Always Me

Thanks very much to Brittany @ Space Between the Spines  for nominating me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award!  This is my fourth nomination for this award since I started blogging in August - Wow!  Go check out her blog - it's fantastic! Since I've done this before I'm just going to answer the questions she's set for me.  Here we go: 1.) What book are you looking forward to the most in 2015? Winter by Marissa Meyer.  A close second would be Half Wild  by Sally Green.  2.) If your favorite female character were a Disney princess, who would they be?  Hermione Granger would be Belle from Beauty and the Beast!  Katniss Everdeen may be Pocahontas... 3.) A song that describes your love life?  "Single" by Natasha Bedingfield 4.) What's your favorite ship in your favorite series?  I don't really go in for this shipping business, but do like the relationship between Jem and Tessa from The Infernal Devices ...

❋  ❋  ❋ I won a copy of this through the Goodreads First Reads Program. If Timothy Hayfield knew what kinds of secrets his grandmother, Mattie, had been keeping from him, and the danger and adventure waiting for him during what he thought was going to be a regular summer vacation in Mayfield, then he might have stayed behind. Who knew what kind of decisions could lead to adventures in the unknown parts of his family's estate. He quickly learns that worlds, kings, and battles hang in the balance if only he wishes it, as a Prince of Earth. This enchanting middle-grade fairy tale would be perfect for young readers. The premise behind the story is so cool and fascinating. It's really a lot of fun to be immersed in these worlds. Book two definitely relies on the reader already being familiar with the story of the first book, so I really recommended that you read In The Window Room first. Like I said of the first book, I'll say for this too. I really wish the ...

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. Here are the words that Matilde, the Queen of Earth, spoke that night.  And she began, pouring each of her guests a cup of tea. "Your grandfather simply loved the harvest festivals near Bearu... and the kingdom was at peace.  We had no cause for concern, when traveling alone to the annual festivals, without royal guards." [From page 56 of my current read.]

Thanks to Brittany @ Space Between The Spines for tagging me for the Christmas Carol Book Tag!  For this tag I will be answering questions inspired by famous Christmas songs.  Sounds like fun to me! 1. You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Name a villainous character you can't help but love to hate. Like Brittany, I'm going to have to go with Dolores Umbridge.  I think I wanted her gone more than You-Know-Who himself! I also love to hate Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime, from Sherlock Holmes .  Who doesn't love to hate Sherlock's criminally inclined mental equal? 2. All I Want For Christmas Is You  - What book do you most want to find under your Christmas tree this year? I can only pick one?  If that's the case, I would love to get Blue Lily, Lily  Blue  by Maggie Stiefvater.  I've really enjoyed the previous books in this series and I can't wait to continue it! A close second would be Jackaby by William Ritter.  It sounds lik...

❋ Britt Pheiffer and her friend Korbie are going to backpack the Teton Range. She's not sure what to think when her ex-boyfriend, Calvin, Korbie's brother, is supposed to go along with them. Before they can meet up with him at the family cabin out in the middle of nowhere, there is a freak blizzard forcing the two girls to stop their Jeep on the road and walk to an unknown and remote cabin to seek shelter. Britt and Korbie accept the hospitality of the two handsome strangers, who happen to be fugitives on the run. Of course, the two criminals take them hostage and want Britt to guide them off the mountain. Throw in a lot extremely poor decision making, Stockholm Syndrome, rampant stupidity, a love triangle, a series of horrific murders, an ex with a serious power complex, and you've got a bad, highly predictable made-for-tv horror movie that makes you want to poke your eyes out. For the life of me, I cannot understand how this book has such a high average rating...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  Tony Chu is a detective with a weird secret. A very weird secret. He's Cibopathic which means he can get psychic impressions from what he eats. That makes him a darn good detective, if he doesn't mind chewing on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out what happened. He's now been brought on to the FDA's Special Crimes Division to investigate their most bizarre cases. This original comic is fantastic! The sense of humor is right up my alley and the writing is clever. I also really enjoyed the style of the artwork which really fits the tone of the story. If you like Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead , you'll want to read Chew ! I read this from November 23 - 24, 2014 and my review is also on Goodreads .

❋  ❋ In the summer of 1944, Marlene is excited when her glamorous cousin, Eva Braun invites her to come to Hitler's Bavarian mountain retreat, Berghof. The Berg is a strange sort of paradise, a world of opulence and imminent danger, of freedom and surveillance. Delighted by her cousin's attention, Marlene tries to understand the connection between Eva and Adolph Hitler. In her own way, Marlene begins to quietly rebel by listening to the BBC, which is forbidden by the Fuhrer. An act of mercy toward a slave laborer forces her to question her allegiance to her cousin and country—and to face the reality of Hitler's Third Reich. I enjoyed the historical aspect of this novelized portrait of Eva Braun. Unfortunately, it took far too long to actually hook me and get me interested in the story. I mean, the concept is very interesting in that Marlene is based on Eva's real cousin named Gertrude and her actual experiences. That should have been enough to do it right th...

It's already Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish , and this week the theme is Books On My Winter TBR.  The books I am including on my list are those I've won recently in various giveaways that I'm going to have to read.  Here they are in no particular order: The Silent Deal by Levi Stack Not A Drop To Drink  by Mindy McGinnis Wormholes by Dennis Meredith Wisconsin Vamp by Scott Burtness The Circuit: Executor Rising by Rhett C. Bruno Spritzerville,...Ohio  by Jason R. Koivu Contagious by Scott Sigler A Prince of Earth  by Steven J. Carroll The War of the Sidhe: Dawn Arising  by Annalise Joseph Sullivan Resist by Anne-Rae Vasquez

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Before work yesterday, I had the opportunity to see   The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1  at the movie theater so I jumped at the chance!  My local small town movie theater actually had it in three of their seven theaters.  Based on how many were there when the first two movies were released, I wasn't all that surprised to see that at all.  I went to see the first showing at noon, the doors open half an hour before the first movie starts, and there were already people waiting in their cars for the doors to be unlocked.  Good thing we got their early!   By the way, in this review I will figure in all aspects of the movie experience when I rate it.  The first strike against them was that the server was down at the box office so unfortunately I couldn't use my gift card to purchase my ticket or my popcorn.  Luckily, we were the third group to enter the theater, so we were able to get really good seats. ...

Wow!! I've been nominated for the Liebster Award for the fifth time by Victoria @ Addlepates and Book Nerds!  Go check out her  blog ! Since I've done this before, I'm going to do this just like I did before and simply answer the questions set to me.  So here we go: 1. What is the most recent thing you read? Eva's Cousin by Sibylle Knauss - for a book club 2. What book do you always go to when you need to feel better? Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling 3. Ebooks or real books? Real books! 4. What one character would you like to bring to life? Hermione Granger 5. What got you into the world of blogging? In college, we needed to keep up with them in class and also create our own.  Just a few months ago, I finally decided to make my own new personal blog. 6. What trait do you really hate in book characters? Stupidity - I like my characters to be at least a little bit clever. 7. What makes you decide to choose a book? So many fact...

I have been nominated by Tia at Read it Write now for my third Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award!  Thanks very much Tia!  Go check out her fantastic blog! Rules: 1. Thank the blogger that nominated you and link back to their site 2. Post the award's logo on your blog 3. Answer the 10 questions you've been asked 4. Nominate 10 other bloggers and ask them 10 new questions Since I've already done this award, I believe I'll just answer the questions asked by Tia instead. My answers:  1. What is your favorite song(s) (and yes I'm just looking for recs xD) Anything by Kate Rusby, Vance Joy, Hozier, Fall Out Boy, Panic[!] at the Disco, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Bob Wills,  and Della Mae. 2. How many books on average do you read a month? I aim for six, but sometimes I read several more than that. 3. What is the one book you absolutely cannot live without? The  Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. 4. Ninjas break into your house and plan...

I've been nominated for the fourth time for The Liebster Award! Wow!  My thanks go to Diving Under the Cover .  Go check out her fantastic blog! Since I've done this before, I believe this time around I'm just going to answer the eleven questions my nominator has asked of me,  rather than nominating others and asking them questions of their own. Here we go: 1. Who is your favorite author? There are so many authors I love reading, but my favorite is J. K. Rowling.   Always.   She practically created my childhood..   2. What is your favorite thing about blogging? My favorite thing is talking about the books I love and having conversations with people I normally wouldn't have the chance to speak with.   3. What is your least favorite book or series that you have finished? One of the books that I have not enjoyed is Shatter Me  by Tahereh.  I do not get the appeal.  Check out my review here  if you want to know more a...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Darcy Patel has put everything on hold to publish her YA Paranormal Romance novel, including college (Oberlin!). She's even moved to New York City to be better connected to the publishing world and work on her writing. She has no friends in New York, but she is quickly able to befriend a group YA writers, some that have been around the block a few times and others who are just getting started. Lizzie, the leading character of Darcy's novel called Afterworlds, becomes a psychopomp/ reaper/ Valkyrie, after she survives a terrorist attack at an airport. As a pomp, she realizes she can see ghosts and travel to the Afterworld, aka the Flip Side. She realizes that she has been haunted for a very long time in the form of a little girl. The little girl, Mindy, was her mother's best friend who died a horrific death 30 years ago. Oh, and she meets another psychopomp called Yama and his ghostly sister Yami. Psychopomps lead the dead to the place the...

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. From page 56 of my current book club read : Everything about her seemed like a false claim that could be upheld for only a limited amount of time. That was how I found Eva when I arrived in Berchtesgaden on the fifteenth of July 1944.

Welcome to the Bedtime Book Tag!  I tagged myself from Juliababyjen's video because it sounds like a lot of fun!  I'm not going to tag anyone for this, but if you want to take part do feel free to go right ahead.  Without further ado, here we go! 1. Book that kept you up all night reading. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - This was incredibly addicting right from the start and I didn't want to put it down! 2. Book that made you scared to go to sleep. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - I wouldn't exactly call it scary, but it sure is spine tinglingly creepy! 3. Book that made you go to sleep.   The French Connection  by Robin Moore - Let me say this first, I love the movie and it's so exciting, but the non-fiction account of the real-life events behind the story was so dry.  It bored me to tears. 4. Book that left you tossing and turning all night in anticipation of its release. I'm going to go with Jenny's...

I can't believe it's already Tuesday, but that means it's Top Ten Tuesday again.  Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish .  The theme this week is a good one - sequels I can't wait to get.  Here they are in no particular order: The Mime Order Samantha Shannon This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen Half Wild by Sally Green Winter by Marissa Meyer Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater Burning Nation by Trent Reedy Rebel Heart by Moira Young Unbound by Jim C. Hines What do you think of my list? Do we love for the same series? Until next Tuesday, then.