My First Sunday Salon

In addition to being Easter Sunday, today marks my first Sunday Salon post. The Sunday Salon was the first weekly blogging event I became aware of, yet I was hesitant to join in . There would never be something to write about each week, plus I certainly wouldn't be blogging on Sunday! My plan was simply to write about the books I was reading...maybe twice a week.

Well, plans change. My blogging now includes participation in a couple weekly events (Short Story Monday and Booking Through Thursday),and I have discovered challenges. The Sunday Salon seems like a perfect way to wrap up my week of reading, keep track of challenges, and plan for the week ahead.

Most of this week was spent getting ready for Easter. In addition to activities at church, there was shopping, cooking and baking to be done. Daughter #1 needed a ride home from college, so much of Friday was spent in the car. I did finish The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister on audio, a short story for tomorrow's Short Story Monday, and finally got back to The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever. My review of Therese Raquin by Emile Zola for The Classics Challenge was also completed.

It's spring break for the local schools this week. The twins will be home, so my reading plans are modest. I'd like to finish The Wapshot Chronicle, read at least one short story, and start The Help by Kathryn Stockett on audio.

One last Easter surprised to share...Carrie at Books and Movies gave me the Proximaded Award.

“This blog invests and believes in the Proximity - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!”


Thank you so much, Carrie, for this lovely Easter gift! I, in turn, will pass this award on to the blogs I have most recently begun to follow:

• Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea
• Zetor at MOG'S Blog
• Dawn at She is Too Fond of Books
• Tara at Books and Cooks

I hope you all have a Happy Easter and happy reading for the week ahead.

Booking Through Thursday - Numbers Game

Today's Booking Through Thursday question:

For something different, I’m borrowing a question from … here! One of the very first questions ever at Booking Through Thursday. Back from 2005 when Laura owned the blog but, because it was so new, it didn’t get as many responses as it does now … so, why not revisit?

Here’s the question:
Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…
1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
3. Is this normal for you?
4. Where do you keep your current reads?


Right now, I only have one book with an 'active' bookmark.
There are a couple others on my nightstand with bookmarks in them, but if they haven't been touched in a couple weeks, I no longer consider them active reads. There is also a short story collection I've been dipping into.

This isn't my usual habit. I normally have a few books in progress: one fiction, another that is usually non-fiction, plus a short story collection, and an audio book for the car. Yesterday, however, I returned my non-fiction selections to the library and finished an audio book.

Of my active reads, one tends to 'win out'. The winner is the book I'll take along in my bag to read during down time. The second book stays home, either on the nightstand or on the table next to my 'reading chair'. I pick that one up when I need a breather from the main read. The short story collection is on the bookshelf in the family room and the audio book stays in the car.

Visit today's Booking Through Thursday to play along or just to read more responses.

Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

Therese Raquin

by Emile Zola

Penguin Classics, 2004

194 pages

translated from French by Robin Buss

(originally published in 1867)

From the back cover:

"In a dingy apartment on the Passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, Therese Raquin is trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille. The numbing tedium of her life is suddenly shattered when she embarks on a turbulent affair with her husband's earthy friend Laurent, but their animal passion for each other soon compels the lovers to commit a crime that will haunt them forever....Zola's novel is not only an uninhibited portrayal of adultery, madness and ghostly revenge, but also a devastating exploration of the darkest aspects of human existence."

My Thoughts:

I loved this book! Emile Zola is an author I have been meaning to read for years, and I'm glad that my reading challenges provided the motivation to finally pick up one of his books.

Two things that stood out for me in Therese Raquin were Zola's descriptive passages and the psychological development of the characters. From the very beginning, Therese Raquin is teeming with atmosphere. The Parisian street that houses Mme Raquin's shop is brought to life. The reader actually feels the weight of its oppression upon Therese:

"Therese, living in this dank darkness, in this dreary depressing silence, would see life stretching in front of her quite empty, bringing her each evening to the same cold bed and each morning to the same featureless day." (pg.22)

Zola's description of the morgue and the bodies housed within is positively gruesome:

"Often the flesh was peeling off their faces in shreds, the bones had broken through the drenched skin and the face seemed to have been boiled and boned." (pg. 71-72)

The psychological development of the characters is stunning. We see them begin to change as the affair progresses. For Laurent, "a new corner of his unconscious being has come to light. In the passion of adultery, he had begun to dream about killing." (pg.50)

After the crime is committed, the novel becomes even more focused on the psychological state of the characters. Therese"became aware of goodness and gentleness..., and she knew that she could not kill her husband and be happy. As a result, she could no longer clearly see inside herself and she lived in a state of cruel uncertainty." (pg.83)

We are taken on a on a journey with Therese and Laurent through rationalization, denial, guilt and, possibly, remorse and acceptance. The couple becomes nearly mad from sleep-deprivation, as they are haunted by the dead man's ghost. Zola even treats us to the thoughts of Camille's mother, Mme Raquin, who has been rendered mute by a stroke! The psychological drama ends with a very startling conclusion.

Therese Raquin is a book I can heartily recommend to just about anyone. It would also be a good choice for a book club looking for an accessible, exciting, and short classic. I will definitely be reading more Zola and would welcome any recommendations.

My rating: 4.5/5

Teaser Tuesdays - April 7

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!

My Teaser:
"Classics [clothing] are universally flattering to everyone at any age. They will never be wrong or inappropriate. Spend money on them, and they'll serve you well for years. Add your personal style or current trend in color, line, pattern, texture, and accents that flatter you. That's the key to looking current and attractive, always."



Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45
by Christopher Hopkins




OK...I know this isn't a typical teaser, but at my last book club meeting, we veered a little off topic (surprise, surprise!) and started talking about this book. A couple member were reading it and, since I've past 45, I decided to investigate. So far, he's made some good points and has photos to back them up...always a plus!

See more of today's teasers and play along here.

Two Short Stories for Monday

There hasn't been time to read since returning from Puerto Rico, but I did take along The Norton Book of American Short Stories to keep me occupied during Twin A's cello lesson Saturday afternoon. With no story idea in mind, I just let the book fall open.

James Thurber got me with the first sentence of his very short story The Unicorn in the Garden:

"Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a gold horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden."

The image this conjures up brought an instant smile to my face. It turned into outright laughter when he ran upstairs to share the news with his wife:

"You are a booby," she said, "and I am going to have you put in the booby hatch."

The wife's plan backfires and Thurber leaves us with a comical moral to this short fable. You can read it here.

There was plenty of time for another story, so I chose Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing. This author was totally unknown to me, but the title caught my attention. From the first line, it was obvious that the tone of this story would be very different from the one I had just read:

"I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron."

Olsen (1913 - 2007) was born to Russian Jewish immigrants and spent her childhood in Nebraska before dropping out of school at fifteen to enter the workforce. She joined the American Communist Party and was associated with the political turmoil of the 1930's. She was also one of the first American writers to make the labor and struggles of everyday people the subject of tragedy. Olsen understood how women's voices were oppressed by conditions of time, space , and resources. She was part of the first generation of American feminists.

A woman, as she is ironing, is approached by a therapist or counselor (imaginary?) and begins to ruminate on the choices she made (or was forced to make) during her eldest daughter's childhood.

"You think because I am her mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key? She has lived nineteen years. There's all that life that has happened outside of me, beyond me."

"And when is there time to remember, to sift, to weigh, to estimate, to total? I will start and there will be an interruption and I will have to gather it all together again. Or I will become engulfed with all I did or did not do, what should have been and what cannot be helped."

This story, published in 1961, was part of Olsen's first collection of short stories, Tell Me a Riddle. The volume contains four stories mostly linked through characters of a single family, with three stories told from a mother's point of view. I will be looking for it on my next trip to the library.

Visit The Book Mine Set to see who else is talking about short stories this week. Why not join in as long as you're there?

Weekend Wrap-up

Time for a wrap-up to this busy week...

Puerto Rico was wonderful! It's been years since I've felt that relaxed. This was an absolutely agenda-less vacation. While R was at his conference, my biggest decision was whether to read by the pool or at the beach! The conference was done by 1 PM, so we got to have lunch together and enjoy the afternoon. That usually included a pina colada (my official 'umbrella drink' of the trip) poolside. Since Puerto Rico is home to Bacardi, I figured this would be the most appropriate choice! After two full days of relaxing, R was ready to venture out. Tuesday we explored Old San Juan and visited the fortress El Morro. By Wednesday it was time to return to reality and head home.

I ended up reading The Shack for my book club meeting later this month, got through a pile of New Yorker magazines, and an issue of The Atlantic. My copy of The Wapshot Chronicle is in a hardcover collection of John Cheever's novels, so I ended up leaving it at home. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to open a book since we got back.

Yesterday, I attended the funeral of a high school classmate who died of pancreatic cancer. Although I only saw him once or twice a year, we had been friends since the second grade. As I've gotten older, the bond with these old friends has become more precious (as we are turning 50, how many people can say they've known you for almost 45 years?). It was a very sad day.

Today emotions are at the other end of the spectrum. We are celebrating our twin daughters' sixteenth birthday! The family is all coming for dinner...I'm off to bake the cake and make lasagna. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Spring at last...and two awards!

Returning home from a vacation, no matter how short, is never an easy task. This time, however, a few very welcome surprises made the transition back to reality a little less difficult. We flew home from Puerto Rico Wednesday night to find the ice had gone off the lake...a sure sign that spring has finally arrived in central New York. It's so nice to see the sun sparkling on the water and to hear the ripple of the waves again!

The next surprise came Thursday morning when I turned on the computer and found Molly, from My Cozy Book Nook, had given me the very special Blog Friends Award.

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."


This award just made my day! I knew I liked Molly from the first time I read her blog, and have since come to consider her a friend. We seem to be at similar stages in life and I admire her for embarking on a new career as her children have grown. In addition to a love of books and reading, we also share a love of dogs and a tendency to get singularly focused on our interests (cooking, crafting, etc.). It brings a smile to my face to know that she considers me a blog friend, too.

Later Thursday evening, in an effort to catch up with my favorite blogs, I visited Dolce Bellezza and discovered I had been given the Sisterhood Award! Bellezza's was one of the first blogs I
stumbled upon and was instantly drawn to the inviting trattoria photo on her header (which, incidentally, has made a reappearance during my absence). When I took the plunge and started my own blog five months ago, Bellezza became my first follower. In addition to books, we share a love of being near the water, the trials of parenting teenagers, and an inability to walk normally in high heels! The Sisterhood Award allows me to nominate up to ten bloggers I consider sisters in the blogging community.


The fact that both of these awards focus on friendship and community make them all the more special to me. I am not a writer, a reviewer, or even an English major (my background is in clinical pharmacy), but I do love to read and talk about books (and life) with new friends I've made through blogging. So, thank you again Molly and Bellezza. I will bundle these two awards together and pass them on to:

• Darlene at Roses Over A Cottage Door
• Lisa at Booknotes by Lisa
• BookPsmith
• Lezlie at Books 'N Border Collies
• Nan at Letters from a Hill Farm

These are bloggers I visit often and now consider friends.