A Great Mystery

I'm in the middle of reading The Cuckoo's Calling by J.K. Rowling....such a great read! Terrific mystery....I am completely enjoying this book. Next up, I may read Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper....or possibly The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro.

I'm still in search of great yarns for autumn and I found this really pretty hand spun yarn from an Etsy shop in Wales. The color is amazing... like a perfect blend of deep blue, pink and purple tones. At 124 yards...this bulky weight yarn would be another great choice for fingerless gloves. It looks so soft and I love the subtle thick/thin running throughout. Happy Knitting! xo

Thundering Morning

I love sitting outside with my coffee in the morning. Today, surprisingly, the skies turned quickly black and thunder set in....it was perfect! I'm reading The Cuckoo's Calling by J.K. Rowling. After reading lots of historical fiction this summer it's nice to go in a different direction. The Cuckoo's Calling is proving to be a great mystery novel...very fun! 

I've been in search all summer for new tennis sneakers. I love Tretorn but wanted to grab something different. I've decided on Superga. From Italy....these are such a great classic. Zillions of colors to pick from.....I love a bunch of them. Think I'm going with the navy or a birch colored brown.

love all the colors choices! take a peek here!

Hitting the Lake

All I want for a week is to sit by the lake, knit a bit and read! Lake Placid is my very favorite vacation spot. I love walking everywhere, no need to even look at the car....and just relaxing. Mirror Lake Inn is amazing...cozy and right on the water....everything is just a stepping stone away. Lake Placid has hosted both the 1932 & 1980 Olympics...both the inn and the town have so much history.

Front walk up to Mirror Lake Inn.

The dock at the Inn. You can fish, swim, boat...the kids can even order peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and chips. Completely laid back.

I'm bringing with me three books...."The Yonahlossee  Riding

 Camp For Girls", "Sisterland" and "The Shining Girls". All newly published...reviews for all three have been great. I'm half way through "Yonahlossee" now....love it. "The Shining Girls" looks a bit spooky....terrific NPR review.

A Room Without Books....

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” - Marcus Tullius Cicero.

I am constantly in the middle of a book. I can't not be. I also always need to have my next book lined up. I'm currently reading Kate Morton's "The House at Riverton." I am super excited to next read "Sisterland" by Curtis Sittenfield. I just purchased this large "Read." sign to hang in the corner by my favorite cozy reading chair. Slightly distressed...it reminds me of a vintage library sign. I bought it from a great artist on Etsy who has a shop called Off On My Tangent. It goes nicely placed over an over-sized mahogany trimmed chalkboard that I grabbed years ago from Pottery Barn.

I love this wooden sign....you can custom select your color choices. I requested the burnt orange period to coordinate with the throw pillows on my reading chair.

Summer Retreats

I love a perfect spot outside to read. It may be my favorite thing about summer. Whether at home or traveling, I always hunt out a quiet area. We go to Lake Placid every July and it's breezy and tucked in the mountains and ideal for a blanket & a good book. Home of both the 1932 and the 1980 Olympics, this tiny town is the coziest place to visit. You can bike or walk anywhere with no need to even glance at your car.

Love these cheery plaid blankets from Pendleton! So classic...

Every summer I have a good list set up of warm weather reading. I love having it planned out. I'm still reading "The House at Riverton"  and next I'm on to "Rules of Civility." Nothing though outshines "Pride and Prejudice" which I could re-read a million times....

I love this....and use it every day! "Mr. Darcy Proposal Mug" from Brookish on Etsy.

Summer Reading Ideas

I love going through lists of summer reading suggestions. Newly published lists interest me as do people's favorites....books that stick with you long after you have read them. This short list of five novels are some of my very most favorite reads by authors that I love.

1. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: This story takes place in an English manor that the owners are struggling to keep up. They live in a time when the world around them is changing and they are not managing well the transition to a modern era. Their family doctor who is kind enough to make regular house calls soon realizes the secrets that reside at their home.

2. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier: This is the first novel I read by Chevalier and my very favorite. While the author is well known for The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Falling Angels is a wonderful book where the same story is told from different points of view. 

3. Sister by Rosamund Lupton: I told every person I know to read this book just so I had people to talk to about it! I loved this novel and I was so excited to discover the work of Lupton. Her second novel, Afterwards, is terrific as well. "Sister" involves two sisters....one in New York City and the other in London. One sister goes missing and the story that follows is the search the other sister conducts to find her. Amazing!

4. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue: The definition of the word Slammerkin is "a loose dress or a wanton woman." I picked this novel for my book club and it was a great, great book to discuss. The central character leaves her village and the only way to survive is prostitution until she is taken in to work in the household of a respectable family. She hides her past from them as long as she can. Donoghue later wrote "Room" which was on every possible Best Book list I came across. I love this author and how her writing differs so dramatically with each book.

5. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton: I love this author and I was so fully captivated by this book. It's the type of story you get completely wrapped up in.  A little girl comes off a ship alone, with no adult accompanying her. The dock master and his wife take in this toddler who only carries one suitcase.  Inside is a book of fairy tales that holds a secret to her identity.

A Well Grounded Life

I just finished reading The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin and I loved it. It came highly recommended by a friend so I went into it excited with high expectations...I love the era and I'm a huge reader of historical fiction overall. It surpassed what I had hoped. It's a well written novel of a woman, her hero husband, her family and a country that was in awe of them and isolated them at the same time. 

It begins in 1974 as Charles Lindbergh is facing death and his family is flying him to the quiet of Hawaii as he instructed. It chronicles back immediately to Anne Morrow and her time at Smith Collage when her prominent father was Ambassador to Mexico. A time prior to Lindbergh...a figure then only known to her on the screen & headlines as the boy who recently flew across the Atlantic. As the novel moves forward she becomes The Aviator's Wife and the well educated Smith girl with great writing potential lives in his shadow. Her life soars and crashes through loneliness, fame, family, kidnapping, The Great Depression and war.  

Things are never exactly how they appear and as a country hailed an aviator who reached the heavens at home his wife was required to keep a home built around the concept of a cockpit...always control cost and never keep what you don't deem absolutely necessary. Pennies were counted and household goods, like soap, were required, by Lindbergh, to be inventoried by Anne so that clutter could be eliminated.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh shows her strength and determination to survive even as her ideas of everything around her are reshaped and restructured. It's an amazing novel of personal growth. It's one of the best historical fiction books that I've ever read. Happy Weekend! xo

Weekend at Home

This past weekend has had me caught up in knitting & books. I've been alternating between the two. I just finished a great seamless cowl from Knit 1 LA...the New Years Cowl. It took exactly one skein of Cascade Magnum yarn. I knit it just a tad larger than the pattern called for. I wanted it extra slouchy so I cast on 44 stitches onto circular needles. I believe the instructions call for 40. Love this site & this pattern is my favorite!

I had been completely addicted to reading the new memoir "Wave" by Sonali Deraniyagala. It tells of the tragic day after Christmas when she was vacationing in Sri Lanka with her husband, two sons and her parents and the tsunami struck. Her honest, deeply profound telling of this story is breathtaking. Her transformation throughout the grief process leaves the you spellbound as she slowly emerges from her nearly catatonic state and starts revisiting the life she lost. 

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Weekend Reading

I had book club this past week and it was a great evening. Tons of wine, yummy food and book discussion. We just started this group...many of us are in others as well...and this was our second book. We started with The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Great historical fiction recounting Ernest Hemingway's first marriage and time in Paris prior to truly breaking into the literary scene. Great novel and the characters were so well developed.Our second book was The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan and there was tons of discussion opportunity. A ship sailing from England to the United States experiences an explosion and the lifeboats are overfilled. You know at the onset of the book that some of the survivors are charged with murdering the some occupants of the lifeboat. How they get from the ship liner to trial is the story. This month is The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan. Buchanan previously wrote The Day The Falls Stood Still which was recognized by Barnes and Noble as one of their notable books. I heard her speak at Barnes and Noble a few years back as part of a literary speaker series and her work is amazing. Great Historical fiction. Looking forward to a weekend of reading...

The Paris Wife by McLain, Paula [Hardcover] (Google Affiliate Ad)