Epistolary fiction

 

Kate & Frida (Book 2 of 2 in the Love & Saffron Series) ~ by Kim Fay, 2025, epistolary fiction (Paris, Seattle, Sarajevo), 320 pages, 10/10

Sometimes a book can change your life . . . Twentysomething Frida Rodriguez arrives in Paris in 1991, relishing the city's butter-soaked cuisine and seeking her future as a war correspondent (hoping to go to Sarajevo).  But then she writes to a bookshop in Seattle, and receives more than just the book she requests.  A friendship begins that will redefine the person she wants to become.

Seattle bookseller Kate Fair is transformed by Frida's free spirit and is spurred to believe in herself as a writer, to kiss her handsome coworker, and to find beauty even in loss.  Through the most tumultuous years of their young lives — both personally and globally — Kate and Frida sustain and nourish each other as they learn the necessity of embracing joy, especially through our darkest hours.

This novel is a love letter to bookshops and booksellers, to the passion we bring to life in our twenties, and to the last years before the internet changed everything.

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* I read the large print edition of this novel (the white one above) and loved it, even though I haven't read the first in the series.  Now I want to get that one.

My neighbor handed me this book

The Correspondent ~ by Virginia Evans, 2025, epistolary fiction, 304 pages

This is the life story of Sybil Van Antwerp, a prickly, retired lawyer in her 70s, through her letters and emails to friends, family, and even famous authors like Joan Didion and Ann Patchett.  The book explores themes of aging, regret, forgiveness, and connection as Sybil confronts her past, including the loss of a child and her adoption, through her correspondence.  It's praised for its realistic and memorable character, its celebration of the written word, and its poignant look at a life unfolding through communication.

When Betty handed me this book, she motioned "zipping her mouth closed," saying she wasn't going to tell me her opinion.  However, she had texted to ask if I wanted this book.  She doesn't usually do that unless she enjoyed reading it.  If you've read it, you can tell me whether it's good or bad, if you like.  I'll still read it either way.

Week in Review

• For Monday Musing, I mused about a book that will probably take me forever to read, HERE.
• On Twosday, I wrote about the words SWiss and SWeet, HERE.
• I wrote about the number of steps in my Wednesday's workout, HERE, after walking to the grocery store.
• On Saturday, I learned that my daughter's father-in-law died, so I looked up all the times I've blogged about dying, HERE.  I didn't think to ask how old he was.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Food and a shopping list

Today was a good day, so I was able to walk to the grocery store to buy what I needed, including stuff from the deli counter, like cole slaw and ham salad.  Another plus is that I got in 4,000 steps by simply going to the store.  I also walked in the halls in my building this afternoon and evening.  That means I have more than doubled that number (8,303 steps), and it's not even bedtime yet.

Today's healthy lunch

When I ate lunch today, I noticed a word connection.  I was still hungry after eating a Swiss cheese sandwich (no, I didn't melt it), and I noticed leftover sweet potato yams in the fridge.  You know me.  Yes, I noticed SWiss and SWeet in the names of those foods.

While looking for an illustration for my blog post, I found this:  "Swiss cheese is widely considered one of the healthiest cheese options."  That is when I realized that today is TWOsday, so here are two things I ate for my healthy lunch today.

What are you reading?

I am sure I will still be reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King for many more days.  It is about John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his wife both surviving an "attempted" assassination in Dallas in 1963 because someone went back in time to change history as we know it.  I am still reading, so I do not yet know how the author makes it happen.  (Read what I have already posted about the thick 880-page book HERE.)

It's time to get active!

Click on this Active April calendar from Action for Happiness to enlarge it.

My way of being active is to keep walking, walking, walking.  I walk in the hallways of my senior living facility if the weather outside is too hot, too cold, too wet, too icy, too much for an old lady.  Hey, that's pretty much what the calendar above says for April 12th:  "Move as much as possible, even if you're stuck inside."  I'm sure we can all find a way, if we are really motivated.

This is something that makes me happy.  It's one of the trees flowering along our Crown Center fence.  Isn't it beautiful?  And I was able to walk outside yesterday to take this picture.

Week in Review

• For Monday Musing, I wrote about a BIG book, HERE.  (Friday's book is even bigger.)
• On Twosday, I wrote about historical fiction, HERE.
• Wednesday's Words were not what they seem to be, HERE.
• My Thursday Thoughts, HERE, were about April foolishness.
• Book Beginnings on Friday was for a book about a different result on 11/22/63,  which we know as the day JFK was assassinated, HERE.
• On Saturday, I wrote about fun and joy, HERE.
  
  

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Fun and joy

Get organized?  Impossible, so let's move on to the next item.  Hmm, have fun sounds good, but what shall I do to have fun today?  There is always reading, for a "bookie" like me.  Or walking somewhere interesting, before we have any more bad weather.  That means weather that is not too cold or too muggy or too icy or too wet.  Here are some more ideas for having fun:

• 
  Think of three things I'm grateful for (thinking, thinking, thinking).
• Find joy in music today:  listen and maybe sing along.
• Take a photo of something that brings me joy.
• Say positive things in my conversations with others.
• Appreciate the beauty of nature and the trees "springing" into bloom along our parking lot.  Here are some of them.

When I run into my friends, I'll try to remember to ask them what they feel grateful for today.  The "fun-est" thing so far was ordering a children's book for my next library delivery in the middle of this month.  The library in our subdivision makes monthly deliveries to the elderly people in my senior-living facility.  Not all of us have cars or drive anymore, so this is a great way to get books, especially since only a few hundred books are available in our tiny library, which is made up of donated books from some of us living here, as well as donations from good folks in the community.