What books did you get for Christmas (or whichever holiday you may have celebrated last month)? Sadly I didnt get any books this year. It was a very lean Holiday.
Do you usually ask for books on gift-giving occasions or do you prefer to buy them yourself? I do ask for them and my family asks for a list so I give everyone a couple diffrent titles so no one gets the same one and they have choices.
So…you’d think after banishing an immortal being and a fallen High Priestess, saving Stark’s life, biting Heath, getting a headache from Erik, and almost dying, Zoey Redbird would catch a break. Sadly, a break is not in the House of Night school forecast for the High Priestess in training and her gang. Juggling three guys is anything but a stress reliever, especially when one of them is a sexy Warrior who is so into protecting Zoey that he can sense her emotions. Speaking of stress, the dark force lurking in the tunnels under the Tulsa Depot is spreading, and Zoey is beginning to believe Stevie Rae could be responsible for a lot more than a group of misfit red fledglings. Aphrodite’s visions warn Zoey to stay away from Kalona and his dark allure, but they also show that it is Zoey who has the power to stop the evil immortal. Soon it becomes obvious that Zoey has no choice: if she doesn’t go to Kalona he will exact a fiery vengeance on those closest to her. Will Zoey have the courage to chance losing her life, her heart, and her soul?
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to: Grab your current read.Let the book fall open to a random page.Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!Please avoid spoilers!
“Trapped in the huge old armchair before the fire, Richard surronded by children. The two youngest had clambered onto his lap and cuddled close, one on either side, two others perched on his knees, while still others had balanced on the wide arms of the chair.” ~ Pg. 213 Scandal’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens
With the New Year here already, do you have any reading resolutions or goals (challenges aside) for 2010? Perhaps a new author? Genre? Want to read more non-fiction? Write more reviews?
Well I think I have gone over my goals pretty good in the last few days. But I don’t mind doing a recap for the sake of musing Monday. I have my challenges of course, but mostly I would like to put a dent in my TBR pile. I would like to cut back on ordering books from PBS and try to stick to my wish listed books and maybe one other one a month or so. And really just work on getting books read and the big massive pile cleaned up a bit.
I am also planning as always to write my reviews and stay on top of them (I hope) as well as do some more writing just for me. Or I should say for my new blog too, ha ha. The Marked Ambrosia Project is going fairly well so far.
Another Sunday has come, but this one is the first Sunday of the New Year. I sat back and looked at things today. The new is just another day, it isn’t really anything special other than the calendar switches over, and yet we all look at it as a clean start. Even I do. It is a fresh outlook a time when you can be hopeful that this year things will be better. I think this is a good thing, because even if it is just another day, we as people do occasionally need something to look forward to. Something to feel better about.
I have begun my reading for the year with Scandal’s Bride; I am enjoying it so far even though I am not very far into it. And the reason for that is my own personal lack of focus, nothing to do with the book; it is a good book in a series I have enjoyed so far. The characters so far are likeable and have made me chuckle. I am just full of so much MUST GET THIS DONE for everything about the New Year. It will calm down, I will settle down and things will be okay. At least I hope so!
Medically I am about the same as I was last year, nothing new. Nothing good. But it is what it is and I will continue on. That is all one can do is solider on and keep on working. I have been trying to get more freelance writing jobs and have gotten a few bucks here and a few bucks there. It isn’t much at once but it is something. And I will take it!
My Graphic Design site is slow to get going but it is going. I sold my first design on Etsy the other day which made me pretty happy. I am not sad about it though I have a scheduled give away ready on a very popular and busy giveaway site for next month. So I am hoping that will conjure up some business.
So far the New Year gives me a good enough outlook so keep soldiering on. And when in doubt I have a big enough pile of books to read that I can go and cuddle under them for fun!
True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.”
– Charles Caleb Colton
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
– Anais Nin
“My friends are my estate.”
– Emily Dickinson
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
“A friend is one who walks in when others walk out”
-Walter Winchell
“A friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else.”
– Len Wein – Sent by Paulo Louro
“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”
– Sent by Donna Roberts
“A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself.”
– Sent by Lysha
“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.”
– Albert Camus (also attributed to Maimonidies). Sent by clovers
“A hug is worth a thousand words. A friend is worth more.”
– Sent by Jasmine Fitzwilliam
“Everyone is a friend, until they prove otherwise.”
– sent by Steve
What are your big plans for the New Year?
Do you have any big plans for the New Year? I try not to make resolutions because I don’t always keep them but I make plans and thoughts. And this year I have several Irons in the fire I just hope I can keep up with them. One of course is to continue my work here at the Fire & Ice blog and work on my challenges I have signed up for.
Another and brand new one is to do more writing. I will keep up with the freelance work I have been doing on the silly articles and the like there, but I also want to do more creative writing again. So I have set up a writing blog for myself called Marked Ambrosia. My friend Sara helped me come up with the name I shot off some ideas and she hashed it out, I think we make a good team on that. Marked Ambrosia will focus on my needing to write more like I used to, I will give daily updates and than Bi Weekly stories of what I have worked on for those two weeks.
A third project for the New Year was started towards the end of last year but it is a fun one. The Random Acts of Smiles project is my pet project to make mail about more than just bills. In this modern age of computers I don’t think people send letters and postcards much anymore. I know I don’t get very many, but when I get one it makes me smile brightly. When I was a kid I used to have a lot of pen pals and I got a lot of mail, and smiled every time. Now as an adult most of my mail is bills, and I hate that. Getting a card or a letter something like that is always a big surprise that offers me a big smile. I want to share that feeling with everyone else. I want to give smiles and postcards to as many people as I possibly can. Join in the fun if you want, and spread the word. It is a free project I do it out of my own limited funds, but I am happy to.
And my last and final project for the year (as of now anyways) is my Lady Ambrosia’s Creations blog. I am working on Blog Designs, Historical Costumes, Candles and my new obsession arm warmers. Oh how I love arm warmers I think everyone should have some of those. So those are my New Year projects, what are yours? Share with me and put it in the linky!
*If Mr Linky is down please leave a comment. Mr. Linky has been a pain lately*
The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? To participate in this weekly book meme is extremely easy.
Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.
Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.
Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title & author of the book you are using. Even an ISBN helps!)
Did this first sentence help draw you into the story? Why or why not?
Link back to Well-Read Reviews in your blog entry.
Come back to this blog post, hosted on WellReadReviews.com and add your direct link to Mr. Linky! ** Very important!
“She’d never had a vision like it before.” Scandals Bride by Stephanie Laurens
Well I have been looking foward to reading this book for a while, I have enjoyed the series thus far. The first sentance while a little bit short does draw me in. I want to know what the vision is.
Happy New Year everyone! I hope yours is going well.
Meet Rose Feller. She’s thirty years old and a high-powered attorney with a secret passion for romance novels. She has an exercise regime she’s going to start next week, and she dreams of a man who will slide off her glasses, gaze into her eyes, and tell her that she’s beautiful. She also dreams of getting her fantastically screwed-up little sister to get her life together.
Meet Rose’s sister, Maggie. Twenty-eight years old, drop-dead gorgeous and only occasionally employed, Maggie sings backup in a band called Whiskered Biscuit. Although her dreams of big-screen stardom haven’t progressed past her left hip’s appearance in a Will Smith video, Maggie dreams of fame and fortune — and of getting her dowdy big sister to stick to a skin-care regime.
These two women with nothing in common but a childhood tragedy, shared DNA, and the same size feet, are about to learn that their family is more different than they ever imagined, and that they’re more alike than they’d ever believe. In Her Shoes — Jennifer Weiner’s follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut, Good in Bed — observes Rose and Maggie, the brain and the beauty, as they make journeys of discovery that take them from the streets of Philadelphia to Ivy League libraries to a “retirement community for active seniors” in Boca Raton. Along the way, they’ll encounter a wild cast of characters — from a stepmother who’s into recreational Botox to a small, disdainful pug with no name. They’ll borrow shoes and clothes and boyfriends, and make peace with their most intimate enemies — each other.
Funny and poignant, richly detailed and wrenchingly real, In Her Shoes will speak to anyone who has endured the bonds of big — or little — sisterhood, or longed for a life different from the one the world has dictated, and dreamed of trying something else on for size.
I totally forgot this was also made into a movie in 2005 so I am going to cheat just a little bit and use this for my 2010 Challenge for read the book see the movie. And I will watch the movie in 2010 so it counts and it is the end of the year close enough.
This is my first Jennifer Weiner book and I had high hopes. My friend Sara said it was a good one…
The book started on a risqué and yet high note. It made me chuckle a little bit and than at the same time as I read on a little sad. Maggie defiantly has some issues to have herself used the way she does. Reading further the relationship between Maggie and Rose touched a little bit close to the relationship I share with my sibling. It is not exact and we are not set fully like the pair but I could defiantly relate and that does make the book a little closer to home for myself and probably others.
While I found the book enjoyable it wasn’t one that I couldn’t put down. It was just okay. Not bad not good, just there. I got a little lost at some of the chapter switches but that could have been my own personal lack of focus. And while I did not think the book was fantastic I will be giving the author another shot and I will defiantly read some more of her books and see where they go.
Happy New Year! Good bye 2009!
