On My Nightstand - Last Night at Chateau Marmont

Last Night at Chateau Marmont - By Laren Weisberger

On the back cover:

Brooke was drawn to the soulful, enigmatic Julian Alter the very first time she heard him perform “Hallelujah” at a dark East Village dive bar.

Now five years married, Brooke balances two jobs – as a nutritionist at NYU Hospital and as a consultant to an Upper East Side girl’s school, where privilege gone wrong and disordered eating run rampant – in order to help support her husband’s dream of making it in the music world.

Things are looking up when after years of playing Manhattan clubs and toiling as an A&R intern, Julian finally gets signed by Sony.  Although no one’s promising that the album will ever hit the airwaves, Julian is still dedicated to logging in long hours as the recording studio.  All that changes after Julian is asked to perform on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno – and is catapulted to stardom, literally overnight.  Amazing opportunities begin popping up almost daily – a new designer wardrobe, a tour with Maroon 5, even a Grammy performance.

At first the newfound fame is fun – who wouldn’t want to stay at the Chateau Marmont or visit the set of one of television’s hottest shows?  Yet it seems that Brooke’s sweet husband – the man who can’t handle hot showers and wears socks to bed – is increasingly absent, even on those are nights they’re home together.  When rumours about Brooke and Julian swirl in the tabloid magazines, she begins to question the truth of her marriage and is forced to finally come to terms with what she things she wants – and what she actually needs.

My thoughts:I liked this book.  It has been a while since I read a “chick-lit” book.  I like to read these every now and again to help break up some of the deeper / heavier reading I also do.

As much as I did like the book, I have to be honest, the main character, Brooke, bugged me.  I did not understand why she did not communicate with her husband as to how she was feeling too.

I am a huge believer in an equal partnership, that means working together to get the accomplishments, but also helping each other achieve their personal goals.  Maybe it is just me, but I would be telling my hubby exactly what I thought and felt along the way.

My rating: 3 out of 5.

On My Nightstand - Still Missing

Still Missing - By Chevy Stevens

On the back cover:

On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two-year-old Realtor, had three goals: Sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend.  The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she’s about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent captive in a remote mountain cabin – which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist – is a second narrative recounting the nightmare that follows her escape: her struggle to piece her shattered life back together, the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor, and the disturbing sense that things are far from over.

The truth doesn’t always set you free.

Still Missing is a shocking, visceral, brutal, and beautifully crafted debut novel about surviving the unsurvivable – and living to bear witness.

My thoughts:

Funny that this book would come out the same year Room by Emma Donaghue came out.  They are both based on a woman being kidnapped and held against her will.  There are a few other parallels but I don’t want to mention anything because it will give away too much.

I really liked this book; I think I liked it better than Room since it was written so differently.

Being told through therapy sessions and nothing else, we get to hear about Annie’s year in captivity and also about everything happening in current time as she is dealing with her new but shattered life.

I could not put this book down and it kept you wanting to read right up to the very last page.

My rating: 4 1/2 out of 5.

Tomato Candy

Tomato Candy definition: picking tomatoes from your garden and popping them in your mouth - small delicious and they taste like candy.

Look what I harvested this morning before work!  5 Cherry Tomatoes

By far this is the most exciting thing to come out of my garden!!

My thumb is feeling very green right now.

Little girl had 2, I had 2 and I brought the last one to a friend at work (we chat about gardening every single day).
Hubby and Little boy declined - leaves more for us.

Garden - 9 weeks

This past week we have had A LOT of rain.  And of course some of it came about 2 hours after I finished watering my garden on Sunday night. 

But now my rain barrel is full again.

Here is week 9 of my garden - I took the strawberry cage off for this picture - they have gone insane, shoots everywhere - with flowers - so we will be getting more strawberries soon.

My green beans are not very big - is this normal?  But my peas are doing wonderfully.

Saturday evening - we only had barely visible buds - now we have tons of flowers.

Look at my tomatoes - you can see the little red spots!  So excited to have my first one!!

One of the down sides to all that rain - but we were lucky - no hail in our neck of the woods.

This is my herb planter.  You might not be able to tell but the oregano has gone insane.

Rosemary - this was a decent size plant when I bought it and transplanted it - anyone need some - I have more than I can use right now.

Sarah - this picture is for you - the kids flower pots - about to start some blooming.

Sikome Lake Fun

If you live in Calgary, you have at least heard of Sikome Lake.

If you live in the deep south like we do, chances are you have been there before.

Hubby took the kids last Sunday morning.  I got to stay home, watch some PVRed TV and do some reading.

But they had a blast.

He did say, the trick is to go early when you have small children, you avoid the crowds and then you can leave before the super heat of the day.

I would highly recommend checking it out if you have not already done so.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

Garden Photos - Week 8

First I can't believe I had had the garden planted for 8 weeks already!!

Wow, where does time go?

So far I have been very lucky, the weather is co-operating with me.  We have now had 2 weeks of warm / hot weather.  I have been watering a lot since there is also no rain coming.

My cherry tomatoes are doing super great - in the picture below they are at the back corner, you can see how they are much taller than their cage, and you should see the flowers.

On one plant alone, I counted 20 flower bunches, that does not include the 6 bunches of already tomatoes.  If the weather continues to cooperate we are going to be eating lots of delicious tomatoes.

The one orange one I showed you a week ago, is now red and starting to soften up - we are probably only a few days away from eating that, and the other plants have orange tomatoes now too.

Peas - they are loving the heat - it seems like every day they grow a few inches while I am at work.  I can just see the buds of a few flowers.

Grape tomatoes are in pots on my deck - they too have done very well in the heat, all 4 plants have small tomatoes on them, and more and more flowers showing up daily.