Well another Sunday has come, and on a bad note I didn’t do much reading this last week. I was busy preparing for opening festival weekend next week, and getting costumes ready. Than Saturday was our cast picnic and when I got home I had to sleep. I was exhausted from heat, and staying up way to late when I had to get up early. But it was as always with festival worth it. We got our campsite which we will be setting up on Tuesday.
And than I got back on track, I finished Chosen and started a book for my historical fiction challenge. I am a good way through that and should be able to finish it today if I focus on it. Than I plan on catching up on the reviews I am behind on. So I feel like I am a little bit more on a plan there.
I am behind also on my article writing but I hope soon to catch up on that as well. While renaissance festival makes me tired when I go, it also jazzes me up. I get excited and I feel like I can do more things. Even with this evil cancer. After all if I can spend the day charming a King and Prince and thousands of patrons, why not catch up on some writing?
Friday Finds #17
The toughest case yet for Greywalker and P.I. Harper Blaine, “a great heroine” (New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris), has arrived.
Harper Blaine was your average small-time P.I. until she died—for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker—walking the line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she’s discovering that her new abilities are landing her in all sorts of “strange cases.”
But for Harper, her own case may prove the most difficult to solve. Why did she—as opposed to others with near-death experiences—become a Greywalker? When Harper digs into her own past, she unearths some unpleasant truths about her father’s early death as well as a mysterious puzzle. Forced by some very demanding vampires to take on an investigation in London, she soon discovers her present troubles in England are entangled with her dark past back in Seattle—and her ultimate destiny as a Greywalker.
Year of Reading Dangerously Update
So I am finally getting around to doing some updates on my challenges. And here is the update for my 2009 Dangerous challenge update. I have just one more book to read for this one. So it’s 99% done. YAY! I am pretty happy about that and feel like I am doing really well.
Booking Through Thursday – Worst
(I figure it’s easier than asking your all-time worst, because, well, it’s recent!)
Teaser Tuesday #21
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!
“Enough!” I flung my hands out at both of them while I concentrated on the fact both of them needed a good spanking. Wind obeyed me and they were both knocked back in their seats as a small, concentrated gale surged around them. ~ page 141 Chosen by P.C & Kristin Cast
Musing Monday #21
Do you have a favorite publishing house — one that puts out books that you constantly find yourself wanting to read? If so, who? And, what books have they published that you’ve loved? (question courtesy of MizB)
That is a hard one, I don’t really look at publishing houses so much as I do authors. However, Bethany House has a few authors I like. That is the only one I can think of off the top of my head.
The Sunday Salon #3
So I feel like I have been a bad Sunday Salon writer. Because after joining the salon I haven’t really written much on Sunday, but it’s because I have been sick. And not only that but I am sick of being sick. Having Lymphoma has to be one of the hardest things there is. I don’t like to fuss or whine about it much. But lately it’s gotten harder. It has not only taken my ability to have a job outside the house, and now it’s been bothering my blogging, and my reading. I have fallen behind on my reading and I am not happy with it.
But I am slowly feeling a little better slowly feeling a bit more on track. I have written more reviews so far this month than I did last month. I had the books read, but hadn’t written the reviews yet. Yesterday I watched the movie The Weather Man, not a great one. This morning I am watching Profiler. And later today I am hoping to make some progress on my next book. Chosen by P.C and Kristin Cast, I am about 38 pages into it so far and it’s very good. So I am feeling a little better about that. And in 13 days the renaissance festival starts. That I am very much looking forward too. Sick or not I have to go. Sick or not I love the renaissance festival and it gives me the chance to enjoy it.
Book Review: Founding Mothers by Cookie Roberts
In the histories of the American Revolution, much has been written about America’s founding fathers, those brave men who signed the Declaration of Independence, battled the British, and framed the Constitution. Yet the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters who supported, encouraged, and even advised them have been virtually ignored.
In Founding Mothers, New York Times bestselling author Cokie Roberts brings to light the stories of the women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, sometimes even defending their very doorsteps from British occupation. While the men went off to war or to Congress, the women managed their husbands’ businesses, ran the farms, and raised their children. These women who sacrificed for the fledgling nation spent months or even years apart from their husbands, at a time when letters were their only form of contact.
Drawing upon personal correspondence and private journals, Founding Mothers brings to life the everyday trials, extraordinary triumphs, and often surprising stories of Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Reed Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Martha Washington, and other patriotic and passionate women, each of whom played a role in raising our nation.
Founding Mother’s is a fantastic novel, I am a revolution fanatic and like anyone who is, I of course love our founding Father. However, Founding Mother’s takes a look at the unsung and forgotten helpers of the revolution, the women of the Fathers. Behind every, man is a fantastic woman. Think about it for a moment John Adams spent well really most of his marriage away from his wife. We know how things went between them through letters. Abigail Adams was a bit of a saint if you ask me. She ran the farm, raised the children and still managed to support the cause. With her and the women league, she made Salt Peter and any number of other things.
Martha Washington was lovingly called Lady Washington by the men of the army. She made shirts did what she could with supplies. She risked her own life to see and talk to the men of the continental army. Mostly she wished for some time with her husband, but she also had a sense of duty a sense of what needed to be done. She cared about the men in her husband’s army; she looked at them like her sons. She held their hands and she looked forward to seeing them all the time.
There are many more women who helped the cause. Some of them are not even in this book. In addition, all of them are enjoyable, all of them you will enjoy. There needs to be more books like this, more books that sing the praises of the women of the revolution.
Book Review: Nectar from a Stone by
It is 1351 in Wales, a country subjugated by England, beaten down by superstition, war, and illness. Elise, prone to strange visions and the sole survivor of a plague-ravaged family, has fled her village for distant Conwy with her servant Annora, running from a murder she was forced to commit in self-defense.
On the road, they cross paths with Gwydion, a moody Welshman seeking to avenge his murdered family and reclaim his estate, and are drawn into a bloody confrontation with another traveler. In its aftermath, Elise and Gwydion find themselves shocked by their developing feelings for each other, and they part.
As the women ultimately reach Conwy, a menacing shadow from Elise’s past creeps toward her, and she must face it to find the peace she longs for, and help Gwydion recapture his home, and her heart, in the process.
In a dazzling narrative where mysterious visions, powerful desire, and dark secrets from the past converge, Jane Guill spins a masterful tale of romance, revelation, and breathtaking suspense.
This book takes part in one of my favorite periods. The Black Prince was alive and running around England. Now of course he was not in this book, but I wanted to read it because it was one of my favorite periods of course. Nectar from a Stone has been on my TBR pile for a while, and so finally, in July I got to it.
Luckily, I was not disappointed sorely. The book did start a little bit slow; some of the establishing pieces in my opinion took to long to do. However, after the first several chapters the book did pick up. The back promises love and romance and revelation as well as suspense and you do get all of these items once you are passed the initial report.
You do get all the things the book promises, although for the genre the romance is a little over done in my humble opinion. Nevertheless, over all I do recommend this book if you like historical fiction and adventures.
Friday Finds #16
This week I am going to be a total Twi-geek and all of my finds are Twilight Saga related..
Defining New Moon: Vocabulary Workbook for Unlocking the Sat, Act, Ged, and Ssat
New Dawn: Your Favorite Authors on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga: Completely Unauthorized
Touched by a Vampire: Discovering the Hidden Messages in the Twilight Saga
New Moon: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion
