Category: Its Monday What ARe You Reading

This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

MarthaE from Martha’s Bookshelf

WOO HOO!!!!  Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves  and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

What a great week!  I read and I listened to audio and well, for the first time in a long time I pretty much made it through everything I said I was going to read and listen to!  😀

My awesome week looked like this:

Bennys Angel by Laura Allen Nonemaker (A cute little story about Believing!)

 

Hometown Girl by Mariah Stewart (book tour and sweet read)

 

Bookies Book Club Christmas Party!

 

The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson (Bookies book club review and my threats to take out a character)  😯

 

Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch (wonderful audio memoir)

 

The first of my Secret BOOK Santa Gifts!

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night by Mark Haddon (oh, is that what the fuss was about all those years ago?  LOVED IT!

 

I Am Ready To Answer Your Questions (opened up the blog to all your questions… and oh what fun questions were asked!  😛 )

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer  (what would you do if life as you knew it ended today?  Fantastic read!)

 

Responses to your questions (you asked, I answered… on books, on life, on balance, on crazy things, and my dream spot!)

 

Maman’s Home Sick Pie by Donia Bijan ( a delicious read with a couple of recipes for you!)

 

See?  Told you I had a great week!  😛  My audio time was awesome and my evenings were not as heavy this week so I got in some good reading time too!

Now – this week I thought I would have a little fun with my reading… tis the season and all that 😀

Every year at Christmastime, Marnie and her twelve closest girlfriends gather in the evening with batches of beautifully wrapped homemade cookies. Everyone has to bring a dessert and a bottle of wine, but this year, it’s their stories that are especially important. Marnie’s oldest daughter has a risky pregnancy. Jeannie’s father is having an affair with her best friend. Taylor’s life is in financial freefall. Rosie’s husband doesn’t want children, and she has to decide, very soon, the fate of her marriage.

On this evening, at least, they can feel as a group the impulses of sisterly love and conflict, the passion and hopefulness of a new romance, the betrayal and disillusionment some relationships bring, the joys and fears of motherhood, the agony of losing a child, and above all, the love they have for one another. As Marnie says, the Christmas Cookie Club, if it’s anything, is a reminder of delight.

This is the perfect week to read this one!  Afterwards I am going to give my copy away 😀

All She Wants For Christmas Is…

If Amber Taylor doesn’t find a way home for Christmas, her mother is definitely going to disown her. Unfortunately, there’s no way she can afford to buy a plane ticket on her paltry salary. Luckily the universe obviously has her back. Why else would a single, drop-dead gorgeous actor suddenly show up on her doorstep and offer to drive her cross-country for the holidays?

A Happily Ever After…

Hunky Scott Cardoza was everything Amber desired in a boyfriend–except that he definitely had heartbreaker written all over him, which is why Amber promised herself that their road trip was going to be anything but romantic. Yet being cooped up in a tiny car for three days with the man of her dreams was turning out to be quite a challenge. Good things rules were meant to be broken…

Ok, a little out of my genre style but I picked this up at the library sale this fall and it is Christmas related… sort of… I think… maybe… 😯

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In addition, if you are a reviewer of Middle Grade or children’s books… be sure to link to the Picture books to YA version of Monday, What Are You Reading here as well:

This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Paula at Community Book Stop

WOO HOO!!!!  Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves  and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

It is a balmy 44 degrees here in Minnesota and we are snow-less.  I could not be any more thrilled.  Hate cold.  Hate snow.

This past week has been nice with a few sprinkles of snow that did not stick.  As far as my reading adventures, here is what happened on the blog:

The 2012 WHERE Are You Reading Challenge sign up is ready.  LOVE this challeneg and I hoep you will join in the fun!

Book Coveting for 2012 (come on…. everyone is doing it!)  😛

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (a fascinating journey set in 179 1 centered around a tobacco plantation and the African American “help” that work the land and the kitchen.

Read Dystopia 2012 Challenge (In my new found appreciation for Dystopia reads, I am offering up a challenge with giveaways that is not too big and should be a lot of fun.  Come on!  Join me!  :razz:)

Ok, thats a little embarrassing that I only posted one review for this past week.  😯  I have another written and ready to go, I have two that I will be finishing in the next day or two, and I have a tour on Tuesday as well as book club review on Wednesday so this next week will look a lot better reading wise.  😛

Here is what is new for this next week:

Life was always just about perfect for Brooke Madison Bowers. She was the prettiest, most popular girl in small-town St. Dennis, Maryland, a prom queen, local pageant star, and the pride and joy of her loving parents. She even married the man of her dreams. But the promise of happily ever after fell to pieces when her husband was killed while serving in Iraq. Brokenhearted and longing for the solace of better days, she returns to the idyllic world of St. Dennis, and the familiar comfort of the family farm. Surrounded by her loving family and friends, she’s determined to build a new life, complete with her own cupcake bakery. She’s equally determined never to fall in love again.

For Jesse Enright, life has been a challenge. A fourth-generation attorney, he’s spent his life fighting to escape the shadow of his irresponsible father. Now he’s moved to St. Dennis to run the family law practice, and he’s ready to find the right girl, get married, and settle down. But his carefully laid plans go out the window when he meets Brooke and finds himself caught between the unbreakable law of attraction and Brooke’s resolve to go her way alone—despite the undeniable feelings Jesse stirs in her. But just like catching lightning in a bottle, is it possible to fall head-over-heels, heart-and-soul in love all over again?

On tour – see my review this coming Tuesday!

In the summer of 1974, a fourteen-year-old girl in Dolton, Illinois, had a dream. A dream to become an actress, like her idols Ron Howard and Vicki Lawrence. But it was a long way from the South Side of Chicago to Hollywood, and it didn’t help that she’d recently dropped out of the school play, The Ugly Duckling. Or that the Hollywood casting directors she wrote to replied that “professional training was a requirement.”

But the funny thing is, it all came true. Through a series of Happy Accidents, Jane Lynch created an improbable–and hilarious–path to success. In those early years, despite her dreams, she was also consumed with anxiety, feeling out of place in both her body and her family. To deal with her worries about her sexuality, she escaped in positive ways–such as joining a high school chorus not unlike the one in Glee–but also found destructive outlets. She started drinking almost every night her freshman year of high school and developed a mean and judgmental streak that turned her into a real-life Sue Sylvester.

Then, at thirty-one, she started to get her life together. She was finally able to embrace her sexuality, come out to her parents, and quit drinking for good. Soon after, a Frosted Flakes commercial and a chance meeting in a coffee shop led to a role in the Christopher Guest movie Best in Show, which helped her get cast in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Similar coincidences and chance meetings led to roles in movies starring Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, and even Meryl Streep in 2009’s Julie & Julia. Then, of course, came the two lucky accidents that truly changed her life. Getting lost in a hotel led to an introduction to her future wife, Lara. Then, a series she’d signed up for abruptly got canceled, making it possible for her to take the role of Sue Sylvester in Glee, which made her a megastar.

I have seen Jane Lynch in a couple movies, a a bit in GLEE.  I have been interested in her story and am currently listening to it on audio.

Kristina’s stay at summer horse camp is horrible to say the least, and it’s all because Hester and Davina are there as well, making her life miserable. When Hester’s cruel prank goes terribly wrong, it’s actually what sends the three girls back to the magical land of Bernovem. In Bernovem, Kristina is very excited to see her former friend, Prince Werrien. When he invites her to sail with him on his ship to his homeland Tezerel, putting it simply, Kristina can’t refuse.

Reunited with her gnome, dwarf, animal, fairy friends … and best of all, Werrien, things seem like they couldn’t get any better for Kristina. But when Werrien becomes fascinated with an unusual seeing stone, the ”Black Shard”, Kristina is haunted by a ghostlike old hag. Struggling against suspicion, guilt, illness, and ultimately the one who wants to possess her soul, Kristina will see it’s in her weakest moment that she will encounter more strength than she has ever known.

I read The Magic Warble by this author about a year ago and now have the opportunity to read this second book.

Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive “theory of mind” by which most of us sense what’s going on in other people’s heads. When his neighbor’s poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents’ broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. In the hands of first-time novelist Haddon, Christopher is a fascinating case study and, above all, a sympathetic boy: not closed off, as the stereotype would have it, but too open-overwhelmed by sensations, bereft of the filters through which normal people screen their surroundings. Christopher can only make sense of the chaos of stimuli by imposing arbitrary patterns (“4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day when I don’t speak to anyone and sit on my own reading books and don’t eat my lunch and Take No Risks”).

Confession – my book club read this years ago and I could not get into it.  After sitting through the review while they all raved, I felt I missed something and have kept it on my shelf ever since.  Now I am going to try it in audio.

This may look like a heavy reading week but I am hoping not.  My Monday class has been cancelled this week, Tuesday is book club, Wednesday is helping with students, but Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are pretty open. 

 

Oh and one more thing, Teach Mentor Texts has asked and received my permission to start a MG (Middle Grade/ Childrens book version Of Its MOnday What Are You Reading.  If you or any bloggy friends you know review mainly MG or Childrens Books, they may wish to link up there as well as here:

SO what are you reading this mid December?  Does this time of year just get crazier so your reading becomes less, or as the weather turns cold and the days are shorter do you tend to read more?

Add your link to Its Monday!  What Are You Reading below where it says click here.  I would love to see what you are reading!  😀

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Happy December! Welcome to another fun addition of It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading?

This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

shelleyrae @ Book’d Out!

WOO HOO!!!!  Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves  and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

I have to say…. my audio book time is saving me from putting up a goose egg in my reading for the week.  😀  Seriously, sitting down and reading time has been few and far between but audio has followed me throughout my day.  Here is what I put up this week:

The Killing Of Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly (Love Lincoln!)

 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (OH MY!!! BEST audio of the year!)

The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers (an author everyone should spend a little time with 😀 )

 

When Authors Attack (a flashback to a review that now, more experienced, I have some thoughts… 😀 )

 

 

This week I am working on the ISPY awards and have something every evening until Thursday.  That said, I need to finish the book club book this week and new to the table (and the cd player) are:

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all–hope–in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

Who knew I would be such a dystopia fan?  My friend Amy talked this book up to me quite a while ago… its about time I enter this world!

 

 

 

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event–an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex’s parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle.
     With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.

I want to follow up with the above book, with the second in the series, in audio form!  I alredy have this checked out from the library!

 

 

 

 

In the year that has passed since a meteor collided with the moon, Miranda’s friends and neighbors have died, the landscape has frozen, and food has become increasingly scarce. The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

… and with a little luck I will get into this third installment of the series in audio this week as well!  The audio is only about 6 hours. 

 

 

 

Thats the week – I am ready to check out yours!  Add your link to your Its Monday What Are You Reading post below where it says click here.

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Hello and welcome to another fun addition of It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading?

This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Lori from Escape With Dollycas!

WOO HOO!!!!  Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves  and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

Well… I am not sure what happened this past week.  I expected… more.  I thought I would easily whip through several books I had going but that was not the case.  I ad a meeting Monday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night.  And honestly – this weekend…. I slept a lot.  :zzz:

So here is what I did post (mainly items I had finished while I was away two weeks ago):

A List Of Odd Things (with pictures) that happened while I was in Honduras

Bookies Book Club thoughts on Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff (*With a picture of our very own Cleopatra!)

Monsters Of Men by Patrick Ness (my long awaited review of the last book in the best series I have read this year!)

Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale (you may have seen the movie but the audio is so much better!!!)

Season To Taste by Molly Birnbaum (the true and triumphant story of a want to be chef who lost her sense of taste and smell in an accident)

Ok… now that I look at the list… maybe it wasn’t so bad… what I reviewed was pretty awesome.  So while I did not get a lot of reading done, I did write some good reviews.  😀

I am still finishing the two audio from last week and should have reviews up soon… as well as a couple of books from last week too.

As far as what is new for this week:

Tuesdays at Castle Glower are Princess Celie’s favorite days. That’s because on Tuesdays the castle adds a new room, a turret, or sometimes even an entire wing. No one ever knows what the castle will do next, and no one-other than Celie, that is-takes the time to map out the new additions. But when King and Queen Glower are ambushed and their fate is unknown, it’s up to Celie, with her secret knowledge of the castle’s never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom.

Yup… goin’ a little middle grade…. 😀

Arriving in the mail over a period of weeks are taunting letters that end with a simple declaration, “Think of any number…picture it…now see how well I know your secrets.”  Amazingly, those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly.  For Dave Gurney, just retired as the NYPD’s top homicide investigator and forging a new life with his wife, Madeleine, in upstate New York, the letters are oddities that begin as a diverting puzzle but quickly ignite a massive serial murder investigation.

What police are confronted with is a completely baffling killer, one who is fond of rhymes filled with threats and warnings, whose attention to detail is unprecedented, and who has an uncanny knack for disappearing into thin air.  Even more disturbing, the scale of his ambition seems to widen as events unfold.

From BEA this past May…

Janessa McNeil’s husband, Dr. Brock McNeil, a researcher and professor at Stanford University’s Department of Medicine, specializes in tick-borne diseases—especially Lyme. For years he has insisted that Chronic Lyme Disease doesn’t exist. Even as patients across the country are getting sicker, the committee Brock chairs is about to announce its latest findings—which will further seal the door shut for Lyme treatment.  

One embittered man sets out to prove Dr. McNeil wrong by giving him a close-up view of the very disease he denies. The man infects Janessa with Lyme, then states his demand: convince her husband to publicly reverse his stand on Lyme—or their young daughter will be next. 

But Janessa’s marriage is already rocky. She’s so sick she can hardly move or think. And her husband denies she has Lyme at all. 

Reading this one for the INSPY awards…

In one terrifying moment, Dynah Carey’s perfect life is shattered by rape, her future irrevocably altered by an unwanted pregnancy, and her doting family torn apart. Her seemingly rock-solid faith is pushed to the limits as she faces the most momentous choice of her life–to embrace or to end the untimely life within her.

One I have been meaning to read forever…

Maybe that’s a lofty plan but there it is. 😀  Now I want to know what you are reading this holiday week!  Is this a big reading week for you with the long weekend, or is it a lite reading week due to big plans?  I am excited to see what you are reading so please add your link below where it says “click here”

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Hello and welcome to another fun addition of It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading?

This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Sharon from Sharon’s Garden Of Books!

WOO HOO!!!!  Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves  and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

This week… was a hard week.  Probably the hardest I have had in a long long time and I am still recovering.  If you have been here this week… you know what I am talking about.  Here are the posts that I put up this past week:

Sleepers Run by Henry Mosquera (book review)

Water For Elephants DVD Release!

My Heart Is Broken Over The Loss of A Dear Friend.  😦

The Night Strangers by Chris Bojalian (audio review)

We The Animals by Justin Torres (audio review)

Halloween Giveaway – Laura Child’s book – Skeleton Letters, personally signed hard cover copies!

Reading went out the door after Monday and with all the happenings this week I pretty much shut down other than audio.  This weekend however at the cabin led me back to Monsters Of Men by Patrick Ness which actually felt good to read and let go of all the pain. 

This week I leave for the Cities on Friday afternoon and to Honduras Saturday morning.  I will be gone until the following Friday.  Yes, It’s Monday is planned to go on while I am away and yes, if I can get my head together here there will be posts while I am away.  As for the reading plan…

Yes… yes, I am still reading.  BUT – I will finish this week and I am LOVING it (and seriously need the distraction).

Frank W. Abagnale, alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, and Robert Monjo, was one of the most daring conmen, forgers, imposters, and escape artists in history. In his brief but notorious criminal career, Abagnale donned a pilot’s uniform and copiloted a Pan Am jet, masqueraded as the supervising resident of a hospital, practiced law without a license, passed himself off as a college sociology professor, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks, all before he was 21. Known by the police of 26 foreign countries and all 50 states as “The Skywayman,” Abagnale lived a sumptuous life on the lam – until the law caught up with him. Now recognized as the nation’s leading authority on financial foul play, Abagnale is a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction international escapades and ingenious escapes – including one from an airplane – make Catch Me If You Can an irresistible tale of deceit.

I seen the movie, found the audio on sale and I am LOVING this! 

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family . . .

Still in a bit of creepy October spooky mood, this one should be just the fix… plus I have always wanted to read Gaiman.

 

Tuesday watch for my fun audio review of Snow Flower and The Secret Fan as well as a movie review and giveaway!

That is all I am going to plan for this week as I suspect as Friday ekes closer I will be busy planning and prepping. 

What are you reading this week?  I am excited to see so please add your Monday What Are You Reading post to the linky below where it says Click here.

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Hello and welcome to another fun addition of It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading?

This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Kristin from Always With A Book!

WOO HOO!!!!  Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves  and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

I don’t know why I thought this past week was going to be a lighter one as I was so so WRONG.  Last Monday I had a busy day working and cleaning, Tuesday was book club Wednesday was a long long day as I stayed late at work to get finished up with projects and went right from work to a volunteer position with students and arrived home around 8:30 pm  EXHAUSTED. Thursday got up at 5 am – packed, fueled car, bought groceries, went to the post office, the re-store, the library and left town at 10″30 am for the cabin arriving back home from a crafting girls weekend at 9 pm on Saturday, Sunday morning church, prepped for a baby shower, helped with the shower, ran to pick up hoggie buns for dinner at our small groups home, went to the group and came back home at 8:00 pm to watch Amazing Race and write this post.

That said – here is what I managed for this past week:

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (audio review)

That is it.  That was my week.  Just this afternoon I finished Night Circus and will review in the next day, and I can not seem to find my copy of Monsters Of Men… so frustrating!  😯

I plan to work on this week:

Rather than a devastatingly beautiful femme fatale, Cleopatra, according to Schiff, was a shrewd power broker who knew how to use her manifold gifts—wealth, power, and intelligence—to negotiate advantageous political deals and military alliances. Though long on facts and short on myth, this stellar biography is still a page-turner; in fact, because this portrait is grounded so thoroughly in historical context, it is even more extraordinary than the more fanciful legend. Cleopatra emerges as a groundbreaking female leader, relying on her wits, determination, and political acumen rather than sex appeal to astutely wield her power in order to get the job done.

*My book club chose this book for our November read.  I will be in Honduras during our next review so I want to get a head start on this one so I can leave my thoughts with them.  😀

The witches of Bethel, New Hampshire are decidedly of the sinister variety—albeit more likely to sell real estate and wear stylish leather skirts than fly around on brooms and don pointy hats. Beneath the town’s charming rural surface of gingerbread Victorians, maple sugar houses, and fiery foliage lurks a conspiracy of evil reminiscent of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” How evil? Suffice it to say that when somebody drops by to welcome newcomers to the neighborhood with a plate of vegan brownies, they should think twice before taking the first bite.

*I am in the mood for a spooky read and this one entered today!

Lily at 80 reflects on her life, beginning with her daughter days in 19th-century rural China. Foot-binding was practiced by all but the poorest families, and the graphic descriptions of it are not for the fainthearted. Yet women had nu shu, their own secret language. At the instigation of a matchmaker, Lily and Snow Flower, a girl from a larger town and supposedly from a well-connected, wealthy family, become laotong, bound together for life. Even after Lily learns that Snow Flower is not from a better family, even when Lily marries above her and Snow Flower beneath her, they remain close, exchanging nu shu written on a fan. When war comes, Lily is separated from her husband and children. She survives the winter helped by Snow Flower’s husband, a lowly butcher, until she is reunited with her family. As the years pass, the women’s relationship changes; Lily grows more powerful in her community, bitter, and harder, until at last she breaks her bond with Snow Flower. They are not reunited until Lily tries to make the dying Snow Flower’s last days comfortable.

*I have never read See’s writing but have heard great things… I was excited to find this one on sale on Amazon!

In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America’s Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln’s generous terms for Robert E. Lee’s surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln’s dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth—charismatic ladies’ man and impenitent racist—murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country’s most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions—including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt.

*I have always been fascinated with Abraham Lincoln, but have not really read a lot about him.  I am excited to try this audio.

And of course if I could only find Monsters Of Men….

That’s my week…. all three of my audio should be turning over this week that’s why I have the line up for new audio.  I am now excited to see what you are reading!  Please add your What Are You Reading Link to the linky below where it says click here:

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