertaining characters. I could not guess the murder culprit so the ending was a surprise and the plot and setting are original. I gave this a five star for its entertainment value, and I can't wait to read the next in the series, Basil Instinct.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book.