Every month I receive a newsletter from Goodreads in my email. Every month I click on the Goodreads Giveaways link and scan through the list of books. If anything  piques my interest, I enter the contest for that book. This week I received an e-mail telling me I had actually won! I will be receiving a copy of “The Painter from Shanghai” by Jennifer Cody Epstein. This looked like a really good book to me and I can’t wait for it to arrive!
This one of the Cat Who series written by Lilian Jackson Braun and like all the others was a delightful read! I adore the main character, Jim Qwilleran, and his two Siamese, Koko and Yum Yum. Mr. Q, as Jim is lovingly called, is a newspaper reporter in the small town of Pickax. He often finds himself in the middle of a mystery and solves it with the aid of Koko and Yum Yum. In this book KoKo picks up a new habit of dropping on people unannounced. One of her victims turns out to be a murderer. Also, Pickax is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding, so there are parades, antique auctions, cat auctions, theater events and so much more happening. This is a wonderful, light, funny, cozy mystery. Its perfect for a rainy day or any day.
I have seen the movie based on this book more than once and absolutely loved it! I knew the book would be different, and yet was still excited to read it. The book and the movie are indeed different. I love both! The book stars Vianne Rocher. She and her daughter arrive in a small town in France and open a chocolate shop. This coincides with Lent and the priest is quite upset. Vianne is different. The priest and the town must decide whether there is room for Vianne or not. Vianne is running and must face the demons in her past before she can call Lansquenet or any other place home. You will meet eccentric, lovable characters, some not so lovable, and even the gypsies pay a visit. This is a wonderful book which I highly recommend.
A couple of weeks ago we went to see the Star Trek movie. We drove to Texarkana (about 30 min away) and paid a total of $22.75 to see the movie and have two small sodas and a shared small popcorn. I should mention that this was the less expensive matinee. Although, we had a wonderful time and truly enjoyed the movie, it was rather expensive. Yesterday, we were driving to Daingerfield (about 45 min away) to visit the state park. We want to do a little camping this summer and were investigating the area. Several people, including my friend, Robyn, have told us about the Dollar movies in Daingerfield. We decided to go check it out for ourselves. They just happened to be showing “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” with Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner. The tickets cost $1.50 apiece and although we didn’t get popcorn or sodas (we had just eaten at Outlaw BBQ), we did check the prices and discovered that medium drinks only cost 1.75 and a medium popcorn cost $2. We could have each had a medium popcorn and medium soda plus our tickets for a grand total of about $10.00. Quite a difference! We had just as much fun at this movie as at Star Trek. Ghosts is a funny movie and a cute take on Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” It gets a five star rating from me. Even hubby liked it!
I am not a coffee drinker, but my husband is. We have a Senseo coffee maker that makes one cup at a time. My husband’s only complaint has been that travel mugs do not fit in the coffee maker, so he has to brew the coffee in a regular mug and then pour it in a travel mug. While looking through a recent Avon book, I found these travel mugs that were about the same size as a regular ceramic mug. I thought perhaps they would work well for my husband so I ordered a silver one for him. It turns out he was much more excited about the self-stirring feature. Upon receiving the mug, he went straight into the kitchen and started mixing things. He reminded me of a child with a new toy. He’s really quite sweet and funny when he has a new toy. At any rate the mug was such a success that I thought it should be shared. You can find the mugs on Avon’s website. Just click here.
I was babysitting Friday and took Isabella to the Soda Shop downtown. Its official name is Simple Delights Emporium. The little shop is full of all kinds of goodies. The best thing about the shop is the old fashioned soda fountain. You can get a panini (fixed in a variety of ways), a chicken salad sandwich, or a baked potato. They have sundaes, shakes, malts, and Italian sodas in a myriad of flavors. My favorite is Creamcicle. It tastes just like a Dreamcicle. My husband likes to try something different everytime we go and once even had a violet soda. I had a drink and it was actually quite good. While we waited for our lunch, we decided to look around. I found these sweet, delightful hanky ladies and couldn’t resist buying a couple. Aren’t they just the cutest?!
Another visit to my favorite local flea market revealed more fabulous treasure. A pair of lovely gloves with decorative edging and a pretty little flower pin caught my eye and came home with me.
After taking the above photos, I set the pin on top of the gloves and thought how pretty they looked together. This led to getting the photo equipment out once again and taking another shot. After all that effort I simply had to share one more picture.
This is an amazing book. I was caught from the first word and captivated until the very end. The hidden diary brings Marie Antoinette and her world to bright, vivid life. Carolly Erickson did a fantastic job showing us life in Versaille and the French Revolution through Marie’s eyes and thoughts. We are with her as she meets Louis and enters France for the first time and we are there at the end when her husband is killed and her children are taken from her. If you are a fan of history or Marie Antoinette than this book is a must read.
In the spirit of Marie Antoinette, I’d like to share with some pics of gloves and a hanky I recently found at my favorite flea market. The lace gloves especially make me think of Marie and France. Not sure why, but they do. I also fell in love with the little pearls on the second pair of gloves and the lace and embroidery on the hanky.
Last Saturday my sweet husband came in and suggested we go into to town and see a movie. “Which one,” I asked? His reply was the new Star Trek movie. I was so excited! Yes, I confess, I love Star Trek. I have long been a fan of the original and the next generation series and always go to see the movies. I had recently read an article that had good things to say about the new movie and was anxious to see it for myself. So off we went to the movies and what fun we had! The movie was in spirit everything the original series had been. It was full of adventure and optimism and hope. It was fun to see old familar characters once again. The new actors did a splendid job of bring these characters to life and being true to their nature. For the trekkies out there, give this movie a chance. The powers that be are finally heading in the right direction. For all others, go see it and have fun!
Today I finished Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov. I read this book along with my book group. It is not something I may chosen for myself. It is a difficult book because it deals with a difficult subject matter. The main character is Humbert Humbert. He is writing his memoir from prision. He writes about his love for a twelveyear old girl. The story is divided into two parts. The first part is the most difficult to read as it contains his thoughts about young girls like Lolita and describes touching her and how he feels. Part two moves away from these descriptions and is much easier to stomach. Although the subject matter is disturbing, the story is an interesting one. The death of Lolita’s mother opens the way for Humbert to be with Lolita. They traveled for a year before settling and sending Lolita to school. In the journey you see how he deceives himself and his guilt and even paranoia. I liked this book because it made me uncomfortable. That may sound a bit strange, but I don’t want to become complacent and pushing myself out of my comfort zone can and sometimes is a good thing. It can be a good thing to learn to see through another’s eyes even if we don’t agree and I definitely don’t agree with Humbert Humbert.
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