With Thanksgiving hitting on the earliest day of November it possibly can (the 4th Thursday in November with a November 1st Thursday starting off the month) I’d like to tell you that I am already thinking about what to fix. Although in my family it’s pretty much the standard menu of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green been casserole, pumpkin pie and anything else we decide to fix in. We’re hosting some family this year and it will be the first year without our son who will not be coming in from his job in Washington State.
So while perusing recipes online, I did come across this set of unusual recipes from Cooking Channel that I thought I might share: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/thanksgiving-side-dish-recipes/pictures/index.html. Some of the mashed potato recipes look yummy. And some sweet potato recipes look good, but I may have to stick with my favorite on this and just cook the yams with brown sugar, butter, and melted marshmallows on top.
November 11th is Veterans Day. The date comes from the fact that an armistice was declared during World War I between the Allied Nations and Germany on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. For more history – please see the following link - http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp.
All that we hold dear as Americans is a result of our veterans and their service to our country over the years. Remember our veterans today.
In Where We Belong Emily Giffin introduces us to 36 year old Marian Caldwell and 18 year old Kirby Rose. Marian is a television producer living in New York City ready for her boss/boyfriend to propose and start their life together full-time. Kirby has just turned 18, is in her senior year of high school, and is not sure she wants to attend college as her parents hope. The story reveals how these two women are connected and takes the reader on an exploration of their lives and what results from their meeting. I found myself much more invested in Kirby than Marian. I kept reading the book to find out how things worked out for Kirby and would be interested to read another book that follows her into the future.
I’ve not read Giffin before so I cannot compare this book to any of her others. I know her name and recognize the cover of her books because of the way her publisher has kept the designs consistent. I read an excerpt from this novel that was attached to a short story that was available for free download on Amazon to my Kindle. I downloaded the short story, but was more entertained by the excerpt from this novel. When I finished the excerpt I turned off my Kindle and logged into my local library website. The book was not released yet, so I put myself on the reserve list. The book was a quick read and the last four to five chapters kept me turning the pages to find out the ending. The book was entertaining and as my first Giffin book, I may give her another try in the future.
The book is available from Macmillan and is available in audiobook format as well. To hear an audio clip click here:
http://media.us.macmillan.com/video/olmk/macmillanaudio/WhereWeBelong.mp3.
This is the same excerpt that I read on my Kindle download that hooked me to get the book to read in the first place. If you have difficulty getting the clip to load from the blog, copy and paste the link to your browser.
Let me know what you think.
