Teaser Tuesdays - July 13th

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week I'm reading



Luck was with me. I spotted a large cleaver on the counter and picked it up on my way out the back door. Someone, I think it was the head cook shouted, "Hey! You can't take that. What are you doing?"

"Don't worry," I called back. "My date went out this way." And, it occurred to me, had left me with the check. Another good reason to have the cleaver handy.

Musing Mondays - Distractions

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This week’s musing asks…

Can you read amidst distractions? (tv, others talking, sporting events, etc)

My answer...


Not really. I prefer complete silence. In the "olden" days I could read regardless of what was going on around me, but not anymore. My mind tends to wander. A library job would have been so perfect for me. LOL



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Sunday Salon - Heat Wave Reading!

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With the temperatures here being over 100 degrees all week, I seem to have completed a few books. All good reads.

Completed:

Lumby on the Air by Gail Fraser
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch

Started:

Executive Retention by Maria E. Schneider

So, one week of July is gone and I finished three books. That's not bad, but there was a holiday in there so that's probably why. LOL We'll see what happens this week.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch

Genre: Fiction
Format: Audio

During the spring of 1985 Dr. Buzz Legare went on a fishing trip with his dog in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor. Later, Buzz was missing and only the dog was found in the fishing boat. Buzz was presumed dead, but no body had ever been found.

Hannah was only 11 when her father disappeared, but she never believed he was dead. She was sure he was alive and when she reached 35, she was obsessed with proving her theory. By now she was married, but she has totally messed that up by drinking and cheating on her husband. However, she could not get her father out of her mind. She did everything she could to prove he was alive, but each time she came up empty handed.

Her mother, step-father and brother all try to convince her to let go and that Buzz was truly dead, but Hannah insists on digging through the past. A past they all believe is best left behind.

I listened to this in the car and it was an interesting read. It held my attention and I found myself caught up in Hannah’s search for her father and the lives of everyone in her family. I have Katie Crouch’s Girls in Trucks in my TBR and eventually I will get to it. If it’s anything like this book, it will be a page turner.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Genre: Fiction
Format: EBook

Mary Beth Latham has the perfect life. Three beautiful teenage children, a doctor husband, a thriving landscaping business and many close friends. Mary Beth deals with all the things mothers go through from sibling rivalry to her teenage daughter’s dating problems.

Her daughter, Ruby, breaks up with her boyfriend, Kiernan, during their senior year of high school. He’s been a family friend forever and he doesn’t take the breakup well. He not only loses Ruby after the breakup, but her family as well. Mary Beth isn’t very happy about the breakup either. She feels terrible for Kiernan.

Mary Beth’s son, Max, begins to have some serious problems with depression. Part of his problem is competing with his twin brother, who is much more popular in school than Max. She has her hands full trying to be there for both Ruby and Max.

Then there’s her husband, Glen. She loves him with all her heart, but their sex life has become mundane. However, she’s content with this and is happy with her family life.
As the Latham family prepares for Ruby’s graduation from high school, tragedy strikes their perfect life and nothing is ever the same again.

I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I thought I knew exactly how this story was going to end up, but I was totally blown away by what actually occurred. That’s all I’m going to say about the plot, though. You’ll have to read it for yourself to learn more

The first half of the book went slow for me. It was mostly dedicated to developing the characters and reading about Mary Beth’s normal family activities. There were many characters introduced and, at first, I had a hard time keeping them all straight in my head.
Later, the story took a violent turn, which was both heartbreaking and emotional.

This is the type of story that sticks with you long after you read the last page. I was really effected by it and thought about it quite often even when I wasn’t reading it. I would have given it 5 kitties, but the slowness of the beginning made me give it 4. I can highly recommend this book, especially if you like something that tugs at your heart strings, but don’t go anywhere near it if you are looking for a lighter read.