There are no lilacs here at the Adobe Book Cafe, but everything is coming up roses nonetheless. We find ourselves on the Gulf Coast of Florida thinking we’ve landed in clover. Ok, enough with the corny flower references or the boss will make me mow the lawn … not QUITE the same as pushing up daisies, but they don’t let me use the sharp things anymore. Except the old noggin’, noodle, uh, uh, no flower references for the old bean?
We got here in Autumn which really was having the last laugh, dodging both hurricane season here, and winter there, adoring the colorful trees down the eastern seaboard, and moving in on Halloween. We officially opened the Adobe Book Cafe to the public in January, and I’m just now catching my breath to tell you about the Cafe, and what we’ve got.
I wanted to let you know what I’ve been reading since I did finally get my obligatory “over 40″ spectacles and have rediscovered the joys of seeing again. As usual, there are a stack of several books on my bedside table, where I read, in varying degrees of priority and some partially read. I’m THAT kind of a reader: if I love what I’m reading, then there’s little that will stop me before I finish. I add that if I can, I save the last few chapters, the denoument of the book shall we say, until the morning. If I finish a book late in the night, I often reread the end the next morning.
There are the A-list books. In recent years, I include Jeffrey Archer (I renewed his acquaintance this year with Sons of Fortune, set in Connecticut, and False Impressions which includes a brief but chillingly real scene in the Twin Towers on 9/11), Lisa Scottoline, Randy Wayne White, (loved his South Florida fiction long before I moved here), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter deserves several posts of his own this summer!), and Kellermans (related), Pattersons (not related) and Cornwell, Coulter, Roberts and Roberts as Robb.
A-list books are usually by a familiar author, but not of a series. If Nora Roberts has a full trilogy for me (and I try to wait until all three are available), she’s got my attention for three books straight. When I get that new Harry Potter in me mitts, ye won’t see me ’til I’ve done it. I admit, with pride, that I usually reread a series before a new one comes out (true not only of Harry Potter but also of Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series, and Jane Auel’s entire “Earth’s Children” series). It’s like visiting with old friends.
The B-list books are the ones I’m gonna start next and the ones I’m reading in fits and starts. I’ve got at least one Nora Roberts single, an oldie called The Villas in train at the mo’. Beside it is Back Bay, by William Martin because I will get to the bottom of the mystery of the missing Paul Revere Silver Tea Set. I also enjoy teen fiction and am about to tuck into the first Alex Rider adventure, Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. My bro’ reads these on purpose so they must be good. He’s coming up fast on 14 and is definitely in MY dip-set.
More about family and Florida another time. I just wanted to check in and let you know the Adobe Book Cafe is open, 24 hours a day!
Paris Hilton Rosie O’Donnell Mitt Romney J. K. Rowling Tom Clancy Dick Cheney Margaret Cho Tim Duncan Gordon Brown Hillary Rodham Clinton
Ok, that was an “insert searchable keywords here” moment. If I do that enough, I could develop quite a following. Think of it as something like Six Degrees of Tourette’s Syndrome, and ruminate on random connections among my selections. Or not!