September 2010 – Page 6

Morning Meanderings…. good bye to the beach reads…

Published on September 2, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)42 Comments

Morning.

Coffee Cup and I have been up for about an hour. Between letting the dogs out for their morning jaunt in the back yard and catching up on my emails before I go to work… I have come to admit something I fight every year. Summer has gone again.

I felt it the last few days as I stand on the deck in the morning and the mornings are cool. You can actually smell it in the air. If you can smell crispness, this is the scent. Then I sit down at my laptop and see an email from Barnes and Noble titled “A Sad Farewell to Beach Reads”.

*sigh* it must be true.

I did enjoy a nice run with summery light reads, beachy topics and quite a few YA reads, especially after I returned from New York and BEA in May. This time of year, and I have mentioned it before in recent posts, takes on a different read for me. A heartier read. I am drawn to larger books that will draw me into characters that I do not so easily want to let go of.

This was the picture that went with the B & N email:

The only one of these I have read at this time is The Passage and I have to say I would agree with them here that I know this book will make my 2010 Best Books of the year list. I would like to read Matterhorn and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been on TBR since Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness told me about it over breakfast one morning in New York.

So how about you – are any of these on your wish list or you read them. Do you agree that these are must reads?

On a separate note I had mentioned yesterday on having a tough day on Tuesday. My Grandfather passed away that morning. He had a long, good life, living to the age of 94. He had his health and lived on his own all the way to a couple of weeks ago when he broke his hip and things just went rapidly down hill from there. Thank you for those on Twitter and here who shared their condolences, many of you sending kind thoughts and payers my way without even knowing why I took a little pause in my Morning Meanderings yesterday and then moved on.

I look at the wonderful bloggers and book lovers I have had the privilege to meet either in real life or through chatting on this little blog and I have to smile.

Masquerade by Nancy Moser

Published on September 1, 2010September 1, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

It is 1886 and Charlotte Gleason is on her way from England to New York with turmoil in her heart. She is to marry a rich American and never be in want of anything – a man who she has never met. In a panic she switched identities with her maid, Dora.

For Dora this is a chance of a lifetime, thrust into mansions and pretty gowns…. yet she is tormented by being found out….

For Charlotte it means giving up financial security, but she is willing to take the risk. What starts as a whim of a spoiled rich girl soon becomes a test of survival, and beyond Charlotte’s darkest nightmares as her “adventure” turns into something else.

And what of the man in New York?

I have enjoyed Nancy Moser’s writing from the first time I read The Seat Beside me and The Invitation series. Books that I read years ago, but was reminded of when I opened this book, like being reminded of old friends.

Lately, as the mornings become a little crisper and the scent of fall is in the air, I have been craving Historical Fiction. Odd? Maybe, but it seems as the seasons change, so do my reading habits. Masquerade filled that craving with its descriptions of England and early New York.

Well written and well paced, I had memories of Titanic, not only for my love (LOVE!) of the movie, but for the time the girls travel to America – and their choices become somewhat of a disaster. I enjoyed reading about the changes in both women, Dora finding that she has a bit more elegance than she had thought, and Lottie (who comes off as extremely snobby and spoiled) has a soft spot in her heart for children.

As I read through the tangled web the two girls have created by their choices, author Nancy Moser pulls God into the mix. Even through the blunders and mistakes on both sides, God provides and I find myself closing the last page feeling satisfied and warm inside, for a cool Fall morning.

My Amazon Rating

Book Journey has updated the 2010 Book Map to Include Masquerade

394 pages

Cover Story: Perfect…. a gorgeous dress that could be a disguise…and you can not see the woman’s face.

This book was provided by The Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

Morning Meanderings…. Oh yes I did pinky swear!

Published on September 1, 2010September 1, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)50 Comments

Good morning. Yesterday was a long hard tough day. I don’t really want to go into details and don’t want to be sad so I am taking a deep breath and moving on and hope that you will all move on with me to this happier space…

Right here.

Monday was the weekly What Are You Reading Post and as of the last couple weeks I have had a lot of fun sharing with you the lovely bookish finds I come across while visiting the participating blogs as well as a few rabbit trails off to visit other blogs as well.

I have come to refer to this sharing of my finds as:

Over at The Books I Read Blog I found this gorgeous looking (and sounding book). You Don’t Look Like Anyone I know is a memoir that gives new meaning to insight, hindsight, and forgiveness. Pop over there and read the review!

At The Perpetual Page Turner I found another memoir (what is with me and memoirs lately?). This one is about an Iraqi girl and is written in blog posts during the Iraq war. I am interested in knowing more about this.

And while I didn’t add a lot to my TBR this week, I did find Alita over at alita.reads struggling over choices of what to read next. One of her choices was The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society which I encouraged her to read that one as I had it on my shelf as well unread. In fact – I told her we should both pinky swear to read this book in September.

She said I was on and that discussion led to this:

That is me and Alita in our own corners of the world – pinky swearing to read this book! 😀