Sunday Salon: Back at Last!

Finally!  I am back after my longest yet posting hiatus.  I've been reading, but at a relaxed pace.  The past few months I've been extra busy with my family and work, so I took a much needed break from blogging this summer, although I did visit other blogs, and posted numerous book giveaways hosted by others.  Anyway, I've had a good summer, and I hope you have, too.  I spent a lot of time with my eldest daughter, who is now in Japan. We went on many morning runs together, and she also helped out at the office.  Our time together is priceless to me.  My younger daughter will be leaving for college soon, so I've also felt the need to spend time with her, although she's often out of the house, making the most of her summer with friends who live nearby.

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Reading Nagasaki

Last month, I read Nagasaki by Éric Faye.  I chose this novella to read during the weekend that my daughter was leaving for Japan.  I plan to post a brief review of this book for Dolce Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge fairly soon.

I also read The Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers recently, which I enjoyed a great deal.  I'd read so much about this book, and it was even better than I thought it would be.  I'm "friends" with the author on Facebook, which is very cool (Facebook is great in some ways).  How times change!  This type of communication or connection is still pretty remarkable to me, because when I grew up, it was a huge deal to have any contact with authors.  Many years ago, my younger sister, Amy, wrote to Maurice Sendak, and when he wrote her back and included an illustration, it was an exciting event.  I can't speak for the whole family, but my sister, mother, and I loved his work, and I still do.

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This is my first Sunday Salon post. Thanks for tuning in with me!  I hope to post a review soon. :)

Really Random Tuesday #95: Very Hungry Caterpillars and a Book Winner

These very hungry caterpillars are on a restricted diet.  Yesterday morning, I was pleased to find many caterpillars feasting on my milkweed plants, their only source of nutrition.  They devour the plants, which become quite bare after a while (though the leaves will grow back for future larvae, as long as the plants get some water).  A couple of years ago, while I was reading Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, I became keenly interested in monarch butterflies, as the book features them prominently; at the same time, my sister-in-law, Kristine, was posting on Facebook about monarch butterflies and her milkweed plants.  I was intrigued, and found plants for my garden from a local nursery and from Home Depot, and I also purchased milkweed seeds.  I  grow milkweed in pots now, though, because many of the plants I'd put into the earth would mysteriously disappear after a few days.  I learned at the nursery that gophers were probably stealing the milkweed I planted in the ground, pulling them underground by their roots.  Anyway, the hungry caterpillars start out as adorable, tiny creatures, and grow larger and plumper as they eat.  They're a bit cartoonish, as if they belong in a Dr. Seuss story, but some of them will form exquisite chrysalises, and the most fortunate ones will become beautiful monarch butterflies.

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Please help me to congratulate Pat from Posting For Now. She's won a copy of The Antigone Poems, a collection of poetry by Marie Slaight, with illustrations by Terrence Tasker.  Many congratulations, Pat!  I hope you will relish this book, which features striking poems and drawings.  Thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway.  Please stay tuned for more giveaways, which I list on the right side of my blog.

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Appearing on random Tuesdays, Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of. Often I announce my book giveaway winners in these posts.  If you have miscellaneous book news to gather up and are inspired by this idea, "grab" the button for use on your own blog, and add your link to the "master" Mister Linky on the Really Random Tuesday page.  Thanks for stopping by!  Your comments are welcomed.