Weekend Stitching and Reading Notes

I've been waiting for the weekend since about Tuesday!  So I am happy it is almost here.  It's been nearly a month since I shared my Lo, a Rose sampler, and as I have made some progress (albeit slow) I thought I would share it here.  It is coming along!  Much like my reading I am trying hard to focus on one task at a time, so as much as I would love to pull out some other project (some other in progress or even a new one!) I am going to try and concentrate on this one until I finish it.  Can you tell I am trying to turn over a new leaf?  Less of the haphazard and frantic and more on slow and steady.  

I did decide on a prompt book, and I ended up choosing a book I overlooked on my first perusal of my shelves.  Not long ago I bought Eve Chase's The Wildling Sisters and when I spotted it in my bedside pile it caught my eye.  It is described as being in the tradition of Daphne du Maurier, so I could not resist.  

"When fifteen-year-old Margot Wilde and her three sisters arrive at Applecote Manor in June 1959, they expect a quiet English country summer. Instead, they find their aunt and uncle still reeling from the disappearance of their daughter, Audrey, five years before. As the arrival of two handsome neighbors divides the sisters' loyalties, Margot is drawn into the life Audrey left behind and the mystery of her vanishing. Fifty years later, Jessie is desperate to move her family out of their London home, and gorgeous Applecote Manor seems like the perfect solution. But once there, Jessie finds herself increasingly isolated, at odds with her fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, and haunted by the strange rumors that surround the manor."

The story is set in a country manor house so it fits nicely with my prompt and I will still keep my other choices close by.  Maybe I can manage two prompt books for the long month of August?  I am especially keen to try Rachel Cusk, too.  

My weekend plans include a movie or two and hopefully a visit to the bookstore, but otherwise I want to try and get in some good reading time and hopefully I can finish one of my books on my nicely pared down night stand book pile!  Have a great weekend everyone--summer has returned here so I plan on staying inside!

Comments

[Deanna Rottenberg]

What a lovely sampler! It looks as if it might be a Prairie Schooler pattern.

[LizF]

I think you will enjoy the book. I loved it and Eve Chase's first book which was published in the UK as Black Rabbit Hall.

[Margaret Powling]

How could I resist the Eve Chase book!!! Oh, Danielle, I should not read your blog, ha ha! I've bought it with the English title, which is The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde. I do wish publishers wouldn't do this, change the title for the UK/USA readership, so silly. If I enjoy it I expect I will buy her other title, Black Rabbit Hall. Right now I'm working my way through Alison Bruce's Cambridge-set crime series, and very good they are, too.
Lovely, neat stitches, by the way.
Margaret P

[Readerlane]

And another tempting choice! The Eve Chase book sounds like great summer reading. I might have to do A Month in the Country next month :). if you don’t mind my borrowing your idea. For South of the Border August, I’m going to give The Hacienda: A Memoir by Lisa St. Aubin de Terán a try. It’s set in the Andean region of Venezuela and looks like it has a bit of a political twist

[Danielle]

Thank you. It very much has the PS look about it, which must be partially why I was so drawn to it. It actually comes from one of those Christmas holiday books they put out annually with stitching and crafty and cooking ideas. I don't always find designs that I really like in them, but I love this one.

[Danielle]

Good to know as I have her first book, too. So far I am enjoying the story but I think I am more drawn (at the moment) to the story of the four sisters from the past rather than the contemporary thread. Bella is a real pill and I am not all that enthused by Jessie's love interest, but it is early days yet! :)

[Danielle]

I am happy to send books other readers' way! I am enjoying this one and if you like stories with parallel storylines I think you will enjoy it too. I didn't realize they had changed the title--I wish they wouldn't do that either--there is nothing at all wrong with the original UK title, actually it appeals to me more than the US title. I have her first book, too. I need to pull out my copy of the first Alison Bruce mystery. I do love mysteries set in college/university towns.

[Danielle]

I keep coming across books set in the countryside now, now that I have a book in progress! I always hope to read more than just one book for my prompt but I think I have not managed it at all this year (which is fine, too). You are more than welcome to take the prompt--it is a good one--lots of reading possibilities. I am curious about the de Teran as I am pretty sure it is somewhere on my shelves, too.