This past weekend (after spending Thanksgiving at my parents house, where I made this delicious soup) Joe and I packed up the kids and headed to Silver Springs Maryland to visit with Joe’s niece Candice. Joe has ten older brothers and sisters and was very young when Candice was born, so even though she calls me Aunt Stephanie, she really is a few months older than I am. Not only are we close in age, but we both share a love of books. We must have hit the Borders bookstore three times while together and since I had a 25% off coupon I figured I would pick up an early Christmas gift for myself.
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig is touted as “a dash of chick lit with a historical twist.” It is also a first in a series of books. I also grabbed a copy of Atonement by Ian McEwan. I can’t tell you how many times I have held this book in my hands, only to put it back on the shelf. When I recently saw the trailer for the movie, which is due out in December, I figured that was the only excuse I needed to finally purchase it. I am 90 pages into it and all I can say so far is WOW, this book is one powerful read.
The other three books, Saturday (also by Ian McEwan) Wrapped in Rain and The Namesake all are loners from Candice. I don’t know when I will be able to get to these other books, since I really need to get my act together and start reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which we will be discussing in my book club early January.
On another note, Candice and I took my oldest daughter Leah to see Enchanted. It was so darn cute and the PERFECT family movie. It didn’t hurt that Candice and I got to stare at Patrick Dempsey either!
