Welcome to Faith's Book Blog

Review of Catching Fire and MockingJay by Suzanne Collins and WoWO Meeting

2011-03-12T14:28:00.009-05:00

The lovely ladies of the WoWOs met at the Franklinville Inn on March 4th for our Book Club Meeting. This month we did something a little different and decided to read the last two books in the Hunger Game series and discuss them at the meeting.

left to right: Faith(me), Lori, Tricia, Peggy, Myrta, Linda, Louise, Karen and Colleen

We discussed the books individually then the series as a whole. First up, Catching Fire:

Pub. Date: September 2009
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Format: Hardcover , 400pp
Age Range: Young Adult
Series: Hunger Games Series , #2
ISBN-13: 9780439023498

WoWO Rating: 3.67 / 5 Stars

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Continuing in the hunger game series from the last WoWO meeting, Katniss and Peeta have won the 74th annual Hunger Games and returned home to district 12. As they go on the victory tour they hear and see things that make them realize that there may be a rebellion in the works. In the meantime, President Snow continues to threaten Katniss and scare her into submission to do his bidding on tour by threatening her family. But Katniss is found to have more power and fire than either Katniss or Snow ever imagined. With the announcement of the Quarter Quell (75th hunger games) the Capitol is trying to show that no one is safe and this year they announce that the tributes will be chosen from among the victors of previous Hunger Games.

In our discussion of the book we noted that Katniss was confused by her feelings for Gale, which were never clearly defined before leaving, because she actually fell for Peeta during the Hunger Games. Peeta stirs up a lot of emotion and confusion in Katniss. She cares for him and also feels the need to protect him and she also owes him for giving her bread that day long past and all he did to save her in the Games. Peeta pretty much stirs up all her emotions, so this confuses her.

When President Snow visits her home he says "... you have provided a spark which left unattended may grow into an inferno..." this is really the first that Katniss is hearing anything about this and doesn't really understand what he means but over the course of the book we realize that the spark is the rebellion and he is trying to scare and control her. The berries in the Hunger games were the initial spark of rebellion and it did in fact grow into an inferno in the book.

During the tour Katniss and Peeta begin to see the signs of the rebellion and Katniss realizes she is stuck with Peeta and can never truly decide what she wants for her future because of Snow. We all agreed that the 75th reaping procedure was custom made to get Katniss back into the Games. When Plutarch Heavensbee shows Katniss the hidden mockingjay image on his watch it was to show several things: 1) he was a rebel 2) hint of the clock in the Games to come... but at the time Katniss didn't realize the significance of the MockingJay. Which we all agreed was the perfect sign of hope for the people. Besides Katniss having the pin with her in the first games it was also the weapon used against the Capital in past rebellion.

We all agreed that the emotional trauma of hearing the jabberjays in the Games were worse than any of the physical trauma they endured (fog and rain of fire).

All in all we felt like the book was sort of an in between for the other two books. There were important things in this one but they probably could have just been split up and put in the other two books and made them bigger.

Next up is our MockingJay discussion:

Pub. Date: August 2010
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Format: Hardcover , 390pp
Age Range: Young Adult
Series: Hunger Games Series , #3
ISBN-13: 9780439023511

WoWO Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

After Katniss is rescued from the 75th Hunger Games, she recovers from her trauma to find that Peeta has been taken prisoner by Snow. She is determined to save him at any cost, especially her own life. She learns that District 13 does exist and is leading the rebellion. She also learns that her life in District 12 no longer exists, it was destroyed by the Capital. She tries to adjust to life underground in District 13, not very successfully. In order to save Peeta she agrees to become the face of the rebellion with several conditions, one of them is being able to kill President Snow. New characters were introduce in this book and they were all pretty well developed for being just introduced in the final book of the series.

As with the other two books we agreed on many aspects but there are a few that we differed on. For example, The question came up if Katniss ever loved Gale the way he wants her to love him? and Does he truly love her. We all agreed that Katniss never loved Gale fully the way he wanted but we differed on whether Gale truly loved Katniss. Many of us said Yes but a few said No, thinking that it was more of a childhood crush thing and not true love for him.

We all agreed that the treatment of Peeta at the end of the story was sad and almost unnecessary. The author made him a different person at the end of the story, and it was more permanent of a change than we would have liked to see. We all believed it was the rebels who killed the children with the exploding parachutes, and we also did not feel that the ends justified the means in this case. We were confused by Katniss' choice to vote for another Hunger Games, it didn't seem like she would really do it for revenge for Prim, it seemed more like she was testing Coin for worthiness of the presidential role. To see if things had really changed, that's the way we like to see it anyway.

We all agreed that she loved Gale and Peeta but she chooses Peeta because she needs to be needed. That and the fact that she could never forgive Gale for the death of Prim and Gale can't even forgive himself.

Some of us thought that Gale would end up with Katniss and Peeta would be president or that Katniss herself would be president. I don't think any of us could have called the true ending. All of us were disappointed in the way Snow died... it seemed anti-climatic and Katniss should have been able to kill him.

Now for the Entire Series as a whole, we rated it a 4/5 Stars, I personally loved the storyline and the characters and gave the series a 5/5 Stars as a whole trilogy. It was highly entertaining and I cared about all of the characters.

Some of the things that we agreed got better as the books went on was that the mother's character development was helpful to making you care for her. The first book made her an unlikeable character and as you learned of her life's journey you began to feel for her and then at the end she really steps up to be an amazing character. Prim was also a character that developed really well and we all felt the loss of her character in the end was not necessary.

The favorite book in the serious, unanimously was : THE HUNGER GAMES

Next up for the WoWO's is A Thousand Spendid Suns by Khaled Hossieni on March 23rd. So Check Back!

Also if you haven't seen our write up on Author Dianna Love's website please check it out here.

See ya next time!

The WoWO's have made the big time!!!

2011-03-11T13:34:00.010-05:00

I am so excited I am about to burst at the seems. The WoWO's are a featured Quaantum book club for Dianna Love's new Website!

As you've heard me mention on my blog many a time, Author Dianna Love has a wonderful website for book clubs (called Quaantum readers). She gives away copies of books that authors, like herself, offer up to book clubs to read and discuss. The WoWO's have had an amazing experience with the authors that we've been given books of: See the WoWO reviews for Wild Heart by Lori Brighton (click here to see the review) and The Education of Mrs. Brimley by Donna MacMeans (click here to see the review).

Recently the Dianna Love website has been revamped and the WoWOs were asked to become a featured Quaantum Book Club for the launch of the new site. I got to deal with Cassondra, Dianna Love's assistant and she's really a great person to deal with. I'm proud to announce that the website is up and its fabulous.

See the WOWO's Quaantum Book Club feature write up here or click the Quaantum Readers image above. You can also see all the other wonderful features of Dianna Love's new website. Enjoy!

Once you get to the link you need to scroll down about halfway and you'll see the write up of the WoWO book club.

Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure: Philadelphia 2011

2011-03-09T09:19:00.006-05:00

Ok.. I've done something really exciting and crazy. I've signed up to support my niece in the 3-Day for the Cure Susan G. Komen Walk: That is walking 60 miles in 3 days in October. I am so excited to be able to support my niece who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer last fall at 24 years old. She's been an amazing inspiration to me and I want to do this to walk by her side and support her every step of the way. Our Team name is Race for Rach's Rack and we are excited to jump in and start training getting ready for October.

This said, I have to raise $2300 Dollars in order to walk on the team by October. So, If you feel it in your heart to support such a cause, any donation - no matter how small - would be appreciated. You can click the link below and it will take you to my donation page.

If you can't give a donation, I hope that you will support my journey to the 3-day/60 mile walk and send me love and encouragement during my training.

Thank you so much for your support!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins review and WoWO Meeting

2011-02-21T19:48:00.017-05:00

Personal Rating: 5 Stars

BookClub Rating: 4.8 Stars

Pub. Date: October 2008
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Format: Hardcover , 374pp
Age Range: Young Adult
Series: Hunger Games Series , #1
ISBN-13: 9780439023481

The story of the Hunger Games is an amazing tale. The time is sometime in the distant future, the place is Panem, what we now call North America but is no more. This is the story of Katniss Everdeen and the people who surround her and become a part of her life. In first person, we dive into the thoughts of this 16 year old girl and we are not disappointed. The Hunger games happen once a year where each of the 12 districts of Panem hold a lottery to choose one girl and one boy to fight for food and provisions for their poor district. The games are televised and the basis of the games is reminiscent of the Running Man (where the players are children).

This book is labeled a young adult science fiction novel but it is so much more than this. I can't imagine one person I know who would not enjoy this book, it was amazing. I found myself anxious while reading; not being able to wait for what is to come. I would dream about it at night and be utterly absorbed in thoughts of it during the days while not reading it. I picked up this novel for WoWO book club read and The Ladies of the WoWO met to discuss the hunger games this month with great success!

We had a Hunger Games themed dinner with the discussion and then played our own WoWO Games. As usually this synopsis of the discussion contains spoilers:

We felt that having the book written in first person, present tense from Katniss' perspective made it more exciting and we really liked it as a group. We felt that Katniss was well prepared to be a contestant in the hunger games because she is already a hunter, provider and a survivor, so these things make her more resilient in the games. This survivor instinct also helps her face adversity throughout all of Panem, knowing she'll get in trouble if she speaks out against the country in any way.

We discussed how the tributes see the games verses the others and how the careers are treating the games as fame and glory "when they win" versus the others who go in thinking they will die and just try to survive as long as possible. Although Katniss was given advice from Haymitch to stay out of the cornucopia, she decides to rush in because she is enticed by the bow and arrows. We all felt that she couldn't ignore trying to get it no matter how dangerous it may have been and at least she was able to get the backpack.

We all felt that her survival instinct and her knowledge of nature were her most important skills in the hunger games. She is highly intelligent and intuitive, very street smart and she knew what to do to get what they needed (from the wild or from the sponsors). We all felt a great respect for Peeta. He had integrity and he didn't want the games to change him and turn him into a monster, like they have done to others in the past. he was determined to stay true to himself, and he managed to do that and did not have to kill anyone in the games.

We all agreed that Peeta joined with the careers to protect Katniss. The Careers wanted to use Peeta to get information on Katniss, so for a while it seemed like they could use each other for survival as long as they don't find out the Peeta is only there to protect Katniss, not help the careers. I have to admit I was shocked at first when I saw Peeta with them and wondered what his game was and was glad to see that he was just protecting her.

We all loved the relationship between Katniss and Rue. Besides companionship they did a lot to protect each other. Rue saved Katniss fr om the careers by warning her and showing her the tracker jacker nest. Katniss may have owed her from that point but it was a deeper connection than that for Katniss and Rue.

We all felt that Katniss started to fall for Peeta by the end of the book... even though she was confused about her feelings, there was something there for her. We all agreed that for Katniss to act in love with Peeta was the right thing to do because surviving is key. Even though there ended up being consequences, they are alive at the end of the book and that was the point to it all. A tribute never really wins the hunger games because they have to live with what they did to survive and from seeing how the experience affected Haymitch, its not easy to live with.

Some of our favorite scenes were:

When Katniss volunteered to go to the games instead of Prim.
When Rue helped Katniss with the tracker jackers
When Katniss covered Rue with flowers and then District 11 sent the bread to her.
When Foxface was hiding in the cornucopia and already knew of the land minds.
When Peeta announced that he loved Katniss and then the chapter ended, adding to the suspence of it all.
In the end with the berries, when the capital was tricked.

Some of our favorite quotes were:

Peeta's Quote: "...I w ant to die as myself.. I don't want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not."
The song of the Mockingjay.

Some of the characters we related to were:

Rue
Peeta
Katniss' mother

However it was a landslide on the favorite character: Katniss by far (there was one vote for Rue).

In future books we would like to see Katniss' mother be a more developed character and we want Katniss to choose between Gale or Peeta. We have 4 members of team Peeta and 3 for Team Gale and 1 for both Peeta and Gale. (I'm definitely on team G ALE!)

Now on to the pictures of our Feast:

We had a food representing every district in Panem and the Hunger Games:

District 1 is luxury its so we had candy watches and Rings as well as our drink to toast the beginning of the games.

District 2 is weaponry so we had Pretzel balls for bullets.
District 3 is electronics but they have square bite sized rolls as well, so we had the rolls.
District 4 is fishing, so we had fish shaped crackers and snacks.
District 5, 6 and 9's industry is unknown so we had a special bread representing these districts.
District 7 is lumber so we had pretzel rods as logs
District 8 is textiles, so the tablecloth represented this district
District 10 is livestock so we had a nice beef stew
District 11 is agriculture so we had an apple cake to represent this district:

District 12 is coal, and we had candy coal to represent District 12
District 13 is said to be destroyed so we had an empty plate for 13

We also had Goosling Legs and Nuts and Berries to represent the wild of the Hunger Games:

(Lori Eating a Gooseling leg)

Here is a group of the girls eating the feast:

(Colleen, Louise, Linda, Myrta)

Let the games begin, May the odds be ever in your favor:

We played a few games, they were all timed and the one who gets the furthest in 60 seconds was the winner:

Don't blow the joker:

(Lori testing out Blow the joker) - it was a dud and we decided not to play it.

Pencil catch:

(Tricia scaring us all with her crazy grab!)

Apple Stack:

(Linda stacking apples)

(Louise - the applestack winner with 5 apples stacked)

Cup stack:

(Peggy Stacking her cups with confidence)

(Myrta restacking after a tumble)

(Colleen a stacking fool)

The WoWos all together:
(Louise, Lori, Linda, Colleen, Myrta, Faith (me), Peggy and Tricia)

As stated above our final rating was a 4.8 for the group and we decided as a group to have our next meeting be the continuation of the series. Both Catching Fire and Mockingjay will be discussed at the next book club meeting on May 4th, so make sure you check back for the review.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

2011-02-06T21:20:00.002-05:00

Rating: 2/5 Stars

Pub. Date: March 1998
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher
Format: Mass Market Paperback , 304p
Age Range: Young Adult
ISBN: 0380729407

A carnival comes into town late one evening in October and two local boys, Jim and Will, are pulled into the mysterious nature of this carnival and they end up deeper into the mysteries then they ever thought they would go.

I loved the premise of the story and had such high hopes for this classic but it just fell a bit short for me. I didn't care much for the writing style so I think that's what really made me not enjoy it as much. It just didn't live up to the hype for me.

This book fits the following Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge 2011
A-Z 2011 Alphabet Challenge
What's in a Name Challenge
New Author Challenge
PBT February Category : Science Fiction

New Author Challenge - 2011

2011-01-26T19:32:00.004-05:00

Yes, I know ... ANOTHER CHALLENGE! It really is some sort of disease I have that I have to keep signing myself up for challenges.

The New Author Challenge in the I love Reading Challenges book group on Shelfari hosted by Tenia:

Here are the details:

1. The challenge will run from January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011.

2. Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels. Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.
3. I want this to be an easy challenge, so you can pick to do either 15, 25 or 50 new authors. It all depends on how fast you read and how adventurous you want to be. For me, I’m trying another 50 new authors. If you reach your goal halfway through the year, don’t stop.
4. After reading your new author, Make sure you include your name and the author, but adding the title is completely up to you.
5. New Author Challenge 2010Bloggers or Non-Bloggers alike are welcome

I will try for 20 -- here it goes:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Jan 09
2. Bankok 8 by John Burdett - Jan 16

3. Something wicked this way comes by Ray Bradbury - Feb 06

What's in a Name Challenge 2011

2011-01-19T12:50:00.003-05:00

What's in a Name 4: Information and Sign-Up
Welcome to the fourth What's in a Name Challenge! This challenge was originated by a young blogger named Annie, who hosted it for two years. When she decided to give up on being the host, I took over the challenge.

I credit this challenge with being one of the prime reasons for my becoming a blogger, so I am thrilled to be its new host.

Here's How It Works

Between January 1 and December 31, 2011, read one book in each of the following categories:

A book with a number in the title: First to Die, Seven Up, Thirteen Reasons Why
A book with jewelry or a gem in the title: Diamond Ruby, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Opal Deception
A book with a size in the title: Wide Sargasso Sea, Small Wars, Little Bee
A book with travel or movement in the title: Dead Witch Walking, Crawling with Zombies, Time Traveler's Wife
A book with evil in the title: Bad Marie, Fallen, Wicked Lovely
A book with a life stage in the title: No Country for Old Men, Brideshead Revisited, Bog Child

The book titles are just suggestions, you can read whatever book you want to fit the category.

Other Things to Know
Books may be any form (audio, print, e-book).
Books may overlap other challenges.
Books may not overlap categories; you need a different book for each category.
Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed but encouraged.
You do not have to make a list of books before hand.
You do not have to read through the categories in any particular order.
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My Results:

A book with a number in the title: Bangkok 8 by John Burdett - Jan 09
A book with jewelry or a gem in the title:
A book with a size in the title:
A book with travel or movement in the title:
A book with evil in the title: Something Wicked this way Comes by Ray Bradbury - Feb 06
A book with a life stage in the title:

Pick a Year Challenge - 2011

2011-01-19T12:27:00.002-05:00

I know I know, I can't stop joining challenges - it's a sickness really. So here's another!

From the PBT group on Shelfari the challenge is as follows:
---------------------
Pick any year you want and read one book per month (for a total of 12) from that year over the course of 2011.

Please use a single message (as well as replies to that message) to share your year choice, what books you think you might read, and what books you actually read.

Reviews should still be posted in our normal monthly review threads please. No need to post them here (unless you want to).

Some people have come up with creative modifications to this challenge. If you are using a modified version, please share your idea in your message.
-----------------------------

So, since I get a lot of ARCs for review and last year I was horrible at doing my duty to the publishers this year I am going to make up for it by choosing 2011.

I am not going to plan for this one, I'm just going to go with the flow on what I receive as Arcs.

0/12 so far:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

NO MORE BOOKS Challenge - 2011

2011-01-18T13:09:00.005-05:00

This Challenge i hosted by Laurie W on the Shelfari I Love Reading Challenges group here.

The following is from Laurie W's post:

The rules:

1. You are not allowed to purchase any new books until your current TBR pile is gone. (These are physical books already in your house that you own.)

2. You may "swap" books with others.

3. You may borrow books from the library or friends.

4. Books read can be used in other challenges also.

5. You can borrow ebooks or download FREE ebooks.

6. You can use gift cards you already have to purchase books. We can't let them go to waste!

That's it! The challenge is to see who can get rid of their pile first or be the last one to purchase a book!

I'll be keeping a List updated here:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Jan 09 (Borrowed Nook Book)

2. Bangkok 8 by John Burdett - Jan 16 (Borrowed Nook Book)

3, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Mar 04 (Borrowed Nook Book)

4. MockingJay by Suzanne Collins - Mar 05 (Borrowed Nook Book)

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett

2011-01-16T16:22:00.004-05:00

Rating: 1/5 Stars

Pub. Date: June 2003
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Format: NOOKbook (eBook)
Sonchai Jitpleecheep Series , #1
ISBN: 1400040914

Sonchai Jitpleecheep is a cop in Bangkok, one of the few cops who don't take money or free sex from prostitutes. When is partner, Pichai, dies at a chrime scene with a dead farang (American) marine, the FBI gets involved. Out for revenge for Pichai's death, Sonchai tries to stay one step ahead of the FBI.

For me something was very off in this book, I think it was mostly the fact that there was so much information about sex and prostitutes in Bangkok's red light district that it seemed obsessive. There was a murder mystery intertwined with all the sex and prostitution stories but in the end it all came down to a very strange outcome that completely creeped me out and made me wish I could have the time I spent reading the book back. I want to say more but I don't want to give away plot details in case someone happens to want to read this book which I do not recommend.

This is the first book in the series and I can assure you that I will not read more. I see at Amazon there are many good reviews for this book so it's hit some kind of niche for some readers but not this one.

This book fits the following Challenges:

Hogwarts: Arithmancy

A-Z title : B for Bangkok

A-Z 2011 Challenge

2011-01-13T08:13:00.006-05:00

Laurie W on Shelfari is hosting this challenge on the I Love Reading Challenges Shelfari Group here.

January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.

Here is the challenge in Laurie's words:

"How does this reading challenge work? Choose the option that works best for you...

Authors -- Read alphabetically by author. Commit to 26 books.
Titles -- Read alphabetically by title. Commit to 26 books.
Authors & Titles -- Commit to reading 52 books

How strict is the 26 or 52? I know it isn't always easy to find those difficult letters. The thought of finding the X's (for example) might scare folks away. It shouldn't! I'm a merciful host! (Ask anyone!)

If you want to give the X's a go... For authors, try to find an X in the first name, middle name, or last name. For titles, it doesn't have to be the starting word. Try to find an X somewhere in a title, and it'd count in my book.

Still can't find a book for the letter you need? I'll take your word for it. I've been there. I know. If your library doesn't see the need to order books just because it starts with an X, then I don't blame you for not wanting to special order a book that you may or may not enjoy. You gave it your best, don't feel bad. You can still make this challenge work for you. "

-----

I've decided for some reason to do BOTH, mainly because I'm crazy and a gluten for punishment. I'm going to try to fill up the titles first and when a title doesn't fit then I'll move to Authors.

Titles:
A
B - Bangkok 8 by John Burdett - Jan 16
C - Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Mar 04
D
E
F
G
H - The HUNGER Games by Suzanne Collins - Jan 09
I
J
K
L
M - MockingJay by Suzanne Collins - Mar 05
N
O
P
Q
R
S - Something Wicked this way comes by Ray Bradbury
T
U
V
W

AUTHORS:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Hogwarts Reading Challenge 2011

2011-01-12T13:45:00.007-05:00

I joined this challenge last year and it was a lot of fun so here I go again! Hosted by Bunnitas at Worth reading it?

Hogwarts Reading Challenge 2011

January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011

In the Hogwarts Reading Challenge you are a student of the school. You will be sorted into houses. Each book you read must fit in to the subject of one the classes. You do not have to read books that fit all the subjects. Each book equals one point (toward the house cup).

You must read at least 5 books (audio books counts) before you are enter in to the drawing. At the end of the Challenge one person will win a $15 Amazon Gift Card and one house will win the House Cup (purely a pride thing). (from the WorthReadingit? Blog)

Bunnitas will post all of the Mini Challenges in the next few days so that everyone can plan out their books in advance.

To be eligible to win prizes you must have a blog and sign up using Mr. Linky. Then start a Hogwarts Reading Challenge post and link it back to the original post. ****Update you can be eligible for prize if you become a member of I Love Reading Challenges on Shelfari and keep the list of the books you read for this challenge under the Hogwarts Challenge post there. You can also become a fan of the I Love Reading Challenges Facebook fan page and keep you list there as well.

Click here to go to the Sorting Hat. Please be honest. If there are too many in one particular house you may be place into another. So if the Sorting Hat places you in Sytherin you are Sytherin for duration of this challenge.

Click here to check your individual points and your house points.

Reading one of the 7 Harry Potter books earns you 25 house points. You can only read this books once during the challenge. 15 points for any other Harry Potter related book such as Tales of Beedle the Bard or A Parent's Guide to Harry Potter, again these books and only be read once during the challenge.

Have any questions leave them in a comment and I will get back to you. Have fun, good luck and Happy Reading!

****you can also find this challenge at my group I Love Reading Challenge on Shelfari

The Houses :

Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin

If you were a part of this challenge before you can stay in the house you were in or go to any house of your choosing just leave a comment letting me know what house you are in.

I am staying in Hufflepuff!

The Classes

Transfiguration - read any book that has trans or figure in its title, is about shape shifting, has a shape shifter in it, or is about anything having to do with changing one thing into another
Defence Against the Dark Arts - read any book that has defence(defense), dark and/or art(s) in its title, read any book that is about self defense, war, history of war/marital arts, murder mysteries

Charms - read any book that has charm in its title, any book that deals with gives something or someone a new aspect (for example the nerdy guy become a handsome doctor)

Potions - read any book that has potion in its title, cookbooks count but you must cook at least one recipe out of the book

Astronomy - read any book that has astronomy in its title, books about planets, stars, etc, sci-fi

History of Magic - read any book that has history or magic in its title, books about magic, witches, etc

Herbology - read any book that has herb in its title, again cookbooks count and again you must cook at least one recipe out of the book

Arithmancy - read any book that has arithmancy in its title, any book with a number in its title, any book that deal with numbers or math

Ancient Runes - read any book that has ancient or runes in its title, books about historical places like the pyramids, Stonehenge, great wall of china, or any book about symbols
Divination - read any book that has divine in its title, any book about psychics or psychic abilities, tarot reading etc

Care of Magical Creatures - read any book that has magical or creatures in its title, about supernatural beings

Muggle Studies - nearly any book works here, what better why to understand Muggle than to read what they read

How to list your books and keep track of points:

When you copy this post onto your blog just list the book you read for the challenge under the subject to which it fits. Please list books using numbered bullet points. This makes keeping track of points easier for me.

Example:

History of Magic - read any book that has history or magic in its title, books about magic, witches, etc
1. Tears of the Moon by Nora Roberts 3/12/2010

My January Reads for this Challenge:

Transfiguration -

Defence Against the Dark Arts - Jan 1)The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - 09 Jan

Mar 1) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - 04 Mar

Mar 2) MockingJay by Suzanne Collins - 05 Mar

Charms -

Potions -

Astronomy -

History of Magic - Feb 1) Something Wicked this way comes by Ray Bradbury - 2/6

Herbology -

Arithmancy - Jan 2) Bangkok 8 by John Burdett - 16 Jan

Ancient Runes -

Divination -

Care of Magical Creatures -

Muggle Studies -

Long Book Challenge 2011

2011-01-10T13:20:00.006-05:00

Over the next week or so I'll be posting about what challenges I've decided to join in on this year.

The first one is from the Play Book Tag group on Shelfari called: Long Book Challenge 2011.

The idea is to read 4000 total pages from books that are 600 pages or more this year.

Here is my plan :

The Passage by Justin Cronin (766 pages)

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (656 pages)

Pillars of the Earth by : Ken Follett (973 pages)

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly (720 pages)

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer (756 pages)

That brings me to 3871 pages so I guess I'll pick the last one as I go. I'm sure another 600+ page book will jump out at me sometime during this year.

Has anyone read any of these? Any comments or suggestions for my last book choice? If so, Please comment below.

Watch my progress throughout the year on the left side of my blog.

1/3/11 - Updated to Add The Girl who Played with Fire by Steig Larson (630 Pages) bringing me a total of 4501!

Now lets do this! ;)

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-05T08:57:00.004-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

My Dear Readers!!! I have not posted in a long while and that thought really disappoints me. My Blog was one of my favorite things to do last year and when November hit, something happened to my blogging and my reading. I can't explain it but I can say I'm sorry! But it's a new year and with a new year brings a new chance at making it work. I will not dwell on the fact that I let a lot of things fall by the wayside at the end of last year, especially my reading. So here I am begging you for forgiveness for not posting in a while and I hope that with the coming year you'll stick with me and continue to read as you previously did.

January is the 1 year anniversary of my face to face book club (the WoWO's) and we will be reading the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. So look for that post somewhere around the 23rd of the month.

This is my first book read of the year and then I will move on to Bangkok 8 by John Burdett. The Hunger Games so far is amazing and I'm glad that it is my first of the year. We have some fun things planned for the WoWO Meeting this month and I can't wait to show all of you how it turns out.

I'm feeling very positive about this year and I know its going to be a great one! Lots of good book reads and discussions and hopefully a few more giveaways this year.

Oooh I almost forgot! I got a Nook for Christmas and I'm excited to tell you that I love love love it! Now I have to figure out what to do with the 300 books I have on my shelves! Besides reading the ones I really want to read I think I'll be donating a lot of them.

Thanks for hanging in there with me readers!

Preparation: [H]ead by Boomer Wadaska, C Michael, Kyle Phillips Bernhardy, Mike C. Flor

2010-10-12T14:39:00.005-04:00

(Read in September) - Still playing catch up

This book is not a story but a compilation of short stories, poems and other oddities. When I picked up this book I knew I was diving in the mind of a group of teenage boys who grew up with me in my hometown of Levittown, PA and I honestly wasn't sure that this was a place I wanted to go.

The entries in the book were mostly written when we were in high school, I believe some were written in the college years. This is definitaly a book that a teenage boy can relate to most, and especially one who grew up in Levittown, PA.

There are a lot of Levittown references that brought back good memories. I found it very interesting to dive into the minds of some of my high school friends. The entries in the book were witty at times, snarky at others and touching in some as well, it was a fun ride down memory lane while reading this book.

These guys are definitely putting their soul out on these pages, the good, the bad and the ugly. It's hard to rate this book because it's not really something I would normally read but I am biased by the fact that I like these guys and Boomer was my biggest volleyball cheerleader. :)

My favorite parts of the book are actually the front and back covers as well as the Index/Glossary, they were pretty witty pieces of the book on their own, but I also liked a few of the stories inside too:

P.12 - Opening Day by C Michael

p.31 - Someone who doesn't care by Kyle Phillips Bernhardy

p.70 - Restless by Boomer Wadaska

p.202 - My mind spoken by Kyle Phillips Bernhardy

The Book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Muggle Studdies)
RYOB Challenge
New Authors Challenge

Just One Look by Harlan Coben

2010-10-11T20:41:00.004-04:00

(Read in September)

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Pub. Date: May 2005
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Paperback, 528pp
ISBN: 0451213203

Grace Lawson's life is good one, it hadn't always been but since meeting her husband Jack things have really turned around for her. She and Jack have two beautiful children and a loving and kind husband. One day when an old photograph was placed in with her other photos from a photomat, her life was turned upside down. When her husband saw the photo he pretended to not know the people in the photograph but then takes off without explanation.

After being turned down by the police to help find her missing husband, since it looks like he left on his own, she decides to do some investigating on her own for answers and her husband. What she finds shakes up her entire life to the absolute core. With some help from some friends of her present and past, as well as some strangers that have just come into her life she is able to unravel the story but in doing this she puts herself in grave danger as well.

Harlan Coben is a master at suspense and knows how to pull you into a story with believable action and characters.

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
Thriller and Suspense Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge

The Last Child by John Hart

2010-10-11T19:30:00.003-04:00

I finished a few books in September but I am way behind on the reviews so my next few reviews are from September.

The Last Child by John Hart

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Pub. Date: March 2010

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format: Paperback, 432pp
ISBN: 0312642369

Alyssa Merrimon went missing a year ago as no good leads were ever found. Johnny, Alyssa's brother, has not given up the hunt for her and continues to search the neighborhoods for signs of Alyssa's captor. Detective Hunt, the cop assigned to Alyssa's case feels responsible for keeping an eye on Johnny and his mother whose lives have been destroyed by the disappearance of Alyssa. When another girl is taken close to the one year anniversary of Alyssa, Johnny is even mor

e vigilant to catch the person responsible for both of these disappearances. What Johnny finds in his search puts him in danger and leads the investigation to disturbing results.

I found some of the spots in this story to be a little slow but the idea's in this book felt completely original. This is My first by John Hart and I would give him another try for sure.

This book fits the following Category/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Defence Against the Dark Arts)
Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge
New Authors Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge

WoWO Book Club Meeting: The Education of Mrs. Brimley by Donna MacMeans

2010-09-29T09:05:00.011-04:00

This month was the WoWO discussion of The Education of Mrs. Brimley by Donna MacMeans. We won this book from Author Dianna Love's Website. This is our second book won from this site and they have both made for fun and successful book club meetings. The other book we won was Wild Heart by Lori Brighton, you can read that review here. We obviously think that Dianna Love is Wonderful and We hope to win more from her author giveaways!

Once we won the books, Donna was such a pleasure to deal with. She mailed the books, signed personally to each one of our members, and she sent goodies as well as a VERY nice personal note to the ladies of the WoWO. At our Eat, Pray, Love discussion we gave out copies of The Education of Mrs. Brimley and commenced our reading it for this discussion. As usual this review posting will have spoilers in it to the story.. Here is us reading the note and excited about the book:

Pub. Date: October 2007
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 352pp
Series: Berkley Sensation Series
ISBN: 0425218309

WoWO Rating: 3.75/5 Stars (8 ratings)
My Personal Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

In an effort to escape her life in London, Emma obtains a teaching position at the Pettibone School for Young Ladies in Yorkshire. In order to get this position, she had to tell a little lie, that she is a young widow. Little does she know that this lie will come back to get her once she starts at the school: She is expected to teach the young women how to pleasure their future husbands in bed. Being that this is 1876 and Emma has in fact never been married, she is desperate to learn what she is to teach in the class. Emma cannot come clean because she cannot risk being sent back home to live with her uncle and in her desperation she seeks the help of the neighbor, Lord Nicholas Chambers, who is a bachelor with a reputation as "Lord BedChambers".

The WoWo's all agree this was a pretty steamy and very enjoyable book. The writing style was smooth and very easy to read. We all felt that the setting of the 1800's and Yorkshire was important to the story, because this type of story would never work today and the Pettibone School for Girls and Black Oak fit the scenery. The were Vivid and well defined, especially the Black Oak Studio. The only issue we had with the setting was that we had trouble determining the distance between Black Oak and the Pettibone School. Between the walking and the Carriage rides and various back and forth descriptions, it was hard to determine it's true distance. This however did not ruin the story for us.

Our first impressions of Emma were that although she was naive she had spunk and was pretty gutsy to search out the job and then search out help from Lord Chambers. At first it seemed a bit far fetched that she would reach out for help from this stranger, but it worked because she was desperate with no other choices. Our first impressions of Nicholas was that we liked him right from the beginning. We could tell there was something about him when he was "drunk" in the carriage but when Emma got out of the carriage he took a peak at her. Showing he wasn't quite what he portrayed himself to be. The sense of humor written into his character was wonderfully done. A nice mix of sarcasm and wit in a handsome male lead character is always a good thing.

Our favorite character overall was Nicholas with 6 votes and Emma had 2 votes for favorite due to her nerve and spunk. Our least favorite characters were Nicholas' brother George and Emma's Uncle, with the Uncle being slightly favored for worst character. We felt the Primary characters were developed well, but there was not a lot of details to the background characters, but it was enough to keep it well rounded and interesting.

Some of our favorite scenes in the book were:

"Lunch" Scenes - now this may seem silly if you haven't read the book, but if you read the book, you may know exactly to what we are referring. I wish I could remember who in the group called it that.. but it was hilarious. Hot, Steamy, and well written!

At the Ball when she steps outside and Nicholas is there waiting for her.

When Nicholas Rescues her from her Uncle

The Paint Brush scene - hot hot hot!

I personally loved the initial scene when Emma tells Nicholas that she's come to get help on how to teach sex to these young women. Nicholas laughs and laughs and laughs at the situation and I just adore a good sense of humor on a sexy man. This endeared him to me immediately.

A few of us were surprised to find that Nicholas was the real owner of Pettibone, but most of us were not. Everyone seemed surprised at the connection between Nicholas and Alice, and how she was his goddaughter and how he promised to watch over her -- and kept the promise all this time. It was a nice little added twist to the wonderful facets of Nicholas' character. We all felt that the title of the book was spot on and wouldn't change a thing. However, the cover of the book to us didn't do the story justice. We enjoyed the story so much but if we didn't win the book we would never have picked it up to read based on the cover. Most of us were happy with the Epilogue in the story and how it wrapped everything up to the point that there would be no need for a follow up story in another book. There was no wondering about their future, it was all right there provided for us.

All in all we really enjoyed the story and would be interested in reading another book authored by MacMeans in the future.

We went with a dessert theme this month. Hot and steamy stories go best with Dark Chocolate fountains, cheesecake and cupcakes! Here are some pictures of us discussing and eating the goodies:

WoWOs (left to right): Louise, Tricia, Faith(Me), Linda, Myrta, Karen, Darralyn, Peggy

Peggy, Louise, Karen, Darralyn

Louise, Linda, Karen, Peggy, Myrta, Tricia, Darralyn, Faith (me)

Karen and Louise searching for Steamy Scenes!

We are so happy to have Darralyn as a new member this month! She was a great addition to the group and to the discussion. We have two new members expected next month so that should be great. I love to see the WoWOs growing in numbers! We have changed our nominating procedures recently where every other discussion is a book nominated by one of our members and the other month is one that we won, that way we get to read a book we may not normally choose one month and a book we absolutely want to read the next. This month Linda was chosen to pick the book. She picked Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, we will be discussing this one on October 29th, so check back early November for the review!

Thanks again to Donna MacMeans and Dianna Love (and Cassondra from http://www.authordiannalove.com/) for providing the books and the contest to win the books! We have found so many great books from winning them through authors and sites like these.

This book fits the following Category/Challenges:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
The Romance Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge

Panic by Jeff Abbott

2010-08-26T18:01:00.008-04:00

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Pub. Date: August 2006
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 416pp
BN Sales Rank: 229,148
ISBN: 0451412222

I listened to this on Audio but since it was borrowed from the library I no longer have the ISBN information.

How is it even possible that it's the end of August and I've finished only 1 book so far and it's an audio book! I thought with my vacation I would get so much read and I did not! Yikes.

Synopsis: Evan Casher is a successful Documentary film maker and has a pretty great life until one morning all of that changes. Evan receives a call from his mother to come home urgently and when he gets there his mother has been murdered and the assailants are still in the house. Evan is quickly thrust into the world of spies where you don't know who to trust and have to be willing to do anything to survive. Evan learns more about his parents than he ever knew was possible and when the assailants take his father as a way to get back what was stolen from them he has to become resourceful to get his father back from the kidnappers.

One of my book clubs had this as a side book club read and since I listened to Fear last year and loved it I thought I should listen to this one as well. LJ Ganser also read this one but it didn't have the same gusto for me. I thought Fear was so much better. This was exciting and well done, but a bit unbelievable for me at times that Evan knew so little about his parents life and yet could jump in so easily and run things so professionally. I will definitely read more by Abbott, he is very good with suspense and thriller - I just found this one a little too over the top for an amature, when professionals are dying left and right in the story. Still 3 stars is nothing to cry about, very good effort and enjoyable to listen to.

This book fits the following Challenges/Categories for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge - Defense against the Dark Arts
Thriller and Suspense Challenge (This completes that challenge!)
Monthly Mixer Mele

WoWO Book Club Meeting: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

2010-08-07T09:32:00.016-04:00

On Wednesday was the July/August WoWO book club discussion of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I started Eat, Pray, Love in June on my own before it was chosen as the next WoWO, so I decided to review it personally while the book was still fresh in my mind. To see my personal comments/review about the book use this link. We had a full house this month and the WoWO's were back in true form. Our newest member, Rebecca, sadly couldn't be there but she read the book and added her comments, as a true book lover would. In honor of Elizabeth's journey in Italy, we made pizza's and drank wine and a little lemoncello! We had a ball and enjoyed every minute of it. As is normal for WoWO discussion posts, there will be spoilers.

Pub. Date: February 2006
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Hardcover, 334pp
ISBN: 0670034711
Genre: Non-Fiction
Coming to Theaters: August 13th, 2010

WoWO Rating: 3.60/5 Stars (9 ratings)

My Personal Rating: 4/5 Stars

Author Elizabeth Gilbert has been through an emotionally exhausting divorce and the breakup of a tumultuous love affair in a very short time period. After which she realizes, as most women do in relationships, she has lost her own identity and her own way in life. This realization leads her on a year long spiritual journey like no other that she shares with the reader along her way in Eat, Pray, Love. This memoir is written in three sections: Italy (Eat), India (Pray) and finally Indonesia (Love). With raw emotion and a window into her soul, Elizabeth Gilbert shares with the reader her amazing journey to spiritual self acceptance.

Almost Everyone loved the format of the book with 108 short chapters and 3 main sections (Eat, Pray, Love), most of us felt that this format made it easy to stay interested and helped the book flow quickly. One of us felt that the short chapters dampened the flow. We all felt like entertainment and pleasure were on the same level for American's. Music, Food and Art, can all be entertaining, and we can all find pleasure in these. We discussed Gilbert's life before her self discovering journey and felt that in her earlier relationships she wasn't happy with herself and she jumped too quickly into the arms of men, like a lot of us women. For most women, Men seem to fog our ability to make sound and reasonable decisions. We discussed everyone's "word", as in the book - Rome is "sex" and the Vatican's is "power" and Gilbert's is "achieve", Linda's is "compassionate", Faith's is "Angst", Karen is "sensitive", Rebecca's word is "scattered" and Myrta's is "sincere".

A few of us did relate to the spiritual aspects in the story but not everyone liked the spiritual elements in India, most keyed on the personal journey of self acceptance to be what they related to. We felt that her journey was less about persistence and more about perseverance: She didn't plan anything and she was also so she had to make her own way. I honestly didn't think about the fact that she's traveling and not having to worry about the money so persistence is necessary if she was to get her money's worth out of her trip. We felt that not everyone's spiritual journey is related to religion itself, but can still be spiritual in it's own way. We learned that Tricia is married to her soul mate (you sappy sweetie you) and she learned this while reading the book. The favorite section of the book for most of the group was Love (Indonesia) with 6 votes, second was Eat (India) with 3 votes (her descriptions of the food were incredible), and no one had Pray (India) as their favorite section. We appreciated it for what it was, but most felt that the details were a bit slow for reading.

Some of our favorite scenes where:

Pizza Trip in Bali
The trip with her girlfriend to Sicily
The Roof Scene (probably the favorite of all the scenes)
The initial sex scene with Felipe - we felt she earned it.
Any scene with Felipe
the banana talks with Wayan. HILARIOUS stuff.

Favorite Characters where:

Richard from Texas (he gave the best advice!)
Wayan (she was a hoot)
Ketut
Felipe
Gilbert herself

Favorite Quotes:

"Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be."
"The best way for a woman to get over a man is to get under another man"
"She's f---ing with you Groceries" - we just love that Richard calls her Groceries
"let your conscience be your guide"
"To find the balance you want, Ketut spoke through his translator, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that its like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God."
“I have finally arrived at that age where a woman starts to question whether the wisest way to get over the loss of one beautiful brown-eyed young man is indeed to promptly invite another one into her bed.”

Everyone enjoyed the book for the most part, India was where everyone thought the book lulled but felt restored in the story when they got to Indonesia. If we were able to travel for a year, we would go all over the world: Italy, Ireland, California, Germany, Greece, China, Spain, a tour of Southern Europe, Australia. Everyone thought the cover of the book fit the story, 7 of us liked the original cover better and liked how the words were spelled in ways relevant to the locations. One of us liked the cover with Julia Roberts best. Six of us decided that we would probably like to read Committed and continue on with the story after Gilbert returns to America.

As usual we did something fun to incorporate our discussion with the book, here are some of the pictures:

Tricia, Louise, Lori, Linda, Faith(me), Karen, Myrta, Peggy

Food fit for Queens for the discussion

Myrta, Linda, me

Karen, Linda, Lori, Louise, Myrta

Tricia and Louise

Peggy and Me working on the dough.

Myrta and Lori making their pizzas

Om Namah Shivaya - We tried!

Lemoncello to top the night off!

If we are friends on facebook you can see the rest of the photos there. We had over 60 thanks to Tricia's photography Skills!

I handed out the next book "The Education of Mrs. Brimley" by Donna MacMeans, we are excited to read it and will be discussing it on September 10th.

July Reading Wrap-up

2010-08-07T09:12:00.004-04:00

I am pretty behind with this post... July was a VERY slow reading month for me as I had a night class that was Monday through Thursday. Not much free time to read at all.

So this one will be a short one:

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Racous Year of Eating Locally - Rating: 3/5 Stars
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Rating 5 Stars - Favorite

I also posted about my fabulous book club win of free books for the a year for the WoWO's.. The books have already started pouring in and we cannot wait to dig into those.

In August, I have a week vacation and I plan to veg and read and read and read... so Im hoping for a much better reading month. Some of the books scheduled this month are:

Finish Fallen by Lauren Kate (my current read)
Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway
The short second life of bree tanner by Stephanie Meyer
Club Dead and Dead to the world by Charlaine Harris
Fireworks over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff
a soft place to land by Susan Rebecca white
Still missing by Chevy Stevens

Several of those are ARC requests so I'll be glad to have them read and I feel so far behind right now.

Happy Reading in August!

*picture borrowed from: http://www.lotuslandrealestate.com/blog/2009/02/02/sunshine-coast-poetry-2009.jpg

Make Ahead Meals Cookbook Giveaway from Audrey's Give Aways!

2010-07-30T09:15:00.005-04:00

Audrey's Give Aways is hosting a Cookbook Giveaway... this cookbook looks right up my alley and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Im not a mom (unless you count my puppies), but I am terribly busy with working full-time and attending school at night.. so any help I can get in the cooking department I'll take.

Audrey has a review and pictures of some of the meals she made from the cookbook and they all look delicious. If the book interests you, go over to Audrey's site and enter for the cookbook.

Good Luck!

Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon

2010-07-12T08:30:00.004-04:00

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Racous Year of Eating Locally
Rating: 3/5 Stars

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Harmony; 1 edition (April 24, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030734732X

Genre: Non-Fiction

Received book in Shelfari Book Chat Book Swap

The authors of this book memoir their journey of eating locally (with-in 100 miles radius) for a year. This idea comes into fruition one day when they are in a remote location and only have a few items on hand and can't get to a store. They must feed themselves and their guests on what they can find locally. They fish and forage for mushrooms and veggies from their old garden and come up with a meal that proves you can make something good from seemingly nothing (of course you really need to know how to cook first - and be a little adventurous).

At the first of Spring they start their journey with only eating foods the come from with-in 100 mile radius of their home and it starts out a little bumpy. Sure they can find food, living in the Vancouver area, but it's expensive and again, you must have a creative cooking bone to accomplish this task. Their first meal cost them $128.87. This is when they realized the challenge they were facing. Being able to sustain this lifestyle will be harder then they imagined.

There were alot of good scenes in this book, I felt it honest and interesting. There were parts about the food itself that bored me a bit, but the relationships and the events were great. I really liked how they gave themselves a free pass when they were invited to a neighbors house for dinner (not alienating their friends) and when they travelled. I love the idea also of being able to bring food home from 100-miles of where they travelled to as well. Now, I am not one who would normally consider doing something like this but as soon as I finished Chapter One (March) I was sold on the idea. I started looking at local eating websites and all of a sudden this is something I'd really like to try to do. Living in Southern New Jersey should make things easier for me, right? We have so many farmers markets right near me. Well, Im seriously considering trying it. I think that the ramp of this task would be tremendous but once you got the hang of it (Canning, freezing, etc) it would end up being very rewarding.

This books fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
Truth is Stranger than Fiction Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
New Authors Challenge

Amazing Book WIN for the WoWOs - Year of Books Contest Win!

2010-07-10T14:30:00.003-04:00

I entered a Year of Books contest at Leah Stewart's Facebook page (you can also find her at her website www.LeahStewart.com). Leah Stewart is the author of several books and she hosted a MAJOR contest for book clubs and I won books for the WoWO Book Club!!

This is just absolutely amazing that we (The WoWO's) won 10 copies of 12 different AMAZING books.

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, by Kevin Wilson

(5 Stars on Amazon.com)

Kevin Wilson's characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. "Grand Stand-In" is narrated by an employee of a Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider—a company that supplies "stand-ins" for families with deceased, ill, or just plain mean grandparents. And in "Blowing Up On the Spot," a young woman works sorting tiles at a Scrabble factory after her parents have spontaneously combusted.
Southern gothic at its best, laced with humor and pathos, these wonderfully inventive stories explore the relationship between loss and death and the many ways we try to cope with both.
*** We've already received this book from Kevin and it looks really interesting! ***

The Truth About Delilah Blue, by Tish Cohen

(3.5 Stars on Amazon.com)

Delilah Blue Lovett has always been a bit of an outsider, ever since her father moved her from Toronto to L.A. when she was eight, claiming Delilah's mother no longer wanted to be part of their family. Twenty now and broke, but determined to be an artist like her errant mom, Delilah attends art class for free—by modeling nude at the front of the room, a decision that lifts the veil from her once insular world. While she struggles to find her talent, her father, her only real companion, is beginning to exhibit telltale signs of early-onset Alzheimer's. And her mother, who Delilah always assumed had selfishly abandoned them, is about to reappear with a young daughter in tow... and a secret that will change everything. Delilah no longer knows which parent to trust—the only one she can really rely on is the most broken person of all: herself.
In a new novel as witty, sparkling, and poignant as her acclaimed Inside Out Girl, author Tish Cohen uncovers the humor and heart within the most dysfunctional of families.
** This just came out in June and I LOVE chick lit so I'm really looking forward to this one. I first saw this one available as an ARC (I believe) and the cover caught my eye.***

A Maze of Grace, by Trish Ryan
(Not Rated on Amazon.com)

In her first book, Trish Ryan chronicled the ways in which finding faith lead her to the happily-ever-after ending that had eluded her for so long. Only it wasn't an ending. It was a beginning.
In A MAZE OF GRACE, Ryan picks up where she left off, sharing the early years of her marriage, and the challenges that both shaped and startled her: temptations regarding fidelity, the anxiety of shifting body image, the awkward nature of following Jesus in a decidedly secular family and city, and struggles (depression, trying to conceive) that made her wonder if God had lost her file.
With appealing candor, Ryan sweeps the reader into her life and ponders questions and issues that we all face, dropping nuggets of wisdom along the way that are sure to inspire, encourage and help readers from all walks of life.
** This just came out in June and is the second book of a series, I'll be looking into if we should read the first book to enjoy the second or if they can be read stand alone. I am not really into religious books but if an author is willing to give me copies, I'm open to reading anything for a group discussion. Her first book (He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not) has 5 stars on Amazon.com, so this should be pretty good. **

The Love Goddess’s Cooking School, by Melissa Senate
(Not Rated on Amazon.com)

A charming story about a woman who inherits her grandmother's cooking school in a small town in Maine, and finds her happy ending in the process.
**Short and Sweet Synopsis. This book doesn't come out until October, so the book cover isn't even shown on Amazon yet. But based on the other books that Melissa Senate has written, something tells me this is going to be a goodie. Im anticipating really enjoying this one for sure.**

The Embers, by Hyatt Bass
(2.5 Stars on Amazon.com)

A novel about a once-ascendant Upper East Side family that has crumbled in the aftermath of a tragedy for which the father has been held responsible, and how they put the pieces of their lives back together.
** With only 6 ratings on Amazon.com and the fact that it just came out in May of this year, this 2.5 rating doesn't bother me. The premise seems interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading it. **

The Last Will of Moira Leahy, by Therese Walsh
(5 Stars on Amazon.com)

This haunting debut novel explores the intense bond of sisterhood as a grieving twin searches for her own identity in the ruins of her sister's past.

A LOST SHADOW
Moira Leahy struggled growing up in her prodigious twin's shadow; Maeve was always more talented, more daring, more fun. In the autumn of the girls' sixteenth year, a secret love tempted Moira, allowing her to have her own taste of adventure, but it also damaged the intimate, intuitive relationship she'd always shared with her sister. Though Moira's adolescent struggles came to a tragic end nearly a decade ago, her brief flirtation with independence will haunt her sister for years to come.

A LONE WOMAN
When Maeve Leahy lost her twin, she left home and buried her fun-loving spirit to become a workaholic professor of languages at a small college in upstate New York. She lives a solitary life now, controlling what she can and ignoring the rest–the recurring nightmares, hallucinations about a child with red hair, the unquiet sounds in her mind, her reflection in the mirror. It doesn't help that her mother avoids her, her best friend questions her sanity, and her not-quite boyfriend has left the country. But at least her life is ordered. Exactly how she wants it.

A SHARED PAST
Until one night at an auction when Maeve wins a keris,a Javanese dagger that reminds her of her lost youth and happier days playing pirates with Moira in their father's boat. Days later, a book on weaponry is nailed to her office door, followed by the arrival of anonymous notes, including one that invites her to Rome to learn more about the blade and its legendary properties. Opening her heart and mind to possibility, Maeve accepts the invitation and, with it, also opens a window into her past.

Ultimately, she will revisit the tragic November night that shaped her and Moira's destinies–and learn that nothing can be taken at face value–as one sister emerges whole and the other's score is finally settled.

The Last Will of Moira Leahyis a mesmerizing and romantic consideration of the bonds of family, the impossibility of forgetting, and the value of forgiveness.

** This sounds amazing! **

Life After Yes, by Aidan Donnelley Rowley
(3.5 Stars on Amazon.com
"Music plays. Dad appears. I walk with him, eyes fastened to the floor. When I look up, something is very wrong. There are three grooms."
This is the story of Quinn—born Prudence Quinn O'Malley—a confused young Manhattan attorney who loses her father on that tragic September morning that changed everything. Now, at an existential crossroads in her life, Quinn must confront impossible questions about commitment and career, love and loss. Her idealistic beau desperately wants a wedding, and whisks her away to Paris just to propose. But then Quinn has a dream featuring judges and handcuffs and Nietzsche and Britney . . . and far too many grooms. Suddenly, her future isn't so clear. Quinn's world has become a minefield of men—some living, some gone, and traversing it safely is going to take a lot more than numerous glasses of pinot grigio.
Life After Yes is a blisteringly honest, thoroughly modern tale of life and love in chaos, marking the arrival of a truly exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.
**Have to admit I've been eying this one up. Just came out in May and since I saw that cover for the first time, which I loved, I've been wanting to read this one. ***

The Lost Girls, by Amanda Pressner, Holly Corbett, & Jennifer Baggett
(5 Stars on Amazon.com)
Jen, Holly, and Amanda are at a crossroads. They're feeling the pressure to hit certain milestones—scoring a big promotion, finding a soul mate, having 2.2 kids—before they reach their early thirties. When personal challenges force them to reevaluate their lives, they decide it's now or never to do something daring. Unable to gain perspective in fast-paced Manhattan, the three twentysomethings quit their coveted media jobs and leave behind their friends, boyfriends, and everything familiar to travel the globe. Dubbing themselves the Lost Girls, they embark on an epic yearlong search for inspiration and direction.
As they journey 60,000 miles across four continents and more than a dozen countries, Jen, Holly, and Amanda step far outside of their comfort zones, embracing every adventure and experience the world has to offer—shooting blowguns with Yagua elders in the Amazon, learning capoeira on the beaches of Brazil, volunteering with preteen girls at a school in rural Kenya, hiking with Hmong villagers in Vietnam, and driving through Australia in a psychedelic camper van. Along the way, the Lost Girls find not only themselves but also a lifelong friendship. Ultimately, theirs is a story of true sisterhood—a bond forged by sharing beds and backpacks, enduring exotic illnesses, fending off aggressive street vendors, trekking across rivers and over mountains, and standing by one another through heartaches, whirlwind romances, and everything in the world in between.
This candid and compelling memoir will speak to anyone who has ever felt the desire to spread her wings and discover the world with her best friends by her side.

** This one Just came out in May as well. I love that this is a memoir and not fiction (even though I'd love it as fiction as well). I feel like I'll really be able to relate to this one. **

Exley, by Brock Clarke
(Not Rated on Amazon.com)

** Not due out until October 2010, there is no synopsis of this on Amazon.com. On Good reads it's rated 4.2 Stars with the following Synopsis - Looks promising!**

A nine-year-old boy named Miller, who lives in Watertown, NY, struggles to make sense of his father's disappearance, for which he blames himself. Later, when he is convinced that his father is lying in a coma in the local VA hospital, he searches for the one person he thinks can save his father, the famously reclusive--and dead--author, Frederick Exley, Watertown native and author of the "fictional memoir" A Fan's Notes, his father's favorite book. Told in alternating voices of the young boy and the therapist the boy's mother has hired to help him, Exley is ultimately an exploration of the difference between what we believe to be real and what isreal and how difficult it is to reconcile the two.

Pug Hill, by Alison Pace
(4 Stars on Amazon.com)

For Holly Golightly, there was always Tiffany's. For me, there's always Pug Hill. For as long as I've lived in New York, whenever I've just wanted to think, or relax, or be happy, or even sad, my destination of choice has been, without fail, Pug Hill.
For Hope McNeill, pugs are love, unconditional friendship, happiness, and freedom-all qualities currently in short supply in her own life. She's also short on time and apartment space, and for those reasons she doesn't have a pug of her own. But she does have Pug Hill in Central Park, where pugs (and their owners) from all over New York City convene.
She also has a serious crush on one of her co-workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a flailing relationship with her squash-playing, cold-weather-loving boyfriend, and an unspeakable fear of public speaking. When Hope's father calls with a daunting assignment-to make a speech at her parent's fortieth wedding anniversary party-Hope is completely taken off guard. As a last resort, she signs up for a public speaking class, but can't help wondering, will it be enough?
Some fears are so big that even all the pugs in the world might not be enough...

**I saw this at a book store last year and was VERY close to buying it. Mostly because of the dogs honestly and I didn't buy it because I really didn't know if it was any good. Based on the rating on Amazon.com and the synopsis, I think I'd like it. Although now I'm glad I didn't buy it then because I can enjoy it with my book club now! :)**

Sea Escape, by Lynne Griffin
(4 Stars on Amazon.com)

A sweeping story spanning from the idyllic 1950s through the present, about the people, places, and things each of us holds on to.

** Not much of a synopsis, but this book came out this month so I'm sure it will be updated at some point. Certainly has potential to be a good women's fiction book. **

Good Things I Wish You, by A. Manette Ansay
(4 Stars on Amazon.com)

The acclaimed author of Vinegar Hill returns with a story of two unlikely romances—one historical, the other modern-day—separated by thousands of miles and well over a century.
Battling feelings of loss and apathy in the wake of a painful divorce, novelist Jeanette struggles to complete a book about the long-term relationship between Clara Schumann, a celebrated pianist and the wife of the composer Robert Schumann, and her husband's protÉgÉ, the handsome young composer Johannes Brahms. Although this legendary love triangle has been studied exhaustively, Jeanette—herself a gifted pianist—wonders about the enduring nature of Clara and Johannes's lifelong attachment. Were they just "best friends," as both steadfastly claimed? Or was the relationship complicated by desires that may or may not have been consummated?
Through a chance encounter, Jeanette meets Hart, a mysterious, worldly entrepreneur who is a native of Clara's birthplace, Leipzig, Germany. Hart's casual help with translations quickly blossoms into something more. There are things about men and women, he insists, that do not change. The two embark on a whirlwind emotional journey that leads Jeanette across Germany and Switzerland to a crossroads similar to that faced by Clara Schumann—also a mother, also an artist—more than a century earlier.
Accompanied by photographs, sketches, and notes from past and present, A. Manette Ansay's original blend of fiction and history captures the timeless nature of love and friendship between women and men.

** Looks good! **

To see a list of all the winners and all the great books that were offered up, go here.

Thank you Leah for hosting this fabulous contest! If any of these books interest you, be sure to check back with the WoWO review posts so see what we thought of them.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. DIck

2010-07-07T12:00:00.004-04:00

5 Stars / Favorite

Pub. Date: May 1996
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Format: Paperback, 256pp
ISBN: 0345404475
Edition Description: Reissue
OWN: Keeper Shelf

In the year 2021 (the original printing is set in 1992, but this version has 2021 at the setting), years after World War Terminus, humans have either died or emigrated to Mars. Those who choose to emigrate are enticed with andriod servants and those who have stayed behind on earth risk radiation poisoning and risk being classified as "Special".

One of the most important things when staying behind on earth is the status of owning an animal. Caring for an animal somehow shows you have empathy and humanity. Some, even the protagonist Rick Deckard, pretend to have animals or have synthetic animals. Deckard when his sheep Groucho died, didn't want anyone to know that he no longer had an animal so he replaced it with a synthetic sheep. One of the most interesting elements for me was the Empathy Box, a box that controls your emotional state of mind.

In this novel we follow Dekard while he hunts down androids who are pretending to be human. We also follow John Isidore, who is a driver for an synthetic animal repair shop, who is classified as "Special" and cannot leave Earth. The stories and relationships that develop in this story explore the age old question of "what makes us human?" I personally love stories like this and this was no exception. Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep is staying with me on my keeper shelf. This book was the inspiration behind the BladeRunner movie, which I don't think I've ever seen but I will now for sure. I am not sure what kept me from reading this book, but Im glad I finally did.

This book fits the following categories/challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
New Authors Challenge

June Reading Wrap-Up

2010-07-06T08:39:00.003-04:00

June was another slow reading and posting month for me as my night class started and I've been SWAMPED with reading for school instead of pleasure. My apologies for my late June wrap-up post but better late than never.

I finished the following books in the month of June:

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott 2.5/5 Stars
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver 2/5 Stars
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell 2.5/5 Stars
Wild Heart by Lori Brighton (WoWO) 4.5/5 Stars
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert 4/5 Stars

I have to say that this wasn't a great reading month but Wild Heart and Eat, Pray, Love made it worth the while. You can't win them all.

My favorite book of the month was Wild Heart by Lori Brighton, which was the WoWO book club read this month. I think that this Debut novel is a great start to a wonderful career for Lori. I'm looking forward the next book in this series from her.

My least favorite book of the month was The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. This was my first Kingsolver book and I will give her another try as I've heard this isn't her best book.

Eat, Pray, Love is next months WoWO book club read (July 30th) so I will be reposting my review with the book club discussion review at the end of the month.

I also managed to finish my New Authors Challenge that runs through December 2010. I was aiming for 15 new authors this year and I'm already at 18. I'll continue to work on it and see how far I can take it passed. I love reading new authors and finding new gems that I've never read before.

Some of the books coming up next month for me are:

Fallen by Lauren Kate
The short second life of bree tanner by Stephenie Meyer
Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway (carried over from last month)
Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon
Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
Do Andriods dream of electric sheep by Philip K. Dick

So check back during the month to see the various reviews.

*Above image was borrowed from http://firefliescottonwood.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/books-as-centerpieces/

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

2010-07-01T12:44:00.003-04:00

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Pub. Date: January 2001 (orig. pub. 1942)
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Paperback, 224pp
Series: C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
ISBN: 0060652934
Library Loan

In Episolatory format, the Screwtape Letters is the communication of the devil Screwtape to his nephew on earth, Wormwood. Wormwood is on earth to secure human souls for hell. These letters from Screwtape give guidance to Wormwood on how to handle "the patient", the human he is trying to secure the soul of for hell. Through these letters we learn about the situation on earth with Humans and how they can be swayed to go towards evil ways.

I think myself and this book got off to a bad start, I must have started out reading the book while distracted because I didn't realize at first that these were letters from hell. The terms "The Enemy" made me wonder if the enemy was god or the devil at first. Once I figured it out I liked it a little better. I went back and re-read the prologue of the book and realized that I was mistaken in not being sure who "the Enemy" was referring to. I LOVE the idea of this book, coming from the perspective of evil but we only learn from one side of the conversation and I would have liked to have seen back and forth communications from the uncle and nephew.

The book fills the following challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
New Authors Challenge
PBT Bingo - Christian Living Tag

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

2010-06-24T10:33:00.006-04:00

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Pub. Date: February 2006
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Hardcover, 334pp
ISBN: 0670034711
Genre: Non-Fiction
Library Loan
Coming to Theaters: August 13th, 2010

Author Elizabeth Gilbert has been through an emotionally exhausting divorce and the breakup of a tumultuos love affair in a very short time period. After which she realizes, as most women do in relationships, she has lost her own identity and her own way in life. This realization leads her on a year long spiritual journey like no other that she shares with the reader along her way in Eat, Pray, Love. This memoir is written in three sections: Italy (Eat), India (Pray) and finally Indonesia (Love).

With raw emotion and a window into her soul, Elizabeth Gilbert shares with the reader her amazing journey to spiritual self acceptance. I loved the way the book was written and how it felt so emotionally true. My favorite of the three locations was Italy and at the end of Italy I was sure I would have given the book 5 stars. After India, although I still enjoyed the story, I was down to 4.5 and after Indonesia I was down to 4. All three segments of her journey are very good stories and very well written but the story of her in Italy was just so amazing and touching and relatable to me that it would have been very hard to beat honestly. I felt for her, I felt like I understood her and I felt like at times she understood me and parts of my life that are unsatifactory to me. This story makes the reader want to go on their own journey of spiritual enlightenment, at least it did for me. The fact that this is a true story makes it all the better in my eyes.

Favorite Quote: "Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be."

I didn't go into much detail in my review because this book was chosen to be the WoWO book club selection for the end of July, so I will be reposting this review along with the WoWO discussion at that time with more details (So Check back!!). Gilbert has another book out called Committed, which is a continuation of her life once she returns home. I believe that I will be reading this book, maybe even if the other girls in the book club are interested we will make it a book club read. Also plan to see the movie, hopefully with some of the WoWO's!

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Charms)
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge
PBT BINGO - Poetry tag
PBT June tag (Travel)

WoWO Book Club Meeting and Wild Heart by Lori Brighton

2010-06-18T23:45:00.023-04:00

Tonight was the June WoWO Discussion and we discussed Wild Heart by Lori Brighton. The WoWO group won copies of Wild Heart from Lori through the http://www.authordiannalove.com/ website. This is a really great website with lots of information on Dianna Love as well as other authors. If you sign your book group up they give away copies of books regularly; just sign up once and you are entered for all drawings. When I was contacted by Cassondra from the authorDiannaLove.com website I was so excited that the WoWO won copies and we would read a book from a debut author. Little did we know that it would be such a fantastic book, and that Lori would be so pleasant to deal with when sending the copies and so much more. Lori signed each book individually named to each member, she included a bunch of goodies that can be found in England, autographed book cover memorabilia boards (sorry I am unsure what to call them but they are cool) and the all this came with a very nice personal letter from Lori to the group. Lori made the entire experience of winning the books and discussing the story, that much more enjoyable.

WoWO Rating: 4.3/5 Stars

Personal Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Pub. Date: November 2009
Publisher: Kensington Publishing

Format: Mass Market Paperback, 320pp
ISBN: 1420108654

Genre: Historical Paranormal Romance

Debut Novel

9 Copies for WoWO obtained in a giveaway on http://www.authordianalove.com/

About Wild Heart:

In Sussex England in the late 1800's, Ella is hired to be governess to Leo Roberts who is the next in line for earldom. Leo, the grandson of Lord Roberts is said to be wild and in great need of refinement. Ella does not know what to expect from this boy who is to be earl, but how bad could it be? When Ella learns that the grandson to be Earl is actually a grown man she quickly becomes concerned that he is too wild to refine. Leo is completely untamed and animalisic, raised on his own in the wild of India after his parents were brutally murdered. Leo's grandfather needs Ella's help in making Leo presentable enough to take over earldom when the time comes. Ella wonders how she is suppose to make him presentable, refined and learn the ways of his class when he is a grown man who seems to be too wild to help and doesn't particular care to be helped. Ella, and this reader of the book, become taken with Leo rather quickly and their attraction is too wild to contain.

The romance scenes in this book are STEAMY and well written. Coming from someone who does not typically read romance, I was completely captivated by this story. This book is not just a Historical Romance, there is a twist of paranormal running through this book as well as some mystery and adventure. I don't want to give away anything to the plot so I left the paranormal out of the synopsis, but trust me it adds an extra element to make the story even better than the steamy attraction between Ella and Leo.

Personally , I absolutely loved this story. I wanted to give it 5 stars but just couldn't bring myself to do it. My main reason for giving the book a 4.5 over a 5 was more about the genre than the book itself, I think Im in denial that I love Historical Paranormal Romance. I can't find anything wrong with the story itself, the writing was absolutely spot on and perfect, but I have trouble giving 5 stars to a book that isn't a book like "The Help". I'm working on this though, and will definitely read the next book that Lori has coming out next year called "Wild Desire".

The WoWO Discussion (Contains Spoilers):

Everyone of the WoWO who read the book, loved it. We all pretty much agreed on every point of the discussion. We felt that in the beginning we did not know what to expect from this book. By the cover and synopsis it looked to be on the trashy side but once we started reading, it grabbed us and we realized quickly that it was very well written and the romance wasn't trashy at all. The different scenes and settings in the book were vivid and easily pictured. We thought that the supernatural elements (Ella feeling emotions) was a nice twist to the story, standing itself out from other Historical Romances. We liked that you didn't know much about Leo and his past but the reader learned about him through Ella's point of view, with her flashes of memories she got from Leo and his telling her stories as well.

During Leo and Ella's first conversation by the sea, everyone expected that Leo really needed Ella and we were surprised and happy that he was pretending to be savage and he was actually well spoken and intelligent. As far as the romance in the story goes, we though it was STEAMY and enticing and well done. Some of our favorite steamy scenes were the picture painting, the skinny dipping, the folly in the rain and the final love scene where they finally get to consumate their attraction. One of us was frustrated with the lack of completion of the earlier love scenes in the book (She wants all sex all the time - lucky girl ;)), but the rest of us loved the suspense and attraction that it caused and how happy we felt when they finally did have their moment.

Some of the early suspects to Leo's parents death were Akshay, Henry, Henry's father. No one really suspected that the Grandfather was involved in the cover-up but we feel it made for a good twist to the story. The author stated to me in a note that readers either love Leo or hate him and we can't figure out why anyone would hate him, he was absolutely perfect. Everyone liked Ella and felt she was a lucky girl to have found Leo :) (Hey Jealousy!) Everyone's favorite character was.. surprise --- LEO. Our Least favorite character was the Grandfather - He only cared about a having a proper successor and didn't care who was hurt in the process.

Our final thoughts on the story were that we all enjoyed the book more than we thought we would at first, it was a very pleasant surprise. We would definitely recommend the book to others (I already have!) One of us, loved the meat of the story but was disappointed in the beginning and the ending, she felt the ending left too many loose ends. Everyone else however, loved how the ending was left open for more of the story to come later in another book.

We felt the cover of the book was fitting to the story. We thought the title was good but something more savage like would have been more fitting for us... "Savage Heart" was our best take at a good title (We don't claim to be experts here..lol)

We as a group would love to read her next book called "Wild Desire", coming out in 2011. This book features Ella's cousin Colin, so we hope it continues the story. We would however be more excited to read the continuation of Ella and Leo's story. We would like to see a follow up on the Statues mentioned in the story and more about what the map is, as well as what the future holds for Leo, Ella, Akshay and Fran.

Top: Myself, Linda

Bottom: Louise, Karen, Peggy
Missing from Picture: Lori
(Yes, that picture in the background is the WoWO painting from the Love Ceiling!)

The book chosen for next WoWO discussion is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert on July 30th.

This book fits the following Category/Challenges:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
The Romance Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

2010-06-15T15:44:00.006-04:00

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Pub. Date: March 1997
Publisher: New Press, The
Format: Hardcover, 284pp
Series: Kurt Wallander Series, #1
ISBN-13: 9781565843417
Library Loan

This book was originally published in Sweden as Mordare utan ansikte in 1991 and was translated into English by Stephen T. Murray for this publication.

I obtained this book from the library in order to read it for my Fantasy Thrillers and Horrors Yahoo Book Group.

Kurt Wallander is a severely flawed man - he has an tricky relationship with his ex-wife, a daughter who doesn't want anything to do with him, and an aging a father who is hard to deal with. With all of these personal issues he has to solve the highly volitale case of a brutal murder of an elderly couple in a swedish farmhouse with very few clues.

In this first book of the Kurt Wallander Series we follow Wallander through his daily routines of life and work and get a glimpse of the Swedish way of life. I found these glimpses interesting but I can't seem myself continuing on with the series. I don't know if it was the translation or the Swedish murder mystery that made this book seem too simple and more about the main characters development than solving the actual mystery, it was like made for tv mystery for me. I found that the ending was very anti-climatic and I wished there was a better wrap-up and that the clues found in the beginning of the story actually meant more to the solving of the crime.

This book fits the following challenges/categories for me:

Hogwart's Reading Challenge (Muggle Studies)
Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge ** FINISHED CHALLENGE **
Fantasy Thriller and Horror Reading Group

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

2010-06-05T19:35:00.004-04:00

Rating: 2/5 Stars

Pub. Date: November 2009
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Hardcover, 507pp
ISBN: 0060852577
Library Loan

Harrison Shepherd was born in the United States but spent his childhood in the 1930's in Mexico being raised by his mother. He spent his life writing journals of the world around him. These journal's were then turned into this "memoir". Some information was filled in by Shepherd's writing assistant and others by newspaper articles of events. Moving back and forth from Mexico to the United States Harrison Shepherd unveils the happenings in the world and the man that he becomes in the process. Along his travels he works with artists Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo and gets involved in political turmoil with Lev Trotsky.

I hate to say negative things about books because others may really like them but for me this book was a bit of a snooze fest. A lot of effort was put into this book to make it feel more like a memoir than fiction and it did, a little too much in fact. There were too many words in this book. This is my first Kingsolver book so I cannot compare it to others but she is VERY thorough. Sometimes that's good and sometimes that's not so good. In most instances in this novel I did not need many of the extra monotonous information.

I read this book for one of my book clubs and only finished it because I was using it for a travel game for Play Book Tag Bingo. I had already invested several days and had several cities to use for the game and couldn't turn back.

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge

The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #1) by Michael Scott

2010-06-02T14:33:00.006-04:00

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Pub. Date: May 2007
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Format: Hardcover, 400pp
Age Range: Young Adult
Series: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series, #1
ISBN-13: 9780385733571

I received this copy from my friend Louise when she mistakenly purchased this book instead of The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. She gave me the book to trade for the Alchemist and little did I know that one of my book clubs would vote to read this book a few months later.

Josh and Sophie Newman are Twin's who came to visit San Francisco for the summer when they unsuspectingly get involved in a battle between what was only known to them as mythological creatures. They quickly find out that there is truth to legends and the people they new and Nick and Perry Fleming are much more then they ever imagined.

This story is chock full of mythology legends and supernatural reasons for different things that happened in history (for example the Great Chicago fires). I can see why people have compared this series to Harry Potter but for me this fell a little short of that. It was written for a younger group that Harry Potter was, at least it seemed so to me and it missed a certain spark that Harry Potter has. In it's own right I can see children enjoying this series, but for me I expected a Harry Potter replacement and didn't get it. Maybe I was expecting too much. It was still and enjoyable read, but I don't think I'll read on in the series at this point.

Wikipedia states that the film rights to the series have been sold to Lorenzo di Bonaventura and IMDB.com now lists The Alchemyst film as "in production". I will probably see the movie when it's out on cable, because I'd like to see the translation to film and I think this book has enough action that will translate to the big screen well. I am curious how they will make some of these characters look as well.

This book fitst the following Challenges/Categories for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge
Fantasy Thriller Horrors - May Group Read

May Reading Wrap-up

2010-05-31T14:34:00.002-04:00

May was an extremely slow reading month for me as I had a million and one personal things to do. So this post is going to be really short. The image above is for my niece who graduated from La Salle University this past month (One of the many reasons I did not have much time to read).

I finished the following books in the month of May:

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian 3/5 Stars
Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost 3/5 Stars
The Love Ceiling by Jean Davies Okimoto (WoWO) 2.5/5 Stars

My favorite book of the month was Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. I believe that this series has potential and I can't wait to read on.

My least favorite book of the month was The Love Ceiling, it missed the mark for me.

I'm hoping that next month brings better reading material and more time to read it.

Some of the books coming up next month for me are:

SOUVENIR by Therese Fowler
Wild Heart by Lori Brighton (WoWO - June 18th)
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

So check back during the month to see the various reviews.

*Above image was borrowed from http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Holiday---Celebration-Recipes/Graduation-Party-Ideas

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

2010-05-31T13:55:00.005-04:00

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Pub. Date: November 1998

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Format: Trade Paperback, 372pp

ISBN-13: 9780375706776

Oprah's Book Club Selection

Sybil Danforth was a midwife in Vermont in the 1980's. One fateful night she had a birth go horribly wrong and an emergency C section was necessary. Sybil was sure the woman was dead when she began the the procedure but aspects of the evening bring doubt as to what really happened that fateful night. This story follows the trial of Danforth from the night in question through the end of the trial, from the perspective of Cybil's daughter Colleen, a teenager at the time of the trial, now looking back as an adult telling the story of her past.

I enjoyed certain aspects of this book, the idea of the trial and the details of the birth were very interesting to me. Even the story coming from the perspective of the child was a nice take on the story. I however felt there was too much medical detail for me, I felt squeamish in many of the birthing scenes. I also felt that I new most of the story already in the beginning and then the trial rehashed the story with not much unknown details, a few but not much to me. So I got a little bored with the story until the trial's conclusion. I'm glad that I read the story but I hoped for more from Bohjalian.

This is my second book by Chris Bohjalian, the first book i read by him was Before you know kindness. I was absolutely enthralled with that book but the ending left me wanting a different outcome. That said, I still think that the drama in that story was much better than this one. I can't say that I would recommend to anyone but someone interested in Midwifery but I would give the author another try in the future, I see a lot of potential in the complexity of his writing.

As my last read for the month of march, this book fits the following categories/challenges for me:

Hogwart's Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
PBT Bingo (Contemporary Tag)
Buddy Read at The Reading Cove

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost (Night Huntress Series #1)

2010-05-21T09:05:00.006-04:00

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Avon (October 30, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061245089

Cat is half human/half vampire. Cat is a mystery to herself and to others as a half breed. Her mother was raped by a young vampire and ended up pregnant. The result of which is Cat, undetectable and unsuspectable by Vampires and humans alike; This makes Cat the perfect person to avenge her mothers rape. Cat spends her free time killing vampires to help her mother cope with what has happened to her. When Cat meets a vampire, Bones - a vampire bounty hunter, that convinces her to work with him instead of kill him, she reluctantly agrees if he helps her find and kill her father. Cat never thought she'd fall in love, but Bones turns out to be more than just another Vampire.

I really enjoyed the story of Cat. Parts of the story were a bit on the corny side but it was still original and interesting to dive into the lives of Cat and Bones. I plan to read on in the series and see where the story takes me.

This books fits the following Categories/Challenges:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
Romance Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
New Authors Reading Challenge

Two New Cards

2010-05-14T21:23:00.002-04:00

I just finished making two new cards.

One for a Bridal Shower:

(in person these jewels are lighter )

For my Niece's Graduation: I'm so proud of her!

(the right side of the card cut off a little but you get the idea)

WoWO Book Club Meeting and The Love Ceiling

2010-05-09T20:30:00.018-04:00

On Friday night we had our fourth Women of Washington Oaks (WoWO) Book Club meeting. Sadly it was a tough week for the WoWO's and several tragedies hit some of the women of the club. Some managed to make it, and I'm very glad that they did but for those who couldn't make it this month, we missed you greatly... Here is to quick healing and our loved ones being in a better place.

To those of us who were able to attend we discussed The Love Ceiling by Jean Davies Okimoto.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Pub. Date: September 2009

Publisher:Endicott & Hugh Books

Format: Paperback, 320pp

ISBN: 0982316739

We won copies of this book from BookMovement.com, this is a fabulous site for book clubs, it's a great resource and they have lots of great giveaways! So thank you very much to Pauline from BookMovement for notifying me that I won the books and hosting the giveaway. A big thank you goes to Jennifer Justice at Endicott & Hugh Books for sending the copies for the group to read.

The Love Ceiling Synopsis (From back of book):

After the death of her Japanese American mother, sixty-four-year-old Anne Kuroda Duppstadt finds the courage to confront the toxic legacy of her father, a famous artist and cruel narcissist. When a former art professor invites her to his island art studio, she begins pursuing her lifelong dream to become an artist in her own right. But the needs of her family tug at her heart. Her thirty-two-year old daughter s love life is falling apart, and Annie s husband, facing retirement, struggles with depression, leading her to conclude, There is a glass ceiling for women...and it's made out of the people we love.
The Love Ceiling draws readers into the soul of a universal theme for women: the pull between family and creative self-expression. It is the story of a daughter, a wife, a mother and grandmother, and a journey into creativity.

Being that we won the copies of book, the WoWo's were very excited to read the book and discuss it and really wanted to love the book. But sadly several of us (4 to be exact) had trouble getting through the book, and started to skim to the end or completely stopped reading all together.

The story was a nice story but several of us felt that some of the story lines went too far and others didn't go anywhere at all.

Some of the favorite characters were:

Sam
Lena
Martha Jane

The discussion was very light on this book and although Peggy had a lot to say about the book, no one else could really answer the questions posed due to having trouble following the story or not being able to finish. I believe this to be mostly due to not being able to related to the characters and what they were going through. The storyline was not bad, however many of us felt that it was a bit dry at times and it was hard to hold our interest.

As we always try to do, we had something book related at the meeting. Since the book has painting as a major element of the history of the main characters, this time we had a canvas and paints. The WoWO painted the picture below, inspired by the love ceiling's front cover with our own WoWO twist:

It's the WoWO boat! Sorry Tricia that I wouldn't let you do your sun with dark sunglasses ;) This painting is now hanging in the basement where the WoWO's meet to discuss the books we read. And here is a picture of some of us working on the painting:

from left to right: Myself, Louise, Linda, Peggy, Tricia (Photographer: Lori)

The Book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge

Mothers Day Cards

2010-05-07T09:39:00.007-04:00

I made a few mother's day cards for my family and thought I'd share them with you:

The didn't scan in the greatest but I think you get the idea.

For Mom:

For Gammy (Grandmom):

For my sister:

April Reading Wrap-Up

2010-05-01T09:52:00.005-04:00

April went so fast! I felt like I spent a lot of time catching up this month in time for the discussions. I definitely need to plan out my schedule better in the future.

Here is what I read this month:

My favorite for April was definitely Eclipse, I really enjoyed this story once I got passed the beginning. I was surprised by this because I had to restart it a couple of times before really getting into it. I was also pretty impressed with The Great Gatsby which I had never read before.

My biggest disappointment for April was Someone to watch over me by Judith McNaught.

I participated in a fun Blogger Hop and got introduced to some great new blogs, which I am now following. I also found an new Craft website that I really like that has lots of great giveaways and tips: FAVECRAFTS. Although I didn't post about it yesterday was BLOGMANIA on a couple of blogs that I follow and I found many new blogs from the list of over 100 that participated. I wish I had time to enter for more contests and find more blogs to love, but I had to actually earn a paycheck yesterday. :-)

I have a pretty good mix of reviews planned for May including another WoWO book discussion:

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
The Alchemyst - The secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
The Love Ceiling by Jean Davies Okimoto (WoWO)
The Lace Makers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri

*above picture found on MarthaStewart.com

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (ARC)

2010-04-28T12:39:00.005-04:00

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Advanced Readers Copy
Publisher: Viking
Format: Trade Paperback, 288pp
Age Range: Young Adult
ISBN: 978-0-670-01110-0

**I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lia is a teenage with alot of issues, the worst of which is that she is anorexic and she cuts. Lia has recently been released from her second stay at New Seasons and now lives with her father, step-mother and step-sister. This book starts at the time in her life when her former best friend dies in a hotel room after calling Lia thirty-three unanswered times. Cassie and Lia hadn't been friends for some time and Lia didn't answer her call, now that Cassie is dead Lia is haunted by her friends death. Lia struggles with her weight, her self-esteem, her family and her guilt.

I had some trouble getting into the story at first because of the way it was written, it truly felt like a young adult book. Some young adult books don't feel distinctly young adult, but this one did. Once I got into the swing of the writing there was a lot about this story that felt real to me. I felt like I was looking into the thoughts of someone with Anorexia, at least as I would imagine they would feel in certain moments. My favorite aspect of this book was seeing into Lia's thoughts with the words crossed off in the sentences, things that she thought but wouldn't say aloud. Another aspect of the book that got to me was the statement ... When I was a real girl. It was used throughout the book and everytime I read it, it struck a cord with me.

--Spoiler warning:
I really liked the fact that ultimately it was her love for Emma (her step-sister) that brought her back into the life of the living. She loved her so much and she wanted to be around to be a role model for her, and teach her how to knit.
--End Spoiler

This book was completely different than anything I've ever read. I liked the end more than the beginning, but that may have been due the time it took to get into the writing style and being Young Adult. It was really well done and I would recommend it as a good read for young teenage girls.

This book fits in the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

2010-04-25T20:16:00.009-04:00

Personal Rating: 3/5 Stars

Mini-Group Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Pub. Date: March 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Format: Hardcover, 532pp
Received free copy from Partique.com for the House Rules book club event.

Jacob, an 18 yr old boy obsessed with crime scenes, has Asperberger's syndrome. The affect that this diagnosis has on his family, from the time of his birth, is deep rooted and causes fractures in their family unit. Theo, Jacob's younger brother, feels alienated from school friends and invisible at home. Emma, who's husband left shortly after the diagnosis, is having a hard time making ends meet and keeping the family afloat. She writes an advice column from home, that gives her the ability to be with Jacob at all times. Oliver is a young lawyer just making his way in the world with a big case thrust his way that will either provide him opportunity for success or huge failure as a lawyer. Rich is a police detective who is tough to call emotionally but ultimately seems to want to do whatever it takes get his cases solved.

The book is written from four different perspectives: Theo, Jacob, Emma, Oliver and Rich. This give the reader a more reliable source of the truth as it occurs, and how it affects everyone involved in the story. All of these characters come together on a case that with change everyone's lives involved forever.

I was chosen to lead a House Rules Book Club event from Partique.com. In return for a copy of the book, and another by Picoult and Cookies provided by Lucy's Cookies, I hosted a House Rules Book Club with a few of the girls from the WoWO book club (a mini-WoWO book club event) on Saturday night.

This event was hosted by many book clubs across the globe and they provided resources to the book clubs for the event. I was grateful for the free stuff but I expected the event to be more interactive at the time of the event. I logged in at 7pm with my group and we attempted to get other groups to talk but it didn't really happen that way. So we went off on our own and had a really great time.

Some of the topics discussed were (Contains slight spoils) :

Favorite Character: Oliver
Emma was a great mom and did the best she could given the circumstances
Theo's character seemed to be too good to be doing the things he did all on his own without peer pressure involved. We didn't think that he would aware of why he was breaking an entering like he was, and that he wouldn't have done it on his own accord (based on his character as we knew him)
We felt that Rich was only thrown in to throw you off from Oliver and Emma's relationship and that he could have been left out of being a narrator without any detriment to the story.
We thought Henry was an Ass.

The book brought out opinions and had us sharing stories that made us laugh so hard that we cried. Any book that can do that makes for a great book club book and I'd recommend it to book clubs for a good discussion book. The Reading Guide provided by Partique.com was a bit wordy but we were able to break it down for the discussion and include our own topics.

My personal thoughts about the story was that it was well written, which is expected from Jodi Picoult. She is a master in writing about controversial topics, and she is a favorite author of mine. I however felt this one was very similar in concept to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, which is one of my favorite books. The story lines were different, the points of view changed for a more well-rounded story but the concept for me was too close.

If you read House Rules and liked it, you will love Mark Haddon's book. If you haven't read it and like the topic on House Rules, I'd like to suggest it to you as a must read.

The girls and I will definitely be doing more mini-Bookclub meet ups in between the larger more formal WoWO Book Club Meetings.

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge
Romance Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
RYOB Challenge
Thriller and Suspense Challenge

Book Blogger Hop: April 23-29, 2010

2010-04-23T08:42:00.004-04:00

Hosted by Crazy for Books

It's Friday! Time for another Book Blogger HOP!!

This is for ALL BOOK BLOGGERS (NEW AND OLD) and READERS! Let's make some new friends and have fun! It's FRIDAY!!!

ABOUT THE HOP:
In the spirit of the Friday Follow, I thought it would be cool to do a Book Blogger Hop to give us all book bloggers and readers a chance to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on! So, I created this weekly BOOK PARTY where book bloggers and readers can connect to find new blogs to read, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start PARTYING!!Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

If you start following someone through the Hop, leave a comment on their blog to let them know! Stop back during the week to see other blogs that are added! And, most importantly, the idea is to HAVE FUN!!

OPTIONAL TWIST: On your blog hop post, tell us about some of the other great blogs you've found while Hopping around!

DISCLAIMER:The Hop isn't just for you to throw your link in there and not visit any other blogs. It's all about networking and finding new blogs that are of interest. So, in the spirit of the Hop, try to make some time to visit other blogs and don't post your link if you are not planning on visiting other blogs in the Hop that week. This is a weekly event, so if you don't have time this week, that's fine! We'll see you next week!If you sign MckLinky, please share the love and POST ABOUT THE HOP ON YOUR BLOG! How else will anyone else find out about it and come join the party?

Please use the following format when entering your link below (be careful - I don't always have time to go in and edit your link!!):

NAME OF BLOG (How long you've been blogging; what genres you PRIMARILY review)
I know a lot of us read all different genres, but if you had to choose ONE OR TWO genres that you review more often than others, what would they be??

Example:
Crazy-for-Books (21 months; contemporary fiction/mystery)

So, let's do the Hop!

P.S. BEFORE YOU ENTER YOUR LINK - DID YOU READ ALL OF THE RULES ABOVE?? DON'T FORGET TO LIST THE REQUESTED INFORMATION IN YOUR LINK!!!!!

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

2010-04-22T12:21:00.003-04:00

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Pub. Date: September 2004
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Format: Paperback, 192pp
ISBN-13: 9780743273565

In 1902's West Egg, NY life is very different than Nick Carraway, newly transported from the west, is used to. His neighbor Jay Gatsby lives an extravagant lifestyle that intrigue's Nick until Nick gets swept up in the drama that comes with this type of lifestyle. His cousin Daisy and her husband Tom are also living this lifestyle and what develops between all the characters in this story is crazy and unbelievable yet could be right out of the pages of today's tabloids.

I am so glad I read this story, it was nothing like I expected it would be and I was so pleasantly surprised. This is a classic story that was true to the time it was written and is even true to society today, it is truely a timeless classic. A complex story of interwoven characters that is better than most stories written today. The twists and turns to the story were great and now I'd like to see the movie, to see these characters come to life. Each character was developed nicely and were wonderful in their own flawed way.

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Muggle Studies)
The Romance Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge
PBT Favorite Tag
PBT BINGO Favorites Challenge

Supernatural: Nevermore by Keith R.A. DeCandido

2010-04-16T18:48:00.007-04:00

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Pub. Date: July 2007
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 336pp
Series: Supernatural Series, #1
ISBN-13: 9780061370908

This is an in-between the series book to the Supernatural T.V. Show on the CW. This episode fits in Season 2 between "Crossroad Blues" and "Croatoan."

Sam and Dean are asked to do a job for Ash, in NYC. One of the band members of Scottso is being haunted by a woman screaming "Why won't he love me?" While investigating this haunting they put together that a few eerie incidents are related to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and they decide to investigate.

DeCandido did an excellent job getting down the personalities of the Winchester boys as well as incorporating past story-lines from the T.V. Series. As I was reading I found the book a bit Cliche' at times but then I realized, that's exactly what the T.V. Show is.

A couple of my favorite quotes:

p178, "A while back Aldo had himself a girlfriend who was a real 'rycher." Sam squinted. Dean rolled his eyes. "He means a Queensryche fan, not the first officer of the Enterprise."
p186, "A Marine and a Navy guy walk into a bathroom together. They both take a piss, and then the sailor goes to the sink. The Marine heads for the door, and the sailor says, 'Hey- in the Navy the teach us to wash up after we take a leak.' And the Marine turns around and says 'Yeah? Well, in the Marines they teach us not to piss on our hands.'"
p.191, Dean says "you're right, with me it'd be only the one night, maybe two." He grinned. "But it'd be a helluva night." (Ain't it the truth!)

I'd also like to say that there were extra things in the book that really lead to the whole experience. The Acknowledgements (and I don't always read those), the Historian's Note and the Author's Note with a Music set list of recommending listening while reading were all very cool features.

The only thing that I didn't like about the book would be the parts that were from the ghost's point of view. I could have down without knowing how she felt while haunting the house.

The book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Care of Magical Creatures)
Books About TV
RYOB Challenge
Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Author Challenge
PBT Favorite Tag and BINGO game

Someone to Watch Over Me by Judith McNaught

2010-04-15T19:41:00.008-04:00

Rating: 1/5 Stars

Mass Market Paperback
Pub. Date: October 2003
560pp
Library Loan

Leigh and Logan have the perfect marriage, or so Leigh thinks. They are both extremely successful in their chosen fields and they have worked hard for what they have. One night when Leigh is suppose to meet her husband at a cabin on land he purchased to build on, she ends up in a car accident that puts her in the hospital. Unable to contact her husband or locate the cabin the police and Leigh are unsure what to make of him missing.

Leigh slowly learns that her marriage isn't anything like she thought it was and nothing was as it seemed. The good become evil, the evil become good, who can she trust?

Let me start by stating that I am SHOCKED beyond belief that this is the same author who wrote Every Breathe I Take. I read Every Breathe I Take last year and I absolutely loved it. I gave it 5 stars and was so surprised that I found a new author in a romance genre. I am by trade not a romance reader, but have found myself reading them lately for one reason or another (never by my choice alone!) but this one was one I was really looking forward to based on the other book and the fact that it has a romantic suspense twist.

Everything about this story was cliche' and corny and down-right predictable.

Spoiler alert:

I don't know what the deal was with Leigh and Michael's "Romance" but I had real problems with this aspect of the story. It seemed so forced and odd, I just don't understand it. She loved her husband the days before and she finds out the truth about him and their marriage and instead of taking it slow she gets forced into another marriage in a minute, I say forced because to me it didn't read like love it was more obsession on his part and desperation on hers, it was just weird for me. Everything about this relationship was just wrong for me!

End Spoilers.

I really hope that Every Breathe I Take is more McNaught's current style (written in 2006) and that it's so good because she has grown over the 3 years! I will give her another try but I'm so shocked that I could rate the first one a 5/5 Stars and then the next 1/5 Stars, it was so completely unexpected for me!

This book fits in the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Muggle Studies)
Romance Reading Challenge
Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

2010-04-14T09:22:00.003-04:00

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Paperback
Pub. Date: February 2010
413pp
Library Book

Ronnie and her brother are products of a divorced family unit and Ronnie holds a lot of anger towards her parents but especially her father for leaving the family. When Ronnie was younger her father taught her the piano and she was a prodigy but now she refuses to play the piano and is an all around rebellious teenager. One summer, her mother forces her to stay with her father for the summer and Ronnie is not pleased with the prospect of spending the summer in North Carolina with her father. While in North Carolina, Ronnie's life unfolds in ways she never expected, at the end of the summer she has changed by leaps and bounds.

I was apprehensive when my friend asked me to read this book so that we could go see the movie together but I'll read anything for a discussion and for the bonus of seeing the book turned to film. I was apprehensive because I had read in Entertainment Weekly magazine that the book was written specifically for Miley Cyrus. If I have my information correct, Miley Cyrus had asked Disney for a movie similar to "A Walk To Remember" and Disney went to Nicholas Sparks and asked him to write it, and here we are. Now EW.com says that Miley did a great job in the film, so I'm looking forward to seeing how she did in the movie. But the book fell short for me.

The story was well written, as Nicholas Sparks is the master of this kind of story, and it was a nice story but it was very predictable. It felt like a story I've read a thousand times so in that aspect I was bored with parts of the story. But there were parts of it that I enjoyed and I was interested to see if my plans for the characters were the same as Sparks' plans - and they were. I can definitely see Miley Cyrus playing the part of Ronnie and with EW.com's review of the her in the movie, I look forward to the movie.

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challange (Charms)
Romance Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge

Twenty to Make Bracelets Book Giveaway

2010-04-13T07:16:00.006-04:00

I wanted to tell you about this great book giveaway from FAVECRAFTS.

If you like crafting like I do, you won't want to miss this one. I've never made a bracelet before but I've been wanting to try it. This would be a great way to start. I really like the bracelet on the cover too.

Twenty to Make Bracelets By Amanda Walker

Try out these 20 bracelet patterns that include all kinds of materials from leather to glass beads. It's a nice variety of simple classy designs with a wide variety of hues from silver to topaz to gold and blue.

Use your imagination to create unique jewelry.

Click here to enter

Good Luck!

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

2010-04-07T20:26:00.003-04:00

Rating: 4/5 Stars

We'll I finally read and finished Eclipse! I can't believe I made it through and thoroughly enjoyed the story in the process. Let me explain a bit why I am so surprised. When I first read Twilight I was intrigued by Bella, Edward and Jacob but I seriously could not stand Bella. Then I immediately went on to New Moon without a break and enjoyed Bella and Jacob without Edward so much that when I then immediately went on to eclipse and Edward was back and Bella was so desperate for him, I just couldn't take it anymore and just about threw the book out the window. I didn't throw it out the window but I did stop reading it.

I recently watched New Moon and it reminded me how much I enjoyed it when I read it and I must admit I have fallen in love with Jacob's character (and yes Taylor Lautner too). It has been at least a year now since I read New Moon and thought enough time had gone by that I was ready for Eclipse, especially with the movie coming out this summer. And boy am I glad I decided to pick it back up! Bella still annoyed the heck out of me, in the beginning, but by half way I was enthralled with the story line.

The rest of this review will most definitely have spoilers in it, so if you haven't read the book please stop reading here and come back once you've read the book.

Where to start! First the one thing that really bothers me about this series. Bella's NEED for Edward is very odd, but I did like how the author with help from Jacob's character admitted how unhealthy this relationship was for Bella. I keep hoping to find out that Bella and Edward has the predestined imprinting that the werewolves have and that's why she's so crazy for Edward, because it really is just crazy.

I loved the Vampires and Werewolves working together and thought that these scenes were very well done. I liked how they got along and at the end had some respect for each other and I hope to see them work together in the future. I do not like how Bella chose Edward over Jacob, but that's just because I'm on Team Jacob 100% but I did like how Bella finally admitted that she had feelings for Jacob. Until now I felt really bad for Jacob seeming so desperate for someone who only thought of him as a friend and now that we see that she does love Jacob after all, it somehow seems OK to me that she chooses Edward (I still love Jacob more!).

I really hope that Stephenie Meyer gives Jacob a love that can be returned how he deserves! And this is how I know I'm starting to adore this series because I'm beginning to care about the characters, more than I'd like to admit.

And one more thing before I end this review....

(Thank god he's 18 years old or this would be creepy!)

Go Team Jacob! ;-)

This book fits in the following Category/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Transfiguration)
Romance Reading Challenge
Finish that Series Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
PBT April Tag: Favorite

March Wrap-Up

2010-04-03T12:10:00.006-04:00

My apologies for being late with my Wrap-up for last month but April sneaked up on me!

The Month of March brought me several new authors and had me visiting some old favorites as well. I had my first book giveaway and we had another fun and successful WoWO Book Club Meeting. I also paid tribute to my online friend Gale, may she rest in peace, with a promise of being a better online friend to those that are still with me.

I entered a new challenge called the Hogwarts Reading Challenge and it is proving to be a heck of a lot of fun.

In March I finished the following (Click links to see reviews):

My favorite book of the month was easily The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and I highly recommend it.

I joined a challenge starting on April 5th in my PBT book group on Shelfari.com that I'm really excited about for the month of April. It's a bingo game where each square represents a tag from one of the top shelfari tags. I am in a group of 5, I'm very excited by my group and can't wait to get started. Our group name is officially the Bibliophiles IN Game Obsession and each book I read for a square to get bingo I'll be reviewing here on the blog and will include in my challenge listing.

Some of the books in my short TBR pile for April are:

Meow is for Murder by Linda O. Johnston
Putting on the Dog by Cynthia Baxter
South of Broad by Pat Conroy
Wintergirls by Lauri Halse Anderson
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Supernatural: Nevermore by Keither R.A. DeCandido

* clover photo above borrowed from http://flickr.com/photos/humminggirl/379769031/

A Tribute to Gale K and Living Dead in Dallas Review

2010-03-29T13:29:00.014-04:00

Not long ago I met a woman by the name of Gale in my Play Book Tag Group on Shelfari. She was a delightful woman with a very similar taste in books as mine. We got to know each other more when we were both chosen for the Darlingly Dynamic Diva's Group in a game we were both playing. Recently her daughter posted to The Play Book Tag group that Gale passed away last year. Sadly Gale stopped posting several months ago and I personally feel very sad that I didn't notice her absense sooner. We often make friends with people online and then don't realize how much time has passed since we last spoke with that person. I am vowing to try to change this about myself. Gale was a wonderful woman who should be remembered for her sweet demeanor and great taste in books, I wish I knew her longer.

In memory of Gale I wanted to share Gale's Shelfari profile and the picture of her mosaic tabletop that she created (above right):

"Although I have only been a member of Shelfari for a short time I have been reading for many years. I received my first book at the age of six and have been reading for pleasure ever since. My hobbies are reading, quilting and stained glass. My "photo" is actually a mosaic tabletop I built and is stained glass on clear glass. I have been married for 31 years and have two grown children who are also readers. One of my favorite things to do is work with beginning readers. I love to see children fall in love with reading, it opens a whole world of possibilities for them. I enjoy discussing books with others and fully admit to a gap in the non-fiction area of my reading list."

When I log on to Shelfari and see her still in my friends list it brings a pang to my heart to think she is no longer with us. Gale was a great contributor to the group and she is greatly missed.

As a tribute to Gale a group of us at PBT decided to read a book from her shelf of Shelfari. My book of choice was Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris. Gale was a big fan of Sookie and this review is for her:

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
#2 in the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series
Rating: 3 Stars

Pub. Date: March 2002
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 304pp
Series: Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series, #2
ISBN: 0441009239
Purchased from Amazon.com

One of the staff from Merlots is found dead outside of the bar and finding out who did it leads Sookie to places she never thought she'd go. Meanwhile, Sookie has been employed by the Vampires yet again and her and Bill set off to Dallas to locate a missing vampire. Sookies skills are necessary to covertly find out what people know from the place the vampire was last seen. Before they can head out she is attacked by a maenad as a message to the vampire Eric.

I am a big fan of the True Blood HBO Series and I believe that comparing the latest season to the book is actually taking away from the book for me. The stories are similar enough to make you compare them but different enough to be disappointed in the book. The Southern Vampire series is definitely unique and interesting. Harris has a great imagination and I like what she brings to the world of vampires, but I almost wish the book was exactly as True Blood season II was. I didn't want to spend this entire review talking about the HBO series because it's about the book but it does add to some disappointment for me when reading the book.

I will be reading the next book in the series before the next season of True Blood, as to not ruin the book for me. I believe that I'll enjoy it alot more and appreciate it what it is instead of comparing it.

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Transfiguration)
Romance Reading Challenge
RYOB Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
PBT March Tag: Other

WoWO Book Club Meeting and The Help Review

2010-03-25T19:06:00.016-04:00

On Wednesday night we had another successful Women of Washington Oaks (WoWO) book club meeting. This time we discussed The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Rating: 4 Stars by the WoWOs

In Jackson, Mississippi in 1962 things were very different then they are today. During this time there are very clear lines between the white middle class elite and their African American help. As we learn in reading The Help, these lines do not get crossed without very real consequences. The Help follows three different, yet extraordinary, women through their everyday lives during this time: Skeeter is a white woman, just graduating from college, whose mother is disappointed that she has not found a man yet. Growing up she had a maid who, when she returned from school, was no longer employed at her home and no one will speak of what happened to her. Aibileen is an African American maid who is caring and nurturing to the children she is raising for the families that she works for. Aibileen loves and cherishes Mae Mobley, the latest child she is raising, and tries to show her that she is beautiful and how to be anything but the racist women she is fated to become. Minny is a ballsy and spunky African American maid who has had problems in the past with her mouth. She finally is able to secure a position with Celia, who is new in town and doesn't not know of her reputation. These three women come together to make real change happen in Jackson, Mississippi and the reader gets to be a fly on the wall for their courageous and very well written journey.

If you have not read this book, there are some spoilers below in the text and the pictures:

The group as a whole enjoyed the story and loved the characters. One person rated the book 3.5 (due to subject matter not being her thing) but everyone else rated the book 4.5 to 5. Which is the highest ratings yet from the WoWO. We had one person who hadn't finished the book, but she will now that she has heard what we loved about the book. The group was torn on who their favorite character was. We all agree that the three main characters were wonderfully written and we loved them all. Minny is Ballsy and has a lot of Spunk, Aibileen was caring and nurturing and was the one to stick her neck out there and bring everyone together for the book to be a success. Skeeter was a great catalyst for change and shows that not everyone during this time felt the same. Our least favorite characters are pretty easy to guess if you read the book: Hilly being the number one choice, Leroy and Skeeter's mom were close behind in the votes. We all also agreed that Two Slice Hilly deserved what she got in that pie from Minny.

We all believed that if Aibileen stayed working for Elizabeth that there was a good chance Mae Mobley would have grown up to be just like her mother. Racism is taught and no matter what Aibileen tried to instill in her, the chances were slim that she would be different than the others as she grew up.

All of us felt that the setting was wonderfully written and you could picture the places and scenes vividly in your mind. The shifts in point of view gave a good and complete narrative to the places, people and events in the story and the character development was very well done. Several in the group didn't love the ending because they didn't feel they got the closure they needed for some of the characters. We are hoping that this was left open because there is a sequel coming, we would love to have another look into the lives of these women a few years down the road.

Although The Help is fiction, I personally loved how Kathryn Stockett incorporated her real experiences with Demetrie and being from the south into this book. I also loved that the descriptions of the cover of Help, the story the women wrote in the book, being the same as the cover of The Help. These two elements really gave the story an aire of realism and made you feel as if you were reading truth instead of fiction.

Entertainment Weekly mentions that there is a movie in the works for this book and we are excited at the prospect. We will definitely make the WoWO group trip to the movies for this one!

I would like to say a special thank you to Lori, Tricia and Bernice for bringing Minny's Chocolate Custard Pie! For those of you who read the book, you'll love this:

Tricia wouldn't eat it though... Hmmmm... Should we be worried?!?! Tricia hated Hilly enough to probably go as far as Minny did. Don't get on her bad side!

May I present to you the Lovely Sisters of the Mighty WoWO:

Left to Right:

Louise, Tricia, Karen, Peggy, Lori, Faith(Me), Myrta, Linda (w/Miles) and Bernice

Thank you ladies for making this book club such a success!

Also, Thanks to "the Help" from last night, Hector! Thanks for making sure we had our drinks full and food in our bellies! We appreciated all the help ;-)

The WoWO's next book club meeting will be on May 14th and we will be reading The Love Ceiling by Jean Davies Okimoto.

The Help book fits into the following categories/challenges for me:

RYOB Challenge
Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Charms)
New Authors Challenge
PBT Mar Tag: Other

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

2010-03-22T09:58:00.004-04:00

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Dragonflight is book one in the Dragonriders of Pern Series.

I couldn't come up with a synopsis for this without giving away plot lines so here is the synopsis from BN.Com:

After ten long turns, Lessa was ready to come out of hiding, to reclaim her birthright...and to Impress the young dragon queen and become Weyrwoman of Benden.Suddenly the deadly silver Thread once again threatened all Pern with destruction. But the mighty telepathic dragons that for centuries had defended Pern were now few in number, not nearly enough to protect the planet in its hour of greatest peril. So Lessa hatched a daring and dangerous scheme: Rally support from people who had long ago ceased to exist...

I had some trouble with the language/translation of this book, especially in the beginning on the ramp up. The details didn't interest me all that much and I didn't take the time to really focus on the language and the details. If there was something I was unclear about I forged through the text and hoped that it would become clear to me later, sometimes it did and sometimes it didn't. I'm glad I read the book, because it was a good storyline, but I wasn't enthralled with it. I did feel I was rushing through to finish it, and that may be what my main issue was in not getting the details. I was a bit disappointed by the way it felt to end before it should have but then I heard that this was written with a series in mind, so then it makes sense to leave some of the plot line open. Some friends whose judgment I trust liked this story alot more than I did, so I know it probably deserved more deep reading than I gave it. I may come back and re-read this one at some point, naybe it wasn't the right time for me to be reading this one. I will read on in the series if my fellow group members from Fantasy Thriller and Horror want to continue with it as a group, but I probably wouldn't continue it on my own.

This books fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Care of Magical Creatures)
Monthly Mixer Mele (A in April)
New Authors Challenge
PBT March Tag: Other

Raven Stole the Moon Giveaway WINNER!

2010-03-20T13:13:00.003-04:00

RAVEN STOLE THE MOON by Garth Stein WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

The winner was chosen via Random.org based on the number you were in the order of signing up for the challenge:

The numbers assigned were as follows:

1) Annette

2) Strandlezer (Barbara)

3) Nicole (CoyoteMusic)

4) Suzanne

5) Nicole R

6) Annapi

7) WonderBunny

8) Roberta

9) Doy you love to read? (Melissa)

10) Mom2MandJ

11) Punxygal

And without further ado... The winner chosen by Random.org is...................................

#8 ROBERTA

Roberta, I have emailed you privately through your Blogger account for your mailing address. Please email me with your mailing address to Faith_Bookluvr@yahoo.com asap so that I can get the address to Terra Communications and we can get the book out to you ASAP.

Thank you to Sarah at Terra Communications for supplying the book for the giveaway and to all of you who entered to make my first book giveaway a success!

Dust to Dust by Tami Hoag

2010-03-15T09:27:00.003-04:00

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

In the sequel to Ashes to Ashes, A internal affairs cop, Andy Fallon, is found dead with a single message on the mirror, "Sorry." Although it looks like it could be a suicide or accidental death, something just doesn't seem right to Sargent Kovak. Even after the cops sweep this one under the rug as an accidental death, Kovak can't stop diving into the depths of this one. When Andy's father Mike is found dead and it too looks like suicide, until it is found to be a murder staged as suicide, Kovak and his partner Liska know that Andy's death is not what it seems to be and they are determined to find out the truth.

There are alot of characters in this book and most of them are called by nicknames such as Ace, Tink, Kojak, etc. This book seemed very much like a real life detective story to me. It was gritty and interesting, all the characters were well developed and you find yourself suspecting this person or that one until the truth is unveiled. Some very good twists and turns and the gritty cop roles were well done. Some of the cops were a bit over the top with their stereotype, but that's true in life too. Tami Hoag knows how to write a murdery mystery gritty and suspenseful, just what you want in a mystery read. There was an unexpected twist at the end, that gave the book a little extra punch. It would have been ok with or without it, Im not sure which I would prefer actually. Sometimes I need a happy ending and sometimes I don't, this time it was just fine the way it was.

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Hogwarts Challenge - Defence against the Dark Arts (Murder Mystery)
RYOB Challenge
Thriller and Suspense Challenge
PBT March Tag: Other

BOOK GIVEAWAY: Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein

2010-03-12T09:40:00.013-05:00

Welcome to my very first book giveaway!

This GIVEAWAY has ended and the WINNER has been chosen

Congratulations to Roberta!

Thanks to all who entered.

Thanks to Terra Communications for providing me with a review copy of Raven Stole the Moon (read my review here) and now a copy to give away to one of my blog followers!

From the author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein's newly released book Raven Stole the Moon was released this week on HarperCollins and here is your chance to win a copy for yourself.

Here is a synopsis of Raven Stole the Moon from BarnesandNoble.com:

When Jenna Rosen abandons her comfortable Seattle life to return to Wrangell, Alaska, it's a wrenching return to her past. Long ago the home of her Native American grandmother, Wrangell is located near the Thunder Bay resort, where Jenna's young son, Bobby, disappeared two years before. His body was never recovered, and Jenna is determined to lay to rest the aching mystery of his death. But the spectacular town provides little comfort beyond the steady and tender affections of Eddie, a local fisherman. And then whispers of ancient legends begin to suggest a frightening new possibility about Bobby's fate. Soon, Jenna must sift through the beliefs of her ancestors, the Tlingit - who still tell of powerful, menacing forces at work in the Alaskan wilderness. The beliefs are shared by Dr. David Livingstone, a practicing shaman who had been hired to "cleanse" Thunder Bay of its restless spirits. The experience almost cost him his life, and he warns Jenna about the danger of disturbing the legendary kushtaka - soul-stealing predators that stalk a netherworld between land and sea, the living and the dead. But Jenna is desperate for answers, and she appeals to both Livingstone and Eddie to help her sort fact from myth, and face the unthinkable possibilities head-on.

If you are interested in winning a copy of this fabulous book you need to do a few minor things:

Become a follower of my blog (to do this select the Follow button on left of my blog page)
Post a comment to this post stating that you are a follower, wish to be entered in the contest and include your email address so that I can contact for your mailing information when you win.

This contest will run over the next week and end on Saturday March 20th, at noon EST. I will use Random.org to choose the winner from the entries and announce the winner on my blog.

The winner of this giveaway will receive a copy of Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein directly from Terra Comminications via media mail. This contest is only available to those in located in the U.S. and Canada at this time.

Good Luck!

Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein

2010-03-11T08:34:00.013-05:00

**Disclaimer: I received this book compliments of HarperCollins and Terra Communications in exchange for an honest review **

Publish Date: March 2010

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Jenna and Robert had the perfect marriage until tragedy hit them two years ago. Jenna has since had issues getting over the loss of her son, who drowned and his body was never found. On the two year anniversary of the tragedy, Jenna runs away from her husband and life in Seattle to Alaska, the location of her ancestry and of the tragedy that changed their lives forever. Jenna needs this trip to get answers, hopefully this will allow her to heal and move forward with her life. Once in Alaska strange things begin to happen to her and she's lead on a path that once started she is determined to finish, there is no way she will turn back now. Intertwined with this story is the story of Shaman Dr. David Livingston, who almost died trying to rid Thunder Bay - the location of the tragedy, of it's negative powers before the tragedy of her son. Jenna finds David and asks for his help. David warns Jenna of the powerful kushtaka, soul stealers of Tinglit legend, but she is determined to find answers and get closure one way or another.

After reading The Art of Racing in the Rain, I was so excited to read another Garth Stein book. So when I was contacted by Terra Communications to give a review of his newest book, I jumped at the chance. Having nothing but the highest of expectations I dove into the book as soon as I could and I was not disappointed. What I didn't expect was the supernatural element to this story, and this made me enjoy it even more. The Tinglit Indian legend of the kushtaka and Raven were very interesting to read about and the supernatural elements were well written and exciting to read. Jenna's character was so real and believable, I could really relate to her. The only downside to this book was the fact that this book was originally copy written in 1998 and some of the terminology and references were obvious to the 1990's, so it dated the book a little bit. But it wasn't enough to deter me from the fabulous storyline. This was different than anything I've read before and refreshing in it's storyline (even with the 90's references). I really enjoyed the Alaskan setting in this book and the character development. I found the interactions realistic to the situations and even with supernatural elements, it was not over the top as some stories can be. I'm very glad I had the opportunity to read this one and look forward to more from Garth Stein.

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
Hogwarts reading challenge - (Care of Magical Creatures)
RYOB reading Challenge
PBT March Tag: Other

New Challenge: Hogwarts Reading Challenge 2010

2010-03-11T08:02:00.032-05:00

This Challenge is hosted by worthreadingit

The Challenge runs from March 8 2010 to December 13 2010

Directly from worthreadingit's blog:

In the Hogwarts Reading Challenge you are a student of the school. You will be sorted into houses. Each book you read just fit in to the subject of one the classes. You do not have to read books that fit all the subjects. Each book equals one point toward the house cup).
You must read at least 5 books before you are enter in to the drawing. At the end of the Challenge one person will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and one house will win the House Cup (purely a pride thing).
Check back regularly as there will be Mini Challenges. The first Mini Challenge will start on April 2nd. Come back to see what the challenge will be and it's incentive.
To be eligible to win prizes you must have a blog and sign up using Mr. Linky. Then start your own Hogwarts Reading Challenge post and link it back to this post.
****Update you can be eligible for prize if you become a member of I Love Reading Challenges on Shelfari and keep the list of the books you read for this challenge under the Hogwarts Challenge post there.
Click here to go to the Sorting Hat. Please be honest. If there are too many in one particular house you may be place into another. So if the Sorting Hat places you in Sytherin you are Sytherin for duration of this challenge.
Click here to check your individual points and your house points.
Reading a Harry Potter book earns you 25 house points.
Have fun, good luck and Happy Reading!

End of blog post by Worth Reading it. See the worth reading it page for the challenge rules and class descriptions.

The sorting hat put me in HufflePuff! Check back for updates.

Arithmancy - 8th Confession by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Care of Magical Creatures - Raven stole the Moon by Garth Stein
Defence Against the Dark Arts - Dust to Dust by Tami Hoag

Care of Magical Creatures - Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (3/22)

Charms - The Help by Kathryn Stockett (3/25)

Transfiguration - Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (3/30)

Transfiguration - Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (4/7)

Charms - The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks (4/14)

Muggle Studies - Someone to Watch Over Me by Judith McNaught (4/16)

Care of Magical Creatures - Supernatural: Nevermore by Keith R.A. DeCandido (4/17)

Muggle Studies - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (4/22)

Muggle Studies - House Rules by Jodi Picoult (4/25)

Charms - Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (4/28)

Muggle Studies - The Love Ceiling by Jean Davies Okimoto (5/7)

Care of Magical Creatures - Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost (5/23)

Muggle Studies - Midwives by Chris Bohjalian (5/31)

Defense against the dark arts - The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (6/2)

Ancient Ruins - The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (6/5)

Muggle Studies - Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (6/15)

Charms - Wild Heart by Lori Brighton (6/23)

Charms - Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (6/24)

Care of Magical Creatures - The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (6/30)

Muggle Studies - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep by Philip K. Dick (7/7)

Muggle Studies - Plenty by Slisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon (7/12)

Defense against the dark arts - Panic by Jeff Abbott (8/30)

Muggle Studies - The Education of Mrs. Brimley(9/29)

Defense against the dark arts - The Last Child by John Hart (9/30)

Defense against the dark arts - Just One Look by Harlan Coben (9/30)

ARC Received: Forest Gate by Peter Akinti

2010-03-09T07:22:00.005-05:00

I received an Advanced Readers Copy yesterday from Simon and Schuster and Im excited to read this one. This book actually came out in February this year, so if it interests you it is available for sale currently.

Here is the Synopsis from BarnesandNoble.com:

A shattering, poetic and raw first novel set among young Somalian refugees in the slums of London — beginning with a double suicide and ending with a rebirth.

In a community where poverty is kept close and passed from one generation to the next, two teenage boys, best friends, stand on top of twin tower blocks. Facing each other across the abyss of London's urban sprawl, they say their good-byes and jump. One dies. The other, alternating with the sister of the deceased, narrates this novel.

James gives us a window into the inner city — his mom is a crack addict, his gang "brothers" force him to kill another black boy. Meina describes with feeling her family history in Somalia: after her parents are killed before her eyes, her village aunt sells her to six husbands — before she is even a teenager. Desperate to rebuild their lives, James and Meina set out to find the place for which every child longs — home.

Brutal and shockingly violent in places, rambunctious and lively in others and slyly, dryly witty in yet others, Meina and James's journey toward life through their past is ultimately a powerful story of redemptive love and the debut of an extraordinary literary talent.

Check back later for the review!

8th Confession by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

2010-03-08T13:17:00.007-05:00

Rating: 3/5 Stars

A silent killer is on the loose in San Francisco, killing the elite members of society. These deaths look like anything but murder but these people are too healthy to be dying of natural causes. This makes Claire, of the women's murder club, nervous and determined to find the cause of death. In the meantime, the brutal death of one of San Fransisco lowest members of society, the street people, is causing a ruckus because no one seems to care that this man is dead. As a favor to Cindy, who is reporting on the fact that the death of a street person goes unpunished, Lindsay uses her free time to look into this death. Between Cindy and Lindsay's investigations, they start to wonder that maybe this man isn't as wonderful as everyone on the street is making him out to be. As usual, there is a third story intertwined with a trial and Yuki, but it really takes a back burner to the other things happening in the story.

As my first book completed in the month of march, this story seemed a bit fantastical at times, but it was enjoyable to read all the same. All the women in the murder club are present and the women's murder club is mentioned and all the members are present but they didn't really come together to solve a crime as in the past. Some new people are introduced to the group and some side drama occurs with Cindy and Lindsay and Yuki and her new boyfriend. All in all, I am enjoying this series and will continue on. I like all the characters and think the authors do a great job with character development and believability.

I obtained this book from the library in order to read this book for the Finish That Series Challange.

This book fills the following Categories and Challenges for me:

Finish That Series Challenge
Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge
PBT Mar Tag: Other
Monthly Mixer Mele - C in deCember
Hogwarts reading challenge - (Arithmancy)

February Wrap-Up

2010-03-02T07:59:00.006-05:00

As February flies by I find myself wondering where it went!

Here are the books that I read this month (Click on the book titles to read my reviews):

Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline 5/5 Stars Favorite
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson 2/5 Stars
Dear John by Nicholas Sparks 4/5 Stars
Fear by Jeff Abbott (Audio) 4/5 Stars
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 3/5 Stars
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll 2/5 Stars
Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark 3/5 Stars

My Favorite book of the month was by far "Why My Third Husband Will Be A Dog" by Scottoline. If you have not picked up this book yet, you need to do it. It's hilarious.

My least favorite book was tougher to choose because I had trouble with "Through the Looking Glass" by Carroll, but it would probably be Case Histories by Kate Atkinson because it was a longer read and I had such high expectations for it.

*baby, just say yes photo borrowed from ipaintedthskies.deviantart.com

Fall-Winter Mystery Reading Challenge Wrap Up

2010-03-02T07:16:00.002-05:00

I did not finish this challenge as I would have hoped. I only read 3/7 themed books planned.

FALL WINTER MYSTERY CHALLENGE

1 Paranormal or gothic mystery for Halloween - Violets are Blue by James Patterson
2 Autumn/harvest/Thanksgiving related mystery -
2 Winter/snow/Xmas/Hannukah etc related mystery -
1 resolutions/new begininngs related mystery - Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger
1 Romantic mystery/Valentine's related - Pitch Black by Susan Crandall

Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark

2010-02-24T12:25:00.007-05:00

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Best Friends Erin and Darcy have agreed to answer personal adds for a friend who is doing research on the kinds of people who place personal ads. When Darcy is out of town and Erin goes missing, Darcy is determined to figure out what happened to her. Once Erin's body shows up, Darcy decides to, against the police and better judgement, go on dates with the guys who Erin had dated recently. When Darcy turns into the next target, there is no turning back for her.

In classic Mary Higgins Clark style the mystery unveils and you are left uncertain who the killer is until the end. This was a very quick read for me and as usual Mary Higgins Clark throws enough character development into the book that you think you know who the killer is but you really have no idea. You get to know and like the characters and the twists and turns come openly. Her writing always reminds me a bit of Agatha Christie with the way she unveils the killer.

This book fills the following Categories and Challenges for me:

RYOB Challenge
Thriller and Suspense Challenge
PBT Feb Tag: Other
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge

February WoWO Book Club Meeting and Dear John by Nicholas Sparks Review

2010-02-22T10:50:00.013-05:00

For our Second WoWO Book Club Meeting we read and discussed Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Before the book discussion we got together and watched the movie and that was a fun time in itself. Between Tricia's yelling out during the movie what was different in the book and my very first Appletini in a movie theater (Lori corrupting me). We had a really fun time at the movies. Later in this review I'll speak of what we liked and disliked about the movie compared to the book. But for now, I'll stick with the book review first.

Group Rating - Book: 4/5 Stars

Group Rating - Movie: 3/5 Stars

Dear John is the story of John Tyree and two very key relationships in his life. The relationship between him and Savannah, who he meets while home on leave from the Army. They have a whirlwind romance for a few fabulous weeks and then he must go back to Germany, where he is stationed. They write letters and their relationship takes ups and downs as any long distance relationship would. The other key relationship in John's life is the one with his father. John was raised by only his father after his mother left when he was young. They had a relationship that was built around collecting coins and not much else. John couldn't connect with his father on an emotional level and it led to his rebelling and to a strained relationship with his father.

Everyone in the group enjoyed the story. In this one we were split on most parts of the book. A few of the girls wished it would have ended differently but several of us thought that it was a realistic ending. We debated on whether John and Savannah were really in love or in some form of infatuation. I was one of the peope who thought that it was infatuation, especially on Savannah's part. For the most part we felt that without the story of John and Dad there wouldn't be much meat to this story. Sparks did a very good job with the Character development of John and the father. Their relationship was intriguing and touching. As favorite characters go - John received 8 votes and his father received 1 vote.

Some our favorite parts in the book were:

The connection that they had with watching the moon at night.
When John starts to take nightly walks with his father
When John's dad was ill
When Savannah gives John the book
When Savannah explains why she wants John to write instead of emailing or calling.
and for good measure - p.209 ;-)

As for the Movie, there were so many changes that I won't list them all but the ones that stood out as good or bad were:

Tim is the father of Alan instead of the brother - not good
Tim was scruffier and different that expected - not good
John didn't have his tattoo's - not good (I was so looking forward to these!)
Savannah doesn't give John the book - not good (important story line)
The September 11th tragedy was much better felt in the movie than the book - good change
John's father was played by Richard Jenkins - good good good!
I would like to add that Channing Tatum is HOT.. and although I wasn't convinced of him by the previews.. he convinced most of us by the end of the movie.

So, which was better, the Movie or the Book? 7 of us thought the book was better and 2 of us thought the Movie was better. The two that liked the movie better stated that it was mostly for the ending, which was slightly different. I personally liked the book more after seeing the movie, it made me appreciate scenes and developments that occurred in the book that did not happen in the movie.

I'd like to say a special thanks to my co-worker Chris for making the WoWO Logo at the top of the page and to Linda for making these fabulous book markers for all the girls!

Next Up for the Women of Washington Oaks is The Help by Kathryn Stockett on March 24th, so look out for the next post of the WoWO Book Club.

On a personal note Dear John filled the following Categories and Challenges for me:

The Romance Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge
PBT February Tag: Relationships
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
New Authors Challenge

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

2010-02-19T08:41:00.007-05:00

Rating: 2/5 Stars

Three Cases, all being looked into by Private Investigator Jackson Brodie. The book jumps around to be told from different perspectives and this gives an interesting view on the stories.

In the beginning we learn a bit about each of the cases individually and then as the story unfolds you see some overlaps in the story from Jackson's uncovering of the details and meeting with all the clients.

I have been sitting on this review for days because i didn't know what to say about it. I enjoyed the beginning of the book and learning about all the cases but it just fell flat to me. So, this review is more about just stating that I read the book and wasn't wow'd by it. I wish it grabbed me more. I know others who have loved it but it just wasn't for me.

This book fills the following Challenges/Categories for me:

RYOB Challenge

Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge

PBT Tag: Relationships

Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge

New Authors Challenge

Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline

2010-02-14T17:34:00.004-05:00

Rating: 5 Stars - Favorite

I am a fan of Lisa Scottoline's Legal Thrillers, where she writes her women protagonists to be strong, human and real or as she would say "extraordinary ordinary women." Since I am local to Philadelphia, the setting for these books hit close to home as well and it adds an extra special component for me. I have not read them all yet, but I have read several of them out of order and I enjoyed them enough to go back and start from the beginning of the series. Which I'm still in the process of going through and just realized that I will make this series by final series choice for my Finish the Series Challenge this year. But I am off track now... let me get back to why were are here! When I saw the title, "Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog", and I saw that Lisa Scottoline wrote this book there was no way I was leaving without it. Besides the title being entirely fitting to my state of mind, I just knew it would be a worthwhile read.

I did not know that Lisa Scottoline wrote a "Chick Wit" column for The Philadelphia Inquirer. I feel like I missed out when I wasn't subscribing to the paper - had I known I may have subscribed. Which is what this book is composed of, the articles (I believe with additions) from her column. Anxious to dive into the book, I opened it right up and started to gobble down the pages. When I was about 1/3 of the way into the book I realized that I wasn't noting all the things I loved about this book. I felt like I was sitting down and eating the best prime rib I ever ate and I wasn't savoring the taste; I was like a starving animal gorging on the meal without even taking the time to really taste it. So, I started over and savored each article. I have so many pages marked that if I gave you samplings of each one you would have no need to buy the book yourself.. and you should!

I would however like to give you a little sampling of some of my favorite entries. Before I do that let me first say that this book touched me in so many ways. Lisa Scottoline is raw and honest and absolutely hilarious. There were parts when I thought that this woman was absolutely crazy; like when she talks about going out without a bra or the reasons to love hot flashes. However, there were many more times while reading this book when I felt like we were kindred spirits; Like when she talks about how her dog sleeps on her pillow (My baby does the same thing!), being suggestible to everything I see (especially food), UnResolution Number Two (Yes I kiss my dogs on the lips - what of it??), UnResolution Number Seven (Yes I do need all those books overflowing on my shelves) and so many others.. too many to list! I certainly don't feel alone in my craziness anymore - Thank you Lisa! I found myself laughing out loud from so many of her stories, being able to relate. And I also found myself tearing up with some of her more sad stories; like her my estrogen is overflowing and I cry at everything.

Getting Religion was my favorite of the columns but if I quoted from it, it would be the whole column, so that's just one that you'll have to read on your own - but trust me it's worth it. Lets just say when she starts the religion, Sign me up! I'll tithe all day for that one!

These are not anywhere near all the excellent quotes in the book but here are some of my favorites:

From Everything is Nude Again: about Squeezing into Spanx, "From the front, I looked like a Tootsie Roll with Legs. From the back, instead of having a buttocks, I had buttock. In other words, my lower body had been transformed into a cylinder. I no longer had hips where hips are supposed to be, or saddlebags where God intended. I was a cardboard in the roll of toilet paper. And another detail. I couldn't breathe."
From Have It My Way: "I used to think of myself as low maintenance. I used to believe I was easy to please. But now I know better. Starbucks taught me the truth."
From Dream Job: "Its fun to do something dumb. Not something really dumb, like my second marriage. That was really really dumb."

I can't say enough about this book, it was refreshing and fun and I'm very glad I read it, I would recommend it to any woman.

This books fills the following Categories and Challenges for me:

Truth is Stranger than Fiction Reading Challenge 2010
PBT Feb Tag: Relationships
Mostly Books Monthly Theme Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge