Friday’s Tale: Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird, and the Gray Wolf

by Carol3 Comments
Isn't that bird gorgeous? Lots of threes in this story. A tsar, with three sons, has a magnificent walled garden, full of rare trees, including an apple tree whose apples were made of solid gold. One day, the tsar notices each night one apple goes missing. He sets guards to watch the garden and they reported that every night there came flying into the garden a bird that shone like the moon, whose feathers were gold and its eyes like crystal, which perched on the apple tree, plucked a golden apple and flew away. The oldest two sons fail in their attempt to catch the Fire Bird, and on the third night, the youngest, Ivan, only succeeds in grabbing a feather, but after that the bird doesn't return. The two older brothers go out to retrieve the bird, but give up when it became difficult and pitched their tent in a pleasant area and relaxed. When they don't come back, Ivan begs until he...
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Bacon

by Carol25 Comments
My daughter is a meat-lover through and through, and her favorite is bacon. I don't understand it myself. While I find bacon too salty and greasy, she would eat it every day. Sadly, in her opinion, I only buy it once in a great while, partly because I just don't think it's that healthy and partly because I may the grocery list, so usually it consists of mostly things I like. Bacon is one of the first foods she learned to cook herself  - the microwave makes it easy. And it's not just for breakfast. She also asks for those little round steaks wrapped in bacon, one of my least favorite meals. When we went to Packs and Dogs a while ago, she ordered a hot dog covered with bacon and devoured it. Potato soup apparently needs crumbled bacon on top, as do potato skins. For the record, though don't buy bacon-flavored microwave popcorn. Thanks to my brother she got three...
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Review: Caught by Harlan Coben

by Carol13 Comments
Caught is a quick read. It grabbed my attention in the prologue and kept me reading. That's not to say it was a great book, but it never let up. There was twist after turn and a batch of characters to keep track of. Wendy Tynes is a reporter who tracks down sexual predators, sets up sting operations, and exposes them on national television. Dan Mercer is the latest pedophile who she catches. He gets off on a technicality, helped by a flamboyant lawyer who only makes one appearance in the book, but Dan's life is essentially ruined. Wendy starts to wonder if he was ever actually guilty, though. Meanwhile, a teenage girl in the neighborhood, pretty, talented, a good girl, has been missing for months and the police have exhausted all their leads. In addition to the missing, potentially kidnapped girl and a falsely accused man, there's a murder, a vigilante, an embezzlement scheme, a group of unemployed middle-aged men, four...
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Review: Silver and Spice by Jennifer Greene

by Carol6 Comments
I'm not going to tell you that the writing in Silver and Spice was mesmerizing. I can't say that the plot was terribly unique, and, to be honest, the characters bordered on stereotypical. But I truly enjoyed the story. It's about friendship, love, and trust wrapped up in a cute romance. The first chapter sets the stage perfectly. Uptight, too perfect banker Anne Blake is being more or less stalked at a party by sexy Jake Rivard. He undoes her buttons, pulls pins out of her hair and keeps catching her eye. While she is annoyed, she seems to be enjoying the attention at the same time. Later, we learn that she and Jake have been friends since childhood and lovers at two points in their adult lives. Both times, Jake left on an adventure, leaving Anne hurt. She's determined not to let it happen again, but of course can't resist him. And this time, Jake's serious. He's wants to marry...
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