This is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year.  As the weather cools, the trees light up with their multi-colored leaves, and mens’ thoughts turn to football, my thoughts turn to the Reader’s Imbibing Peril Challenge.  Now in its’ fifth year (wow!), this is definitely one of my favorite challenge ever and I’m so glad Carl has brought it back again this year! I will be doing, as usual, Peril the First with some Short Story Peril thrown in for good measure. I have a massive pile of books to pull from this year, but have one clearcut goal – to read The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.  It is at the top of my list!

• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (hahaha hahaha ha ha ha – is this the fifth year this has been on my list? Yes.)
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Heart of Darkness and Selected Stories by Joseph Conrad
• Edgar Allen Poe stories!
• The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
• The Ghost Writer by John Harwood
• The Seance by John Harwood
• Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
• The Sister by Poppy Adams
• Nocturnes by John Connolly
• Shirley Jackson short stories (I have a small collection on my iPod!  One is The Lottery!)

Reread possibilities

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Also definite, Jen and I have made it the 4th quarter read for the Classic Reads Book Club!  I hope you will join us in reading this fantastic book.)
• The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Re-listen possibilities

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (actually, this is certain.  I already started it!)
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Carl has also added a new Peril this year – Peril on the Screen.  I’m not much for really scary movies, but I think I can find a couple to watch.  I definitely want to see the old classic ghost story The Uninvited starring Ray Milland.  It is one of my favorite movies ever, I just have to get my hands on it! 

I hope you will considering joining us.  Carl always has great prizes and we all have great fun.  See Carl’s Challenge Signup Post!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? is a weekly event to list the books  finished last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finish this week. It was created by J.Kaye’s Book Blog, but is now being hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of  Books.!

So, I bet you all know one thing I read this week.  Mockingjay!!! And it was excellent.  Really everything I could have wanted.  I’ve obsessed about it all week, to the point where I haven’t finished another book since.  Oh, except for Finny, which I also reviewed!

Which isn’t to say I haven’t tried!  I have way too many books going, which is probably part of my problem.  I have been reading The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, The Handmaid’s Tale, Stories, and Mr. Peanut!  Actually, I just started Mr. Peanut Saturday night in a fit of OMG-I-feel-a-reading-slump-coming-on and so far, it’s really good!  It’s… odd enough… crazy enough… to hold my attention.  Plus it’s on my nook and will self destruct delete on it’s on September 3rd.  And lucky for me, I’m reading it with Jen from Devourer of Books!

It goes without saying that I would love to finish all these books this week!  How was your reading week?

So, yeah. I’m making Fig Jam.  And I have no idea what I am doing.  I have never ate a fig.  I have never touched a fig.  The only figgy anything I remember is Fig Newtons and that has been YEARS ago.  But apparently I’m getting some kind of reputation as a jam/jelly/preserve maker and my uncle’s stepdad LOVES Fig Jam.  He is also diabetic.  The Fig Jam recipe I have in my trusted book calls for 6 cups of sugar.

Do you see the hurdles I am facing people?

I am so totally winging it, so here’s hoping!

Here is what I did.

8 cups of chopped figs (this doubles my recipe)

4 cups of sugar (this is about 1/3 of what my recipe called for)

1 cup of lemon juice

A dash of cinnamon

2 packs of no sugar needed Sure-Jell Pectin

So. I chopped up all those figs.  I put them in the pot with the lemon and 1 cup of sugar and I let it sit for about 10 minutes, but stirring occasionally.  Then I put the pot on the stove on medium low and let it simmer for awhile.  Like, QUITE awhile.  Probably 40 minutes.  Oh, and stir, stir, stir!!  Then I turned it up to medium high.  I added the rest of the sugar.   Once it got to a decent boil, I added the pectin and the dash of cinnamon.  Once it was to a rolling boil, I let it boil for 1 minute.

Then I took it off the heat for 5 minutes, to let it cool, still stirring every once in awhile.  I put it in the jars and did a water bath.  Since I used pint jars, I let it boil for 15 minutes.  We’ll see how he likes it, I just hope it tastes okay!

Obviously, daughter isn’t too sure! LOL

Weekend Cooking hosted by BethFishReads every weekend.  It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog’s home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Saturday Farmer’s Market is a new feature I started to showcase, well, gardens!  This summer especially, I have really come to enjoy everyone’s garden posts and I selfishly want to see them all, every week!  And as you all know, I’m all about the sustainable living!  So give me your garden photos, your gardening books you’re reading, even give me pictures of your Farmer’s Market loot from the week!  I want it ALL.

Okay, now here is my real post!  My poor garden. See?

However, my okra is kicking ass!  It just loves this hot weather.  I am definitely planting this again next year.

Look who is still hanging around?  He’s not going to like it when I go pull all those tomato plants up.  My garden will be looking very different next week!

Sometime this week (or maybe even today, if it cools off!) I’m going to pull everything up and plant these.  Well, everything but the okra!

As for my farmer’s market haul…I got some corn to freeze for this winter, some squash to fry up with some onions, some mountain apples, and this.  This. is. yummy.  I give you Garlic Rosemary Bread!!! *drool*

Yes, yes you do want some. It is so yummy! I think it shall be my supper.

Got anything for me? I want to see!  Leave your link with Mr. Linky!

She started out life as Delphine, named by her father for the city where the Greek oracle was from, but she’d always had an independent mind about things like names, so she’d gone by Finny ever since she was old enough to choose.

Meet Finny Short, the precocious narrator of Justin Kramon’s remarkable first novel.   Finny is the smallest oddball in her oddball family.  Her father offers random quotes from random people at very random times.  Her mother is a shallow woman, more worried about how things look to other people than to her own family.  Her brother Sylvan gets on well with them.  Finny does not.  She is constantly picking little fights with her parents and, one night when things get to be too much, she “runs away.”

That night she meets Earl Henckel, kind, sensitive Earl, and instantly feels a connection to him.  She finds every excuse to sneak out of the house to meet with him, finally starting piano lessons with his father as a cover.  However, when her prim-and-proper mother discovers that Finny has been kissing Earl, it’s off to boarding school for her.  Here she meets Judith, a rich, beautiful girl who may or may not be good for Finny, and the cast is complete.

It is these two relationships, with Earl and Judith, that will shape Finny’s life.  It’s hard to tell from the first, if either will be good for Finny.  She instantly adores Earl, instantly seems to know she can’t live without him.  With Judith, however, it isn’t so cut and dry.

She felt the way she had when she’d just met Judith, as if this gorgeous young woman had handed her a heavy tray of glasses and Finny had to make sure not a single one dropped.

It’s really hard to say more without giving too much away and I am certain I can’t do it justice.  Finny is definitely one of those novels where I just want to say, “Read it, please!  Trust me.”  I came to this book with nothing more than the description from the publisher and that was enough to tell me I was dying to read it.  This fourteen-year-old misfit is a character you don’t want to miss.  She is wry, innocent, wise, and so endearing.  Earl is borderline too-good-to-be-true, yet also endearing.  I couldn’t help but love him. Justin Kramon is a remarkable new talent. Honestly, I would have never thought this was his first novel.  Finny is a funny, observant, and moving story with a unique love story and an unforgettable heroine.  I will definitely be watching for more from Kramon.

Click here to read an excerpt.

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