Always Me

I've been so busy that I haven't been able to read as much as I would like to for this readathon.  I'm still on Lockdown  by Alexander Gordon Smith... sigh.  Hopefully, I can change that before this readathon ends! Today's challenge is the Spell It Out Challenge.  You can learn more about it here . Oct 28--Spell it out Challenge--pick one of the following words: Ghost, Witch, Zombie, or Howl --using each letter, find a title of a book they've read this year to "spell it out."  FOR EXAMPLE G  Graceling by Kristin Cashore H  Hollow City by Ransom Riggs O Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz S  Sanctum by Sarah Fine T  Timebound by Rysa Walker Here's mine:  H     H alf Bad by Sally Green O    O ath of Servitude by C. E. Wilson W   W e Were Liars by E. Lockhart L   L ast Call by Tim Powers    Cool!  What were some of your choices?  Hopefully you've made it a lo...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Olive and her mathematician parents move into a big old Victorian house. The house is very odd, particularly the antique paintings covering the walls. Then, when Olive finds an old pair of glasses things start to get really weird. She discovers that while wearing the glasses she can step through the frame and travel into Elsewhere, the world of the paintings. Olive and Morton, a boy from a painting, form an uneasy alliance and find themselves facing a dark and dangerous power that wants to get rid of Olive for good. Can Olive save her new home and Elsewhere from the shadows before it's too late? It's easy to get lost in the imaginative world and characters West has created. There is just the right amount of scariness for the age group. The pacing is great and there are just the right amount of twists and reveals to really keep me hooked, wanting to know more. I loved the personality of the cast. Olive is relatable and well-drawn and the c...

❋  ❋  ❋ Audrey is co-owner and florist of the Rose In Bloom in the small-town of Ramble, Virginia. She specializes in bridal bouquets where she is able to put her knowledge of Victorian flower meanings to work. None of the couples she has worked with have split up, that is until the groom of her current client turns up dead, and the bride is the prime suspect. Jenny, the bride-to-be, was one of Audrey's closest friends when they were growing up until Jenny kicked her to the curb for different set of friends, but Jenny and her mother come to Audrey to design the floral arrangements for the wedding. Audrey's of the opinion that the flowers they want in the bouquet wouldn't make a good combination in regards to flower meanings, but nevertheless she agrees to work with them. Jenny's groom-to-be is Derek Rawling, Ramble's rich playboy (think George Clooney circa O Brother, Where Art Thou ) and it's very strange for Audrey to consider that her friend someho...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Michael is a skilled gamer. Like most, he spends more of his time in the VirtNet than he does in the Wake (the real world). The VirtNet offers full body and mind immersion and you can play and experience as many games and worlds as money can buy without having to worry about death. The better you are at hacking makes things all the more fun. Recent reports claim that a gamer is going beyond what anyone else has done and is holding gamers hostage in the VirtNet. The effects are terrible because all the hostage have been brain-dead once they return to the wake. No one knows this terrorist's motive. VirtNet Security knows they'll need a top-of-the-line hacker to catch their criminal, so they recruit Michael. Michael will have to go off the VirtNet grid, if he accepts the VNS mission and go places he never thought possible. I loved delving into Dashner's new world(s) as presented in this book. I enjoy a nice cyberpunk story, and this is prett...

I have been tagged by Ellen @ Random Smiles to participate in the Opposite Book Tag.  Thanks Ellen! First book in your collection / Last book you bought The first that I can remember getting is Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky from a family member. Most recently I picked up The Music of the Spheres by Elizabeth Redfern   from my local Goodwill. A cheap book / An expensive book The first could be pretty much any paperback I've picked up at Goodwill - so how about Sound Bender by Lin Oliver and Theo Baker .  It would have been something like 53 cents... A lot of my college textbooks could fit this category.  One of the most expensive was History of Japanese Art by Penelope Mason , it was nearly $100 but it was worth it! A book with a male protagonist / A book with a female protagonist The Eye of Minds  by James Dashner (I prefer this to The Maze Runner , I believe.) The Shadows  by Jacqueline West  - My most recent re...

I can't believe it's Tuesday already, but anyway that means I'm participating in Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish .  This week there are three options: books and/or movies to get into the Halloween spirit and/or characters to dress up for as Halloween.  I opted to come up with a list of movies that are perfect to watch during this time of the year!  Here they are: 1408 - One of my recent favorite Stephen King adaptations! The Addams Family/ Addams Family Values - Who doesn't love this?! (I listed these two as one because I have the dvd which includes both movies.) Beetlejuice  - I've always enjoyed the Ghost with the Most, and you can't go wrong with Tim Burton and Danny Elfman! The Conjuring - Most recent favorite horror movie! Edward Scissorhands - Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, Johnny Depp, and Vincent Price - count me in! Hocus Pocus - You can't go wrong with this! House of Wax - I easily could ha...

❋  ❋  ❋ I received a free ecopy of The Sham from the author in exchange for an honest review. Emily would love to leave her town, called The Sham by locals, with her mysterious new boyfriend named Jack. However, Jack is very sick and he seems to shutting down, both physically and mentally. He is also on the run and under suspicion of murder. Lately, both have noticed mysterious graffiti all over town written in a dialect no one has spoken in over 100 years and some of Emily's classmates have gone missing and turned up dead. And Jack, for a variety of reasons, is high on the suspect list. Emily really wants to trust Jack, even though the whole town is warning her away from him. Who can she really trust, what really happened to those girls, and who exactly is Jack? Fair warning right from the beginning: This story is not for the faint of heart or squeamish. It's definitely for older teens. I was very intrigued by this story and I read through it pretty quic...

Today is the first day of the #ReadingCram as hosted by  Jenny @  JuliaBabyJen's Reading Room , Rachel @  A Perfection Called Books , and  Little Red Reader  and it runs until Halloween.  In order to participate one  has to read Paranormal, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Zombies, Werewolves, Vampires, and Witches themed books. To kick off I'm starting with Lockdown: Escape from Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith . Others on my TBR for this readathon are: Nightmares!  by Jason Segel and Kristen Miller The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda Hot Blooded by Amanda Carlson The Space Between  by Brenna Yovanoff Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore Dead Witch Walking  by Kim Harrison Downfall  by Rob Thurman Handling the Undead  by John Ajvide Lindqvist I know I won't be able to read through all of these in the coming week, but in a perfect world I would love to finish these books in time for Halloween!...

Welcome to The Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by  Freda's Voice . These are the rules: 1. Grab a book, any book. 2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. 3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. 4. Post it. 5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. Since I'm participating in the #ReadingCram Chills and Thrills Readathon (starting today), I'll use my first read for it! I took an involuntary step back but stopped dead when the dogs started growling.

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I lucked out when I stumbled upon Enchanted by Alethea Kontis on audiobook at my local library! Sunday Woodcutter is the youngest daughter in her family where all of the girls are named for the days of the week (you know the rhyme).  Sunday is also the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter.  One of the only things she enjoys is writing stories, but even there she has to be careful because what she writes often comes true.  One day, Sunday becomes fast friends with a frog when he asks about her stories.  When she kisses him goodbye and goes home, she doesn't realize that he transforms back into a human.  He's actually Rumbold, Prince of Arilland, a man who is despised by Sunday and her family. When Rumbold returns to the castle, he plans to make Sunday fall in love with the man he is now.  How can she fall in love with a man she has hated ever since her brother died, a man she hardly knows and doesn't really want to know....

It's Tuesday and that means I'm participating in Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish .  The theme this week is New Series I Want To Start.  For me this list could be very long and exhaustive, but I'll try to narrow it down to ten! Sabriel by Garth Nix The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau  Timebound by Rysa Walker  Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis  Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick Generation V by M.L. Brennan Whew! That wasn't so difficult!  I know some of them are a bit older, but I just found them.  They're new to me!  What do you think of my list?  Do we share any series?