Memorial Day Fun: A Slice of Life Post

 

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you. I’m back with another Slice of Life Post. I had a relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. We went up north to my Inlaw’s cottage and had a great family weekend. It was perfect weather, eighty degrees and sunny.  I also worked on my current WIP. It’s coming together and I’m feeling pretty good about it.

We started teaching our boys how to play Euchre this weekend. My husband and I like to play, and we thought it would be a fun family bonding moment for all of us. We sat out on the back porch and enjoyed the sunset while we played.

With all this technology, I’d forgotten how much I enjoy playing cards. I played board games with my kids, but they’ve moved on from those. They’re growing up. It’s going by so fast.

Anyway, I’m glad they like to play. It’s something we can do as a family and it’s social, not technical. I feel that technology has advanced us in some ways, but hindered us in others.

I also read a lot this weekend. I finished two books and they were both very good. The first one was a young adult historical fiction novel, titled, “Ella Wood” by Michelle Isenhoff. If you like historical fiction then this book is for you.  It’s written during the Civil War and the main character lives in the south, but isn’t sure she agrees with their beliefs about slavery. The historical element was authentic and the story moved at a good pace. I’m sure many young girls will identify with the main character. I liked that she was strong and questioned the belief system she’d grown up with.  The cover and blurb are below.

Though she left Charleston a spoiled daughter of the South, Emily returns from her stay in the North a changed young woman. Her assumptions about slavery have been shattered, and her secret dream of attending university has blossomed into fierce ambition. As the passions sweeping North and South toward war threaten to envelop the city she loves, Emily must battle her father’s traditional expectations in her own bid for freedom. Meanwhile, the real fight may lie within her heart, which stubbornly refuses to accept that a choice for independence must be a choice against love.

“Poetic” and “nuanced”, Ella Wood is the story of a young woman standing at the edge of war and struggling with questions of morality, purpose, and love.

 

I also read a book by a new author. This one was not young adult, it was a New Adult novel by Karin Slaughter. It was recommended to me from one of my Twitter friends and it was an awesome story. I didn’t want to put the book down. It was a thriller and I must say it certainly grabbed me. I’d recommend it for a summer read. It’s titled “Pretty Girls,” and the cover and blurb are below.

Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that’s cruelly ripped open when Claire’s husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

Powerful, poignant, and utterly gripping, packed with indelible characters and unforgettable twists, Pretty Girls is a masterful novel from one of the finest writers working today.

 

These books are a must read! Put them on your TBR pile for this summer.  The school year is almost over! Two more weeks and we’re done! I can’t wait! 🙂 How about you? Do you have any good books you’d like to recommend?

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