On My Bedside {The House at Riverton}

While down in Savannah, I mentioned that I was reading The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.  It came highly recommended by many of you and boy were you ever right – it was enchanting and engaging and thoroughly enjoyable!!  A perfect choice for those of us biding time until Downton Abbey comes back in January 2014,  (ugh, could that be any farther away?!!?) I often found myself marveling at how similar many of the characters and events in the book were to that favorite television series. 



Goodreads says: On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.  Winter 1999 - Grace Bradley, ninety-eight, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and old memories - long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind - begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.  Set as the war-shattered Edwardian summer surrenders to the decadent twenties, The House at Riverton is a thrilling mystery and a compelling love story.

I have added a few of Morton’s other works to my list!!  Let me know what’s on your bedside…
xoxo

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On My Bedside {Rules of Civility}

I recently finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles – and I adored it!  It’s not one of those can’t put it down, let the littles raise themselves for a day while I devour it cover to cover in no time flat kind of book.  Rather, it’s a poignant, sophisticated and beautifully penned coming-of-age story that had me savoring the words on each page rather than just charging forward to find out what happens next. 



Goodreads says: On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a tempered smile, happens to sit at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a yearlong journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool toward the upper echelons of New York society and the executive suites of Condé Nast--rarefied environs where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.  Wooed in turn by a shy, principled multi-millionaire and an irrepressible Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, befriended by a single-minded widow who is a ahead of her time,and challenged by an imperious mentor, Katey experiences firsthand the poise secured by wealth and station and the failed aspirations that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her life, she begins to realize how our most promising choices inevitably lay the groundwork for our regrets.

I very rarely read a book twice and almost never buy a book (I mean, I didn’t even buy the Twilight saga for cryin out loud) but I’ll do both with this one.

This one is a winner winner (chicken dinner…I couldn’t resist)!!!
xoxo

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On My Bedside {Gone Girl}

After hoards of you have advised me to add Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn to my must-read list, I finally took the plunge!  And you were SO right!! 



Goodreads says:  On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?  As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?  With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

I was fascinated with how a marriage can become so toxic so quickly, and with the whole innocent-until-proven-guilty conundrum that Nick found himself in with the media.  I adore a book where I can’t really figure out what the next page will bring, and Gone Girl certainly accomplished that!  I was a little let down by the ending and had hoped for something more after such a twisted book.

As always, I’d love to hear what’s on your bedside!!
xoxo

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On My Bedside {Hunger Games Trilogy}

With a constant mist of rain coming down this weekend, I spent most of the weekend snuggled inside with my three favorite boys.  And The Hunger Games trilogy.  Turning pages while I cook, reading on the short drive to and from mass, staying up well into the wee hours of the night...essentially spell bound by this riveting tale resplendent with love, war, loss and triumph.

Do yourself a favor and DON'T start reading unless you are willing to just let the littles turn the house into disrepair, the dishes pile up and the laundry baskets overflow.  I'm halfway through book three and there's no way I'm going to bed until I'm done.

xoxo

On My Bedside {Shadow Man}

Y’all, I spent a few nights over the holidays engrossed and enthralled with The Shadow Man by Savannah native Mark Murphy.  A psychological thriller set in sultry Savannah, I found book to be a beguiling page turner and one of the best reads to have graced my bedside in a good long while.



Goodreads says: 
Savannah surgeon Malcolm King had a perfect life--a loving wife, devoted daughter, and a thriving medical practice. But when a random airport parking lot hit-and-run links him to a dead body in a Florida hotel and an acquaintance is found dismembered and stuffed into a garbage bag, Malcolm finds himself on the run as a suspected serial killer. But he's no murderer. Or is he?

Who is the mysterious Thin Man who lurks at the edges of his vision? Are the ravens that crowd the skies overhead a warning of impending doom--or do they exist at all?

With the help of Seminole tracker Billy Littlebear, Malcolm tries to untangle the web of clues left behind by a mysterious chameleon-like killer known as the Shadow Man. But will he be too late? The Shadow Man is a complex, atmospheric thriller in the tradition of Stephen King. Darkly evocative and relentless in its twists and turns, it dares the reader to put it down--even for a minute.

Now y’all share what’s on your bedsides!
xoxo

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