a few weeks ago, i arrived home to the usual mound of mail. there were the usual bills {which i ignore... thank God for the bill-paying husband!}, the magazines, the catalogs that are full of swim suits and spring clothes {glorious spring!} and a flat mailing envelope. nothing outstanding... so after my first glance, i walked away without another thought.
a few days later, after darling husband had paid the bills, cleared away some of the magz and catalogs, that flat envelope remained on the counter. you have to understand, i'm a "piler" and have piles of this stuff here and there, so i'm trying to keep this specific counter clutter-free, and at this point i was so irritated that there were still lego pieces, many school papers and this big envelope on my counter. in my irritation, i start huckin' lego pieces down the hall to the boys' room, and then see that MY NAME is on the said envelope. and then i see that the envelope was from random house... random house!? OH GOLLY!! did i buy another book? did i buy another book and forget that i bought it?! does the said darling husband know...
i ripped that envelope open and dumped out the most wonderfulest of wonderful surprises...
sarah addison allen's
well, i can tell you that right then i gave up with clearing the counters of the legos... i clicked on the kettle, made a cup of tea, grabbed a blanket and plopped down in my sunny reading chair and jumped right in.
in true SAA fashion, we head to north carolina, and i'm a goner. hang up the "do not disturb" sign, make your own dinner... mom is reading!
so, emily returns to the north carolina town where her mother grew up to find a giant for a grandpa, a bedroom with "mood" wall paper that changes all by itself, new friends with old stories about her mother that contradict with the woman emily knew as her mother, and... a boy.
i love the magic that bubbles up from all of her books, like the bubbles from a muscato d'asti... sweet, ticklish to your insides and makes you drunk on the pure pleasure of drinking it... or reading it, in this case.
and then there's the baking... always with the cooks in these books. SAA brings in a subplot of emily's baking neighboor that weaves in and out of emily's story seamlessly, yet makes you crave (yes, the pun is intended) more of the sweet stuff.
have you read garden spells yet? what about the sugar queen?
garden spells is SAA's debut and i just loved it--so much, i recommended it to everyone who came into the library for about a month! again set in NC, a magical house with a magical garden and a group of ladies you wish you were friends with--especially claire who bakes the most wonderful yummies with the things from her garden... and cousin evanelle, who gives random {yet immensely useful} gifts...
and then speaking of random gifts, in the sugar queen chloe finds books everywhere--just when she needs them. and josie has a closet where she hides her sweet stash, her romance novels and just recently a new friend, della lee. then they all whip up some magic to change josie and chloe's lives... and what happens to della? hmm...
now that i've disected these books {like i know anything}, i think the thing i like as much as the food is the ties of female friendships. emily and julia, josie, chloe and della, and even the friendship that sneaks up on sisters like claire and syndey. and you know how i like that idea of friendship!!
and next to friendship, i like to bake... sooooo, i think that SAA's next book should be a cookbook!! what do you think?!
__________ updates & news __________
*megs and i are still reading drums of autumn, but by the way i've been sneaking it to work, we should be done soon! how can diana gabaldon still keep writing this story? and why can't i put it down?!
*i'm also listening to charlaine harris' book dead until dark... it's the sookie stackhouse series, the inspiration for the HBO series 'true blood.' my first foray in to vampire literature...
*i haven't read the percy jackson series myself, but the big kid did... and altho the movie is different from the book, he liked the movie "almost" as much as the book--and that's saying a lot from him! give the series a try!
happy reading, my friends!
