Where is Your Bookmark? (12/17/2013)

In just two weeks it will be the last day of the year.  Usually I am clamoring to finish my best of list and thinking of my goals for next year.  I confess I have only given passing thoughts to both, not quite ready to wrap anything up, much less start anew.  It'll come.  Just maybe not until the beginning of the new year.

I had pretty much given up on reading any of my "must read" books this year, when suddenly I was hit with the desire to dive into Cathy Marie Buchanan's The Day the Falls Stood Still, a historical fiction novel set in Niagara Falls.  And just as I finished that one, I knew I would be reading Saving CeeCee Honeycut by Beth Hoffman next.  Both are very different from my other most recent reads, and both books I have been longing to get to for quite some time.  

What are you reading right now?  Is it something you would recommend?

On another note, I took a spill last week; embarrassing really.  Mouse and I were gathering the packages from our front porch to bring in the house when I stepped wrong and sprained my right ankle, causing a small fracture, and banged up my left knee.  It was a few moments before I could work up enough courage to stand and walk into the house with Mouse.  As I lay there on the concrete, she gave my knee and ankle kisses.  Later when the doctor asked Mouse what happened, she gave a blow by blow account of the incident.  I don't think she's ever said so much in a regular voice (as opposed to super quiet) to a stranger before.  She was so very brave.

I have not been the best at staying off it like I should.  I never am.  I have experienced sprains in both ankles several times over, and so they are nothing new to me.  Just the same, they are never any fun, and are always inconvenient.  Luckily, my Christmas shopping is all done, so that's one less thing to worry about.

Which reminds me!  I participated in The Broke and the Bookish Secret Santa exchange again this year and you will never guess who my Secret Santa was!  Sarah aka Sawcat of Sawcat's Book Blog who lives just down the street from me!  Okay, so not right down the street, but at least in the same town.  We even frequent the same independent bookstore, The Cellar Door.

Her gifts to me included two books that have been on my wish list awhile, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan and Cinder by Melissa Meyer.  She also gave me two beautiful bookmarks.  I'm so very grateful to Sarah for the wonderful gifts!

Are you giving anyone books for the holidays?  Are there any you are hoping to receive?

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Every Tuesday Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea hosts 

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where  

participants share the first paragraph (or a few) of a 

book they are reading or thinking about reading soon.

I thought I'd share the start of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman today:

Momma left her red satin shoes in the middle of the road.  That's what three eyewitnesses told the police.  The first time I remember my mother wearing red shoes was on a snowy morning in December 1962, the year I was seven years old.  I walked into the kitchen and found her sitting at the table.  No lights were on, but in the think haze of dawn that pushed through the frostbitten window, I could see red high-heeled shoes peeking out from beneath the hem of her rob.  There was no breakfast waiting, and no freshly ironed school dress hanging on the basement doorknob.  Momma just sat and stared out the window with empty eyes, her hands limp in her lap, her coffee cold and untouched. 

Would you continue reading?

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© 2013, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.