MY - 5 Best Nora Roberts books you should read - CHOICES

 This is one of the hardest challenges for me. 

We all go through different moods through the day, month, life... and Nora has so many books that you should could read a book per day during a year, with a few days to spare and re-read your favorites 😀; hence it is very hard for me to commit to a TOP 5/10/15 or what-book-would-I-take-to-a-desert-island?...

Read the TOP 5 on top and then follow with my, today's, top 5:

📕 1    The Witness     

📗 2    Three Fates      

📘 3    Sea Swept    

📙 4    The Search 

📖 5    Valley of Silence

Living in Limbo

"Do you have something profound to say?" she asked Doug.

He walked over, sat down, leaning forward with his hands dangling between his knees. 

His gaze was sharp on her face. "All my life, as long as I can remember, you've been the ghost

 in the house. Doesn't matter which house, you were always there, just by not being there. 

Every holiday, every event, even ordinary days, the shadow of you darkened the edges. There were times, plenty of times, I hated you for that."

"Pretty inconsiderate of me to get myself snatched that way."

"If it weren't for you, everything would've been normal. My parents would still be together."

"Oh Christ." She said it on a sigh.

"If it weren't for you, everything I did growing up 

wouldn't have had that shadow at the edges. I wouldn't have seen the panic in my mother's

 eyes every time I was five minutes late getting home. I wouldn't have heard her 

crying at night, or wandering around the house like she was looking for 

something that wasn't there."

Birthright 

________________

By Sheba_Also 43,000 photos - 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shebalso/20984381884/, CC BY-SA 2.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72977824

What it really feels like when a loved one goes missing

The majority of missing people return fairly quickly, but around 1% don’t. Their cases remain open for a year of more – and some for much longer. In the meantime, their friends and relatives must live with the uncertainty and hope of finding what happended to their loved ones, sometimes for many years.

The Conversation

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The fabric of their lives woven over the past twenty-five years had been torn. 

Their routines of home and work and family shattered.

Their world became the hospital, the being there, 

the going to and from, the constant juggling on snatches of 

sleep and rushed meals between. The demands of work, the people 

and animals depending on them, the low simmer of worry for Cora.

If Alice’s return created such tears and breakage, Bodine thought, 

how much had her careless departure caused so long ago?

Come Sundown

Design a Bedroom that Grows

She stopped in the doorway of her room first. Her childhood room. 

It had gone through numerous incarnations from the little-girl fussiness 

that was her first memory of it—and her mother's vision—through 

the eye-popping colors she'd insisted on when she'd begun to have her own ideas 

and into the messy cave where she'd kept her collection of fossils and old bottles, 

animal bones and anything else she'd managed to dig up.

Birthright

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By Andrea_44 from Leamington, Ontario , Canada - Children's toys, CC BY 2.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54214523

When it comes to kids, nothing is permanent. 

They change their favorite foods, colors, and styles as easily as the wind blows. 

Why should the design of their rooms be an exception? 

Be prepared for these requests for change to come and open to them when they come. However, by following these tips to design a room that grows along with your child, you can save yourself a lot of time, money, and frustration in the process. 

But, best of all, you can respect your child’s unique personality while doing so, which is never a bad thing.

FRESHOME

Celebrating Bach

She closed her eyes, opened herself to the music as she drew out Bach. 

The lovely, complicated and romantic notes from his Suite Number I in G 

for Unaccompanied Cello.

Her mind could rest with the music. Flow with it. Quiet. 

Here was comfort, the mathematics and the art, blended together into beauty.

For these precious moments, she had and would drag the cumbersome instrument

 on every plane, truck, train, to every dig no matter how problematic.

Soothed, she set the bow aside.

Birthright 

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Google Doodle celebrates the composer's birthday with AI music game

Search engine giant makes its first-ever AI-powered doodle in an incredible tribute to the Baroque composer.

Today, you can mark the 334th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach by creating your own two-bar chorale in perfect harmony.

You can try the interactive doodle here.

J.S. Bach was born in Germany on 21 March 1685, spending his life as a church and court musician, writing over 1,200 works for organ, choirs, chamber ensembles and orchestras.

Classic FM

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"Why don't you play, Kirby?" Fairchild poured a second brandy for himself

and Adam. "It helps clear my mind."

"All right." With a quick smile for Adam, Kirby moved to the far end of the

room, running a finger over a wing-shaped instrument he'd taken for a small

piano.

It took only a few notes for him to realize he'd been wrong. A harpsichord,

he thought, astonished. The tinny music floated up. Bach. Adam recognized

the composer and wondered if he'd fallen down the rabbit hole. No one—no

one normal—played Bach on a harpsichord in a castle in the twentieth

century.

Fairchild sat, his eyes half closed, one thin finger tapping while Kirby

continued to play. Her eyes were grave, her mouth faintly moist and sober.

The Art of Deception

It's not all hearts and flowers

"I didn't forget you either."

"Didn't you?"

"Nope." He opened a drawer. "I didn't leave it out because I wasn't sure 
what the maid might make of it."

Lana stared as he pulled out a can of Boston baked beans. 
When he dropped it into her hand, grinned at her, her heart not only tripped, 
it fell with a splat.

"That just tears it. I'm done in by a can of beans." 
She pressed it against her heart and began to weep.

"Oh Jesus, Lana, don't cry. It was a joke."

Birthright 

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Gaelle Marcel gaellemm [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Women reveal the seemingly unromantic gestures that REALLY say 'I love you' - from cleaning up sick to practical presents

DailyMail

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"Then we will go down and face the chicken together."

"Really? You'd do that?"

"I'll also face the crab dip and the pasta salad with you. Such is the depth of my love, even at six o'clock in the morning."

Spock rose, yawned, stretched. 

"And apparently his. If we poison people, Cilla, we'll do it together."

"I feel better. I know when I'm being a maniac."

She walked to him, leaned down and kissed his sleepy mouth. 

"And I know when I'm lucky to have someone who'll stick with me through it, right down to the crab dip."

Tribute

Eugenia Martínez de Irujo and Narcís Rebollo, surprise wedding in Las Vegas

He flipped it open, took out a snapshot. 

"I can't give it to you," he said. "It's the only one I've got. 

But I thought you might like to see it. Wedding photo. Sort of. 

We drove out to Vegas and got it done in one of those 

get-hitched-quick places. In fact, we looked for the tackiest 

one we could find. We had some guy take this for us outside, right after."

Birthright

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The image shared by Eugenia Martínez de Irujo in her Instagram profile has set off alarms. Has the Duchess of Montoro married Narcis Rebollo in Las Vegas? The daughter of the Duchess of Alba and her current partner, the President of Universal Music in Spain and Portugal, appear dressed as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.

ELMUNDO

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"You look terribly in love," Suzanne managed. 
"Stupid with it." 

Birthright

Drawing can help you think and focus better

Since one of Sasha’s sketch pads sat on the table, he picked it up, 

took one of her pencils. He drew quickly.

The structure, to Riley’s eye, looked more like a barn

 than Bran’s house, but it made the point. So did the curved lines, 

the squiggles to represent garden paths, shrubs, trees, the cliff wall.

And as far as she could tell, he had everything in its place, 

and nearly to scale.

Island of Glass

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UnknownUnknown author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Do you ever draw? Most of us don't, and the reason we usually leave drawing to the artists is because we're not very good at it. Who wants to do something they're bad at? 

But maybe we should rethink this assumption, especially since drawing has so many benefits, artist or not.

Mother Nature Network

___________________

But it was the drawing on his worktable, one he'd anchored with an empty beer bottle and a chunk of quartz, that grabbed her attention.

He'd taken their grid, their site survey, their map and had created the settlement with paper and colored pencils.

There was no road now, no old farmhouse across it. The field was wider, the trees ranging along the creek, spreading shadows and shade.

Around the projected borders of the cemetery he'd drawn a low wall of rock. There were huts, grouped together to the west. More rocks and stone tools collected in the knapping area. Beyond, the field was green with what might have been early summer grain.

But it was the people who made the sketch live. Men, women, children going about their daily lives. A small hunting party walking into the trees, an old man sitting outside a hut, and a young girl who offered him a shallow bowl. A woman with a baby nursing at her breast, the men in the knapping area making tools and weapons.

There was a group of children sitting on the ground playing a game with pebbles and sticks. One, a young boy who looked to be about eight, had his head thrown back and was laughing up at the sky.

There was a sense of order and community. Of tribe, Callie noticed. And most of all, of the humanity Jake was able to see in a broken spear point or a shattered clay pot.

Birthright

Motherly embrace

Deep in the boggy soil the bones lay, almost perfectly articulated from sternum to skull.

She would continue to excavate the rest.

The remains told a story without words. The larger skeleton with the smaller turned close

to its side, tucked there in the crook of the elbow.

“They buried them together,” Callie said at length. “From the size of the remains, the

infant died in childbirth or shortly after. The mother, most likely the same. The lab should

be able to confirm that. 

They buried them together,” she said again. 

“That’s more intimate than tribal. That’s family.”

Birthright

__________________

It is a fitting discovery as Mother's Day approaches.

Archaeologists have uncovered the ancient remains of a young mother and an infant child locked in a 4,800-year-old embrace.

HISTORY HERETIC

__________________

And here was proof that the love could last

thousands of years.

Birthright

Rekindling

“You brought me flowers again.”

“My daddy brings my mama flowers once or twice a week, 

and I figured out it’s because they make her smile, just like you are now.”

The Witness

_____________________

By Pierre Auguste Cot - Art Renewal Center – description, Public Domain, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1597861

Rekindling the Spark in a Long-Term Marriage

People tend to work very hard to get into that “once-in-a-lifetime” relationship. The honeymoon phase of courting and dating requires great effort to let the other know that she is special, that he is “the one.”

Falling in love with your partner for the first time is all-consuming. Maintaining the love and affection once a relationship is well-established also requires effort. 

PSYCH CENTRAL

_____________________

He heard the click of heels on wood—quick, brisk, female. And when he turned, nearly bobbled the second cup of coffee.
“Wow,” he managed. “What’s up with you?”
“Oh. Well. Just . . . nothing really.”
She blushed. He didn’t know mothers could blush. And apparently he’d forgotten how beautiful his own mother was.
Her hair was swept around her face, and her lips and cheeks were attractively rosy. But the dress was the killer. Midnight blue and sleek, it was short enough to show off terrific legs, scooped low enough at the bodice to give more than a hint of cleavage, and snug enough in between to show off curves he wasn’t entirely comfortable thinking about his mother having.
“You hang around the house like this very often?”
Her color still high, she tugged self-consciously at the skirt. “I’m going out shortly. Is that coffee for me? Let me get you some cookies.”
She hurried to the counter to pick up a clear glass jar.
“Where are you going?”
“I have a date.”
“A what?”
“A date.” Flustered, she circled cookies on a plate, just as she had when he’d come home from school. “I’m going out to dinner.”
“Oh.” A date? Going out to dinner with some guy? Dressed like . . . barely dressed at all.
She set the plate down, lifted her chin. “With your father.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said I have a dinner date with your father.”
He sat down. “You and Dad are . . .dating ?”
“I didn’t say we were dating, I said we had a date for dinner. Just dinner. Just a casual dinner.”
“There’s nothing casual about that dress.” Shock was slowly making room for amusement, and trailing just behind was a nice warm pleasure. “His eyes are going to pop right out of his head when he gets a load of you.”


Birthright

Unsexy Things You Wear That Actually Turn Men On

She turned. He’d never seen her look less than perfectly groomed, he realized. Even after they made love she somehow managed to look perfect.

Now her hair was standing in tufts, her eyes were damp and a little wild. Her feet were bare, and there was a coffee stain splattered over the front of the WORLD ’S BEST MOM T-shirt she wore.

Embarrassed color flooded her cheeks even as she lifted her hands in a helpless gesture.

He’d been attracted to the stylish, organized attorney. Seduced by the warm, confident woman. Intrigued by the widowed single mother who seemed to effortlessly juggle all the balls in the air.~

And to his utter astonishment, he fell in love with the messy, frustrated, unhappy woman with toys scattered at her feet.

Birthright 

_________________

A dude explains the unexpected items of clothing he loves seeing you in

You probably have a pretty clear idea of what you think is sexy and date-appropriate (lipstick, heels, cute dresses) and what falls on the frumpy side of the spectrum (sweats, turtlenecks, button-downs). But you might be surprised by what turns guys on.

Women's Health

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Her hair was damp. She’d pulled it back from her face in a sleek tail, and he could see it was'n’t quite dry. He could smell the girly shampoo and soap, and the scents wound their way into him until the muscle in his gut tightened in response.

She wore fuzzy purple socks, black flannel pants, and a hot pink sweatshirt that announced: 

T.G.I.F.

THANK GOD I’M FEMALE.

He could add his own thanks.

Blood Brothers

Things happen to couples who have been together a long time

Still looking at him, she held out a hand. Jake put a mug of coffee into it. 

“I heard you were out of town.”

“I got back yesterday. I came by the site, but you were busy.”

“Oh. Well. You put cheese in those eggs?” she asked Jake, and was already opening the

refrigerator to dig some out.

“Not everybody likes cheese in their eggs.”

“Everybody should like cheese in their eggs.” 

She passed him the cheese, skirted around him to open a loaf of bread. 

“Put some in my share, and if it gets in someone else’s that’s too bad.”

Doug watched Jake hold out a hand for the knife she’d taken out of a drawer, watched her

pop bread into the toaster, then take the plate he handed her.

It was like a little dance, he decided, with each knowing the steps and rhythm the other

would take even before they were taken.

Birthright

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"Another sunset together" by Leo Hidalgo from España - Another sunset together. 

Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Science says these 5 things happen to couples who have been together a long time

Being with someone for a long time changes the way you see the world. It also changes you. Everything from how you act to the way you think shifts in ever-so-slight ways.

And according to Joshua Wolf Shenk, the author of "Powers of Two," these tiny shifts are also the catalyst for a different kind of thought process — a shared mind, so to speak — that allows couples (romantic or not) to come up with more creative solutions to problems than they'd ever think up on their own.

YAHOO!

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“I’ve been making this pie for too many years to count. It’s Loren’s favorite.”

“You smile when you say his name.”

“Do I? We’ve been married—I count from the handfasting—for thirty-six years. He still makes me happy.”

That, Abigail thought when she was alone again, was the most vital and compelling statement on a relationship.

The Witness