Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The King's Rogues – Quest for the Golem by David P. Bailey

I just finished a great little short story by a young, local author.  First I saw a link on the library's Facebook page promoting this book so I followed the link and downloaded it because you know how much I love free books.  Then it turns out I sorta know this guy!  He's the cashier at the store I frequent, this made me even more excited to read this book.  

The King's Rogues - Quest for the Golem is set in medieval times and is the story of not the knights of the round table, but of the secret assassins hired by King Arthur to take care of the less-than-noble quests.  This is an action packed adventure story with goblins and trolls and all sorts of evil.  The main characters are great and the story line flows really well.  I could see the movie or maybe television series playing out in my head as I read.  The ending didn't leave you haning but still left it wide open for this to become a series and I really hope to see more from this writer.

This book is available for everyone to download because it is entered in a short story contest to win $15,000!  Last I heard, David was in 5th place and needs to be in the top 3 to be in the money.  The prize money will help him go on to be a published author and will get us that much closer to another book!  The contest ends on Thanksgiving, but please don't wait.  Go get your copy today even if you don't think you will have time to read it right away.  Although, it sure won't take too long to finish it once you get started.  It a great short read, perfect if you are doing #15in31.  Download!  Read!  Tell me what you think!

Friday, October 23, 2015

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George


I finished the book club book ahead of my normal time!  I'm so excited.  Last month I had to lock myself in the house the weekend before to finish before Monday night's meeting and the month before I didn't finish on time.  This month I finished almost 2 weeks early!  Granted, I was listening to the audio rather than reading it to myself, but I already had enough books started and couldn't afford to add another paper book to the mix.  I have to keep reading so I have things to tell you about, right?

The quote that so many reviews have used from the book is this:

“There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person only…A book is both medic and medicine at once. It makes a diagnosis as well as offering therapy. Putting the right novels to the appropriate ailments: that’s how I sell books.”

What a hook!  And this book didn't disappoint.  I laughed and cried and laughed some more.  I know, cried?!?  I didn't actually cry, but there were a couple places where I thought it might be appropriate to tear up.  My mother says I'm not really human with human emotions and that is why I don't cry in those places.  Meh, at least I knew that other people may have cried, right?  That's close enough for me.

Jean Perdue is a bookseller who's store is a barge moored in the Seine river in Paris.  He calls himself a Literary Apothecary because he can pick the exact right book to heal whatever is ailing your soul.  While he is his out healing all of Paris with his books, though, he is suffering heartache of his own that he hasn't managed to heal in 20 years.  His great love left him but he never opened the letter she sent after.  Jean is finally pushed to open the letter and finds out why she left.  This sets him off on an adventure through the south of France to find the answers that will mend his own soul.

I loved the interesting and somewhat unexpected characters that Monsieur Perdu meets along the way.  It was great how the author worked in his memories of his time with Manon to complete the story and eventually wrap it all up in the end.  I think this book is a good choice for anyone who has a little time to spend with it.  It is a bit of a complicated story, though, and there were a few times that I found that I wasn't paying enough attention while I was at home and had to go back and re-listen to a couple places.  I would recommend you read this when you have time to really sit down and read or listen when you aren't distracted by family or friends or neighbors or whoever else may come in and distract you.   If you get the audio, be aware that the book is based in France and the narrators have French accents.  It took me a little while to get used to it and sometimes I thought the accent was a little too thick for my poor Okie comprehension.  

All in all, I thought this was a pretty good story, even for a love story.  It was a little sappy at times, but not so much that I didn't want to finish it.  Check it out!  Let me know what you think!

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

How to Be a Grown-up by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus


I won an advanced copy of this book in a GoodReads giveaway MONTHS ago.  I've worked on it a chapter here and a chapter there, but because my TBR list is so long, it got shuffled to the back.  Now that I've finished the book, I'm sad it took me so long because I loved it!

Rory McGovern's actor husband loses his job and interest in their marriage.  Hoping this is some sort of phase, Rory is trying to be supportive and give him the space he needs to clear his head and get back on track.  Meanwhile, though, she is a single mom who is forced to take a full time job to support her family.  She finds a job at a "children's lifestyle" site ran by a couple of women in their 20s who have no children or husbands or desire to obtain either.

I ended up reading well over 2/3s of this book as my last book of the Read-a-thon.  I started it in the evening and I was happy to keep reading it until almost five in the morning.  I  highly recommend this to the mom's or the future mom's or the ladies who never plan to be mom's, so basically the ladies will enjoy this one.  Men may like it too, I guess, I don't know what happens in their heads...

Have you read anything by these authors?  What did you think?  Talk to me, I love to hear from you!

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

This was our August Book Club selection, but I didn't finish it in August.  I've been determined and I finally finished it during the Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon.  Julia Roberts starred in the movie and I usually love her.  I had the same problem when I tried to watch it years ago, I just couldn't sit still.  This really isn't unusual for me, though, I'm easily distracted when it's time to sit down and watch a movie.

I wasn't overly impressed with this book.  I liked it well enough and I gave it 3 stars on GoodReads, but I probably won't revisit it in the future.  I purchased it on my Kindle so if you want to borrow it and you know how that sort of thing works, please feel free to contact me.  I'd be happy to lend it and learn how to share my Kindle books.

For the few who aren't familiar with this story, it follows the author's journey to find herself after a messy divorce.  She spends time in Italy, India and Indonesia over the course of a year.  First, she eats her way through Italy, which sounds like a fantastic idea to me,  This was the least interesting section of the book to me and probably why I couldn't get into it.  I felt like she was just whiny for that whole section.  I was ready to call it Whine, Cry, Indulge, but I was determined to finish this book because it was chosen for book club.  Once she moved on to India, things got more interesting and less whiny.  There was one particular character that called her out on her whining and he was great.  I actually started enjoying the book near the end while she was in Indonesia.

This book was a best seller, so many people liked it.  There are lots of reviews out there from people who LOVED it.  It wasn't my cup of tea, but it was a well written book.  The chapters were short and there were several times that I actually laughed out loud.  I would like to give this author another chance.  I think she writes well, I just wasn't interested in this story line.  There is a sequel of sorts called Committed:  A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage.  Since I started enjoying the book by the end, maybe I would like the follow-up.  Do you have a copy of this book I can borrow?      Have you read anything else by Elizabeth Gilbert?  As always, I'd love to hear from you!

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

2015 Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon

I just found out about a 24 hour Read-a-Thon!  I didn't know such a thing existed!  This sounds like the best 24 hours of the year, right?  Thing is, they do it TWICE a year!  Prizes, challenges, cheerleaders, and a huge community of readers! Join me on this post this Saturday, October 17 for updates on how I'm doing and what I have read.  Check it out for yourself and join me!

I've been reading some of the veteran's blog posts and they suggest reading shorter books rather than trying to tackle something large.  What are your favorite quick reads?  I'd love to hear from you!

How would you prepare for a Read-a-Thon?



October 18, 2015

2:00 pm:  I'm awake, It's time to get back to the real world.  Somewhere between my update at hour 20 and when I was going to update at hour 22, blogger seems to have lost ALL my updates except fot the very beginning.  At 5:00 am when I first saw this, I didn't have the brain capacity to think about it and I went to bed.  Now that it's morning (well, afternoon) and I've had some rest, I'm pretty upset about this.  I have no idea how to reset this back to a previous time or recover my updates, but let me summarize.

Books I finished:  Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert; How to Be  Grown-up by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus; and a Sesame Street book that I read to the Macnado before he went to bed.

My final book of the night/early morning

 Got a visit from this little bookworm

 Macnado bedtime stories
I finished more ebooks than paper so I didn't make much of a dent in this pile

This was my entry for my #diversityshelfie challenge

I'll probably stay pretty upset that blogger erased most of my entries from the day, but there isn't much I can do about it.  I'm so glad that I was able to participate in this event and I look forward to the next one.  A big thank you to the staff at www.24hourreadathon.com for putting this together and to all the cheerleaders and volunteers who help make it happen.  I've added some new blogs to my blog roll and I look forward to making new friends with so many of you!

October 17, 2015

7:00 am:  Good morning ladies and gents!  It's that time!  Today is the day!  It's hour 1!  My family doesn't believe I'm going to even start this because it starts so early on a Saturday.  I gotta say, I'm glad it's something I can do in my nice warm bed with a cup of joe.  This Curl is running a 10k this morning.    I'm cold in my bedroom with the windows open, I sure don't want to go outside before the sun wakes up!  I think I'll finish Alice in Wonderland first this morning.  It's one of my faves and I'm about 2/3s of the way through it.

I wasn't up early enough for a pre-party, but this is from the site:


1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?  Oklahoma, USA
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?  Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion or maybe a classic I've had on my list for years
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Peeled a ton of pomegranate last night, healthy, yummy snack. 
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!  Read the rest of the posts from my blog, you'll see how random I can be.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?  First one and I'm looking forward to finishing books that I have had on my list for a while.

Link up and go cheer someone on!


8:30 am - I really don't plan to update hourly, but I did want to fill you in on my reading so far.  I've finished Alice in Wonderland.  I hadn't read this book in YEARS, but it's still one of my favorites.  I think Wonderland is as silly as my own brain is sometimes.  I love so many of the characters that Carroll created.  Through the Looking Glass is on my TBR list for later today.  I want to finish most of the books that I have started today so I'm going to work on Eat, Pray, Love next.  This was the book club selection for August and I'm still not finished.  It's an okay book, but I don't love it so it's taking me much longer to finish than it should.  I'm determined, and I'm almost finished, so I'll see you here when it's done!



Friday, October 2, 2015

In the Beginning

I have  tried to read Genesis a handful of times over the years and always manage to get distracted with all the so-in-so begat so-in-sos. I finally finished the entire book recently and once you can get past the genealogy, it's full of great stories!

Today I want to talk Adam and Eve. First God makes the Heaven and Earth and fills it with creatures and plants and all the  good things. Then he creates Adam and puts him smack dab in the middle of the most beautiful place and gives him authority over everything. He tells Adam, don't eat from that one tree over in the middle, it's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and if you eat it, you will die.  He tells Adam he can eat from ANY of the other trees, including the tree of life that's planted right next to the tree of knowledge.  Then He presents all the animals to  Adam.  Adam checked them all out, gave them all names, but didn't really find one he wanted to hang out with all the time. God put Adam to sleep, took a rib and created woman. He gave her to Adam and this made him happy.  

Life. Was. Good.

It's summertime and the livin's easy. ...oh, sorry, I'll spare you my singing!

Adam and Eve are naked, frolicking in the most beautiful garden that God had made for them. They get to walk and talk with God when He comes down to hang out and check on things in the cool of the day. How stinkin' cool would this life be?

Then it happens.  The Fall.

Eve is just chillin' in the garden and the slithery serpent comes along.  He says "Hey girl!  Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees?"

Eve:  "No silly.  We can eat from any of the trees except this one.  If we touch it, we'll die."

Now, did that little lie come up like a game of telephone?  Say it enough times and eventually the story gets bigger?  I guess we don't really know, but the serpent gets in there and plants his doubt.

Serpent:  "Noooo. You won't die.  God just doesn't want you to know all the things He knows so He doesn't want you to eat that fruit."

What'd she do?  She ate the dang fruit and then fed it to her husband.  Ol' Adam didn't fight her on it either.  The tree of life and the tree of well, death essentially, were right next to each other and Eve went for the serpents tricks and chose death.

You know the rest.  They get kicked out of Eden, it hurts for us ladies to have babies and we have to work for our food.  We can blame Eve all we want, but really, would you have been any stronger?  She probably didn't actually believe that anything bad would happen, after all nothing bad had ever happened at that point.  God gave us all free will and from the beginning He made sure we had the ability to express it.  This is what makes us human.  Besides, if Adam and Eve hadn't have got kicked out of Eden, the bible would be a much shorter and maybe less interesting book and we know how much I like books!

It's not too late, I just got started!  Read along with me and chime in.  I'd love to hear from you.

Before I go:


Ha! Sorry guys, couldn't help myself!