My Two Blessings

Inquiring minds want to know Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about mid-year reading… Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites? My goal this year is to read 100 books for the 100+ Challenge. I'm fifteen books away from meeting that goal and it's just the middle of the year. I've been expanding my reading horizons a bit this year and stumbled on a theme - first time author reads. I've read some really interesting books and discovered some really good and also some I considered not so good authors. But some of those not so good are really, really popular which makes me scratch my head and wonder what I'm missing. So, I'm taking a tip from Shanra who recently posted Shanra's Tips for giving new to you authors a second chance and giving some of those not so good authors a 2nd chance. Such as James Patterson.....

It is a beautiful day outside and I'm headed outside to read "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' by James Joyce for my Modern Lit class. I've never read anything by James Joyce before - surprise, surprise - so should prove to be interesting. While I'm off reading, thought I'd leave with some posts to ponder. B.J. has some great links to share this weekend as always at Enriched by Words A Dad First offers some perspective on Michael Jackson's death. We lost three well known figures this week. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I grew up with all three - whether it was watching the Tonight Show, Charlies Angels or listening to the music of the Jackson Five. Of the three, I think Farrah Fawcett showed us how to live life and face death with grace. Graema Franks reminds us of finding the beauty in the small things . I think the photo would make a great writing prompt. And sweet, sweet Shanra shares a boo...

Mini book reviews of books read over the past couple weeks #81 Hero Under Cover by Suzanne Brockmann: Romantic suspense novel in which CIA agent goes undercover as woman's bodyguard thinking she is guilty of stealing some major artworks. He falls for her and suffers major angst over the fact he is deceiving her about who he is. #82 B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton - a Kinsey Milhone Alphabet Mystery. Kinsey is a detective back in the 80's before cell phones. She is hired to find a woman's missing sister and she must sort through lots of people giving her misleading information. #83 Night Fall by Cherry Adair is a paranormal romance series involving the Men of TFLAC. Simon tries to hide his powers from Kess who is the publicist for his friend, the president, and fight his attraction to her while trying to solve who is causing a plague killing millions of people in africa. #84 Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr. 2nd book in the Virgin River about John "Preacher...

We're coming down to the wire with 3 weeks left to go. We changed books for a couple things during the year, because they just weren't working out, so we are in the middle of Writing with Ease, the math workbooks, and cursive. We finished Voyages in English and the only thing to finish with 3 lessons left is Spelling Workout. When we are done with SWO, James will be officially done with 3rd grade. We are going to work on getting him caught up with math, then we'll have him take the CAT - California Achievement Test to see how he is doing. Time to revisit the different math programs. What we accomplished the past couple weeks: Bible study : We put aside Explorer Bible Study to concentrate on attitude and character. 9 year old boys - what can I say. I won't say what issues we've been having, but it resulted in the Wii going into the garage, no internet and all the Godzilla movies relegated to the closet. We started "Write Upon My Heart - Obed...

Work in Progress Wednesday is brought to you by the lovely Kate of The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me. Last week was unplugged week and I managed to write everyday, just not on my WIP. I worked the first three days on my story and the rest of the week working on my midterm. This week, I have been writing about 3 to 6 pages each day. I discovered the secret to my writing diligently every morning is to not allow any computers to be turned on until I'm done writing. Which mean, James can't get on the computer, nor play wii until I'm done writing. However, the wii has been relegated to the garage for an indefinite period of time, until certain behaviors improve, so that really isn't an issue right now. You know, I never got it before why people limited their kids video game play time to the weekends or only allowed them to play 30 minutes in the afternoon, when everything else was done. I do now. I'm having him concentrate on writing a story or drawing d...

Summer is upon us which mean the end of the Spring Reading Thing 2009 hosted by the lovely and talented Katrina of Callapidder Days. My theme this year was first time author reads and I enjoyed discovering many new to me authors. The books I read were: War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 1 st to Die – James Patterson 14 - J.T. Ellison A World I Never Made - James LePore Enemies and Allies - Kevin J. Anderson Eon: Dragoneye Reborn - Alison Goodman French Bred - Frederic Guarino Homicide in Hard Cover - Kate Carlisle House of Dark Shadows – Robert Liparulo Inside Out - John Ramsey Miller Living the Charmed Life - Victoria Moran Long Lost - Harlan Coben Mysterious Benedict Society – Trenton Lee Stuart (didn't finish - meh!) Re-Deal: A Time Travel Thriller - Richard Turner Safe Haven - Hannah Alexander Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader - Joe Hilley Stone's Fall - Iain Pears The Ghost and Mrs. McClure - Alice Kimberely The Lightning Thief - Riordan The Graveyard Book ...

The Soul Collectors By Charles Quince Book Description: " In a small town of Maysville, students from Williams College have been experiencing the strangest phenomena. Some are drawn to the strange old couple who live in the creepy house. Others are coaxed. But some rush there, believing that it's the chance of a lifetime. "Now, what is it that you want to know?" Winston asked, settling into the chair opposite her. "Well," Hope responded, "I will be graduating from college at the end of this semester, and I want to know what lies ahead for me." "Then let's find out." Winston said. He peered intently into the glass ball set in the center of the table. The glass was murky, as if filled with smoke. He slowly rubbed it with his hands. In a low soft voice, he said "I can see that you want to be successful, more successful than everyone around you." Hope frowned. "What's wrong with that? Look, I want to know exa...

Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader by Joe Hilley Book Description: " Explore the leadership principles that made Sarah Palin successful. Our present era demands a new style of leadership that transcends political affiliation and party lines. In an age that values relationship over authority and instant information over accuracy, breadth of knowledge and depth of conviction are prized commodities. Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) brings both of those qualities to her new role as candidate for the vice presidency of the United States. Her familiarity with a broad range of issues and her strong moral center are just two of the leadership traits that have allowed Palin to organize and focus her efforts in elected office. Exploring themes from her career in polities, her life as a hockey mom, and her strongly held Christian faith, author Joe HIlley's biographical leadership study of Sarah Palin explores the leadership principles that have catapulted her into the national spotli...

The Angel's Game By Carlos Ruiz Zafon Front Flap: " The Angel's Game is a dazzling novel that brings us back to the unique and mysterious world of The Shadow of the Wind --and is certain to be one of the most talked about and widely read books of the year. In the turbulent and surreal Barcelona of the 1920's, David Martin, a young novelist obsessed with forbidden love, receives an offer from an enigmatic publisher to write a book like no other before--a book for which "people will live and die." In return, he is promised a fortune and, perhaps, much more. Soon, David begins to see frightening parallels between the book he's been commissioned to write and an old religious manuscript retrieved from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Meanwhile, David's ethereal publisher's sinister scope of influence begins to encroach more and more upon his own life." Since I hadn't read The Shadow on the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I really ...

I got an A!!!!! Yep. I slaved and racked my brain for three days straight on my midterm writing up several essays. I was sure...sure...sure it would only rate around a C or if I was lucky a B. It just seemed unfinished -that I was missing something. I had Father read over most of it and of course, he had suggestions and said "probably a B". 96 of 100 points equals a big fat A We know return to our regular programming

Good afternoon and Welcome to my Sunday Salon . Happy Father's day and Happy Summer Solstice to all of you in the northern hemisphere and Happy Winter to those of you on the southern side of the world. My unplugged week went rather well, but I'm pretty brain dead at the moment. I managed to work on my novel the first three days, but then my midterm for Modern Literature was this week. I just spent the past four days working on it. I had to write 8 short essays answering questions about Modern Literature, themes and symbols in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Oh, my brain!!! I think it's great that one of the first blog articles I came across today was " How to stop Digital Fidgeting and Start Writing" on Write to Do by Mary Jaksch. She talks about exactly what I end up doing a lot of times: checking and reading emails several times, checking stats and following the links; tuning my blog; and surfing the ne...