Feature & Follow Friday

by Carol8 Comments
Question: Tell us about a book character you’d trade places with? I'm going to cheat a little. I can't think of any particular character I want to trade places with., most characters lives are obviously full of drama, and I'm not really a fan of drama in my own life. However, I would love to live in a fictional town, Three Pines from Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series - even though it's in Quebec and has horribly cold winters. It just seems like an ideal little village, half-hidden from the world - picturesque, full of artists and readers and friends. I would love to browse the bookstore, have a bite to eat at the café, have dinner with the crazy poet. We'll just ignore that murders seem to happen there regularly - no town's perfect. Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The goal of the hop is to gain new followers and make new friends....
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Thursday’s Tale: Wickedly Magical by Deborah Blake

by Carol6 Comments
"Wickedly Magical" is a re-working of the Baba Yaga lore. As you may know, Baba Yaga is a strong, powerful, frightening witch who comes to us from Slavic folklore. She often lives in a hut that  stands on chicken legs and is sometimes surrounded by a fence with a skull on each pole. Sometimes the hut has a door which is not revealed unless a magical phrase is uttered. In most tales, Baba Yaga is portrayed as an antagonist; however, some characters have been known to seek her out for her wisdom. She often fulfills the function of donor; that is, her role is in supplying the hero, sometimes unwillingly, with something necessary to further his quest. Seeking out her aid is a dangerous act though. Any hero, or heroine, who seeks her out needs to be properly prepared and pure of spirit. He or she also needs to be polite. It is said she ages one year every time she is...
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Spotlight: Cracks in the Sidewalk by Bette Lee Crosby

by CarolNo Comments
About Cracks in the Sidewalk: A powerful story that is a heart-wrenching reminder of how fragile relationships can be. Cracks in the Sidewalk is based on a true story. Claire McDermott is a wife, a mother, a grandmother... Her only daughter is gravely ill... Her son-in-law is resentful and angry... Her grandchildren are missing... After years of writing letters, hoping to find the children, hoping to bring them back, Claire receives a reply...a dog-eared gray envelope is stuffed into her mailbox, but will it bring hope or simply put an end to the waiting? Can a single letter change the lives of four people? Claire McDermott and her grandchildren are about to discover letters are a journey of the heart which can ultimately deliver people to their destination. Reviews for Cracks in the Sidewalk: "Elizabeth is a woman whose sole purpose in life is to be a good wife and mother. She has no care in the world but to accomplish these goals and she...
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Fitness Tuesday

by Carol5 Comments
Here's my plan, more or less. Since last check-in, I finished Week 5 and am starting Week 6. Tuesday, David and I lifted weights at home for half an hour, focusing on arms. Wednesday I did the 60 minutes on a recumbent bike, mostly because I can read on my Kindle when I do it. I have to have my priorities, right? Thursday I ran 2 miles on Main St while hoping it wouldn't rain. My average pace was 10:33 min/mile. Saturday I ran the 4.5 miles on Main St in the evening. It was getting a little dark while I was finishing up, but we have decent streetlights. Well, there's one darkish area, but it doesn't last long and it's on a residential road, so not too much traffic. After I got back I tested the SOS function on my watch. If I press the button continuously for I think it's 5 seconds, it sends a text to David with a "Carol needs...
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Review: The Art Whisperer by Charlotte and Aaron Elkins

by Carol6 Comments
Title: The Art Whisperer (Alix London #3) Authors: Charlotte and Aaron Elkins Published: August 19, 2014 by Thomas Mercer Genre: Mystery Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository | Audible When art conservator Alix London spots a forgery, she knows trouble will follow. So she’s understandably apprehensive when her connoisseur’s eye spots something off about a multimillion-dollar Jackson Pollock painting at Palm Springs’s Brethwaite Museum—her current employer. Alix is already under fire, the object of a vicious online smear campaign. Now the Brethwaite’s despicable senior curator, obsessed with the “maximization of monetized eyeballs,” angrily refuses to decommission the celebrated Pollock piece. But it’s only when a hooded intruder attacks Alix in her hotel room that the real trouble begins. And when FBI Special Agent Ted Ellesworth—with whom Alix had inadvertently, but thoroughly, botched a budding relationship just a year prior—turns up to investigate the Pollock, Alix knows she’s about to have her hands full. In her third mystery, Alix London must see...
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