The Summer Kitchen by Karen Weinreb + a giveaway

Title: The Summer Kitchen
Author: Karen Weinreb
Pages: 328
Challenge(s): Clear Off Your Shelves
Read because: win from Book Club Classics
Rating: 3.5/5 (I liked it alot)

This was another book that I made myself finish but didn't enjoy until the end. Her writing style is quite hard for me to read. She prefers long sentences filled with excessive descriptions. That made it hard for me to get into any kind of reading rhythm. Also, several times throughout the book the perspective changes from Nora, the main character, to one of the other characters which usually doesn't bother me. Here is was so infrequent that it was a bit jarring though.

THE GOOD:

I thought the plot was well paced and the characters were well developed. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that children are usually used as props in books but it this one her sons are very thought out. I would have liked to have heard more about them instead of Nora, actually.

This peek into the ultra rich might leave you a bit on edge. When someone has nothing better to worry about than which chef to fly in from Paris, you get a bit annoyed shall we say? But Weinreb's treatment of Nora's coming into her own is quite interesting and the ending is well done.

And my opinion? The final sentence is perfect.

Want another perspective? Read Kristen's review here.

I'd like to pass on my copy so if you'd like to read it leave me a comment. If more than one person wants it I'll pick a name on Monday and send it out shortly thereafter.

Walking Around

Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

Cole, Ian and I went on our (mostly) daily walk this morning. I love seeing things through their eyes. The things that grab their attention along with the things that they completely ignore.

I notice people's houses and wish I could peak inside to see how they are decorated. I also notice different leaves that are in the road as we walk.

The boys notice mostly notice birds and squirrels.

This morning I noticed that the same several houses have their garage doors up every morning. It's interesting to see what people keep in their garages. I try to open mine only by cover of darkness, preferably around 2 or 3 am when I know that there is little chance of anyone seeing the mess that is my garage. Seriously though, one of the houses we passed by this morning had nothing but a car and a few boxes in theirs. Amazing.

If you have a garage do you have space to actually park in it? Whenever Michael is in the car with me and we pass by a house with someone pulling into their garage I always tease him by saying that we should have gotten one of those parking holes in our house too!

Excuse the dust

Excuse the dust...I'm tying to update the look of the blog.

Coming soon...a new 3 column template with room for adding the Cream of the Crop - my favorite blogs.

Enter to win Gone

Lisa McMann, the New York Times bestselling author of the WAKE trilogy (WAKE, FADE, GONE), is running an awesome contest on her blog. She's giving away 3 advance copies of Gone and a "dream" necklace. Go here to enter to win. I'd love to win since Wake has been on my wishlist for a while now.

Blog Hop Winners...

I had 46 comments on the Operation Write Home blog hop this weekend. I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get the over one hundred I had last time. I'll be making 46 cards for OWH because of all your comments though! So thanks for participating

The winners of the blog hop blog candy are...

Mary said...
Gorgeous cards!! hugs, Mary

Christi said...
Your cards a wonderful. I still have the one you sent with my book out on my shelf. Great cause to support. :)

And a little side note to Christi who says she never wins anything...this is number 2! I need you to pick me some lotto numbers, friend! ;-)

Operation Write Home Blog Hop

Welcome to your next stop on the Operation Write Home Blog Hop. OWH is a wonderful organization that collects handmade cards from crafters all over and sends them overseas to servicemen and women to write home to their families. You can get involved by sending in cards, giving donations to cover postage and by spreading the word.

This is the second blog hop I've participated in. If you want to start at the beginning, go here.

I'm once again participating in honor of Jimmy, the husband of one of my favorite scrappers...the incredible Stephanie.


OWH asked us to make an Any Hero Card and a Valentine's Day card. An Any Hero Card is a card that you write in that is sent to one of our troops serving overseas. That card wasn't a problem to make. The Valentine's card threw me for a loop since I'm thinking Christmas! Both cards are super simple.

For each person who comments on this post before Monday, I've pledged to make a card for OWH, so please comment away! And 2 random commenters will win an envelope of scrap goodielicousness.

Next stop is Carmen at Carmen's Creative Chatter.

A few more layouts...

Happy Veteran's Day

Remembering both our currently enlisted and our veterans today. Thank you for your sacrifice.

Join me on Saturday as I participate in another blog hop for Operation Write Home (formerly Cards for Heroes). OWH has asked us to showcase an Anyhero card as well as a Valentine's card. And there will be a couple of prizes for random commenters.

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is a weekly event hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Check here for what others got last week.

I received:

The Whispering Room by Amanda Stevens from amazon.com using money from Swagbucks.
The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond using money from Swagbucks.
Go, Train, Go! from amazon.com using money from Swagbucks.
Aphrodisiac by Allyson Roy from amazon.com using money from Swagbucks.
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan from Nonsuch Book.

Updating HTML Coding...

updating the HTML coding on my blog. If things look weird come back later please.

Sunday Salon - In Which I Can't Read

I'm still reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I haven't been able to read much this week since Cole has been sick. I'm enjoying it so far though and am finding that it's one of those books that I don't want to rush through because I'm afraid I'm miss something.

Christy Challenge

Strangely enough I don't read much Christian fiction. The ones I've tried have been too preachy or unrealistic so I tend to shy away from that genre. When I saw Amy and Deborah have started the Christy Challenge to expose more people to Christian fiction, I thought this would be a HUGE challenge for me and a great way to try the genre once again.

I am going to participate on the 4th Tier (any ONE Year's Winners 7-9 or mix'n'match 7-9 winners). I'll choose my books this week.

UPDATED TO ADD LIST:

I was shocked that my library owns a copy of each of the 2009 winners. That is what I will be reading for the challenge:

Beyond the Night by Marlo Schalesky
You Had Me at Good-bye by Tracey Bateman
Dogwood by Chris Fabry
Blue Hole Back Home by Joy Jordan-Lake
Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin
From a Distance by Tamera Alexander
The Rook by Steven James
Vanish by Tom Pawlik
I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires by Cathy Gohlke

For more information, check here.

Decisions, decisions

I told you about winning a digital scrapbooking contest a few weeks ago. The prize was a $10 gift card to the digi store of my choice. I chose Designer Digitals, of course, because both Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielski (scrap idols #1 and #2) design for them. I saved the gift card for Thursdays when they have part of the store on sale. Kept waiting for some items on my wishlist to go on sale but they never did. Today I received an email telling me that the entire store is 30% off including the NEW stuff from Cathy Z! So glad I waited before spending my card. Now to decide what to buy...

The Work at Home Girls

Most of you know that I lost my job last year while I was on maternity leave with Ian. Recently I've been trying to find a way to add income without taking away from the boys. This concept is quite intriguing to me...I'll be picking up the book Making Work at Home Work very soon to see if their ideas can work for me.

The Work at Home Girls is the brainchild of Jill Hart and Mary Byers, two successful work at home moms and authors. They've teamed up to offer help, ideas, challenges and mentorship from for women that work at home. Jill and Mary have over 20 years combined experience running a business from home. One is a techie (Jill, founder of Christian Work at Home Moms and author of So You Want to be a Work-at-Home Mom) and the other is a wordsmith (Mary, freelance editor and author of five books, including Making Work at Home Work).They've teamed up to share what they wish mentors had shared with them when they started their businesses over a decade ago. The Work at Home Girls share their Simple Secrets to make your business a sucess -

Traits of Successful Work-at-Home Business Owners
Taken from Mary Byers and Jill Hart

While many people like the idea of working in their pajamas and having a minute-commute down the hallway, not everyone is cut out to work from home. Those who do so successfully have the following traits:

Passion. It’s essential to love what you do and do what you love when working from home. Passion will keep you going even when the going gets tough, as it does in even the best of jobs.

Self-Motivation. It’s important that you’re a self-starter, especially when you are your own boss. There’s no one to motivate you other than yourself when you are self-employed.

Resourcefulness. Work -at-home CEOs aren’t just the head of the company, they ARE the company. That means being the janitor, the technology guru, the marketing manager, and the brains behind the operation. Often, this requires skills you don’t possess. But when you’re resourceful, you’ll be able to find the knowledge you need to keep your business moving forward.

Confidence. It takes guts to run your own enterprise and confidence to manage it effectively. Though there will be times you experience self-doubt, overall you need to have the confidence that you can, and will, figure things out when you run into obstacles.

The Work at Home Girls is designed to help you with a home based business either in getting your company off to a strong start or by helping move you to the next level. They offer books and teleseminars. Click here for the listing of teleseminars.

And the winner is...

Kathy S!

Congratulations, Kathy. Your gift certificate code will be emailed to you shortly. Thanks to everyone who gave to Reading for Adison. I wish I could give a prize to every single one of you. Because of your generosity we raised $300!