Month: January 2014

The Painted Table by Suzanne Field

Suzanne Field Thomas Nelson The Painted Table
This book made me feel so many different emotions that I am not even sure what to write for the review. This book takes you in so many different directions and makes you feel so many different things that it was at times hard to read but at the same time I didn’t want to put the book down. I was amazed that the author could make me feel the way I did at times. The story never once got boring or made me want to stop reading. This is an amazing story for someone who has or knows people who have a mental illness.

The Painted Table Cover

About The Book

A beautiful heirloom ingrained with family memory has become a totem of a life Saffee would rather forget—a childhood disrupted by her mother’s mental illness.
Saffee does not want the table. By the time she inherits the object of her mother’s obsession, the surface is thick with haphazard layers of paint, and heavy with unsettling memories.

After a childhood spent watching her mother slide steadily into insanity, painting and re-painting the ancient table, Saffee has come to fear that seeds of psychosis may lie dormant within her. But as an adult with a family of her own, Saffee must confront her mother’s torment if she wants to defend herself against it.

Traversing four generations over the course of a century, The Painted Table is an epic portrait of inherited memory, proclivity, and guilt. It is a sprawling narrative affirmation that a family artifact—like a family member—can bear the marks of one’s entire past . . . as well as intimations of one’s

SField-215

About The Author

Suzanne Field, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, has taught English as a Second Language in China, Ukraine, and Hawaii. She has also been a magazine editor and home-school teacher. She and her husband have five children and divide their time between Kansas and Hawaii where she is a tutor and mentor.

Learn more about Suzanne at:https://www.facebook.com/SuzanneFieldThePaintedTable

Buy A Copy

FTC3

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Can’t Hold Us-Musical Monday

music copy

I have another Musical Monday post for you today because lately I have loved listening to music on the way home from work.  It seems like I have more time that usual as well because of all the traffic because of the horrible weather we are having.  Anyway this song is Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.  I pretty much love the CD that this song is on but I find that I am just putting this song on repeat while I am driving home because it makes me want to dance.  It also makes me forget that I am stuck in traffic.

Do you like this song?  What songs and/or music are you loving now?

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Carolina Gold by Dorothy Love

Dorothy Love Carolina Gold
I loved that the main character in this book was a women and that she was fighting through the whole book to prove to men that she could do everything they were doing. I loved how no matter how bad things got she kept on fighting and trying to find a way to make things work and not lose her land. This is the first book I have read that takes place right after the Civil War ends and I was almost shocked at how people acted after it all ended. I love how it all worked out in the end even though it wasn’t the way she thought it was going to work out.

Carolina Gold

About The Book

The war is over, but her struggle is just beginning.

Charlotte Fraser returns to her late father’s once-flourishing rice plantation on the Waccamaw River, determined to continue growing the special kind of rice known as Carolina Gold. But Fairhaven Plantation is in ruins, the bondsmen are free, and money is scarce.

To make ends meet, Charlotte reluctantly accepts a position as tutor to the young daughters of Nicholas Betancourt, heir to the neighboring Willowood Plantation. Then Nick’s quest to prove his ownership of Willowood sends Charlotte on a dangerous journey that reveals an old family mystery—and threatens all that she holds dear.

Inspired by the life of a 19th century woman rice planter,Carolina Gold continues Dorothy Love’s winning tradition of weaving together mystery, romance, and rich historical detail, bringing to life the story of one young woman’s struggle to restore her ruined world.

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About The Author

A former journalist, free-lance writer and college professor, Dorothy Love explores the intersection of history and human relationships to create novels that speak to the hearts of women everywhere. She is the author of the acclaimed Hickory Ridge novels set in her native state of Tennessee.

After earning a masters degree and Ph.D, she authored dozens of magazine articles before breaking into book publishing with a number of award-winning novels for preteens and young adults. The Hickory Ridge series marked her adult fiction debut. Currently she is working on several stand-alone historical novels set in the South.

When she isn’t busy writing or researching her next book, Love enjoys hiking, traveling, and hanging out with her husband Ron and their rambunctious golden retriever. The Loves make their home in the Texas hill country.

To keep up with Dorothy Love, visithttp://www.dorothylovebooks.com, become a fan on Facebook(Dorothy Love Books) or follow her on Twitter(@writerDorothy).

Buy A Copy

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

8 Things People Forgot

8 Things

This week for the writers workshop I am going to write about number 3 which is: list 8 things you think people forgot how to do.  I loved this prompt because there are a few things that I think people have forgotten how to do.  I always find myself asking out loud to really no one how hard would it be to do this that or another thing depending on the situation so this post was a fun one to write and a change from the normal posts I write.

Anyway now on to 8 things people forgot how to do.

  1. They have forgotten how to use the blinker.  You would think it was an optional feature on vehicles because people rarely use them anymore.  I love when people get pissed off that I wouldn’t let them but they didn’t use a blinker because if they had I almost always let people over.
  2. People forgetting that they need to stop at red lights or even start slowing down when the light turns yellow.  I have to be honest there are times when I speed up when the light turns yellow but I am trying to break myself of that habit.
  3. People have forgotten how to move out of the fast lane when they are driving slower than the speed limit.
  4. People have forgotten how to say “Thank You” when people do something for you.  They also don’t say “excuse me” when they want to get past you in a store or any other place.
  5. Some parents have forgotten how to teach their children respect for authority & just respect in general.
  6. People have forgotten the saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say than don’t say anything at all”.
  7. Some people have forgotten that you need to work for things and that not everything is handed to you.
  8. People have forgotten how to respect other people’s belongings.  I am amazed at how people don’t care about other people’s things anymore.

Those are 8 things that I think people have forgotten. What do you think people have forgotten?

If you want to be apart of the writers workshop you can click here and find out all about it!  I also have included this weeks prompts at the end of this post.

Mama’s Losin’ It

1.) Find a photo of yourself taken 10 years ago and display it on your blog along with a current photo. How have you changed since the day that photo was taken?
2.) Write a blog post inspired by the word: dog house.
3.) List 8 things you think people forgot how to do.
4.) A childhood toy you once loved.
5.) Show us what winter looks like in your neck of the woods!

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Best Thinking. . .

Best Thinking

I got the idea for this post from the blog Daily Post and the topic is:

When and where do you do your best thinking? In the bathroom? While running? Just before bed, or first thing in the morning? On the bus? Why do you think that is?

I chose this prompt because everyone has different places where they do their best thinking and I think it would be fun to find out where other people feel that they do their best thinking.  I have to be honest this post took me awhile to write because I wasn’t really sure where I did my best thinking until I stopped and really thought about it.

After thinking about it I came to see that I do my best thinking at night when I am should be sleeping which is probably one of the many reasons that I can’t sleep.  The minute I lay down my head starts going and I always get such great ideas for blog posts or other things I want/need to do.

I also find that for some reason I write the best blog posts while I am on my lunch break at work.  I am sure that is because my brain is already in work mode so it is easy to switch from doing work and writing a blog post pretty easily.  I am also lucky that my job doesn’t mind that  I blog as long as all my work is done.

So that is when I do my best thinking.  When and where do you do your best thinking?

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret