It's Monday! What are you reading? (Feb 3, 2014)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. 

Where did January go?  I didn't get near as much read this month as I wanted to!  How about you?  Did anyone reach their reading goals for January?

Glasses did help this week - but still ended up with a headache on Friday - I think it is time to visit the chiropractor!  Seems to be coming from my upper back/neck.  My "free day for reading" last week didn't garner me as much reading time as I would have liked!  Such is the life of a mom. . .

Temp today:  1 degree F, feels like 1 degree F - but hey - at least we are above 0!

Currently reading (still): 

Finished Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi - loved it!

The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy

This is good - but not sure I have the wherewithall to stay with it. . .

Will probably start this one this week: 

Into the Still Blue
by Veronica Rossi

The earth-shattering conclusion to Veronica Rossi's "masterpiece" Under the Never Sky trilogy and sequel to the New York Timesbestselling Through the Ever Night (Examiner.com).

Their love and their leadership have been tested. Now it's time for Perry and Aria to unite the Dwellers and the Outsiders in one last desperate attempt to bring balance to their world.

The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe-haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do-and they are just as determined to stay together.

Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. And when Roar returns to camp, he is so furious with Perry that he won't even look at him, and Perry begins to feel like they have already lost.

Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble a team to mount an impossible rescue mission-because Cinder isn't just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival, he's also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.

In this final book in her stunning Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi raises the stakes to their absolute limit and brings her epic love story to an unforgettable close.

Bathroom Book:

Finished First Love - it quickly became my "carry where ever I go, have to finish book."

The View from Saturday
by E.L. Konigsburg

How had Mrs. Olinski chosen her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team?  She had a number of answers. But were any of them true?  How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian?  And why did they make such a good team?

It was a surprise to a lot of people when Mrs. Olinski's team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at Epiphany Middle School.  It was an even bigger surprise when they beat the seventh grade and the eighth grade, too.  And when they went on to even greater victories, everyone began to ask:  How did it happen?

It happened at least partly because Noah had been the best man (quite by accident) at the wedding of Ethan's grandmother and Nadia's grandfather.  It happened because Nadia discovered that she could not let a lot of baby turtles die.  It happened when Ethan could not let Julian face disaster alone.  And it happened because Julian valued something important in himself and saw in the other three something he also valued.

Mrs. Olinski, returning to teaching after having been injured in an automobile accident, found that her Academic Bowl team became her answer to finding confidence and success.  What she did not know, at least at first, was that her team knew more than she did the answer to why they had been chosen.

This is a tale about a team, a class, a school, a series of contests and, set in the midst of this, four jewel-like short stories -- one for each of the team members -- that ask questions and demonstrate surprising answers. 

E-read:

This is up in the air right now - Never really got into Last Night at the Blue Angel.  I think it will be a good book, just not the right time for me - might give it another shot later this year. I have a couple of E-books to read for review this month so will probably start one of these - Which would you choose? 

Her Secret Cowboy
by Marin Thomas

The Cowboy And The Preacher's Daughter.

Years ago, Will Cash wasn't interested in being a dad. So Marsha Bugler left town to raise her baby alone. But when her father's health begins to fail, she realizes she needs to return to Arizona and introduce Will to his boy. Marsha is nervous to face Will not only because she lied, but because she's never stopped thinking about her cowboy crush.

Will is shocked to discover he has a son. And he can hardly believe the changes in Marsha. She's strong, sexy and a Ph.D., while Will's still a part-time cowboy living in a bunkhouse with his brothers. What does he have to offer her and his teenage son? Will has a lot to prove if he's going to get what he wants - the family he never knew he had.

A Seal's Salvation
by Tawny Weber

Subject: Navy SEAL Petty Officer Brody Lane 

Current Status: On leave 

Obstacle: The one girl who was off-limits… 

Where navy SEAL "Bad Ass" Brody Lane goes, trouble follows. Being run out of his hometown years ago for misbehaving with Genna Reilly—the sheriff's daughter—was one thing. Now Brody is about to step into real danger. Not the suggestive letters he's been exchanging with Genna, but the kind of trouble that can send a soldier home injured and broken inside… 

Genna's entire life has been orchestrated by her family. The right job. The right friends. Enough! Brody's return offers the promise of lust-filled pleasures. Of flesh teased and tasted. She's not expecting to find a soldier with distant eyes who has secluded himself from the world. But this good girl knows exactly how to bring a bad boy back to life…. 

Uniformly Hot! The Few. The Proud. The Sexy as Hell.

As far as my projects go - I did get the hat finished for the snowman, but spent another week of doing nothing on the needlepoint. . .

I need to do the scarf and add his eyes now. . .

I may be putting this one away as I need to get started on a project for which I am a pilot stitcher. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Jan 27, 2014)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. 

I got my new glasses yesterday (Yah!). Doc says that they changed about 20% (in just two years!) and that could definitely have been causing my headaches.  This and the fact that they have already cancelled school here tomorrow and closed the library that I work at means a free day of reading!  Woot!

Temp forecast for Monday morning 8am: -2, feels like -24 with temperatures continuing to drop throughout the day. 

Currently reading (Still):

Through the Ever Night
by Veronica Rossi

AND

The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy

Bathroom Book:

Finished The One and Only Ivan and will be reviewing soon.

First Love
by James Patterson

An extraordinary portrait of true love that will move anyone who has a first love story of their own. Axi Moore is a "good girl": She studies hard, stays out of the spotlight, and doesn't tell anyone how all she really wants is to run away from it all. The only person she can tell is her best friend, Robinson--who she also happens to be madly in love with. 

When Axi spontaneously invites Robinson to come with her on an impulsive cross-country road trip, she breaks the rules for the first time in her life. But the adventure quickly turns from carefree to out of control after the teens find themselves on the run from the police. And when Robinson suddenly collapses, Axi has to face the truth that this trip might be his last.

A remarkably moving tale very personal to James Patterson's own past, FIRST LOVE is testament to the power of first love--and how it can change the rest of your life.

E-read (Still):

Last Night at the Blue Angel
by Rebecca Rotert

Haven't gotten much further in this book due to my tired eyes - but hope to change that this week with my new glasses!

Life as We Knew It
by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Wanted to start this last week, but just got the nod that it was waiting for me to download from our library - so hopefully will get this one going this week as well!

Working on:

I have done absolutely nothing on either one of these projects this week. . .
no excuses. . .

It's Monday! What are you reading? (Jan 21, 2014)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. 

Ok,so it is really Tuesday.  Whenever there is a school holiday on Monday it whacks my schedule on me.  I haven't read much lately as I think I am in need of new glasses.  My eyes are tiring very easily and start to burn when I read more than 20-30 minutes at a time.

Temperature check at 8:30AM: -1/Feels Like -20 degrees.  Good day to stay in and read!

Currently reading: 

Through the Ever Night
by Veronica Rossi

This is book two in the Under the Never Sky series.  We are introduced to some new characters right off the bat and am just starting to get everyone straight. 

Now Aria and Perry are about to be reunited. It's a moment they've been longing for with countless expectations. And it's a moment that lives up to all of them. At least, at first. 

Then it slips away. The Tides don't take kindly to former Dwellers like Aria. And the tribe is swirling out of Perry's control. With the Aether storms worsening every day, the only remaining hope for peace and safety is the Still Blue. But does this haven truly exist?

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night? 

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and sci-fi elements to create a captivating adventure-and a love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy

"They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much." 

The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu, (who loves by night the man her children love by day), fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt).

When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river.... 

Bathroom Book:
I had been reading Agent of Influence by David Aaron.  I decided I really didn't like it and didn't want to waste any more time on it, so returned it to the library.  So this is my current read:

The One and Only Ivan
by Katherine Applegate

This one is a lot better suited for the few minutes that I actually get to read - it is a cute, humorous story so far. 

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

E-read:

Last Night at the Blue Angel
by Rebecca Rotert

Random Choice Read.  I have started this one, but my eyes are more irritated when I read online - so not getting far into it at this time. 

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s Chicago jazz scene, a highly ambitious and stylish literary debut that combines the atmosphere and period detail of Amor Towles' Rules of Civility with the emotional depth and drama of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, about a talented but troubled singer. precocious ten-year-old daughter, and their heartbreaking relationship.

It is the early 1960s, and Chicago is a city of uneasy tensions-segregation, sexual experimentation, free love, the Cold War-but it is also home to one of the country's most vibrant jazz scenes. Naomi Hill, a singer at the Blue Angel club, has been poised on the brink of stardom for nearly ten years. Finally, her big break arrives-the cover of Look magazine. But success has come at enormous personal cost. Beautiful and magnetic, Naomi is a fiercely ambitious yet extremely self-destructive woman whose charms are irresistible and dangerous for those around her. No one knows this better than Sophia, her precocious ten-year-old daughter.

For Sophia, Naomi is the center of her universe. As the only child of a single, unconventional mother, growing up in an adult world, Sophia has seen things beyond her years and her understanding. Unsettled by her uncertain home life, she harbors the terrible fear that the world could end at any moment, so she compulsively keeps a running list of practical objects she will need to reinvent once nuclear catastrophe strikes. Her one constant is Jim, the photographer who is her best friend, surrogate father, and protector. But Jim is deeply in love with Naomi-a situation that adds to Sophia's anxiety.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Sophia and Naomi, their powerful and wrenching story unfolds in layers, revealing Sophia's struggle for her mother's love with Naomi's desperate journey to stardom and the colorful cadre of close friends who shaped her along the way.

Sophisticated yet poignant, Last Night at the Blue Angel is an unforgettable tale about what happens when our passion for the life we want is at sharp odds with the life we have. It is a story ripe with surprising twists and revelations, and an ending that is bound to break your heart.

Books I plan to start this week:

In the last post I had mentioned starting The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  I did start it, and realized that I had forgotten too much from the series so am going to reread them.  I am waiting for Life as We Knew It to be returned to the library so I can start over. 

Life as We Knew It
by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

Finished:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare

Reviewing soon. 

Working on:

Still working on my snowman - am making him a little hat now.

I also dug out a needlepoint from last year.  This is called Baltimore Bride: Shimmering Hearts.  Not sure I like the teal colors that were recommended with the purple, but we are going to go with it and hope the overall looks good.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Jan 6, 2014)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. 

Ok, I have FINALLY posted all of the challenges (though who knows which ones could pop up at any time).  I have created new bookshelves for each challenge at Goodreads and have even added some books to the bookshelves that I would like to read for the challenges - so now I should actually start reading, right? 

Temperature check at 2pm: -12/Feels Like -39 degrees.

Currently reading:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare

This won the Newbery Medal in 1959.

Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives' stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is in the meadows, where she enjoys the company of the old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, and on occasion, her young sailor friend Nat. But when Kit's friendship with the "witch" is discovered, Kit is faced with suspicion, fear, and anger. She herself is accused of witchcraft!

Bathroom Book:

Agent of Influence

by David Aaron

Not sure that I like this - but am far enough into it that I want to know what happens.

Written by the author of "State Scarlet", this thriller is set in Washington, Moscow and Wall Street. A media conglomerate has been targeted for takeover but the more Lyman learns, the more shady the deal seems. He is convinced that America's huge press empire could end up under Soviet control.

Books I plan to start this week:

The Shade of the Moon

by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This is the fourth book in The Last Survivors series.  I have read the rest of the series and just learned recently that another book had come out last year.  I have to reread through some of my reviews to familiarize myself with the characters again!

It's been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?

Through the Ever Night
by Veronica Rossi

This is book two in the Under the Never Sky series.  I finished the first book last month.

Now Aria and Perry are about to be reunited. It's a moment they've been longing for with countless expectations. And it's a moment that lives up to all of them. At least, at first. 

Then it slips away. The Tides don't take kindly to former Dwellers like Aria. And the tribe is swirling out of Perry's control. With the Aether storms worsening every day, the only remaining hope for peace and safety is the Still Blue. But does this haven truly exist?

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night? 

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and sci-fi elements to create a captivating adventure-and a love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

Last Night at the Blue Angel
by Rebecca Rotert

Random Choice Read.

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s Chicago jazz scene, a highly ambitious and stylish literary debut that combines the atmosphere and period detail of Amor Towles' Rules of Civility with the emotional depth and drama of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, about a talented but troubled singer. precocious ten-year-old daughter, and their heartbreaking relationship.

It is the early 1960s, and Chicago is a city of uneasy tensions-segregation, sexual experimentation, free love, the Cold War-but it is also home to one of the country's most vibrant jazz scenes. Naomi Hill, a singer at the Blue Angel club, has been poised on the brink of stardom for nearly ten years. Finally, her big break arrives-the cover of Look magazine. But success has come at enormous personal cost. Beautiful and magnetic, Naomi is a fiercely ambitious yet extremely self-destructive woman whose charms are irresistible and dangerous for those around her. No one knows this better than Sophia, her precocious ten-year-old daughter.

For Sophia, Naomi is the center of her universe. As the only child of a single, unconventional mother, growing up in an adult world, Sophia has seen things beyond her years and her understanding. Unsettled by her uncertain home life, she harbors the terrible fear that the world could end at any moment, so she compulsively keeps a running list of practical objects she will need to reinvent once nuclear catastrophe strikes. Her one constant is Jim, the photographer who is her best friend, surrogate father, and protector. But Jim is deeply in love with Naomi-a situation that adds to Sophia's anxiety.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Sophia and Naomi, their powerful and wrenching story unfolds in layers, revealing Sophia's struggle for her mother's love with Naomi's desperate journey to stardom and the colorful cadre of close friends who shaped her along the way.

Sophisticated yet poignant, Last Night at the Blue Angel is an unforgettable tale about what happens when our passion for the life we want is at sharp odds with the life we have. It is a story ripe with surprising twists and revelations, and an ending that is bound to break your heart.

Working on:

Ok, I know it doesn't look like much right now - but it is going to be a little snowman.  Felt like a good day to work on it!

What are you reading on this cold Monday?

It's Monday! What are you reading? (May 13, 2013)

What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too! 

Physical Book:

Two are Better

by Tim and Debbie Bishop

With no prior experience in either bicycle touring or marriage, 52-year-olds Tim and Debbie Bishop went from an engagement, to Tim’s “retirement” and relocation, to a cross-country trek in just ten weeks. Their adventure, which touches on midlife change, marriage, and faith, inspires its readers to cast away the old and the stale in pursuit of their dreams.

Ebook:

Walking Disaster

by Jamie McGuire

Finally, the highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Disaster. 

Can you love someone too much?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

Bathroom Book:

The Apple Orchard

by Susan Wiggs

Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother's beloved necklace—despite Tess's advice. To Annelise, the jewel's value is in its memories.

But Tess's own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma. And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel.

The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen. A half sister she's never heard of.

Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet. A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep. A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable.

And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don't believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you've not made the right kind of memories.

Library Book:

Red Sorghum

by Mo Yan

Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent 1930s.

A legend in China, where it won major literary awards and inspired an Oscar-nominated film, Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new -- and unforgettable.

Waiting for Reviews:  I need a week just to get caught up on reviews!

Ice Blue
by Susan Rae

Love Water Memory
by Jennie Shortridge

The Spark
by Kristine Barnett

Beautiful Disaster
by Jamie McGuire

The Last Telegram
by Liz Trenow

Dear Cassie
by Lisa Burstein

Evidence of Life
by Barbara taylor Sissel

Blood Money
By Doug Richardson

From the Kitchen of Half
Truth
by Maria Goodin

The Night is Watching
by Heather Graham