1. collation: “I’ll go for water while you prepare the collation.”

Collation means a light, informal meal.

That word came from Here Comes the Sun by Emilie Loring.

This next one I found in an interview with author Michael Connelly in Bookmarks Magazine:

2. tectonic: “Tectonic shift, social shifts, the haves and have-nots, it seems to all the part of the canvas that is the City of Angels–or the City of Angles, as some would have it.”

Tectonic refers to the structure of the earth’s crust and the large-scale processes that take place within it.

3. dyspepsia: “Sensible girl, to spare herself yours of mortal dulness, gossip, and dyspepsia,” was the placid reply.

Dyspepsia is indigestion. I found this word in the short story, Scarlet Stockings by Louisa May Alcott.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is sponsored by Kathy at Bermuda Onion’s Weblog. Visit her for more new words or to play along with words of your own.

All four of the books feature Charlie, and I’m glad they do. Charlie is a great character and I have to tell myself she is not real. Charlie is single although in Prime Time she meets the love of her life and he is still with her in the fourth.

Charlie has a great career and she’s very good at it. She’s very curious and seems to have that sixth sense for a good story. Each one of the books investigates a story that I swear I seen or read about. Charlie and her bottomless pit of a tote bag are always willing to risk everything to see a project to it’s end.

As I was reading the books I saw the author in the role of Charlie. Hank Phillippi Ryan is also an investigative reporter for a Boston TV channel. I can’t help but wonder if what I’m reading actually happened. Knowing the author’s background really enhanced the story for me.

Lucky for me, I had all four books. Once I finished one I picked up the next and started in. By the time I got to book four I slowed down. It was fun and I didn’t want it to end so I read just a little at a time. I decided to tell you about the last three books all at once in this post. Her is a short synopsis of each one.

In Face Time Charlie fights for justice, journalism—and the battle against on-the air aging. (And for that dishy professor she met on the job.) The good news: she’s got explosive evidence to free an innocent woman from prison. The bad news: that makes Charlotte—and someone she loves—the killer’s next target.

Who better to crack the story than Boston’s own version of Brenda Starr? Unfortunately, the prime source won’t talk, the attorney general is trying to block the investigation, and the more Charlotte snoops around, the more people turn up dead.

An extended visit from her persnickety mother isn’t helping And the incredibly sexy new love of her life may be the picture of perfection, but that includes a close up of a prickly preteen who isn’t keen on sharing her daddy with Charlotte.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In Air Time Charlie enters the glamorous and high-stakes world of high fashion…and soon discovers when the purses are fake—the danger is real.

To break her latest big-money blockbuster, Charlotte must go undercover—but what if the bad guys recognize her? This savvy TV journalist must face more than her fear of flying when her inside scoop on designer duplicates suddenly turns deadly.

Carrying a hidden camera and dressing to deceive, Charlie finds she’s not the only one disguising her identity. Nothing—and no one—is what they seem. And that means nothing—and no one—can be trusted. In her high-risk job and in her suddenly steamy love life, how can she tell the real thing?

Charlie is forced to make some life-changing—and life and death—decisions. With only a split-second to act and with her own life in the balance, Charlie knows if she chooses wrong it will be the last decision she ever makes.

~~ ~ ~ ~

In Drive Time Charlie is an expert at keeping things confidential, but suddenly everyone has something to hide—and even Charlie realizes it’s possible to know too much.

Her latest television scoop—an expose of a dangerous car scam, complete with stakeouts, high-speed chases and hidden-camera footage—is ratings gold. Now, in the prime time of her journalism career, it seems like Charlie’s dreams are about to come true. If she can just balance her career and her upcoming wedding—perhaps she can really have it all.

But soon Charlie’s personal and professional lives are put on a terrifying collision course. Her fiancé is privy to information about ugly phone calls at an elite private school, threats that are suddenly turning deadly. There’s a mysterious death. And then—another. Her soon-to-be stepdaughter may be in danger. Her fiancé comes under suspicion. Then Charlie’s career takes a turn she never could have predicted.

I guess you can tell I really liked these books. For a great behind-the-camera look at TV news, you can’t beat these fun and page-turning books.

Scarlet Stockings

by Louisa May Alcott

Harry Lennox has been away from town for five years and is back visiting his sister Kate. Kate has become friends with Belle Morgan, “a nice, bright, energetic, warm-hearted dear.” Harry hasn’t met Belle yet but he likes to watch her pass by wearing her scarlet stockings. Harry would like Kate to introduce him, but Kate knows how Belle feels about Harry. Belle said she “wasn’t fond of peacocks.”

Harry does seem full of himself but he finally makes the acquaintance of Belle. I don’t think Belle is exactly what Harry was expecting. Belle is very “principled” about various issues in life. She is passionate about caring for the poor and sick, she walks five to six miles a day, and she knits large socks for unknown soldiers going to fight for the North.

As Harry gradually comes to understand Belle, his usual swagger and “peacock” ways begin to change. When his month’s visit to his sister is over, he is unhappy about leaving both his sister and Belle. Although Belle has changed her opinion of Harry, she still can’t give her affections to a man who is not patriotic enough to fight as a soldier for his country.

So Belle finishes her knitted socks and makes a few other items for an anonymous soldier who will be her “substitute” in the war. Belle’s father agrees to take the items to the anonymous soldier prior to their departure for the battlefield. As the troops set off they march through the streets of town. Belle is shocked when she sees the “substitute” soldier who is marching off to war.

This short story was pure Louisa May Alcott. It was the same old-fashioned, stiff writing as Little Women, but the characters shine through. In this short three-chapter story, the author gave us nicely developed characters, especially Harry and Belle. It was nice to find the short stories of Louisa May Alcott.  I can recommend this one, if you like Alcott’s writing but don’t want to wade through her novels. You can find this short story here.

If you’d like to read other bloggers who have posted short stories or if you’d like to join in, visit John at Book Mind Set for more Short Story Monday.

Denali National Park is so vast that it staggers the imagination. You can see for miles and miles. It’s as if it will never end. Since the park contains six million acres, it’s no wonder it feels so huge.

There are very few man-made structures so, when you visit, you can see this area as it has looked for thousands of years. The natural beauty has not been touched.

There is only one road in the park and it is limited. Private vehicles are allowed only on the first 15 miles. The picture above is what you see at the 15 mile area. It was great for animal-watching, so we drove out here every day.

If you want to go past that point, you have to ride one of the limited buses. It’s best to have reservations. The goal is to protect the animals and the vegetation from human encroachment.

Twice we were able to ride one of the buses. One day we went out about 45 miles. Another day we rode to the end of the road – 91 miles to a small village, Kantishna. If you look carefully in the above picture you can see that one lonesome gravel road.

Snow is the normal ground cover here, except for four or five months. But when it is green, it is so lush and the wildflowers pop up to add to the beauty.

Denali National Park is home to Mount Denali (formerly Mount McKinley). Only once were we able to see the mountain and that was a very brief look. The guide told us we were lucky, because in the summer it is only visible about 20% of the time. There are plenty of other mountains around however, to satisfy those of us who have to have their mountain fix – me. For mountains and vast open places, Denali National Park is definitely one of our Favorite Places.

When I was a child nearly every adult female I knew had a special cake that was theirs alone. Recipes were shared, but it wasn’t polite for a homemaker to show off with someone else’s cake, unless they weren’t around of course.

My mom has a wonderful file box filled with many of these cake recipes. The recipe card says the name of the person and then the title of the cake. For instance, my grandmother’s cake was called Little Grandma’s Heaven’s Food Cake. My mom’s was called Marian’s Lazy Daisy Cake. Our neighbor’s cake was so popular it was known simply as Mrs. Schmidt’s Date Cake even though it’s real name was Duchess’ Delight.

Homemakers in the 1930’s, 40’s and early 50’s had to be quite creative. Sugar was first expensive and then rationed during World War II. Cake recipes that called for low amounts of sugar and/or few eggs were popular. Cake was a treat but still served often, although not every day. If I saw my mom baking a cake, I always asked, “Who is coming over tonight?”

I began my own search for “my” cake when I took Home Ec in seventh grade. I wanted something exotic like Sauerkraut Surprise Cake (I still have the recipe) or Buttermilk Apple Cake (that one’s lost). My friends and I were excited when we found the Tomato Soup Cake. It was new within our area so many of us adopted that one. Later I added other cakes like Carrot Cake and Red Velvet to my repertoire.

Making those cakes gave me a lot of cooking confidence. Remember those were the days prior to KitchenAide or electric mixers of any kind. If you make a cake, it was all by hand. In addition to beating by hand, there were other little tricks. For instance, after you filled your cake pans with the batter, you let the pan drop gently on the counter until you got enough bubbles. And for some reason we always tip-toed around in the kitchen if a cake was in the oven. We wanted to cake to rise.

All of this changed for us when Betty Crocker came along with her cake mixes. It was just too easy to make a quick cake with them. Gradually we learned to adapt the cake mixes and make them our personal signature cakes again. My Tomato Soup Cake is still possible, only now with a mix.

I know some of you are wrinkling up your nose at the thought of these items together. If I could just serve you a piece without you knowing that it contained tomato soup, you would be amazed. You have to trust me on this one. Here’s my recipe:

Tomato Soup Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 box of spice cake mix
• 1 (15 oz.) can of tomato soup
• 1/4 cup of water
• Eggs and oil in amounts called for on the cake mix box.
• 1/2 cup raisens
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

1. In a bowl mix the soup and water. Add all other ingredients called for on the cake mix recipe. (Do not use the amount of water called for on the box. The 1/4 cup and the tomato soup will be the liquid.) Stir everything together.
2. Add the cake mix and stir.
3. Add the raisens and nuts and stir again.
4. Grease and lightly flour (or use cooking spray) the pans. (Use round pans or a 9 x 13″ pan.)
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Frost with your choice of frosting. I usually use a butter cream frosting. You could also buy those little cans of frosting. I hope you’ll give this one a try. If you’re looking for something to go with a retro-party, this one could work. It originated in the 1930’s. I hope you enjoy it.

Talking about food is a regular feature on my blog and others as well. Visit Beth Fish Reads for other bloggers who are participating in Weekend Cooking.

Now my mom is in her late eighties and suffering from dementia. Life is different. She has forgotten many of her skills – knitting, sewing, quilting, baking, and she is too weak to take care of her roses. The good news is that she still has one skill left which gives her great pleasure: READING!!! Thank God for that.

She doesn’t remember any of the books from the last fifty years and isn’t pleased with some of the others we get for her. She talks with so much fondness of her high school favorites, Emilie Loring’s books, that I had to find them. I made it my mission to get them. I was surprised that it really wasn’t that hard. They are available at used book stores through Amazon and in packets on e-bay.

To get started I ordered three and they came quickly. Mom was thrilled. She read one within a couple of days and was able to talk clearly about it. However, with the evilness that is dementia, within a few days she didn’t remember that she had read that book and just started reading it again. I may not need to buy any more, except that having them sit right there for her gives her so much pleasure.

[I'm sure everyone who is reading this is also a lover of books. I hope you can see the hope in this story of my mom. I do. I pray that no matter what happens to me in the years ahead, just please let me be able to read. Get me my books!]

With Mom receiving so much pleasure from these books my curiosity was aroused. It drove me to read one of them. This is the second book Emilie Loring published in 1924.

Here Comes The Sun

Fleeing from the train that was to take her to her prospective but uninteresting fiance, golde-haired Julie Lorraine became caught in an unexpected sequence of events. Hours later, she found herself married to the handsome stranger who had followed her from the train.

Political intrigue and the threat of a deceitful woman threatened both their futures. Only Julie’s courage and questioning spirit saved them–and revealed the true instincts of her heart and the man who had always loved her.

Now I love a good romance novel, but this one was a little far-fetched for my taste. The book was way too clean. By that I mean it didn’t seem real. I find it hard to believe that men and women, even in the 1920’s, talked so pure. And, there is not one hint of sex in this book. Yes, way too clean for me.

Another problem for me was that the best and only possibility for a woman in this book was to become a homemaker. Ugh. However, all these things that I disliked about the book are irrelevant. It’s what makes it a gem in my mother’s eyes. And, that’s good. I didn’t buy the books for me. The books are all hers.

About the author:

Emilie Baker Loring (1864 – 1951) was the daughter of a playwright and publisher and the wife of an attorney. She was a homemaker until she began writing at the age of fifty. She kept on writing until her death. Within that thirty-seven-year writing career she wrote over fifty books. Twenty of those books were published after her death.

Fiction: 3

Non-Fiction: 6

This is an exact duplicate of January. I just seem to love those non-fiction books.

Challenges completed: 0

Challenges started: 0

Favorite character I met during the month:

It’s a tie!!

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the private investigator (researcher) Britten in the graphic novel Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry. I’m sure the author meant this as a serious noir crime novel but I found Britten to be funny and a very likable character.

My heart went out to the young Ethel Waters who was never loved or cared for as a child. Then my admiration grew for her as she developed into a magnificent woman who shared her amazing voice with the world. [From His Eye Is On the Sparrow.]

What’s ahead for March?

I’m very happy to be hosting two book-tours this month. One is for Pump Up Your Book Tour with the new mystery, Devil’s Food Cake by Josi Kilpack.

The other tour is with TLC Book Tours with a non-fiction title, If The Church Were Christian by Phillip Gulley. I can’t wait to tell you about them as well as a few others I’m anxious to read.

I hope you have also had a good month with your reading.

This week I found a bunch of new words in an editorial I was reading in the online New York Times. The writer was talking about whether the United States is going to decline like Rome and other great powers. It was an interesting article, found here and interesting words. Here are three of them.

1. cogency: The thesis seems a tad schematic, but Professor Kennedy maintains it with dazzling cogency.

Cogent means an argument that is clear, logical, and convincing.

2. hegemony: Now doom-mongers conjure with Roman and British analogies in order to trace the decay of American hegemony.

Hegemony means leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.

3. internecine: Rome was prone to internecine strife whereas America is constitutionally stable.

Internecine means destructive to both sides in a conflict.

I hope you too have had a good reading week and that you were able to add new words to your vocabulary. Don’t forget to visit Kathy for more Wondrous Word Wednesday.

by Nora Roberts

Berkley Books, 2009

My Rating: B+

Several decades ago I picked up a Nora Roberts romance book and kept on reading every time she wrote a new one. Then she started trying out new twist to her stories. When she started with the paranormal stuff, I stopped reading her. Now she has a new series of four books and I’ve come back to her. This series is strictly romance. Nothing weird.

The quartet of books is focusing around four women, best friends and partners in Vows, a wedding planning company that guarantees the perfect day. Each of the four friends has a unique role in the business and each will be featured in the four books.

This first book, Vision In White, stars Mackenzie (Mac) Elliot. Mac is the ultimate wedding photographer who specializes in capturing the special moments. She doesn’t like the canned, posed photos. Mac watches for the unguarded moments when she can see something different, something special.

Yes, Mac is very good at her job. Her work and her best friends make up for the lack of a decent family life. Her father has been mostly absent from her life. If her mother, Linda, would be absent it would be better for Mac. Linda is selfish, manipulative, conniving, a witch with a capital B. She expects Mac to pay for all sorts of things for her. What’s worse is that Mac gives in to the manipulation which leads to all sorts of problems.

And then Mac meets Carter Maguire. He’s a stable English teacher who’s serious and smart but also funny and a little clumsy. Carter had a crush on Mac when they were in high school but she never knew it. Now he’s flustered by her and gets somewhat tongue-tied.

The relationship is slow and cautious to begin with, but in a good way. Mac, given her parental history, is convince she can’t fall in love or have any type of long-term relationship. She is seriously attracted to Carter but seriously fights it.

She could stay like this, exactly like this, for hours. Days. All sleepy and warm and tangled up with the delicious Carter Maguire. And in the morning, they could . . .

Her eyes flashed open. What was she thinking? What was she doing? The morning? Hours and days? The quick kick of panic had her jolting upright.

As a leading man Carter is an original. He was so perfect I fell in love with him. Here is how Mac (and I) saw him:

“He’s too much for me. He’s sweet and funny, he’s smart and genuinely kind. He’s sexy and he’s got those glasses. He’s got the ear-blush thing happening. He loves teaching. I watched him lead a class, and it’s . . . It gets stuck right here.” She rubbed a hand between her breasts. “All this feeling and need clogged up.”

She’s got it bad, doesn’t she? The story builds slowly but doesn’t drag. Ms. Roberts takes her time to define all the characters. This is like the Nora Roberts’ books I read for so many years. However there are some subtle differences. These woman are each strong in their own way. They are independent business women, making it on their own. That added to the story for me.

My husband gave me this book and  Book Two for Christmas. Book Three is due in April and Book Four is due later this year. I’ll be reading those, for sure. Check your public library for copies. This book is also available at Amazon. (I am an Amazon Associate.)

I know lots of people don’t care much for romance novels. In order to get some balance to my thoughts I looked at what other reviewers thought of this book. You can check them here:

S. Krishna’s Reviews

Dear Author

Lesa’s Critiques:

Galley Smith

The Lottery

by Shirley Jackson

The American Literature website has some wonderful classic short stories. As part of my new program to educate myself on short stories, they have been a superb resource. I want to tell you about a story I found there but first let me tell you about one of the key things I’ve learned about short stories: you usually have to read to the very end to catch on to the point.

In The Lottery I had no idea what the whole thing was about until the last few paragraphs. Let me tell you the gist of the story without giving away the ending.

The Lottery does not refer to the multi-million dollar lotteries of today. It appears the story takes place several hundred years ago in a small rural village. All 300 of the villagers have gathered in the center of town – men, women, and children. It seems to be an annual event.

There is quite a ritual to it and it appears to have going on for a very long time. The male head of each household draws for each family. Every man is called forward and he draws out a paper from the ancient black box. No one opens their folded paper until the signal is given.

After the winning family is determined, there is a second lottery for the members of the chosen family until only one person is named. It is only then that the reader learns what the lottery is all about. I kept thinking of all the nicest things that could result from this lottery. I was wrong. The outcome is gruesome and stayed with me for a long time.

The story first appeared in the New Yorker Magazine in 1948. It was not received well. I imagine people had the same reaction I did. The New Yorker received lots of hate mail and cancelled subscriptions.

In spite of the controversy the story can be appreciated on several levels. For one thing, it’s very well written. It’s gone on to become a short story classic and appears on classroom reading lists around the country.

The entire story can be read here. But don’t forget I warned you.

If you’d like to read other bloggers who have posted short stories or if you’d like to join in, visit John at Book Mind Set.