Books - Catch Up

The Silk Vendetta by Victoria Holt. Another great novel from one of my favorite authors.

Lenore and her Grandmother live at Silk House owned by the Sallonger Family.  Following a scandal and the death of Lenore's mother in France the pair were transferred to England.

The Sallonger family is in the silk business and get their silk from France produced by the St. Allengeres family.

Weddings, funerals, coming of age traditions, reunions and grudges all play a part in the story. 

The divide between the upper and lower house in England is blurred with Lenore marries the son of the house and becomes the Lady. Her husband is murdered, but why?

Lenore and her grandmother start up a good business in London then expand to Paris. Silk is in good demand with a friend who becomes the business manager.

A great read!

Ines of my Soul by Isabel Allende.  Another favorite author.

This is a story of the conquest of Chile by the Spaniards.  What a brutal story. The goal was to annihilate the natives and steal their land and gold.

There are love stories with Inez Suarez having 3 husbands in the time of the story.  Great travels by sea and over land which are arduous and dangerous.

I love a strong female character and this has it in spades.

Another great story less the violence.

The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox. I was 

intrigued with the story of twins who switch places.

The city girl and the country girl try manage the other's life.  There are challenges when this switch was done in a couple of days. You know your sister but what is her favorite coffee shop, how does the family bakery work, how to grow sourdough starter are a few of the issues that arise.

Of course, there are love interests which come the switch and eventually the truth has to come out.

Success and growth for both girls is the result.

Books - Catch Up

 August

Live the Dream by Josephine Cox - It's 1932 and Luke Hammond is doing the right thing by his wife Sylvia who has been ill for a while and things are not improving. She has dark moods and their servant Edna is home to take care of things while Luke runs his business in Blackburn.

On Tuesdays, he takes refuge in a cottage in the woods and paints. He has lunch at a cafe in the village near the cottage.

Daisy runs the cafe and her friend Amy with her small son drops by to help when she can.  She must work to provide a roof over their heads.

Along the way, Daisy and Amy wonder about the man who comes in for lunch every Tuesday. Who is he? Where does he come from? Where does he go?

Luke has noticed Amy and eventually he invites her to the cottage to see his paintings.

Luke's factory suffers a major fire. Sylvia and her sister Georgina continue their push and pull relationship to a disastrous end. Amy finds love in the end.  Great book.

October

The Orphan Sisters by Shirley Dickson  - In 1929 Etty 4 years old and Dorothy eight years old are dropped off at Blakely Hall Orphanage by their mother.  They await her return but it never happens.

In 1940 both girls are finally released from the confines of Blakely Hall but freedom comes when the country is in the grip of WWII. 

Both girls find love in the midst of war and the difficulties that brings with it. Husbands off to war for home and country.

Babies are born, the war is over, celebrations take place everywhere.

Etty receives Olga and friend of her mother's in 1920's. She brings news of why the girls were brought to Blakely Hall and why she did not return.

Another great book.

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish - Set in London in the 1660s and the early 2000s. It is the story of Ester Valesquez, an immigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi before the plague hits the city and Helen Watt an ailing historian with the love of Jewish history.

Helen is called to see a newly discovered cache of seventeenth century Jewish documents she find a young man Aaron to help with the work. He is American and needs an intervention in his life and Helen provides it.

Ester and Helen separated by centuries have life choices and sacrifices to make to reconcile heart and mind.

Wonderful book!

The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebecca Raisin.

Sara Smith runs her little bookshop "The Bookshop on the Corner" in Ashford in a low key style with a warm community of friends close by. Business is slow.  Her long distance boyfriend Ridge calls from his across the world job as a correspondent/journalist.  How exciting!

Sophie owns a bookshop in Paris called "Once Upon a Time" located along the banks of the river Seine.

Sophie has had a big break up and wants to swap places with Sara.  Sara's is stuck so jumps at the chance to be in Paris for Christmas. Her first plane rides take her to the City of Lights.

The Paris bookstore is a hopping place.  The city is huge and runs at a maddening pace.  The shop has a variety of employees.  There is daily paperwork to do and reports to be sent to Sophie in America.

There are many bumps in the first months of Sara's stay in Paris. Slowly she turns the corner on the employee relationships and the business.

Christmas is coming and Ridge has only visited 1 day while Sara has been in Paris. Very disappointing!  A wonderful surprise comes with Christmas day!

The Sum of our Days - Isabel Allende - one of my favorite authors.

This was a different read because it was not a novel but a collection of events from Isabel's life. Written often as recollections to her daughter Paula who passed away.

I learned about her early years in Chile and husband #1 Paula and Nico father. 

How she found husband #2 Willie Gordon and their life in California.

How she loves to have her large extended family close to her.  The adoption of friends into this large circle as well. 

The separations, divorces, travels, trips, births and deaths in the large family.

Very interesting dynamics between Isabel and her children  and grandchildren. 

I will be looking for novels!

Books Books Books

 I have been reading a lot.  With as much packing as can be done for now and having to keep all the surfaces clean and tidy reading works well for this waiting season.

I think this is my second Kinsey Millhone Mystery in the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton.  She has written 26 books starting with A and ending with Z.  

"G" Is for Gumshoe is the seventh novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California. In "G" Is for Gumshoe, Kinsey Millhone meets fellow investigator Robert Dietz when someone hires a hit man to kill her.

Good and bad things seem to be coming in threes for Kinsey Millhone: on her thirty-third birthday she moves back into her renovated apartment, gets hired to find an elderly lady supposedly living in the Mojave Desert by herself, and makes the top of ex-con Tyrone Patty's hit list. It's the last that convinces Kinsey even she can't handle whoever's been hired to whack her, and she gets herself a bodyguard: Robert Dietz, a Porsche-driving P.I. who takes guarding Kinsey's body very seriously. With Dietz watching her for the merest sign of her usual recklessness, Kinsey plunges into her case. And before it's over, she'll unearth the gruesome truth about a long-buried betrayal and, in the process, come fact-to-face with her own mortality. . . .

At the break of dawn, Caroline Shelby rolls into Oysterville, Washington, a tiny hamlet at the edge of the raging Pacific.

She’s come home.

Home to a place she thought she’d left forever, home of her heart and memories, but not her future. Ten years ago, Caroline launched a career in the glamorous fashion world of Manhattan. But her success in New York imploded on a wave of scandal and tragedy, forcing her to flee to the only safe place she knows.

And in the backseat of Caroline’s car are two children who were orphaned in a single chilling moment—five-year-old Addie and six-year-old Flick. She’s now their legal guardian—a role she’s not sure she’s ready for.

But the Oysterville she left behind has changed.  

Caroline returns to her favorite place: the sewing shop owned by Mrs. Lindy Bloom, the woman who inspired her and taught her to sew. There she discovers that even in an idyllic beach town, there are women living with the deepest of secrets. Thus begins the Oysterville Sewing Circle—where women can join forces to support each other through the troubles they keep hidden.

Yet just as Caroline regains her creativity and fighting spirit, and the children begin to heal from their loss, an unexpected challenge tests her courage and her heart. This time, though, Caroline is not going to run away. She’s going to stand and fight for everything—and everyone—she loves.

Zorro by Isabel Allende is the 4th of her novels I have read.

The cast of characters includes everyone you’d expect in a swashbuckler, from gypsies, pirates, and swooning maidens to the token villain. The women in this novel, as in all of Allende’s work, are exceptionally well drawn. The men are also vivid, from the traumatized, silent Bernardo to the honorable, justice-driven Zorro. The Fox Allende has created is slightly conceited, while at the same time chivalrous, entertaining, and likable. The characters are familiar rather than stereotypical, and Allende wisely avoids falling into the cliché trap, primarily through the tongue-in-cheek narration. Set in the chaos of Napoleonic Spain and the Alta California of the hidalgos, the backdrop adds depth and drive to the story with its social mores and shifting political tides. Allende has crafted a swashbuckling tale, with just a hint of the magical realism that will be familiar to readers of her other works. I really enjoyed this book. 

Nicholas Sparks novels can be counted on to have some interesting characters, good story lines and no bad language and explicit sex scenes.  They are a good read but becoming a bit predictable for me.

Denise Holton has no family, both of her parents have died. She is alone and a single mother of a child with severe learning disabilities by a former one-night stand. She was a school teacher for many years but now she doesn’t teach anymore; she spends all her time trying to teach her son how to speak. She has a part-time job as a waitress and makes just enough money to get by.

Kyle Holton is the 4-year-old son of Denise Holton. Kyle has severe learning disabilities

Brett Cosgrove is Denise’s former one-night stand, leading up to Kyle’s existence. He was engaged at the time and wants nothing to do with Kyle.

Taylor McAden—is a volunteer firefighter for the Edenton Fire Department, owns his own carpenter and contractor job. He was the person who found Denise’s son the night of her car wreck. Taylor has had problems in the past with commitment, but that all will change throughout the book.

Judy McAden is the mother of Taylor McAden; she came to the hospital to spend time with Denise while her son was out looking for Kyle.

Mitch Johnson is Taylor’s best friend and a volunteer firefighter for the Edenton Fire Department also. Mitch and his wife Melissa often provide Taylor with advice about his romantic life. Mitch and Melissa are the closest thing Taylor has to siblings, and Taylor is the godfather of the Johnsons' oldest son.

This was new author for me and I enjoyed this book. Case histories by Kate Atkinson.   I did not realize that these have a TV series produced from the books.

Case Histories (2004) is a detective novel by British author Kate Atkinson and is set in Cambridge, England. It introduces Jackson Brodie, a former police inspector and now private investigator. 

The plot revolves around three seemingly unconnected family tragedies – the disappearance of a three-year-old girl from a garden; the murder of a husband by his wife with an axe; and the apparently motiveless murder of a solicitor's daughter. 

I seem to be reading more detective type stories recently.  That is completely by coincidence as I am getting my books from small library at the park and it is totally random as to what will be there when I drop by.

It is nice to run across authors I have read before though. 

Sylvia"s Simple Shots

The dahlias are in full bloom at the botanic garden.

The sizes vary, the colors are magnificent and it was a pleasure to walk around to photograph a few of them.

This is the Chilson Pride dahlia featuring white and lavender colors. 

I spent a couple of hours walking the full length and back.  Of course, most of the flowers are gone as the plants have been dead headed to keep the beds looking good.

I am heading out later in the mornings now that the sun rises later.

A bag full of cards is headed for the Cards for Seniors project organized by one of the scrapbook stores.

I have included cards received from my exchange partners, cards received from family and friends and some of my card kits which I made up to ensure they go to a good cause.

I refurbished those that needed new inserts, added a new card base in some cases and generally did what was needed so they would be useful again.

You may recall in my post last week that I had worked on the chair and tried to clean the seat.  That was not successful so I needed to cover the seat.

My office chair has a new seat cover.   

I searched my fabric stash for fabric that would be appropriate.  It needed to be heavy and with the right colors.  I found these one with a paisley pattern with a good variety of colors.  There was close match to the back rest so I proceeded.

I used a piece of paper to trace the shape of the top of the seat.  Cut it out and double checked and tweaked it a bit.  I cut the side piece 4 inches tall to allow for seam allowances both top and bottom.  I had to piece together 3 pieces to get a length of 60 inches.   I sewed the side to the top easing around the corners.  I folded over the bottom edge and sewed it down.  I found some black elastic in my stash which was in several pieces.  I concentrated on the corners but eventually I had enough to cover the full length.  It looks good, it stays in place and it is removable to launder when needed.

I finished this book this week.  Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende.  

Eliza Sommers is the central figure who has been adopted by  brothers John and Jeremy and sister Rose who are English. They live in the port city of Valparaiso, Chile in the 1840s. John is a sea captain, Jeremy works for an import company and Rose manages the house. 

She has an English upbringing with education, music, ethics and manners instilled.  She falls in love with a young man who came to the house to deliver goods.  It is a hot and heavy affair then he leaves for the Gold Rush in California.   She decides to follow him but must go quickly and quietly so she arranges to stowaway on a ship with the help of a Chinese man, Tao Chi'en.  He is a physician who has his reasons to be on a ship.  They disguise her as a boy to get her off the ship and she continues that persona in San Francisco. They establish themselves there, Tao Chi'en a physician and Eliza as companion and assistant. 

She decides to pursue her search for her lover in the midst of the gold rush and the chaos that it has created.  She travels with groups for safety and follows leads when she can.  She finds herself in an outskirt town and meets up with Joe Bonecrusher's travelling caravan of prostitutes and ends up travelling with them as cook and piano player.  Eventually, she realizes she does not love him anymore.  She continues to write to Tao Chi'en regularly and they maintain their relationship.  The Chinese man misses his assistant and friend.  He decides to go and see her.  He finds her and she decides to give up her search and return to San Francisco with him.  They set up his practice, have small garden to grow medicinal plants, and life is good.   She is tiring of have to pretend to be man, she is exploring her feelings for Tao Chi'en and one day she pulls out the suitcase she took with her on the ship many years ago.  It contains dresses and jewelry.  She decides to dress as a woman with out the corset and asks Tao Chi'en what he thinks.  He doesn't mind the new look and as far as he is concerned she is still who she has always been.  She decides to stick with dresses.   Very soon, after this the bandit, her lover is captured and killed.  His head has been preserved so the bounty could be collected and it goes on display for anyone who wants to see this infamous gangster. They visit to see the face and she declares she is now free.  They work together to save Chinese prostitutes and get them to a network which will give them a way to earn an honest living and a new place to live. Some go to Oregon, back to the East Coast and even some to Canada.

Another great book by this author. Loved it!

Look what I found hanging out a local pond.  I discovered this pond when I took a different road the other day.

It is quite large expanse of water and was covered with ducks, Canada Geese, Lesser Yellowlegs, and this wonderfully grand Blue Heron.

It was reasonably close and a got a much better shot of it this time.

So excited.

I found this heart on a wrought iron gate last week.  I thought it was wonderful.  

It was upside down, so I have turned it right side up, applied a watercolor filter to it. 

Like it a lot.

A birthday card for my card box for upcoming family birthdays.

I chose a designer paper with a yellow stripe.  I die cut the greeting from a piece of card stock in the same color leaving a good amount below the word.

I trimmed the designer paper to leave a small border on the chocolate brown card base.  I adhered the greeting leaving the same border on sides and bottom edges. It was cut with the Memory Box Grand Happy Birthday die.

I die cut leaves with the Tim Holtz Mini Tattered Leaves set and added some chalk to provide a bit of definition.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I met my Aunt at the University of Alberta Botanic Gardens this week for a photo trip.  We had to book online due to COVID restrictions and limit our time at the garden.

It is a huge place but we managed to get most of the places within the garden we wanted to visit.

I spent some time in the Japanese Garden.

The White Anemones were blooming and quietly swaying in the gentle breeze. 

We had perfect weather for our visit.  Being in shirt sleeves at 10:00 am.  I did put my sunscreen on as I missed earlier in the week and caught some color.

This was a great book - Woman of a Thousand Secrets by Barbara Wood.

A story of a young girl found in a basket on the ocean.  Adopted and raised on the Caribbean Islands before Europe discovered them.  To help save her father she journeys to the mainland in search of a red flower.  She finds people who look like her - fair and tall. She finds fellow travelers some of which are friends and some are foes. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

It was a week with a special birthday for me.

I shared the day with my sister.  We had a bubble wand, hotdogs and ice cream cake. The best!
 

I received this art for my walls this week.  It is a digital drawing done by my aunt. 

Corvus Brachyrhynchos is  a digital drawing which I thought was wonderful.  It almost looks like a photograph.

I found a frame to put it in and placed it on the shelf in my bedroom.

Since I missed my post last week I finished this book as well.  In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende.  I have read another book of hers in this post.   This one takes place in New York City during a big snow storm.  A gentleman of a certain age has an adventure with a lady from Chile and young woman from Guatemala.  Each of them have to venture out of their comfort zones to address the crisis in which they find themselves. 

They grow as people, become closer almost family and stay true to their values in difficult circumstances.

I enjoyed the book.

The challenge for Flickr Macro Monday this week was matchstick.  Not a very broad subject matter.

You can check out my Flickr Photostream (SMDPics) to see the image I submitted.

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #136 and Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #294.

Have a great week!

Mosaic Monday #12

This was snack for today.  The last of the apples from Mom's trees and a couple of chocolate cookies.  Served on a white IKEA ARV salad plate.

The tea cup is by English Bone Chia by Ridgeway Potteries - pattern is Royal Vale.

The tea is Earl Grey Bold with a bit of honey and cream.

Driving on Saturday was unsure because of a heavy snowfall on Friday, the second in a week.  This brings winter early in our corner of the world. I decided to brave the roads because we need to just do it.  My sister and I attended this craft sale on Saturday.

There was fused glass artist, quite a few sewing projects featuring very similar items, baking is always a hit, a few up-cyclers, several vendors selling home wood decor with sayings, quite a few jewelery vendors and metal home decor.  I did stop at the hand dyed wool vendor and the chocolate booth.

This was a great read.  Alma & Nathaniel, Irina & Seth and Ichimei the mysterious gardener.  My aunt lent me the book which I would highly recommend. 

Sharing with Maggie at Normandy Life who hosts Mosaic Monday.