Hello there beautiful friends, on an extremely beautiful Saturday morning. I am up and watching Lucky Dog on CBS which is and has been a ritual of Brian and I’s for the last almost 9 years. I do love this show very much and I wish they had a cat version.
So, guess what!?! Last night I met my favorite author and idol Elin Hilderbrand again for the 2nd time. Last time I met her, it was at Montgomery County Community College in the Science Center in what I believe was 2018. I must check the date of when “The Perfect Couple” (soon to be a Netflix series starring Nicole Kidman and Liev Schrieber and partially filmed in Sea Isle City! If I see the Spinnaker in that I’m going to flip – and in a good way!) … originally was published, because you never know with me, I may have my years mixed up but I do believe it was 2018. Anyways, this time though, I met her at the Devon, Pennsylvania, Barnes & Noble where I spent all my gift cards yesterday, lol. (Don’t ask). I had seen on her Instagram page that she had spent like a total of 12 hours the night before in Nashville, Tennessee doing a book signing and she must have flown back to her hometown (Collegeville) and been back here for the book signing last evening. (Elin lives in Nantucket now).
It stormed while at least a couple hundred ladies (and a few gents!) were in line waiting to go up the steps of the Barnes & Noble and head up to get our book signed. She didn’t speak ahead of the book signing this time, but I did speak to a woman for about an hour while I waited in line. The line was basically out the door! It was such a great turnout and I was not surprised. The woman I was speaking with actually lived nearby in Harleysville, PA and her son and I have read a lot of the same books. I mentioned “Rabbit Hole” by Kate Brody when I saw it on the shelf and she told her son that I recommended it. I wasn’t surprised to hear that someone adored Stephen King’s 11/22/63 book because that book was INCREDIBLE. Long, naturally and it needed to be, BUT, yes, INCREDIBLE.
When I met Ms. Hilderbrand, I didn’t say much except that I was nervous (because I was) and of course she told me “Don’t be nervous!”—haha. I was like, how? You’re a freaking ICON and one of the best story writers in the world today. And her stories… I’m going to miss her writing about Nantucket but I look forward to her next steps. I heard from an interview with Elin on Tuesday (Pub Day for “Swan Song”!) that she was writing some books with her daughter and I think that is amazing and awesome. I posed for my picture then I was off to wander around the upstairs Fiction section some more and I couldn’t figure out where I had been looking at the Mysteries and Thrillers. That was a nice size Barnes & Noble (even my brother-in-law’s girlfriend said that too! We were texting back and forth before I left). To be honest and completely fair, I need to stay out of that store (and any B&N and book store for that matter!) because I spent way too much money but thank goodness I had my gift cards and I bought 4 books and a book light (that I can attach to my glasses at night—if I’m wearing them, or something else on my head at least, lol—I am starting to believe I need readers but that’s a different story, for a different day…)-- 2 of the books were on the buy one get one 50% off table and the other 2 looked interesting and were different authors that I recognized the name but couldn’t figure out if I had read them yet (most likely this year!) I am on book 55 of the year after- all and the stories aren’t blending as much as the author’s names, but I do keep a list. And it’s not like all the stories were the same (because they weren’t) but some stood out way more than others. Jeneva Rose and Alex Finlay are two names now on my list to look out for in case someone else wants to BookStack, haha. (See what I did there? There’s BookTok (no, no, and no… I stay away from Tik Tok entirely) and BookStaGram but meh, I want to BookStack!)
I also handed Elin Hilderbrand a card, which her assistant (I cannot remember her name now off the top of my head but she is so faithful and loyal to helping Ms. Hilderbrand so much all the time with every book tour and I’ve met her before at the last book signing—thanks for keeping things flowing so well!) took and put aside (I do hope she reads it. It’s just a message letting her know really that I think she is a wonderful writer (fan girl look at me!) and I mentioned my MOM and how she read a few books but never got an appropriate DOSE (which is all!) of the books Elin has written, but that she did read “The Perfect Couple” after I passed it along after I had it signed. I am going to post a few pictures here from the experience, because it was a lovely and wonderful experience (except for the rain which was gone by 615pm when I got out of there, so ha Mother Nature! We need the rain though desperately especially with the heat wave coming up over the next week).
I am going back down the shore (Sea Isle of course) on Thursday of this upcoming week and I’m looking forward to it. I may have the place to myself once again, which is always a blast and I can get some writing work done. (Man, my allergies are terrible today I must say!)
What I Am Reading: I finished the book from last week, “A Stolen Marriage” (good but moved very slowly. It had some shocking moments in it which were fun though) and then moved onto “Swan Song” (yes, the new release by Elin Hilderbrand that I picked up in hard back form yesterday but couldn’t wait to start let alone read) on Tuesday and finished it Wednesday. I read it on my phone (Kindle app). It was about 400 pages but not quite. It was a MASTERPIECE. I do not joke, kid or exaggerate. She is the MASTER of women’s fiction and women’s beach fiction. I cried at the end for many reasons. It was just so well done but not over-the-top well done, just BRAVO. That’s all I am going to say. I LOVED it, and I knew I freakin’ would.
A girl on Instagram had a HilderBabe challenge where we could check off which books of Elin’s we have read and I checked off 22 of the 30 of them and I have the Winter Paradise series and most of the other 8. I can’t seem to find Silver Girl, which my mother-in-law once had in her shore house. I’ve asked her about it, but I don’t expect her to know its whereabouts at this time. I do hope to get a used copy (or new one!) to complete my collection of reading Elin Hilderbrand’s books.
What an amazing Friday evening it was (despite the crazy weather! Driving home there were tree branches everywhere. Looked like a different area entirely and I was wondering in one spot in West Point, PA if there was a small tornado there were little pieces of mulch everywhere—kind of weird)!
After I finished “Swan Song” on Wednesday I started a book that kept eluding me because I bought it 3 months ago then misplaced it. I decided I better get into it before I lose it again (I’m not that much of a bone head it’s just when I came home from the shore the one time I put everything in a box real quick and forgot I did that for a couple of weeks) … The book is called “We Were Never Here” by Andrea Bartz and man, it’s so good! What a great story and it’s weird and makes you think about stuff you ordinarily wouldn’t think about in the grimmest of ways!
Next Up: Most likely I’ll read “The Unwedding” by Ally Condie (which is on Reeses Book Club list—I have read a lot of those) or “An Unwanted Guest” by Shari Lapena who’s books I have read previously. My sister-in-law leant me the Shari Lapena book and I’d like a quick read. So, we shall see. She is one of the authors where you become so invested in the story, you just can’t put the book down!
As for the rest of the weekend: Father’s Day is here at our house and we are having both my Dad and Brian’s Dad over for some sandwiches and snacks and just a general hangout. Should be a nice time.
I finally got to the pool and went in last week and I got to swim briefly. We were considering going to the pool today but I’m not sure if there will be enough time and I got lots of sun this week. Besides, I can get 20 minutes or so of that BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE and all the vitamin D I need for the day right outside my door. Especially around 12pm.
Thanks for reading as always and hope everyone has a blessed weekend and an amazing week ahead.
-xoxo-
gonna check out perfect couple! have you read The Women by Kristin Hannah.. it’s incredible
I just read Summer of ‘69 snd loved it!