Turn the Page...Tuesday

Oh my gosh! Adrienne's back! I'm so excited for her first Turn the Page...Tuesday in a really long time! Here we go!

Tell me Something True ~ Leila Cobo

After the death of her mother in a tragic plane wreck, Gabriella was raised by her dad in Los Angeles, spending a month every year with her maternal grandmother in Cali, Columbia. Now, as a young adult, Gabriella is back at her grandmothers for her yearly visit. Her grandmother lets her know that the old family house is scheduled for demolition, so Gabriella goes to the house to have one last moment there. While there, she finds a box pushed far back on a shelf in her mothers old closet. Pulling it down, she finds that it is the purse her mom was carrying on the flight that night, never opened by her grandmother. Inside the purse is a red, leather bound diary that starts out when Gabriella is born and is written to her. As she reads, she uncovers an affair her mom was having in the last several months of her life. This knowledge is devastating to Gabriella and makes her angry with her grandmother, who knew about the affair as well. In a bit of rebellion, Gabriella decides to go against her grandmothers wishes and continue to see a young man she met at a party. Angel is handsome and nice, but with some scary secrets of his own. 

I loved Gabriella. She was the perfect heroine for this novel, beautiful, sweet and a bit naive. Both stories, the backstory in the diary, and the present day story, were equally intriguing. A moving peek into another world, where you great love can be found, but where it can be dangerous to simply be out in public. I look forward to reading more by this author. 

China Dolls ~ Lisa See

Grace has been raised in the mid-west but finds herself in San Francisco when she runs away to escape from her abusive father. In her hometown, Grace has won numerous dance contests and dreams of being a big star, so San Francisco during the World Exposition of the late 1930's seems to be a great place to go, but Grace is told there is no openings for a Chinese girl so she makes her way to Chinatown where she meets and befriends Helen and Ruby. Together the three girls audition as dancers at The Forbidden City, an exclusive Oriental nightclub that is opening right outside of Chinatown. The story then takes us through the ups and downs of friendship, the nightclub world, and a world at war. The US has not yet entered into the war, but when Pearl Harbor is bombed everything changes.

Lisa See does such a fantastic job of bringing depth to her characters. Grace was my favorite but I loved Ruby and Helen as well. It's a great author that can make you feel the joy and pain of the people she writes about. Historical fiction is my favorite genre and China Dolls took me right to the heart of the 1940's. You will be laughing and crying with these girls and at times your heart will break for what they endured and what they put each other through. This was a very emotional story that I couldn't put down. Well done!

I'm so thankful to have received this book as an Advanced Reader's Edition from Goodreads. Know that what I stated in my review would have been said the same had I purchased this book full price from the shelf of any bookstore. It was fantastic!

What have you been reading? Pop on over to Adrienne's place at Some of a Kind to see what others have been reading and to join in the fun! 

French Onion Soup Goodliness

Oh fall, how I love thee!  It's supposed to rain this week and I am so looking forward to filling up the house with the scent of wonderful soups and baked yumminess. Mmmmmm,,,delightful! What are you looking forward to in the crisp, autumn days ahead?

French Onion Soup and Toasted Roast Beef Sandwich's

Soup:

1 medium yellow onion

1 medium red onion

1 medium leek (use white part only)

5 green onions with tops

1 garlic clove, minced

2 Tblsp. butter

40 oz. or so beef broth

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 cup of red wine ( I used a nice flavorful Cabranet)

Shredded Cheese ( I used a blend of parmesan and swiss)

Slices of French bread

Slice all onions about 1/4" thick.  In a soup pot over medium heat, saute' onions and garlic in butter for about 15 minutes or until golden and tender.  Add broth, worcestershire sauce, nutmeg and wine.  (Now's a good time to pour a glass for yourself as well.)  Bring soup to a boil.  Reduce heat;  cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes.  I think the longer it simmers, the better it is.  Mine simmered away for about 2 hours before we ate.   

Put hot soup into oven-safe bowls, top each with a slice of french bread  and a handful of shredded cheese.  Place on cookie sheet and toast.

I have a "Toasting" setting on my oven, which toasts for 4 minutes and works beautifully.  If you don't have that setting, broil will work just fine.

OH!  Wait a minute.  Get that soup back out of the oven!!! Got it?  Oh good.  We forgot to put the sandwich's on there. 

Toasted Roast Beef Sandwich's

You will need more slices of French bread, sliced cheese and deli-sliced roast beef.  I tossed a handful of roast beef right into my simmering soup for just a few seconds, pulled it back out with a fork and arranged it on top of the slices of bread.  I made sure and got a scoop or two fo those yummy onions from the soup onto the sandwich's as well.  Top them with a handful of shredded cheese, place them on the same cookie-sheet with the bowls of soup.  NOW we are ready to put them all in the oven and toast away. 

Enjoy!!

Holy buckets! I've been gone so stinking long! I've missed so many blog friends and hope we can reconnect again!

Wordless Wednesday

Turn the Page...Tuesday

She reads books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.
                                 ~ Annie Dillard

500 Acres and No Place to Hide

~Susan McCorkindale

Susan McCorkindale's humorous look at farm life from the eyes of a city girl had me laughing right out loud.  It also broke my heart.  I just about wet my pants over the silly hen on Susan's head and the pansy that killed that hen.  I then cried my eyes out over the cancer that changed their lives.  I would describe this book as a series of short stories instead of an actual novel, but I loved it and wish I would have read the first one, well...first...but never fear, it will find it's way to my shelf someday.

From Goodreads:

It's been four years since Susan's husband dragged her kicking and screaming from their comfortable, big city East Coast life to a farm in Virginia cattle country. Susan's adjusting as best she can, which isn't easy considering she's been known to wear Manolos in manure. She'll never be a real farm girl, but as readers will see from her side- splitting confessions, she's faking it just fine.

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey

~The countess of Carnarvon

This is a history of Lady Almina and was written quite well. Lady Almina was an heiress, the illegitimate daughter of Alfred deRothchild, who then married the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. During the first World War,Lady Almina found her calling and turned Highclere Castle into a hospital. Fascinating! Do not pick up this book thinking you will be reading a novel. It is history and written as such so gets a bit dry in places. I did really enjoy the history of the castle and the author, (who is the 8th Countess of Carnarvon!), did a good job of bringing the personalities out.

From Goodreads:

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration and setting for Julian Fellowes's Emmy Award-winning PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war.

    Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home.  Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman.
    This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.

I have just started watching the first season of Downton Abbey and am enjoying it. 

 

From the tbr shelves:

Home Front

~Kristin Hannah

Kristin Hannah did it again with another book that really touched my heart. Jolene and Micheal have been married for twelve plus years and things are starting to unravel. Micheal is a workaholic attorney who has recently lost his father and is having a hard time coping with Jolene's Pollyana attitude towards life. She is forever spouting platitudes such as "Choose to be happy and you will be". Jolene came from a very broken family and lost both of her alcoholic parents to a car crash when she was seventeen. She choose to be independent and strong and Micheal is resenting her strength. Jolene is a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the National Guard, another thing that Micheal doesn't support. One night, Micheal tells Jolene that he no longer loves her and just a couple of days later she gets the news that her troop is being deployed to Iraq. This is the story of a strong woman, a warrior, having to leave her family and a marriage that is following apart to go off to war. Jolene's heart is broken in a number of ways but she knows where her first duty lies and that is in protecting her country and her troops. 

I loved Jolene and my heart broke for her and all she had to face; not only the breaking marriage but the horrors of war as well. This is a novel of strength, love and horror. I think that all of us, including those of us with family in the military, (we have two sons who are both on their 4th tours of duty in war zones as I type this), should read this well researched novel to get a better understanding of what happens over there and the PTSD that so many of our soldiers come home with. Keep a box of kleenex close.

And now - hurry! - pop on over to Some of a Kind to see what others have been reading and to join in yourself!