The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Expury

Title: The Little Prince Deluxe Pop-Up Book (with audio), Author: Antoine de Saint-ExuperyThe Little Prince: Deluxe Pop-Up Book, Unabridged Text.  Finished 2-3-19, 5/5, children’s classic, 63 pages, pub. 2015

After being stranded in a desert after a crash, a pilot comes in contact with a captivating little prince who recounts his journey from planet to planet and his search for what is most important in life.

For over sixty-five years Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic, The Little Prince, has captured readers’ hearts. The whimsical story with a fairy tale feel has sold over 3 million copies in all formats. This exciting pop-up edition includes the complete original text accompanied by Saint-Exupery’s beautiful illustrations brought to life through paper engineering. Perfect for longtime fans and those meeting the little prince for the first time!   from Goodreads

Oh, how I loved reading this classic for the first time with Gage.  This pop-up book with all of the original text was amazing!  The three of us read a chapter at night for family reading time and I don’t know how we’re going to top it with our next family book.  Here’s a pic of one of the pages.

IMG_5442

Some of them just popped up and some of them had more interactive features.  It was well done and I plan on buying a copy since this one is from the library.

As for the story itself.  Jason and I laughed at the making fun of adults and sometimes Gage didn’t get the joke, but otherwise the story was a fun adventure story of a young prince from another planet. Well, it was fun until the end.  For some reason I was not prepared for the end.  It led to good discussion with Gage, especially since he’s been asking me very specific questions about Heaven these days.

I don’t know what took me so long to read this, but this is a fun book to read with your child and the pop-ups will only bring it more to life for the both of you.

This was my 25th selection for the Classics Club challenge.  I have until January 1, 2020 to get to 50.

 

A Quick Trip to Asheville

Jason and I took a 4 day weekend and turned it into a road trip to Asheville, North Carolina.  It’s a little over 8 hours from southeast Cleveland according to Google, but we managed to turn it into over 11 on the way down after a speeding ticket and a stop at the wrong hotel.  That’s what makes road trips so much fun!  We listened to Origin by Dan Brown on the way there and back and still didn’t manage to finish yet.

Asheville was lovely and I was most impressed by the two bookstores they had downtown that were within a mile of each other.

First we hit Malaprop’s and I loved it.  I spent some money.  When I went to find Jason in the café he was playing an online game with an exchange student from Chile.  They were trying to get themselves on the same team, lol.  Let me just say that I complain more often than I should that the game he plays on his phone is antisocial and now I can’t.  He’s making international friends!  So, I left them playing, or whatever nonsense was going on, and went back to shopping.  If I couldn’t complain about the game I could at least spend more money on the bookstore.

 

Immediately after Malaprop’s we went to Battery Park Book Exchange Champagne Bar.  

 

This space was so cool.  Not only did it have a full bar, but the furniture, décor and the way each room of books led you to the next was a place I could have spent hours exploring.  Alas, we did not have that kind of time.  The mimosa and food were excellent.

I posted some pics on Facebook and the one that got the most attention was the mirror selfie I took of Jason and I at Biltmore.  This made me smile since I took it because of one of my favorite pics that I took of Jason and me when we visited Versailles in France in 2010.  Two audacious homes.  Here are the two pics

France 222IMG_5379

I could crop and blow up the one from Biltmore but I kind of like it the way it is.

I missed seeing Kathy this trip, but hopefully next time!  We’ve known each other online since 2008, but have never met in person.

January’s Movies and $ for Charity

Well I only made it to the theater once this month, with Gage and his BFF.  I’m waiting for the Oscars to tell me what I need to go see 😉

Add your 5 words (or less!) to mine in a comment and earn $1 for charity. Once we get to $100 the person with the most reviews will choose the charity. Click here to see the past winners, the charities they chose and the other reviews you can add to. Anyone is welcome to join in at any time.

We’re at $5 right now.  Thanks to Heather, the Best Friends Animal Society received $100 last month!  Your charity could be next 🙂

Original movie poster for the film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.jpgWho’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966 (Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis)  Grade B+

Beautiful mess of a marriage.

One Day Poster.jpgOne Day, 2011 (Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Rafe Spall, Tom Mison, Jodie Whittaker, Patricia Clarkson)      Grade B+

Broke my poor romantic heart.


Avengers Infinity War poster.jpgAvengers: Infinity War, 2018 (Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlet Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pratt, Josh Brolin, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Zoe Saldana, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira)    Grade B

Fighting, saving, quips, defeat and death.

NEED THE SEQUEL NOW, PLEASE!!!!  (Kay)

So many thrills, then wahhhhhhhhhh!  (Michelle)


Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018 film poster).png Ralph Breaks the Internet, 2018 (Voices-John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P Henson, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina, Ed O’ Neill)                     Grade B

Such a sweet friendship.


Il racconto dei racconti poster.jpgTale of Tales, 2015 (Salma Hayek, John C Reilly, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, Christian & Jonah Lees)         Grade B

Bizarre & fascinating dark fairy tales.

Unique, wonderful and bizarre tales!  (Michelle)


Cellular poster.JPGCellular, 2004 (Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Stratham, William H Macy, Noah Emmerich)       Grade C

Captain America during his amateur days.

I can barely remember it (Michelle)


Did you hear about the morgans ver2.jpgDid You Hear About the Morgans?, 2009 (Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen, Elizabeth Moss, Michael Kelly, Wilford Brimley)    Grade D+

Did they even like each other?

Absolutely anything with Hugh Grant (Michelle)

Fave Movie #51 – Crash

Crash ver2.jpg2004

Cast- Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillion, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris Bridges (Ludacris), Thandie Newton, Micheal Pena, Ryan Phillipe, Larentz Tate

Directed by Paul Haggis

Winner of Best Picture Oscar and Best Original Screenplay

It’s Los Angeles around Christmas and the lives of a diverse cast of characters intertwine to show the ugly underbelly  of racism.  A politician, a detective, a director, a thug, policemen and others all face their own demons in this excellent ensemble film.

Why I Love It – The all-star cast and the way that Haggis put all of these different stories together was so satisfying to me.  Michael Pena’s character almost broke my heart and Sandra Bullock’s anger resonated.  But it was the rest of it, all of it, the bad with the good that make me love it.  Matt Dillion and Thandie Newton’s scenes together? Full circle storytelling.  Same with Don Cheadle.

The hate and prejudice was so in your face.  It’s out in the open and not blunted by political correctness.  It’s an anger, unfortunately, that is alive and well in 2019.  I know it’s no for everyone, but for me it was real and raw and shines a light on things that people don’t like to discuss.

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward

Title: Fear: Trump in the White House, Author: Bob WoodwardFear: Trump in the White House.  Finished audio 1-16-19, rating 4/5, truth, pub. 2018\

Unabridged audio read by Robert Petkoff

With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Nixon to Obama, author Bob Woodward reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies. Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence.  from Goodreads

I’m going to try and be as even-handed as I can be because Woodward went out his way to do so.  If you love Trump and call everything that is negative fake news this is not the book for you.  If you are on the fence about the man, liking some things and trying to ignore the rest, this is the book you need to read.  It is not a hit piece.  It is a methodical retelling of many moments at the White House in Trump’s first year or so.  If you detest Trump, this book will reinforce why, but it will also humanize him a bit.

I’m not spoiling anything for anyone by saying that this book could have just as easily been called Liar.  Every person in his administration that shows up in the book readily agrees.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that the man obviously has a problem with the truth.  Some people questioned whether he even knew he was lying or if it was just that much in his nature.  He also has a real issues with facts and hard data that go against what his gut tells him.  Seriously, he is making nuclear decisions based on nothing but opinions based on something he saw on TV.

I came away with adjusted views of the Ivanka and John Kelly (not in a positive way) and more respect for Cohn, Priebus and even Rob Porter.  Woodward is a well-respected journalist who does a very good job with this one.  My low opinion of Trump has not changed, but it was good to see that some sane people around him were trying to keep the country running (I should point out that all of these people are now gone).

 

Goodreads Cleanup Help

Okay, I’ve tried this twice and you guys have helped me so much.  Let me tell you why.  Obviously, I’ve shown you 15 and I’ve eliminated 6 off my list.  But it has forced me to actually look at the books on my list.  I mean the list is only useful if it really is what I want to read.  Not 6 years ago, but today.  And I’ve put on hold the ones available at my library!  So, I’m going to keep it going once or twice a month until my TBR list is reasonable (and no I don’t have a set number in mind for this).

I am planning on writing a post on my Mt. TBR of unread books, but I’ll give you a heads up- during our mold remediation I got rid of every. single. one.  So I really am ready to utilize my 895 Goodreads list 🙂

Help a middle -aged gal out!

How to participate:

  • Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf
  • Order by Ascending Date Added
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or let it go?

 

What We Keep Ginny Young is on a plane, en route to see her mother, whom she hasn’t seen or spoken to for thirty-five years. She thinks back to the summer of 1958, when she and her sister, Sharla, were young girls. At that time, a series of dramatic events–beginning with the arrival of a mysterious and sensual next-door neighbor–divided the family, separating the sisters from their mother. Moving back and forth in time between the girl she once was and the woman she’s become, Ginny at last confronts painful choices that occur in almost any woman’s life, and learns surprising truths about the people she thought she knew best. 

I love Berg but this just looks okay to me. Have you read it?

Les and Sheila are a Yes!


We Are All Welcome HereWe Are All Welcome Here, features three women, each struggling against overwhelming odds for her own kind of freedom.
It is the summer of 1964. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the town of Elvis’s birth, tensions are mounting over civil-rights demonstrations occurring ever more frequently-and violently-across the state. But in Paige Dunn’s small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns. Challenged by the effects of the polio she contracted during her last month of pregnancy, Paige is nonetheless determined to live as normal a life as possible and to raise her daughter, Diana, in the way she sees fit-with the support of her tough-talking black caregiver, Peacie.

I really want to read this!

Sheila says yes!


Back on Murder (A Roland March Mystery, #1)Det. Roland March is a homicide cop on his way out. But when he’s the only one at a crime scene to find evidence of a missing female victim, he’s given one last chance to prove himself. Before he can crack the case, he’s transferred to a new one that has grabbed the spotlight–the disappearance of a famous Houston evangelist’s teen daughter.

Anyone vouch for this series?

Kay says yes!


Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne, #1)Detective Inspector Tom Thorne now knows that three murdered young women were a killer’s mistakes — and that Alison was his triumph. And unless Thorne can enter the mind of a brilliant madman — a frighteningly elusive fiend who enjoys toying with the police as much as he savors his sick obsession — Alison Willetts will not be the last victim consigned forever to a hideous waking hell.

I’ve been wanting to read Billingham since I saw him at Bouchercon.

Kay says yes!


The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their SilenceThe New York Times bestselling and extraordinary true story of the critical events leading up to and following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as told by the Secret Service agents who were firsthand witnesses to one of America’s greatest tragedies.

I go through my Kennedy phases for sure.


Forever . . .Katherine and Michael meet at a New Year’s Eve party. They’re attracted to each other, they grow to love each other. And once they’ve decided their love is forever, they make love.

It’s the beginning of an intense and exclusive relationship, with a future all planned. Until Katherine’s parents insist that she and Michael put their love to the test with a summer apart…

Don’t know how I can call myself a girl of the 80’s and not have read this.


Talk of the TownDarlings, what a to-do at the Daily Mail today! After fifteen years as Chicago’s gossip guru, Rebecca Covington has been demoted from divulger of secrets for the city’s elite to headlining recipes in the Home and Food section. Apparently, a touchy senator is threatening legal action for Rebecca’s latest extramarital scoop. But Windy City rumor has it that new CEO and dreamy Pierce Brosnan look-alike David Sumner downgraded Rebecca in favor of fresher, younger blood on the social beat.

This sounds trite, but that cover!!


 

Five Miles South of PeculiarIf these three sisters don’t change direction, they’ll end up where they’re going.

Darlene Caldwell has spent a lifetime tending Sycamores, an estate located five miles south of a small town called Peculiar. She raised a family in the spacious home that was her grandfather’s legacy, and she enjoys being a pillar of the community. Sycamores is the kingdom where she reigns as queen . . . until her limelight-stealing twin sister unexpectedly returns.

Carlene Caldwell, veteran of the Broadway stage, is devastated when she realizes that an unsuccessful throat surgery has spelled the end of her musical career. Searching for a new purpose in life, she retreats to Sycamores, her childhood home. She may not be able to sing, but she hopes to use her knowledge and experience to fashion a new life in Peculiar, the little town she left behind.

Haunted by a tragic romance, Magnolia Caldwell is the youngest of the Caldwell girls. Nolie has never wanted to live anywhere but Sycamores. She spends her days caring for her dogs and the magnificent gardens she’s created on the estate, but when she meets a man haunted by his own tragedy, she must find the courage to either deny her heart or cut the apron strings that tie her to a dear and familiar place.

Eh.


Crossbones YardRay and Marie Benson killed 13 women before they were caught, tried and imprisoned. Five of their victims were never found. Six years later, psychologist Alice Quentin discovers a woman’s body on the waste ground at Crossbones Yard. The wounds are horrifyingly similar to the Bensons’ signature style. But who would want to copy their crimes? When Alice is called in to consult, her first instinct is to say no. She wants to focus on treating her patients, not analysing the mind of a murderer. But the body at Crossbones Yard is just the start, and the killer may already be closer than Alice knows.

I’m intrigued.


The Goose Girl (The Books of Bayern, #1)Anidora-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree spent the first years of her life listening to her aunt’s incredible stories, and learning the language of the birds. Little knowing how valuable her aunt’s strange knowledge would prove to be when she grew older. From the Grimm’s fairy tale of the princess who became a goose girl before she could become a queen, Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and magical tale of a girl who must understand her own incredible talents before she can overcome those who wish her harm.

I’m on board with this I think.

Jill and Heather say yes!


Okay, I really want to know your thoughts on these – especially the ones you’ve read.

 

The Burial Hour by Jeffery Deaver

Title: The Burial Hour, Author: Jeffery DeaverThe Burial Hour. Finished audio 1-11-19, 3.5/5 stars, thriller, pub. 2017

Book 13 in the Lincoln Rhyme series  (1st-The Bone Collector, 2nd- The Coffin Dancer, 3rd- The Empty Chair, 4th- The Stone Monkey, 5th- The Vanished Man, 6th- The Twelfth Card, 7th- The Cold Moon, 8th- The Broken Window 9th- The Burning Wire, 10th-The Kill Room 12th-The Steel Kiss)

14 hours read by Edoardo Ballerini.

A businessman snatched from an Upper East Side street in broad daylight. A miniature hangman’s noose left at the scene. A nine-year-old girl, the only witness to the crime. With a crime scene this puzzling, forensic expertise of the highest order is absolutely essential. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are called in to investigate.

Soon the case takes a stranger turn: a recording surfaces of the victim being slowly hanged, his desperate gasps the backdrop to an eerie piece of music. The video is marked as the work of The Composer…

Despite their best efforts, the suspect gets away. So when a similar kidnapping occurs on a dusty road outside Naples, Italy, Rhyme and Sachs don’t hesitate to rejoin the hunt.   from Goodreads

I love Lincoln and Amelia and Tom, but I loved the Italian setting and characters we found there even more.  I’ve never been to Naples so I don’t know how much leans toward truth and how much is more cliche, but it was fun for someone who doesn’t know the difference.

For much of the book it was all about chasing down the Conductor before he kills again, but then BOOM something happens and that’s not what’s going on anymore.  The mystery aspect was good and the new characters were good, only Lincoln himself seemed a bit diminished in this one and that was okay for me because everything else worked.

Recommended for those who love Italian settings and for thriller lovers.  I’m not sure, given Lincoln’s smaller role, that you would even need to read any of the rest of the series to enjoy this one and I don’t say that very often.

Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley

Title: Bellewether, Author: Susanna KearsleyBellewether.  Finished 1-13-19, rating 4/5, historical fiction, 422 pages, pub. 2018

It’s 1759 and the world is at war, pulling the North American colonies of Britain and France into the conflict. The times are complicated, as are the loyalties of many New York merchants who have secretly been trading with the French for years, defying Britain’s colonial laws in a game growing ever more treacherous.

When captured French officers are brought to Long Island to be billeted in private homes on their parole of honour, it upends the lives of the Wilde family—deeply involved in the treasonous trade and already divided by war.

Lydia Wilde, struggling to keep the peace in her fracturing family following her mother’s death, has little time or kindness to spare for her unwanted guests. French-Canadian lieutenant Jean-Philippe de Sabran has little desire to be there. But by the war’s end they’ll both learn love, honour, and duty can form tangled bonds that are not broken easily.

Their doomed romance becomes a local legend, told and re-told through the years until the present day, when conflict of a different kind brings Charley Van Hoek to Long Island to be the new curator of the Wilde House Museum.     from Goodreads

This was my first book of the year and it took me a while to become invested in the three characters whose stories make up Bellewether.  Charley who moved to the area so that she could live with her niece after the untimely death of her brother, took a job as museum director of the under construction Wilde House.  There she encountered maybe my favorite character of the book, the ghost.  There was also a cute contractor and some animosity toward the grandmother she’d never met who lived nearby.

As for the 1700’s storyline, we move between Lydia and Jean-Philippe’s perspective as the former tries to come to grips with unwanted houseguests and brothers with problems of their own.  Jean-Philippe only spoke French, so for much of the book he didn’t communicate freely.

I liked getting a deeper understanding of the war and what was happening in the region.  Some of these characters were based on real people or compilations which made the story richer, but maybe not quite as fanciful as I’d hoped.  There was romance, sure, but most of Kearsley’s books feel magical and this one didn’t quite get there for me.  It’s still good and I really enjoyed the multitude of characters and history.  My favorite ghost saved the day and the end was excellent and worth reading 400+ pages.

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

The day is almost gone and I was thisclose to forgetting to mark the anniversary of my opening up shop here on WordPress.  Eleven years ago I wrote my first post and have maintained a steady schedule since then.  I posted 280 times that first year and it was my most prolific. Since then it’s gone done a bit every year with last year clocking in at 113.  Amazingly, the number of views and visitors while taking a dive in 2016 has gone up considerably the last two years.

I didn’t start this blog to crunch numbers and I don’t stick around because a few more people have found their way here.  I’m still here writing and connecting because of you, my fellow book nerds.  May we continue to support each other for many more years to come 🙂

Sundays with Gage – Presidents

Over the years I’ve tried variations of ‘mom school’, but for the most part let it go by the wayside when he started 1st grade over a year ago.  Too much school work and way too many activities. But, well, mom school was never really about hard learning.  It was more for fun time spent learning together – usually both of us.  I like teaching and connecting and learning with my son and decided to bring back mom school.

In December (when we had time) we did 5-10 minutes learning about kids who did amazing things and it was fun.  But with the new year we started something with a little more stretch.  We are spending 5-15 minutes a day to study each President in order.  The first four are pretty easy since big things were happening.  I don’t know how it will hold up over the next 41 (and the 45th? it will take all of the diplomacy this Libra possesses).

img_5211 (2)

So, my goal was to read a book and then choose one thing that we could do.  Jason and I visited Mount Vernon last month and I picked up a book of paper dolls.  It took me more time to cut out George and his stepson and all of their clothes than we actually used them, so not sure that was a win for me, but they are cool.  For John Adams we had a 10 minute drawing contest to see who could draw the best picture of the first White House and then we called Jason in to see who did the best.  I was robbed.  For Thomas Jefferson we read through the two picture books shown Thomas Jefferson Grows a Nation and Worst of Friends and then Gage traced from a photo America before Jefferson was President and after the Louisiana Purchase to see what a big deal it was.  James Madison’s book was okay and after we learned that the White House burned to the ground in 1812 Gage went to work burning down the White House he drew  two days earlier, lol.  We also watched a video on the story behind the Star Spangled Banner.

So, as you can see, we aren’t doing anything mentally strenuous here, but it’s nice that we can spend a few minutes together each day reinforcing that knowledge and learning are important.  I want him to remember that learning can be fun and so can his mom (when she wants to be ;)).