B | Book Chatter

As much as I fight it, time DOES march on (as evidenced by the tiny lines I see in the mirror). But, they are laugh lines for the most part so at least I had a good time making them. To celebrate another year, I had a lovely, lovely lunch at Maggiano’s and then spent the day roaming shopping around The Grove(LA).

Me! — My older face... see, you can't see any lines...cause the pic is so small. Haha!

Linguine w/white clam sauce — Linguini with White Clam Sauce - YUM!

Happy Bday Cookies — Lemon Cookies with a Birthday Wish!

Oh, and when have I ever left the house without visiting a bookstore? I FINALLY hit Book Soup in Hollywood. Yes, yes…the my world is now complete.

Book Soup 2 — Book Soup - Look at all the books!!

The Sunday Salon Button

As for reading, I just finished Fever Dream by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston. Not my typical fare but a guilty pleasure held over from my youth. I started reading their books when I was in my twenties and every now and then, I’ll pick one up. The review should post early this week.

I am about to start I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman for a book tour. I’ve heard some good things about it so I am looking forward to it. Before I start this one though, I want to finish The Unit. I am almost done with it.

Since I’ve spent the day eating and shopping, I feel sort of guilty about spending the rest of it on the couch reading but I can’t think of a better way to wrap-up this birthday. Happy Sunday!

Family vacations, especially in the summer, are always near and dear to me. A time to re-group, spend time with the family and hopefully check out some new stuff along the way. This year we decided to tour a city that we have never been to. That city was…drum roll please…. Denver! We also decided to toss Boulder in there as well and even threw in Colorado Springs towards the end.

Once of the sights that I was most excited about, was The Tattered Cover bookstore. There are three locations in Colorado, but my favorite was the historic LoDo store. It is located in the middle of downtown, in a quaint, three-story building full of reading nooks and wonderful smells coming from the coffee shop. We ended up visiting the store twice.. The second time, I was lucky enough to snag a spot on the sofa so I could read to my 4-year old. It was also raining outside. It was so cozy!

I walked away with some books for the kids and a beautiful, hardbound copy of Anne of the Green Gables. Oh, I also picked up a literary magazine as well.

We visited museums, the aquarium and the zoo. We shopped, we ate.. we ate and ate. It was also my son’s 10th birthday that week so we celebrated with a trip to Water World and a nice dinner out. He said it was the best day ever!

All in all, it was a great time, but I was happy to come home. For one, it was cooler here in California than it was in Colorado, which I thought was rather odd. The locals said it was weird weather for sure! Now we are trying to figure out what we will do next year. I want a nice, relaxing vacation where I can sit and do nothing.. probably won’t happen with kids but any suggestions?

Chatting with friends about books and life…