Ann's Blog
Ann McCauley is a Pennsylvania women's literature author, who wrote the books Runaway Grandma and Mother Love, both available for sale at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
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April 2016
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04/30/16
Another month has slipped away…
Filed under: General
Posted by: Ann @ 5:23 pm

Here in northwestern Pennsylvania, we’ve had a cooler than usual April. Some sunny warm days, followed by cold wind and rain. Our biggest snow fall of the winter season came on April 8th. Luckily, it didn’t last long, and we were enjoying another trip to one of our favorite places, New York City. We took our youngest granddaughter for a long weekend to celebrate her twelfth birthday, as we’ve done for each one of our ten grandchildren. We traveled by train from Buffalo to Penn’s Station, under Madison Square Garden. An older granddaughter, who is a student a Stony Brook U. on Long Island, spent two nights in the city with us. The girls skated together in Rockefeller Center. ( Later, I explained to the younger one that even though her cousin seems much older now, when they are grown up, they will feel like they are the same age, and they’ll always remember skating under the lights in the center of N.Y.C.) The twelve year old is a dancer extraordinaire, and we had registered her for the Rockettes Experience which included a tour of Radio City Music Hall, as well as a three hour dance session with two Rockettes… and forty other girls. She did so well and loved it. We toured the city, visited museums and saw two Broadway shows, Matilda and Finding Neverland. We all had a wonderful time. Everything went smoothly until we returned to Buffalo by train and I fell exiting the train, with my 40 pound luggage hitting my lower left leg. It was raining and I slipped on the top step; I was humiliated, embarrassed and bruised. I will be wearing a boot/cast on my leg at least until May 16, to help the tendons heal. I was lucky to have no torn ligaments or broken bones.

I have read several books this month, and all have been quite good.
Learning to Like Mukluk, An Unlikely Explorer in Territorial Alaska, 1948-1950 by Penelope S. Easton. Nonfiction.  Mukluk is strips of whole skin and blubber. A stable in the winter for native Alaskans. Ms. Easton made four more trips to Alaska after her retirement between 1996 and 2005.
Digging to America, by Anne Tyler. Fiction. Two Baltimore families adopt Asian children and become friends. I always love Anne Tyler novels.
Dimestore, A Writer’s Life, by Lee Smith. Nonfiction. I highly recommend this one, Lee Smith is a prolific southern writer who was a born writer and has developed her craft to a science. A great read!!
Death in the Garden, by Elizabeth Ironside. Fiction. A multilayered British detective story, the plot twists will keep you guessing to the end. 
The Confession by Charles Todd. Fiction. An Inspector Ian Ruteledge Mystery, flawlessly written by a mother and son writing team. I like books that I haven’t figured out who did it. These authors did!
Miller’s Valley, by Anna Quindlen. Fiction. “Home is a place that is just as easy to feel lost as it is to feel contented.” Another powerful family novel with secrets, leaves the reader guessing and wondering…it would be for great Book Club discussions. 
Look Again, by Lisa Scottoline. Fiction. The best novel I’ve read by this author. Unexpected plot twists and well
developed characters that stay with the reader long after reading.
All Waiting is Long by Barbara J. Taylor it is the sequel to the author’s debut novel, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night. I loved it. My review for Story Circle is posted:
http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org/reviews/allwaitingislong.shtml

It will not be released until July, it is definitely worth the wait. I recommend putting it on your summer reading list.

My article, Worse Than Writers Block was published in the bi-monthly newsletter www.workingwriters.com.

We have also watched five good movies, all from Netflicks. I miss going to the movies BUT lately there hasn’t been anything we’ve been interested in going to see. All five of these movies are great in there own right:
Testament of Youth, The Martian, Trumbo, Lady in the Van, and Tangerine.

Till next time, keep reading my friends.

Ann

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