2 new memes for me

I just found a new meme. A bookish meme.

I must be feeling bookish lately and not so much foodish (foodish? Cookish?)
But it sounded like fun, so I thought I'd give it a try!

It's Tuesday, Where Are You? is a meme hosted by An Adventure in Reading. The object is to tell us about the book you are reading by describing where you are fictionally.


Let me see..... right now I am extremely poor and living with a group of friends or acquaintances in an abandoned house on a certain street in a small town on the coast of central California. Our street is lined with fisheries. It's during the depression and we are living by our wits, which sometimes doesn't turn out to be so good. I am the leader of my group and we want to do something nice for Doc, a man who has helped us all at certain times.


I am in Monterrey CA, the setting for John Steinbecks, Cannery Row. I am reading this book for my book club "the Lit Wit's".
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Another new meme I found is
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.
This week we're being asked to list our Top Ten Love Stories.

This was a bit difficult for me.  I looked at everyone else's lists before posting mine.  There was a ton of Jane Austen and a lot of Vampire Love going on.  Some Harry Potter and Ginny  Weasley, and again, lots of Austen.   But it says "our" Top Ten.  'MY' Top Ten.  Mine.  Love Stories that spoke to me.

So, here goes.

1. Mrs. Mike by  Benedict and Nancy Freedman--1949.  I didn't read it in 1949, I'm not THAT old...but I did read it in 1972 when I was in Jr. High School.  I love Mrs. Mike, the Story of Katherine Mary O'Fallen  and Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergent Mike Flanigan set in the Canadian wilderness in the early 1900s.
It's a great book!  A great love-story.

2. Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly--1942.   It was my first love story, about a boy and girl who dated the summer after high school graduation, and (God forgive her) kissed on the 3rd date!!

3. Out of Africa by Isek Dinesen.   Just a beautiful book.

4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger.

5. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Laud Montgomery.  I don't need to say a thing, do I?

6. Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding.  I actually read the book.  And I liked it.   Just the way it was.

7-10.  I am not going to lump all romances together, but a lot of mystery books with recurring characters together.   Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli/Ranger books by Janet Evanovich.  Tess Monaghan and Crow by Laura Lippman.  Deborah Knott and Dwight Bryant by Margaret Maron, Claire Ferguson and Russ Van Alstyne by Julia-Spencer Fleming.
It's been fun to watch these relationships grow over the course of many books.

In closing, I've decided that I'm really going to have to read "The Princess Bride" because it turned up on a lot of  lists.  A LOT OF LISTS.  I've seen the movie many times, but never have I read the book.

One more for the TBR pile.

 

Traveling Through Tuesday

Do you like to read books that set in a certain city, state, or country? Do you ever find a town in a book that just calls your name and you can't wait to tell someone about it? Well Traveling Through Tuesday is a weekly event  hosted by Lori at  Lori's Reading Corner,  where we spotlight the location of the book we are currently reading!



Today we are traveling to Reno, NV. I mean literally. As in actually, truly, really....we, the Handyman and I, are actually driving to Reno today. And it's not too exciting, as we only live 2 and a half hours away. He's going to get hangers (we own a dry cleaners) and I just like to ride with him. I'm kind of weird that way.... I love traveling in a car. It's a few hours where I don't have to be doing anything... I am stuck there. I can read, write letters, organize a notebook--yes, I do take all that stuff with me in a canvas bag, when I go somewhere. ~smiles~ and I'm lucky, I don't get carsick doing that kind of stuff.


BUT... in the book world.....

 I am just finishing up "The Anglo Files, a Field Guide to the British", by Sarah Lyall. I'm not sure what possessed me to read this book.... I saw a reference to it somewhere, someplace, and pulled out my handy-dandy book notebook, that I keep with me always, and wrote down the title, then requested it from the library.
I've come across many interesting books that I wouldn't normally read, that way. Also some real duds.
It has taken me right into the heart of England. And it's another world!!


Lyall, moved to London for love, when she met and married her husband. She has lived in London for over 15 years and decided to write a book on what separates the British from the Americans.
It's sometimes funny, sometimes fascinating and sometimes just plain bizarre.
They are weird, we are not. I'm just joking, but it can seem that way if one really investigates the differences.

Lyall loves her adopted home, but there are a few interesting facts:


Her in-laws are amused and aghast at her habit of "having to remind" her children that she loves them. They could be the only English schoolchildren who say "love ya", when she drops them off at school. "Miss you already" is what the English might say.


The British people are also ill-prepared for America's "I'm #1 attitude" she says. They don't know how to apply it to themselves even if they want to. "It's the height of tedium to hear someone banging on about how good they are." The British are very humble....to the point of being self-deprecating. Lyall says in a certain way, it's like an "inverted" from of bragging."


And we won't even go into British politics. (yikes)
But the book has been fun, and I've liked getting to know more about the British people.

Out on a Limb

Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb here and post 2x in one day. AND, this one is not about food, but about books!


I CAN'T HELP IT.


I have more than one love.
The Handyman
books
food
my children (and their spouses)
my grandchildren
my garden
my friends
my parents
reading books while eating chocolate chip cookies on a hammock in my yard
sunshine
rain
music
walking/hiking
did I say food and books?

You get the picture anyway...I love many things. And one of them is reading. I have always loved reading ( I am former children's librarian and current board member of our county library and a collector of many, many books---besides the 'over 200' cookbooks I own.)


I'm also a very diverse reader.... I like many different types/genres of books. Character Mysteries are one of my favorite.....with recurring characters.


I like them for 2 reasons, well 3 if you count just being a good story, but I like to "be there" as the characters develop and grow (so this is why one must start from the beginning of a series), and I ---which brings me to this meme I'm just joining---love, Love, LOVE to learn about the places they are from. The towns, the countryside, the different regional habits and traditions.


I am from the west. Originally the Pacific Northwest, but for most of my life I've lived in Nevada (with a 5 year interval in California, which I loved), and these places seem common to me. Familiar, and not very exciting--which is not true. ( I love where I'm from!)


But by reading, one can "fall in love" with a region without ever leaving their backyard (and hammock and cookies).

This is the reason I've decided to take part in a new weekly meme, "Traveling Through Tuesday".....


Do you like to read books that set in a certain city, state, or country? Do you ever find a town in a book that just calls your name and you can't wait to tell someone about it?
 
...... I can't wait to share, hear about, learn about, READ about characters and the places they live, love and work.



Just go to "Lori's Reading Corner" and find out all the details.   I'm so excited!!
 
 

 
This week I'm in the middle of Charlaine Harris's first "Sookie Stackhouse" novel, "Dead Until Dark."

(its the basis for the HBO series, Tru-Blood)
First of all, I love Sookie, but I am so intrigued by visiting Louisiana....even if only in a novel. Bon Temp, Louisiana, is a fictional town where the setting of the book takes place.
I've always been fascinated by the south; the flow of the language, the customs, the manners, the characteristics.
Someday I'll visit, I'm sure, but until then....this is almost as good, since I can savor it and ponder it.
I'm excited to continue on with the series and to spend more time in Louisiana.

I'm also looking forward to each Tuesday now. Not only is LOST on tonight, but I get a whole new meme to look forward to.

I've been tagged

I've been tagged!
A few days ago, The Blond Duck was tagged...and now she is passing it on.
Here is her story .....click! It's very funny.

She makes me laugh almost everyday. I have a "grand" chihuahua, and she has 2 chihuahua's that rule! And she posts about them often. I love her blog.

Here are the rules:
1) choose the 4th folder where you store pictures on your computer.

2. Select the 4th picture in the folder.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

5. No cheating (cropping, editing, etc.)



This is funny. My old computer crashed right before Christmas and we got a new one. Well....it didn't really crash. It's a long story...just beware of computer doctors who are unreliable.
BUT anyway, my picture files are on my old computer. Waiting to be saved to a disk. I have but a few folders on this new computer.

Here the 4th picture of the 4th folder.
Does it need explanation?



Well, check out this site....kind of self-explanatory.
And because I am a food blogger, all of the sudden most of my files are filled with food pictures. (most of them not very good)

I read the rules and it says to choose 4 bloggers to pass this one to.
I have to think about that one for a day or two. But I will. I promise.