Always Me

Welcome to my stop on the audiobook tour of The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald, hosted by The Audiobookworm .  Continue reading to learn about the book, see my review, discover the author and the audiobook narrator, tour wide giveaways, and the tour schedule.  Here we go! Author: Betty MacDonald Narrator: Heather Henderson Length: 9 hours Publisher: Post Hypnotic Press⎮2015 Genre: Humor, Memoir When Betty MacDonald married a marine and moved to a small chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, she was largely unprepared for the rigors of life in the wild. With no running water, no electricity, a house in need of constant repair, and days that ran from four in the morning to nine at night, the MacDonalds had barely a moment to put their feet up and relax. And then came the children. Yet through every trial and pitfall – through chaos and catastrophe – this indomitable family somehow, mercifully, never lost its sense of humor. A be...

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: Before I get on with it, I was originally planning on doing something entirely different with this prompt and come up with scene based on a classic nursery rhyme (which I will mention below).  Anyway, I've decided to talk about a book of nursery rhymes that I couldn't get enough of when I was a little kid and share some of my favorites from the book. When I was from around age three to five or six The Real Mother Goose  by Blanche Fisher Wright was my favorite book, and I still have a soft spot...

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish !  This weeks topic is a Holiday Gift Giving Guide freebie - mine will focus on must-read fairy tale retellings.  Here we go, in alphabetical order by title: Cinder by Marissa Meyer The Dark Realm by Anthea Sharp Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine Enchanted by Althea Kontis The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley Peter and the Starcatchers  by Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson Splintered by A.G. Howard Strings by David Estes A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh Have you read any of the books on my "guide" this week?  Are there any others you would add?  What's on your gift giving guide this week?  As always, thanks very much for visiting my blog, and perhaps even commenting.

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. Since this is the last week of Sci-Fi Month, which is hosted by Rinn Reads and Over the Effing Rainbow , I'm spotlighting three of my favorite tracks from one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movie soundtrack's,  Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984).  While I like the movie itself quite a bit, it isn't quite my favorite Miya...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ In the near future, a highly contagious virus, sweeps around the world. Most who catch it have flu-like symptoms, but an unlucky single percent of the population experience "lock in". Those with it are fully aware and awake, but unable to move or respond to stimulus in a way. Twenty-five years later, the world has adapted to meet the challenges of Haden's syndrome and two FBI agents, a rookie and a veteran, are on the case of what appears to be a Haden-related murder investigation. Their suspect is an "integrator", someone who can let the locked in use their bodies for a time, so that makes everything all the more complicated. As the agents begin to unravel the mystery, they begin to see that the real crime is much bigger than anyone could have ever expected. Lock In is my first John Scalzi book. I finally decided to give his work a try after hearing so many great things. I'm glad I decided to take the plunge because his world-building, di...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ When the next phase of BeiTech's assault reaches Heimdall Jump Station to wipe out the Kerenza survivors on the Hypatia, Hanna and Nik must defend their home even if it is one of the most boring space stations out there. Hanna, the daughter of the station's captain, and Nik, a member of a major crime family, must be ready to do whatever it takes to save their fellow residents from the BeiTech "auditing" team as well as from deadly alien predators. Plus, they have to make sure that the malfunctioning wormhole at the center of the station doesn't manage to rip the universe in two. I don't know if I can adequately express just how hyped up I was for Gemina , the sequel of Illuminae , but aside from The Raven King this was my most anticipated release of the year. I'm happy to report that it lived up to the hype and that I absolutely loved it. It takes up pretty much immediately after the end of Illuminae , but instead of sticking with the...

I've had quite the week!  Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  in 3D, Thursday I got to see family and dine upon delicious foods on Thanksgiving, I got some great deals on Black Friday (including some books), saw the local youth ballet perform The Nutcracker on Saturday with some friends, and today I'm going to a Christmas parade and taking part in the downtown Christmas walk.  Let's just say, I've had a nice little vacation this holiday season.  Now, if we can just put Monday morning on hold... Movie Review: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ If you haven't been able to guess, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  was my most highly anticipated release of November and I was about as hyped up as possible for it.  I'm happy to say that I absolutely adored it.  It was a real treat to be back in the Wizarding World, and see how that world looks in the USA.  It's a bit different than Harry Potte...

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 my current read for Sci-Fi Month (hosted by Rinn Reads and Over the Effing Rainbow ), Lock In ( Lock In #1) by John Scalzi .  I've heard so many fantastic things about my fellow Ohioan's work and I'm glad that I'm finally getting around to my first by the author.  I'm not that far into it y...