" Ruined" by Paula Morris

WELCOME to NEW ORLEANS:
CITY of VOODOO and BEAUTY.
HURRICANES and HAUNTINGS.

A New Orleans Garden District setting, complete with a ghost, a cemetery and voodoo , is ALWAYS going to grab my attention!
This is my first Paula Morris read but it won't be my last! I really enjoyed this book! As someone who knows and loves New Orleans and is familiar with the Garden District, it was very important to me that Paula capture place, she did a wonderful job !

Rebecca Brown is 15 years old, she loves her New York City home, her school, her friends, the last thing she wants to do is spend 6 months in New Orleans with Aunt Claudia ( who isn't really her aunt) and her daughter Aurelia! She has no choice in the matter though. Her Dad is being sent to China on business and her mother is deceased, so that leaves no one else to care for her. Arriving in New Orleans she finds that Aunt Claudia lives in a creepy house in the Garden District, and reads Tarot Cards in the French Quarters Jackson Square for a living. The city is still reeling after Hurricane Katrina and she's been enrolled in a private school full of Orleanian blue blood divas!

When boredom sends her eaves dropping on a group of teenage blue bloods in the Lafayette Cemetery across the street, she runs straight into Lisette Villieux, a teenage ghost from 1853 ! Through her friendship with Lisette she discovers secrets of New Orleans past and uncovers secrets about her own life! A mysterious read with a delightful ending! Considered a young adult book that I can tell you is a great read for any age!

Copyright 2009 by Paula Morris
IBSN: -10:0-545-04215-1
Published by Point
Hardcover 309 pps.

" A Bad Knee and A Change of Plans"

Due to a hurting right knee and a forecast of severe weather,
I've had a change of plans........just temporary though......
Instead of going to this beautiful place today...........




And Staying in this beautiful room
tonight and tomorrow night.................

Sleeping in this gorgeous Antique bed....

In this wonderful Bed & Breakfast

On Friday I will go down to New Orleans for the day

to attend two of the Master Series Classes................

One class is with John Berendt.......................

Author of ....................

" Midnight In The Garden of Good And Evil...

And................

"The City of Falling Angels"

The other class is with..............

Rick Bragg............

Author of...................

" All Over But The Shoutin' "

And.................

" Ava's Man"

I own and have read all four of these books.

All are great reads. I give 5 stars to each!

John's are based on TRUE stories..........

Rick's are autobiographical of his childhood

growing up in the south but read like novels.

I'm looking forward to meeting the authors

as I have long admired their work!

I'll take lots of pictures..............

And.......next week, I will do all of the

above, same room, same bed in Natchez!

" WALKING THROUGH NEW ORLEANS"

As you know, on Wednesday we drove down to New Orleans for the book signing. We try and go down there at least once a month as we have family there, Hubby has two sons and a sister who live there, plus we love going to the French Market and eating in the French Quarter which has wonderful food! I love walking around the French Quarter and the Garden District as the houses are just magnificent! However, I've never really taken many pictures except the ones I banish to memory.
Since I've started blogging and visiting so many wonderful blogs, that has changed. One of my daily visits in the blog world is to http://david-mcmahon.blogspot.com/ @ authorblog.
David is an International Photo/Journalist who takes the most brilliant photos all over the world. He has a wonderful eye for detail and we are so lucky he shares that eye with us!
He is responsible for me NOW paying close attention to the detail of things I see!
This post is dedicated to David for making me an " amateur photog" in New Orleans.




This house on St. Charles caught my eye because its bed of blooming Azaleas was breath taking!
Spring has definitely Sprung in New Orleans.................... Click On It To See What I Mean!

When I saw this DOOR...........David and his Wednesday's Door posts were my first thought!
Notice the shiny hardwood floor of the porch, take note also that the door leans to the right...

This house on Fourth and Pyrtania in The Garden District is one of my favorites because of its cast iron Cornstalk Fence! It is across the street from Garden District Books. Is this a dream or what.....this house across the street from a bookstore???

Look at this gate..................now this was an artist at work! The gate has a lock on it but

notice the white dot on the left post........it's a doorbell!

All hand made...................

The rows of corn kernels are uneven, just like the real thing.................

These beauties are the tops of the corner posts......................
Sunflowers and veggies.......

So there you are David...........my attempt at imitating YOU!

Thank you for inspiring me, this really was fun!

" Today's The Day"

Today we will be traveling down to New Orleans which is a one and half hours drive, to meet Kathryn Stockett, Author of "The Help"who has a reading and signing at Garden District Book Shop this evening. This is a wonderful book shop in the GardenDistrict of New Orleans, a magical place filled with old Victorian houses and quaint shops. We plan to browse around the French Market, eat an early dinner at one of the great restaurants in The French Quarter, maybe The Court of Two Sisters, which is one of my favorites, and then enjoy an evening with Kathryn reading from her wonderful book!

Thank you all so much for your response to " It's Now or Never"! I have to confess though that the post was totally fiction! I wish I had dreamed it! It is the beginning of a fiction short story I began a couple of days ago that I wanted to share with you.I threw the dream thing in for fun! I do dream( awake) of going to Monroeville and being fortunate enough to meet Harper Lee, but I must confess, I would probably be exactly like I am in the story, petrified! It would to me, be
like Dorothy meeting the Wizard in OZ !



Carolyn@ Mountain Musings wrote me that she is losing sleep reading " The Help"because it is one of the best books she's read in years, can't wait to finish,but doesn't want it to end!
Carolyn, I forwarded your comments to Kathryn.


After hearing that I was criticized by another blogger for losing sleep to finish " The Help",
Carolyn Jourdan, author of " Heart in the Right Place " wrote: " I feel sorry for anyone whose has never gotten hold of a good book that kept them up late reading". My sentiments exactly!
I can't count the nights I've stayed up reading, sometimes till daylight. I believe is an authors dream to write a book so good, the reader can't sleep because of wanting to read what happens next!! Who among you has never stayed up late reading?

Look to your right at the bookshelf....this thing is pretty awesome! Put your mouse on the book for an editorial review of the book. If you get one, load as many books as you can while you are setting it up, I have not been able to get it to load more books since the initial setup.

"The Dream"

In honor of today's Inauguration of President Obama, I wanted to post a video of my cousin Dr. David Murdock of New Orleans, LA. playing an instrumental version of the song " Oh Happy Day" on his saxophone. I was not able to upload it from YouTube but was able to upload this one which he has titled : THE DREAM.........Please click the link and enjoy this beautiful
music!
http://www.youtube.com/user/dmmnola
The photo is of David and my daughter Melanie, taken at her wedding.
If you read my post:" Never Say Never ", I mentioned that I had an Aunt
Wilma Murdock who was no relation to my husband. David is her son,
thus we share the same last name even though his Mother and my Father are brother and sister.
David is not only a medical doctor, he is an extremely talented musician even though he has never taken a music lesson.He plays several instruments including, Sax, steel guitar,bass guitar,piano,
organ and Cajun Accordion. He is a professional on all of them! He is also a wonderful singer/songwriter.