Inhabited by Charlie Quimby Giveaway

Inhabited by Charles Quimby Giveaway

Charles Quimby is the Minnesota Author in the Spotlight for the month of January and he, along with his publisher, Torrey House Press, are giving away 3 copies of his newest book, Inhabited. Booksnob readers who live in the U.S. and Canada are eligible to win. I just got my copy in the mail and can't wait to read it.


Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Meg Mogrin sells pricey houses, belongs to the mayor's inner circle, and knows more than she's letting on about her sister's death. Isaac Samson lives in a tent and believes Thomas Edison invented the Reagan presidency. When their town attracts a game-changing development, Isaac is displaced by the town's crackdown on vagrancy. As Isaac struggles to regain stability, Meg contends with conflicting roles of assisting the developer while serving on the homeless coalition. Isaac's quest to return a lost artifact soon intrudes into Meg's tidy world, digging up a part of her past she'd rather remained buried. Inhabited, a sister novel to Charlie Quimby's acclaimed Monument Road, returns to the Grand Valley of western Colorado to explore the dimensions of loss, the boundaries of compassion, and the endurance of love.

Rules:

Fill out the form
U.S./Canada residents only

Enter by Feb 14th at midnight

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Poem in my Post- Colors Passing Through Us by Marge Piercy

Poem in my Post- Colors Passing Through Us by Marge Piercy

Here is a poem sure to add color to your world. It's a dreary gray day in Minnesota. Today being MLK day and the inauguration and the Women's March on Washington coming this week, I needed a fight song or a colorful poem to add brightness to my world.  So I chose this awesome poem by Marge Piercy.  I hope you love it as much as I do.
Check out Marge Piercy at her website: http://margepiercy.com/
Enjoy!

Colors Passing Through Us

Purple as tulips in May, mauve
into lush velvet, purple
as the stain blackberries leave
on the lips, on the hands,
the purple of ripe grapes
sunlit and warm as flesh.
Every day I will give you a color,
like a new flower in a bud vase
on your desk. Every day
I will paint you, as women
color each other with henna
on hands and on feet.

Red as henna, as cinnamon,
as coals after the fire is banked,
the cardinal in the feeder,
the roses tumbling on the arbor
their weight bending the wood
the red of the syrup I make from petals.

Orange as the perfumed fruit
hanging their globes on the glossy tree,
orange as pumpkins in the field,
orange as butterflyweed and the monarchs
who come to eat it, orange as my
cat running lithe through the high grass.

Yellow as a goat's wise and wicked eyes,
yellow as a hill of daffodils,
yellow as dandelions by the highway,
yellow as butter and egg yolks,
yellow as a school bus stopping you,
yellow as a slicker in a downpour.

Here is my bouquet, here is a sing
song of all the things you make
me think of, here is oblique
praise for the height and depth
of you and the width too.
Here is my box of new crayons at your feet.

Green as mint jelly, green
as a frog on a lily pad twanging,
the green of cos lettuce upright
about to bolt into opulent towers,
green as Grand Chartreuse in a clear
glass, green as wine bottles.

Blue as cornflowers, delphiniums,
bachelors' buttons. Blue as Roquefort,
blue as Saga. Blue as still water.
Blue as the eyes of a Siamese cat.
Blue as shadows on new snow, as a spring
azure sipping from a puddle on the blacktop.

Cobalt as the midnight sky
when day has gone without a trace
and we lie in each other's arms
eyes shut and fingers open
and all the colors of the world
pass through our bodies like strings of fire.
Marge Piercy

Announcing the January Author in the Spotlight

Announcing the January Author in the Spotlight

Happy January and Happy 2017.
I hope you have had a good start to the year.
Right now it is bitter cold in Minnesota with a negative 40 degree windchill and a below zero temp. Perfect for curling up under a blanket and reading a good book.

I've started a goal of doing 10 minutes of yoga everyday this year and I'm also plan to write once a day all year and I started a temperature rug where I add a strip of color based on the temps for everyday of the year.  I have a lot more goals including reading a book by January's Minnesota Author in the Spotlight, Charlie Quimby.

Charlie Quimby has written two novels, Monument Road and his newest book, Inhabited and both take place in Colorado.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Monument Road
Leonard Self has spent a year unwinding his ranch, paying down debts, and fending off the darkening. Just one thing left: taking his wife's ashes to her favorite overlook, where he plans to step off the cliff with her into a stark and beautiful landscape. But Leonard finds he has company on a route that intertwines old wounds and new insights that make him question whether his life is over after all.

Inhabited

Meg Mogrin sells pricey houses, belongs to the mayor's inner circle, and knows more than she's letting on about her sister's death. Isaac Samson lives in a tent and believes Thomas Edison invented the Reagan presidency. When their town attracts a game-changing development, Isaac is displaced by the town's crackdown on vagrancy. As Isaac struggles to regain stability, Meg contends with conflicting roles of assisting the developer while serving on the homeless coalition. Isaac's quest to return a lost artifact soon intrudes into Meg's tidy world, digging up a part of her past she'd rather remained buried. Inhabited, a sister novel to Charlie Quimby's acclaimed Monument Road, returns to the Grand Valley of western Colorado to explore the dimensions of loss, the boundaries of compassion, and the endurance of love.

This month you can expect a book review, an author interview, a giveaway and a guest post.
You can find Charlie and information about his books and his blog on his website at www.charliequimby.com

Happy Reading and Happy New Year!

Poem in My Post: Burning the Old Year

Poem in My Post:  Burning the Old Year

Happy New Year everyone.  I think we should start the New Year with a poem.  So I chose Burning the Old Year by one of my favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye.  Have you made a list of what you want to accomplish in 2017?  Did you accomplish all you wanted to accomplish in 2016?

Sit down and make a list of goals today and.  That is what I am going to do.

Time to kiss 2016 goodbye and say hello to 2017.
Wishing you happiness, health and peace in the New Year.

-Laura





Burning the Old Year 
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.  
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,  
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,  
lists of vegetables, partial poems.  
Orange swirling flame of days,  
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,  
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.  
I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,  
only the things I didn’t do  
crackle after the blazing dies.

My First Book of the Year 2017

My First Book of the Year 2017

Happy New Year Everyone!!

My first book of the year 2017 is The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee.  I am so excited to read this.

I'm actually a huge fan of opera and the hype from this book has pushed me over the edge and I can't wait to jump in a hot bath tonight and read, read, read this book!

The first thing I did today when I woke up was to enter a poetry contest.  I got one poem published last year and am hoping to at least double that this year.  The second thing I did was choose my first book of the year.  Then I went out to lunch with 4 littens/people I met through the Litsy app and it was so cool to meet them. Then I went to Magers and Quinn bookstore and bought a Marge Percy book of poetry and Euphoria by Lily King and a couple of books for my #cupidgoespostal book exchange through the @Litsy app.  If your not on Litsy yet, you need to be. You can find me as @booksnob

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Lilliet Berne is a sensation of the Paris Opera, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role, every singer’s chance at immortality. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the libretto is based on a hidden piece of her past. Only four could have betrayed her: one is dead, one loves her, one wants to own her. And one, she hopes, never thinks of her at all.  As she mines her memories for clues, she recalls her life as an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe and was swept up into the glitzy, gritty world of Second Empire Paris. In order to survive, she transformed herself from hippodrome rider to courtesan, from empress’s maid to debut singer, all the
while weaving a complicated web of romance, obligation, and political intrigue.  

Featuring a cast of characters drawn from history, The Queen of the Night follows Lilliet as she moves ever closer to the truth behind the mysterious opera and the role that could secure her reputation -- or destroy her with the secrets it reveals.


Sheila over at BookJouney is holding an event regarding the first book of the year.  She has created a book collage and a linky for everyone to hop around and see who is reading what. Visit her at www.bookjourney.net 

What is the first book you are reading this year?