The Sunday Salon and Packing a Bag of Books for Vacation...

                                         
Welcome summer! Welcome to The Sunday Salon!  And Welcome Back to Chick with Books! It's been a few months since I've peeked my head out of the pages of the books I've been reading, but my winter hibernation is over! This week I am going on vacation... destination is Myrtle Beach and I have a bag of books coming with me! What's in my bag?... Beach Reads! Let's take a look at three...

Here's the first book that caught my eye and wound up in the book bag... Isn't summer the perfect time for a little romance?

The Map That Leads to You by J.P. Monniger's... 

Two strangers take the road less traveled...

Heather Mulgrew’s world is already mapped out: she is going to travel abroad with her friends after college, come back to a great career in September, and head into a life where not much is left to chance. But that was before an encounter on an overnight train introduces her to Jack, a passionate adventurer who changes the course of her journey and her life.

Throwing Heather's careful itinerary to the wind, they follow Jack's grandfather's journal through post-World War II era Europe: Vienna, Budapest, Turkey―exotic places that serve only to heighten their feelings. As September looms, Jack urges Heather to stay with him, to keep traveling, to give in to the romance of their experience; Heather convinces him to return to the United States.

Jack has a secret that could change everything. And Heather’s world is about to be shaken to the core.

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Next book to make it in the book bag is one of those "Chick" books. And I just love where the story takes place (Cape Cod) in and I like the family dynamics involved (Sisters)... this actually is more of what I think of as a beach read...

The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand... 

Identical twin sisters who couldn't look more alike...or live more differently.

Harper Frost is laid-back, easygoing. She doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She likes a beer and a shot and wouldn't be caught dead wearing anything fashionable. She's inherited her father's rundown house on Martha's Vineyard, but she can't hold down a job, and her latest romantic disaster has the entire island talking. 

Two beautiful islands only eleven miles apart.

Tabitha Frost is dignified, refined. She prefers a fine wine and has inherited the impeccable taste of her mother, the iconic fashion designer Eleanor Roxie-Frost. She's also inherited her mother's questionable parenting skills--Tabitha's teenage daughter, Ainsley, is in full rebellion mode--and a flailing fashion boutique on Nantucket in desperate need of a cash infusion. 

One unforgettable summer that will change their lives forever.


After more than a decade apart, Harper and Tabitha switch islands--and lives--to save what's left of their splintered family. But the twins quickly discover that the secrets, lies, and gossip they thought they'd outrun can travel between islands just as easily as they can. Will Harper and Tabitha be able to bury the hatchet and end their sibling rivalry once and for all? Before the last beach picnic of the season, there will be enough old resentments, new loves, and cases of mistaken identity to make this the most talked-about summer that Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket have experienced in ages.

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Here's another book where the place is special... South Carolina's low country ( a place I love to visit).  The last book that made it into the bag for this trip is...

Same Beach, Next Year: A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank... 

One enchanted summer, two couples begin a friendship that will last more than twenty years and transform their lives.

A chance meeting on the Isle of Palms, one of Charleston’s most stunning barrier islands, brings former sweethearts, Adam Stanley and Eve Landers together again. Their respective spouses, Eliza and Carl, fight sparks of jealousy flaring from their imagined rekindling of old flames. As Adam and Eve get caught up on their lives, their partners strike up a deep friendship—and flirt with an unexpected attraction—of their own.

Year after year, Adam, Eliza, Eve, and Carl eagerly await their reunion at Wild Dunes, a condominium complex at the island’s tip end, where they grow closer with each passing day, building a friendship that will withstand financial catastrophe, family tragedy, and devastating heartbreak. The devotion and love they share will help them weather the vagaries of time and enrich their lives as circumstances change, their children grow up and leave home, and their twilight years approach.


Bursting with the intoxicating richness of Dorothea Benton Frank’s beloved Lowcountry—the sultry sunshine, cool ocean breezes, icy cocktails, and starry velvet skies—Same Beach, Next Year is a dazzling celebration of the infrangible power of friendship, the enduring promise of summer, and the indelible bonds of love.

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One other book made it into my eReader... 

Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe... When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Wyatt for the entire summer, it’s a win-win by any standard: Cara’s generating income necessary to keep husband Brett’s ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, an young artist who’s been given a commission to paint birds on postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted.

It isn’t long, however, before both women’s idyllic summers are altered irrevocably: the alluring shorebirds—and the man who rescues them—begin to draw Heather out of the shell she’s cultivated toward a world of adventure, and maybe even love; at the same time, Cara’s life reels with sudden tragedy, and she wishes only to return to the beach house that had once been her port amidst life’s storms. When Heather refuses to budge from her newfound sanctuary, so begins the unlikeliest of rooming situations. While they start out as strangers, as everything around the women falls apart they learn that the only thing they can really rely on is each other.

And, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island for the summer, these two women of different generations must rediscover their unique strengths so by summer’s end they, too, can take flight in ways they never imagined possible.

Of course the setting is still South Carolina, there's the beach and it's sprinkled with birding!

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Summer vacation reads, to me, need to be light and romantic at heart. I don't want to read about police investigations, murders or kidnappings. I save those genre's for the rest of the year. Do you read differently on vacation? Do you change your reading habits in the summer?

What kinds of books do you like to read in the summer? 

It's nice to be back and to talk about books! And there are so many great books to talk about now too!  Share your summer plans and summer reading! I'll be heading for some relaxation on a beach in South Carolina with books in hand. I'll also be keeping my eye out for any great book stores on the way and there! I'll be gone for two weeks, but back to Chick with Books on Sunday, July 16th! Come back then and say hello and see what other great books I've found to share! 

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon and All's "Fair" in Love and Summer... or the annual Bridgewater Country Fair

Welcome to The Sunday Salon and The Sunday Post! It's that day of the week bloggers from all over the internet get together virtually in a large gathering place called The Sunday Salon and talk books!  And at The Sunday Post, which is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, in which more bloggers share their bookish news! So, find a comfy chair, grab a cup of joe and relax! Let's talk books... or "End of summer and books..."

August is a special time of year in Connecticut. It's an ending and a beginning. It marks the end of summer here, but also, towards the end of August, it marks the beginning of fall. Just a hint of fall starts to come in the early mornings, when the temperatures start to bring a little chill in the air and we find ourselves turning off the air conditioners and opening the windows at night. I love summer, but really my favorite time of year is fall. When I was young, fall also marked the beginning of school, and I can still feel that anticipation after many years away from a classroom. One of the many traditions around here is the Bridgewater Country Fair. It is an agricultural fair and it's always about 2 weeks before the start of school. And last Sunday, we got in the car and headed towards Bridgewater...

Bridgewater is a beautiful little rural town, well known for a few things... If you are a chocolate lover, it is the home of Bridgwater chocolate (OMG, what great chocolate!). It's also known for some wonderful working farms (where you can buy your meats direct) and it's also known for being the last  "dry town" in Connecticut, which eventually did changed in 2014. And this year, the first year since 1935, you could actually buy beer at The Bridgewater Country Fair. Have you ever been to an agricultural fair? Here's what you'll see...

First thing we had to do was scope out the whole fair, see what vendors were there and see what activities were going on. First thing we watched was the chainsaw sculptor, who made these bears and animals out of huge logs of wood. Next we went to watch the oxen pull. It's amazing what these animals can pull. Two oxen are yoked and brought up to a sled that has been piled with cement squares ranging in weight, beginning at 4500 pounds. The oxen themselves weigh anywhere from 1200 - 3000 pounds themselves and are generally tame. To see the way some of the handlers, some of which are father's and sons, interact with these large beasts is interesting. Ever consider having a 1200 pound pet? Of course there are always some who don't see these animals as pets and I don't like seeing the way they treat them. 

It started to rain during the oxen pull, so we missed part of the competition and raced into the poulty tent. Yup, poultry as in chickens. Do you know how many different species of chicken there are? Plenty! My favorite chickens are the Polish chickens. They have this feathery mop on their head and I think they are adorable. That mop on their head also makes it hard for them to see very well. They are pretty tame too, and make good pets. They do lay eggs, but are more "decorative" then productive. All the chickens in the tent are raised, generally, by the children, and compete for best examples of their "types". Besides the Polish chickens, you'll fnd Silkies, Bantams, Leghorns, Brahmas, Phoenix Bantams and Orpingtons to name just a few. After the rain stopped it was time to move along to see some other "country fair"....

We found some delicious locally made honey from Jim's Honey and Goatboy soap, which is made with all natural ingredients including goat milk and shea butter and is to die for! I have sensitive skin and tried the unscented bar and my skin never felt so soft and actually glowed (not glow in the dark glow, but looks radiant). On to some food, which had to be a roast beef sandwich, a traditional food for the fair, and a birch beer. Then some more wandering, looking at all the blue ribbon cows, eyeing the antique tractor pull and seeing my first Highlander cattle whose origins are from Scotland (also known as the hairy cow), which has this long fringe like coat. I took a photo of Elroy, but this wasn't his best side...


And at the end of one of the tents, lo and behold, something for the book lover in me...Tractor Mac!

Yes, a guy selling his children's books featuring a farm tractor named Mac. And what wonderful books! There are wonderful lessons to be learned living on a working farm, and these can translate beyond the farm too! Maybe it's because my paternal grandparents use to have a farm that there's that love of rural living still in me, but these books are delightful! These books stem from author & illustrator, Billy Steers stories that he told his own children. I bought the first book in the Tractor Mac adventures, Tractor Mac Arrives at the Farm, and simply loved the story of how Mac came to the farm and helped "mechanize" some of the laborous work, and ultimately it's a story of friendship. I'll be reviewing this book later this week, but suffice it to say, I loved it! Beautiful illustrations and a wonderful story.  And there are 12 books in the series so far! And it was nice meeting and talking with author Billy Steers too! He graciously signed my book!

 Enjoy Going to Fairs? Ever been to an Agricultural Fair?

Weekly Wrap-up...

This week was a reading week. I finished quite a few books that I'll be reviewing on Chick with Books in the coming week or two.

• Tractor Mac Arrives at the Farm by Billy Steers (sheer delight in children's book form!)
• In Such Good Company by Carol Burnett (memoir of all those great years on TV)
• Not A Star by Nick Hornsby (tongue in cheek and so funny! in a novelette)
• Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley (make sure you have a box of tissues for this one!)

That about does it for this week. Hope you enjoyed your visit! Share your fair memories and all those books you read this week!

Happy reading... Suzanne

Sunday Salon... Banned Book Week Continues... and some Great Banned Books you should READ! Plus a banned book bargain on Kindle!

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake...

Banned Books Week continues with highlights of some great books that were NOT on the top 10 list of someone out there... books that for one reason or another someone found objectionable. Can you believe that Charlotte's Web by E.B. White was challenged? The beloved children's story of friendship between a pig and a spider was challenged for its "unnatural" depiction of talking animals! Or how about Little Red Riding Hood? In 1990 it was banned by two California districts because an illustration shows Little Red Riding Hood's basket with a bottle of wine in it (along with bread & butter), and this could be seen as condoning the use of alcohol! Besides quite a few of my favorite children's books being on the Banned and Challenged list, there are a few recent additions to the banned book list that if you haven't read, you should! Oh, and at the very bottom of the page... you just HAVE to watch the video that The American Library Association put out for Banned Books Week! It's only 2 minutes long, but it says it all!

The first banned book today I want to showcase is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. What a wonderfully written book of friendship, loyalty and betrayal! The novel centers around the friendship of two boys, Amir & Hassan, in Afghanistan. Amir is the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan is the son of Amir's father's servant. They are from different classes but are the best of friends and inseparable. The book has been challenged repeatedly for its violence and a sexually explicit scene. That particular scene was brutal and heart wrenching... The story brought me to tears and haunted me for quite some time afterwards. The meaning of friendship, the horrors of war and a class system that seems unfair. If you haven't picked this book up I would highly recommend it. There are some amazing twists and turns in the plot and the story spans the time from boyhood to manhood for these two characters. A friend lent me this book and as I reluctantly picked it up to read it, I found myself lost in the story and couldn't put it down.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult was pulled from classrooms in Clawson, Michigan in 2008 because the story was to racy for middle school children. "Anna Fitzgerald has spent her whole life in and out of hospitals, not because there is anything wrong with her, but because she has the ability to help keep her older sister alive. In fact, that was the sole reason Anna was conceived and genetically selected. Her older sister Kate has a rare form of leukemia and her parents will try anything to save her. When Kate needs one of Anna's kidneys, at age 13, Anna decides enough is enough and sues her parents for the right to control her own body." This was a thought provoking and wonderfully written book. Jodi Picoult is known for her books dealing with sticky issues and this story is a good example. We read this in my reading group and the story lends itself to a great discussion! The ethics of having a baby to help a sick sibling... Moral obligations to a member of your family... Harvesting of organs... But this isn't just a straightforward story of family obligations, there are things going behind the scenes between these two sisters who do indeed love eachother... If you haven't read My Sister's Keeper yet, put it on your TBR list!

One of my favorite books of all time, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett! Removed from a Cleburne, Texas high school English summer reading list in 2009 because the novel contains a rape scene and passages of explicit sex. By the sounds of it, that is all you would remember of the story, but it's definitely not. This book was also my very first recommendation on Chick with Books! Here's my blurb about it from February, "A wonderful story with all the elements! Adventure, treachery, art, love, sex and superstition. What starts as a story of Tom Builder and his love of family & craft, grows into the tale of the assasination and sainthood of Thomas Becket. The characters are so real they almost walk out of the pages! So, get ready to experience the building of a magnificent cathedral, the world of 12th-century England and a cast of characters you simply will not forget. You will not be able to put this book down once you open it. You'll wish there were 900 more pages!" If you like stories set in the middle ages you will love this book! We also read this in my reading group. I had to do a bit of convincing because it was such a thick book, but EVERYone loved it! The pages just flew by! When you are done with the book tell me what you thought of William!

Want to see the list of the top 100 banned or challenged classics? Here's the link to the American Library Associations list. And here's the link to the beginning of Banned Book Week here at Chick with Books. Read all about what the Freedom to Read is all about, and see who else is participating in Banned Books Week! What books have you enjoyed that can be found on the banned & challenged book list? Are you going to read any banned books this week? Let me know what books are on your shelf and what you're reading! ....*Oh, and I just started Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger... if you look at the post before this one, I talk about meeting Holden Caulfield!

Stop by tomorrow for Memoir Monday and our memoir that was a banned book!

*P.S. The Kite Runner, My Sister's Keeper and Pillars of the Earth are all Kindle Ready! And Pillars is a bargain right now at under $7!

Happy reading... Suzanne

Sunday Salon... Books with Buzz and A Kindle related gift

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

One of those very busy weeks, with a few trips to the vet for my reading companion BJ (he doesn't do any of the reading though, he just listens..), but now he seems to be on the road to recovery, with a course of rest and anti-inflammatory drugs. So in between reading doggie 'health books', there have been quite a few "Books with Buzz" to talk about this week... and I'll be making up for my lack of reviews this past week, this coming week! For now though here are a few notable books to put on your TBR list!...

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf. "It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night. Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Calli's mother, Antonia, tried tobe the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice. Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. " So much good talk about this book. A few people I know who have read it were drawn in immediately to the story and couldn't put it down. So, this is on my TBR list and I think it's going to be on quite a few 'must read lists' in the coming months.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman "Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. He's a senior in high school, and a certifiable genius but he's still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid, about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory. Compared to that, anything in his real life just seems gray and colorless. Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he thought it would. Then, after graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real." This book has been described as 'Harry Potter discovers Narnia is real' and is suppose to be an adult story book. Lot's and lots of positive buzz for this book! A homage to Harry P. For all of us who miss reading about Harry this might fit the bill, but with more of an adult twist here and there.

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. Thanks to the Man Booker Prize longlist I read about and was intrigued by this book. "Olive Wellwood is a famous writer, interviewed with her children gathered at her knee. For each, she writes a private book, bound in its own colour and placed on a shelf. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh the children play in a storybook world - but their lives, and those of their rich cousins and friends, are already inscribed with mystery. Each family carries its own secrets. Born at the end of the Victorian era and growing up in the golden summers of Edwardian times, a whole generation grew up unaware of the darkness ahead; in their innocence, they were betrayed unintentionally by the adults who loved them." The saga of the families plays out in the changing times of the culture and we are swept away with them... The change of life from the victorian times to the more 'progressive' edwardian times.

Ok, now a little something for your Kindle.... (also meant for books too!)

A Kindle friendly present... Have you ever tried to lean your Kindle against something to read it hands free. To have it stand up while you're lying down? Well, I bought a Peeramid BookRest, a kind of pyramid shape pillow with a ledge to rest your book and a tassel bookmark to keep your page. But I thought my Kindle would fit perfect on that little ledge and it sure did. Use it on the floor, on your lap, etc. It comes in a lot of colors and a few different material choices. It looks like a throw pillow when not it use... Click on the link above to go directly to the Peeramid's website....

I ordered mine from Amazon.com, but if you do a google search for Peeramid Bookrest there are quite a few places that sell them. They retail between $32 and $40 depending on the fabric.

I hoped I peaked your interest a little here! Don't forget there are some great giveaways going on and next week there will be a couple more interesting giveaways. One of which is going to be international! So keep in touch, tell me what books you're reading this week! And if you have a furry pal at home give him or her a big hug!

Happy reading...

Suzanne

Sunday Salon... Books with Buzz, a Reading Challenge, and a Book Download Freebie!

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

So the past week has been a great one for reading... I finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford! What a wonderful story! A childhood romance, a story that demonstrates the horrors of a time in history with internment camps, and the story of family. I'll be posting my review this week... This week has also been a great one for finding some new books to put in the TBR pile...

This week I received a copy of Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange. Vampires are all the rage these days and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice now has it's own! The book starts where Pride & Prejudice leaves off- the morning of the wedding of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Written in the same manner as the era it represents, it has gotten great buzz from Austen fans as the prepublication has hit the road! Mr. Darcy's aloofness is finally explained as he tries to keep his secret - he's a vampyre! The cover is perfect too! And I can't wait to read this! If you are a Austen fan and love a good vampire, Mr. Darcy, Vampyre will be on the shelves this tuesday Aug.11th! You can read more about the book at the blog Mr. Darcy Vampyre!

Another book with a lot of great buzz is The Sister by Poppy Adams! The story of two sisters who reunite after being estranged for 50 years! "Virginia is the sensible older sister who stayed, carrying on the family tradition of lepidopterology (the study of butterflies), while the reckless and free-spirited Vivien left to lead a cosmopolitan life in London. The story, told from Virginia’s eerily limited perspective, involves their parents’ descent into sadistic and capricious behavior, an accident in Vivien’s youth that left her unable to have children, and a plan that she had for her husband to impregnate Virginia instead. Adams creates an engrossing atmosphere of gothic mystery"... I picked this book up this week and can't wait to crack it open! I had heard some "If you Like The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield you'll like The Sister." And if you haven't read The Thirteenth Tale, it is a good story, with a gothic air of mystery in a run-down house, with dark secrets & lies, and sisters...

Also this week I picked up a couple of books by japanese authors. One of which was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, who is a critically acclaimed author of japanese literature. His work tends to mix the mundane things of everyday life with the bizarre. His writing is described as being poetic and his stories never boring. And so, I picked up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle... "Bad things come in threes for Toru Okada. He loses his job, his cat disappears, and then his wife fails to return from work. His search for his wife (and his cat) introduces him to a bizarre collection of characters, including two psychic sisters, a possibly unbalanced teenager, an old soldier who witnessed the massacres on the Chinese mainland at the beginning of the Second World War, and a very shady politician."

Picking up the book by Murakami was perfect timing because as I was reading Bird Book Dog a blog by my friend Harvee Lau, I saw she joined a reading challenge! The Japanese Literature Challenge! There are many "reading challenges" on the blogs. It's a fun way to try reading something new, nudge you into reading something on your TBR pile, and a great way to meet other people who love to read! The Japanese Literature Challenge is organized by Bellezza at her blog Dolce Bellezza . Anyone can sign up for the challenge, which is to read one book of your chosing of a Japanese author. She has reading suggestions too! I'll be posting about the challenge this week on the blog. In the meantime, you can check out Docle Bellezza and Bird Book Dog by clicking on their names, I've linked it to their blogs.

And a quick note here for my Kindle readers! And anyone who loves a free book! Simon & Schuster is offering a free download of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld until Sept.5th. It's a YA book that I've been wanting to read for a while. Uglies is the first in the trilogy. It's about this future world where at the age of 16 you must get an operation to become "beautiful". The Uglies are the pre-sixteen girls who are tend to play tricks and get into mischief as they wait their turn. But of course not everyone wants to go thru with this procedure and there is a rumored rebel settlement and there is a reason behind the required transformations too... Lots of great buzz and thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free download. And Thanks to Debbie of Debbie's World of Books for sharing the information about the download on her blog! The free download is in celebration of Scott's new book Leviathon, which is the start of a new series for him. You can check out his blog HERE! And click on "free download" above to get your PDF of Uglies. I already put this on my Kindle DX without a problem this time!

Happy Reading... Suzanne

Sunday Salon

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book....

And this week is my first week participating in the Sunday Salon! Currently there are 416 book bloggers who belong to the Salon! I thought it would be fun to sit down with a cup of coffee and share what books and bookish things happened all week!

First off there was plenty of reading this week! I finished our book

club read, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. What an amazing book! Have you read it yet? First of all for anyone not familiar with the book, it is a memoir. And Jeannette Walls holds no punches. To say her life was unconventional is an understatement. She had two sisters and a brother. They lived out of the cars, in various shacks, their beds were cardboard boxes, they sometimes went days without food... their mother was a free spirit and a painter, their father a charismatic drunk. They learned how to pack up in the middle of the night and leave in a hurry... Surprisingly Jeannette, her sister Lori, and her brother Brian all grew up to be normal, healthy individuals. And she doesn't write with bitterness about her upbringing. It was like a wonderful adventure at times. And I think it hardened their resolve to live normal lives on their own. Eventually they all moved to New York. And Jeannette's parents did as well, but they chose to still live on the streets... If you get a chance to pick this book up do it!

I Also read Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti. I already wrote a

review post on this book, but thought I would mention it again as a fun quick read that won't disappoint! Also read Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandell, and loved it! I will have a full review up on Monday. It's about this girl Lilia and her life as she constantly disappears from one place to another... The writer did such a unique job of writing her story back and forth thru time without missing a beat. There was a lot of buzz on the book blogs about this one and I am glad I finally got a chance to read it! Anyone else read it? Please let me know what you thought about it! Especially the ending! It's another book you should put on your TBR list if you haven't read it already!

Now I just started reading Seduce Me by Robyn Hart. I received in the mail for a blog tour the author is going to have in mid-Aug. Robyn Hart is a historical romance writer and Seduce Me is the first in what is going to be the Legend Hunter series. The Legend Hunters are a secret group that are after treasures, antiquities, etc. The beginning of Seduce Me is kind of like an Indiana Jones film, with dark musty stone corridors and a treasure being hunted for. In this case the treasure is the legendary Pandora's box, which is found and which lands in the hands of scholarly Esme, who can't help but get herself cursed by mishandling it. (It is Pandora's Box!) She is cursed by LUST and I can't wait to see how and if she get's herself out of it! Of course there is a handsome guy who is helping Esme try to solve the problem... I'm halfway thru and it reads like an adventure story with some sparks, but it is a romance and I'm sure it's going to heat up even more as it goes along! Will let you all know about it!

Anyone with an iPhone? I downloaded the free app this week from Barnes & Noble for my iPhone. Have you heard about it? It's a cool app that allows you to photograph a book cover with your iPhone and then it will search for that book, give you reviews and find & reserve that book at any Barnes & Noble bookstore. Say, you're at a friends house and want a book she has... just by a touch of the button you photograph it, hit search on the iPhone and the book and all the info appears on your screen. What I thought was also cool ( and a little 'big brotherish') was that it asks you if you want to find the book locally and if you press yes, it will bring up on the screen all the local Barnes & Nobles near you. I know it must use the GPS to know where you are, because it doesn't ask for your location, but it still was amazing. And I'm sure there are glitches and older titles probably will not register, but interesting app....

So, that's all my reading for this week... How about you?! What have you been reading this week! Let me know what you've got a bookmark in!

Happy reading.....

Suzanne