Nest

Hello – I’m reblogging this from my Books to Pen blog. A little personal, but I thought I’d share. Do you ever feel better once you get something down on paper (or on your computer)? I do!

Books to Pen

She’d laughed with her neighbor at their ridiculous tears as they watched their five-year-olds march in a Chuck E. Cheese birthday parade. They’d both felt it, rising lumps in their throats and welling in their eyes, in embarrassing disproportion to the day. Their children were small and close and years away from leaving them. Without words, she and her friend knew what it meant and then it was stuffed deep.

Since then there had been many parades, ceremonies, and graduations and she’d felt the same way. Last year, a big graduation was hard on her as she remembered her parents at the one before that. It had been a difficult day with them. So much walking, so many arrangements and a close call as someone had bumped her father in line to get on the shuttle bus. The sight of his weak but proud figure as he struggled to find…

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Hats

Hi Everyone – just sharing a post from my Books to Pen blog – a weekly writing exercise!

Books to Pen

Hats have great importance. Young mothers put hats on their infants to protect them when they are in their strollers and out for a walk. They don’t know it, but when their babies are old enough to grab, those ruffled hats will be the first to go. Several months later, those same mothers will put the slightly larger hats back on their bigger babies, only to see them fly off their babies’ heads. Depending on the mother and the baby, you will see a variety of responses and emotions. It is one of the first battles between mother and child. Some mothers will place great importance in making sure the hat stays on. Other mothers will not care. In this struggle, sometimes one side shows a certain wisdom, and either mother or baby will choose early on not to fight the battle. These are the peacekeepers of the world.

Fashionable…

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Books about mothers and children

Hi and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I was going to do a special post featuring books about motherhood, but I’m just going to reblog this October 2019 post instead.

Book Club Mom

Some of my favorite stories are about mothers, family and children, especially the ones that span generations. Here’s a list of some of the fiction books about mothers I recommend, or want to read:

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Recommend

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

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Want to read

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

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Sentimental Favorites

Are You My Mother? By P.D. Eastman

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Tommy’s Mommy’s Fish by Nancy Dingman Watson

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This post is in memory of my mother, who passed…

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Mistake and forgiveness

Happy Wednesday Everyone! I was over at Books to Pen posting a new story. I hope you’ll come see me there 🙂

Books to Pen

She leaned over to kiss him hello and, instead of smiling at her, an anguished look of pain overtook his face. She didn’t think. She kept with her plan to kiss him. She had been afraid. Afraid of the visit, afraid of kissing a face that was once so much more familiar to her. She was still young, but now a young woman. As a young girl, she remembered this face as it leaned down to her, to accept her small kisses, one on the left cheek and one on the right. If she forgot the second kiss, he would tease her into remembering. His cheeks were always rosy then and his crinkling eyes smiled at her. This time, though, his face was different. He had grown a mustache, or, better put, the nurses had stopped shaving his upper lip. He looked so different now. She was puzzled by this…

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Walking at a distance

Hi Everyone – sharing this short story from my other blog, Books to Pen. I hope you’ll visit me there 🙂

Books to Pen

They had been walking the trail of their new development. It was a gorgeous spring day. People were out, at a distance, of course, but neighbors and walkers from the older development were coming over from the connected trail. From a distance, which is how people were observed these days, they looked like an older couple, enjoying a walk on a nice day.

A walker from across the street glanced over and registered this, then moved along, lost in singular but shared thoughts of the day: health, job, food, masks, the news.

The couple wore light jackets and masks and he assumed they were enjoying themselves. The man was older than the woman and he walked with a cane. He carried a bag of papers with him. They were going to post a flyer on the community board and at other stops down the way, about finding a shopper for…

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Finding the smallest sign

Hi Everyone – I hope you’ll visit me over at Books to Pen where I’ve posted something new!

Books to Pen

For months, throughout the winter, the birdfeeder hung off the deck, full of seeds and bits of fruit, waiting for the birds to come. I was waiting too and with each day that passed without a single visitor, I became more and more discouraged. Depressed, actually. It made me feel like I knew nothing, and not just about birds. I had been looking for something to cheer me, to show me that the world was working. I didn’t know how to find the smallest sign.

The year before, I had naively purchased the wrong kind of feeder, which we installed outside. We hung an attractive cluster of birdseed from its hook and waited for the show. The following morning, the clump was ruined, chomped no doubt by a deer. The hook went into the garage. That was my first discouragement, but I chalked it up to knowing nothing about birds…

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Collaborative music for you to enjoy, virtually!

Hi Everyone, while this isn’t a bookish share, it certainly tells a story about how people are coming together. Here, it’s about musicians from around the world who have collaborated, remotely, to make music. That’s certainly a story to make all of us feel a little better. I hope you enjoy these as much as I have. Special thanks to my brothers for sharing them with me!

Stay Connected with Chescolibraries

Local musicians and musicians around the world are coming together virtually to create some beautiful music. Here are three collaborative performances for you to enjoy.

True Colors – Camden Voices (self-isolation/virtual choir cover)

The Weight | Featuring Robbie Robertson and Ringo Starr| Playing For Change | Song Around The World

Virtual Choir “Va pensiero” (“Nabucco” by G. Verdi) – International Opera Choir

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Online book clubs for book lovers

Are you missing your book club buddies? Here’s how to find online book clubs and ideas for staying connected to your local book club friends. I don’t mention Zoom here because, being probably the only one who hasn’t used it yet, I don’t know much about it, but that’s an option too 🙂

Stay Connected with Chescolibraries

Image: Pixabay

Just because in-person book clubs are on hold, that doesn’t mean you have to stop talking about the books you’ve read. Celebrities, athletes and regular readers are out there ready to talk. Here are some online options for book clubs to keep that conversation going.

Addicted to YA on Goodreads

The Andrew Luck Book Club

Oprah’s Book Club

Poppy Loves Book Club

Reese’s Book Club – Hello Sunshine

Want a smaller group with people you know? You can create your own Facebook group and add your reading friends. If you have a website, designate a page for book discussions. Or start a free website on WordPress.com or Wix.com. Even a group chat on your phone can be a fun way to run a book discussion.

Are you in a book club? What adjustments have you made? What book do you want to talk about? Leave a comment…

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Update to Audiobook Review of The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick correction on my audiobook review of The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian. I misidentified the narrators and want to set it straight. Grace Experience is the voice of Alexandra and Mozhan Marno narrates the third person voices in the alternate chapters. I’m pointing this out because I thought both narrators were excellent in the roles they represented and I wanted to give them proper credit. Here is the corrected paragraph.

I enjoyed the audiobook version of The Guest Room, narrated by Grace Experience and Mozhan Marno, who switch between Alexandra’s story and the third person voices in the alternate chapters. I was especially drawn into the story by Experience, the voice of Alexandra. Through the author’s story and Experience’s voice, the audiobook provides a sobering look into brutal sex trafficking crimes. Marno has great range and deftly manages the other characters’ personalities, with subtle changes in her voice. Through both voices, I felt I knew the characters well.

If you missed the original review – you can check it out here.

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Keep pace on your next walk with these five bestselling author podcasts

Hi Everyone! I’m sharing another post from our library blog. This one provides links to five bestselling author podcasts. Something to download for your daily walk!

Stay Connected with Chescolibraries

Image: Pixabay

Before you take your next walk, why not download a podcast to keep your pace? Here are five bestselling author podcasts, ready for your ears!

On Writer’s Bone:

Author Delia Owens joins Daniel Ford for Friday Morning Coffee to chat about her debut novel Where the Crawdads Sing. – 21 minutes

Author Alex Michaelides joins Daniel Ford on Friday Morning Coffee to chat about his best-selling debut The Silent Patient.–23 minutes

On the B&N Podcast:

Bestselling, award-winning novelist Harlan Coben talks about where his stories come from — and the surprising tale of how he came to be a novelist. – 36 minutes

Jeanine Cummins sits down with B&N’s Miwa Messer to take us behind the making of American Dirt. –25-minutes

On Author Stories with Hank Garner:

Interview with C. J. Box, author of the Joe PIckett series and the new mystery Long Range (A Joe…

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