Summertime reading, two new books out today

I've been promising a blog about summer reading, and here it is. Today I'm so excited because two of my favorite authors have books hitting the book stores or the eBook airways today. These are the kind of books made for summer—the kind that are not too lofty but still bring a tear and a few good laughs. They are about everyday people.

First is Claire Cook's Time Flies.  If you aren't familiar with Claire, she is the author of the book that inspired the movie Must Love Dogs. I've read all her works and they are a hoot.  She lets you laugh, but always teaches you something you don know. Check out her page at clairecook.com.  Here is the info on the book from her page:

Years ago, Melanie followed her husband, Kurt, from the New England beach town where their two young sons were thriving to the suburbs of Atlanta. She’s carved out a life as a successful metal sculptor, but when Kurt leaves her for another woman, having the tools to cut up their marriage bed is small consolation. She’s old enough to know that high school reunions are often a big disappointment, but when her best friend makes her buy a ticket and an old flame gets in touch to see whether she’ll be going, she fantasizes that returning to her past might help her find her future…until her driving phobia resurfaces and threatens to hold her back from the adventure of a lifetime.

Time Flies is an epic road trip filled with fun, heartbreak, and friendship, and explores what it takes to conquer your worst fears…so you can start living your future.

My new favorite summertime author is Dorothea Benton Frank (http://www.dotfrank.com.) She is the author of the bestselling Porch Lights, which I am reading now.  Here's the scoop on The Last Original Wife. 

Leslie Anne Greene Carter is The Last Original Wife among her husband Wesley’s wildly successful Atlanta social set. His cronies have all traded in the mothers of their children they promised to love and cherish—’til death did them part—for tanned and toned young Barbie brides.If losing the social life and close friends she adored wasn’t painful enough, a series of setbacks shake Les’s world and push her to the edge. She’s had enough of playing the good wife to a husband who thinks he’s doing her a favor by keeping her around. She takes some time for herself—in the familiar comforts and stunning beauty of Charleston. In her brother’s stately historic home, she’s going to reclaim the carefree girl who spent lazy summers sharing steamy kisses with her first love on Sullivans Island. Daring to listen to her inner voice, she will realize what she wants . . . and find the life of which she’s always dreamed.

I'm sure there is something to learn from this work too. In Porch Lights, one of the main characters is an big fan of Edgar Allan Poe and drops little tidbits about the mysterious writer that we did not know. 

In case you think I have resorted to reading only light summertime work, I have also been reading some Hemingway. I think I'll feature Hemingway quotes the rest of the month of June.

I asked you what you were reading and only got two responses.  Are you reading?  Here they are:

From Kara: The Other Bolyn Girl by Phillpia Gregory is one of the best books I've read in a long time! Also Pillars of the Earth and World Without End by Ken Follet are wonderful! 

From Terry: CANINE REPRODUCTION AND WHELPING~A Dog Breeder's Guide by Myra Savant-Harris R.N.(2005)

PUPPY INTENSIVE CARE~A Breeder's Guide to Care of Newborn Puppies (30 min. DVD included)(2006)

Each book is a "A Dogwise Manual"published by Dogwise publishing. (Terry has two litters of Collie pups.  LOL)

Quote for the day:  “There is no friend as loyal as a book.”  Ernest Hemingway

Sycamore Arts to hold fiber exhibition in September....Get Ready

Several members of the two quilting groups that I belong to, Loose Threads and Quilt in the Grove, attended the Mississippi Quilters Association's June Gathering this past weekend in Jackson.  We heard inspirational speakers, saw beautiful quilts and took fun classes.

A friend and I took Joan Alliston's Migrating Geese class to learn a new technique for making flying geese. I brought my little strip home and turned it into a table runner to be donated to the Sycamore Arts Silent Auction.  We will see what it brings.

"Sycamore Arts is very pleased to include this striking Fiber Art in our upcoming Auction! And we will be sponsoring our first Fiber Art Exhibit this September at BancorpSouth in Senatobia -- Details will be announced at a later date," said Sycamore Arts President Karen Brown.

This opportunity is a call to all my fellow quilters, weavers and textile artists in the Senatobia area to be working on a piece to enter in this first fiber exhibition.  I'm so excited.

Gotta go. It's time to go quilt with Loose Threads.

Reminder and Summer Reading

Hey Friends:

Just a reminder....If you are reading my blog, please sign in as a follower. You can do this by navigating to the tool box in the right hand column.  It is helpful to me if you leave comments on the blog itself rather than on Facebook.  But if you can't do this, FB is OK.

FYI:  As of yesterday, I was up to 8,489 page views!  WOW.  That's inspiration for me.

Next blog will be about good summer books.  What are YOU reading?  Let me know before I give you my list.

Happy Wednesday.

Empty Saddle brings pain and joy

Today, June 4, would be my daddy's 100th birthday. Fifteen years ago June 4 was the day of his burial on his 85th birthday. I guess I write about my parents too much on my blog, but that comes with being an only child. It also comes with having extraordinary parents.

Daddy and me in the front porch swing
one Easter morning at the house
on Hwy. 51, next to Mays Pharmacy. Photo and hand tinting
by my mother. 

Daddy and Pepper, the three-legged
English Shepherd cow dog extraordinaire.

Never a very successful businessman, Daddy was at the top of his game in making friends, spinning a tale of Western lore, handling a rank horse, quietly working a herd of cattle or bringing out the best in a shy dog. 

Born in Tate County, educated in New Mexico, Daddy served in World War II as a U.S. Army Medic. An animal husbandry graduate of Mississippi State University, he married Marjorie Latham of Eupora and farmed and raised livestock on family farmland in Barr, Miss. until his death.

In retirement he worked daily in his leather shop, repairing and rebuilding saddles, making equipment for his grandchildren and keeping their horses in top shape.

Below right, he uses my 4-H Champion Appaloosa mare, High Spots Tobie, to work cattle.  Intended as a show horse, Tobie also was taught to plow the garden....because it was the cowboy way.

One of my favorite pics shows Daddy and me before a horse show with his favorite mare Penny loaded in the back of the truck with panels.  "Load up, Mare," he would say and she would jump right up in the truck.  He was a firm believer in "making do."  He would say, "Baby, you have to ride what you've got and get the best out of it."

(below, left)

If he walked in the back door today and took off his weather-beaten cowboy hat and threw it down on the table, this is the conversation that would follow:

Daddy:  Hey Chalie, what you got for dinner?

Me:  Hey Daddy.  How about Texas cowboy red beans and cornbread?

Daddy:  (Big grin) Larapin!

Hayley Cathey Dandridge

June 4, 1913-June 2, 1998