Sandra Nachlinger's Blog, page 39

Throwback Thursday: "That Touch of Mink"

Have you watched any old movies lately? Last night I came across "That Touch of Mink" on TV (Cary Grant and Doris Day) and marveled at all the changes since 1962, when the movie was released. For example: 

The show featured a Univac computer that filled the whole room -- and used punch cards! The telephones have rotary dials.
Here's the trailer from this classic movie. Let me know what other changes you notice. Would this plot draw many viewers today?

War Brides - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter/ First Paragraph/ Tuesday Intros

     Curious about life in the English countryside during World War II? Author Helen Bryan paints a vivid picture of this era in her novel War Brides. The novel follows the stories of five different young women--a debutante from the southern U.S., a vicar's daughter, a Jewish refugee, an evacuee from London's slums, and a privileged daughter of an Admiral in the British Navy. They all weather the war in rural Crowmarsh Priors.
     The author did a great job of showing the hardships endured by the English people. I came away with a new appreciation for their perseverance, and I couldn't help but wonder how we'd react to a similar situation today.



Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length:  497 Pages
Amazon Link: War Brides
Author Website: Helen Bryan's Amazon Author Page

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros - I chose the opening to Chapter 1, rather than the Prologue for my post:
Crowmarsh Priors, Boxing Day, 1937
     At twenty-two, Alice Osbourne was the sort of girl people called a "brick," sensible and responsible, though they were inclined to add that she was pretty when she smiled. She was tall like her father, the late vicar of Crowmarsh Priors. Her features, brown hair, and air of bookish distraction were also his.

Teaser Tuesday (from 44% on my Kindle):
There had been no air raid warning, only the drone of an approaching airplane to alert them just as the village children went out to play after lunch on Saturday when a lone German Heinkel 111 suddenly roared low over Crowmarsh Priors. By the time anxious mothers had dropped the washing-up and rushed out in their aprons to drag their children to safety, the bomber was over the downs, twisting and rolling across the sky to escape the RAF Hurricanes now in pursuit.

Partial Synopsis from Amazon:
     With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change their lives forever.      As the war and its relentless hardships intensify around them, the same struggles that threaten to rip apart their lives also bring the five closer together. They draw strength from one another to defeat formidable enemies—hunger, falling bombs, the looming threat of a Nazi invasion, and a traitor in their midst—and find remarkable strength within themselves to help their friends. Theirs is a war-forged loyalty that will outlast the fiercest battle and endure years and distance.     When four of the women return to Crowmarsh Priors for a VE Day celebration fifty years later, television cameras focus on the heartwarming story of these old women as war brides of a bygone age, but miss the more newsworthy angle. The women’s mission is not to commemorate or remember—they’ve returned to settle a score and avenge one of their own.

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More Cinque Terre - Saturday Snapshots

I had so much fun posting photos last week from our 2001 Cinque Terre trip that I decided to feature more for today's Saturday Snapshot post! These were taken with a film camera and they're not as sharp as you'd get with a digital, or maybe we just had a hazy day. I kind of like the soft look. 
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Monterossa al Mare
The Cinque Terre is known for its lemons
and its limoncello (or limoncino) liqueur.
Vernazza harbor
The best way to get around the Cinque Terre is
via water taxi. This one is in the Vernazza harbor.
"Departures for the Cinque Terre"
There's train service between the five towns,
but figuring out the schedule was a challenge for us!
Postcard showing the Cinque Terre areaSaturday 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. 

Beautiful Ruins - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

Why was I drawn to Beautiful Ruins? Because my husband and I visited the Cinque Terre (Italy) where the story is set. But the author's writing is what kept me reading. I'll admit that the many different characters, plots, and periods of time sometimes confused me, but the characters are interesting and so are their stories. I haven't quite finished the book yet, so I'm hoping they all come together in the end. (See my "Saturday Snapshot" photos from our Cinque Terre trip HERE, if you're curious.)

Book Beginning:
The Dying Actress
April 1962
Porto Vergogna, Italy
      The dying actress arrived in his village the only way one could come directly--in a boat that motored into the cove, lurched past the rock jetty, and bumped against the end of the pier. She wavered a moment in the boat's stern, then extended a slender hand to grip the mahogany railing; with the other, she pressed a wide-brimmed hat against her head. All around her, shards of sunlight broke on the flickering waves. 

The Friday 56 (from Page 56 - trade paperback):
     "When I found out how bad it was ... I decided that from now on I was just going to say what I think, that I would stop worrying about being polite or imagining what people thought of me. That's a big deal for an actress, refusing to live in the eyes of others. It's nearly impossible."

Genre: Fiction & Literature
Length: 337 Pages (Trade paperback)
Amazon Link: Beautiful Ruins
More Books by This Author: Jess Walter's Website

Blurb:
      The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.
      And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
      What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow. 
     Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.


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

Interview with Elly

This month's Cravings Magazine features an interview with the title character from BLUEBONNETS FOR ELLY. I hope you'll stop by and meet Elly. She's on Page 6.
Here's the link: ELLY

                                        

Saving Shelby Summers - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros

Saving Shelby Summers is a contemporary romance set in Australia, but Margaret Sutherland’s sweet story of family, friendship, and love is so much more than boy-meets-girl.

The first chapter propels you right into the story when Nathan Monroe saves Shelby and her horse from a sinkhole. Their paths cross again, but both have past traumas they must deal with before they can move forward.  As Shelby becomes involved in the lives of Nathan and his daughter, her healing begins. But is Nathan ready to get on with life?
Margaret Sutherland takes readers through all the doubts and emotions experienced by Shelby, Nathan, and Nathan’s daughter as they come to terms with past tragedies.  The story is touching without being maudlin, realistic without being overly dramatic, and totally believable (and it features dogs). I gave this book a five-star rating.

Book Beginning:
Nathan Monroe parked his mid-splattered Nissan Patrol on the cliff top overlooking the beach and sat, looking down at the turmoil of whitecaps and hissing surf. The wild, lonely vista matched his mood. The past came with you, no matter how far you traveled.

Teaser (from 21% on my Kindle):
The fading sky of an Australian winter reminded her of walking with Nathan yesterday. Such an ordinary thing to do. Just a man, a woman, and a dog. Not a lot to say, yet enough to make her feel complete, somehow.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 159 Pages
Secret Cravings Publishing Link
Amazon Link
More Books by Margaret Sutherland: Amazon Author Page


Share the first paragraph (or
a few) from a book you are
reading. Link up here: Bibliophile By The Sea
  
Post two sentences from
somewhere in a book you're
reading. No spoilers, please!
Link up here: Should Be Reading

Cinque Terre, Italy - Saturday Snapshots

     Lately, my husband and I have been talking about doing some traveling, and that led us to reminisce about places we've been. One of our favorites was the Cinque Terre ("Five Lands") area of Italy, which we visited in 2001. Hard to believe it was that long ago! 
     Then several days ago my daughter-in-law loaned me a book - Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter - and much of the story is set in the Cinque Terre! So I pulled out my photo album from our Italy trip, scanned the film-camera photos, and decided to feature a few of them on today's Saturday Snapshots. I'm focusing on the town of Manarola today, since that's where we stayed. Here's a map to get you oriented. 
(Click on photos to enlarge.)




Manarola
Boats are hoisted up to the town from the sea
Manarola's "Main Street" We walked from Manarola to Corniglia
along a hiking path overlooking the sea, but
we didn't take this stairway down to the waterSaturday 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. 

House Rules - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

The main character in HOUSE RULES in an 18-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome, and if you read this book, you'll learn just about everything you ever wanted to know about this disorder (it's a form of autism). In the process you'll also get caught up in a well-written story. Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors and although I'll admit that House Rules isn't my favorite book of hers, I definitely enjoyed reading it and recommend it highly.

The author cites case studies of serial killers at intervals throughout the book (between some of the chapters) and the book starts with "Case 1: Sleep Tight." Here are the opening paragraphs from the story itself. 

Book Beginning:
Chapter 1 - Emma     
     Everywhere I look, there are signs of a struggle. The mail has been scattered all over the kitchen floor; the stools are overturned. The phone has been knocked off its pedestal, its battery pack hanging loose from an umbilicus of wires. There's one single faint footprint at the threshold of the living room, pointing toward the dead body of my son, Jacob.
     He is sprawled like a starfish in front of the fireplace. Blood covers his temple and his hands. For a moment, I can't move, can't breathe.
     Suddenly, he sits up. "Mom," Jacob says, "you're not even trying."

The Friday 56 (from Page 156 of my hardcover edition):
     When I was little, I remember wandering the cereal aisle (which surely is as American a phenomenon as fireworks on the Fourth of July) and picking my breakfast food based on what the reward was: a Frisbee with the Trix rabbit's face emblazoned on the front. Holographic stickers with the Lucky Charms leprechaun. A mystery decoder wheel. I could suffer through raisin bran for a month if it meant I got a magic ring at the end.

Genre: Literary Fiction / Women's Fiction
Length: 532 Pages (hardcover)
Amazon Link: House Rules
Other Books by this Author: Jodi Picoult's Website

Blurb:
     House Rules is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome. He's  hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject--in his case, forensic analysis.
     He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do...and he's usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's - not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect - can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel -- and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. HOUSE RULES looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way - but lousy for those who don't.

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

Summertime - First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros and Teaser Tuesday

In Summertime, author Christina Cole takes a successful actress from 1914 San Francisco and returns her to her hometown in rural Kansas. At first, heroine Linn ("Linnie Mae") Sparks is not a likable character - much too full of herself. However, as the story progresses, her attitude and motives begin to make sense and she also changes her outlook. This book is a romance so there's an expected happy ending, but Ms. Cole kept me wondering - would the story end with Linn and Ed living happily ever after or merely happy for now?    


Beginning:
Brookfield, Kansas 1914
Three days. Not a moment longer. She would attend to business first thing Monday morning, and by Tuesday afternoon she would be on her way back home to San Francisco.
Back home where she belonged.

Teaser (at 80% on my Kindle):
"I figured out that it's not what's gone before that matters. It's what comes after that makes a difference in our lives."

Genre: Historical Romance
Length: 284 Pages
Amazon Link: Summertime
Other Books by This Author: Christina Cole's Amazon Author Page


Synopsis from Amazon:
      Linn Sparks wanted all life had to offer. Fame, fortune, glamour and excitement. She found it as a star of the stage at the Crown Theater in San Francisco.
      For Ed Ferguson, life was far less complicated. All he wanted was Linnie Mae, but she’d left him standing alone at the altar seven years before when she’d run off to pursue her dreams.
      Now, Linn Sparks has come home to Brookfield, Kansas.
      But coming back means facing a lot of unpleasant realities: a strained relationship with a father who never wanted her, a mother whose grasp on sanity is slipping away, and the feelings she still has for the love she left behind.
      Ed still wants Linnie Mae, but he knows she won’t stay. How can he spend the summer being near her and not get his heart broken again?
      Between them, passions flare in the heat of SUMMERTIME.


Share the first paragraph (or
a few) from a book you are
reading. Link up here:
Bibliophile By The Sea
  
Post two sentences from
somewhere in a book you're
reading. No spoilers, please!
Link up here:
Should Be Reading

Culinary Cravings

Sweet Cravings Publishing and Secret Cravings Publishing have started a new weekly feature on their blog -- CULINARY CRAVINGS! Today's recipe is Caitlyn's Peach Cobbler. Stop by and take a virtual taste of this delicious dessert. It will satisfy your sweet tooth cravings! 

Here's the link:
Culinary Cravings: Peach Cobbler