Goofin' Off

 Margaret Maron

 

Summertime and so hard to answer that alarm clock and do the mature responsible thing.  

Do you ever just roll over in bed and say "To heck with it!  Today is a  ME day!"

Of course, if there are kids to be fed, dogs to be walked, tomatoes to be canned, or unexpected house guests, then of course we'll sigh and get on with it.

But imagine you had twenty-four hours at your disposal. I'm not talking getting on a plane and flying somewhere, but the simple pleasures to be found within your own home or within a 15-minute drive.

Would you jump out of bed and head for the lake?

Would you take your coffee out to your patio or garden and just enjoy the beauty of what you've created?

Would you find a cool quiet spot with the most appealing book in your TBR stack?

 
Would you finally make one of those yummy-sounding recipes you've clipped out of the magazine?

Pedicure?  Sort pictures?  Long soak in the tub?  What's your vision of goofing off?

From Nancy Martin:

So.........it's the long holiday weekend!  And most of us will attend picnics, right? Watch some fireworks, too? Catch a few sets of Wimbledon, maybe?

No, we're willing to bet that most of us are going to spend at least one hour of the long, relaxing weekend reading a book!

What are you reading? Anything good? 

  I am reading CLEOPATRA for my book club.  We're planning a toga party (!!) for our meeting, so it should be a hoot. Depending on what I eat at our various picnics, I may have to break out the queen-sized sheets.)  For my plane trip this week, I read the new Evanovich--SMOKIN SEVENTEEN, which is just as fast, but a lot steamier than usual.  Big fun.

And if you haven't found a book to read this weekend?  Check out Sarah's new release, KINDRED SPIRITS!  Here's a video Sarah made with her best friend Lisa.  Aren't they cute??

  

From Nancy Pickard: I just started reading Sarah's new book, KINDRED SPIRITS, and I'm in awe of how she started it. (Don't worry, there are no spoilers ahead.) For a variety of reasons, the way it starts takes writer-guts, in my opinion, and she has done it so well.  I want time today to keep reading!

I recently read two Harlan Cobens in a row, and enjoyed both of them a lot, but man, they brought home to me that cozy mysteries and romances get such an unfair rap for being "unrealistic"!  I have to laugh. As if the tough guy novels aren't "unrealistic"! 

My friend Randy Russell has his first YA book out, and I think it's fabulous.  It's called DEAD RULES, and it's kind of shocking and "out there"--about a girl who dies and misses her boyfriend so much in the afterlife that she's determined to kill him so he will join her.  It's funny, sensitive, very bold-- just like a lot of wonderful teenagers are.

I've also started a handful of books that I haven't finished yet--probably not a good sign.

 

From Joshilyn:  Joshilyn is heading for the Beach! On the long drive, she’ll be listening to the second half the AWESOME audio of THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTENING, and once there, she plans to flop in the sun and drink frosty concoctions full of nutritious fruit (and possibly some liquor...) while reading a ton of ARCS for blurbs and, of course, KINDRED SPIRITS.

 

From Holly: I happen to be reading BOTH Kindred Spirits and Sticky Fingers this weekend AND I get to meet our own Kerry in the flesh as she is visiting from all the way across the country. I'm so excited. I might get to see some of her ink.

 

From Sarah: Nothing like post-deadline reading. Finished THE PARIS WIFE, which I thoroughly enjoyed especially now that I know Midnight in Paris is a great movie about the same time period. Even though you knew where Hemingway's first marriage was headed (to the rocks and ON the rocks), it was fascinating to witness all these Midwesterners (so MANY Midwesterners) flock to Paris and try to recreate themselves as sophisticates. And, of course, there's Scott + Zelda. Your liver will hurt by the end, tho.

Also, STATE OF WONDER by Ann Patchett. You know, I never did care for HEART OF DARKNESS. Too male. Too boring. But STATE OF WONDER has taken this theme and infused it with women, a questionable drug manufacturer, greed, insanity, snakes, rare tropical diseases and quite possibly murder. Or not. And the writing could not be better.

In addition, I've been socking away a bunch of YA literature. BUMPED by Megan McCafferty takes the HANDMAID'S TALE (a favorite!) and sets it in NJ in the not-too-distant future when fertility becomes so rare that the rich are willing to pay teenagers to "bump." A really worthwhile read.

There's so much more I want to read.....cannot wait!

 

From Harley: I'm reading Ken Wilber's A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYTHING, which I love so much, starting with the cover, which is just a photo of Ken Wilber, bald-headed, with big glasses. Okay, I have not actually begun the book, but I've read all the flap copy, the Foreword, the Preface to the Second Edition, A Note to the Reader, Introduction, and a couple of scary-looking charts. When I actually get to the book itself, I'm hoping to understand . . . well, everything. I'll report back.

 

From Diane: I'm reading THE PEACH KEEPER by Sarah Addison Allen. It reminds me of the sort of story I would write, so of course I'm loving it! But what really gets me is the cover and the title. This cover mesmerized me the first time I laid eyes on it. Great covers sell books!

 

 

 

Comments

[peach]

Read, read some more, and then finally even more reading all in my very own living room with no husband, daughter or parents interrupting for little things like making meals or the like. There's nothing like a book!

[marie]

Readin', Knittin' and Rockin'..

Reading constantly..Sticky Fingers, Pumped for Murder, Street Heat, Sometimes There Really Are Monsters under the Bed. Downloading Kindred Spirits today. Linda Lael Miller and so many other titles are destined to cause my Nook to catch fire.
It's all Good.
Happy Fourth Weekend!

[sarah]

Thanks, Marie!

I just wish we could figure out a way to knit AND read at the same time. I'm just not that good....Watcha making?

[Nancy Pickard]

Harley, I remember having a crush on Ken Wilber and his glasses and bald head. I think I had a brush on his brain.

[Nancy Pickard]

"a brush on his brain"

bwah! I really did type that, didn't I? Okay, "crush," if we have to be, like, PERFECT. Sheesh.

[Margaret Maron]

Oh, I like "brush on his brain" much better. Evokes such funny images.

[William]

You ladies make a bald guy who wears glasses feel good, if you know what I mean and I think you do!

I'm currently reading PRICELESS, by former FBI agen Robert Wittman, about the Bureau's Art Crimes Taskforce, and about to start on THE GARDNER HEIST, about the Gardner museum theft, while I'm waiting for (a gozillion thank you's to Hank for the tipoff!) STEALING REMBRANDTS by Anthony Amore.

Think maybe the novel in progress has to do with an art thief? Hmmmmm.... I can neither confirm nor deny...:)

P.S. I've succumbed to the New Millennium, and actually put up a website about my writing:

www.wmsimon.com

[Holly Gault]

Sarah, just about the time I was getting interested in learning to knit socks -- which I've only learned part way -- I was getting coffee at Dr. Insomnia's Coffee Cafe in Novato CA and saw a woman knitting socks (four needles) and reading! I so admired her nonchalance.

[Holly Gault]

Marie, when is the baby due?

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

FROM HANK---pant pant, running behind!! Already! Working on a crushing deadline for a project I will tell you all about soon--very very surprising!

Step-kids and grand-kids arriving for the fourth of July WEEK! I am battening down, moving breakable stuff above 2-year-old grasp-level and trying to figure out how to make my deadlines and not be rude or miss any of the cuteness.

Pray for good weather...everyone outside and Grammy Hank will join you..sooooon....

love to all.xoxo

[Laraine]

Early morning walk, on the beach if traffic allows, coffee with friends, a little shopping (I never seem to have time for shopping, but I don't much care to spend hours doing it, so just a little), a nap, enjoying a clean house (magically cleaned, right?) while listening to music and maybe looking over a cookbook. Dinner with friends or neighbors, on the patio . . . you get the picture.

[xena]

Lordy Lordy what I wouldn't give for the 4th of July weekend off. But Noooooo!
I love hearing how all of you would spend "me" time.
Sarah and Holly I'm a two needle girl myself but I learned how to knit in the dark in college making legwarmers during 101 cattle call auditorium classes' movies. I'm going to try doing it reading!
I'm with Hank...only not sunshine.
Pray for cloud cover. The tourist will hate it but everyone involved with our hometown parade won't complain a tad.
The float kids started super squirting the parade watchers years ago so now the people on the sidelines squirt the float people. Everyone ends up super soaked. The fire dept ends the parade with water cannons and a good time is had by all.
I'll be the one up at dawn decorating the Pelican Playhouse flat bed with flag fabric.
I'm adding "Float Dresser" to my resume'.

[gaylin in vancouver]

Having just slept in until 11 a.m. PST, I have started the long weekend off the right way. Our holiday was yesterday, Canada is now officially 144 years old.

I am re-reading Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly series.

Later today I have 1 hour massage appointment!

[Storyteller Mary]

We all deserve, as Thoreau put it, "a broad margin to (our) life."
Toward the end of my final year of teaching, after telling students that I was retiring "because they could never give me this good a group of students next year" (true), I raised my fist to my first-period students (7:25 a.m. start) and swore, "As God is my witness, I'll never set my alarm for 5 a.m. again!" They applauded.

[Katherine]

I am in the middle of reading Smokin' 17. Any opinion about the movie being made with Katherine Heigel as Steohanie Plum?

[Margaret Maron]

Gaylin, those are my favorite of Charlaine Harris' books. So sorry there won't be more.

[Al_S]

I had intended to sleep in this morning but the people working on the foreclosed house next door found this nifty gadget (couldn't see it so don't know what it was) that sounded like a combination chain saw, jackhammer, and Harley V-Twin. Apparently these can only be run sometime before 7 AM because they were done at 7.

I just finished Sin in the Second City which I found courtesy of TLC. I need to go on a reading hiatus because I have a bunch of DVDs to watch including Harley's Arachnophobia which I am too chicken to watch alone.

Happy belated birthday Canada!

[Alan P.]

I loved Sin in the Second City! I am reading Monuments Men and SHAKEN: Stories for Japan. I will be sending greetings to my friend in AFG who will once again be half way around the world working for someone else's freedom while celebrating his own.

This weekend I am also taking care of MIL who is on the mend from her second hip replacement. I am a good catch, what can I say.

[Reine]

If I were home in Marblehead: A slow roll to the Barnacle to pick up a clam roll. Then back down Front Street and over to Crocker Park where I would have my lunch looking at the boats in the harbor. Gotta see who's in town.

Then of course I would read, probably listen, to a book while enjoying the fresh air and the company of old friends.

Here in Tucson: If the sidewalks were in I would roll over to Starbucks and have a large press of Columbian coffee on the patio. I would breathe in the exhaust from the cars going through the take-out lane, look at the Catalina Mountains and wonder what I am doing here.

[marie]

Hi Holly.. the little cherub arrived three weeks ago. I am knitting a Five Hour baby sweater which has suspiciously morphed from green to blue.
Hoping that he does not become the "HULK" because he may have to settle into a mild mannered baby dressed in blue.
All the Best and I love knitting socks..nobody wants them but they are fun.LOL

[Reine]

Oh! I forgot! What am I reading? Zoë Sharp's KILLER INSTINCT . . . would have finished eons ago, except it isn't out in e-format or audio. Not even Talking Books from the National Library Service (NLS) has it! Criminal! Pardon me for yelling, but I think it's very upsetting not to be able to read a book, only because NO ONE HAS PUBLISHED IT IN AN ACCESSIBLE FORMAT!!!!!!

[Reine]

Marie, any time you want to knit me socks, know that I would definitely wear them. My feet are always cold, even here in Tucson - at 112° - today. Who would NOT want hand knit socks! Sorry for yelling again . . . .

[Storyteller Mary]

I've knitted a few pair of socks, and I admire the skills involved! (and the ability to have latex-free socks ;-)
I just finished _Murder on Gramercy Park_ and have started _Drums of Autumn_. Very few plans this weekend -- I'm not anti-social, really -- so I'll be reading, reading, reading! . . and cooking many veggies, thanks to my CSA share.

[Judith Bandsma]

Well, if you want socks...I knitted my husband 10 pair last year. In addition to all the other knitting I do. Am working on a pair of footees right now.

Oh yes, I still read about 3 books a week, too.

[Reine]

Okay, now I have the giggles from watching Sarah and Lisa make chocolate martinis on that video. And I haen't even made one yet.

[Reine]

Wow, Judith . . . that's a lotta socks to knit!

[Nancy Pickard]

That's my favorite Charlaine Harris series, too. For a while there, I thought we were going to get a tv series out of it, but apparently that's not going anywhere at the present time. Drats.

[gaylin in vancouver]

Ahh, Saturday evening, a sunny day (finally). Had my massage now I am going to kick back and do 2 loads of laundry . . .

I sure wish Charlaine would do another 2 or 3 books in the Harper series. Mind you I would have liked more books in her Shakespeare series as well.

Hope you all have had a lovely day!

[Storyteller Mary]

I'm wanting a chocolate martini now . . . and a few more books . . .

[Doc In CA]

My weekend so far? Errands this morning, hound wrangling and gardening this afternoon, Trader Joe's Mahi Mahi burgers for dinner. In a few minutes, I'll be writing. My latest theme is called "By The Numbers", in which I pull a random number out of a cup and assign a story to it. The last one was 111.

Tomorrow, there will be the sleeping in, the making lewd suggestions to my sweetheart, the eating of the breakfast, then yet another valiant attempt to beat my garden into submission. After that, some light heart attacks and a bit of heatstroke, both easilt treated by cold beer and hot Docburgers off the grill.

Monday will be much like Sunday, but without the beer and with the bathing of the two dirty bitches who sleep in my living room.

If I read anything, it will most likely be one of the 1950's paperback collections of science fiction or horror that I got for 35 cents each at a garage sale. Perhaps the one with stories from the Saturday Evening Post.

[Storyteller Mary]

Gaylin, I can't find a Shakespeare series . . .

[gaylin in vancouver]

Mary, it is the Lily Bard series, based in a town called Shakespeare.

[Storyteller Mary]

Thanks!!