Book and Blog recommendations

Picture this scenario:

Hubby and I are going to the cottage for the weekend. More specifically, for 36 hours. While there, he will wear whatever he keeps there. I have to coordinate my attire and plan for changes in temperature. I hate to be cold. Blue jeans, pink tee shirt, pink sweatshirt, pink and white striped socks. Orange tee for second day....oh wait, that won't go with the pink sweatshirt if I need it. Do I pack a second sweatshirt or look for a different tee?

Hubby patiently rolls his eyes and waits. Biding his time, he asks if all the stuff on the counter is going with us.

The stuff on the counter consists of my laptop (because I MUST stay connected!), my craft bag which usually has two completely different projects in it (I may get bored with one or finish it and need the second!), my book bag containing whatever I am currently reading, a second book (I might finish the first one!) and any new magazines in my possession, and lastly, one small bag of groceries.

This is all the food? Well, yes. I thought we'd eat on the way to the cottage and breakfast is always light and usually lunch is too and besides I haven't really shopped this week. I've been knitting, sewing, reading, blogging, painting and reading some more.

Don't get me wrong, I like to eat, but food is no where near as nourishing to me as creating something and reading. I don't think I've been without a craft project in the works since my teens and haven't been without a book since before I can remember.

For anyone who enjoys reading, please visit Angie at A Book A Day. Her mission is to read a book a day for a year and comment on each book. A reader of her blog asked her how she chooses her books and how she has time for this endeavor. The question and her answer are in the comments of today's (May 6, 2009) post. The post itself contains links to an entry for each of the past four months as an introduction to new readers, and the book of the day is Might As Well Laugh About It Now by Marie Osmond.

My current personal book recommendation is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Here is a review that gives some background:

The Washington Post - Wendy Smith

Though it deals with a dark period in history, this first novel is an essentially sunny work. It affirms the power of books to nourish people enduring hard times—not so surprising, since Mary Ann Shaffer, who died earlier this year, had a long career as a librarian, bookseller and editor. Her niece Annie Barrows, a children's author, finished the manuscript after Shaffer fell ill; between them, they crafted a vivid epistolary novel whose characters spring to life in letters and telegrams exchanged over the course of nine months shortly after the end of World War II…You could be skeptical about the novel's improbabilities and its sanitized portrait of book clubs (doesn't anyone read trashy thrillers?), but you'd be missing the point. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a sweet, sentimental paean to books and those who love them.

If the title alone doesn't make you want to pick up the book and consider reading it, please know that it is a quick read but one that will quickly involve you. Along the way, you will learn what life was like for the people who lived on the island during WWII, but it won't feel like a history lesson as you take in the story.

Happy reading everyone.