Always Me

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  Jesse Bradford left a poor situation at home in North Carolina at the age of 15 to make his own way in the world. Even though he faced many obstacles on a daily basis, he was still able to make something of his life that he wouldn't have had the opportunity to even consider before. A combination of hard work, determination, and perseverance has allowed him to live out a dream. A friend of mine recommended The Boy Who Refused to Say, "I Can't!" My Journey. My Dreams. by Jesse L. Bradford and she even let me borrow her copy. Mr. Bradford's story is an incredibly powerful read and it's also very inspirational to follow his journey through life. The story telling employed here conversational - I can practically hear Jesse speaking these words aloud while I read them. The only reason I'm giving this memoir four stars is because there are a few typos that took me out of the story, and it does jump about a little (but that may have

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ The past year has been hard for Abbey Force and her father. Her father was framed for a crime he didn't commit after he had an accident and ended up in a coma. To pay off debts, their home, Reward Plantation, was sold off and now Abbey has to live with her Uncle Charlie and Aunt Ruth. To say the least, both are despicably poor parental figures. The new family that's moved into Reward has a daughter named Bee right around Abbey's age, and she is just as curious about the no trespassing signs and holes down by Felony Bay, an area that should be part of the plantation, as Abbey is. It appears that someone has been investigating a mystery that goes all the way back to the Civil War, and it looks like it might be the same person that framed Abbey's dad. The Girl from Felony Bay by J. E. Thompson was a very lucky find at a local thrift shop. I hadn't heard of it before, but the summary was intriguing, it was in perfect condition, and signed by

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Georgie McCool's (and yes, that is her real name) marriage has been troubled for quite awhile now. Both she and her husband, Neal, still love each other deeply, but that's beside the point. Just before they're due to leave L.A. to visit Neal's family in Omaha, Georgie realizes she can't go. Georgie is a tv writer and learns at the last minute that she'll have to work over Christmas. She expects Neal and their daughters to be upset, but she doesn't expect him and the girls to go to Omaha without her. Now she wonders if she's really done it, if the marriage is over. Georgie tries to call Neal's cell, but he's not answering. Later, when Georgie visits her family in L.A., she uses her old yellow landline to call Neal's parents' home phone in hopes someone will pick up. She is able to get a hold of Neal, but something's different about him. He's not her Neal, not yet. She's realizes she's talking t

❋  ❋  ❋ During their junior year, the winsome threesome (zoegirl, mad maddie, and SnowAngel) face more challenges that threaten to drive them apart such as first boyfriends, drugs, and a cross country move. Just as ttyl , ttfn is told completely in IM format making it something like a modern epistolary novel, I suppose. The language feels very authentic to the characters and target audience (especially if this were 2006). The characters do face real issues, but here they tend to come off as cliché. The characters are pretty obnoxious and annoying, but at the same time, they still seem like real high school girls (I swear, I knew people just like them). Although the format is refreshing - and a little jarring at first - and the story goes very quickly, it is a bit dated now. It makes me feel old and I would have been high school junior when this was originally released. There are of references to A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray, a movie I'

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. This week I am spotlighting Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow .  It was recommended to me as a read alike for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural .  When I realized my local library had a hardback copy, I thought I'd pick it up - I just can't say no to Buffy and Sam and Dean.  I'm just about to begin, so let's hope it lives up to its potential!  I'm not sure about this cover though... "How much?" I had some money - usually there was no shortage of cash where Dad was concerned; liquid resources were critical to our type of lifestyle.  But if Dad was really, truly gone, I had to take careful stock of what I had a

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ John Percival Hackworth has just broken a strict moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians. He's illegally copied a top-of-the-line interactive device called A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (think Kindle on steroids) for his daughter, which was originally intended for the granddaughter of a duke. The Primer is to educate (and essentially raise) a girl so she will be able to stand on her own two feet. Unfortunately, Hackworth's illegal copy gets stolen and ends up in the wrong hands. After leaving his tribe, he looks for a mysterious figure called the Alchemist. This leads Hackworth to a woman who is also tied to the Primer - a woman who could potentially change humanity as we know it. Now I know this summary makes the book sound like it's all about Hackworth, but it's not. This is just a very good way to set up a major story line in this book. The story is primarily about Nell, the little girl who ends up using the illegal copy

The theme for this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish , is Books I'd Love To Read With My Book Club.  This is a pretty easy one for me.  So far, the book club I participate in has mostly read cozy mysteries, historical fiction, and romance - not usually my cup of tea.  I haven't yet picked the book for the month, but here are some fantastic titles I'm really looking forward to that I would suggest to shake things up and get some of the others to read out of their comfort zone. The Martian  by Andy Weir Red Rising by Pierce Brown The Walled City  by Ryan Graudin Revival by Stephen King Timebound by Rysa Walker Ready Player One by Ernest Cline The Rook  by Daniel O'Malley Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers Empire State by Adam Christopher Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett I'd say this sounds like a pretty compelling list!  When we vote on our next reads, I'm hoping

Like I've said before, I love a good giveaway - free books are the best - so I've decided to host my second book giveaway! This time I'm giving away four ARC's to two lucky winners (each winner will receive two titles of their choice - In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters (April 2013), Fan Art by Sarah Tregay (June 2014), Undertown by Melvin Jules Bukiet (March 2013), and Noughties by Ben Masters (October 2012). The giveaway begins now and expires at 12 A.M., Saturday, January 31st!  Get your entries in now to win some of these awesome free books! a Rafflecopter giveaway

❋  ❋ Harper Blaine's a regular P.I. up until an attack left her dead for two minutes. When she comes to in the hospital, she sees what can be best described as coming from a gray fog. She's not crazy. Her momentary death has made her a Greywalker - she's able to see and move around in the Grey (a ghostly world). Her incredibly rare gift is going to pull her into the supernatural world, whether she wants to be or not. I've had Greywalker on my shelf for a while, so when I finally picked it up I really wanted to like it. The premise sounds pretty interesting and I've always liked a good urban-fantasy novel. I also really like Christian McGrath's cover art style . The opening is super intense and promising, but afterward it just really drags. I struggled to get through the seventy pages I did. Maybe I'll come back to this series in the future, but then again, I may not. I attempted this from January 14 - 23, 2015 and my review is also on Goodre

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. This week I'm spotlighting Rainbow Rowell's newest novel Landline .  I was so happy when this finally came back in for me at the library!  The only other novel I've read by Rowell is Fangirl  and I was pretty impressed by it.  Let's hope this is just as good! Georgie wrote the horoscopes. (In character, sort of.  It was hard to explain.)  Neal knew  she wrote the horoscopes.  He knew her name.  His hands were small, and they moved with complete surety across the paper, leaving a thick, straight line.

❋  ❋ Nick and Alex are titled members of the German aristocracy and have been best friends since childhood as they have grown into men with families of their own. They are accustomed to lives of luxury on their Bavarian estates. Everything Nick knows changes after the Nuremberg Laws are passed and as Hitler's ideals take greater sway over the German people. A secret that his father has kept from him his entire life forces him to take his sons and flee to America to save themselves from labor camps. To get there, he takes a job with the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus based in Sarasota, Florida with a horse act. Alex generously allows Nick to take some of his famous Lipizzaner and Arabian horses and teaches him the basics of training them for show. Eventually, under the name Nick Bing, Nick and his star Lipizzaner, Pegasus, become a star attraction at the circus. Nick also finds love with a tight-rope walker named Christianna who is half his age. Pegasus is

This week the theme for Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish , is a freebie, so I decided to take the opportunity to talk about something a little different - my favorite music.  In this case, I will be spotlighting ten of my favorite artists and some of their best (in my opinion) tracks.  They won't all necessarily be new, or all that well known, but they definitely deserve to be heard if you haven't given them a listen already.  Here they are in alphabetical order: Bastille - Pompeii - Bad Blood - Flaws Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - New San Antonio Rose - Roly-Poly - Steel Guitar Rag - Time Changes Everything Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue - Every Day - Words of Love Fall Out Boy - Dance, Dance - A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me - 20 Dollar Nose Bleed -Dead On Arrival Florence + the Machine - Dog Days Are Over - Shake It Out - Seven Devils - Heartlines

❋ I attempted to read an ARC of Noughties that I picked up at a local thrift shop. I wanted to try this book because the premise sounds relatively interesting, but I gave up after about 30 pages. The story felt like it went nowhere at all. It was also difficult to make sense of what little story we got during Eliot's drunken ruminations on what to do after college. No, just no. I attempted to get into this ARC on January 14, 2015 and my review is also on Goodreads .

❋ I read an ARC copy I found at my local bookstore. I gave it one chapter before I gave up. I didn't particularly care for the tone of this novel at all. It's disconcerting to have a thirteen-year-old leading what initially comes across as an innocent middle-grade adventure novel who actually sounds like he may grow up to be Patrick Bateman from American Pyscho . I gave Undertown a shot, but it just wasn't for me. I gave this ARC a shot on January 14, 2015 and my review is also on Goodreads .

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I read an ARC edition picked up from a used book sale. Rounded up from 3.5 stars. Jamie, a senior in high school, has a problem. He's fallen for his best friend, Mason. He knows that if he were to reveal his feelings, chances are very high that the whole situation would end in heartbreak. Also, he hasn't come out to anyone at school yet, only his mom, but it seems like a lot of the girls in art class have already figured it out and want to help set them up. Jamie's worried that when he does come out to Mason that it will ruin their great friendship, and Jamie isn't willing to risk everything. Jamie is also involved in the Gumshoe, the school magazine, and there's a graphic short that features material some worry may cause controversy. If Jamie wants the submission to appear, he's going to have to stand up and fight for what he believes in before it's too late. Overall, I enjoyed the plot and found the characters to be quite relatable

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. This week I am spotlighting Pegasus  by Danielle Steel .  This will be my second book by this author, the first being Echoes , which I actually enjoyed more than I expected, although my bar was set incredibly low.  I didn't really expect to come back to this author - just not my style - but a book club I'm in has selected this book for our next meeting.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the white stallion named Pegasus will not be capable of flight.  At least I have the Ringling Brothers Circus, if nothing more, to look forward to in this new novel. "I met your little boy today, she said, when they stopped outside her door. "H

Happy Top Ten Tuesday, everyone!  This weekly meme is hosted by The Broke and The Booksish and this week's theme is 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To.  Here we go: Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen A Thousand Pieces of You  by  Claudia Gray Snow Like Ashes  by Sara Raasch The Murder Complex  by Lindsay Cummings The Shadow Throne  by Jennifer A. Nielsen City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett What do you think of my list?  Do we share any titles?