Tuesday
Wish List
Monday
The Distant Hours- A Book Review
My Rating- 4 stars
The Distant Hours
, By Kate Morton, is a great, eerie and intriguing novel! From the very beginning, this book lured me in and I could not wait to read what the next big secret would be.
The Distant Hours bounces back and forth in time between WWII and the early nineties. The characters in this novel are mainly three mysterious sisters who have lived in their family's castle all of their lives. During WWII a young girl named Meredith moves in with them for about a year as an evacuee from London.
Fifty years later, Meredith has lost touch with the sisters and receives a letter that was lost in the mail for the past 50 years from one of the sisters of the castle. Meredith's daughter, Edie, is intrigued and takes it upon herself to learn more about who her mother was 50 years before and what went on when her mom was a resident of the castle.
Figuring things out are not easy though because Meredith and Edie do not have a very close relationship. Years of suppressing who Meredith truly is has caused her to come across as a snobbish and cold to her daughter and others in her family.
The long lost letter that Meredith received starts Edie down a road of figuring out why her mother is the way she is now.
The author paints such a vivid picture of the old castle, the old sisters and does a great job of laying out secrets and then slowly unraveling them until the very end of the story.
Compared to Kate Morton's other two novels, The Forgotten Garden
and The House at Riverton
, this book is not quite as good. It seems like there is not as much going on in The Distant Hours as there is in the other two books. I still really liked it though and can't wait for her to come out with another book!
, By Kate Morton, is a great, eerie and intriguing novel! From the very beginning, this book lured me in and I could not wait to read what the next big secret would be.The Distant Hours
bounces back and forth in time between WWII and the early nineties. The characters in this novel are mainly three mysterious sisters who have lived in their family's castle all of their lives. During WWII a young girl named Meredith moves in with them for about a year as an evacuee from London.Fifty years later, Meredith has lost touch with the sisters and receives a letter that was lost in the mail for the past 50 years from one of the sisters of the castle. Meredith's daughter, Edie, is intrigued and takes it upon herself to learn more about who her mother was 50 years before and what went on when her mom was a resident of the castle.
Figuring things out are not easy though because Meredith and Edie do not have a very close relationship. Years of suppressing who Meredith truly is has caused her to come across as a snobbish and cold to her daughter and others in her family.
The long lost letter that Meredith received starts Edie down a road of figuring out why her mother is the way she is now.
The author paints such a vivid picture of the old castle, the old sisters and does a great job of laying out secrets and then slowly unraveling them until the very end of the story.
Compared to Kate Morton's other two novels, The Forgotten Garden
and The House at Riverton, this book is not quite as good. It seems like there is not as much going on in The Distant Hours as there is in the other two books. I still really liked it though and can't wait for her to come out with another book!
Thursday
Downton Abbey
If you haven't seen Downton Abbey yet, you really should!
This PBS TV series is a great drama about a noble family in the early 1900's. If you have read some of my book reviews then you know that I love this time period in England so this show is my kind of show!
This PBS TV series is a great drama about a noble family in the early 1900's. If you have read some of my book reviews then you know that I love this time period in England so this show is my kind of show!
Tuesday
A Secret Kept- By Tatiana De Rosnay
A Secret Kept
is set in France, mostly Paris sometime in this decade. The story is about a brother and sister in adulthood that go back to a childhood vacation spot for a long weekend. They are surprised to have a lot of forgotten memories pop up. In the months following their trip, the siblings piece together a puzzle that they never thought to question until now.As young children, Antoine and Melanie Rey's mother dies leaving them grief stricken. The siblings accept the story they are told about their mothers death and don't give the event much thought until decades later when their return to their childhood vacation spot triggers a curiosity in them to figure out who their mother was and learn the details of her death.
I enjoyed this book and really liked that it was set in France. There was a nice mixture of mystery, romance and plenty of surprises to keep you turning the page.
Monday
So now for a little more about our trip to New England. Our itinerary looked like this,
Saturday- Fly into Boston, eat dinner
Sunday- See USS Constitution, Drive to Killington, VT
Monday- Ski
Tuesday- Ski
Wednesday- Ski
Thursday- Drive up Route 100 toward Waterbury. End with a tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory! Drive to the Windy Hill B&B in Jackson, New Hampshire.
Friday- Drive to Portland, Maine and explore the coast.
Saturday- Explore the Freedom Trail, visit Harvard, Fly home
It was a GREAT week filled with new sights! Neither of us had been to New England before so we were excited to see the sights. The drive from Vermont to New Hampshire was really beautiful.
We also ate some good food! In Maine I ate some clam chowder and fried shrimp.
And in Boston I had a Lobster Roll! Or as I would call it, a Lobster Po Boy.
It was fun to tour Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory because I loooove Ben and Jerry's. They also gave us a sample. Sadly, when the machine fills the pints with ice cream and then puts the lid on, the machine sometimes spills the pint over. When that happens, a worker just throws all that ice cream away, I would have gladly eaten it.
We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast one night and it was really fun. I've always wanted to stay at a B&B and this was the perfect little spot.
I look forward to going back to New England again some day! I would recommend a trip like this to anyone who is interested in history, loves nature (it is beautiful up there with lots of state and national parks) or likes to eat.
Saturday- Fly into Boston, eat dinner
Sunday- See USS Constitution, Drive to Killington, VT
Monday- Ski
Tuesday- Ski
Wednesday- Ski
Thursday- Drive up Route 100 toward Waterbury. End with a tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory! Drive to the Windy Hill B&B in Jackson, New Hampshire.
Friday- Drive to Portland, Maine and explore the coast.
Saturday- Explore the Freedom Trail, visit Harvard, Fly home
It was a GREAT week filled with new sights! Neither of us had been to New England before so we were excited to see the sights. The drive from Vermont to New Hampshire was really beautiful.
And in Boston I had a Lobster Roll! Or as I would call it, a Lobster Po Boy.
It was fun to tour Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory because I loooove Ben and Jerry's. They also gave us a sample. Sadly, when the machine fills the pints with ice cream and then puts the lid on, the machine sometimes spills the pint over. When that happens, a worker just throws all that ice cream away, I would have gladly eaten it.
We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast one night and it was really fun. I've always wanted to stay at a B&B and this was the perfect little spot.
I look forward to going back to New England again some day! I would recommend a trip like this to anyone who is interested in history, loves nature (it is beautiful up there with lots of state and national parks) or likes to eat.
Friday
Killington, VT
Tonight is the last night of our faaaabulous 1 week New England vacation. Here are just a couple of ski pics from our time in Killington, Vermont!
For 4 nights and 3 days, we enjoyed getting up early, skiing hard all day, unwinding in the hot tub each night and going to sleep early early because we were so tired!
Conditions were perfect for skiing, there was hardly any crowd on the mountain and my awesome hubby was there to fix my ski boots for me and carry my stuff:) I don't know how I managed to ski before he was around:)
Of course skiing works up quiet an appetite so we enjoyed lots of chips and queso, ice cream, stouffer's lasagna, coke and kettle corn!
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