Sunday Salon: U-Pick

Fall is here. Well, the morning temps would have us believe that anyway even if the later in the day temps belie it. One of my favorite things to do when my kids were small was to go to the u-pick apple orchard and pick more apples than any one family needed. Of course, then I'd have to find things to make out of the bounty we hauled home. My kids are older now and we don't live in the land of u-pick apples anymore so that's one thing that has fallen off our annual fall list. But isn't it funny how those apples always tasted better than any from the store? It's almost like the little bit of effort it took added to the pleasure in them. I think I've always felt that way though, that I wanted a little control over things, and not just food. I used to love Choose Your Own Adventure books too where it felt like I was driving the story, even if all I was doing was turning to one of several predetermined plot twists. I'd read those books over and over, making different choices at the bottom of each page, pleased with myself when I got the outcome I wanted. So obviously I'm normally a bit of a control freak. I have, however, gotten so far behind in my reviewing that I think it's time to take it all out of my hands and let you all choose for me. Consider this the u-pick version of book reviewing. Better yet, you get to choose and I do the work. So tell me, what do you want to see me review next from my appallingly extensive list of unreviewed reads?

The Innocent Sleep by Karen Perry
Strings Attached by Joanne Lipman and Melanie Kupchynsky
Palmerino by Melissa Pritchard
If Not For This by Pete Fromm
The Lady From Tel Aviv by Raba'i al-Madhoun
Angels Make Their Hope Here by Breena Clarke
Ishmael's Oranges by Claire Hajaj
Neverhome by Laird Hunt
Burial Rights by Hannah Kent
Euphoria by Lily King
The Blessings by Elise Juska
The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks
All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner
Juliet's Nurse by Lois Leveen
We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride
Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield
The Orphans of Race Point by Patry Francis
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
Mr. Tall by Tony Earley
Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown
Gemini by Carol Cassella
The Bride Insists by Jane Ashford
A Farm Dies Once a Year by Arlo Crawford
First Impressions by Charlie Lovett
A Fork in the Road edited by James Oseland
Marching to Zion by Mary Glickman
Flirting with French by William Alexander


And since you can see for yourself where I've been spending my reading hours this past week (from Crawford to Alexander), I won't bother telling you where my reading travels have taken me this past week. But please so tell me where you've been.