Archives - Weekly Update

This Sunday the 27th, Bookreporter will turn 27 years old. Seriously, I am not sure how that happened. I think back to the fall of 1995 when Jesse Kornbluth, Murray Bruce and I met for hours to discuss plans for what would be our first site on AOL. We would meet in the lobby of the Royalton Hotel on 44th Street in New York City as they had big tables to work on...and, unlike a library, we could talk there.

Our hibiscus plants have been spectacular this year. I confess that I don't remember planting the light pink one, but it’s gorgeous! These flowers usually only last a day before they die back, but I do love them!

This is the time of year when I love to shop at nurseries to see what is on sale that I can fill in around the garden. Often bedraggled-looking plants that already bloomed in late spring or early summer are sold at great discounts. When planted, they typically spring some nice color into the garden next year. I do want to get some more limelight, or that kind of variation of hydrangea plants that grow six feet tall, and I know right where I…no, actually my husband…will plant them. This, alas, is why he does not want to take me up on my idea to “hit the nursery.”

I have been doing something that I call Sleep Math, which is what happens when you are reading a great book --- and you know what time you need to get up in the morning. Say it’s 11pm when you start reading, and you need to be up at 7am. Yes, that’s eight hours, the ideal number of hours to sleep according to many doctors. But then you keep reading and see where it goes. It becomes a 2am or 3am night. Suddenly the math gets more interesting. There are fewer hours of shut-eye, but lots more great reading. 

Last weekend, I went one for two, and I am not talking about sports scores. I finished reading THE CONNELLYS OF COUNTY DOWN and enjoyed it as I did Tracey Lange's last book, WE ARE THE BRENNANS. It will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection; it’s great reading for those who love family sagas where you drop in and out of their day-to-day lives. I loved the character of Tara, who is heading home after a prison sentence with her eyes on rebuilding her life. I am looking forward to interviewing Tracey about the book in the next couple of weeks. And we will be featuring our review in next week's newsletter.