Hidden in Plain View Thursdays - Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

Summer Sisters

by Judy Blume

Welcome to the weekly feature where we use Random.org to pick a book from our library shelves (real or virtual) and bring it out into daylight.  To join in, follow the guidelines posted here.

I picked this one up at a book sale last summer, mainly because I was attracted to the Martha's Vineyard (New England) setting.  I like Judy Blume, and think this one looks like one I'm going to put on the summer list for 2010.  Here's what's in the Amazon ad blurb:

In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard's world changed forever—when Caitlin Somers chose her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomed Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha's Vineyard, a magical, wind-blown island where two friends became summer sisters. . . .

Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin has begged Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—for the friend whose casual betrayals she remembers all too well. Because Vix wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart....

I'm glad Random.org picked this one...sometimes we just need to be reminded......

Hidden in Plain View Thursdays

Sullivan's Island

by Dorothea Benton Frank

Welcome to the weekly feature where we use Random.org to pick a book from our library shelves (real or virtual) and bring it out into daylight.  To join in, follow the guidelines posted here.

Be sure to leave us a link to your post so we can compare notes.
Can you find this one?  It's not quite in plain view.

I read this one when it came out in paperback, and have read all of her books s  If you enjoy Anne Rivers Siddons, or Pat Conroy, you'll definitely like reading Dorothea Benton Frank's delicious fiction set in the low country of South Carolina.  Sullivan's Island, the first of six  novels in the Low Country series tells a story of one woman's search for truth, after she left an unfaithful husband, and unpleasant life and returned to her childhood roots.

I've read the first two, and I'm looking for more.

Hidden in Plain View Thursdays

Cat and Mouse
by James Patterson

Welcome to the weekly feature where we use Random.org to pick a book from our library shelves (real or virtual) and bring it out into daylight.  To play along check these guidelines.

Be sure to leave us a link to your post so we can compare notes.
Can you find it in plain view? Answer at the bottom of the page.

I've read a few of James Patterson's books, mostly the Women's Detective Club series, but this is another we inherited, along with a substantial number of his works.  According to what I find on LibraryTHing, this is #4 of the Alex Cross series (of which there are 18).  I think I might try one of them in the next year because they are exciting and well plotted.  My problem with the WDC series is that, like many series, they started getting formulaic, and I'm hoping maybe since this is early in the series, it will be OK.  Besides, if I haven't read any of the others, how would I know if it's following a formula?

From the jacket: That monstrous villain Gary Soneji is back in Cat & Mouse, the fourth book in James Patterson's series about Alex Cross, a police forensic psychologist, but he's not alone. In seeming support of the premise that you can never have too much of a bad thing, Patterson has thrown a second serial killer into the mix: Mr. Smith, a mysterious killer terrorizing Europe while Soneji practices his own brand of evil along the Eastern Seaboard. With two killers to track, Cross has his hands full--and Patterson has another hit.

By the way, if anyone has read and reviewed this book, please leave us a comment and a link to your review.  We'd love to hear what others have said.  I can't possibly read every book in my library.  That's why I have so much fun with this meme.....I can feature a book on my shelves without feeling like I have to drop everything and read/review it.

It's hidden in plain view on the middle shelf 3rd  from the left. (and yes...that's Tutu and handsome escort on the right.)

Hidden in Plain View Thursdays

Buckley: The Right Word: About the Uses and Abuses of Language, including Vocabulary; Usage; Style & Speaking; Fiction

by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Welcome to the weekly feature where we use Random.org to pick a book from our library shelves (real or virtual) and bring it out into daylight.  To join in, the 'rules' are here.

 Be sure to leave us a link to your post so we can compare notes.

This week's selection was hidden so well, I had to go to the attic annex to get it.  It looked so fascinating, it got promoted to the 'real' library downstairs.  Can you find it in the shot above? Answer at the bottom.

Now here's a title!!.  I discovered William F. Buckley Jr last year.  We inherited a number of his books from auntie, and I had one of them, The Blackford Oakes Reader in my 999 challenge for short stories.  It was so delightful, I have resolved to read at least two more during the coming year.  This one looks like a winner, although at 541 pages, it is not necessarily one you'd want to read from cover to cover.  Since it is formatted as an omnibus series of essays, interviews, and other presentations, it looks doable in short bursts.  It certainly looks like something that would be fun to browse through.

From the back cover: Buckley’s provocative observations on the use and abuse of English, gathered for the first time in a single volume - a “veritable cornucopia of language and logic that belongs in every library” (Library Journal). Edited by Samuel S. Vaughan.

Did you find it?  Hint: It's on the top shelf at the left end of the books--next to the angel and the picture frame.

Hidden in Plain View Thursdays

Monk's Hood: A Medieval Whodunit

By Ellis Peters

Welcome to the weekly feature where we use Random.org to pick a book from our library shelves (real or virtual) and bring it out into daylight.  To join in, pick a random book from your library and tell us:

• title, author, #of pages, edition, (tags, and collections if LT)
  
• why that book is in your library, (how and when you acquired the book)
• whether you've read it or not
• if so did you like it and why;
• if not, do you plan to read it?

Be sure to leave us a link to your post so we can compare notes.

Can you spot today's book?  Answer at the bottom.


Ellis Peters' Brother Caedfael series is a favorite of mine and my husband.  We got hooked on them over 25 years ago when we found them in a bookstore in HongKong.  We had read one of them, and when we spotted the whole series, we gobbled them up.  This week's random pick is Monk's Hood, no. 5 in the series.

I'm refreshing my memory here from other reader's reviews on LT, but the story involves a rich nobleman who is murdered by poison (Monk's Hood) stolen from Caedfael's own dispensary.  When Caedfael  begins to help investigate, he discovers his first love (from his pre-monastic/pre-crusade days) is the newly widowed spouse of the deceased.  All the usual players are present- the sheriff, the abbot, and several colorful townsfolk.

These mysteries are excellent, almost but not quite cozy, with well developed plots, well researched early forensics, and characters who stay with the series and grow as you read each book in the series.  You can pick up any of them without reading the others, but they are all worth a peek.

They're also great videos to watch on a dark and snowy night...we often check them out from Netflix.  Derek Jacoby does an outstanding portrayal of Caedfael.  Either reading or watching, they're both enjoyable.

Now --did you find the hidden book.  It's the 4th to the left of the center bookend on the very top shelf. here's what it looks like.

Hidden in Plain View Thursdays

Baltimore Harbor, A Picture History

Welcome to the weekly feature where we use Random.org to pick a book from our library shelves (real or virtual) and bring it out into daylight.  To join in, pick a random book from your library and tell us:

• title, author, #of pages, edition, (tags, and collections if LT)
  
• why that book is in your library, (how and when you acquired the book)
• whether you've read it or not
• if so did you like it and why;
• if not, do you plan to read it?

Be sure to leave us a link to your post so we can compare notes.

This week we went to page 11, book #85 of the collection "Your Library' in LibraryThing. These are books we physically own.  Our book of the week is one that I love to browse through, and often leave on the coffee table when we have guests.  I'm a native Balmoron, so Baltimore Harbor, a Picture History, by Robert Keith, was a book we couldn't pass up.  It is a paperback edition, 168 pages from Johns Hopkins University press that we found on the sale table at B&N two years ago when we were in Baltimore to celebrate some family event or other.

It's chock full of great old photos of early Baltimore clippers, fire engines, tugs, ferries, and cool skyline sights I remember from my early early childhood having lived in South Baltimore less than 1/2 mile from the harbor.  No I can't say I've read it all the way through, but yes, I've browsed it and waxed nostalgic several times.

Don't you love books that recall your childhood?  Especially ones like this that bring back the same kind of feelings you get when looking through a family photo album or scrapbook.

Does your hometown have a pitcher book? (That's how they say it in Ballmur hon!)  Tell us about it.

Hidden in Plain View

I've not been able to keep up with everyone else's memes, so I decided to start one of my own...Hidden in Plain View.  Feel free to play along, just post a link to this one, so we can all stay in touch. This is a chance to dig a little deeper into our personal libraries to find books that may be languishing on the shelves and bring them out for a better look. I plan to do this weekly on Thursdays.  To join in:

1. Pick a random book from your library (I used random.org to pick mine from my LT catalog).
2. Tell us

• title, author, #of pages, edition, (tags, and collections if LT)
  
• why that book is in your library
• whether you've read it or not
• if so did you like it and why;
• if not, do you plan to read it?
• how and when you acquired the book

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have 24 'pages' of books in LT, so this week Random.org chose pg 17.  Then Random choose book 74 from the 100 books on that page.  This week's book is

• Franklin and Winston, by Jon Meacham, 512 pages, hardcover, Random House, 2003;
• Tags =   biography, history, WWII, Churchill, FDR, US Pres challenge, TBR;
• LT collections= my library, to read
• Both hubbie and I love to read biographies and history, and since this will help as an 'extra' when I'm doing the US President's challenge on LT, I scarfed it up. 
• Haven't read it yet, but it's on my TBR list for when I get to FDR on the president's list. Since I'm only at Jefferson right now, this one will sit patiently on the biography shelf.  It promises to be a good one though and I'm looking forward to reading it.
• I bought the book for $3 at a Friends of the Library booksale about 4 months ago. It had been withdrawn from the library's collection (I can't imagine why unless they had duplicates).
  

Here's a back cover blurb from Tom Brokaw:

"This is at once an important, insightful, and highly entertaining portrait of two men at the peak of their powers who, through their genius, common will, and uncommon friendship, saved the world. Jon Meacham's Franklin and Winston takes its place in the front ranks of all that has been written about these two great men."

So what's lurking in your library?