Booking Through Thursday 5/27

This week's question...

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?
If you would like to join in on Booking Through Thursday, go to http://btt2.wordpress.com/

I am reading:
1. 2nd Chance by James Patterson with Andrew Gross- almost done with this one! Quite the page turner!
2. Winter Haven a Novel by Athol Dickson

Next I am going to be reading: 1st To Die by James Patterson!

I have boxes upon boxes of books in my apartment that I have yet to read. I also have 1st To Die by James Patterson, What to expect the first year, Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales Of A Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison, The Murderer's Daughters (a novel) by Randy Susan Meyers next to my bed. I have books all over my place and I need to work on that...

Teaser Tuesday 5/25

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• 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!

Here is my Tuesday Teaser:

"How they posed, even knowing that their lives were about to end. Even with the nooses wrapped around their necks." Pg 64 from the book 2nd Chance by James Patterson with Andrew Gross, book 2 in the Women's Murder Club book series.

Missing Oprah, Elizabeth Gilbert and Julia Roberts

I was very excited the other day when I saw on TV that Elizabeth Gilbert and Julia Roberts were going to be on Oprah that day discussing her book, the movie coming out and how Elizabeth Gilbert felt about Julia Roberts playing her in the movie! I was so looking forward to watching it! It was supposed to be on at 9pm:) And perhaps (there had to be!) getting to see a clip of the movie; it's suppose to be coming to theaters August of this year....then I fell asleep and didn't wake back up until 11:30pm! I was so mad! So my question is...did anybody watch it? How did it go? Is there a website I can go to to watch the show? If not I guess I'll survive...Lol. But I definitely want to read the book before I go see the movie.

Mailbox Monday 5/24

A couple days ago I did a no-no...I went to the library even though I have a book checked out ;D That night my husband came home and saw the bag of books from the library. He gave me a look but as I pulled a John Grisham book...he smirked. You can't keep getting more than you can read, babe. He said. But we finally reached an agreement: I won't get on him for all the Anime and graphic novels he gets if he won't point out that I always get more than I can read. I think that's a good deal:) Here is what I got from the library:
1. Try To Remember by Iris Gomez
2. The Best Short Plays of 1954-1955 edited by Margaret Mayorga
3. Whatever You Do, Don't Run by Peter Allison
4. Columbine by Dave Cullen
5. Testimony by Anita Shreve
Now, I am halfway through 2nd Chance by James Patterson and I keep thinking...What do I want to read next?? So many choices! So many books I want to read! So which comes next? I have no idea...some help in deciding would be nice:) Anyway, onto finishing up dinner (homemade turkey soup with dumplings) then laundry, vacuuming, dishes, giving my daughter a bath and a movie night with the hubby; we are going to watch Fight Club with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton:) Love those thrillers and suspense films, the ones that really make you think and get you to doubt if you have figured out the mystery or not:)

What Are You Reading? 5/23

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It has been a busy week for me...I, like everyone else have a lot to say about books but- when giving a review for a book, its hard to give a synopsis without giving the book away...at least for me. So it is new for me to give my book review without giving it away to other readers who want to read the and haven't. A new fun challenging hobby(?) for me. Anways... I finished Alex Cross Trial by James Patterson this week and gave my review on it. Which is at my other blog site bookjunkiemom09.wordpress.com. I am now onto Winter Haven, a novel by Athol Dickson, very good so far; sad but good. I am also reading 2nd Chance by James Patterson. I would love to go on but it is after midnight and I need to be up and out the door by 6am so have a great week everyone!

Sunday Salon 5/23

This week I finished The Alex Cross's Trial. if you would like to read my review on that book go to my other site: http://bookjunkiemom09.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/sunday-salon-and-my-catch-up-on-posts-day-523/ I also started reading 2nd Chance by James Patterson. I'm also thinking about starting Winter Haven a novel by Athol Dickson; a book for my 100+ book challenge, 21x12 and Christy Awards

My review on The Alex Cross Trial by James Patterson

Here is the link to amazon.com
First off, the cover for this book is very fitting.
The first few chapters actually don't do the usual in my opinion, you don't dive right into the mystery; you get a little background and groundwork done before you meet a couple of the main characters and the reason for the story. At first, that annoyed the living crud out of me. When I finally got to the chapter where he introduces Alex Cross' Grandfather and started getting into the main point of the book, I thought FINALLY! But then I remembered...there are those times when you can't just dive into it(the story), you do need some ground work at times.
I also like the fact that this book actually has some history in it as well. Which opened my eyes to the hatred and injustice black people had to put up back then. At times, the book made me mad and I wanted to scream WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? then I had to remind myself, this is a book Elisha, get a grip...or loosen it!! All in all, great book that opens your eyes and really makes you think about history at times as well.

W...W...W...Wednesdays 5/21

I just started taking part in this today, sounds like fun...plus another way to find great books and other great bloggers. And if you go to shouldbereading.wordpress.com, you'll find more, such as reading challenges, weekly challenges, book reviews and more. It is one of my favorite blog sites to go to personally. If you'd like to play along with the WWW Wednesdays, just click the button above.

* What are you currently reading?
* What did you recently finish reading?
* What do you think you’ll read next?

Here are my answers:
2nd Chance by James Patterson with Andrew Gross (Novel and thriller/suspense) and Winter Haven by Athol Dickson (a novel, also the winning Author of River Rising)

The Alex Cross Series by James Patterson

Try to Remember by Iris Gomez ( a novel) and A Plague Of Secrets by John Lescroart (Legal Thriller

12x12

The deal here is to read one novel each month. The brains behind this are two bloggers: Pizza's Book Discussion in '09 and FOMA's National 'Just Read More Novel's' Month '10. It's a great challenge. To find out more about the challenge and the rules/guidelines before you join, go to http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-reading-challenge-12-by-12-reading.html

Here is my list of novels so far:
1.Winter Haven by Athol Dickson
2. The Murder's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers
3. The Last Ember by Daniel Levin
4. East of the Sun by Julia Gregson
5. The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry
6. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
7. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
8. House Rules by Jodi Picoult
9. Try To Remember a novel by Iris Gomez
10. The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen
11. Second Time Around by Beth Kendrick

Booking Through Thursday 5/13

http://socratesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/05/book-through-thursday-who-influences.html

If you'd like to join in on Booking Through Thursday, just click the button above.



This week's question...

Are your book choices influenced by friends and family? Do their recommendations carry weight for you? Or do you choose your books solely by what you want to read?

My answer: I think it depends on who it is and where the advise/suggestion is coming from and if we have some of the same taste in books. But I have also gotten A LOT of good book suggestions from other bloggers.

A-Z Wednesday-N

Here is the link to this weeks Wednesday's Book Challenge:
http://socratesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/05/z-wednesday_12.html

And here is my answer for the week:
"Never Look Away" by Linwood Barclay

Its one of those true 'page turners, cant put it down. Really keeps you on your toes.

Here is the link to the book and all of its information:

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=BOOK&WRD=never+look+away

Reading Challenge on Shelfari.com

So I joined shelfari.com, a really fun website where you get your own bookshelf with the books you've read, want to read and are reading. As well as reviews/synopsis for books, you can chat with other people and authors and join discussions and challenges and make your own. Which is why I am writing this post. I have created a book reading challenge on shelfari.com via the group I joined 'Paging All Book Worms!'. The Challenge is to read the James Patterson's book series Women's Murder Club. To learn more about it and/or to join, go to:

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/about

It is titled" James Patterson-Women's Murder Club" It will be near the top.

A-Z Wednesday-M

I wanted to do my this other book, The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry but that starts with 'T'. So I am doing 'Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel' by Julia Keller.

In 1862, with the Civil War lapping at his doorstep, an Indianapolis inventor and businessman name Richard Jordan Gatling created the world's first working machine gun. He Naively hoped it would shorten or even eliminate war by reducing the number of soldiers needed to fight. The overwhelming effectiveness of a multiple-firing would, he reasoned, cause opponents, to throw in the towel. Instead, it kicked off a worldwide escalation in the armaments , business and opened a path toward modern gunnery, one that leads all the way to the AK-47.The Gatling Gun was the original weapon of mass destruction.

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Gatlings-Terrible-Marvel-Misunderstood/dp/0143115642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273096541&sr=1-1

Christy Awards Challenge

I was wandering around bookjourney.wordpress.com and came acroos the 'Christy Awards Challenge' so I took a look and I decided, "you know what, it has actually been MORE challenging for me to find Christian fiction books that interest me...I'm going to join this." I have no problem with Christian non-fiction and Christian help books,etc. But fiction books...ehhh.....
So this is going to be great for me. Widen my horizon, find some great books and some more favorite authors!

Even though I would love to do the 7th Tier, I don't have time for that! But I will put all of them on my TBR List! As long as it is! So I am going to stick to "Baby Steps: 1st Tier." Here are my choices:

1.The Rook by Steven James

2. By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer

3. Winter Haven by Athol Dickson

Go to either BookJourney.wordpress.com and look for the link 'Christy Awards Challenge' or go to http://www.christyawardschallenge.com/2009/11/christy-nominated-and-awarded-books.html to learn more and/or sign up for the challenge! But there are rules/guidelines:

Total Christian Fiction Newbie:

This is only for those who have read no Christian fiction before…the challenge is to read one book from any of the Christy Awards Winners!

Baby Steps

1st Tier – 2009 Favorite Category Read All Nominated Books 3-4 books
2nd Tier – Any ONE Years Favorite Category – 3-4 Books or mix 3-4 winners from any category

It’s All in the Winners
3rd Tier- 2009 Winners – 9
4th Tier- Any ONE Year’s Winners 7-9 or mix’n'match 7-9 winners

Dedicated

5th Tier – Read 2009/or ANY Year All Books 36-40 Books

Hardcore

6rd Tier – Read all the nominees in your favorite category
7th Tier – Read all of the winners in every category

The Christy Challenge–Perpetual Challenge
Read all of the books nominated and awarded the Christy challenge throughout the course of your lifetime.

Even though I would love to do the 7th Tier, I don't have time for that! But I will put all of them on my TBR List! As long as it is! So I am going to stick to "Baby Steps: 1st Tier." Here are my choices:

1.The Rook by Steven James

2. By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer

3. Winter Haven by Athol Dickson

4. Never Let You Go by Erin Healy

Sunday Salon- Book Reviews

So I decided to take part in a monthly post. You list all the books you have read in the month, and you can give a review of the books or not, or reviews on your favorite books; its up to you. To find out more about this and/or join in this, go to The Sunday Salon



Here is my tiny little list: (Do baby books count lol?!)

1. Loos Girl by Kerry Cohen- I would recommend this book. Very good. Not what you would think.
I give this a 4star ****
2. Letter to my daughter by Maya Angelou- wasn't a big fan of the book. I'm sure she is a delightful woman to sit and chat with over a pot of coffee, but I don't think I would buy any of her books, maybe flip through some of the pages. Sorry.
I give this a 2star **

A little more recent picture of myself ..a little over a year ago

Elisha wants you to check out a photo on MySpace in the The day we got Legally married album