Sarah Addison Allen – Have You Read Her Books?

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

You are who you are, whether you like it or not, so why not like it?

Sarah Addison Allen, Garden Spells

 I must admit that I love it when I find a new author and they have several books that I can read. So, while I usually will talk about a particular book, today I thought I would recommend an author. The author’s name is Sarah Addison Allen.

Sarah Addison Allen is from North Carolina. She has written 5 books – the latest one was released on January 21, 2014. The titles of her books are as follows:

  1.       Lost Lake (2014) 
  2.       The Peach Keeper (2011)
  3.       The Girl Who Chased the Moon(2010) 
  4.       The Sugar Queen (2008)
  5.       Garden Spells (2007 

There is also a free story that you can download for your kindle (or kindle app) from Amazon.  Here is a link to that page.

I found this author several years ago. I don’t know how I happened across her work but once I read one of the books, I had to read them all.  Recently, I was going through the list of books that I had bought on an e-reader and came across her books.  I had forgotten about her books. I looked her up and found the free story and that a new book was available.  I will tell you that I didn’t even read the summary of the new book, I just bought it.  (Something I have to stop doing!)

Her books have an air of the South and a bit of fantasy. The central character is generally a woman and there is a family history that has affected her, a little bit of magical power, and love. These are not stories of witches casting spells. They are more stories of people trying to live their quiet lives and there is just some magic around them.  The stories generally take place in a small town in the South and the character’s abilities are not a secret in the town.

I will admit that I love a good story about crazy Southern women. There is nothing finer. I am thinking about Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, and The Help. There is just something so delightful in reading about the crazy things that these women do and how society allows it.

The characters on the Sarah Addison Allen books are not as wildly crazy as the women in the other books. They are well drawn characters that will have you cheering them on to win and have a happy ever after.

Sarah Addison Allen also has a nice author web site. (You can use this link to the web site.) I particularly liked that when you click on the author tab that there are Seven Things About Sarah. If your thirst for information is not quenched there, you can click to learn 100 more things. It is so much more interesting than a simple biography.  Many of the items just make me think that we could be friends.  

Who wouldn’t want to read an author who makes you feel that way? I suggest that you check out Sarah Addison Allen’s books.  They are widely available in hardback, paperback, and ebooks.  You can even get them at the library!

Here is a short interview with Sarah Addison Allen talking about her writing.


Thanks for reading!

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Mum Monday

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

This winter has really gone too far.  So, I need to remind myself (and you) that it will end.  I have decided to do that with pictures.

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Time to wish away those grey skies and deep covering of white.

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It will be warm and sunny again.  There will be color!

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There will be new life and liquid water.

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And construction.

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And boats and beaches.  It will come. Right now, it seems so very,very far away but it will come.

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Getting More Done

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

I don’t know about you but I am a sucker for organization books and time management books.  Somehow I think that they will change my life and make it so wonderful that it won’t take any effort from me. Okay, I know that I am not a princess and that nothing will make my life that simple but a girl can dream.

graphic by Cieleke Graat

Graphic by Cieleke Graat

I have been feeling particularly discombobulated. There is so much that I want to do and I just have not been able to get on a schedule that seemed to work.  I was bouncing from one thing to the other but not feeling very satisfied. I was not writing as much as I wanted to and my time was like a giant black hole.

At the first of the year, I knew that I had to change.  I wanted to be more productive. I was ready. I think that being ready is an important ingredient in being able to make changes. Maybe I just was not as ready before. Whatever the problem was, I knew that I needed to overcome it.

Manage your day to day

I read a review of a time management book that seemed interesting. I went to Amazon, the easiest place to start looking. Right now, I can’t remember the title of that book. But while I was reading about that book, another book caught my eye. The book is Manage Your Day-To-Day.It has the sub-title Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind. This sounded like the title for me.  I took a further look into the book.

The book has four chapters and each of these chapters has several essays written by creative professionals. For example, the first chapter is – Building a Rock-Solid Routine and features the following essays:

Laying the Groundwork for an Effective Routine by Mark McGuinness

Harnessing the Power of Frequency by Gretchen Rubin

Q&A Honing your Creative Practice with Seth Grodin

Building Renewal into Your Workday by Tony Schwartz

Making Room for Solitude by Leo Babauta

At the end of each Chapter there is a summary titled Key Takeaways. I really liked that it had a summary of each chapter.  I thought it really added to the suggestions.

After looking though all the information about the book and noticing that it was $3.99 as a kindle book, I bought the book. I am very glad that I read this book. It gave me several insights and ideas. It does follow a lot of the suggestions that I have read elsewhere about avoiding checking email and social media sites frequently during the day.  I do think that this is one of my problems. The urge to keep up with email is hard to resist.

I have found this book to be really beneficial. I feel like I have been more organized and ready to get more accomplished starting out this year.

Thanks for reading!

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Creations and Their Uses

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

Do you ever wonder if when someone wrote or invented something that they meant for it to be used in the way it is currently used?

I started thinking about this when I attended a funeral last week. As part of the funeral, the song “On Eagle’s Wings” was played.  Perhaps it is just where I live but “On Eagle’s Wings” has become THE funeral song. So much that if it were played at any other service, I think people would be looking around for the body or spontaneously start crying. The question in my mind was did Father Michael Joncas, when he wrote the song, have any idea that his song would be the quintessential funeral song? My guess would be that he was moved by passages in the Bible and created the song. I suppose that you might be moved to create a song that would bring comfort and that it could become a song used for funerals.

In case you are not familiar with the song, here is a YouTube video of Josh Groban singing the song.

There appear to be many inventions that were created by accident. One of my favorites, the telephone, is an example. Alexander Graham Bell was trying to invent a device that would send more than one telegram at a time. Another favorite, the slinky, came from a naval engineer (Richard Jones) who was trying to make a meter that would monitor power on naval battleships.

Photo by Tara Bowen

Photo by Tara Bowen

If you are wondering about some other inventions that were accidents, you can use this link to an article “15 Life Changing Inventions That Were Created By Mistake.”

Power of Habit

One of my favorite invention stories is in the book, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  If I have not raved to you about this book before, then somehow I screwed up.  I think this book is fabulous. The illustrations that he uses are very  interesting. In one of his examples, Mr. Duhigg tells the story behind Febreze and it’s near failure. In summary, let’s just say that while Febreze was actually a breakthrough in scent removal, to get people to buy it they had to market it with a  fresh scent rather than its original scentless form. (The whole story is much more interesting to read.) 

So see what letting your mind wander a bit can do? You can think of all sorts of random things.

Thanks for reading!

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Variations on a Reading List

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

It came as no huge surprise to me that I started the year reading two books that are not on my reading list.

If you read this blog regularly, you may have seen the post about free or nearly free books.  (You can read it here.) Since I wrote that post, I have now signed up for a new service. I receive an email each day with 2 or 3 e-books that are on sale for a cost of somewhere around $1.99. The special price is for that day only. If you are interested, you can sign up at www.bookperk.com .

itty bitty lies

The first book that I read was a result of receiving a deal from Book Perk.  The book, Little Bitty Lies  by Mary Kay Andrews, was a $1.99 purchase. I do love a good popcorn book.

POPCORN BOOK – A book that you read for entertainment. The plot moves quickly and has no huge redeeming value but for light reading. 

This book was really popcorn but perhaps without the good butter and salt. I guess I like the plot in my light reading to at least seem plausible. This one didn’t but it was still okay. If you were to read it, do it for the silliness and not any moving plot.  To be honest, I had not read a book for a few weeks (except for all those children’s Christmas books in December.) and it was a good way to kick start my reading. The author, Mary Kay Andrews is a bestselling author who has written at least  eight books. I would try another book by her just to see if I liked it better.

Not really a ringing endorsement, huh?

(Slight rant here. I like taking e-books out of the library. The problem is with timing. I will get the notice that the book is ready for me but I am not ready for it. I have taken out a lot of books and not read them in time which makes me feel guilty.)  (I am good at feeling guilty.)

The second book I read was one that I had been considering for a long time. In fact, I had taken it out of the e-book section of the library but I didn’t get to it before it was returned.

I went to the library site last week and thought of the book again and put a hold on it again. I got the message several days later that the book was available for me. I downloaded it and discovered that I had only 7 days to read it. I decided that I would read it as I didn’t want to take it out for a third time in the future. Also, I knew that the author was about to release a follow up book.

Miss Peregrine

So after all of this, what was the book? The name of the book is Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and it was written by Ransom Riggs. I will start by saying that I liked the book. It is categorized as a fantasy book. It is a fantasy but it is more in the vein of Harry Potter than a book of fairies and demons. Yes, there are good guys and bad guys and people with strange powers.  The cool thing about the book is that there are photographs scattered throughout the book of the “particular” children. These photographs are photographs that he actually found and used as inspiration.  Unfortunately, the photos, when the book is read on an e-reader (or one as old as mine), do not come across as well as they might. I think that looking at them in a book would add to the story.

I liked the story and the premise. I will admit that I was a bit irritated at the end. It just ends so that the next book can start. It is TBC – to be continued. While on television we expect that, I did not expect it as much with a book.  The new book, Hollow City, has now been released.  I am not ready to jump into it which is surprising as I should want to know what happens.

The story has children with special powers and time loops and suspense.  It was a quick read – I made it in the 7 day deadline. (Okay, I made it in 4 days.) I did enjoy the book except for the unfinished end. It may be that you will enjoy it more because you know that the end is not the end. I would not discourage you from reading it.

What are you reading this weekend? Let me know. I obviously stray from my reading list.

Thanks for reading!

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