Happy Haulidays

November 16, 201115 Comments

I’m entering and so can you! Chronicle Books is giving away $500 in books for one blogger, one commenter AND one charity. How awesome is that?!

If I win, one lucky commenter will win all of these books too. So, don’t forget to leave a comment. Increase your odds by entering yourself. Here are the rules.

The rules:

If you’re a blogger, write a blog post listing the Chronicle books you would love to win. $500 is the max that your stack could total.
Include in your post, what charity you would love to win their own Chronicle haul.
If you don’t have a blog, don’t worry. Just comment on a Haul-iday post. If a post you comment on wins the contest, you have a chance to win that same stack of books.
Contest ends December 2nd.

My charity: First Book

My Books: One Love-Adapted by Cedella Marley. Snow Baby: Finger Puppet Book. One Line a Day: A Five Year Memory Book. Eric Carle's Dream Snow Pop-Up Advent Calendar Eric Carle’s Dream Snow Pop-Up Advent Calendar. Peek-A-Who? Peek-a-Who. Follow the Star. A Dog is a Dog. Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. The Doorbells of Florence: Fictional Stories and Photographs. Skinny Dips:60 Recipes for Dips, Spreads, Chips, and Salsas on the Lighter Side of Delicious. TCM Classic Movie Trivia TMC Classic Movie Trivia. Mom's One Line a Day Mom’s One Line a Day.Love in Spoonfuls. Love Listography:Your Life in Lists. Audrey Hepburn: International Cover Girl. Brain Boot Camp. Why Did I Buy this Book?:Over 500 Puzzler, Teasers, and Challenges to Boost Your Brain Power. At Home with Michael Chiarello:Easy Entertaining:REcipes, Ideas, Inspiration. Happy Birthday! 8 Notecards & Envelopes. Jeffrey Fisher Literary Notecards. Eric Carle Wall Decals.Bon Appetit Recipe Binder. Blind Trust. Between the Bridge and the River. Smart on Crime.

Hope we win 🙂

Banned Books Week

September 26, 201110 Comments

This week is ALA’s Banned Book Week Virtual Read Out.

September 24−October 1, 2011

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

I don’t really understand banning books and am proud of all the organizations that stand up to any kind of censorship. Here’s a link to the 100 most challenged books from 2000-2009. Here are the 5 I understand the least.

1. The Harry Potter series – it’s fiction, people. It’s okay to tell young girls that a Prince will come rescue them or his kiss can break a spell by an evil witch and yet we can’t appreciate a story full of magic and courage?

2. To Kill a Mockingbird – Seriously, a story that teaches kids to stand up for right against wrong, no matter public sentiment, is dangerous?

3. Fahrenheit 452 – This book isn’t a favorite of mine but it is funny that a book about society’s loss of books and free thought should end up on this list.

4. A Time to Kill – The racial storyline is here as is the courtroom scenes about standing up for what’s right even at the risk of personal harm make it controversial like TKAM? I don’t know. Weird.

5. Bridge to Terabithia – Kids may be upset by the death, but this is one that could bring parents into a real conversation with their kids. Scary, right?

So, which one on the list surprises you the most?

My love affair with serial killers

September 2, 20119 Comments

Today over at Tea Time with Marce she wrote about how she is fascinated by serial killers. Well, I am too. I’m not sure when my love affair began, but I love getting into their twisty, sick minds for a little while. It’s so far from my reality that those minds intrigue me. Warped? Sure, why not.

Here are a few novels I’ve read that have memorable serial killers…

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It’s not so much the serial killer in this one but the whole book that I loved.

Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag. This is one of the earlier thrillers I read of this genre and I haven’t stopped since.

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver (and pretty much the whole Lincoln Rhyme series). I love Lincoln and he goes up against some of the most twisted minds ever.

Dead Sleep by Greg Iles. The premise of this one is that someone is posing models in death scenes, but are they really posed? Loved it.

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain. This is the first of a series and the only one I’ve read so far, but man is that woman crazy. One of the few women serial killers out there.

Think of a Number by John Verdon. This was a great way to start a series.

One nonfiction book that I really enjoyed was Mind Hunter:Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John Douglas. One of the first profilers talks about his interviews of famous serial killers and his pursuit of the worst of the worst. The Silence of the Lambs Jack Crawford is said to be based on Douglas. A really engrossing read.

And not to leave the big screen out here are a few memorable serial killers in film…

Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. I know it’s based on a book but I haven’t read it. Some of the images from this movie will stick with you for a while.

Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. A great movie, both a psychological thriller but also a gory horror flick.

John Doe in Se7ven. This was a great movie with a killer too creepy to forget.

Norman Bates in Psycho. Talk about creepy. Suspense at its best.

Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd. I didn’t like this movie and my nose is twitching in disgust as I’m typing this, but that was one sick barber!

So, I know I need to read the Dexter books and the Dan Wells trilogy. Any other books that you recommend to entertain my warped mind?

Thrill Week Survey

September 1, 2011September 1, 201113 Comments

Visit Tea Time with Marce to discover other thriller lovers.

The Thrill Ride Questionnaire

What is your favourite genre out of Thriller, Mystery, Suspense and Horror? Why?

Probably thrillers. I like the fast pace. But I also love mystery and suspense (honstly, I think of them as one category) too. Horror is my least favorite, but I do read a few books a year from this category.

Who are your top 3 authors in those genres?

Thriller-Harlan Coben, Greg Iles

Mystery- Agatha Christie (I’m a new fan), Shirley Tallman, T Jefferson Parker

Horror-Stephen King, Dean Koontz

Tell us who your favourite male and female authors are in the genre?

That’s way too hard of a question! You’ll have to settle with the above list.

What book do you remember loving but don’t remember the details? Maybe you should read it again now.

Can’t think of one right now.

What has been your favourite book this year so far:

Thriller Live Wire by Harlan Coben

Mystery The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

Suspense Heart Sick by Chelsea Cain

Horror Carrie by Stephen King

What series or trilogy would you recommend in these genres?

Thriller Harlan Coben’s Milan Bolitar series, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series

Mystery Les Roberts’s Milan Jacovich series, Kate White’s Bailey Weggins series

Suspense Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series, John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport series

Recommend 1 or 2 books that you think more around the blogosphere should read.

Anything that I’ve already listed could answer this question 🙂

What authors have you tried and look forward to reading more from them? Maybe we can give you suggestions on what to read from them.

I read the first Chelsea Cain book, Heart Sick, and loved it. I have the second on my shelves, waiting to be read. Really liked John Verdon’s fiorst two books.

What authors in the above genres are on your TBR list but you haven’t tried yet? Who should I read soon?

Laura Childs, Tom Franklin, John Hart, Grippnado, PD James, Jo Nesbo

Odds & Ends

August 27, 2011August 27, 20116 Comments

I contributed one post to the Agatha Christie Monthly Carnival. There are 12 other posts if you are interested in checking them out. Agatha is popular this summer!

Coming Soon Next week Tea Time With Marce is hosting Thrill Week for lovers of mysteries, thrillers, or horror lovers. I plan to join in and maybe you should too. She’s already giving stuff away!

And then after that it’s BBAW Week. I’m looking forward to do some judging next week (feel free to kiss up ;)) It’s always a great week.

Sundays with Gage – The Eyes Have It

August 14, 201116 Comments

Gage, like most white babies, was born with dark blue eyes. This week he’s turn 10 months old (can you believe it?!) and I was wondering if his eyes would stay the color they are now, a hazelly color. 2 grandparents and mom have brown eyes. One grandparent and dad have green eyes. Remaining grandparent has blue/green eyes. Here’s what I found, (link here)

Q. When will my baby’s eyes change color?

That is a common question from parents of infants. Will their baby’s eyes stay gray, which many babies are born with, or will they turn brown, green, or blue?

Most experts think that your baby’s eye color will either stay the same or will darken over the first six to nine months of her life. So gray or blue eyes can turn brown, green, or hazel, but brown eyes likely won’t lighten and become blue.

Unfortunately, you will likely just have to wait and see what they do.

Genetics and Eye Color

Another common question is how does a baby end up with blue eyes when both parents have brown eyes.

That can happen because the gene for blue eye color is recessive, which means that you need two genes for blue eyes to actually have blue eyes. On the other hand, the gene for brown eyes is dominant, so you only need one gene for brown eyes to have brown eyes. Therefore, if someone has one gene for blue eyes and one gene for brown eyes (we usually have two genes for most things like eye color, hair color, or height, getting one from each parent), the baby will have brown eyes.

But even if two parents have brown eyes, they could both have one gene for blue eyes. If they each pass this gene to their baby, then the baby will have two genes for blue eyes and will actually have blue eyes.

The gene for green eyes is also dominant over blue eye color, but is recessive to brown. So what color eyes could a baby have if one parent had green eyes and the other parent had brown eyes? Since the genetics of eye color is quite complex and poorly understood, the real answer is that the baby could have almost any eye color from hazel to blue.

So, it’s anybody’s guess. His eyes do look dark in photos, but they are not a true brown. Yet.

Compare these 2 pics I took on Friday. I’m thinking they may end up closer to my color than Jason’s.

How long did it take for you or your child’s eyes to reach their permanent color?

Book Problem, Year 4

May 28, 2011May 29, 201123 Comments

Every May for the past few years I’ve stacked up all of of my unread books (always the same way) and taken a picture to share with you all. In May 2008 my stack looked like this. My post lamenting my problem in May 2009 is here. Last year’s picture is here with its 407 books plus those 5 box tops I did not count.

So, when I recreated the stacks this year I was happy to discover that I’d read 32. I think that’s pretty good considering how my reading time has suffered this past year. I gave away or will give away 24 more. I even took out a whole box of books from the bottom and have been giving them away this year. This was what it looked like with all of those books gone.

So, I was feeling good. Until I added in the books I bought or received this year, which was 104.

So, the grand total of unread books, when I add in the 149 from the boxes that I didn’t include last year is…

604!

To get to this number I pulled out 15 old titles that I know I will never read and will be giving them away on June 1st, so come back for that.

So, c’mon, fess up. How many books do you have sitting around waiting to be read?

2010 Series Wrap Up

December 23, 2010December 22, 20107 Comments

I love a good series. I especially love a series that ends with me wanting more rather than me plodding through the same plot over and over again. I keep track of my series reading here, only adding a series once I’ve read the second book.

I continued with Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series (The Burning Wire) and John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport series (Storm Prey). I’ve read every book in both of these series, 29 in all, and highly recommend them. I caught up on the Melinda Wells’ Delilah Cooks mystery series and love that one as well. I also finished up the Merci Rayborn trilogy by T. Jefferson Parker and can’t recommend it enough to police procedural lovers.

I continued on with Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher series and it is a new favorite. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series and I have a lot of good reading to look forward to since I just finished #4 out of the 14 book series. I decided this was the year I would finally give up on Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum. This is one series that I used to love, but has been recycling the same story over and over again. Enough was enough for me and I didn’t read the latest.

I re-read a favorite series of mine, Brenda Joyce’s Deadly series. The first one in years is coming out in 2011. A great series for historical romance readers.

I read a few books that have sequels or are the beginning of a series and I plan to continue with…Love Walked in by Marisa de los Santos, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, The Tea Room by Jennifer Donnelly, Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, The Sleeping Doll by Jeffery Deaver, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, and Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner. Wow, that’s more than I thought!

There are a few series that I read the first book of and am not interested enough to continue…The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber, Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella, and Fortunate Harbor by Emilie Richards.

I’m hoping that I can catch up with the series that I’ve already started and read fewer new ones in 2011. I enjoy so much about series reading, it’s like catching up with old friends, but I need to keep in touch with the friends I already have before adding more to my list!

So what’s the difference between Best and Favorite?

July 10, 20109 Comments

I love lists. When I see a list of best books or best movies I always have to take a look and see how many of them I’ve read or watched. Many times such a list is full of selections that are on there for a specific reason, like it was groundbreaking or the perfect example of the time, and once I have read or watched it I can usually see why it made the list. In 1998 when the American Film Institute can out with its list of 100 Years 100 Movies Jason and I took the next 10 years and watched them all. We even did our own rankings. I liked so many of them, but when I compiled my own list of favorite movies, most of them didn’t make the cut. Because favorite means I made some kind of emotional connection (no matter how superficial) and it always means I have watched it more than once. That’s the test for me. If I’m not interested in watching it again, no matter how much I liked it, it will not make the list. So, when I review a movie from my Top 100 List I always watch it again. There have been a few times that I then decided I didn’t want it on the list (well, twice). As for books, I have not read every book on my Top 100 List twice, but I am working on it slowly.

Do you think there’s a difference between best and favorite?

And I may as well address my rating system for books since it seems like a good time. My ratings are as follows…

***** Perfect!

**** Nearly Perfect. You should read it.

*** Average. Read it if the topic or author interests you.

** This was pretty bad.

* I only finished this so that I could enter it on the blog.

I always rate a book and put it right at the top of my review. But these ratings are so subjective they should really only be a starting point. Timing is everything. I am sure my mood influences rating as does my expectation. If I expect it to be perfect and it’s only good, well, my disappointment may show up in the star count.

Genre books are different. If I give a mystery book 5 stars, that means it was the perfect mystery, it couldn’t have been done any better in my opinion. I am not judging it against a non-fiction book about the horrors of war or a novel about the meaning of life. So, I guess whatever category the book falls under, always listed after my rating, makes a difference in its rating too.

I may go back and change a rating, but only if I rated it recently. I am not going back two years and re-evaluating. I know bloggers have and I applaud you, but for me, how I felt just after I read it is probably more accurate. Especially since my memory sometimes fails me 🙂

Still with me? Thanks for reading my bookish thoughts today 🙂

Donating Books

March 13, 201015 Comments

I have two purposes for this post. The first is to thank giveaway hosts and to accept donations from any of you who would like to donate to a good cause. The second is to share info on this very cool book that I won from Dawn at She is Too Fond of Books. This may be long because I’m in a rambling mood.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned New Clevelanders, a welcome group for ladies who move to the east side of Cleveland. We’ve lived here almost 10 years now and I’ve been involved with New Clevelanders for 8 of those years. The great thing about this social group is that they never kick you out 🙂 When you move without kids or a job it is very difficult to meet people so this group was essential to my mental health. There are around 150 members right now and I’m in my fifth year on the board, my second year publishing the 8 page monthly newsletter. It is mainly a place to make friends, so many of the activities are for fun, but once a year we have a British Tea at a country club where we drink tea, dine on some delicious food and raise money for a local charity. Last year we raised over $11,000 for the Karen P Nakon Breast Cancer Foundation. We mainly raise the money by silent auctions on many donated items. I always donate a Mary Kay basket, but there are big ticket items like Cleveland Cavs tickets, Florida condos for a week, etc.

I have been blessed to win many books over the past few months from many of you awesome book bloggers. I decided to keep only a few a donate the rest for a nice basket of books to be auctioned or raffled off for the British Tea. This year we are raising money for Providence House, a crisis nursery offering emergency shelter to children. So, I want to thank all of you who have randomly chosen me as the winner of your book giveaways 🙂

Interested in New Clevelanders? Click on over. Do you have a new book that you’d like to donate to the cause? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me and I’ll get you my address. I have about 3 weeks before I need it done.

Now on to my second book donation topic. I won Give + Take from Dawn and there are were a few rules. Concord Free Press published this book for free and they only ask that you donate to a charity in the amount of your choice. Then you read the book and pass it on to someone who agrees to do the same. I have made my donation to The City Mission on Cleveland that do amazing things for the homeless, the poor, the addicted. I volunteered there a few years ago by sorting the donated clothes once a week and I have the greatest respect for the place. So, I made my donation and logged it on the website. Next week I plan to read the book and then pass it along. If you would like to be the next person to read this book, make a donation, and pass it on, let me know.

Stacy's Books

books, movies, and boy

Category: Bookish Stuff