Sunday Salon ~ fake homework

BORROWED

Poems from My Heart and Soul ~ by Melvin Avery Edwards, 2010, poetry

These poems — written between 1980 and 2009 — show the poet's anger, disappointment, happiness, and love of life.  Some of them also explore his belief system and what it means to him.  Melvin, who is currently head of the resident council, lives here at the Crown Center where I moved last summer.  I see him nearly every day.

LIBRARY BOOKS

No Job for a Lady ~ by Carol McCleary, 2014, fiction (Mexico)

History, mystery, and murder are the traveling companions of Nellie Bly, the world's first female investigative reporter.  Nellie defies the wrath of her editor and vengeful ancient gods while setting out to prove a woman has what it takes to be a foreign correspondent in dangerous Victorian times.  Pyramids, dark magic, and dead bodies are what the intrepid Nellie encounters when she takes off for Mexico after her editor refuses to let her work as a foreign correspondent because "it's no job for a lady."  It's 1886 and Mexico has not cast off all its bloodthirsty Aztec past.  Nellie is stalked by ruthless killers seeking Montezuma's legendary treasure and an ancient cult that resorts to the murderous Way of the Aztec to protect it.  And there's the mysterious Roger Watkins, who romantically and physically challenges Nellie's determination to be an independent woman in a man's world.

That Part Was True ~ by Deborah McKinlay, 2014, fiction (Britain)

When Eve Petworth writes to Jackson Cooper to praise a scene in one of his books, they discover a mutual love of cookery and food.  Their friendship blossoms as each of them offers, from behind the veils of semi-anonymity and distance, wise and increasingly affectionate counsel to the other.  They both begin to confront their problems and plan a celebratory meeting in Paris: a meeting that Eve fears can never happen.

House of Daughters ~ by Sarah-Kate Lynch, 2006, fiction (France)

Lonely Clementine is the rightful heir to the House of Peine, the vineyard that has been in the family for generations.  She has spent her whole life caring for the vines, not to mention her sour brute of a father.  But now the Peine patriarch is dead, and to Clementine’s distress his will stipulates that she must share the vineyard with a half-sister she hasn’t seen in twenty years and another she didn’t even know existed.  Secrets tumble out as the three sisters struggle to rescue the family heritage while overcoming their own differences.  (Originally published in New Zealand as The House of Peine by Random House New Zealand.)

FAKE HOMEWORK

My 5-year-old great-granddaughter shows off what she calls her "fake homework."  She's in kindergarten and may consider homework something big people do.  You know, like first graders.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.