Check it Out!

Looking for something to read but need an opinion?  Look for it on Good Reads or 4 Red Chairs.  Two great sites for the reader.

I just added to my must read through a recommendation found on 4 Red Chairs.

Enclave, here I come!

(by the way, you didn't see me here . . . I'm working ;)

Foto Friday

Had a great time taking pics the last couple days for today's post.  Nothing special, just things to share with a story or two.

The Antique Books Shelf on my wall.  I've seen them all over the Internet and really wanted one for my books.
1) 365 Bedtime Stories - given to my mom in 1950
2) Home School of Elocution -given to my Great Grandmother in 1899
3) The Practical Outline of Elementary School Subjects for Home Study -from 1942, back when sentences were labeled  "loose, balanced, or periodic"
4) Practical House Painter purchased by my Grandfather in 1924 in Tillamook, Oregon.  This book includes fonts for sign painting!

Carly and Jase keeping warm under my birthday gift in the drizzle while they wait for the bus. 

The following are pictures taken during a rare moment when my younger two were getting along!  They were yucking it up for 1/2 hour, trying to get out of going to bed.  I played along because these moments are fewer and far between.  It was a great time and a great memory.  Something to remember, they are only 20 months apart in age.

What did you make for lunch today?  Carly took the following with her, including my Vera Bradly lunch bag that my sis gave me years ago.  I'll take it back when I start working - but for now I'll share!

Her alternate lunch box.  An old belt threaded threw the juice box  holes
 and the end of the box held clothes with some ric-rac.
She really does use this! Her friends have even asked for some.

I also sent Jason off this morning on a hockey trip.  He is going to Anchorage with his Bantam Tier I hockey team for a series of games.  I regret not getting a picture before he left.  He had on this red team polo, khaki pants, and black leather loafers.  It was tough to get him shoes without him being with me, so I kept sending him pictures at school.  Eventually, I bought the ones I liked and the ones my husband liked - we figured Jason could decided from there (he left the house in the ones I picked out hehehe).

Jay's choice top left, my choice bottom right.
I Payless special shopped for my growing son.  He'll use them for HS hockey too until he
grows out of them (in two months).

Wither by Lauren DeStefano: another reason to love 2011!

Description from Simon and Schuster

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?

I was sold on this book the moment I read the description, but then -
Well, I dove into it and it surpassed all I'd hoped. This description has left out some evil descriptors that would have given all of the surprises away. Another book to add to my "LOVE IT" list! Hooray for 2011!

Hollowland by Amanda Hocking

Hollowland by Amanda Hocking

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What fun! I was sucked in and kept on reading. People would stop an ask what I was reading now and I would grin and simply say, "a zombie story." That usually ended the discussion immediately. It got me a lot of silly looks, that is for certain.



A lion? Really? Squishing your foot into a zombie head? Ewww. Totally cracks me up that she got to have sex with a rock star.



Well . . . is she pregnant with the savior of the world? Don't you want to know? Did her brother get make it past the marauders? Does Tatum pursue her? Guess it is up to my imagination. *sigh*



View all my reviews

What kind of reader are you?

I read this and loved it. I have plenty of "reality" in my life, that most of the books I read certainly don't qualify as such. I've never been a "what if" person. I don't wonder what my life would be like if . . . . I don't wonder what things would be like if I'd taken another path. I don't live to torture myself. I don't harbor regret. Days come and go. Each one new then old.

So when I read a book, I tend to go towards those things that just really aren't going to happen but have underlying truths. There are a few books out there that I have read simply for the movie that plays in my mind when I read it . . . not because it is some great novel. Frankly, I don't read each word or even every paragraph of those. There is no need . . . the movie plays on. I save reading each word for Walt Whitman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, or those artful short stories meant to dazzle you with their knowledge of language if you choose to recognize it. - Oddly, Shakespeare is not one of those for me . . . those are movies in my mind. Stories I've seen a million times a piece by now in all modern books and the big screen. It drives my son Jason nuts. He's a "read aloud-er". He reads and enjoys each word, not yet capable of foresight. It will come to him though. He has a great grasp of language. Carly, though struggles with reading, has an incredible grasp of life. I know she doesn't read every word because she can't and yet that doesn't stop her from understanding and enjoying something. Caden has no time to read . . . that would involve sitting still, and that's not happening.

Back to Wicked Lovely. Don't let the synopsis fool you - it isn't this cheesey.

Synopsis
Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.
Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.
Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.
Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.
But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires.
Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.

So then I got this one . . . loved it too, but was disappointed that ______ took off.

Again . . . sounds ridiculous. Who wants to ready about faeries and their power struggles? But that is just so not what its about. Anyone can relate to this who has wondered what their place in this world is . . . or even what their place in the moment is.

Synopsis
Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow.
Seventeen-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life.
The tattoo does bring changes—not the kind Leslie has dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faery world, unable to resist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils. . . .

Now, I am awaiting my pre-ordered copy of this. I didn't even bother to try Synopsis
and figure out what it was about - I'm sure I will be pleasantly surprised. In the mean time, I have picked up my copy of New Sudden Fiction. More short stories written artfully. Some will suck, others will end abruptly and most will be too realistic. But someone will have such an incredible use of color scent, or surprise that it will be worth weeding through the 60 stories.

Enjoy your literary life - A great children's read -

Synopsis
The brave good bugs march off to save the garden . . .
First, they must fight the evil Spider Queen . . .
Before summoning the Leaf Men to save the day . . .
But what about the mystery of the Long-Lost Toy?
Here is ancient elfin magic, epic adventure, and a bugle salute to the power of memory, loyalty and love as resounding as Robin Hood's call to his Merry Men!

(These synopsis are not mine, they are from the books themselves. My take would be different.)