I Love Fall Quiz – guessing closed

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Fall has always been my favorite time of year.  I love the colors, the smells, the football and the fact that my birthday, wedding anniversary and Gage’s birthday all happen during October doesn’t hurt.  I think you’ll be able to fill in these titles with words I associate with the season.

FIRST TIMERS ALWAYS WELCOME!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

1. The Cider House Rules by John Irving

2. Eats, Shoots & Leavesby Lynne Truss

3. Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke

4. The Angel and the Rake by Barbara Cartland

5. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

6. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

7. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

8. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

9. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield

10. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Last week’s Highest Paid Author Quiz here.  Leaderboard here.

Sundays with Gage- a tough decision

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Max is nine years old.  We rescued him from a shelter when he was somewhere around one.  He is a terrier mix with lots of energy.  He has been a great dog and we love him very much.  Unfortunately, when two high-strung characters live in the same house sometimes it’s just too much insanity.  In March I wrote about some of the problems Max was having with a running Gage and I tried my best to keep them relatively separated unless I was right there.  A few weeks ago I was right there when Gage decided to fall onto a resting Max.  Max jumped up and growled and bared his teeth in Gage’s face for what seemed like forever.  I yelled, Gage cried, and Max was confused.  It was later that I would cry as I saw the need to try a separation.

Max loves Gage, but he has his limits.  Gage will be two next month and doesn’t understand limits.  So, I asked my parents if they would be foster parents for Max until spring and they said yes.  Knowing that Max will be spoiled and loved is a big consolation, but the bigger one is knowing that I can change my mind anytime.  My parents visit often and now Max will be visiting with them and we’ll see how it goes.

This was last Sunday before Max left.  They can be friends and I want Max back home as soon as possible, but that being said, not having the constant stress this week has been nice.

The house feels empty without Max and I miss him, but it was the best decision for right now even if it was a hard one.

Stolen Prey by John Sandford

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Stolen Prey: Lucas Davenport Series, Book 22Finished audio 9-14-12, rating 3.5/5, thriller, pub. 2012

Unabridged audio narrated by Richard Ferrone

Lucas Davenport series #22.  (book 17) (book 18) (book 19) (book 20) (book 21)

Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Wayzata, an entire family has been killed—husband, wife, two daughters, dogs.

There’s something about the scene that pokes at Lucas’s cop instincts—it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit.

Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life. (Goodreads)

I’ve read all 22 books of this police thriller series and, for me, this is one of the weakest.  It started off strong, with one of the more violent and bloody scenes I’ve read from Sandford and had potential with three assassins running around town killing people, but there was disconnect with the convoluted banking storyline.   I missed Weather but loved the story with his daughter, especially the end.

I still recommend the series and I will still continue to visit with Lucas every year.  He’s still a great wounded hero doing good even if sometimes he must be bad.

This is a great series for those who love police procedurals, but please start at the beginning since I think they are the strongest books.

I checked this audio out of the library.

The Annual Highest Paid Author Quiz – guessing closed

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Every year I do a quiz on the highest paid authors for the pat year (May 2011-June 2012 according to Forbes magazine).  I’m guessing that a lot of you saw the list and now we’ll see how much you remember.  Only one guy, the one at the top, is in the same spot.  In the past I’ve had you rank them in the correct order, but I’m always surprised at how hard that it, so I’m making it a little easier this time around.  I’m giving you the correct order and the initials (see how generous I can be?) and you just have to figure out who the author is.  Easy right?

FIRST TIMERS ALWAYS WELCOME!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

1. JP – James Patterson $94 m

2. SK – Stephen King $39m

3. JE – Janet Evanovich $33m

4. JG – John Grisham $26m

5. JK – Jeff Kinney $25m

6. BO – Bill O’Reilly $24m

7. NR – Nora Roberts $23m

7. DS – Danielle Steel $23m

8. SC – Suzanne Collins $20m

9. DK – Dean Koontz $19m

10. JKR – JK Rowling $17m

11. GRRM – George RR Martin $15m

12. SM – Stephenie Meyer $14

12. KF – Ken Follett $14m

13. RR – Rick Riordan $13m

Answers to last week’s Dyslexia quiz here.  Leaderboard & rules here.

I’m creeping along the IT-along

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So, I signed up for the IT-along because Jill tempted me with all of her fun clown posts and I happened to have a copy waiting on my shelves.  I do not have time to read such a long book (1090 pages in my paperback edition) but I was feeling the clown love, what can I say?

I did not make it halfway.  The goal was to be done reading 608 pages and I have read 408.  The main reason is that every time I start reading I feel like taking a nap.   I’m not sure what this means yet.  Either I need more sleep (probably) OR King needs an editor (maybe).

A few thoughts/questions-

Did parents really give their kids so much freedom in the 50’s?  I’m guessing that they did and it makes me a little sad that all of our kids now come equipped with gps in the way of cell phones.  Our neighbor’s ten-year old son was the last kid in his class to get a cell phone.  Makes me feel old!  The kids in this book have aware parents (especially love Mike’s dad) but the kids run free.

I have never known anyone named Richie or Eddie and after 400 pages I’m pretty sure I’m still confusing the two and somehow melding them into one chauffeur loving DJ.  There just may be one or two (or 20) extra characters.

I don’t dislike birds, but yesterday soon after I read about Mike’s encounter with that bird-beast, I brought Gage back from a walk and there was a bird flying around our garage, trying to get out.  I don’t know who was more upset, me or the confused bird.

My favorite character is Ben.

I’m liking IT so far and am pretty sure I’ll be able to catch up and finish by next month.  I’m still working on an IT quiz but it’s proving to be quite a challenge.

So, have you read IT?

Night-Night with Gage

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Gage loves his books.  He has an extensive library (his dad has sadly accepted that our house will always be overrun with books) and spends a lot of his day looking through his favorites.  Our one ritual is a night-night book.  It’s the last thing we do before going to bed and the book must end in the chance for Gage to say night-night.  Here are the three usual suspects…

The Bed Book by Harriet Ziefert was sent to us in a box of books from the most awesome Jill of Rhapsody in Books.  The illustrations are completely dated and I wasn’t too impressed with it.  At least at first.  Gage loves this one.  He can recognize and name most of what he finds in the pictures.  I actually think this will be a great one to teach him to read since there are simple words often repeated.

Gage’s absolute favorite was sent to him from the lovely Kathy of BermudaOnion’s Weblog when he was born.  Baby Baby Baby by Marilyn Janovitz has repetition that asks for action, “Bitsy bouncy baby On a bumpity lap Mommy’s little baby likes to CLAP CLAP CLAP!” It’s long and there’s lots to do.  When it’s time to Dance, Dance, Dance, he’s loves to laugh at mama dancing her silly head off.  Our copy is very well-worn from use.

 

 

 

 

 

And the last book is The Big Sleep Book by Guido Van Genechten that I picked up at a library sale.  This one has great illustrations and lots of animals.  Gage likes to tell the rhino laying on his back to get “UP!”  He gets a little bored in the middle but he still loves it.

So, is there a good night-night book that you’d recommend?  (we had Goodnight Moon, but haven’t seen it in months?!)  And aren’t generous bloggers awesome?

Bloggiesta Ole!

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Fall is a busy time of year with school starting and with a number of other  blogging events going on, but we wanted to give everyone some  time to focus on those small tasks that fall by the wayside during busy times.  Bloggiesta is the perfect event to check off those to-do lists and also get  inspiration going into the wintry months! It’s also a great opportunity to  connect with other bloggers you may have not met before or haven’t talked to in  awhile. We’d love to have anyone interested to join in the fun!

I love to blog, but everyone who has a blog knows how time-consuming it can be.  I struggle to read, post and visit my other bloggy friends and I don’t have time to work on the basics of blog upkeep.  Two and half years ago I participated in my one and only Bloggiesta and accomplished and learned so much.  I think that year the biggest thing I learned and accomplished was how to back-up my blog.  Of course, this was BG (Before Gage) so I will not have as much time this go around, but I plan to join in as much as I can. My blog layout needs a little TLC and I can at least manage a mini-challenge or two.

It’s the weekend of September 28-30th, so hop on over to There’s a Book to sign up.  Your blog will thank you for it!

Jane:The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell

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Jane: The Woman Who Loved TarzanJane. Finished 9-11-12, rating 3.75/5, fiction, 320 pages, pub.2012

Cambridge, England: 1905. Jane Porter is hardly a typical woman of her time. The only female student in Cambridge University’s medical program, she is far more comfortable in a lab coat, dissecting corpses, than she is in a corset and gown, sipping afternoon tea. A budding paleoanthropologist, Jane dreams of travelling the globe in search of fossils that will prove the evolutionary theories of her scientific hero, Charles Darwin.

When dashing American explorer Ral Conrath invites Jane and her father on an expedition deep into West Africa, she can hardly believe her luck. Rising to the challenge, Jane finds an Africa that is every bit exotic and fascinating as she has always imagined. But she quickly learns that the lush jungle is full of secrets—and so is Ral Conrath. When danger strikes, Jane finds her hero, the key to humanity’s past, and an all-consuming love in one extraordinary man: Tarzan of the Apes.

Jane is the first version of the Tarzan story written by a woman and authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. Its 2012 publication will mark the centennial of the publication of the original Tarzan of the Apes.  (from Goodreads)

I know next to nothing about the Tarzan story.  I vaguely remember seeing him fly vine by vine through the jungle in black in white as a kid flipping through channels.  And that’s it.  So, when I was offered a chance to learn his story from a viewpoint that interested me, I was excited.  I was pleasantly surprised at this telling of Jane’s story.

Jane is highly educated, opinionated and more progressive than her peers.  More interested in bones than marriage, she is the first woman to attend Cambridge Medical School and eager to join her father on one of his expeditions, much to her mother’s horror.  Father and daughter depart for the African jungle hoping to find the missing Darwin gene and instead find treachery, death, lies and separation.  When Jane is rescued by Tarzan she moves beyond the typical heroine and becomes a woman and scientist discovering passion for the first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jane’s adventures and Tarzan’s primal heroism and know that this is the closest I’ll ever get to an expedition such as this one.  With that said, adventure stories aren’t really my thing so there were small chunks of jungle time that I found myself skimming, but this is not a judgement on the storytelling, only on my reading habits.

This book was authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate and is timed to celebrate the first publication of Tarzan 100 years ago.  Burroughs even makes an appearance at the beginning and end of the book.

As a newbie to Tarzan and Jane, I was totally captivated by their world and plan to check out more of Robin Maxwell’s novels about historical women.

Thanks to PR by the Book for getting this book in my hands.  Isn’t the cover cool?

Dyslexic Authors Quiz – guessing closed

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I was flipping through a book and found a list of famous people who suffered from dyslexia, a variable often familial learning disability involving difficulties in acquiring and processing language that is typically manifested by a lack of proficiency in reading, spelling, and writing (from Merriam-Webster).  It made me curious about authors who may suffer from this condition and after a little investigating I was surprised at the authors I found on this list.  Let’s see if you are too.

FIRST TIMERS ALWAYS WELCOME!

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling! The person with the most points this round will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

1. “The diagnosis of dyslexia wasn’t available in the late fifties -bad spelling like mine was considered a psychological problem by the language therapist who evaluated my mysterious case. When the repeated courses of language therapy were judged to have had no discernible influence on me, I was turned over to the school psychiatrist.”  said the man who created Owen Meany  John Irving

2. The creator of Captain Underpants wasn’t held back by dyslexia and ADHD.  Dav Pilkey

3. “Being slow made me pore over sentences and to be receptive to those qualities in sentences that were not just the cognitive aspect of sentences but were in fact the “poetical” aspects of language…those qualities in language are as likely to carry weight and hold meaning and give pleasure as the purely cognitive, though of course we can’t fundamentally separate those things, although the information age does its best.”  said this Pulitzer Prize winner for Independence Day  Richard Ford

4. Maybe the most well-known African-American woman science fiction author who died in 2006 at the age of 58.  Octavia Butler

5.  “The first book I wrote, most of the letters where backwards and much of it is horribly misspelled, but it didn’t stop me.  Sometimes it pays to be too stubborn to listen to other people and in my case that was especially true.” said the author of the Dark-Hunter vampire series  Sherrilyn Kenyon

6. This science fiction author of the Sword of Truth series has dyslexia and is really into Ayn Rand’s Objectivism (which is popular this political season).  Terry Goodkind

7. “I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 12. In those days they thought that I was backward. I didn’t really feel at home with the written word until somebody gave me a typewriter. But, even today, I never send things out without having them checked by an assistant.” She has written a few books but more famously wrote the TV series Prime Suspect.  Linda La Plante

8.  (I) “was severely dyslexic and couldn’t spell, still can’t spell. So I was discouraged from writing and embarrassed”.  It’s a good thing for the popularity of fried green tomatoes that she overcame her insecurities.  Fannie Flagg

9. This one-name children/young-adult author won the 1991 Newbery Honor with his character Charlotte Doyle and in 1992 with Nothing but the Truth.  He was awarded the  Newbury Medal in 2003 for Crispin:The Cross of Lead.  Avi

10. This is prolific Emmy winning writer/producer and bestselling author (8 books in the Shane Scully series) sums it up with this, that his real fear for “dyslexic people is not that they have to struggle with jumbled input or that they can’t spell but that they will quit on themselves before they get out of school.” He was also one of Castle’s poker buddies (on ABC’s Castle) and his chair remained empty at the table for a year after his death.  Stephen Cannell

Answers to last week’s Thrilling Quiz here.  Leaderboard & rules here.

BBAW Interview Swap with another Stacy :)

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I want to introduce you to Stacy Juba, blogger, author, Reiki enthusiast.  She was a journalist and has written books in a few different genres.  Stacy blogs over at One Stop Reading and after you say hi to her here you should click over and check her out.  You might even find an interview with me over there 🙂

1. Did you start your blog as a way to promote your books?  How has it evolved?
I started my website first and added the blog about six months later. Since websites are static, I felt that I needed to add a blog so that I could keep getting my name out there and to have my site be more search engine-friendly. I made sure that the blog and the website were integrated, so that one would draw traffic to the other.
I discovered that having a blog was like being the editor of my own magazine. I enjoyed putting out quality content and receiving comments from readers. It wasn’t just about promoting my books even though that’s how it started; it was also about expressing myself, and connecting with other writers and book lovers.

2. You wrote your first book at 18 (wow!), what’s the best writing advice you’ve ever given or received?
I actually wrote it at 16, during high school study halls, and it was published by Avon when I was 18 after I entered it in a contest for teen writers. This was my young adult family hockey novel Face-Off, back in the early 1990s. I recently brought it back into print and put out an e-book edition. The best advice I’ve received is to be determined and to treat writing like a business. There is a lot of rejection on the writing path, and then once you do have your books published, it is a lot of hard work to build readership. If you want it to be more than a hobby, you have to invest a great deal of time and believe in yourself, as well as learn a lot about writing, editing, marketing, social networking, the publishing industry, and even about website design and e-book formatting.

3. You’ve written in so many genres, but which genre do you read the most?
I used to read mystery novels the most, but recently I’ve been reading a lot of sweet romances and romantic comedies on my Kindle.
I’m also writing a romantic comedy. I still love mysteries, but lately I’ve just felt like reading some lighter and more upbeat books.

4. Who or what inspires you?
As a writer, I’m inspired by the world around me and by following my interests. A subplot in my novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today was inspired by my interest in Greek mythology, and my book-in-progress was inspired by a family trip to a theme park. Reading great books also inspires me. Reading a book fuels my desire to express myself through my own stories.

5. I love quotes, do you have a favorite?
I have Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent,” on my Facebook page. I think it’s a good quote for writers, as you need to have a tough skin when your story is rejected or if you receive a negative review. I’ve always been very sensitive to criticism and I need to remind myself not to take it personally.

6. Blogging takes a lot of time.  How much time do you spend writing posts and reading other blogs?
I used to spend a couple hours per week writing and editing posts, but now it’s just a few hours per month. I’ve found that less is more when it comes to blogging. If I blog too much, then it takes away from my time to work on my novels.  I publish guest posts on my blog, but just a couple per month as those take time to set up. I don’t read any blogs on a regular basis, just due to time constraints, but I do follow links for blog posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Triberr if a title catches my interest. It is amazing how many talented bloggers are out there, providing informative and entertaining posts.

7. You are trained in Reiki, tell us about it.
Reiki is a form of hands-on energy healing. I’m very interested in holistic practices such as Reiki, acupuncture, hypnosis, massage, Tai Chi, etc. and I took a few classes to become trained in the different levels of Reiki. I don’t practice it professionally, but I use it on myself and on family members from time-to-time, and I’ve incorporated aspects of it into my books.

8. What’s your favorite read of the year so far?
I guess I would say the Hunger Games books. When I started the first one, it took me several chapters to get into it, but once I did, I found the characters compelling and the storyline fresh. I still have one more book left to read in the series, and I know I’ll devour it in a couple days.

Stacy Juba – One Stop Reading: Books for Adults, Teens & Children
* Web Site: http://stacyjuba.com/blog/
* Amazon page: http://ow.ly/99G2J
* Twitter: http://ow.ly/99G6J * Facebook: http://ow.ly/99G8i