Author Archives: memoriesandsuch

In My Hands Today…

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Broken Moon – Kim Antieau

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Nadira is spoiled goods. Scars from a beating she received for a crime that her older brother allegedly committed tell the world that she is worth less than nothing – except to her little brother, Umar, who sees beauty in her scars and value in her.

But Umar is gone – perhaps kidnapped or maybe sold. All Nadira knows is that Umar has been taken into the desert to ride camels for rich sheikhs. He could be lost to her forever.

For Umar, Nadira will risk everything. So she disguises herself as a boy and searches out the men who took him. They are not hard to find, and soon she, too, is headed to the desert to be a camel jockey.

Life in the desert is more brutal than Nadira imagined. All she has to protect her and the boys she meets are a bit of chai tea, some stories, and the hope that she has enough of both to keep going until she finds Umar.

Instagram Interludes

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I had so much fun doing my previous post on favourite travel photos, that I had to do another one with more photos. I could only choose five earlier, so here are some more of my favourite photos from the places I’ve visited previously.

Temples in the Prambanan Cluster, Jogjakarta, Indonesia

Prayer flags in the Kek Lok Si Temple, Penang, Malaysia

White Temple, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Angkor Wat Complex, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Prambanan Temple Complex, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

In My Hands Today…

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Beginner’s Luck – Laura Pedersen

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“There could be no doubt left in anyone’s mind that my life had all the makings of a country-and-western song.”

The second of seven children (with another on the way), Hallie Palmer has one dream: to make it to Vegas. Normally blessed with an uncanny gift for winning at games of chance, she’s just hit a losing streak. She’s been kicked out of the casino she frequents during school hours, lost all her money for a car on a bad bet at the track, and has been grounded by her parents. Hallie decides the time as come to cut her losses.

Answering an ad in the local paper, she lands a job as yard person at the elegant home of the sixty-ish Mrs. Olivia Stockton, a wonderfully eccentric rebel who scribes acclaimed poetry along with the occasional soft-core porn story. Under the same wild roof is Olivia’s son, Bernard, an antiques dealer and gourmet cook who turns out mouthwatering cuisine and scathing witticisms, and Gil, Bernard’s lover, whose down-to-earth sensibilities provide a perfect foil to the Stocktons’ outrageous joie de vivre. Here, in this anything-goes household, Hallie has found a new family. And she’s about to receive the education of her life.