Friday Blog Hop-April Fools!

 

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy-For-Books and  is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word!  This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read!

This week's question is:


 "Since today is April Fool's Day in the USA, what is the best prank you have ever played on someone OR that someone has played on you?"


Ok, so when I was around 13 or 14 my cousins came up from California. Only, they didn't tell anyone they were coming. My older cousin had a 6 mo old baby that none of us had met yet. They left the baby on the porch, knocked the door and took off (it was summer, warm and we were clearly home as the garage was open). I opened the door to find a random infant on my porch. My mom FREAKED out! My brother and I were begging her to keep it. She was about to call the police when my cousin came back. My mom was so mad but I thought it was fun once I got over the fact that I wasn't getting a new little sister. 

Thanks for hopping by! 
 

Theme Thursday- Animals

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event hosted by Reading Between the Pages that will be open from one Thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)

 This week's theme is: ANIMAL

My theme post this week comes from Delirium by Lauren Oliver (pg 329)

 

"Above us, a frantic sound of fluttering: bats, disturbed by the sound of his voice. I let out a little squeak of fear. Mice? Fine. Flying mice? Not so fine."

Review: Love You More by Lisa Gardner

WHO DO YOU LOVE?

One question, a split-second decision, and Brian Darby lies dead on the kitchen floor. His wife, state police trooper Tessa Leoni, claims to have shot him in self-defense, and bears the bruises to back up her tale. For veteran detective D. D. Warren it should be an open-and-shut case. But where is their six-year-old daughter?

AND HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO . . .

As the homicide investigation ratchets into a frantic statewide search for a missing child, D. D. Warren must partner with former lover Bobby Dodge to break through the blue wall of police brotherhood, seeking to understand the inner workings of a trooper’s mind while also unearthing family secrets. Would a trained police officer truly shoot her own husband? And would a mother harm her own child?

. . . TO SAVE HER?

For Tessa Leoni, the worst has not yet happened. She is walking a tightrope, with nowhere to turn, no one to trust, as the clock ticks down to a terrifying deadline. She has one goal in sight, and she will use every ounce of her training, every trick at her disposal, to do what must be done. No sacrifice is too great, no action unthinkable. A mother knows who she loves. And all others will be made to pay. 
-Synopsis taken from Goodreads

I have never read any of Lisa Gardners book as I don't tend to read a ton of crime/mystery/suspense novels. However when an ARC of her new book Love You More arrived on my doorstep last week, I couldn't not read it. I'm glad I did. 


Through the entire book, you are unsure whether Tessa Leoni is the good guy or the bad guy but despite that I felt an immediate connection to her. This is a woman who is dedicated to her daughter, that much is certain (most of the time). As a mother myself I related to her in that this woman was willing to move heaven and endure hell for the sake of her kid, just as I or any decent mother would do. When it started to look like she was the bad guy I was still rooting for her. I wanted Detective D.D to find something to clear her because I was having a hard time believing this woman would harm her child. The last 150 pages or so had me riveted as all the events start to come together. 


This book was a bit like an onion, there are layers after layers of this story that are continually peeled back as you keep reading. There were many moments that I would tell myself 'one more chapter than I do dishes' but then some new piece of information would come to light and I'd have keep reading or else drive myself crazy with wonder. 


I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a riveting crime thriller or even just an engrossing read and I'm sure to pick up another of Lisa Gardner's books in the future. 

Disclaimer- I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from the final days of Afghanistan’s monarchy to the atrocities of the present.
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption. And it is also about the power of fathers over sons -- their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
 
The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner tells a sweeping story of family, love, and friendship against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, bringing to mind the large canvasses of the Russian writers of the nineteenth century. But just as it is old-fashioned in its narration, it is contemporary in its subject -- the devastating history of Afghanistan over the past thirty years. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful debut. -Synopsis taken from Goodreads


I devoured this book. Like, started reading around noon and just finished at 10 P.M. When I started, I wasn't really feeling it. I found myself getting easily distracted and finding excuses to go do something else. I'm not sure exactly where the turning point was, but eventually I found myself unable to put it down. My son had a doctor appointment and I took the book with me, thankful for once that the doc was running behind, allowing me to knock out 40-50 pages while we waited. I came home and read but kept telling myself 'when I get to 200 pages, I'll stop and do something else'. Then it was 250, 300 and then I was done. I haven't pushed through a novel like that it a very long time. 


I will say that this book made me mad more than anything. I would get very, very mad and then  horribly sad and heartbroken and then just when I thought my emotions were subsiding a little, something else would make me mad again. Several portions of the book made me question my faith in humanity. It bothers me so much to hear the acts of depravity that others are willing to inflict on others, even when it's only fictional. The 'bad guy' Assef does some despicable things in this book. However, it was Amir's crimes against Hassan that bothered me most of all. Like I said, Assef iss the bad guy, you expect him to do awful things. Amir is supposed to be Hassan's friend and yet he betrays him at every opportunity. Better to be stabbed in the front by an enemy than in the back by a friend.

I had a hard time ever connecting to Amir because he was the worst kind of coward. Even as he tries to atone in the end, it seemed sort of 'too little too late'. He was thrust into the conflict with Assef in the end and would have even left Sohrab there with the American couple if they hadn't been made up.  If it hadn't been for Rahim, Amir would have just got back on the plane to America and left poor little Sohrab in the orphanage to rot. I just had a hard time buying this big quest for redemption when he'd basically been forced into it. 


All in all, this book still gave me an emotional sucker-punch to the gut, grabbing me and refused to let me go.

Friday Blog Hop- Book Living

 

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy-For-Books and  is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word!  This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read!

This week's question is:

 "If you could physically put yourself into a book or series…which one would it be and why?"

I'm going to go with what is sure to be a popular answer and say Harry Potter. It would be awesome to do magic and I would totally Avada Kedavra to attend school at Hogwarts.  

Thanks for hopping by!

Theme Thursday- Building

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event hosted by Reading Between the Pages. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  
  

This will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

This week’s theme is –  BUILDING

This week my theme comes from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (pg. 23)

"The air around the houses was of so strong a piscatory flavor that one might have supposed sick fish went p to be dipped in it, as sick people went down to be dipped in the sea." 

Thanks for stopping by!

Review: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory - the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her "stand-in mother."
When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of, toward a town called Tiburon, South Carolina - a name she found on the back of a picture amid the few possessions left by her mother.

There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most.
-Synopsis taken from Goodreads.

I thought this was a sweet little story. Lily is just a lost little girl, struggling with her need for family. Her mother had been taken from her in a tragic accident and her father is cruel and unfeeling. Her only friend, Rosaleen, is the woman her father pays to take care of her.My heart broke for this poor little girl in the beginning but I cheered at the growth she underwent throughout the book. 

I loved the Boatwright sisters. Each one had a unique personality and voice. I loved their strength. These women are dealing with incredible oppression but they never once play the victim role. They just go about their lives working to overcome their circumstance. I felt a kinship with May. I don't feel things quite so personally as she does but I do cry at the drop of a hat. Anything overly sad or even happy endings make me tear up like I'd just sliced open an onion. June was a tougher nut to crack but deep down, she's just like the rest of us, scared of being hurt. Then there was August. August is the type of woman I hope to be one day. She's smart, caring, and thoughtful without being overbearing. By the end of the book, I wanted to be adopted into this pink house filled with great women.

I loved the idea that a family doesn't have to be the one you're born into. That a sense of family can develop despite age, race, gender or any other circumstance. As the Beatles said 'all you need is love'. This book was all about finding love, forgiveness and family, sometimes in the most unlikely of places.

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Pet Peeves

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. 

This week's list is all your bookish pet peeves!

1. Stickers on my books! It's one thing if I can easily pull the sticker off but I DESPISE being stuck with a large '50% off' sticker forever covering the face on the cover. Even worse is when you try to pull it off and the top half comes off, leaving you with that lovely sticky white residue. UGH! I've used post-its and I know the technology is out there to make easily removed stickers so get on with it booksellers! 

2. Vampires! I personally have nothing against vampires themselves. I've read and enjoyed quite a few vampire books. However, I am SO over the recent proliferation of vamp lit. I swear sometime I think my 5 year old could write a novel and as long as she mentioned a hot vamp it would be a bestseller. (Hmm, might be a good way to pay for her college now that I think of it.)

3. Dog Ears. By my own admission, I am not a neat freak. Anyone who has been to my house could attest to that. When it comes to books I am a bit more particular. I like my books, neat and pretty and dog eared pages are NOT pretty! Seriously. buy a book mark or as I often do, grab a candy wrapper, spare piece of paper, little bit of string, etc etc. 

4. Bad Movie Adaptations. This is a love/hate issue for me as I am a big sucker for movie adaptations. If I see a movie and find out it's a book, I must seek it out and read it. If hear they are making a movie out of a book I loved I get beyond excited to see the story come to life. Unfortunately, too often I am let down. I understand that condensing a 300-500 pages novel into a 2 hour movie is difficult but when the end product is laughable at best and unrecognizable at worst it makes my heart sad. 

5. No quotations or punctuation to signify speech. Luckily, this isn't a huge problem but it's becoming a fad and that bothers me. I hate when I can't tell if the person is thinking or speaking and I have to interrupt the flow of my reading to go back and clarify what is going on. The good Lord created quotations for a reason people, let's use them! 

6. Too Much Coincidence. This one really, really bugs me and I feel it;s a bit of a cop-out. A little coincidence is fine to help the story along. However, when whatever your character needs happens to fall into their lap, it pushes the bounds of credulity. Jane Eyre threatened to push that envelope a little there, especially in the end, but the rest was so fantastic I let it slide. 

7. Perfect Characters. If you've read many of my reviews, you'll know that I am NOT a fan of perfect characters. No one is perfect, so when I read 300 pages of someone who can do no wrong it bugs me. Not to mention, perfection is boring and allows for no growth. Bring on the flawed individuals! I can relate to them.

8. Series That Continue Ad Nauseam Just To Eek Out More Revenue.  This really bothers me when the main story line never gets wrapped up just so the author can continue to put those characters in increasingly unbelievable situations just to make a few more bucks. Yeah, that's irritating.

9. Ridiculous Recaps. This is a big thing in series. To try and make it a stand alone book, the author feels the need to spend the first 2-3 chapters basically recapping the previous books. I don't know about you but I rarely pick up book #2 or #3 of a series without reading the first books. By books 2 & 3 I know what's up, a small rundown is all I need.

10. Teeny Tiny Text No real explanation is necessary here. I have been blessed with great eyesight. I'd like to keep it that way. Thanks!

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.  synopsis taken from Goodreads


I couldn't resist picking this book up because the cover is just so dang pretty and I'm glad I did. The plot reminded me alot of The Hunger Games, which i loved, with it's dystopian society and female main character torn between her two guys.   I didn't really feel the connection between Cassia and either guy. She and Xander have a 'just friends' type relationship and even after being matched, there is never any real heat between them. Ky isn't even on Cassia's radar until his face flashes on the screen so why the sudden draw? It just seemed as though she sought him out because of the glitch and not out of genuine interest. I understand curiosity but it only takes you so far. As the relationship progresses I begin to understand the draw of him a little more but still there is no real connection that I could feel that went any deeper than friendship.  So, the love triangle aspect fell a little short for me and I found myself more intrigued by the different aspects of the society than the characters themselves.

I did enjoy the book, though not as much as The Hunger Games. Not sure why exactly, it just didn't draw me in as much. A great book is one that I can't hardly put down, that I'll stay up way too late reading and carry around with me to read as I do my chores. Matched wasn't quite there for me but was a good book nonetheless and i will likely grab book #2 when it comes out and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the genre.

Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I decided to check out this book because it seemed that everyone was reading it and apparently I am a sucker for peer pressure. This is another one I read awhile back so please bear with me.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater is the story of a Grace and Sam. Grace is a normal 17 year old girl with disinterested parents and Sam is a werewolf whose changes are regulated by the temperature.

The story is told in alternating POV's through Grace and Sam's eyes. I thought the differing POV's was interesting and lets you see the whole story from different angles. I enjoyed the book but in the end I wasn't floored by it and it didn't suck me in. Not sure what it was about it that didn't grab me but something was missing. I think I will likely pick up the second book in the series at some point but I'm not rushing out to buy it either.

Friday Blog Hop- Mar 18

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy-For-Books and  is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word!  This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read!

This week's question is:

 "Do you read only one book at a time, or do you have several going at once?"

I am normally a monogamous book reader since I can read a regular sized book in a couple of days. However, if I'm reading something big, epic, and incredibly long I will read another book along with it to break it up a little and give me a little variety. 

Thanks for hopping by! 

Theme Thursday- Crockery/Utensils

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event hosted by Reading Between the Pages. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  
  

This will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

This week’s theme is – CROCKERY / UTENSIL

My snippet this week comes from Love You More by Lisa Gardner

"She was camped at his kitchen table, clutching a thick clay coffee mug while counting slowly to twenty." pg 6

 Be sure to leave a link so I can check out your theme post!

Review: How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters, and the pull of tradition. It tells the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American GI, and her grown daughter, Sue, a divorced mother whose life as an American housewife hasn't been what she'd expected. When illness prevents Shoko from traveling to Japan, she asks Sue to go in her place. The trip reveals family secrets that change their lives in dramatic and unforeseen ways. Offering an entertaining glimpse into American and Japanese family lives and their potent aspirations, this is a warm and engaging novel full of unexpected insight- Synopsis taken from Goodreads

I really enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and the language of the book made me feel as if I was there. I adored the relationship between Sue and her mother Shoko. Except for the accent, Shoko sounded just like my own mother. I swear I've heard the same type of comments or advice from my mom and I bet a lot of women would recognize a bit of their relationship to their mother in Shoko and Sue. I loved that as Sue and her daughter go to Japan and start understanding more of their Japanese roots that they seem to understand and find a bit of themselves there as well. It's a beautiful story and I totally recommend it.

Top Ten Tuesday: Fictional Families

This week's topic: 

Characters I'd Want As Family Members 

I had to think long and hard about this one, especially because ten family members seem a bit excessive for me but I managed. So, here is my fictional family. 

Image from Entertainista.com

 10 & 9 Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter: Big Brothers 

 Yes, I'm running the risk of massive amounts of teasing and pranks but come on! How fun would they be to have around? No boredom with these two around. 

Image via Wikipedia

8. Jane Eyre- Big Sister 

She's smart and sweet and basically just a really good person. Who better to look up to as a big sister.

Image via Wikipedia

7. Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games- Big Sister

On the other end of the spectrum, Katniss is a bad-ass big sister. You know she's totally got your back and would take a bullet (or a televised fight to the death) for you.

Image via Wikipedia

6. Alice from Alice in Wonderland - Little Sister

She's totally cute and the kid has a fantastic imagination. How much fun would it be to just sit and listen to her tales from Wonderland. 


 

Image by CityTalk via Flickr

5. Henry and Clare from The Time Traveler's Wife- Family Friends

I don't want to deal with Henry's 'disability' all the time but I could totally hang out with them and if Henry wanted to visit me from the future and give me some awesome stock tips... well I wouldn't turn my nose up at it.

Image via Wikipedia

4. 90 (or 93) year old, Jacob Jankowski from Water for Elephants- Grandpa

He's funny and feisty and everything that is great about old guys. I love me a crotchety old man and old Jacob totally exemplifies that. If he was my grandpa I would have remembered to come and take him to the circus! 

Image from Flickster

 3. Noah Calhoon from The Notebook- Husband
Blame my real husband for my cheesy fictional pick. My hubby is great but romance is not his strong suit. So, when choosing my fictional hubby, I had to go with the super romantic Noah on this one. Pining for years is one thing but standing by you when you've lost your marbles and reading to you to bring you back, that's love.

Image from Yahoo Movies

2. Marmee March from Little Women- Mom

Moms are dedicated, loving, kind, and able to focus in emergency situations. Marmee is all these things and more. Can you find a better example of motherhood?

  1. Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird- Dad

'Nuff said. I don't think I have to explain this choice. If you don't get it then you clearly need to pick up this book.






Who is in your fictional family??