TSS: After an unexpected hiatus

Hi everyone and welcome to The Sunday Salon! I didn’t mean to go dark this past week – life has just gotten the best of me I suppose. I’ve been realizing that since I officially started my “new” job at work (if you recall, same company just received an actual promotion after being in training for it for about six months) in March, pretty much everything else in my life has been on the back burner. This is an excellent opportunity, and I love my job, but WOW is it more work than I expected, mentally and emotionally. And the time that I’ve been putting in is more than I was used to before – most days I leave my house at 7 a.m. and don’t return until after 6 p.m. When I get home, the last thing I can focus on is reading or blogging. So that results in my trying to cram all reading/blogging into my Sundays, when that’s the day I also want to spend time with my husband, meet a friend for lunch, or all kinds of other things I’m too exhausted to do during the week.

All that is to say that I’m working on finding some balance in my life. I truly wanted to participate in Armchair BEA this past week, but before I knew it Monday arrived and I had nothing planned for the week, and no motivation to write anything … so I just didn’t. I also have not been able to keep up with my original plan this year of three reviews per week. So I’m going down to two per week, and crossing my fingers that I’ll continue to read twoish books each week to make that happen.

I’m good, though. I refuse to pressure myself into being a “better blogger” or more consistent or anything like that. This is fun for me, I don’t make any money off this blog, and I’ve virtually stopped accepting review copies. So while I want to write posts and comment on others and be more involved, if I can’t swing it I won’t kill myself in an effort to try. I will get myself into a routine again one of these days, and until then I’m not going to stress about it.

In other news, I’m having a great weekend! Yesterday I was able to get a bunch of errands done and last night hubby and I had dinner with another couple that we just recently met, and we had a great time at this little Irish pub near their home. It was so cute, you guys! There were BOOKSHELVES behind the bar. Love. Last weekend was our five-year wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by going out to dinner at Emeril’s (our new tradition – we went last year and loved it) and it was delicious of course. Tonight my cousin is in town from San Francisco and I’m hoping to get together with him and his girlfriend for dinner.

And I’m reading, too! I started A Discovery of Witches in anticipation of the second book coming out – been meaning to read this one forever – and it is every bit as good as I had hoped it would be. I finished both of my current audiobooks yesterday (Drop Dead Healthy and Ready Player One) and am about to start Warm Bodies on my iPod. Not sure what I’ll do for my car audio. Oh and I also got the newest Jodi Picoult novel from the library – I know, I know, but I’ve read all of her books and I can’t seem to stop – so I started that this morning. So things are looking up on the reading front!

Anyway, I’m not sure what’s in store for me today. Definitely some chores around the house, but I’d love to get some reading in and maybe will enjoy some sunshine since we’ve had almost two straight weeks of rain. What are you up to this Sunday?

Weekend Cooking: Just a Question

Today’s Weekend Cooking post is a simple question. I always have random ingredients on hand at home and am not enough of an accomplished cook to figure out how to make meals out of them. I hear there are websites out there where you can type in a few ingredients and it will search for recipes that incorporate them. Do any of you use such a site? If so, which one? And if not, what website is your favorite to find new recipes?

And what do you do with all those random ingredients, anyway? HELP!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is held every Saturday. Stop by her blog and check out all the fun!

Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Triangles by Ellen Hopkins
Published by Atria, an imprint of Simon and Schuster
Review copy provided by the publicist

Three women find themselves at crossroads in their lives. Holly has recently lost a lot of weight and no longer feels a connection with her husband, so she gets involved with another man, hoping that this extramarital sex will be the fulfillment she is looking for. Holly’s best friend, Andrea, is a single mom and can’t understand why Holly would act with such disrespect for her marriage when Andrea would do just about anything to have that for herself. And Marissa, Andrea’s sister, is dealing with stress in her own marriage as her husband spends more and more time at work while she cares for their severely disabled young daughter. As these three women navigate their lives, new relationships are formed, friendships are tested, and ultimately each must decide what is best for themselves as individuals.

I have read several other books by Ellen Hopkins, all YA written in verse. Triangles is also written in verse, but do not mistake this for a young adult book. This is clearly a book aimed at mature audiences only. These women have a lot going on in their lives and engage in some majorly, ahem, adult behavior. However, I enjoyed Triangles quite a bit due to the fact that Hopkins’ signature style is present in this novel in full force. She has an amazing ability to write beautiful novels in verse, novels that draw me in and keep me captivated and engaged with the characters throughout. That was definitely the case with this book, even though I didn’t love all of these ladies’ choices, I was invested in their stories from the very beginning and completely hooked on the novel from start to finish.

I can’t pick one of the three women specifically that spoke to me over the other two, but if I had to say which woman I had the most compassion for, it would be Marissa. She was so completely devoted to her daughter and her husband couldn’t have cared less about her or their family. It was heartbreaking to read how desperately Marissa wanted their family back where it should be, but was unable to figure out how she could make that happen. Holly’s actions angered me and disgusted me, to be honest, but at the same time, I almost understood her. She was so far into her own issues that she couldn’t see how what she was doing was hurting other people. It was incredibly sad and even though I didn’t like how she chose to express herself or act on her pain, I did feel for her. Andrea is probably the character I connected to the least, but I still did like her a lot. I think I just personally couldn’t relate to her situation, especially towards the end with some of the choices she made. However, I did enjoy getting to know her over the course of the novel.

If you are a fan of Ellen Hopkins, and/or novels written in verse, and OK with reading about more mature subject matter, definitely pick up Triangles. I have a feeling people might not feel as strongly as myself about this one, but I personally flew through this novel and adored every minute I spent with these messed-up characters.