Fiona Friday - Twins . . . and an update

Isabel very politely posed in front of the mirror, for me. I love "twin" kitty photos!

Update(s):

• We have finally started spending the night at the new house. Yay!
• We have internet service there. Woot!
• My laptop is a piece of junk so it's nearly impossible to post from the new house (I'm in the old one, at the moment). Boo!
• Hopefully, we'll have the desktop moved over within the next couple of days. We're moving the kitties to the new house tonight! Wahoo!
• If I can find the time, I'll bang out some mini reviews, this week. But, we may have a hurricane shutting us down. Ack!
• Then again, you never know which way those storms will turn. So, we might very well be just fine. Squeee!
• We had coffee on our new patio, this morning. Too awesome for words!

Best news of all:

The second round of medical tests all came back *negative* for the nasty auto-immune disease!! Wahoo! I will still go to a specialist and pepper him with questions, but judging from my research, the pain and joint swelling I've been experiencing are probably diet-related, as in food allergies. Gluten is highest on the suspect list. I've gone gluten-free, this week, and have a massive amount of energy, all of a sudden. We'll stay gluten-free and pure. Let's face it; we probably should have done this years ago. Our diet improved when I began going to the gym and I did manage to lose 25 pounds in the past year, but apparently that just wasn't enough. Onward!

Books??

I haven't finished any books in the past week! But, I'm on the verge . . . hopefully, tonight. Since this is a book blog, it seems only right to toss in a book pic.

The first book I recall falling in love with:

Jiggers is the story of a dog who becomes lost during a blizzard. I think. I haven't read it in a few years. Note that I keep my copy in a plastic bag. This is not the copy I had as a toddler. When I realized I didn't have my childhood copy, I became a bit obsessed with finding one and eventually located it on eBay at a reasonable price. Do you remember the first book you fell in love with?

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos

A Sentimental Centennial

I've been looking forward to July 12, 2012 all year because it signifies the 100th anniversary of the first item I'd grab (excluding humans and kitties, of course) in the event of a fire--a painting by my grandmother:

100 years old, today! When I was a wee thing, I used to climb up onto the crushed velvet chair in my parents' living room to admire that painting and, yep, when I finally settled into a permanent home, I pleaded with my mother to please, please pass it on to me. It was her favorite, as well, although it was in a closet by that point.

My grandmother was not a known painter, although she did teach art at university level for a couple of years. So her paintings have no monetary value. What makes this painting particularly special is not just the fact that it's one of the prettiest paintings I've seen by my grandmother but the fact that it was painted 5 months before her 12th birthday.

That's right. My grandmother painted this when she was 11 years old. Cool or what?

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

June Reads in Review and historical documents

I was flipping through my photo files, looking for a side-view mirror photo and came across the very first photo I took of Fiona, still in a cage at Petsmart:

See the little door between the two sections of her cage? She followed me from one side to the other and when I went behind the cages to hold her, snuggled right up to my neck. Of course she had to come home with me. :)

That was February of 2010, so she will be 3 years old in August.

On to the memory of my reads in the month of June, 2012:

73. Jasmine Nights - Julia Gregson

74. Forbidden - Syrie & Ryan James

75. Spark - Amy Kathleen Ryan

76. Courage in Times of Disappointment - George Samuel

77. Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada

78. Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones

79. Into the Free - Julie Cantrell

80. Soft Target - Stephen Leather

81. Poopendous! - Bennett & Moran

82. I Need My Monster - Noll & McWilliam

83. Victricia Malicia, Book-Loving Buccaneer - Clickard & Meyers

84. Robopocalypse - Daniel H. Wilson

June was a slow reading month and I veered toward lighter reading material -- lots of children's books and YA -- because of all that paperwork mortgage companies now require (and then the beginnings of packing to move).

The only book I didn't write about at all was Courage in Times of Disappointment by George Samuel. This is not a time of disappointment for us, obviously, but it was one of those books that I started to read to see if I should get rid of it and I was swept up in the writing. The author starts out by telling a story about being kidnapped in Amsterdam by a cab driver and how he talked and prayed his way out of it. The book is by a small religious press so it's very heavily Christian. George Samuel is or was from India (the book is at least 10 years old) and it is absolutely amazing how much tragedy he lived through while still remaining positive. I really enjoyed Courage in Times of Disappointment; it's very uplifting.

The rest of the books were all decent to excellent. I'm not sure I can choose a favorite, although my two least-favorite books were Into the Free and Jasmine Nights. I loved all of the children's books, gobbled up the YA and enjoyed the action in Soft Target and Robopocalypse (which, by the way, does have some plot holes -- it's all about the action; please be aware that I'm less discriminating when I can't concentrate). Silver Sparrow was the most surprising. I had no idea a book about the daughters of a bigamist could be such a page-turner.

Links above don't necessarily lead to full reviews or even minis. In some cases I just wrote a paragraph about a finished book but I'm kind of impressed with myself for continuing to fit in blog posts, at this point, and if a paragraph is all I can get around to, cool. I'm happy.

One more dip into the historical files. Look how tiny Isabel was when she arrived, compared to her big sis!

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Historical Documents - My Childhood Fairy Tale Book

I've meant to haul this book out and photograph it for quite some time, but I had to actually do some climbing to get to it. I couldn't possibly count the number of times I read the stories in this book. Look at that staggeringly beautiful cover! You can imagine how easily such a gorgeous book could turn a little girl into an avid booklover:


Here's a closeup of that cover illustration:


Inside the book:


Not all of the illustrations are full-color, but the artwork is all amazing. I don't have a ruler handy, but I'd say the dimensions are about 12" x 10". The book is quite heavily taped because it was so loved that I quite nearly read it to pieces.

One Historical Document - The Cow Tail Switch

I woke up late from a dream about an alien invasion, after getting the kiddo off to his first day of school and then falling back to sleep (seriously, I'm absolutely exhausted from helping to save the last of humanity with . . . water pistols; dreams are so interesting). So, my Lesley Castle review still hasn't been started and, instead, I'm posting a photo of an historical document - the first library sale book I ever bought, a reject from my hometown's public library, which I purchased for a dime when I was around 9 or 10 years old. The Cow Tail Switch is an excellent book of West African folk tales with black-and-white illustrations. I read and reread that book for years and still have a fondness for folk tales. It might be due for a reread.

More later, I hope. The first week of school is always rather wild.