(2) Weeks in Review - 2/3/2018

It's been (2) weeks since I posted some mini reviews so thought I'd try to catch up as I sit here with my second cup of coffee.  Last week was my book group meeting, we discussed, Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult (my second time reading it). It made for a lively discussion and everyone there said they enjoyed the book.

Tomorrow's Super Bowl will prove interesting in our house. My husband is a Philadelphia native and life long Eagles fan and, me as a life long New Englander, once again will be rooting for the Pats.  (Last time Eagles were in the Super Bowl (2003 or 2004) they lost to the Pats). To make it interesting I have a $30 bet with the hub and a $20 bet with his friend from Phili. Any Super Bowl plans for you? I do wish Pink was the halftime show instead of just singing the National Anthem.



Yesterday we went to see - Three Billboards Outside of Epping, Missouri. We both liked it an awful lot and, once again proves how anger, eats away at you unless you can find away to let it go.









Other movies we watched were repeats for us, but ones we enjoyed as well.

I finished (3) books over the last (2) weeks. 

Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books; Wendy Lesser

Picador - 2015

A woman in my book group recommended, Why I Read by Wendy Lesser was a book for booklovers - it's just over 200 pages.  Part of the prologue really spoke to me so I decided to give it a try -- ...“Reading can result in boredom or transcendence, rage or enthusiasm, depression or hilarity, empathy or contempt, depending on who you are and what the book is and how your life is shaping up at the moment you encounter it.” 

Reading is such a personal taste experience and clearly my choices over the years were not the same as the author here as I've only read 10/100 that are her favorites. There were so many books that she wrote about that I have never read so maybe, I'm not the "bibliophile" I thought I was. When she went into some detail about these books I hadn't read, I found myself skipping ahead - just in case I decided to try the book in the future.  My favorite part of the book was the fact that she included a list of her 100 all time favorite reads.   Here they are in case you are interested---(The 10 that I read are highlighted)

Ackerley, J. R. MY FATHER AND MYSELF
Ambler, Eric. A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS
Austen, Jane. PERSUASION
Baldwin, James. NOTES OF A NATIVE SON
Balzac, Honore. COUSIN BETTE
Bellow, Saul. RAVELSTEIN
Bennett, Arnold. THE OLD WIVE’S TALE
Bishop, Elizabeth. THE COMPLETE POEMS
Bolano, Roberto. DISTANT STAR
Bowen, Elizabeth. THE HEAT OF THE DAY
Carroll, Lewis. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
Cather, Willa. THE PROFESSOR’S HOUSE
Chekhov, Anton. THE LADY WITH THE DOG & OTHER STORIES
Coetzee, J. M. DISGRACE
Collins, Wilkie. THE WOMAN IN WHITE
Conrad, Joseph. UNDER WESTERN EYES
de Waal, Edmund. THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES
Der Nister, THE FAMILY MASHBER
Dickens, Charles. DAVID COPPERFIELD
Dickinson, Emily. FINAL HARVEST
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. CRIME & PUNISHMENT
Dyer, Geoff. OUT OF SHEER RAGE
Eisenberg, Deborah. TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES
Elkin, Stanley. VAN GOGH’S ROOM AT ARLES
Ellison, Ralph. INVISIBLE MAN
Farrell, J. G. THE SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR
Faulkner, William. ABSALOM, ABSALOM!
Fitzgerald, Penelope. THE BEGINNING OF SPRING
Flaubert, Gustave. SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION
Ford, Ford Madox. PARADE’S END
Ford, Richard. THE BASCOMBE NOVELS
Forester, E. M. A PASSAGE TO INDIA
Gissing, George. NEW GRUB STREET
Gluck, Louise. A VILLAGE LIFE
Goncharov, Ivan. OBLOMOV
Greene, Graham. THE QUIET AMERICAN
Grossman, Vasily. LIFE & FATE
Gunn, Thom. COLLECTED POEMS
Handke, Peter. A SORROW BEYOND DREAMS
Hardwick, Elizabeth. THE SIMPLE PLAN
Hardy, Thomas. JUDE THE OBSCURE
Hazzard, Shirley. THE TRANSIT OF VENUS
Heaney, Seamus. THE HAW LANTERN
Herzen, Alexander. MY PAST & THOUGHTS
Highsmith, Patricia. THE COMPLETER RIPLEY NOVELS
Hopkins, Gerard Manley. POEMS
Howells, William Dean. A HAZARD OF NEW FORTUNES
James, Henry. THE GOLDEN BOWL
Lahiri, Jhumpa. UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
Lampedusa, Giuseppe di. THE LEOPARD
Lawrence, D. H. SONS AND LOVERS
Li, Yiyun. GOLD BOY, EMERALD GIRL
London, Jack. MARTIN EDEN
Lowell, Robert. LIFE STUDIES
Macdonald, Ross. THE BLUE HAMMER
Mailer, Norman. THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT
Malcolm, Janet. IN THE FREUD ARCHIVES
Malouf, David. THE GREAT WORLD
Mankell, Henning. SIDETRACKED
Mann, Thomas. BUDDENBROOKS
Mantel, Hilary. BEYOND BLACK
Marias, Javier. A HEART SO WHITE
Maxwell, William. SO LONG, SEE YOU TOMORROW
McEwan, Ian. THE INNOCENT
Melville, Herman. GREAT SHORT WORKS
Michaels, Leonard. COLLECTED STORIES
Mistry, Rohinton. A FINE BALANCE
Munro, Alice. FRIEND OF MY YOUTH
Murakami, Haruki. HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND & THE END OF THE WORLD
Norris, Frank. THE PIT
O’Connor, Flannery. WISE BLOOD
Ondaatje, Michael. RUNNING IN THE FAMILY
Orwell, George. THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER
Pinsky, Robert. SELECTED POEMS
Platonov, Andrey. SOUL & OTHER STORIES
Price, Richard. CLOCKERS
Roth, Joseph. THE RADETZKY MARCH
Roth, Philip. I MARRIED A COMMUNIST
Rushdie, Salman. THE MOOR’S LAST SIGH
Queiros, Eca de. TH MAIAS
Sebald, W. G. THE RINGS OF SATURN
Serge, Victor. THE CASE OF COMRADE TULAYEV
Stafford, Jean. THE MOUNTAIN LION
Stendhal, THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA
Svevo, Italo. ZERO’S CONSCIENCE
Theroux, Paul. THE FAMILY ARSENAL
Toibin, Colm. THE MASTER
Tolstoy, Leo. WAR & PEACE
Trevor, William. THE CHILDREN OF DYNMOUTH
Trollope, Anthony. THE WAY WE LIVE NOW
Turgenev, Ivan. VIRGIN SOIL
Twain, Mark. HUCKEBERRY FINN
Verne, Jules. THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
West, Rebecca. THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS
Wharton, Edith. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
Wolff, Tobias. IN PHARAOH’S ARMY
Wright, Richard. NATIVE SON
Zola, Emile. THE LADIES’ PARADISE

My Rating 3.5/5 stars

Alternate Side; Anna Quindlen

Random House - 2018

I think I've read everything Anna Quindlen has written so I was excited to read her upcoming March release as well. Alternate Side, taken place in Manhattan's upper west side. The Nolan's, Charlie and Nora, have two children in college and live a comfortable life.  Their particular block is on a dead end street, that has a coveted parking lot with a waiting list, their neighbors as well as the Nolan's have hired help (everyone seems to use the same handyman) and, most everyone seems to get along. One day when Nora returns home from her run with her coveted bagel in hand and is shocked to learn of an incident that has taken place that not only rocks their insular neighborhood but her own marriage as well.

I enjoyed reading this one but, it is a super, slow moving story. I thought it was an interesting look at  relationships and how sometimes it's not until something major happens that one begins to stand up, take notice and sometimes take sides.

My Rating 3.5/5 stars

I Married You for Happiness; Lily Tuck

Grove Press - 2012

Phillip is a university professor and Nina his wife loves to paint; the couple has been married over 40 years and have one adult daughter who is 35.  One day when Phillip comes home from work as Nina is preparing dinner, he decides to take a nap and -- never wakes up.  Nina spends the next 24 hours holding his hand and reflecting on their marriage -- good times and bad.

I love Lily Tuck, spare but quality writing - reflective but told in the present.  The author has a way of drawing you into the lives of your characters and had me reflecting on my own marriage and relationships.  Just over 200 pages, this was another enjoyable book by Lily Tuck.

My Rating 4/5 stars

Shelter; Jung Yun

Shelter; Jung Yun

Picador - 2016

Kyung Cho is a 36 y/o Korean American who lives near Boston with his Irish American wife

Gillian and the couple's 4 y/old son Ethan. Kyung's life is falling apart. He's a mediocre professor at a

university nearby, the couple's finances are a mess, owing more on their house than it's worth and 

mounting credit card debt to boot. Kyung also feels like a failure as a husband and a father. To make 

his stress even worse is the fact that for years he has had a strained relationship with his parents who live 

in an upscale neighborhood nearby.

Kyung's father is a highly respected professor and inventor who pulls in lots of grant money for the 

university he works for. His father Jin is wife beater and his mother, Mae a child abuser. Needless to say, 

despite being given every material advantage as a child, the emotional scars and hostility he feels toward

his parents have never been forgiven. He's pretty much severed contact with his parents, but hasn't 

totally cut them out of the picture yet.So when a violent home invasion turns his parents life upside down,

Kyung isn't sure how to react. The scars of childhood are ones he can't seem forget.

Shelter is a terrific character study, seen mostly from Kyung's POV, although we do get insight from the 

other characters as well. It isn't really clear until the end as to the extent of abuse that has occurred 

to make him harbor so much resentment and blame others for all his current problems.

This story wasn't perfect but I did enjoy it very much. Readers who enjoy suspense filled stories and

reading about family dysfunction should make sure they add this to their lists. Jung Yun is a promising 

debut author to watch for.

4.5/5 stars

(review copy)

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Shelter; Jung Yun

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where I share the first paragraph sometimes   two of a book that I'm reading or plan to read soon.

Shelter; Jung Yun

Picador - 2016

PART ONE

DAWN

"The boy is standing in the doorway again.  He's smiling, which hardly seems right.  A smile means he's not sick.  He didn't have a bad dream.  He didn't wet the bed.  None of the things he usually says when he enters the room uninvited.  Kyung nudges his wife, who turns over with a grunt, face-first into her pillow.  He sighs and sits up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

What's wrong? he asks. What's the matter?"

What do you think -- keep reading or pass? 
(Feel free to join in this week by posting your intro below?

Mailbox Monday - New Books

I never did get a chance to do a weekend post but, I wanted to share the new books which arrived by mail over the last (2) weeks.

• I Almost Forgot About You; Terry Mcmillan (Crown)
• One-in-a-Million-Boy; Monica Wood (Amazon Vine) (Houghton Mifflin)
• Father's Day; Simon Booy (Harper)
• Where Are You Going Baby Lincoln; Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
• Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep; Michael Schulman (Harper)
• Shelter; Jung Yun (Amazon Vine) (Picador)
• Juana & Lucas; Juana Medina (Candlewick Press)

Mailbox Monday - New Books

A nice week in new books thanks to various publishers. I have no idea which to read first, have you read any of these yet?

• The Night Sister; Jennifer McMahon (Doubleday) --The latest novel from New York Times best-selling author Jennifer McMahon is an atmospheric, gripping, and suspenseful tale that probes the bond between sisters and the peril of keeping secrets.
       Once the thriving attraction of rural Vermont, the Tower Motel now stands in disrepair, alive only in the memories of Amy, Piper, and Piper's kid sister, Margot. The three played there as girls until the day that their games uncovered something dark and twisted in the motel's past, something that ruined their friendship forever. 
       Now adult, Piper and Margot have tried to forget what they found that fateful summer, but their lives are upended when Piper receives a panicked midnight call from Margot, with news of a horrific crime for which Amy stands accused. Suddenly, Margot and Piper are forced to relive the time that they found the suitcase that once belonged to Silvie Slater, the aunt that Amy claimed had run away to Hollywood to live out her dream of becoming Hitchcock's next blonde bombshell leading lady. As Margot and Piper investigate, a cleverly woven plot unfolds—revealing the story of Sylvie and Rose, two other sisters who lived at the motel during its 1950s heyday. Each believed the other to be something truly monstrous, but only one carries the secret that would haunt the generations to come.
• Bright Lines; Tanwi Nandini Islam (Penguin) --• Long-listed for the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize •
  
  “A wonderful debut. . . . The beauty of this novel is that it perfectly merges fascinating narrative, honest characters, and the rich history and culture of Bangladesh with the juxtaposition of Bangladesh’s past and future and of that country with America, adding to the reading pleasure.” —Library Journal (starred review)
  
  A vibrant debut novel, set in Brooklyn and Bangladesh, follows three young women and one family struggling to make peace with secrets and their past
  
  For as long as she can remember, Ella has longed to feel at home. Orphaned as a child after her parents’ murder, and afflicted with hallucinations at dusk, she’s always felt more at ease in nature than with people. She traveled from Bangladesh to Brooklyn to live with the Saleems: her uncle Anwar, aunt Hashi, and their beautiful daughter, Charu, her complete opposite. One summer, when Ella returns home from college, she discovers Charu’s friend Maya—an Islamic cleric’s runaway daughter—asleep in her bedroom. 
   
  As the girls have a summer of clandestine adventure and sexual awakenings, Anwar—owner of a popular botanical apothecary—has his own secrets, threatening his thirty-year marriage. But when tragedy strikes, the Saleems find themselves blamed. To keep his family from unraveling, Anwar takes them on a fated trip to Bangladesh, to reckon with the past, their extended family, and each other.
• The Last Pilot; Benjamin Johncock (Picador) --"Harrison sat very still. On the screen was the surface of the moon."

• Jim Harrison is a test pilot in the United States Air Force, one of the exalted few. He spends his days cheating death in the skies above the Mojave Desert and his nights at his friend Pancho's bar, often with his wife, Grace. She and Harrison are secretly desperate for a child-and when, against all odds, Grace learns that she is pregnant, the two are overcome with joy.
  While America becomes swept up in the fervor of the Space Race, Harrison turns his attention home, passing up the chance to become an astronaut to welcome his daughter, Florence, into the world. Together, he and Grace confront the thrills and challenges of raising a child head-on. Fatherhood is different than flying planes-less controlled, more anxious-however the pleasures of watching Florence grow are incomparable. But when his family is faced with a sudden and inexplicable tragedy, Harrison's instincts as a father and a pilot are put to test. As a pilot, he feels compelled to lead them through it-and as a father, he fears that he has fallen short.
  The aftermath will haunt the Harrisons and strain their marriage as Jim struggles under the weight of his decisions. Beginning when the dust of the Second World War has only just begun to settle and rushing onward into the Sixties, Benjamin Johncock traces the path of this young couple as they are uprooted by events much larger than themselves. The turns the Harrisons take together are at once astonishing and recognizable; their journey, both frightening and full of hope. Set against the backdrop of one of the most emotionally charged periods in American history, The Last Pilot is a mesmerizing debut novel of loss and finding courage in the face of it from an extraordinary new talent.
• Unprocessed; Megan Kimble (William Morrow) --In the tradition of Michael Pollan’s bestselling In Defense of Food comes this remarkable chronicle, from a founding editor of Edible Baja Arizona, of a young woman’s year-long journey of eating only whole, unprocessed foods—intertwined with a journalistic exploration of what “unprocessed” really means, why it matters, and how to afford it.

• In January of 2012, Megan Kimble was a twenty-six-year-old living in a small apartment without even a garden plot to her name. But she cared about where food came from, how it was made, and what it did to her body: so she decided to go an entire year without eating processed foods. Unprocessed is the narrative of Megan’s extraordinary year, in which she milled wheat, extracted salt from the sea, milked a goat, slaughtered a sheep, and more—all while earning an income that fell well below the federal poverty line.
  What makes a food processed? As Megan would soon realize, the answer to that question went far beyond cutting out snacks and sodas, and became a fascinating journey through America’s food system, past and present. She learned how wheat became white; how fresh produce was globalized and animals industrialized. But she also discovered that in daily life, as she attempted to balance her project with a normal social life—which included dating—the question of what made a food processed was inextricably tied to gender and economy, politics and money, work and play.
  Backed by extensive research and wide-ranging interviews—and including tips on how to ditch processed food and transition to a real-food lifestyle—Unprocessed offers provocative insights not only on the process of food, but also the processes that shape our habits, communities, and day-to-day lives.
• Thirteen Guests; J. Farjeon  (Poison Pen Press) --“No observer, ignorant of the situation, would have guessed that death lurked nearby, and that only a little distance from the glitter of silver and glass and the hum of voices, two victims lay silent on a studio floor.” On a fine autumn weekend, Lord Aveling hosts a hunting party at his country house, Bragley Court. Among the guests are an actress, a journalist, an artist, and a mystery novelist. The unlucky thirteenth is John Foss, injured at the local train station and brought to the house to recuperate – but John is nursing a secret of his own. Soon events take a sinister turn when a painting is mutilated, a dog stabbed, and a man strangled. Death strikes more than one of the house guests, and the police are called. Detective Inspector Kendall’s skills are tested to the utmost as he tries to uncover the hidden past of everyone at Bragley Court. This country-house mystery is a forgotten classic of 1930s crime fiction by one of the most undeservedly neglected of golden age detective novelists.
• Orphan # 8; Kim van Alkemade (William Morrow) --A stunning debut novel in the vein of Sarah Waters’ historical fiction and inspired by true events, it tells the fascinating story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage.

• In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious four-year-old living with her family in a crowded tenement on New York City’s Lower Eastside. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother Sam and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave her disfigured, Rachel suffers years of cruel harassment from the other orphans. But when she turns fifteen, she runs away to Colorado hoping to find the brother she lost and discovers a family she never knew she had.
  Though Rachel believes she’s shut out her painful childhood memories, years later she is confronted with her dark past when she becomes a nurse at Manhattan’s Old Hebrews Home and her patient is none other than the elderly, cancer-stricken Dr. Solomon. Rachel becomes obsessed with making Dr. Solomon acknowledge, and pay for, her wrongdoing. But each passing hour Rachel spends with the old doctor reveal to Rachel the complexities of her own nature. She realizes that a person’s fate—to be one who inflicts harm or one who heals—is not always set in stone.
  Lush in historical detail, rich in atmosphere and based on true events, Orphan #8 is a powerful, affecting novel of the unexpected choices we are compelled to make that can shape our destinies.
• Newport; Jill Morrow (William Morrow) -- Following in the steps of Beatriz Williams and Amor Towles, this richly atmospheric, spellbinding novel transports readers to the dazzling, glamorous world of Newport during the Roaring Twenties and to a mansion filled with secrets as a debonair lawyer must separate truth from deception.

• Spring 1921. The Great War is over, Prohibition is in full swing, the Depression still years away, and Newport, Rhode Island's glittering “summer cottages” are inhabited by the gloriously rich families who built them.
  Attorney Adrian De la Noye is no stranger to Newport, having sheltered there during his misspent youth. Though he’d prefer to forget the place, he returns to revise the will of a well-heeled client. Bennett Chapman's offspring have the usual concerns about their father's much-younger fiancée. But when they learn of the old widower’s firm belief that his first late wife, who “communicates” via séance, has chosen the beautiful Catherine Walsh for him, they’re shocked. And for Adrian, encountering Catherine in the last place he saw her decades ago proves to be a far greater surprise.
  Still, De la Noye is here to handle a will, and he fully intends to do so—just as soon as he unearths every last secret, otherworldly or not, about the Chapmans, Catherine Walsh . . . and his own very fraught history.
  A skillful alchemy of social satire, dark humor, and finely drawn characters, Newport vividly brings to life the glitzy era of the 1920s.
• The World is a Wedding; Wendy Jones (Europa) --Set in 1926, two years after the end of The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals, Wendy Jones’ The World is a Wedding finds Wilfred Price married to Flora Myfanwy and trying to be the perfect husband. His efforts only intensify when he learns that Flora is expecting. But something doesn’t feel right to Flora: she doesn’t feel at home. Meanwhile, Grace (to whom Wilfred was very briefly married before he met Flora) has fled Narberth for London, trying to escape what has happened to her and the secret she carries because of it. But secrets are not so easily escaped—and Grace’s will affect Wilfred and Flora, too.
   
  A sophisticated comedy of manners, The World is a Wedding captures life in a small town in Wales and explores the complexities of marriage, motherhood, and masculinity and femininity with equal wit and insight.

Sunday Batherings and New Books

I'm in an official reading slump,  I have 3 reviews to write, I've started about 5 books and I when I sit down to read, I seem to grab my iPhone after reading a few pages and play Scrabble or surf  websites instead.   I'm going to try some non fiction next to see if that helps (it has in the past).

Of course, there may be a very good reason I'm a bit preoccupied ----

Yes, I gave my notice, it's official, I'm Retiring in July, and have just about 30 work days left. Can't wait. I've been dreaming about retirement since I was 35, and always new I would retire a bit early while I could still enjoy life.   I've had (2) exciting careers, human resource management (20 years) and libraries (13 years), however, I always enjoyed NOT working days most of all. The countdown is on.

Of course, the slump hasn't stopped me from accumulating a few more books (hey, some day I hope to feel like reading once again).  What is your remedy for getting your reading mojo back?

Here's the new books that arrived by mail recently.

• The Wasp Factory; Iain Banks (Simon & Schuster) - purchase
• Three Women in a Mirror; -Emmanuel Schmitt (Europa Edition) (purchase)
• Grapes of Wrath - 75th Anniversary Edition (Viking) (paperbackswap)
• Hair of the Dog; Susan Slater  (Poison Pen Press)
• Rupture; Simon Leleic (Picador) (purchase)
• The Girl in the Polka-Dot-Dress; Beryl Bainbridge (Europa Rdition) (purchase)
• Radiant Angel; Nelson DeMille (Hachette Audio)
• Memory Man; David Baldacci (Hachette Audio)

Sunday Plans - Today we are off to my son and DIL's house for a cookout. All (3) little granddaughters will be together as well --fun day. Hoping everyone has a lovely day.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - The Affairs of Others; Amy Grace Loyd

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where I share the first paragraph or (a few) of a book I am reading or thinking about reading soon.

The Affairs of Other; Amy Grace Loyd

Picador - 2013

HOPE

"The body of a woman aging.  It's a landscape that, even as it vanishes, asks a lot of the eyes.  Or it should.  No two landscapes the same.  They never were the same, no matter their age, but then how time brings details to the body.

Of course every woman's body ages. What's distorting is how friendly it all starts out, with words like smooth and tight and firm, high and pink and wet--words that are given to women's bodies and that they wear around, as comfortably as cotton.  And why not?  These are gifts they did little to earn.  Life does this so rarely--offer unearned or unasked-for rewards.  But inevitably the words fall away, one by one:  There goes tight, there goes smooth, god even wet.  And the words that replace them, that are provisioned, are not nearly so welcome or easy to carry.  Some women carry these new ways of addressing their bodies with pride. They'll explain that the knots in their flesh tell a good story.  Others celebrate the change of vernacular, the end of a certain kind of surveillance.  Or they continue to pursue the first set of words--high, tight, smooth.  It's not wrong or it's not for me to say.  Who am I to say? I am a young or youngish woman.  I am in my late middle thirties, though I could be twenty-five or fifty.  I believe I have no age anymore.  I am not unattractive but neither am I beautiful.  I married a man I first met in college and again later, a few years after graduation.  My husband died a difficult death.  I went with him, or a lot of me did.  I cannot apologize for this nor do I wish to challenge that I am changed."

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do you think, would you keep reading? Feel free to join in and post the Intro from one of your reads by linking below.