The Big Apple has a WORM in it right now...

Well, you may have noticed that I haven't blogged much since moving to NY. How could that be!? Its one of the most exciting places on the planet. True. For those with money and fun companions. I have neither. My dear, sweet Peter works so much that his eyes are perpetually red and his feet are perpetually sore. He needs lots of rest on days off, but we try to squeeze something in here and there. Something FREE if we can! I've been unemployed for four months now and we're feeling the pinch. Ugh. Bad timing on moving to a new city with no network and in this economy!? So, learning patience, reading lots of good books, and getting to know myself and the city when I can explore without feeling guilty that I'm not looking for a job! ITS a great BIG WORM friends!!! :) Not looking for a pity party... at all, I just have to be honest. And I should admit that I'm technically "underemployed" because I tutor 3 private Italian students once a week and that brings in some meager funds. So, all is well, things will get better, and the Lord is in charge. Yesterday I went to the temple and felt so much joy and peace. I'm very excited for General Conference this weekend and to the inspired messages from our prophets. I'm proud and grateful for my membership in the Lord's true church where we learn that life is a journey of growth and learning, repentance and change. An adventure indeed!

The Nelson-Cope Ladies Book Club

We're official! We now embark on shared pleasure in the mind-stretching exercise of literary exchange... as a family sisterhood. You know who you are: Mary, Naomi, Alana, Amy, Andrea, Annaca, Abbie, Tammy, Ally, Emily, Jackie, Arianne, Cassandra, Natalie, Laura...

The first book is "Rebecca" by British author Dauphine du Maurier. Published in 1938, it soon became a best-seller. Essential plot: An unnamed narrator marries a wealthy Englishman whom she met while vacationing in the French Riviera. She accompanies him to his country estate in Manderley, and confronts the lingering presence and haunting memory of her new husband's first wife. Intrigued? Me too! Apparently, Alfred Hitchcock's movie Rebecca is based on the novel. I'll have to watch it once I'm through.

Here's the plan: we'll read a book quarterly, and our first deadline is November 15. On or after that date, the plan is that you now have an "excuse" to pick up the phone and call one another! Discuss amongst ourselves! Email, IMM, chat, write your comments here on my blog. Impressions, thoughts, likes, dislikes, we want to hear it all! But we won't have one common forum, just many interpersonal exchanges by various means as listed above. The next book will be chosen by Amy Makechnie for the Jan-March 2010 quarter. We'll go to her blog for the details and the written forum. Sound like a plan? Happy reading everyone!!!

Book recommendation!

This book is a lovely read. Its light and uplifting, gripping, yet tragic. The protagonist has the most witty and eccentric personality. She's delightful, creative, spunky and has an outstanding vocabulary. She is like totally my mother-in-law's twin. If my mother-in-law lived in London, were 33, single, and wrote books for a living. I actually haven't finished the book, but I started yesterday and I'll either be up late tonight or early tomorrow morning to do so! The plot: in 1946 in London, a writer receives a letter request from a stranger, beginning a friendship with him and all of the others in the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - from the Channel Island Guernsey that was under German occupation during WWII. It becomes the inspiration for her further work.