More comfort reading

 

From the New York Times bestselling author, the first of two epic and triumphant novels celebrating one intrepid woman's life across multiple generations in the American South.

1908: The Lowcountry of South Carolina is at the cusp of change. Mayfield, the grand estate held for generations by the Rivers family, is the treasured home of young Eliza. A free spirit, she refuses to be confined by societal norms and spends her days exploring the vast property, observing wildlife, and riding horses. But the Great War, coastal storms, and family turmoil bring unexpected challenges to Eliza, putting her on a collision course with the patriarchal traditions of a bygone era.

1988: At 88, Eliza is the scion of the Rivers/DeLancey family. She’s fought a lifetime to save her beloved Mayfield and is too independent and committed to quietly retire and leave the fate of the estate to her greedy son. She must make decisions that will assure the future of the land and her family—or watch them both be split apart.

Set against the evocative landscape of the twentieth-century Lowcountry, Where the Rivers Merge is a dramatic and sweeping multigenerational family story of unyielding love, lessons learned, profound sacrifices, and the indomitable spirit of a woman determined to persevere in the face of change in order to protect her family legacy and the land she loves.

Comfort Reads cont'd

 

This was a re-read for me.

I loved it every bit as much as I did the first time.

"In this intimate debut novel, a woman returns to her small Southern hometown in the wake of her mother's sudden death--only to find the past upended by stunning family secrets.

Lila Bruce Breedlove never quite felt at home in Wesleyan, Georgia, especially after her father's untimely death when she was a child. Both she and her brother, Henry, fled north after high school, establishing fulfilling lives and relationships of their own, steeped in art and culture. In contrast, their younger sister, Abigail, opted to remain in Georgia to dote on their domineering, larger-than-life mother, Geneva. Yet, despite their years-long independence, Lila and Henry both know they've never quite reckoned with their upbringing.

Now, when their elderly mother dies suddenly and strangely, found among the dense vines of the muscadine arbor behind the family estate, they must travel back to the town that raised them. But as Lila and Henry uncover more about Geneva's death, shocking truths are revealed that upend the Bruces' history as they know it, sending the pair on an extraordinary journey to chase a truth that will dramatically alter the course of their lives.

With deep compassion and sharp wit, Pamela Terry brings to life the culture and expectations of a small Southern town that values appearance over authenticity--and where the struggle to live honestly can lead to devastating consequences."

The description does not do the book justice.

It's this and so much more. 

What makes a book special?  Sets it apart from other books you read and enjoy?

It's characters that have dimension and personality.

It's the author's voice and word choice.

Phrasing and pacing.

Descriptions that place you so deeply in the story you're able to actually see the scene being described.  And feel it.

Pamela Terry is an author I think we're going to be hearing a lot about in the future.

"The Sweet Taste of Muscadines" won't be available until March - AND it'll be worth the wait. Not to worry - I'll be back to remind you! 

I was lucky enough to run across it at NetGalley and even luckier when my request to read it was granted.  

Comfort Reads

 I am finding myself, more and more, in need of comfort reads. 

I’m just not sure there will be enough of them to get me through the next three and a half years.

As I find them, I will share them here for those of you who are feeling the same. 

Here's my first recommendation, but stay tuned 'cause there are more to come.

WHERE LIGHT LINGERS by Ashley Farley fits the bill perfectly.

Description from Amazon -

“Sometimes the quietest miracles grow in the darkest seasons.

After six years of caring for her ailing parents, literature professor Selwyn Aldridge is alone in the weathered Victorian house where she grew up. Grief hangs heavy in every room, and her mother’s once-glorious garden is buried beneath weeds. When a bottle of morphine disappears during a moment of despair, Selwyn begins to question her grip on reality—until a radiant stranger named Blossom appears, arriving with uncanny timing and an instinct for exactly what Selwyn needs.

With Blossom’s quiet guidance, Selwyn begins to restore her mother’s garden—and, slowly, her own sense of purpose. But when an old flame resurfaces, a pregnant student turns up in need, and strange disturbances echo from the garage apartment, it becomes clear Selwyn’s story is far from over.

Set against the lush, literary backdrop of Oxford, Mississippi, Where the Light Lingers is a soulful novel about second chances, chosen family, and the quiet miracles that take root when we begin again.

For readers who loved The Secret to Southern Charm by Kristy Woodson Harvey or The Summer House by Lauren K. Denton—this soulful Southern novel will speak to your heart.”

Musing

So.

What am I loving recently?

What am I hating?

Oh yes - Hate is a strong word.  A strong feeling.  An unhealthy emotion.  But.  It's real.  And is oftentimes justifiable.

Love, too is a word of strength.  It too is real.

Why should we be allowed to feel one but not the other?

Starting with some things I love -

Randy Susan Meyers - Every word she writes. Books, columns, opinions - every. single. word.  

Here's a snippet from her latest substack column: "I’ve fallen so hard into the idea that I must work nonstop to save American democracy that Labor Day brought a blowback hurricane of egotistical self-care, where I fell into the well of jewelry, make-up, skin care, hair care, and LBD googling."

Read it here -

Lip Stain for the End of the World?

Hair rescue & skin relief in place of wine and Xanax, with books, events & prizes.

I love that yesterday was pub day for my pal, Hank Phillippi Ryan's newest.  Her best yet, in my  opinion.

Also - 

I love E. Jean Carroll

AND

I am loving Code Pink

Hate.  What am I hating today.

I'm betting you guessed it.

This administration, along with the do-nothing Republicans in Congress, and the partisan Supreme Court are all about cruelty.  

R. T. Mills

 

Rufus “RT” Thomas Mills, Jr., 77, of Cambridge passed away on Sunday, August 31, 2025 at his home. He was born in Cambridge on February 12, 1948 to the late Rufus Thomas Mills, Sr. and Edith Lee Spear.

RT graduated from Cambridge High School class of 1966. He later attended University of Maryland College Park and graduated from Salisbury State College class of 1972. On April 29, 1966 he married the former Pam Howell. RT worked for the State of Maryland as Chief Information Officer with over 30 years of service. He enjoyed playing tennis, watching cowboy movies and British shows, searching on the internet, doing carpentry work, and had a love for animals.

RT is survived by his wife Pam Mills of Cambridge; two daughters LeeAnn Matheu and husband Wes of Annapolis and Katherine Wilson and husband Keith of Cambridge, six grandchildren Allie, Ryan, Blake, Dr. Hannah, Mackenzie, and Kelly and a beloved first cousin Gordon Hill. Besides his parents, RT was preceded in death by a half-brother Kenneth Mills and wife Phyllis.

Per RT's wishes there will be no services. Arrangements are in the care of Thomas Funeral Home, P.A. in Cambridge.

*  *  *

Oh, R.T. - We had a lot of adventures, laughs, and conversations over the years. You will be missed.  Did I ever thank you for teaching me how to drive when we were 16?  Sadly,  I never did get very good at it.

Do you believe in Fairy Tales?

 

❤ ❤ ❤

If you don't believe in fairy tales, and you don't find Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to be a breath of fresh air, this is probably not the place for you.

Move Along . . .

A few questions -

 I do not know Alex Schiller, but I follow him at Facebook.

He refers to himself as a professional window cleaner and an accidental writer.

He recently posted this list of questions.  Because I have the same questions, and guessing that many of you do as well, I have "borrowed" them to share here.  I hope Mr. Schiller doesn't mind.  

They're legitimate questions and we need to be asking them.  AND, we deserve answers.

Where are the homeless people who got rounded up in DC? Why are we spending more to do that than it costs to shelter them?

Why did Putin arrive to Trump waiting on the tarmac and soldiers kneeling to roll out a red carpet, while European leaders and Zelensky were met by a Deputy Secretary of State?

Why is JD Vance taking 7 vacations in six months, including raising an entire river, and most recently at a $28k per week resort?

Why is Kristi Noem living for free in a house that should be occupied by the head of the Coast Guard?

Why is the president allowed to sell Crypto and sneakers?

Why is there a gift shop in the White House? Why does it sell Trump 2028 hats?

With the OBBB and DOGE and tariffs all in place, why did our deficit for July run in the hundreds of millions, and why was it higher than a year ago?

Why is Texas "entitled" to redistricting by single-party mandate, but California is "anti democracy" for letting voters decide if they want to redistrict?

Why can Trump call federal law enforcement into Capitol Hill to deal with homelessness and crime 10 miles away, but he couldn't call them on January 6th?

Why is a man who threw a sandwich being prosecuted by the same administration that pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted police officers, with weapons, in the same city?

If illegal immigration is the problem, why are people being snatched from court appointments?

Why was Ghislaine Maxwell moved to a country club prison and put on work release?

Why have my groceries, homeowners insurance, utilities, and student loans all gone up while I'm being told we're the hottest country in the world and our economy has never been better?

How am I supposed to trust the guy responsible for the nation's health when he thinks cutting disease and vaccine research is a good idea, while celebrating putting real sugar in soda, banning a color, and seeming not to understand that Riboflavin is a vitamin and not a dangerous chemical?

Don't we need FEMA?

Should the Secretary of Education know the difference between Artificial Intelligence and steak sauce? I feel like she should.

Why are we spending a billion tax dollars to retrofit a plane that Trump gets to keep when he leaves office?

How does painting a fence black for a half billion dollars make it too hot to climb at night, and if all the paint peeled off when they did it in 2019, how is it gonna stay on there now?

What are they going to do with the deportation camps when they run out of deportees?

Did it seem weird to you when the President named himself director of the Kennedy Center, then invited himself to host, then took time to consider whether he would be available, then accepted, then thanked himself for the honor of having asked himself? Seems weird.

If I get approached in my vehicle by screaming men wielding rifles and wearing masks who refuse to identify themselves, do Castle Doctrine laws still apply? I'm in Florida.

What kind of training are those guys getting anyway? Is there like a civil rights cartoon they have to watch, or is it all just mountain dew and cash bounties?

How long does someone need to be in charge before they have to stop blaming everyone else for their own bad policies, poor optics, and incompetence?

If Intel is coerced into giving 15% of its profit to the government, is that not socialist?

What about giving a $19 billion bailout to farmers after tariffs and immigration raids devastated their revenue? Socialism or no?

Who's making all those 9-figure swing trades hours before unscheduled tariff announcements?

Why have so many people connected to the White House Crypto Dinner received pardons or had investigations dropped?

Why does everyone pretend that Clinton, Obama and Biden weren't the only 3 presidents in history to reduce the federal deficit?

If Project 2025 wasn't associated with Trump, why are the Director of OMB, Sr. Counselor on Trade and Manufacturing, FCC Chair and General Counsel, CIA Director, Border Czar, and Press Secretary all listed as authors and contributors?

I have more questions, but these seem like a good start.

So excited

 

So.  Last weekend I pouted because I couldn't watch The Chiefs play on TV.

I mentioned to Donald that they were playing tonight and I was gonna miss the game again.

Well, one phone call later from Dear Husband to Spectrum and Voilà - I am ready for some football!!!

Chiefs vs. Seahawks

Tonight

And i Can Watch

I Love Don Barley

Loving vs. Hating

 

I love the positivity of Taylor Swift

Vs.

The hateful ignorance of

You know

Disappointments and Happy Stuff

 

First disappointment - The Chiefs game was not televised.  And I am not gonna pay $84.50 a month for that streaming channel.

Second disappointment - they lost.  17-20.  😥

But, i found a book written by one of my favorite authors that i somehow missed.  So I have 600 pages of bliss to dive into.

And i am reminded of this quote -

"… but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short."
      - - - Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1817)

I agree.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

❤ ❤ ❤

What's Up?

 what's up.

Well, up here on our mountain, not a lot.

I'm pretty excited about watching the Chiefs play this weekend.

I haven't been spending too much time at Facebook except for a couple of groups which are pretty drama free, and to check in on friends and family I care for a great deal.

I've read some good books.  Planning a couple of big trips coming up in the future.  Tried a few new recipes.  Just normal stuff.   

I recently read an interesting article in the NYT - some of you might enjoy it.

A Letter to the Future

Writing yourself a letter is a good way to identify the things in your life that matter — as well as those things that you can let go.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/briefing/a-letter-to-the-future.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ck8.XqMn.nQebWNwUVwaz∣=em-sha

While I haven't written myself a letter, I have been writing this blog for a number of years, which might be viewed in the same way as a letter from me to me.   Looking back at some of these pieces, I'm surprised at the things I don't remember writing.

Not surprising is how my love of certain things rings as true today as it did when I first started writing Meanderings and Muses.  Poetry, for.one.  Paris for another.

Horizon (to Tristan Tzara) by Philippe Soupault

The whole town has come into my room
the trees have disappeared
and evening clings to my fingers
The houses are turning into ocean liners
the sound of the sea has just reached me up here
In two days we’ll arrive in the Congo
I’ve passed the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn
I know there are innumerable hills
Notre-Dame hides the Gaurisankar and the northern lights
night falls drop by drop
I await the hours

Give me that lemonade and the last cigarette
I’m going back to Paris

(translated by Rosmarie Waldrop)

Home, for another.

And.

I still feel exactly the same about the things I've written about that i don't love.  And i always will.

And I hope you're all doing well.

❤ ❤ ❤

Favorite Books through June 2025

Sister of my heart,  Lesa Holstine, posted her favorite books of the year (so far) at her blog.

https://lesasbookcritiques.com/favorite-books-january-through-june-2025/#comment-105564

It reminded me that I had not yet posted my own, so here 'tis.  A little late, but here, nonetheless.

Some of the books on this list may not be available yet as I read them as Advance Reading Copies through NetGalley. com, but they're available for pre-ordering and are worth waiting for.

Happy Reading!

 We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter

Writers and Liars by Carol Goodman

Apostle’s Cove by William Kent Krueger

My Beloved by Jan Karon

All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Hunter’s Heart Ridge by Sarah Stewart Taylor

Mrs. Endlicott’s Splendid Adventure by Rhys Bowen

These Heathens by Mia McKenzie

Through An Open Window by Pamela Terry

The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

Painting by Kay Ritter

CONROY CENTER 2025 WRITER'S RESIDENCY

Remember this? 

 https://www.kayebarleymeanderingsandmuses.com/2023/08/me-writer-in-residence.html

A dream come true for me.

And now it's someone else's turn -

 

Shared from The Pat Conroy Literary Center Facebook Page:

CONROY CENTER 2025 WRITER'S RESIDENCY

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will offer our next Conroy Center Writer's Residency this October 22-29, coinciding with the 10th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival. Located on a salt marsh, the residency at MarshSong Cottage provides an inspirational, creative space in the heart of Pat Conroy’s beloved lowcountry. The application period is now open, concluding on August 11. See details at https://conta.cc/4lgwovN (copied below)

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Conroy Center Writer's Residency, Fall 2025 ~ Open to Writers in All Prose Genres | Deadline: August 11 ~ “As was customary in their nineteen years of marriage, he left the grits on his plate untouched, an unexpressed but articulate declaration, rooted in geography, that the society he married into had not assimilated him. All the totems of Bull’s disenchantment with the South could be carved from pillars of congealed grits. Since they had married, it was a point of honor between them that Lillian serve grits and Bull refuse to eat them. What had begun as a joke between them had become a resolute ceremony fraught with competition and even with something deeper, something almost mythological that separated them.”—Pat Conroy, The Great Santini  WELCOME TO MARSHSONG COTTAGE Coinciding with the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will offer our next Conroy Center Writer's Residency this coming fall, available to writers of all prose genres. Located on a salt marsh, the residency at MarshSong Cottage provides an inspirational, creative space in the heart of Pat Conroy’s beloved lowcountry. The residency location is a guest cottage on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, approximately 15 minutes from downtown Beaufort and 15 minutes from the beach at Hunting Island State Park. The residency dates will be October 22 to 29, 2025, overlapping with the 10th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, which the selected writer will be invited to attend. TO APPLY FOR THE WRITER'S RESIDENCY Please submit the following by August 11, 2025, to contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org with the subject line CONROY CENTER WRITER'S RESIDENCY:  1) Grits or no grits? Are you Team Lillian or Team Bull? In 300 words or less—and in any form of writing you choose, tell us about your relationship with grits. Love them? Hate them? Have a favorite recipe or grits-flavored story?  2) Ceremony and mythology: Tell us about something of grand importance to your family or circle of friends which was treated as a kind of ceremony or mythology unique to your experiences. Got a tradition, custom, ritual, or habit that is idiosyncratic? Do tell—in 300 words or less and in any form of writing you choose.  3) Who are you? Send us a short bio, along with your contact information, up to 100 words, in first person prose please. 4) Do you have a favorite Pat Conroy book? If so, tell us which one, and why. Don’t have a favorite Conroy book? Then tell us which book by another author is closest to your heart and why in about 50 words. 5) How did you learn about this residency? Short answers welcome! 6) Finally, let’s have a look. Include a writing sample of your work, 3 – 5 double-spaced pages of prose in 12 pt Times New Roman or similar font. Attached to your email as PDF, please! Completing all sections of the application as directed is essential. Incomplete applications will not be considered for the residency. Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of Conroy Center advisors. The selected writer will be notified by September 1. The residency is open to both published and unpublished writers. If you have applied before but not been selected, we encourage you to apply again. Pat Conroy was a mentor to writers in all stages of their careers and we wish to honor that legacy. ABOUT THE COTTAGE Learn more about MarshSong Cottage here. The selected writer must provide her or his own transportation. Residency is for the writer only; no guests or pets. WRITERS, WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR SUBMISSIONS! Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St, Beaufort, SC 29902 843-379-7025 | contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org View as Webpage

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