MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — APRIL 15

Good morning, and welcome to my Monday Memes.  For those who participate in Mailbox Monday, click for Mari Reads in April; and, as usual, Book Journey is hosting What Are You Reading?

MAILBOX MONDAY:

This week, I received two review books and one purchase from Amazon.

1.  Tapestry of Fortunes, by Elizabeth Berg (My gift to myself!)

 

In this superb new novel by the beloved New York Times bestselling author of Open House, Home Safe, and The Last Time I Saw You, four women venture into their pasts in order to shape their futures, fates, and fortunes.

Cecilia Ross is a motivational speaker who encourages others to change their lives for the better. Why can’t she take her own advice? Still reeling from the death of her best friend, and freshly aware of the need to live more fully now, Cece realizes that she has to make a move—all the portentous signs seem to point in that direction.

She downsizes her life, sells her suburban Minnesota home and lets go of many of her possessions. She moves into a beautiful old house in Saint Paul, complete with a garden, chef’s kitchen, and three housemates: Lise, the home’s owner and a divorced mother at odds with her twenty-year-old daughter; Joni, a top-notch sous chef at a first-rate restaurant with a grade A jerk of a boss; and Renie, the youngest and most mercurial of the group, who is trying to rectify a teenage mistake. These women embark on a journey together in an attempt to connect with parts of themselves long denied. For Cece, that means finding Dennis Halsinger. Despite being “the one who got away,” Dennis has never been far from Cece’s thoughts.

2.  Drinking with Men, by Rosie Schaap (Amazon Vine)

 

A vivid, funny, and poignant memoir that celebrates the distinct lure of the camaraderie and community one finds drinking in bars.

Rosie Schaap has always loved bars: the wood and brass and jukeboxes, the knowing bartenders, and especially the sometimes surprising but always comforting company of regulars. Starting with her misspent youth in the bar car of a regional railroad, where at fifteen she told commuters’ fortunes in exchange for beer, and continuing today as she slings cocktails at a neighborhood joint in Brooklyn, Schaap has learned her way around both sides of a bar and come to realize how powerful the fellowship among regular patrons can be.

In Drinking with Men, Schaap shares her unending quest for the perfect local haunt, which takes her from a dive outside Los Angeles to a Dublin pub full of poets, and from small-town New England taverns to a character-filled bar in Manhattan’s TriBeCa. Drinking alongside artists and expats, ironworkers and soccer fanatics, she finds these places offer a safe haven, a respite, and a place to feel most like herself. In rich, colorful prose, Schaap brings to life these seedy, warm, and wonderful rooms. Drinking with Men is a love letter to the bars, pubs, and taverns that have been Schaap’s refuge, and a celebration of the uniquely civilizing source of community that is bar culture at its best.

3.  Finding Lily, (e-book), by Lisa Ellis (Virtual Author Blog Tours)

When her newborn baby Lily dies suddenly, Claire Edwards runs away to live in a lighthouse she had fallen in love with as a young child. The lighthouse is reputed by some to have magical powers, but Claire isn’t looking for a miracle. She just wants an escape from her husband Jim’s colder way of grieving, and from their apartment filled with the tiny clothes and stuffed animals they had collected over the past few months. But once Claire is situated in the lighthouse, it begins to illuminate things for her in a new way and she’s suddenly forced to rethink her views on life, death, and her marriage.

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WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Welcome to our weekly bookish place where we share our adventures in reading.  Come along and join us as we explore other blogs and feel a community spirit.

My week brought lovely weather and some fabulous reads.  Not much blogging, however, except for some memes and my Saturday Snapshot post, along with my Sweet Saturday Sample (an excerpt from Defining Moments).

I am looking forward to the five-year blogoversary for my very first blog, Story Corner.  Check in later next week (April 21 is the date of the event) for details about the giveaway.

When you have a lot of blogs, as I do (eleven!), you only celebrate a few of the blogoversaries.

So now, let’s talk about books!

Books Read (Click Titles for Reviews):

1.  The Summer of France, (e-book), by Paulita Kincer (Fellow blogger!)

2.  Me Before You, by JoJo Moyes

3.  The Banks of Certain Rivers (e-book), by Jon Harrison (Review Book)

4.  Glory in Death, by J. D. Robb (Sequel Challenge)

What’s Up Next? (Click Titles/Covers for More Info)

1.   Oodles of Poodles, by Linda O. Johnston (Cozy/Sequel Challenges)

2.  Backseat Saints (e-book), by Joshilyn Jackson (Sequel Challenge)

3.  Heart Like Mine (e-book), by Amy Hatvany

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And that’s my week!  Come on by and let’s chat.