Category: Meanderings

Some days… morning comes to soon.

This is one of those mornings. It was pitch black outside when I woke up this morning at 7 am.  Honestly I think the only think that made me move was knowing that Coffee Cup was waiting for me. 🙂  So I got up and tried to think of something witty for this mornings post.  And…

Nothing.

Nada.

I am coming up empty here….

Thank goodness for book topics!  I will never run out of things to talk about with books.  One of my first favorite authors… Oh, let me define what favorite author means to me:

Favorite Author (as defined in DeChantal’s Dictionary):  An author who’s books can not – will not, no way, no how, be missed…. having waited months for said book to come out it is quickly devoured and then mourned as it is over and now the reader is left hungry for more and chasing down tips on Google as to when the next book will be out and why oh why can they not write faster??????

Ok.  That said…. one of those authors for me started in my teen years and that was Dean Koontz.  The man – could write no wrong.  (Until he did – but that’s another story).  And today as I am picking my brain for a fun topic and at the same time knowing I am in an odd caffeine stimulated mood…. I find out Dean Koontz does have a book coming out soon, and here it is:

Isn’t it beautiful?  The thing is that even though Dean Koontz was one of my first favorites… as years have gone by and my reading palate has grown to crave the taste of so many different genres, so many different authors, that now I could not choose a favorite.  Of course… my hearts till skips a beat when I see a book such as Breathless and know that there is a pretty good chance that there is a spectacular story between the hard cover binding.

I looked at this book this morning and while it is not being released until November 24, it is currently marked at $9.00.  WHAT????  Needless to say I have preordered to lock in that price and I keep looking at it thinking I am missing something to explain this low price…

So how about you?  Do you have any favorite authors or once favorite authors that you never miss(ed) a book?

Yesterday was a relaxing day.  I am dealing with an abscessed tooth until I can get into the dentist (hopefully today!)  I was back from the Women of Faith Conference in ST Paul and wiped out from the weekend of tooth pain and the conference itself.  I am a person who recharges my batteries by being alone – events with lots of people and action exhausts me and alone time was just what I needed.

Other than a bit of laundry and some cooking, I pretty much just read a little bit and caught up on my blog hopping a lot.  So today I want to show you the links to the books I seen while traveling the blogesphere that I now want to add to my wish list….

Over at My Fluttering Heart, I was looking to see what Aimee received in her mailbox last week.  AT first I seen a Philippa Gregory book that she had posted about but then… below that was the book that stopped me.  Lady of The Butterflies by Fiona Mountain looks wonderful!  What a great cover! I have linked the post here so click your way over to Aimee’s blog and see this book for yourself.  It is going under the Wishes Tab for me!

Then I was visiting over at Rebecca’s Blog, Everything To Do With Books and seen Libyrinth by Pearl North a fascinating sounding book and another gorgeous cover!.  But – that’s not all…. in this same In My Mailbox post Rebecca also had a book called The Crossing by Mandy Hager that I dont know if I would call cover love, but the cover certainly caused me pause and then reading about the book… well we can add two more books to my Wishes Tab.  Pop over and see Everything To Do With Books… you may just find something for your wish list as well!  🙂

Then as I hopped around the blogesphere I landed at Maw Books where Natasha shared a book that is drop dead gorgeous – inside and outside!  Climbing The Stairs by Padma Venkatraman caught my eye with the wonderful cover, but it was the story inside that Natasha touches on that sold me.   This is another one I encourage you to check out.  And yes, this too is heading on to my Wishes Tab.

So as Coffee Cup and I start our day today I am adding these books to the Wishes Tab and feeling pretty good (besides the tooth – but I am on codeine so even that is mild).  I swear I think it is the weather that makes me so book hungry.  Looking out my window it is another cold dreary morning here in Minnesota.  Overcast skies in that depressing grayish color that kind of hangs on throughout the next 5 months… yeah, I think that is why I crave to read and go the places the books take me – to hopefully sunny skies and warmer areas of the world with characters that warm my heart.

I returned late last night from the Women of Faith Conference.  We had a great time despite the fact that I was on 800 milligrams on Ibuprofen the entire weekend.  Seems that I have an abscessed tooth and it started hurting Thursday after we left from the conference and continued to get worse throughout the weekend.  Thank goodness my wonderful dentist was able to line up a prescription for me from where we are at until I can get into him  on Monday.

Once I was all medicated (ha ha) I could jam with the rest of them!  We had a blast listening to Marilyn Meberg, Patsy Clairmont, Anita Renfroe, Lisa Welcehell, (yes – Blair from the Facts of Life), Sheila Walsh, Lisa harper and yeah Steven Curtis Chapman and Nicole C Mullen rocked the house!

And oh yes, I did come home with three new books!  These I will share with you In My Mailbox post today.  I even was able to get a bit of reading done so my review of 9 Dragons will also go up today as well as a few others I need to catch up throughout this week.

Here I am in Minneapolis… enjoying my coffee with my good friend Suzette.  We leave for the conference in 15 minutes.  We had a great night last night…. ate a wonderful dinner at Jake’s Restaurant with 4 of the other girls in our group.

Off to the Excel Center for a morning of music, books, inspirational messages, and fun!  I will be back this afternoon with updates pictures – and I am sure a book or two.

Today I am up and packed!  After I finish at the office at 2 pm, I am coming back home and my friend Suzette is picking me up to head to St Paul for The Women of Faith Conference.  This will be my fourth year in a row attending and it is so much fun!  Great speakers, music and many of the speakers have books so I get to do a little book shopping as well!

This year I will be attending with 22 girls from our area.  I usually pick up a set of group tickets the previous year and then sell them to friends and acquaintances.  In 2007 and 2008 we had 36 girls each time, with the economy the tickets were a harder sell this year and so we have a smaller group.

Tonight we are in a hotel – hanging out, hot tubbing and hopefully I will sneak in some reading as well.  Tomorrow starts the conference and then it ends on Saturday at 4 pm and we head back this way.  Laptop and Coffee Cup will be attending as well so I will be active all weekend.

If you have ever wondered about Women of Faith conferences, I highly recommend them.  They travel all over (see map here) and it is just a light hearted, funny at times, and positively high energy weekend! Last year we were jumping up and down to Jodi C Mullen.This year we have Steven Curtis Chapman, “American Idol” finalist Mandisa, Nicole C. Mullen, Sandi Patty, Lisa Whelchel (from TV’s “The Facts of Life”), Sheila Walsh, Patsy Clairmont, Marilyn Meberg, Luci Swindoll, and more!

I will be around today and throughout the weekend.  I have reviews that must (must!) be posted!  Have a wonderful day!

Only a few minutes this morning as I am now back to being alone in the mornings as Chance has gone back home after his month stay with us.  No more rushing to the school by 8 am each morning, no more getting up to get a cup of coffee and he is already waiting for me at the table, no more 14 year old under foot every day at 3:30 pm asking what I am doing as I read or blog or….

yeah.  I miss him already.

So this morning holding on to Coffee Cup and basking in the fact that it is 8:30 and I am still sitting at the table wondering how much longer I can push the getting out out the door to get to the office by 9:00 am….  ahhhh quiet mornings!  I haven’t blog hopped a whole lot this morning as I had a review to post for a tour and had a couple finishing touches to put on it.  I actually had two that were due up today, so if you have a moment, please check them out:

Football Is For Lovers (yup.  I was a bit surprised on this one too)

The Financial Lives Of The Poets (a laugh out loud look at one persons financial destruction and his attempts to get it back)

Last nights book club was a  lot of fun and a lot of great food!  We reviewed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and it was a great discussion.  I am going to post that review tomorrow as I already have the two reviews up today.  Oh – and yes, I still need to post my fall recipe that I mentioned in yesterdays meandering…. this afternoon I should be able to do that 🙂

Have a great day all!

Tonight is my book club review of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.  I had procrastinated on reading this book and wound up cranking out about 4 1/2 hours of reading late last night to finish for today.  Tonight everyone meets at my house for a potluck meeting based on foods in the book… my favorite meetings!  Thanks to a little help from Natasha at Maw Books, I will be serving Minestrone and I think Straka as well since I am in charge of the main dishes tonight – it will be fun to see what everyone else brings!

Speaking of recipes… my meandering this morning was over to My Friend Amy’s blog where she is having a Fall Recipe Exchange.  Fall is just the season for foods that bake and things that simmer on the stove… I think there is nothing like walking into a home that has just baked bread, or pie, or has had a big pot of yummy soup on all day and that house is filled with mouth water ing scents…

Ok… now I am hungry!  🙂  Have a great recipe for this time of year?  Stop over to My Friend Amy’s and add it to her linky – oh and be sure to check out all the other recipes as well.  I hope to put mine up later today….

Have a wonderful day all!  I will be touching base again in a couple hours when my Tuesday post goes live and then again later today with a recipe and possibly a giveaway post!

Coffee Cup and I were sitting here at the table this morning thinking about the next couple of weeks and plans for the “while I am away” posts.  While putting some thoughts down on paper I was also thinking about how I do book reviews and what I can do to jazz them up a bit.  I currently start with a one line sentence that sums up some feelings I had on the book…. its like my signature trade mark or something.  Then I have the book cover and the book information…  then my thoughts on the book, and I finish with author information and links to author websites, blogs, etc…

There are two things I have been considering adding to my reviews.

1.  I would like to add a section called “What did I learn?”  It is a staple question in our book club discussions and I am surprised I hadnt thought to add it to my reviews here.  Fiction or non fiction – there is always something you learn while reading… it could be a new word, how to do something (or how not to do something), it could be a fact about a city or state or animal….  in the case of my recent review of Swimsuit, I learned that you never NEVER open a door for anyone who says they are delivering flowers to you!  (LOL)

2.  The second thing I thought would be fun is to have what I call…”the  book in action”.  Not just the cover pic… but also one of my copy… if I read it on a boat, or on the deck, by a camp fire or in my chair…

So that is what the Coffee Cup and I are up to this morning…. trying to plan ahead and to imrove on what we already have going to keep this little corner of the internet up to date and hopefully interesting…  🙂

I woke up this morning to something I am just not ready for…. something I am not sure I am ever really ready for….. but it is what it is…

Snow

I cant remember having snow this early before.  I am kind of just fighting the urge to turn around and go back to bed and see if it is all just some sort of wild dream.  Yet … with Coffee Cup in hand… I stare out the window and know it is all too real.

This morning I am off to Breezy Point (about 20 miles) to set up for our Missions Banquet that takes place tonight.  We have a great Silent Auction this year with a Spa Package, A golf package, and we also have tickets “on the glass” to different Wild games.  Should be fun!  If I have time I have a post coming up yet today about books and covers….  I will be interested in hearing from readers about that.

Have a great day – stay warm wherever you are!