Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Match Me If You Can and Parking Lot Sale with Bonus Sunburned Arm

Just finished up Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Match Me If You Can today in between an early morning start on our apartment yard (parking lot) sale, subsequent sunburn to only one arm, and sub-subsequent trip to Savers to donate the stuff we didn't sell. 

I had an unfortunate issue in that this seemingly great condition paperback that I had picked up at my favorite thrift store (Savers http://www.savers.com/) fell apart like no other book I have ever seen.  At first it was one loose page, then all of the sudden the book cracked into three major chunks with another section of about fifty individual loose pages.  These chunks then separated from the cover completely.  I would say that the fact that this book was good enough for me to stick with that unfortunate new binding (or lack thereof) configuration through a yard sale and back and forth from the apartment is a testament to how much I enjoyed this book and how much I wanted to see it through. 


It was an amazingly well crafted love story.  The sub-plot was actually a second romance tale, so it was really a twofer.  This book and another that I have read, Natural Born Charmer, also by Phillips, centers around the Chicago football and pro-sports scene.  Boring.  Well, one would think, boring.  If one thought like me and didn't give two hoots about football.  Because the male characters are, for the most part, the ones involved in the sports world the reader is only subject to peripheral sports information.  Thank god.  Susan Elizabeth really manages to make the male characters in these books multi layered and interesting as opposed to just one dimensional jocks.  The female characters are really nicely crafted too.  I love the everyday faults that make them seem more real and accessible.  It's hard to love a heroine that is too perfect.  Even harder to feel sorry for her. 

After reading Match Me If You Can I knew that I had read another book by Phillips and consulted my "Book of Books" and found out it was the above.  It reminded me how much I liked that book and strengthened my resolve to seek out some more of Susan Elizabeth Phillips' gems. 

For those of you that are interested: the Yard (Parking Lot) Sale went well.  We made almost $90 and, dare I say, had a pretty good time in the process.  John has only a diamond sized patch on the back of his left arm that somehow missed the sunscreen ministrations of both him and me while I have an upper left arm that is still pretty warm.  It was nice to mingle with the other residents and feel a bit of community in a city where you often feel so isolated despite so many people.  I managed to only buy one thing.  A lamp for $3.  But it's a pretty big lamp.    (This is the exact lamp, only in chrome.  Mine is matte black finish.)  John tried to dissuade me, but I bargained him into letting me get it if I got rid of one of ours.  We had a lamp that was one of those conical directional three bulb things that only had two functional bulbs, so that seemed like a good candidate for elimination. 

The other exciting thing that happened as a result of the Apartment Parking Lot Sale was that a neighbor I befriended saw me reading the aforementioned Match Me If You Can and asked me what I liked to read.  I gave her my standard "a little bit of everything" reply.  And then she proceeded to try to interest me in her shelf full of historical romances.  I was picturing the moldy, dusty, yellowed, old Georgette Heyer's that we used to get in by the box load at the used bookstore I worked at.  Right after Granny kicked the bucket and the surviving relatives just "know that someone wants to read them, and aren't they worth money?"  The neighbor then explained she didn't want any money for them, she just wanted to give them away.  I gamely replied that I would check them out, and if I didn't want to read them I could take them to donate at the thrift store.  Mentally I was picturing taking them straight to my car after double bagging them, because I don't want a silverfish infestation in my apartment, and then straight to the dumpster or thrift store if I thought they were in good enough condition.  Imagine my surprise when her kids come out with a trash bag full of pristine historicals.  Only one of them interested me (I admit, anything with Highlanders in the title will at least get me to read the back), but all of them were nice enough that I put them up on Paperback Swap without even the need to Windex them.  I have already had requests for 17 of them!  Woo! 

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a special Mother's Day post dedicated to all the mothers out there.  All types: cat moms, dog moms, fish moms, ferret moms, great aunts that are like grandmothers, and aunts that are like moms.  Let's go ahead and include aunts that aren't really even your aunt, but they get rolled into today's accolades as well.  And to be really inclusive, if you don't have a mom, or if yours is gone, be you cat, dog, or human, your man/dad gets to celebrate or be celebrated today too.  He also gets to celebrate on Father's Day and vice versa for the lady single parents. 

I'm also going to send a special shout out to my cat, Isis.  She has diligently mothered every foster, stray, and new addition that I have thrust upon her.  Sure, there is a little grumbling at first, as if to say, "Another one, come on, I'm spayed, how do they keep coming?  Oh well, your ear's dirty, come here and take this bathing!" 

Most importantly to me (and my sister) is our own personal mother.  I love you, Mom.  I miss you and I wish I could be there to celebrate with you... to make sure that you didn't have to do too much in the kitchen or order your dinner yourself.  I hope somebody scoops the kitty potties for you today.  (Maybe Robin, herself a proud cat mom, will take the reigns on that one.)  I don't know how to express how fortunate I feel to have had a Mom that I could always come to and knew I would have help in solving whatever problem I had, or if you couldn't solve it, I felt better for having shared it with you.  I still feel that way, only I have to be satisfied with a phone call instead of the great hugs that I would get in person.  What great hugs...I still remember how great it was to see you at the Knoxville airport when I came into town last winter holiday.  I would have been happy to see Dad and Robin as well, but as it was the moment was ours to share privately and I cherish it.  I love you, Mom.