Bookgirl's Nightstand | When I'm not reading books, I'm making them.

Weekend Recap

iliana Nightstand May 25, 2020

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours was very relaxing and that’s always a good thing. Plus, today I celebrated a birthday so I got some birthday goodies and a delicious cake my husband made. I feel like one of you may have shared this apple torte recipe but I can’t remember where I saw it. So if one of you recommended this, thank you!

As we didn’t feel like going to a restaurant or to any stores (we’re still trying to stay in as much as possible), we did decide to go for a drive around our neighborhood and even drove by our local B&N store. Still closed although you can order and do curbside pickup but that’s just not the same as browsing is it?

I do have a gift card and a birthday coupon from B&N so I may place an order soon. One thing I wish was that I could place an order for some magazines but I don’t think you can do that online. Maybe I’ll call the store and find out.

This weekend I also spent a bit of time on was making some cards for the Cards for Kindness project. You can send a minimum of 10 cards and these will be going out to hospitals, nursing homes and other care giving organizations. I love that.

I have so much paper that I was starting to get a bit overwhelmed with what to make but I pretty much worked off of three scrapbook paper pads. I used some bits of ribbon in some and stickers. My designs were super simple but I just hope they brighten someone’s day. Now I just need to put them in an envelope and send them out.

I was planning to start another crafty project this weekend but time flew by and now to prepare for a crazy, busy work day.

Again, hope you all had a great weekend and let me know what you were up to. I’m sorry if I haven’t answered some of the comments in some of my recent posts but will get caught up soon.

So have a great week and hey, at least it’s a shorter one!

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Long Weekend Ahead

iliana Nightstand May 21, 2020

I took today off from work today to get a few things done around the house and mainly just to relax. Work has been very busy for me all year and so it’s nice to take advantage of a four day weekend. I started off my day with a breakfast smoothie and reading in bed.

I’m still reading The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace and am about half way through it. One character that has stood out is the young girl who lives in the asylum but she’s not an inmate but rather the daughter of the man who runs it. She’s a teenager who is desperate for adventure and just like the other women in the “rest home”, she’s anxious to leave its confines.

Last night I started a book that reminded me very much of Eileen by Ottesa Moshfegh. The book is The New Me by Halle Butler. I loved Eileen which had such a memorable narrator is so I have high hopes for this one.

Of course I also have some crafty projects to work on this weekend. I’ll have to tell you more about that soon but I’m working on a swap and Cards for Kindness. So, I think I will be busy, plus there may be cake this weekend.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to catching up with you.

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Strangers

iliana Nightstand May 19, 2020

“A burglar would run away now, but the stranger doesn’t do that, and something inside me has already figured out that the man hasn’t broken in here to rob me. No thief wears a suit when he’s breaking into a house. But that means there’s another reason, that the stranger has a different intuition … and this thought awakens a completely new kind of fear within me.”

Strangers
By Ursula Archer and Arno Strobel
Translated by: Jaime Seattle Romanelli and Stefan Scholtz
Source: Advance review copy

Joanna is blow drying her hair when she notices the motion sensor light going off outside her window but she’s not expecting company. She continues with her routine but slowly begins to feel uneasy but as she’s thinking of preparing some tea to soothe her nerves, she’s hears a noise from inside the house.

She goes downstairs, still hearing some sounds coming through but arms herself with courage and a paperweight when all of a sudden she sees a man in her house. She begs him not to hurt her and at the same time she’s confused as to why this well dressed man would be in her home. She tells him she won’t call the police and it’s only when he says her name that she realizes he must know her but she doesn’t recognize him. Finally, she sees he’s starting to react to her words but instead of asking for money, valuables or something else, he’s asking her to reason with him because he’s her fiancÃ© and they live together.

Erik is just as confused as Joanna. He’s trying to make her understand that they are a couple but when he calms her down and thinks of ways to show her they live together, he realizes something is seriously wrong. It’s like there is no trace of him at their apartment.

As time passes and both stand by their stories, they come to the uneasy realization that something big is going on and they are caught up in grander scheme but who do they need protection from and who can help them?

Told in alternating chapters between Joanna and Erik’s viewpoint I thought the authors did a good job of showing the confusion both characters are experiencing. The best part of the book for me was the middle when I felt like I was racing through with them to figure out what is going on all leading to a conclusion that was a bit over the top but fun nonetheless.

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