Where Is My Bookmark? (05/20/2014)

My recent reading has taken me to New York's Grand Central Station where I spent time with my old friends deputy district attorney Alexandra Cooper and Detectives Mercer and Chapman in Terminal City by Linda Fairstein.  Before that I was glued to Claire Kendal's The Book of You, which had me wondering if I would survive the attentions of a stalker.  I confess I haven't made much more progress in Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, and, after beginning The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, I realized my attention span, which is that of a gnat right now, is much more in line with something of the brain candy variety.  And so the romantic The Millionaire Affair by Jessica Lemmon it is.  

What are you reading at the moment?  Is it something you would recommend?

Why is my brain so addled, you ask? May has proven to be a good month for stress. Some of it good, some not so good. A little of what has been going on in my life lately:

The good is that we have a new (used) car. Well, my husband does. His car served us well for 15 years, but its time had finally come. Car researching and shopping is not a favorite past-time, let me tell you. We're not looking forward to having to make car payments again, but such is the way of the world.

On a mixed note, I have had ongoing health issues the last several months, and finally there seems to be some resolution in sight, although it may involve major surgery. There by again the internet and I have been spending a lot of research time together as I try to parse the good information from the bad, as I figure out the best questions to ask the doctor.

On a much sadder side, my cousin lost her husband to cancer this past weekend. My cousin has been a rock through it all.  She has to be as they have two daughters.  My heart is breaking for her and the girls.  My complaints and stressors seem so small in comparison.

My hope is that you all are having a good week so far, and are finding yourself lost in a good book.

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 adored Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, and so am excited to finally be reading The Moonstone.  Here's a taste of the first paragraph:

THE STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM (1799)

Extracted from a Family Paper

I address these lines--written in India--to my relatives in England.

My object is to explain the motive which has induced me to refuse the right hand of friendship to my cousin, John Herncastle.  The reserve which I have hitherto maintained in theis matter has been misinterpreted by members of my family whose good opinion I cannot consent to forfeit.  I request them to suspend their decision until they have read my narrative.  And I declare, on my word of honour, that what I am not about to write is strictly, and literally, the truth. 

A now a sample from the beginning of my other current read, The Millionaire Affair by Jessica Lemmon:

Landon Downey clutched the baby name book From Abba to Zed to his chest and knocked on his girlfriend's dorm room door.  While he was certain he didn't want to name their child Abba or Zed, he was also certain he couldn't show up empty-handed.  Not after the ugly way they'd parted last week.  He should have shown up with something nicer than a book with a bent corner and a bouquet of half-dead flowers, but the twenty-four-hour convenience store on campus hadn't offered many options. 

 Would you continue reading?

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