Always Me

Welcome back to the April edition of Starting Sparks, a monthly writing link-up hosted by  Emily @ Ink, Inc.  and  Ashley G. @ [insert title here] .  The idea behind it is to spark your creativity and write on a theme posted at the first of the month by the co-hosts.  You can write whatever you like be it a short story, a scene, a poem, a piece of dialogue, or simply an exploration of an idea.  This month the selected theme is the following: We Meet Again - This time I'm continuing my story from April . It had been few months since I'd last seen the man I'd dubbed the well-dressed time traveler.  That Sunday that I fully expected to see him again came and went without fanfare.  I couldn't help but wonder if whatever had seemingly been after him had finally caught up with him, or if I was simply imagining him, since no one else had noticed him after all.  Then I ran into him.  More accurately, he plowed into me at a dead run while I was carrying a big, open box

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted The Broke and the Bookish .  This week's theme is a Back To School Freebie, so I selected YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels That Should Be Taught In High School.  Three of my choices aren't necessarily YA, but I they cross over well.  Here we go, alphabetical order by author. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins The Princess Bride  by William Goldman Never Let Me Go  by Kazuo Ishiguro Throne of Glass  by Sarah J. Maas Cinder  by Marissa Meyer The Knife of Never Letting Go  by Patrick Ness The Lightning Thief  by Rick Riordan The Raven Boys  by Maggie Steifvater Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal  by G. Willow Wilson Would you like to see any of my selections taught in high schools?  What titles would you add?  What did you do for your freebie topic this week?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share one or two of songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. This week I'm spotlighting Matt Dusk, a Canadian jazz singer that I've just recently started listening to.  He has a great voice for the genre and if you like Michael Bublé, Frank Sinatra, or Chet Baker, you should give his music a try. "Please Please Me" (2009) -  Dusk's cover of the classic by The Beatles . &qu

Since my last book haul post in early June, I've accumulated a tremendous amount of books.  Most of them, I won through giveaways, received for my birthday, bought secondhand or at bargain outlet stores.  Of all of them, I only actually bought five of these brand new (but still with various discounts applied).  I tried to restrain myself, but you know how that goes, especially when you come across awesome sales. Let's start with the books that I actually bought: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child  by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne - I actually pre-ordered this one and I almost never do that.  You can see my review here . Underground Airlines  by Ben H. Winters - This is one of my most anticipated adult sci-fi and fantasy releases for the second half of the year - hopefully it will be as intriguing as it sounds. Steeplejack  by A.J. Hartley - This novel made my list of most anticipated releases of this summer and I've heard so many great things

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. I'm also taking part in Book Beginnings, a weekly meme hosted by  Rose City Reader .  The rules are pretty simple - you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires.  Don't forget to link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. This week I'm spotlighting one of my current reads, The Woman in Cabin 10  by Ruth Ware .  As soon as this arrived at my library, I knew I wanted to give this a try - I mean, Ruth Ware's new novel (my first) has been billed as very Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins-esque mystery thriller.  I've only read through the prologue and first

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Nothing is what it seems to at Victory Street Pictures, a movie studio in operation at the end of Hollywood's Golden Era. Their newest noir film is stuck in reshoots, a screenwriter who didn't come back the same after the war drowns his sorrows in the bottle, and the starlet has died under mysterious circumstances has been replaced by a lookalike. Soon, they'll have no choice except to believe their own lies. Ed Brubaker's The Fade Out  is a favorite new graphic novel series. I'm a huge fan of film noir and hard-boiled crime fiction, so I loved every gritty second of the world behind the movie (and novel) genre I enjoy. The color, tone, and art style had everything I could have wanted from the series. Ed Brubaker's storytelling and Sean Phillips illustrations complement each very well. If you're looking for an all engrossing graphic novel mystery, you can't go wrong with this dark peek into the world of the Golden Era of Hollywood. P

I've just been nominated by Emily @ Ink, Inc. to complete the Bookish Book Lover Tag - thanks very much, Emily!  If you haven't checked out her blog, you're really missing out. 1. What book are you currently reading? I'm currently got four in the works - Carry On by Rainbow Rowelll , The Raven King  by Maggie Stiefvater , The Woman in Cabin 10  by Ruth Ware , and Spark by Brigid Kemmerer on audio. 2. What's the last book you finished? I just recently finished Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky on audio - I was surprised by how much I liked it.  The audiobook narrator definitely earns a full star for her performance alone! 3. Favorite book you read this year? I always have a hard time choosing just one when it comes to a question like this, but it may very well be The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch . 4. What genre have you read most this year? According to Goodreads, the answer is "other" but otherwise it'