Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Your Beach Bag

The summer reading season is here and Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, wants to help you pack your beach bag. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing better than reading on the beach (under an umbrella, of course) with the sound of the waves in the background. My beach/vacation  reads are usually all about plot. But while I want a great story, good writing is also a must. That means I usually reach for literary fiction.

Here are my recommendations for vacation reading this year:

A Hundred Summers

by Beatriz Williams

We Were Liars

by E. Lockhart

The Interestings

by Meg Wolitzer

The Girl You Left Behind

by Jojo Moyes

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress

by Ariel Lawhon 

Tell the Wolves I'm Home

by Carol Rifka Brunt

The Gravity of Birds

by Tracy Guzeman

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

by Jennie Wingfield

Flight Behavior

by Barbara Kingsolver

 Pavilion of Women 

by Pearl S. Buck

 Want to see what I recommended last year? Here is my list from 2013.

For links to more Top Ten Tuesday posts, visit The Broke and the Bookish.

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Weekly Update: It's June!

June is here and that means a shift to "summer mode"... life is (slightly) more relaxed, we spend more time outdoors, use the grill almost daily, eat later,  and, for the first time ever, I am not responsible for transporting anyone to summer classes, driving lessons, etc. It almost feels like retirement! ;-)

The scene:  7:30 Sunday morning, black coffee, my laptop, a beautiful day on the lake - I'm heading out for a long walk very soon.

Reading:  I finished We Were Liars by E. Lockhart on Memorial Day and started Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart by Carol Wall.  Nonfiction seemed like a good follow-up to the popular YA title and, at the 37% mark, it is a refreshing change of pace.

Listening:  I downloaded Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell. This is our next book club selection and I'm approaching it as a read/listen combination. The first hundred pages have focused on Huguette's father, W.A. Clark, and although he was quite a character, I'm not totally into the book yet. I have a feeling we'll get to Huguette soon and this background is surely important to her story.

On the blog:
- review of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
- review of The Light Between Oceans by M.L.Stedman
- Three New Recipes for Weekend Cooking

In the garden: I'm loving my new herb garden in a wine crate! We had fresh rosemary on our grilled vegetables, cilantro on the Avocado Cup Salads, basil with our tomato/mozzarella, and parsley on just about everything else. The plants look a little crowded, but I hope it will last all summer.

Hoping:  To attend BEA one day... It's so much fun to see the photos and tweets, but I'm a little afraid the actual event may be slightly overwhelming. Next year I'll at least plan to participate in Armchair BEA. I enjoyed reading the posts this past week.

Anticipating:  Perhaps dreading is a better word, but I'm having a couple of old fillings replaced this week. Does anyone really like going to the dentist?

Later today:  The rest of the flowers must get planted, and then we'll probably have dinner at my sister's.

What are your plans for the day?

I am also linking this post to It's Monday! What are you Reading? hosted at Book Journey.

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This Week In the Kitchen

Every now and then it starts to feel like I'm in a cooking rut. That's when I get the urge to try all sorts of new recipes... and over the past two weeks I've tried quite a few. Most have been good, a couple have bombed, but here are three that stood out.

The other morning I was reading blogs and happened to stumbled upon a recipe for Avocado Cup Salads over at Smitten Kitchen. They looked so pretty and since I had most of the ingredients on hand, I couldn't resist. Besides Twin A, also an avocado fan, had the day off and this looked like a perfect lunch.

I made the Avocado Cup Salad with Black Bean Confetti and was very happy with the way it turned out. If I'd had a red or orange bell pepper, they would have been even more colorful. I added seedless cucumber instead of onions and topped it off with cilantro freshly picked from my new herb garden. The post at Smitten Kitchen also included a recipe for Avocado Cup Salads with Cucumbers, Radishes and Ginger-Miso Dressing. I'll try that soon.

We're back on the mussels kick. You might remember the Weekend Cooking post I wrote last fall about mussels. I'd never cooked them at home and was surprised at how quick and easy they were to prepare. This time I tried Ina Garten's recipe for Mussels in White Wine and it was heavenly! A loaf of crusty bread and some steamed broccoli made this a delicious meal. I followed the recipe exactly as written and would not change a thing. She suggests soaking the mussels in a flour/water mixture for a half hour, or until they disgorge any sand. I did that, but couldn't tell whether it made a difference or not.

Finally, we love fish on the grill and I'm always looking for new marinades or rubs. I tried a recipe for Grilled Fish Steaks from allrecipes.com after buying fresh swordfish without a definite recipe in mind. It's used ingredients I always have on hand and tasted great, too. This would work any variety of firm white fish... next time I'll use halibut.

Have you tried any new recipes lately?

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

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The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

The Light Between Oceans
by M.L. Stedman
Scribner, 2013 paperback
362 pages
source: purchased

Summary (from goodreads):
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.

The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel

My thoughts:
The Light Between Oceans  had been on my wish list for quite some time, so I was very glad when my book club decided to read it. Unfortunately the meeting was help when we were in Florida, but by all accounts the discussion was far-reaching and lively and the book was universally loved. (Note to self: look for a library book club if I'm in Florida next winter)

I liked this book from the opening paragraph. Initially, it was the writing that stood out. The physical description of the lighthouse was fascinating and in my mind I could see the stark beauty of the landscape. Next I became impressed with the characters - so human as they struggled to make difficult decisions that would eventually impact many lives. Finally, and this took a little longer, I got involved with the story. The pace is quite slow at first, perhaps a little too slow, and although that's usually of minor importance to me, it is my one criticism of this novel.

A growing sense of dread and unease was palpable as the story unfolded. Decisions were made, and guilt  began to eat away at Tom... reminiscent of scenes from Therese Raquin by Emile Zola. Yet I could also relate to Isabel in a very personal manner. Her sorrows were my sorrows.  Relationships become strained as more people get caught up in the web of deceit. I loved this book!

Book clubs will have a field day discussing these characters, their motivation, choices, and ramifications.

M.L. Stedman is definitely an author to watch.

Some Favorite Quotes:

There are times when the ocean is not the ocean - not blue, not even water, but some violent explosion of energy and danger: ferocity on a scale only Gods can summon. It hurls itself at the island, sending spray right over the top of the lighthouse, biting pieces off the cliff. And the sound is a roaring of a beast whose anger knows no limits. Those are the nights the light is needed most.  (page 71) 

The isolation spins its mysterious cocoon, focusing the mind on one place, one time, one rhythm - the turning of the light. The island knows no other human voices, no other footprints. On the Offshore Lights, you can live any story you want to tell yourself, and no one will say you're wrong: not the seagulls, not the prisms, not the wind.  (page 110) 

There had never been any guarantee that conception would lead to a live birth, or that birth would lead to a life of any great length. Nature allowed only the fit and the lucky to share this paradise-in-the-making. Look inside the cover of any family Bible and you'd see the facts. The graveyards,too, told the story of babies whose voices, because of a snakebite or a fever or a fall from a wagon, had finally succumbed to their mothers' beseeching to "hush, hush little one." The surviving children got used to the new way of setting the table with one place fewer, just as they grew accustomed to squishing along the bench when another sibling arrived. Like the wheat fields where more grain is sown than can ripen, God seemed to sprinkle extra children about, and harvest them according to some indecipherable, divine calendar.  (page 18)

Bottom line:
The Light Between Oceans  is a book you can really sink your teeth into... a must read for book clubs.

My rating:

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We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars
by E. Lockhart
Delacorte Press, 2014
240 pages
source: library copy

Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family.
No one is a criminal.
No one is an addict.
No one is a failure.
The Sinclairs are athletic, tall, and handsome. We are old-money Democrats. Our smiles are wide, our chins square, and our tennis serves aggressive.
It doesn't matter if divorce shreds the muscles of our hearts so that they will hardly beat without a struggle. It doesn't matter if trust-fund money is running out; if credit card bills go unpaid on the kitchen counter. It doesn't matter if there's a cluster of pill bottles on the bedside table.
It doesn't matter if one of us is desperately, desperately in love.

And so begins what's being touted as the must-read book this summer. I'm not much of a YA reader, but this one ticks all the boxes - a summer house (actually a family compound on a private island near Martha's Vineyard), multiple generations, old money, a little dysfunction, and some sort of accident. The family tree and island map are added bonuses.

We Were Liars is a very quick read. I read it in two sittings, but could have easily read it in an afternoon.

I won't say much more about the plot...even the goodreads summary is a little vague:

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth. 

 We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

The writing in this novel, so fresh and snappy, will appeal to readers outside the YA community.

Bottom Line:
Don't miss We Were Liars. Pick a lazy, summer day and read it straight through.

My rating:

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Monday Update: Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day Weekend here in the US, the unofficial beginning of summer. There's nothing like a three day weekend to jumpstart the season.

Reading:  I finished TWO books this week. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, a read/listen combination which I loved, and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, my classics spin book which was just okay.

Yesterday I started We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and will finish later today... perfect holiday weekend reading.

Up next is Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr. for book club.

Listening: Nothing... but wondering if I should make Empty Mansions  a read/listen combo or just start something new on audio today.

Watching: I walked outside this week, but did sneak in an episode of Orange is the New Black on a rainy day.

In the kitchen: A couple of new seafood recipes (Weekend Cooking post to follow), a roasted cauliflower salad, and chicken barbecue.

Later today I'll be planting a small herb garden in an old wooden wine crate.

In other news: I bought a fitbit one last week and love it...such a great motivational tool. I've surprised myself by averaging 13,000 steps, but have learned that without my daily walk or treadmill time it's awfully hard to meet that 10,000 step goal.

This post is linked to It's Monday! What are you Reading? hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

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The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

The Summer Without Men 
by Siri Hustvedt
Picador, 2011
225 pages
source: purchased ebook

Summary (from Publishers Weekly):
A theatrically manic poet turns heartbreak into an intellectual endeavor in Hustvedt's intellectually spry latest (after The Sorrows of an American). Fresh out of the hospital at age 55 following a breakdown brought on by her husband's departure for a young colleague referred to as "The Pause," award-winning poet and Columbia professor Mia Fredricksen flees Brooklyn to spend the summer in her Minnesota hometown. There she is in the company of her mother and four other feisty old ladies, the young mother next door, and the seven hormone-addled pubescent girls enrolled in her poetry class at the local arts guild. Mia sorts out her agony as only a scorned woman with a Ph.D. in comparative literature can—by pouring it through a sieve of poets, philosophers, and critical theorists. At times these references eclipse the presence of the narrator herself, but even this absence becomes the basis for philosophical rumination, as Mia corresponds online with the anonymous—and at times abusive—Mr. Nobody. Though initially trapped in a claustrophobic cerebral solitude, Mia opens up, and, in so doing, lets in some much needed air to a constricted narrative, so that instead of being another novel of a woman on the brink, this becomes an adroit take on love, men and women, and girls and women.

Quick thoughts:
This novel started out very strong, rambled a bit in the middle (albeit intelligently),  and ultimately ended up a satisfying read.

On the plus side:
* the plot
* the characters, women of all ages and stages of life
* the writing, so smart and engaging

A couple of minuses:
*rambling philosophical asides
* lack of chapter breaks

I loved the beginning of this novel (see my intro post) and even though it seemed to lose steam in the middle, Hustvedt's writing kept me reading. I know I'll be reading more of her work.

My rating:

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The Costumes of Downton Abbey: Upstairs

On Saturday I wrote about visiting the Costumes of Downton Abbey exhibit at Winterthur and included photos featuring "downstairs" uniforms. As promised, here are a few costumes worn by the folks upstairs.

These photos were taken with my phone and I obviously have no talent for photography, but if you're a Downton fan, they're sure to bring back happy memories.

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Tuesday Intro: Black Lake by Johanna Lane

When they were little, the door to what was to have been the house's ballroom remained locked. They would stand at the threshold, rattling the handle, first the girl, then the boy, turning it left and right, feeling a split second of give, a moment of hope that this time it might open, but it never did. Their father said that the key was lost, that the room was never finished, that no one had been up there since the house was built. But that was a lie.

Black Lake
by Johanna Lane

That kind of opening always piques my interest. So many questions form in my mind and I can hardly wait to see what the next paragraph will reveal. The first section of this novel, AUTUMN, is ten pages long and beautifully written. I'm ready to move on to part two, THE SPRING BEFORE, where each of the characters will be given the opportunity to tell their story.

Publisher's Summary:

A debut novel about a family losing grip of its legacy: a majestic house on the cliffs of Ireland.  

The Campbells have lived happily at Dulough--an idyllic, rambling estate isolated on the Irish seaside--for generations. But upkeep has drained the family coffers, and so John Campbell must be bold: to keep Dulough, he will open its doors to the public as a museum. He and his wife, daughter, and son will move from the luxury of the big house to a dank, small caretaker's cottage. The upheaval strains the already tenuous threads that bind the family and, when a tragic accident befalls them, long-simmering resentments and unanswered yearnings surface. 

As each character is given a turn to speak, their voices tell a complicated, fascinating story about what happens when the upstairs becomes the downstairs, and what legacy is left when family secrets are revealed.

What do you think of that opening? Would you continue reading? I know I can't wait to get back to this debut novel (just released May 20th). Thank you Little, Brown and Company for sending me a review copy.

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

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Current Reading: A Monday Update

It was a very busy weekend around here and I never got around to writing a Sunday Salon post, but I am reading a couple of books worthy of an update post. I'm linking up to Sheila's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? meme for the first time.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Just past the half-way mark, I'm certain this will be one of my favorite books of the year. I'm both reading and listening... total immersion! Why have I never read Meg Wolitzer before?

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

This is my latest Classics Club Spin book. I picked it up for a preview on Friday and ended up reading the first 50 pages. I read at least that much on Saturday, too, and will certainly finish ahead of the July 7 deadline. I've been meaning to read this book for years (decades?) and am grateful for the extra push.

What are you reading this week?

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The Costumes of Downton Abbey: Downstairs

When planning the route of our recent road trip, I lobbied hard to make a pass through Wilmington, DE.  Winterthur, the former estate of Henry Francis DuPont in the Brandywine Valley and now a renowned museum and garden, is hosting the Costumes of Downton Abbey exhibit until January 4, 2015. All Downton fans within striking distance will want to make this pilgrimage.

If you decide to visit, I would suggest purchasing general admission tickets ahead of time (they were already sold out for the weekend following our visit). The Costume exhibit is included, but timed tickets are being utilized for crowd control and you will be asked to register for a specific two hour window. The earliest slots were full, but we were able to get a late morning entrance time.

These "downstairs" photos seemed deserving of a link to Weekend Cooking. I'll share some "upstairs" scenes for Wordless Wednesday.

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

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