My Two Blessings

  Why the heck I choose to read Cormac McCarthy's The Road as my last book of the year I don't know. But once I started reading, couldn't put it down. McCarthy's writing pulled me deep into the apocalyptic world of the man and boy and their journey through a devastated world, bleak and dangerous, full of obstacles to overcome from nature itself and the people left behind. I began to wonder what and why? Why did the man need to get to the coast? What was he expecting to find there? Who was he expecting to find? When they found safe places with water and food, why didn't they stay here. What would I have done in his place? I, for one, would have hunkered down in the bunker and stayed there. What was this great need to keep going? It was bleak and dark, but full of perseverance, hope, love, and goodness in the face of evil. I'm glad I finally read it.  "He pulled the boy closer. Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. ...

In 1989, a sci-fi phenomenon went off the air. Seven years later, the story finally continued... for one night only before it was resurrected for real nine years later. Welcome back to the Whoniverse, friends. CVGWJames here, today we will be discussing the 1996 Doctor Who movie starring Paul McGann as the eighth incarnation of the Time Lord known as The Doctor as the Seventh Doctor's era with Sylvester McCoy properly comes to an end. In the years between Classic Who's cancellation and this movie, there had been many attempts to bring back Doctor Who while many people attempted to make Doctor Who into a movie. Eventually, after many attempts and much work, we got this. So, what's the story? Sometime well after the events of Survival, The Master has been executed on Skaro during a trial held by the Daleks, The Doctor's most feared enemies in the universe, and The Doctor himself is taking what is left of his Time Lord rival back to Gallifrey. However, death is not the end...

  Happy New Year! Come on in, help yourself to a snack, a drink, find a comfy place to sit while we talk about books.  This year turned out differently than planned, but that's quite all right.  There's a quote I saw somewhere that said "Time is never wasted, it's just spent on something else." I was talking with another BAWer the other day and the thought crossed my mind, that we come to some books, when we are ready to appreciate and enjoy or learn from them. We can make all the plans we want, but it just may not be that book's time yet, and need to put it aside for another day until it is. Sometimes you'll know, other times, it will be a matter of trial and error, and maybe the third time will be the charm.  This year wasn't the year for some of my chunky wanna reads and I gave up, intending to still read them at some point.  So on to answering our wrap up questions for this year.  What were your reading goals:  To read more physical than ebooks - F...

Salutations, nerds and fans. CVGWJames here and we're back to review something unrelated to Sonic, a Marvel movie. But not just ANY Marvel movie or superhero movie, its SPIDER-MAN starring Tobey Maguire as the web-slinging fella himself. Released in 2002 and directed by Sam Rami, Spider Man was a smash success and helped rejuvenate the superhero movie genre, eventually paving the way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 with the release of Iron Man while scoring two sequels. In light of the nearly earth-shattering Endgame-level SPIDER-MAN NO WAY HOME featuring Tom Holland's Spider Man meeting Tobey's Spider Man and 2012 Andrew Garfield's Spider Man through multiverse madness and with Spider Man's 60th anniversary looming, it is time we look back at the film that revitalized the superhero craze and landed Spider-Man on the big screen. SPIDER-MAN! Side Note: Before we start, I will say that before we got this movie, there were many attempts to get a Spider-Man fi...

  No one knows  when  the introvert,  the quiet one,  the one who stayed  on the periphery,  the one  no one  could hear, the one who hide within the babble of voices,  shimmied out of  her shell.  No one knows the one who always  listened, at ease  with her place  in  the well  of  shadows,  and thoughts swimming  through her brain. No one knows the introvert, the quiet one, who found a place to be,  to rest, to live,  to dream. The introvert,  the quiet one,  lived among  t he rest, content  with those   who lived externally.  No one knows  what  came between except she found  her voice. And burst,  quietly of course,  and reached  politely,  of course, between  the lines,  On to the scene, And took her place  in the light. 

    Once again I have a physical book, an ebook, and audiobook in progress. I used to be a monogamous reader and wouldn't think of mixing and matching, but now enjoy the variety so when I get tired of one, I can turn to the other.  I started listening to Tom Hanks Uncommon Type in the car which are literary short stories. Enjoying his humor.  For some reason I thought it was non fiction but the first story made me realize it wasn't when he mentioned watching Netflix with a date and I was like, what a minute, he's only a couple years only than me and Netflix didn't exist 30 years ago.  *facepalm*   Currently on page 165 on Wolf Hall . Yes, reading very slowly and only at breakfast time. It's keeping me from devouring the whole story in large gulps and not remembering most of it.  I'm at the point where poor Thomas has suffered many losses and the cardinal is in a world of trouble.  Quote of the day: "He say to her, "I wish we have a baby, it ...

  Merry Christmas  I kind of went overboard this year.  You know how they said to shop early because product and shipping will be in short supply and take a longer period of time.  Nope, I think they fudged it.  I bought early and bought often. Hubby did the same.  Happy birthday, Jesus. We celebrated with lots of love and happiness.  Right around Thanksgiving, Paul McCartney's memoir in music, THE LYRICS, was released and I immediately went to the store and bought it. Expensive, but well worth it. Hubby and I will get hours of enjoyment out of it. A couple years ago, hubby mentioned Dan Alexander Audio book and I saved it to my own private wishlist, nudge nudge wink wink, in hopes that someday it'd be available and the price would go down. Well, it became available but the price didn't go down, but I got it any way.  Hubby was surprised and amazed that I remembered something he'd mentioned so long ago.  Score!  Second score of the eveni...

  Christmas Eve is almost upon us and and it's time to Jólabókaflóðið.  I've added a few more ebooks to my virtual stacks thanks to some awesome Kindle deals.  Nick Magnus's The Cat and the City , Doris Lessings, Grass is Singing , Jack McDevitt's Ancient Shores Magnus Fly's City of Dark Magic , Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed , Kate Quinn's The Huntress ,  William Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy, and Jon Sweeney's  Thomas Merton: An Introduction to His Life, Teachings, and Practices.   Yes, I know... When will I find time to read them all.  I'm 100 pages into Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and once I got used to her writing, enjoying the story and historical aspects.   Mantel has a way with imagery and loved this line:  " Their bodies breathed out the faint borrowed scent of sun and herbs."  I also like Thomas Cromwell's dry wit.  I think this is one book which will take me to the end of the year to finish.  It's not one to spe...

I've been reviewing my wins and fails for 2021 which I'll post about later and trying to figure out how to be more organized for 2022. I have all these grand plans, particularly when it comes to writing and my WIP.  However, as I do every year, I fail brilliantly, usually because I over plan, instead of keeping it simple.  This year I'm definitely keeping it simple. In the midst of planning for next year, I found   Because Reading's 2022 Bookish Resolutions Challenge , thanks to Bev at Reading Challenge Addict.   Love that the hostesses Michelle and Berls have a combination reading, book blogging, and writing challenge and quarterly check in's to see how you are progressing.   The rules are: Create between 5 or more resolutions related to books/book blogging/writing (there are examples below but you can make up your own)(you can have as many resolutions as you would like, there is no limit)  Create a signup post and add it to the Linky o...

  I try to start out the year with a book buying ban and usually fall off the wagon by April. For 2022, vow to forgo all the kindle freebies and Book Bub deals offered along the way; which is very hard to do by the way.   I usually end up going on a book buying binge at the end of the year to hold me over.  I've already preordered New Releases by my favorite authors.  Can’t resist those.  For 2022 I'm determined to hold out longer since my shelves are overflowing, double and triple parked and so many are calling my name. I’m going to join Bev at My Reader’s Block  Mount TBR 2022  and shoot for Mt. Ararat and Read 48 books from my TBR Pile. She has a Virtual Mount TBR challenge as well.

  Books, books, and more books. I set a goal this year of completing a 10 x 10 reading challenge, ten books in ten categories.  Happy to say I met the goal although I did have to change a couple categories. The Nuns category didn't work out and it turned into First in the series. And Magic changed into Paranormal. Officially I'm calling it at 100, although I read a lot of series for the Nora Roberts Revisit but only counted each series as one.  I'll follow up with stats in another post. I think I lost track of which were ebooks and which were physical, but I'm pretty sure the majority are ebooks as  my physical stacks didn't diminish by much. In fact, I think they had babies because I seem to have more than I started with at the beginning of the year.    The 10 x 10 Categories are:  • AR - Alternate realities  • DRAGONS - Dragons and other fantastical beasts  (Dragons) • FINES - Fines and Misdemeanors (Crimes in libraries, bookstores, a...

It's week 50 in our Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks quest.  For 2022, I'm introducing a new year long reading and writing project called A to Z and back again.  One word beginning with that letter every week as we work all the way through the alphabet forward, then back to A. The word of the week will be announced with each Sunday's post.  There will be numerous ways to play which include reading a book with the word in the title; read alphabetically by author or title; includes the emotion or action or characteristic or job of the character or the story; find a synonym or antonym; form an aptigram or antigram; Create a story or poem and let your thoughts fly. How you do it is up to you.  To give you an example, since we are on week 50, we'd be on the letter c.  The word of the week: Chivalry.   Make of it what you will.  ****** I finished J.S. Dewes The Last Watch.  Once I read the excerpt on Amazon, had to buy it.  Once I started readin...

During my dinner break at work I was perusing the internet and decided to share the wealth tonight with more book lists.  So much temptation.  I discovered shopping early for Christmas in order to make sure things get here on time has lead to spending a whole heck of a lot more money, because I keep seeing one more thing, then one more thing. My guys are going to be spoiled this year.   Have you seen Red Notice yet? Fun movie.  Red Notice and the Art of the Heis t  books about heists.  The Center for Fiction confabs to determine the  200 Books that Shaped 200 Years of Literature. A list from France -  100 books of 2021  (thank goodness for google translator) Now I'm meandering slowly (is that redundant?) through Tor's list of  100 Speculative Fiction Titles to Add to Your Reading List

  It's week 49 in our 52 Books Quest and I’ve just started another space opera, The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes:  “The Divide.  It’s the edge of the universe. Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it.  The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military. At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer--genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons.” She knows they’re humanity's last chance.” Loved this article on Tor about  A Year in Books Not Yet Read I'm pretty much the same way. I peruse my shelves of unread books, , go down memory lane, think about why I chose it.   "There’s a story like these behind every unread book, just like there’s a different kind of story about every book you’ve finished, whe...

                                                                        I started listening to Erin Morgenstern' s The Starless Sea in the car and loved the narrators, their voices perfect for the story. One for the in between stories and another for Zachary's part of the story. I'll probably be listening to it long in to 2022 as I don't drive very much. LOL!  I was home for a couple days and had gotten to a part of the story that intrigued me, so picked up the book to read and couldn't put it down.  A Starless Sea is a story within a story within a story about a story. Endless time, myths, fables, the moon, fate, life, love, adventures, bees, hearts, swords, acolytes, guardians, doors, doors, and more doors. Well written, captures your imagination, with plenty of s...

  I thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd installment of Nora Robert's The Becoming in her Dragon Heart Legacy series. It picks up where the first book ended with Marco latching onto Breen's hand as she jumped through the gate in Ireland. His fascination with Talamha and Breen's world of magic and dragons enlivens the story and love the give and take between them. Watching the relationship between Breen and Keagan build as she learns to embrace her magic, her strengths and weaknesses before they have to battle the big bad.

  It's week 48 in our 52 books quest. As the year winds down, the best books of the year lists rise up with many books in common.  Some I may have missed and others I may have deliberately missed on purpose. Some may not have been stories that enticed me into reading more...  Yet.  Some weren't my style, which can change from year to year. Different phases, different places, different mind set, or just not in the mood. But when I am in the mood, watch out. My TBR stack gets taller, while some books grow older and wait patiently, knowing that in time, I'll get to them. If you are like me, your book shelves may be filled to the brim with books double and triple parked.  Every so often, I'll rearrange them, pulling stories and authors forward to sit front and center, pushing others to the back until it's their time to shine again.  I really don't need to buy more books, but you know, you can never have enough.  While the sleepy, dusty tome, bides its time...