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Real Grown Folks in Love & Friendship

[Front cover of A Fire at Romanticon by H.L. Brooks with a design of a lacy pink thong and scattered flower petals; book held up against the backdrop of a framed black and white photo of the Brooklyn Bridge at night]    [ front cover art for A Vampire of a Certain Age by Maria Vale; a city skyline silhouette with a bat's wings spread above it]  [ three trade paperback books: One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin (spine up), A Fire at Romanticon by H.L. Brooks, Fall: A Detective Harriet Foster Thriller by Tracy Clark]  A Fire at Romanticon by H.L. Brooks*  contemporary rom-com  Write Women Publish, September 2024  Peach Kincaid is struggling. Her marriage, her self-image, her secret project and more feel like they're beyond her control until she takes more than one leap of faith. New look, new location, new friends and new opportunities offer her time and space to step into her most authentic self and claim a life that fulfills her in every way. Lots of laughs, tenderness, steamy adu
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(Barely) Resisting Book Borrowing Temptations

Gorgeous covers matched with intriguing blurbs are my weakness!  [3 new books on a display shelf at a public library branch: Lavash at First Sight by Taleen Voskuni, In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundira, She Who Knows by Nnedi Okorafor]    [4 new books on 2 shelves of a display at a public library: That Prince is Mine by Jayci Lee, The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava, Troubled Waters by Mary Annaise Heglar, Here for the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen & Lydia Wang]  Returned some borrowed items and despite my best intentions not to go beyond the returns counter, the new books display lured me close enough to see these enticing titles, which I managed not to bring home with me! Adding them to the top of my TBR list was my compromise. Still reading through last week's bookstack, ebooks on my phone, tablet, and in my email inbox.  Happy reading!  P.S. After a soul-boosting visit with someone who loves me, that person gave me two books. Then a book on my requests lis
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Simply Irresistible Reads

No blog post about books last weekend did not equal a suspension of acquiring more books.😏  [front cover of a paperback copy of Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti; a man and a woman in 19th-c. garb as they balance precariously in a wooden row boat with a little dog in a city lake setting]  Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti  historical romance  St. Martin's Griffin, July 2024  Selina and Peter's love story is a tenderhearted farce of a romp grounded in emotional substance about honoring commitments with love and compassion toward family, friends, and fellow human beings. Mix in precocious children, tenacious animals, and well-intentioned meddlers for a satisfying read filled with lots of grit, affection, and humor along with deeper historical context that's often ignored.  books borrowed two weeks ago [a horizontal book stack from top to bottom: The Diamond and the Duke, Counting on the Cowboy, Body Check, Daydream, Better Left Unsent, Alternate Endings, Struck Dea
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Labor Day Weekend Gratitude + Romance Run Amok

Aawww. Rain in the weekend forecast? How sad.  [a horizontal stack of 6 books from top to bottom: Undermining Twyla and Frank, Under Your Spell, Four Weekends and a Funeral, Take Me Home, One Last Summer, Just Some Stupid Love Story]   These are my back-up reading options just in case the books I already have aren't enough to last through the long holiday weekend even though my non-reading to-do list of personal and professional tasks is quite substantial.  Currently reading  [a horizontal book stack of 3 paperback books: Isabel and the Rogue; Loyally, Luke; Never Duke Well arranged atop a jar candle with a deep turquoise colored abalone shell attached to the front]  Thank you to everyone who labors to contribute to the economy, society, and humanity!    
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Illuminating Pleasures in The City of Light, Recent & Current Reads + Book Events

Every age is an age of infinite possibilities!  [hardcover copy of I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris by Glynnis MacNicol propped up inside a hat box with a pattern of the Eiffel Tower and "PARIS L'EXPOSITION" around the rim of the top]  I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris by Glynnis MacNicol  non-fiction memoir  Viking/Penguin Life, June 2024  In a world that works hard to shove women over forty into irrelevance and invisibility, this author celebrates life as viewed, lived, experienced to its fullest by one grown woman and other grown women in the present and from the past. The breezy, contemplative narration style invites readers to observe and consider the author's adventurous journey of investigation and confirmation of self through the uninhibited pursuit of all kinds of pleasure. References to other memoirs, movies, art, history, fashion, geography and more parallel, re
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Keep Moving Forward & 90s Throwback Jams

Jump, jump into your joy!    [Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin Graham hardcover book with 3 black & white images of the author on the front; then the following books with their spines facing outward - Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, Business Casual by B. K. Borison, The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey, Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan, The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson]  Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Scientist by Jasmin Graham  non-fiction memoir & scientific research  Pantheon, July 2024   Seeing the author during a recent appearance on CBS Mornings made me curious to learn more about her life and her scientific pursuits. To quote a passage from chapter 13, "As is so often the case in science, you go looking for the answer to one question and end up with another unanswered question altogether."  Throughout the prologue, thirteen chapters, and epilogue filled with thoughtful personal and professional observ
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People Showed Up & Tuned In

Gorgeous weather, lovely humans (and a few precious fur babies), talented musicians, artisans, authors, delicious food, assorted adult libations...  Too much goodness and joy to list.  Abundant gratitude to every attendee and the phenomenal P.G. Parks & Recreation/Marietta House Museum teams!  Special thanks to everyone who stopped to chat with the authors and to buy (or find out how to borrow from pgcmls.info) books and pick up some author swag.  This year's Jazz & Wine Fest at Marietta was outstanding in every way. [4 musicians moving among a drum set, an amp, music and  instrument stands arranged under a tent]  [half of a six-foot table assorted author swag of t-shirts, ball caps, a jute & cotton basket containing items for a raffle, framed pages with various QR codes, book purchasing/borrowing instructions, and content warnings, business cards, and hand sanitizer] [multiple copies of Prison Love, a non-fiction memoir about one woman's experience of incarceration
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