Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Teaser Tuesday:  The Rocks Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "As the salt spray dried on her warm thighs and stomach and the thrumming vibration of the ski made itself felt in every muscle of her body, she felt tremendously sexy.  She gazed steadily, despite the bumps, back at him." --page 264           The Rocks by Peter Nichols Sorry it's been so long since I've posted a teaser... Happy reading!

Teaser Tuesday:  The Cutting Season Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "She lay down and closed her eyes, thinking of the strangeness of running into Bobby Clancy again, and the things he'd said about his brother, Raymond.  She lay in the stillness with it.  Only then, in the dead of night, her body on the very edge of surrender, did an image finally pop free: the dead woman, her face, the black eyes drawn in charcoal.  She finally remembered where she'd seen her before." --page 92           The Cutting Season by Attica Locke Pretty engrossing so far! Happy reading!

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to highlight releases they are eagerly awaiting. Here's what I'm looking forward to: Title:  Skin of the Wolf Author:  Sam Cabot Publication Date:  July 31, 2014 Page Count:  384 pages Summary via Goodreads In Sam Cabot’s exhilarating new novel, a vicious murder in Sotheby’s begins a series of inexplicable events surrounding an Iroquois ritual mask—and a secret that could unleash the most terrifying chaos and destruction the world has ever seen. Father Thomas Kelly, art historian Livia Pietro, and scholar Spencer George shared shocking, life-changing events in Blood of the Lamb; in that thriller, Father Kelly learned of the existence of the Noantri—a community of vampires—and that Livia and Spencer were among them. Now, a year later, all three are together again in New York City where Livia is attending a conference on Native American art. But when S...

Happy Tuesday, fellow A-Zers.  Today brings us to the letter S and it's all about:  W.G. Sebald, Art Spiegelman, and Alexander McCall Smith. W.G. Sebald (1944-2001) German writer W.G. Sebald is pure brilliance.  Prior to his untimely death in 2001, Sebald was heralded as one of the greatest living authors and believed to be a future Nobel Prize winner for Literature.  His father was a member of the Reichswehr in1929 and then transitioned as a member of the Wehrmacht under the Nazis, though he remained a fairly detached figure.  During World War II, Sebald's father was a prisoner of war until 1947.  Because of much of his experience during the Nazi Regime, Sebald focuses the majority of his work on the Holocaust and post-war Germany.  Heavy themes of memory and loss of memory (both personal and collective) and decay run rampant through his work.  In addition, he utilizes elaborate and old-fashioned language in the original German inte...

Well, fellow A-Zers, we've done it.  We've reached the end of the month long A-Z Blogging Challenge.  It's been fun; I had more fun utilizing a theme this year as opposed to last year when I had a free-for-all method.  I think I'll do this again next year!  Today's Oregon destination is, again, my creative fix. Zis is Zee End:  Fort Clatsop Located near the mouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon Coast, Fort Clatsop was the encampment from the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the Winter of 1805-06. Taking just three weeks to build, the fort is now protected under the Lewis and Clark National and State Historical parks and is also known as the Fort Clatsop National Memorial.  Heavily damaged and decaying due to the weather in the area, in 1955 a reconstruction of the original fort, using sketches from William Clark's journal, was built to celebrate the sesquicentennial; this fort lasted for another 55 years before it was destroyed by fire in...

We're coming to the end of the A-Z Blogging Challenge and, I'll admit, my last few posts are going to have to enter the "creative" sphere.  So bear with me.  Today is all about the letter Y, so here's my solution... You've Arrived:  The Oregon Trail When the Willamette Valley was being promoted as "the promised land" in the mid-West and East of the US, hordes of people started moving west.  Most travel was done in covered wagons pulled by oxen and loaded with supplies and family heirlooms.  Sadly, most of those heirlooms would be tossed along the trail when the wagons encountered poor weather, swollen rivers, or the Rocky Mountains.  The end destination for these families was Oregon City in the Oregon Territory. The journey was a harrowing 2,000 miles of rugged terrain.  Originally only able to be traversed on foot or by horseback, thanks to the mountain men and fur traders from the early 1800s, the route was slowly widened and impr...

Whoopsidaisy...Guess my Saturday (and Sunday) got away from me and I forgot to post my X topic!  So here's to a little catch up :)  X is for... X Marks the Spot:  Shanghai Tunnels See what I did there?  Sneaky sneaky.  Anywho, moving on.  In the Oldtown/Chinatown area of Portland, there is a magical underground network of tunnels that are less...magical and more maniacal.  Comprised of a network of underground tunnels connecting the basements of several hotels and bars along the waterfront of the Willamette River, the Shanghai Tunnels were originally built to move goods from the ships docked along the waterfront into the basements of their respective destinations in order to avoid streetcar and pedestrian traffic. During the height of the shipping days in the Willamette Ports, unsuspecting drunks in the bars above the tunnels would suddenly disappear into the floorboards (through a strategically placed trapdoor), finding themselves...

It's a beautifully sunny day here in Oregon...the perfect day to not be at work.  Alas.  I'm a little later than usual in my posting for today, but I have a good excuse :)  I spent most of my day stuffing envelopes at work (not a good excuse) and then giving away free books to promote literacy for World Book Night (a GREAT excuse).  I love this organization!  Check it out . Moving on to today's T inspired Oregon landmark... Tillamook Cheese Factory Oh, cheese.  Glorious cheese!  The Tillamook Cheese Factory is, fittingly, located in Tillamook, Oregon along the Oregon Coast and Highway 101.  Founded a little over 100 years ago, the Tillamook Cheese Factory is the 44th largest dairy in the US and is sold from coast to coast, though more so in the West.  Making everything from their signature cheese products to butter, ice cream, yogurt, and sour cream, the brand won the gold medal at the World Cheese Championship Cheese Competit...

Today we move closer to the end of our A-Z Blogging Challenge and encounter the letter S.  There are a lot of things in Oregon that could qualify for this letter, but I'm going with something that spreads a little culture to everyone...   Shakespeare Festival The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is renowned and awesome.  The festival takes place in Ashland, Oregon in the southern part of the state.   Originally conceived in 1893 as part of the Chautauqua adult education movement, the theater could accommodate up to 1500 spectators in an outdoor arena.  Soon, a domed stage was built on the site.  When the stage fell into disrepair, the Chautauqua movement faded away in Ashland.  However, in 1935 a drama professor, Angus Bowmer, at the Southern Oregon Normal School (today's Southern Oregon University ) wished to use the location to present Shakespearean plays.  He was given limited funds ($400) to put on two plays as part of the city's Independ...

  Happy Friday, everyone!  It's a dreary day here in the PNW (not that I'm complaining), but it is the end of the workweek.  Yay!  We're heading toward the more difficult letters in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, so it's time to get a little creative.  Today's topic is... Quaint Covered Bridges Covered Bridge Locations With the largest collection of covered bridges in the West (and one of the largest in the US), it's no wonder that there are "Covered Bridge Tours" throughout Oregon.  Started in the mid-1800s, covered bridges became the standard and most cost-effective means of crossing the many rivers, creeks, and streams in rural parts of Oregon.  The heyday for bridge building was between 1905 and 1925 when an estimated 450 covered bridges were built.  Unfortunately, by 1977 this number had been reduced to a total of 56 bridges still remaining.  Since then, 50 of those have been classified as Historic Landmarks and have under...

 It's a schizophrenic Saturday here in Oregon (what's new) and we're strolling in to the halfway point of the A-Z Blogging Challenge.  Today's letter brings us to a feature that many states along the coast possess and something that I've always had a fascination with... Lighthouses There are eleven total lighthouses along the Oregon Coast.  Nine were built for maritime purposes, five are still in operation, and two were privately built.  Of the eleven, nine of them are on the National Register of Historic Places.  There are five lighthouses that offer tours to visitors and each has a unique history.  Some even have sordid pasts and rumored ghosts that roam their buildings.  As a heads up, I apologize for the length of this post. From the north heading south along Highway 101, the lighthouses are as follows: Tillamook Rock Lighthouse is the furthest north and located near Seaside.  It is deactivated and the only lighthouse b...