At Home with the Templetons by Monica McInerney

I left on vacation expecting and hoping to read several books. This is the third and last book I read while I was gone. I don't think three counts as several, but looking at my track record at home right now, three seems like a lot. The good news is that I was having so much fun spending time with my friends and family that I didn't have time to read while I was gone. So mostly I read on the airplane, and a few minutes here and there in Hawaii.

This book was a great one to finish with. I really enjoy McInerney's books. I've read Those Faraday Girls, The Alphabet Sisters, and Family Baggage. They were all very good.

At Home with the Templetons follows a family and their various escapades with the people in their lives. The characters really grew on me, and by the end of the book some of the people I was sympathetic with at first became less likeable. It was a well crafted story. Just what I needed.

I read a lot of series, especially Murder mysteries, and I like getting to know the characters and feeling at home right from the beginning of a book. But there is something truly magical about opening the pages of a book, not knowing what will happen, who you will get to know, love, and hate, and the anticipation that goes with that. I like an author who can imagine and bring to life a completely different world in each of their books. Monica McInerney does that. I can't wait to read more of hers.

Note: Monica McInerney was first suggested to me by a cashier in Costco. I thought, "what the heck, I may as well give it a try." Good thing I did. You never know who can send you on a great new reading adventure.

Jonathan Robert Peck

We got the call at 6:30 a.m. yesterday morning: "Baby!"

"We're on our way," I said, and rolled out of bed.

Debra has her babies very fast. Ray and I dressed quickly and drove to the hospital. Randy was waiting in the lobby with Madeleine and Diane. We sent Randy on his way to be with Debby and brought the girls home. Twenty minutes after we arrived home came the text with the baby's picture. One hour and twenty minutes after we got the call he was born.

Jonathan Robert Peck. 8 lbs 7 oz. 20 inches long. Named for his paternal grandfather, Robert - better known as Grandpa Bob.

He's our eighth grandchild, making it now four boys and four girls. 

Baby Jonathan

Madeleine and Debra

Diane.  The girls aren't feeling great, so no "new family" picture until everyone's well.

Randy and Jonathan

Me and Jonathan

Ray and Jonathan

Great grandma Jody with Jonathan. Ray's parents were the first visitors.

Great grandpa Ray with Jonathan.

The Hunger Games

If I hadn't been lounging about the beach in Hawaii, I would have seen this movie on opening day. I couldn't wait to see it. Ray (husband), Ray (son), and I just saw it together.

I loved it! Thank you to Hollywood (for once) for great casting, costumes, make-up, performances, and screen play adapted from the book. It was fun to see it with my son, because he also read all the books, and we've had some good discussions about them. I wondered what my husband would think, because he went in completely cold - not a single clue what any of it was about. He really liked it too. His comment at the end was: is there a sequel?

If you liked the books, it's worth seeing. If you haven't read the books, it's worth seeing.

I can't wait to see the next one.

March Report

March flew right by. I had two vacations - Sister's Weekend, and Hawaii. I cannot believe it is already April. Here's my accounting of the month:

1. First things first: Fair on scripture reading. I don't do as well when not on a regular schedule. Pretty good on exercise. I was sick for a couple of days, so missed some there, and I did okay on vacation too. Not perfect, but okay. Food: I did pretty well with food - and actually very well considering I had a nice vacation or two in there.
2. One shelf/drawer per day. Derailed. I did do it for 16 days, which is at least a majority of the month. Barely. But once again vacation is to blame. 
3. 30-30-30: This is still working well for me when I have days with discretionary time. 
4. Skype/web-cam: not as often as I like, but at least a couple of times. 
5. Digital photo system/labeling: I'm taking an online class to get going on this during the month of April. Hopefully that will get me going. 

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

I've read a couple of other books by Susan Vreeland (Girl in Hyacinth Blue, and Luncheon of the Boating Party) and enjoyed them. She does a good job of incorporating real people and their lives into a fictional biographical account.

I put this book on my Kindle a couple of vacations ago, and never got around to it. This time I decided to give it a go. I wish I could have seen the jacket cover in color. I would have referred to it often as I went along in the story.

The book is about Clara Driscoll, who worked for Louis Comfort Tiffany as a stained glass designer and creator. Tiffany's was the only art glass company to employ women, and this book tells about that women's department (headed by Clara Driscoll). As a matter of interest, no married women were allowed to work there.

I liked the book. I like learning about people who really lived, and created things that I've seen (the Tiffany lamp shades, for example). It gave a lot of detail about the design and creating of stained glass windows, lampshades, and mosaics. A lot of detail. It almost derailed me a couple of times, but the story began to pick up and it all came together nicely.

I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

I read a review of this book here at Everyday Reading. It sounded fun, and like a great book to read on vacation, so I bought the Kindle version to take with me to Hawaii.

It was a fun and sometimes funny book. A little romance, a cute premise. I liked it. It is a very contemporary book - about a lost cell phone and lots of texts and emails going back and forth on cell phones. I always wonder what it will be like to read a book like this in ten or fifteen years.

It's very Sophie Kinsella, if you've read any of her other books. There are some language issues (the f-bomb). I usually find that word very, very offensive, but somehow when Brits use it, it's not so bad in my mind. I've heard (and choose to believe) that it's not as bad a word to them as it is for us Americans. Maybe that's just a poor excuse on my part to ignore it in this book.

I would not recommend reading this book on a Kindle like I did. A fun part of the book are footnotes that are scattered throughout. There was a blurb at the beginning of the book telling how to access the footnotes on e-readers, so that helped, but it was time-consuming and frustrating to do so. Maybe other e-readers would be easier than my Kindle.

Current Reading

To tell the truth, I haven't really been reading. I realized that I've spent a total of about 20 minutes reading this last week. That means something is wrong.

So I analyzed the situation. Yes, I've been busy. But my life is always busy, and somehow I manage to get my reading fix every day. Yes, I have books available to read. Many, many books. So what's the hold up?

I finally admitted it. I don't really like the book I'm reading. It's my book club book for this month. If it weren't, I wouldn't finish the book. It's actually an easy read, and I should have had it done by now, but there it sits, day after day, night after night, getting dusty by the side of my bed.

I've been agonizing: do I take the book with me on my nice relaxing vacation? It's a library book, and I do not want to buy it under any circumstances. I don't want to take a library book on vacation - especially one I don't like.

I decided to just finish the book when I get home. After all, vacations are for relaxing and taking advantage of all that extra time to read, read, read. When I consulted our book club schedule and my calendar to see how long I'd have to read the book when I get home, it turns out that I won't be able to attend book club the night we review that book after all.

So happy to not have to finish a book I really don't like! So sad to have missed all that reading time because I didn't want to read the book. Let that be a lesson to me. I've come a long way because I finally have given myself permission to stop reading books I don't like, but I try very hard to be responsible and read the books chosen in book club. After all, that's why I'm part of that group - to expand my reading horizons.

When this post is published I will be in Hawaii, preparing to read at the beach, read by the pool, and spend delightful time with my friends. I'll even get to see my sister and her family. The perfect vacation.

Prepare for an onslaught of reading posts when I return.

Debra's Sampler Quilt

A little over a year ago my friend Trish and I gave some quilting lessons to my daughters Debra and Beth. We went over to their house once a week, taught them a new skill, and gave them an assignment to have done by the next week. The quilts are beautiful! Debra finished piecing hers, and I ended up quilting it for her. I asked her if I could try some new things I've learned and she graciously consented to let her masterpiece be my guinea pig. 

I learned a lot in the process - next time will be better, I hope. I won't enumerate my mistakes, but let's just say Debra was a good sport. If you want to read her side of the story, and more details about the quilt, you can read it here on her blog.

For my own record, here are a lot (a lot) of pictures of the quilt. Debra took the pictures for me.