Wondrous Words Wednesday - Feb 10, 2016

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time to learn some new words! Wondrous Words Wednesday, hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion, is a meme which encourages us to share words we have learned while reading. The words I share will sometimes be completely new to me, and other times they will be words I am familiar with, and maybe even use correctly, but when I think about how to explain the meaning, I’m lost — I have to look it up. It’s all about expanding my vocabulary!

I’m STILL working on words from  The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher. I’m learning a lot of new vocabulary from this one! Here are some of the ‘new-to-me’ words I came across this week.

mountebank - a person who tricks or cheats other people

seccubus - a demon assuming female form to have sexual intercourse with a men in their sleep

panegyrics - formal or elaborate praise

sepulchral - very sad and serious; very dismal or gloomy

legerdemain - skill in using your hands to perform magic tricks

What new-to-you words have you discovered this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday - February 3, 2016

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time to learn some new words! Wondrous Words Wednesday, hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion, is a meme which encourages us to share words we have learned while reading. The words I share will sometimes be completely new to me, and other times they will be words I am familiar with, and maybe even use correctly, but when I think about how to explain the meaning, I’m lost — I have to look it up. It’s all about expanding my vocabulary!

I’m still making my way through The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher, so I have a couple of new words from that one.

truculent - aggressively self-assertive; easily annoyed or angered

“Usually the spirit was affable, as had been the man, except when encountering a sitter he did not like; then he became truculent, a force to be feared.”  - page 125

gimcrack - showy object of little use or value

“In a Cleveland hotel banquet hall a gimcrack band played ragtime.”  - page 137

I also have a few words I came across while reading The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth

veritable - real or true

“Every morning and afternoon, the nurse rolls her table-on-wheels through the halls with the baskets, a veritable candy woman of pharmaceuticals.”  - page 7

gormless - stupid, dull

“Just like that, his gormless smile is back.”  - page 75

secateurs - pruning shears

“He drops his secateurs into a bucket and dips to snatch up a larger pair of garden shears.”  - page 83

What new-to-you words have you discovered this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday [Thursday] - Jan 27 [28], 2016

I’m a little late this week, but I’m still ready to learn some new words, so let’s do Wondrous Words Wednesday Thurdsday! Wondrous Words Wednesday, hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion, is a meme which encourages us to share words we have learned while reading. The words I share will sometimes be completely new to me, and other times they will be words I am familiar with, and maybe even use correctly, but when I think about how to explain the meaning, I’m lost — I have to look it up. It’s all about expanding my vocabulary!

Here are the words I want to share this week.

These words were all discovered while reading The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher

importunate - urgent or persistent in asking or demanding

“They were scruffy, importunate men in raincoats and fedoras.”  - page 56

dotage - feeble and childish state due to old age

“He did not look like a man in his dotage, susceptible to charlatans.”  - page 56

hawsers - very thick rope for towing or tying off a ship

“And when the whistle sounded and the hawsers were cast off, Sir Arthur could feel satisfied about his mission.”  - page 68

profligate - extremely wasteful; recklessly extravagant

“Even for the times he was remarkably profligate.” - pg 18

And this last one I am throwing in, not so much because I don’t know the meaning, but to show how meanings change and evolve through time.

tweet - to make a chirping sound

“So entirely in search of amusement, I went with [Kitty] in order to gather some good laughing material with which to tweet the doctor.” - pg 84

My first reaction here was of course, that she was texting a quick joke using Twitter. But of course, as this took place in 1923, I immediately rejected that definition, and realized at one time people may have tweeted each other but in an entirely different way!

What new-to-you words have you discovered this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday - Jan 20, 2016

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time to learn some new words! Wondrous Words Wednesday, hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion, is a meme which encourages us to share words we have learned while reading. The words I share will sometimes be completely new to me, and other times they will be words I am familiar with, and maybe even use correctly, but when I think about how to explain the meaning, I’m lost — I have to look it up. It’s all about expanding my vocabulary!

Here are the words I want to share this week.

This first word was discovered while reading The Secrets of Lizzie Borden by Brandy Purdy.

ephemeral - lasting a very short time

“...a moment’s delight, then puff! it is gone, the beautiful, fleeting ephemeral fancy vanished into the ether…”  - page 281

These words were discovered while reading The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher

discarnate - having no physical body

“And astral cigars. Raymond had seen a discarnate man smoke one.”  - page 10

stalwart - very loyal and dedicated; physically strong

“At six feet four inches, he towered over his listeners, appearing as stalwart as a Connecticut farmer.”  - page 14

callow - lacking adult sophistication

“Yet she did not seem vain, like the doctor’s second wife, or callow.” - pg 18

nebbish - a timid, meek, or ineffectual person

“The nebbish had cried like a spanked babe.” - pg 34

What new-to-you words have you discovered this week?

Wondrous Words Wednesday - Jan 13 2006

One of my reading goals this year is to do a better job of keeping track of new-to-me words in I come across. I decided I should share them here every week or so, and as I considered the idea, it occurred to me that this would be a great weekly meme. And of course, if it really is a good idea, someone out there must be doing it already. So I went on a meme-hunt, and sure enough, someone is! No need to reinvent the wheel, so I will be participating in Wondrous Words Wednesday hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion as often as I have words to share. Sometimes this words will be completely new to me, and other times they will be words I am familiar with, and maybe even use correctly, but when I think about how to explain the meaning, I’m lost — I have to look it up. It’s all about expanding my vocabulary!

Here are the words I want to share this first week. These were all discovered in my reading of The Secrets of Lizzie Borden by Brandy Purdy.

odalisque - female slave; concubine in a harem

“...sitting wretchedly at his feet, like an odalisque in a tyrannical sultan’s harem…”  - page 138

lorgnette - pair of eyeglasses attached to a handle

“...and I had some lovely lorgnettes, silver and gold, with enameled and jeweled accents that I wore on long glittering chains around my neck…”  - page 234

frisson - a sudden strong feeling or emotion

“The moment our eyes met...it was electricity and ectasy, a quivering, rapturous frisson rippling through our bodies head to toe.”  - page 245

peccadillo - small mistake or fault that is not regarded as very bad or serious

“And everyone she knew had her own peccadilloes…” - pg 252

mousseline - a fine sheer fabric (as of rayon) that resembles muslin

“...just like a dream, in a flowing gown of soft pink mousseline…” - pg 254

What new-to-you words have you discovered this week?

Waiting on Wednesday: After You

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which we spotlight upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating!

After You

Me Before You #2

by Jojo Moyes

Expected Publication Date: September 29, 2015

Synopsis from Goodreads

I haven’t participated in this meme for awhile, and I probably won’t be a regular here, but I came across this interview with Jojo Moyes that I want to share.

The first thing to know about After You is that it is a sequel to Me Before You. If you haven’t read it yet, you MUST go do that now! I haven’t read After You yet, but I’m pretty sure it is not going to work as a stand-alone. Even if it does, you will not want to skip Me Before You. You can read my review here.

Here is the interview with Jojo Moyes. It does NOT contain spoilers, so feel free to watch.

And here is the synopsis from Goodreads. It does appear to have, if not spoilers, at least some things I’d rather not know until I come across them in the book. I’ve only skimmed it, but I’m including it for those who are on the fence about reading it.

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

After You is quintessential Jojo Moyes—a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and rejoice at being back in the world she creates. Here she does what few novelists can do—revisits beloved characters and takes them to places neither they nor we ever expected.

Waiting On Wednesday: The Wright Brothers

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which we spotlight upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating!

The Wright Brothers

by David McCullough

Expected Publication Date: May 5, 2015

Synopsis from Goodreads

Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot.

Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did?

David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there were books aplenty, supplied mainly by their preacher father, and they never stopped reading.

When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education, little money and no contacts in high places, never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off in one of their contrivances, they risked being killed.

In this thrilling book, master historian David McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.

Why I am waiting....

I visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial when we were visiting the Outer Banks a few years ago. This book sounds like a great way to learn more of their story!

Waiting On Wednesday: At The Water's Edge

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which we spotlight upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating!

At The Water’s Edge

by Sara Gruen

Expected Publication Date: March 31, 2015

Synopsis from Goodreads

In her stunning new novel, Gruen returns to the kind of storytelling she excelled at in Water for Elephants: a historical timeframe in an unusual setting with a moving love story. Think Scottish Downton Abbey.

After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis’s father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son’s inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. To Maddie’s horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father’s name and return to his father’s good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. The novel tells of Maddie’s social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love.

Why I am waiting....

I’ve never read Sara Gruen but I’ve heard good things about her. And I love the cover!

Waiting On Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which we spotlight upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating!

The Second Sister

by Marie Bostwick

Expected Publication Date: March 31, 2015

Synopsis from Goodreads

From New York Times bestselling author Marie Bostwick comes an emotionally rich, inspiring new novel about family, second chances--and the connections that bring women together in hope and healing. . .

Years of long workdays and little sleep as a political campaigner are about to pay off now that Lucy Toomey's boss is entering the White House. But when her estranged older sister, Alice, unexpectedly dies, Lucy is drawn back to Nilson's Bay, her small, close-knit, Wisconsin hometown.

An accident in her teens left Alice mentally impaired, and she was content to stay in Nilson's Bay. Lucy, meanwhile, got out and never looked back. But now, to meet the terms of Alice's eccentric will, Lucy has taken up temporary residence in her sister's cottage--and begins to see the town, and Alice's life, anew. Alice's diverse group of friends appears to have little in common besides an interest in quilting. Yet deep affection for Alice united them and soon Lucy, too, is brought into the fold as they share problems and stories. And as she finds warmth and support in this new circle, Lucy begins to understand this will be her sister's enduring gift--a chance to move beyond her difficult past, and find what she has long been missing. . .

Why I am waiting....

Sisters stories are always interesting!

Tuesday Memes: Some Luck

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where you can share the first paragraph, or a few, of a book you are reading or thinking about reading soon.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Today I am spotlighting Some Luck by Jane Smiley

On their farm in Denby, Iowa, Rosanna and Walter Langdon abide by time-honored values that they pass on to their five wildly different yet equally remarkable children: Frank, the brilliant, stubborn first-born; Joe, whose love of animals makes him the natural heir to his family's land; Lillian, an angelic child who enters a fairy-tale marriage with a man only she will fully know; Henry, the bookworm who's not afraid to be different; and Claire, who earns the highest place in her father's heart. Moving from post-World War I America through the early 1950s, Some Luck gives us an intimate look at this family's triumphs and tragedies, zooming in on the realities of farm life, while casting-as the children grow up and scatter to New York, California, and everywhere in between-a panoramic eye on the monumental changes that marked the first half of the twentieth century. Rich with humor and wisdom, twists and surprises, Some Luck takes us through deeply emotional cycles of births and deaths, passions, and betrayals, displaying Smiley's dazzling virtuosity, compassion, and understanding of human nature and the nature of history, never discounting the role of fate and chance. This potent conjuring of many lives across generations is a stunning tour de force.

Opening

1920

    Walter Langdon hadn’t walked out to check the fence along the creek for a couple of months — now that the cows were up by the barn for easier milking in the winter, he’d been putting off fence-mending — so he hadn’t seen the pair of owls nesting in the big elm. The tree was half dead; every so often Walter thought of cutting it for firewood, but he would have to get help taking it down, because it must be eighty feet tall or more and four feet in diameter. And it wouldn’t be the best firewood, hardly worth the trouble. Right then, he saw one of the owls fly out of a big cavity maybe ten to twelve feet up, either a big female or a very big male — at any rate, the biggest horned owl Walter had ever seen — and he paused and stood for a minute, still in the afternoon breeze, listening, but there was nothing. He saw why in a moment. The owl floated out for maybe twenty yards, dropped toward the snowy pasture. Then came a high screaming, and the owl rose again, this time with a full-grown rabbit in its talons, writhing, going limp, probably deadened by fear. Walter shook himself.

My Teaser

    “She knows what she wants, though maybe she doesn’t know what will work. But if you don’t give her what she wants, she’ll spend the rest of her life thinking that that was the one thing that might have worked.”

page 68

So...what do you think? Is this one you would pick up? Leave a comment below!

(These quotes are from uncorrected advance proofs. Please refer to the final printed book for corrected quotes!)

Waiting On Wednesday: Inside The O'Briens

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which we spotlight upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating!

Inside The O’Briens

by Lisa Genova

Expected Publication Date: April 7, 2015

Synopsis from Goodreads

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova comes a powerful new novel that does for Huntington’s Disease what her debut Still Alice did for Alzheimer’s.

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s Disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

Praised for writing that “explores the resilience of the human spirit” (The San Francisco Chronicle), Lisa Genova has once again delivered a novel as powerful and unforgettable as the human insights at its core

Why I am waiting....

I have read two other Lisa Genova novels, including Still Alice, and enjoyed them both.

Waiting On Wednesday: Throw Like A Woman

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which we spotlight upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating!

Throw Like A Woman

by Susan Petrone

Expected Publication Date: March 24, 2015

Synopsis from Goodreads

Forty years old, divorced, with two sons on the verge of adolescence and an ex-husband who considers visitation to be optional, Brenda Haversham isn't having a whole lot of fun. She's also no longer qualified for the work she loves, so she's working in a cubicle instead while trying to make ends meet.

Brenda is short on money, short on connection with her kids, and short on any kind of social life. The only thing Brenda has in abundance is her anger. And that turns out to be her greatest asset.

When she was a kid, Brenda's father taught her how to throw a good fastball. That wasn't of much use to a girl, but it is enough to astound onlookers at a "test your speed" pitching cage before a Cleveland Indians game. The more Brenda pictures her ex-husband's face on the other end, the harder she throws. And when someone tapes her performance and puts it up online, Brenda becomes an Internet sensation – and then more than that.

Soon, the Indians come calling and Brenda finds her life taking a turn in a new direction. She finds herself standing on the mound as the first woman player in Major League history – and dealing with everything that comes with it. The money is great and the endorsement deals are even better. The fury of "traditionalists," not so much. And the conflicting emotions of her teammates are even harder to manage.

Meanwhile, Brenda's home life is evolving faster than she can keep up, redefining her role as a mother, a friend, and even a lover.

As the season winds down Brenda will find out if she has what it takes to be a winner – at both baseball and life.

A funny, poignant, and endearing debut from a writer of rare warmth and humanity, FASTBALL is a 95-mile-an-hour heater of a novel.

Why I am waiting....

LOL! Do you have to ask? Ummm….baseball! What little girl hasn’t grown up dreaming of pitching in the majors???