Sandra Nachlinger's Blog, page 32

An Unholy Alliance - First Chapter/First Paragraph and Teaser Tuesday

        When I discovered that An Unholy Alliance takes place in Oregon's wine country - an area I've visited more than once - I wanted to read it. And when I learned that the main character is in her fifties, I was sold! So many of the book's settings were familiar to me, described beautifully by author Judy Nedry. The mystery kept me turning pages (well... clicking on my Kindle), and the well-developed characters (who have problems of their own) kept me interested in the plot's outcome. It was fun to learn more about vineyards and the wine-making industry too.
      An Unholy Alliance is the first book in the Emma Golden Mysteries series. The second book The Difficult Sister takes two fifty-something women on a road trip down the Oregon coast. I can't wait to read that one too!

First Paragraph:
Prologue
Friday Night
He waited in the half light a little drunk, a little floaty, but with that constant edge of irritation that had grown so much worse in the past couple years that he couldn't remember when he'd last been rid of it. Surely only during sleep, which was troubled now on the best of nights.

Teaser (from 59% on my Kindle):
For alcohol, we are told, is a subtle foe - all good times and laughter until the day it quits working and fun is no longer part of the equation. It is replaced by terror and self-loathing so great that only a drink or a drug will quiet the screaming in your brain. On that day you learn that one drink is too many and a thousand are not enough.

Genre: Mystery
Length: 336 Pages
Amazon Link: An Unholy Alliance
Author Website: Judy Nedry

Synopsis from Goodreads:
     Like many women in their fifties, Emma Golden feels invisible. She lives quietly in her Portland, Oregon bungalow and minds her own business. But her tranquil life is about to change. She is asked to return to the rolling hills of her former wine country home south of the city to supervise a friend's bed and breakfast inn near Dundee. Emma arrives at the Westerly Inn during grape harvest. She is under contract to write a book about Oregon wineries, and it's business as usual until she discovers one of her subjects dead in a wine vat-murdered at his own dinner party.
     Cougar Crossing Winery owner Ted Maxell was a ruthless and dishonest newcomer to the northern Willamette Valley wine scene. Many people wanted him gone-including his son, many local winegrowers, and even Emma's ex-husband, Dwight. Then Maxell's daughter, Tiffany, calls Emma and begs for assistance. "I know who killed my father," she wails. When Emma answers Tiffany's cry for help, she finds herself drawn into the search for a murderer or murderers with secrets worth killing for.


Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!
Link at  ADailyRhythm.com





First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.


Link at  BibliophileByTheSea

Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet- Saturday Snapshots

Are you feeling fancy? Then you'd enjoy "Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet." Recently my daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and I attended the Evergreen City Ballet's performance of this delightful ballet at the Meydenbauer Theater in Bellevue, WA. We had such a great time! 

Fancy Nancy is the main character in a series of books written by Jane O'Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. The stories are geared to girls aged four to eight (my granddaughter is almost four years old). I have only read a couple of the books, but I like the way the author introduces unusual words in her text. For example: "My favorite color is fuchsia. That's a fancy way of saying purple." In this story, Nancy and her best friend Bree vie for the coveted role of mermaid in the ballet. When Bree wins the role, Nancy must learn how to handle her disappointment.  

Photos were not allowed during the performance and I was hesitant to take pictures of other children, but I did get a few of my granddaughter to share.

Here's the program from the ballet. Do you think my granddaughter was excited? All the attendees dressed in fancy clothes,
from their heads to their toes. I can dance too, Grandma!Here's the link to the Fancy Nancy book that inspired this ballet:  Amazon
By the way, Disney will be making a Fancy Nancy movie and has a TV series in the works too.
Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, click HERE or on the box below. 
To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

Easter - 1950s Style - Saturday Snapshots

Back in the days of black-and-white photos my dad loved to take pictures with his Kodak Brownie camera. Here are some he captured at Easter time over the years. 


Eat. Eggs. NOW.
My brother, mom, and me at an
Easter egg hunt (Dallas, TX) White anklets, patent leather shoes, bowtie.
Yep, that's the Fifties, all right! How 'bout that TV and those curtains? Fancy hats, Easter purses, and
dig that crazy jacket! Giant Mutant Bunnies!
I'm surprised  we didn't run screaming 
from these creepy critters. I'm not so sure this is a good ideaI hope these pictures brought back good memories for you or at least gave you a smile. Happy Easter!
Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, click HERE or on the box below. 
To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

The Rosie Project - First Chapter / First Paragraph and Teaser Tuesday

I've been removing books from my Kindle that I probably won't reread and leaving those that I enjoyed enough to read again. The Rosie Project gets to stay. It's a fascinating look inside the mind of a man who has Asperger syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder), told with humor, warmth, and great insight as he searches for a wife. If you like Sheldon Cooper from "The Big Bang Theory" (but with more heart), you'll like Don Tillman from The Rosie Project even more.

First Paragraphs:
I may have found a solution to the Wife Problem. As with so many scientific breakthroughs, the answer was obvious in retrospect. But had it not been for a series of unscheduled events, it is unlikely I would have discovered it.
      The sequence was initiated by Gene's insisting I give a lecture on Asperger's syndrome that he had previously agreed to deliver himself. The timing was extremely annoying. The preparation could be time-shared with lunch consumption, but on the designated evening I had scheduled ninety-four minutes to clean my bathroom. I was faced with a choice of three options, none of them satisfactory.

Teaser Tuesday excerpt (at 6% on my Kindle) - (Don decides how to screen women who he might possibly want for a wife.)
A questionnaire! Such an obvious solution. A purpose-built, scientifically valid instrument incorporating current best practice to filter out the time wasters, the disorganized, the ice-cream discriminators, the visual-harrassment complainers, the crystal gazers, the horoscope readers, the fashion obsessives, the religious fanatics, the vegans, the sports watchers, the creationists, the smokers, the scientifically illiterate, the homeopaths, leaving, ideally, the perfect partner or, realistically, a manageable short list of candidates.

Genre: Humor & Satire
Book Length: 305 Pages
Amazon Link: The Rosie Project
Sequel: The Rosie Effect

Synopsis:
      An international sensation, this hilarious, feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love.
      Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.
      Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.
      The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.


Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!
Link at ADailyRhythm.com






First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.
Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Columbia Winery - Saturday Snapshots

On a cool, drizzly March day my husband and I drove to Woodinville, WA, to visit the Columbia Winery. We've been there many times - we have a wine club membership and receive "releases" every three months - but on this Wednesday afternoon the place was almost deserted. Although we enjoyed our visit, the grounds are much prettier in summertime when everything's in bloom and the sun is shining. (Click on photos to enlarge.)



A grapevine as art. The sign is enlarged below.
The tasting room was empty! No one stood on the porches or lounged at the tables, 
sipping wine.I'm looking forward to returning to the Columbia Winery in three months to pick up the next batch of wine releases. We'll try to choose a sunny day when flowers fill the beds. Until then, I guess we'll have to make our own sunshine and drink the wine we just picked up!




Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, click HERE or on the box below. 
To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

Gracianna - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

I have barely started reading Gracianna by Trini Amador, but I think I'm going to enjoy this story. It takes place in Paris in the early 1940s as the Germans are occupying France. 

Book Beginning (Prologue):
     Odds are I was the only four-year-old to have ever freely fumbled a loaded German Luger.
     I was barely able to lift it. How could I know it was a real gun?

The Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle). I haven't reached this point in the story.
He could never tell Gracianna how badly she had been beaten.Just like that, Constance was going to be "s'en va [going away]," the term used for the many who were sent to the camps.

Genre: Family Saga / Historical Fiction 
   Length: 301 Pages
   Amazon Link: Gracianna

Synopsis from Goodreads:
     The gripping story of Gracianna--a French-Basque girl forced to make impossible decisions after being recruited into the French Resistance in Nazi-occupied Paris.
     Gracianna is inspired by true events in the life of Trini Amador's great-grandmother, Gracianna Lasaga. As an adult, Amador was haunted by the vivid memory of finding a loaded German Luger tucked away in a nightstand while wandering his great-grandmother's home in Southern California. He was only four years old at the time, but the memory remained and he knew he had to explore the story behind the gun.
     Decades later, Amador would delve into the remarkable odyssey of his Gracianna's past, a road that led him to an incredible surprise. In Gracianna, Amador weaves fact and fiction to tell his great-grandmother's story.
     Gracianna bravely sets off to Paris in the early 1940s--on her way to America, she hopes--but is soon swept into the escalation of the war and the Nazi occupation of Paris. After chilling life-and-death struggles, she discovers that her missing sister has surfaced as a laborer in Auschwitz. When she finds an opportunity to fight back against the Nazis to try to free her sister, she takes it--even if it means using lethal force.
     As Amador tells the imagined story of how his great-grandmother risked it all, he delivers richly drawn characters and a heart-wrenching page-turner that readers won't soon forget. 

                 

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads)

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations, Suzie Quint! You're the winner of an ebook copy of Devious by Mark Love.

Thanks to everyone who entered. For those of you who didn't win, Devious and the other two books in the Jamie Richmond mystery series are available in ebook and paperback formats from:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks (ebook only)
Smashwords (ebook only)

Devious - Teaser Tuesday and First Paragraph /First Chapter

     Who's really behind the shooting of Officer Kleinschmidt? Author Jamie Richmond, riding along in the patrol car as an observer when "Smitty" is shot, is determined to find out. 
     If you like mysteries with strong female characters, humor and romance, then you'll enjoy Devious by Mark Love as much as I did.
* * *What's your favorite romantic movie made after 1980?
Answer that question in your comment for a chance to
win an ebook copy of DEVIOUS (and be sure to include your email address so we can contact you.)

First Paragraph (Prologue):
I can't believe I'm standing here with a gun in my hand. And it's pointed at his chest. My heart's pounding in such a pronounced manner you would think I just ran five miles. But there's anger mixed with the adrenalin coursing through my system.

Teaser (from 20% on my Kindle) (I love this description!)
As I parked beside the gate, the meanest dog I've ever seen greeted me. It was one part Doberman, one part German shepherd, ten parts ugly. In case the dog was as smart as he was ugly, I locked my door and stayed inside. 

Genre:  Mystery / Romantic Suspense
Book Length: 211 Pages
Amazon Link:  Devious (Book 1 of the 3-book Jamie Richmond Mysteries)
More About The Author: Mark Love's Amazon Author Page

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Jamie Richmond, reporter turned author, is doing research for her next book. Attempting to capture the realism of a police officer’s duties while on patrol, she manages to tag along for a shift with a state police trooper. A few traffic stops and a high speed chase later, Jamie’s ride takes an unexpected turn when she witnesses the trooper being shot. Although it is not a fatal injury, Jamie becomes obsessed with unraveling the facts behind this violent act. While she is trying to sort out this puzzle, she becomes romantically involved with Malone, another trooper with a few mysteries of his own. Now Jamie’s attention is divided between a blooming romance and solving the crime which is haunting her. Jamie begins to question the events that took place and exactly who could be behind the shooting. It was a devious mind. But who?

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!
Link at  ADailyRhythm.com





First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.
Link at  BibliophileByTheSea

Saturday Snapshots - The Sound of Music and Salzburg

Diane Sawyer's recent TV special "The Untold Story of the Sound of Music" reminded me of the Sound of Music tour my daughter-in-law and I took when we visited Salzburg. Yes, it was schmaltzy (our husbands declined to participate), but what a great time we had! So I searched through my photos from 2007 and pasted some of them below.
It's hard for me to believe that movie was made FIFTY years ago!


Leopoldskron Castle was used for exterior shots of the VonTrapp's home
In one scene the children fell into Leopoldskron Lake while canoeing.

Here's the "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" gazebo

Mondsee Cathedral where Maria and Captain VonTrapp married
The Salzburg graveyard where the VonTrapps hid from the Nazis
View of Salzburg from Hohensalzburg Fortress, 400 feet above the Salzach River
Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, click HERE or on the box below. 
To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

The Snow Child - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     The Snow Child is one of the most fascinating books I've read in a long time. The author enthralled me with her descriptions of the hardships of homesteading in Alaska in the 1920s and had me wondering if one of the characters was actually real or if she existed only in the imagination of the husband and wife who lived in the wilderness. I really could not put this book down! 
     The Snow Child was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for fiction in 2013, was given the 2013 Indies Choice Award for debut fiction, and received numerous other awards. In my opinion, all of them were richly deserved. Readers who enjoy adventure, history, and magical realism or who just like a good story will definitely enjoy this book.

Book Beginning:
Wolverine River, Alaska, 1920
Mabel had known there would be silence. That was the point, after all. No infants cooing or wailing. No neighbor children playfully hollering down the lane. No pad of small feet on wooden stairs worn smooth by generations, or clackety-clack of toys along the kitchen floor. All those sounds of her failure and regret would be left behind, and in their place there would be silence.

Friday 56 from 56% on my Kindle (Mabel is lost at night in a snowy forest.)
As it made its way beneath her clothes, along the skin of her ribs, down the curve of her spine, she knew it for what it was--a death chill, a chill that if allowed to take hold would freeze the life from her. As if to confirm her suspicions, her teeth began to chatter.

Genre: Literary Fiction / Metaphysical
Length: 404 Pages
Amazon Link: The Snow Child
Author Website Link: Eowyn Ivey

Rather than post the book's synopsis, here's the trailer:



                         

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reader)
Click HERE to join other Friday 56 bloggers (sponsored by Freda's Voice)