Ginny Tata-Phillips's Blog, page 15
March 25, 2016
Honk if you Love Jesus Christ, Superstar!
…cuz sometimes you have already been as eloquent as you are gonna get on this day in the past!!!
I grew up in a rather non-traditional Catholic household, despite my years at St. Joan of Arc Catholic School (We are brave, we are bold, for all the whiskey that we hold, we’re the soldiers of St. Joan of Arc. RUN, RUN, RUN, I think I see a nun, and if she gets too near, say: ‘Sister, have a beer’, we’re the soldiers of St. Joan of Arc!)
We had our folk masses, Easter sunrise service at the beach. But what we had that few others experienced was the breaking of bread at our dinner table. A dear friend who was a Catholic priest used to say mass before dinner in our home. Way cool. Said priest is now married to an ex-nun and they are making every appearance at living happily ever after.
But I started this blog out with the thought of JC Superstar. While my parents’…
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Filed under: Easter, Family, Holidays!, JC Superstar, The Basset Plantation Tagged: faith, family, Good Friday, holidays, JC Superstar, love
March 23, 2016
Throwback Thursday
Yes, tis I, holding the hand of my cousin Peter, who I just saw at his mother’s funeral. My cousin Dori is holding my sister Amy, both of whom I just hugged. We said goodbye to my Aunt Doris. Celebrating her life, she brought us back together to laugh and cry and to remember her.
In DoG We Trust
Filed under: cousins, Family, Love, sisters, The Basset Plantation, Throwback Thursday Tagged: cousins, family, love, sisters, Throwback Thursday
March 22, 2016
Wordless Wednesday
Filed under: Basset Hounds, Blog Paws, Dogs, Pets, Wordless Wednesday Tagged: basset hounds, BlogPaws, dogs, pets, Wordless Wednesday
March 21, 2016
Do You Like Pina Coladas?
We pass into week #31 in a few days and my grandbump is like unto a pineapple, but much cuddlier, even already!
By the time she arrives, I will be ready for a pina colada (or 2)! I think I shall call her Carmen Miranda again this week.
In DoG We Trust
Filed under: babies, daughters, Family, grandparenting, humor, pregnancy, The Basset Plantation Tagged: babies, daughter, family, grandparenting, Humor, pregnancy
March 20, 2016
Book Review Perfectly Broken
THE BOOK
• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Story Plant (March 8, 2016)
His rock star days may be behind him, but stay-at-home dad Grant Kelly’s life is getting more interesting by the day. It’s the beginning of the post 9/11 era, and he and his wife and four-year-old son have traded a New York City apartment for a Catskills farmhouse, where ghosts from the past, worries for the future, and temptations in the present converge to bring about drastic changes in their marriage, their friendships, and their family.
A gorgeously nuanced novel with unforgettable characters, Perfectly Broken is a story of human frailty, the endurance of the heart, and the power and possibility of forgiveness.
PRAISE
“Robert Burke Warren’s sensory acumen and keen eye for detail – emotional and physical – make Perfectly Broken a wonderful ride. Fantastic, sharp dialogue and vivid characters, all in a distinctive, captivating voice. A stunning debut novel.” – Rosanne Cash, multi-Grammy winner, author of New York Times bestseller Composed
“Whether writing about music, parenthood, or life in the sticks, every page crackles with been-there-done-that verisimilitude. At turns funny and suspenseful, heartwarming and heartbreaking, Perfectly Broken hits all the right notes, covering fame and fortune, love and death, success and failure, and fatherhood and marriage. A triumphant debut.” – Greg Olear, author of Los Angeles Times bestseller Fathermucker
“Parenthood, adultery, love, lust, ambition, loss, friendships gone to seed, a marriage at the turn of this century in full tilt midlife madness, with rock and roll in the bones and on the soundtrack. Warren creates a sensory world so sharply observed, the experience of reading becomes visceral. It pulled me in and I didn’t want to let go.” — Beverly Donofrio, author, New York Times bestseller Riding in Cars With Boys
Purchase Links
Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
THE AUTHOR
Robert Burke Warren is a musician and writer whose work has appeared in Paste, Salon, The Bitter Southerner, The Good Men Project, The Rumpus, The Woodstock Times, Texas Music, Brooklyn Parent, Chronogram, The Weeklings, and the Da Capo anthology, The Show I’ll Never Forget. He lives in the Catskill Mountains with his family. This is his first novel.
Find out more about Robert at his blog and connect with him on Facebook.
MY REVIEW
Sex and drugs and rock and roll…….and a stay at home Dad? Yep – that is PERFECTLY BROKEN (‘nothing to repair’ is the next line in the song – you will read about it)! So believable is this book, I had to keep reminding myself that it was a novel, not a memoir. So very well written is this book that it is hard to believe it is a debut novel for Robert Burke Warren.
My absolute favorite scene involves Grant Kelly’s first encounter with a Bald Eagle. A similar avian profile of a vulture shadows another intense scene. This is much more an eagle and vulture kind of book than a puppy and kitten one. I have now read 2 relatively dark and intense books for TLC this year – I think I get a light romance next!
I also have to say that I LOVE the fact that Grant’s mother makes 20k on a book she sells on ‘the E-Bay’. I love that he mentions a Murder of Crows toward the end of the book. Little gems among the angst-filled story line will remain with me long after I close this book for the final time.
This book is well worth your time to read and here is hoping for more tales from the talented Robert Burke Warren.
ENJOY THE REST OF THE TOUR!
Tuesday, March 8th: Vox Libris
Wednesday, March 9th: Becklist
Thursday, March 10th: I’m Shelf-ish
Monday, March 14th: Worth Getting in Bed For
Tuesday, March 15th: Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews
Thursday, March 17th: she treads softly
Friday, March 18th: Art @ Home
Monday, March 21st: Gspotsylvania: Ramblings from a Reading Writer Who Rescues Birds and Beasts
Tuesday, March 22nd: Jenn’s Bookshelves
Wednesday, March 23rd: An Unconventional Librarian
Thursday, March 24th: The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness
Monday, March 28th: Everyday I Write the Book
Tuesday, March 29th: From the TBR Pile
Wednesday, March 30th: The Book Chick
Thursday, March 31st: Chaos is a Friend of Mine
Monday, April 4th: bookchickdi
TBD: BoundbyWords
Filed under: Authors, book review, Books, fiction, reading, TLC Book Tours, writing Tagged: book review, Books, fiction, Perfectly Broken, reading, Robert Burke Warren, TLC Book Tours, writing
March 19, 2016
Doris Margentino
We lost my Aunt Doris this morning. She is the one on the right in the bottom picture. My mother is the blonde on the stairs. They were 17 years apart in age and my mother was Aunt and Godmother to her daughter, Dori.
So many memories of summers in Connecticut visiting the Margentino home. So many recipes in my family cookbook that came from Aunt Doris. Such a huge hole in my heart at her loss.
She is reunited with my crazy Uncle Butch, her husband; my Grandma and Grandpa Hanson, her parents; her sister Gina, for whom I am named; her son Bobby and her daughter Linda who both pre-deceased her.
I remember Aunt Doris at my Grandmother’s funeral luncheon, warning me that if I made her laugh any more, she would pee her pants. Making Aunt Doris laugh was lots of fun, consequences be damned.
Heaven has gained another angel. We should all rejoice that she is at peace. But just for a little while, ok, maybe for a long while, the tears flow and the grief overwhelms.
Filed under: Family, grief, Love Tagged: angels, family, grief, love
March 17, 2016
Throwback Thursday
Some pictures are so nice
you gotta use them twice!
Throwback picture in spring
When Gigi was a little thing!
(well, she still is little, but she is a coupla years older!!!)
In DoG We Trust
Filed under: bad poetry, Dogs, Pets, The Basset Plantation, Throwback Thursday Tagged: dogs, flowers, pets, poetry, Spotsylvania, spring, Throwback Thursday
March 16, 2016
Wordless Wednesday
Filed under: Basset Hounds, Blog Paws, Dogs, Pets, The Basset Plantation, Wordless Wednesday Tagged: basset hounds, BlogPaws, dogs, pets, Wordless Wednesday
March 15, 2016
March 13, 2016
How Apropos
Your baby is the size of a large cabbage. She has cycles of sleeping and waking. After 30 to 90 minutes of snoozing, she may give you a kick to let you know she’s awake.
Baby’s Length: 15.71 in.
Baby’s Weight: 2.91 lbs.
St Patrick’s Day week and my grandbump is the size of a leprechaun? A corned beef sammich? NO – a cabbage!!!
O’Basset Hound
And I shall call her Baby O’Bright…at least for this week!!!!
In DoG We Trust
Filed under: babies, daughters, Family, grandparenting, humor, pregnancy, St. Patrick's Day, The Basset Plantation Tagged: babies, daughters, family, grandparenting, Humor, pregnancy, St. Patrick's Day
