Musing Monday 8/20/18

August 20, 2018 - Ambrosia Leave a comment

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ___, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

Random Question: Do you think books by controversial people should be read or not?

This question came up when I was having a chat with a friend about Hitler’s book. I will preface, though I shouldn’t have to, I in no way agree with Hitler, the man was evil to the core and beyond scary. With that said, I have actually read his book.I don’t tend to broadcast the fact and rarely talk about it because people pass judgement when they hear you have. So do you think books like Mein Kampf or OJ Simpsons I did it should be read? I personally think that yes, we should read them if inclined, not to celebrate them, but to try and find some kind of understanding (although of course there isn’t always going to be that) of what made this person tick. However, there is also a part of me that knows books have power and some who would read these books will use them to justify their own acts so wants to say burn them all. Realistically though any book at all can be turned into something of a rally cry or justification for horrible acts. The Catcher and the Rye anyone? So what do you think?

Teaser Tuesday 8/14/18

August 14, 2018 - Ambrosia 20 Comments

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

“Still, she would not have married a man she knew full well did not love her, had there seemed any possible hope of a future with one who did. A man she had loved with every fragment of her broken heart.”
― Julie Klassen, The Dancing Master

Musing Monday 8/13/18

August 13, 2018 - Ambrosia Leave a comment

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

Random Question: What would be the first book you would want someone who has never read a book before to be?

A talk with a friend the other day lead me to think about how much I take for granted that I can read. Not only can I read, but I have been encouraged to read for well probably longer than I remember. There are still places where this isn’t the case, and they aren’t all developing countries either. Plenty of literacy issues right here in the United States to go around. I think for me the first book I would give someone to read is Black Beauty. For me that book is just one of those books that can change how you feel about reading, even life changing. Sure, it is a classic, but the story it tells is still so relevant today. The message of Kindness being best and that we all go through hard times in our lives, lose friends, yeah now I am getting emotional thinking about it. I really love Black Beauty. I would probably also include Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as follow ups because two more stories that I will never get enough of.

So what book would you give?

Teaser Tuesday 8/7/18

August 7, 2018 - Ambrosia 13 Comments

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

I just had to use two quotes today, because this one short line one made me feel like it simply had to be posted.

“Don’t allow any man to treat you as less than you are.” & “But I don’t think any parent can expect to escape this life without disappointing his child at some point. And the same could be said the other way around. We all of us fall short now and again, and disappoint someone dear to us, or ourselves. Thankfully, my parents have always been the forgiving sort.” ~ The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen

Musing Monday 8/6/18

August 6, 2018 - Ambrosia 1 Comment

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

Random Question: Have you ever had an argument over a book?

I am sure we have all had those little tiffs and saying oh I don’t like a book with a friend. However, have you ever legit had a big argument over a book? I had one friend who was merciless over me actually liking the Twilight books. Yes, I know they aren’t well written, yes, I know real vampires don’t sparkle, so what I was entertained okay? She just would not lay off about it, we had a real argument over the whole thing. Eventually we did make up and she agreed that she should have just left me alone because we all like different books. I mean I can’t say how many times I have had to plead the 5th when people ask me about 50 shades…..oi vey.

Book Review: A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet #1) by Madeleine L’Engle

August 3, 2018October 21, 2018 - Ambrosia 1 Comment

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

“Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract”.

Meg’s father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?

I have always loved A wrinkle in time and when the movie was getting ready to come out I knew it was time for another read. I mean, how could I miss Chris Pine as Doctor Murray right? Anyways, back to the book.

For me this book is just something enjoyable to read, like going into a familiar world where I might know how it is going to end, but I am okay with that, because I find something different every time I read it. The story has so many different layers and so much to discover. There is something about this book that still to this day gives me a sense of wonder, I can read it and just feel transfixed. This book is one of the books that inspired me to write, to write poetry and stories and just about anything. Reading it again helped me to break through some block that I had going on when I read it. It is just that kind of book for me. I might even read it a second time for the year to try and break through things once again. I know some read this book again when they become adults and don’t feel the same way, but for me this is one of those books that I believe will always give me that special kind of wonderment and remind me why I wanted to write down things to start with. At least I hope it will be that way, because being an adult is tough enough most of the time, losing something that holds a child’s wonder to it would make it that much harder. Sorry for the bit of floaty, dreamy review on this one, I’ll blame the book for it.

My Gemstone Rating:

Teaser Tuesday 7/31/18

July 31, 2018 - Ambrosia 12 Comments

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

” Though she had seen them together on many ocassions, this afternoon she sensed a new, palpable tension on the bowls court between the King and Thomas Wyatt. Jane was sure that the new embroidered declaration slashed across the Kings chest was only one example of royal response to it. The rivalry for Anne Boleyn has taken a bitter turn, and Anne played the kings declared refusal to choose her over the Queen like a champion, openly flirting with both of them until the Kings face was white with rage.” I, Jane pg 191 by Diane Haeger

Musing Monday 7/30/18

July 30, 2018July 30, 2018 - Ambrosia 2 Comments

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

Random Question: Is there anything you don’t like about reading?

I know this seems like a very silly question to ask a bunch of readers. However, I think even in the things we love there is always a little something we don’t like. An example for me is with my crochet, I LOVE it. I love everything about it, except when it comes time to weave in all the ends at the end of a project. This I HATE.

So when it comes to reading for me I dislike the fact that I have a hard time DNFing a book. I suppose that is more about me then reading itself but off the top of my head that is the biggest thing I don’t like about reading, lol. I just have this habit that it is very hard once I have committed to a book for me to say I just can’t finish it. I have this habit of saying, “Well I will give it one more chapter and see if it gets better” and then it will go “Well I am already 150 pages in I mean it would be sad to stop now…” and thus I get myself stuck in a book I really don’t like much, lol.

Book Review: Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

July 26, 2018 - Ambrosia Leave a comment

It’s New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany’s. And nice girls don’t, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irrepressibly ‘top banana in the shock department’, and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s a classic movie and to me also a classic book. I love diving into a classic once in a while. It is like having a chat with familiar old friends you don’t see too often.

As always I truly enjoyed this book. While I don’t re-read it very often I do sometimes worry that because I know the book so well I will be bored when I come around to it again, but I always manage to discover or feel something new about the characters as I read so it never feels stale. There are just some stories that will always stand the test of time. For me Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of those books that when someone asks me about a book they simply must read in their lifetime that I tell them about. Of course it seems more people are aware of the movie vs. the book and some come out a bit shocked from the book, but for me that is part of the fun. Holly is a little bit of a ninny head as my great gran would say, but I don’t care I still enjoy my time spent with her and probably always will.

My Gemstone Rating:

Teaser Tuesday 7/24/18

July 24, 2018July 22, 2018 - Ambrosia 15 Comments

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

“I was tired of living someone elses life. Since childhood, I had been told what to do, how to act, who to be. I had been instructed by other peoples expectations, their demands even their unspoken judgment, the only way to be happy was to become a carbon copy of the people around me. And for many years I was okay following their footsteps. I was okay showing up to my office job, wearing the suit, playing the role, but that was the thing; I was playing a role. I wasn’t actually being my true self.” ~ The Kindness Diaries by Leon Logothetis

The Purple Booker

Reading is…Bigger on the inside

Musing Monday 8/20/18

Teaser Tuesday 8/14/18

Musing Monday 8/13/18

Teaser Tuesday 8/7/18

Musing Monday 8/6/18

Book Review: A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet #1) by Madeleine L’Engle

Teaser Tuesday 7/31/18

Musing Monday 7/30/18

Book Review: Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Teaser Tuesday 7/24/18