Booking Through Thursday -- Book Meme

Booking through Thursday is a Book Meme today

What was the last book you bought?

Picked up these books in the last couple days. The bottom three arrived from Amazon and the rest I picked up at the used book store next to my business.

Name a book you have read MORE than once

Several of Nora Roberts, Da Vinci Code and The Harry Potter Series

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

Hmmm!

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

If purchasing online, I will read customer reviews and excerpts of the book. When in the bookstore, generally will see a author or book cover that interests me and will read the back cover. If the story sounds good, I will read the first few pages of chapter 1 and read random pages. If the story continues to interest me, will get the book.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

Definitely Fiction 90% of the time. I'll read non fiction when want to learn about something I'm doing or for one of my college classes.

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

Both actually - you can't have one without the other

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)

The MacGregor from Nora Robert series about the MacGregor family. He is the patriarch of the family and is quite the matchmaker. He loves to set up his sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, grandchildren. Makes for a fascinating series of books.

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

Ha! Including the books I just bought, these -

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?

Trial by Fire, Newpointe Series # 4 by Terri Blackstock. Finished it yesterday.

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

Many. One that comes to mind is Rescued by John Bevere. It kept flashing forward,backward and inbetween and was just confusing.

Teaser Tuesdays - Trail by Fire

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. No Spoilers

"An alarm blared in Jake's chest. She was asking him to be involved this time, to kidnap some kid and beat him to death or shoot him, to throw him into a fire and let him burn to death."

Pg 92

"They're liars. They're using the banner of Christianity to camouflage their hate. They're defining who we are, Issie, but they're defining us wrong."

Pg 110

Excerpts from "Trial by Fire" by Terri Blackstock

Join in with MizB at Should be Reading, Home of a bibliophile

Novel Challenges

Novel Challenges

I have been looking at all the novel challenges out there and decided to join in two more challenges that begin in January 2009.

The 2009 Read and Review Challenge hosted by MizB (she loves challenges) in
which you simply agree to review each book you read during the year.







MizB asks * PLEASE keep your reviews clean & respectful ~ these books we read are the hard work of an author, and we don’t need to be mean. Even if you didn’t like the book, please try to find something you can say that would be encouraging to the author.

• reviews can be as short, or long, as you wish
• you MAY overlap with other challenges
• eBooks and Audiobooks ARE allowed
• if there will be spoilers in your review, please note this in the subject line of your post so that those who don’t want to read them can skip that review. Thank you.

So my motto will be and it's on my sidebar: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." with a rating system of Good, Awesome and Excellent. Simple, easy and respectful.

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The 2nd Challenge will be The Christian Readers Challenge which will take place from January 1st through April 30, 2009. The books may be a mixture of fiction and non fiction; may include ebooks and audiobooks; and overlap with other challenges.



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I'm sure there will be other challenges that come up, that will look interesting. There is a great website, Novel Challenges that Wendy has put together where you can find all the challenges happening out in blogland.

Happy Reading

Post to Ponder

Only in California?

A couple married in August had their marriage license rejected after they were married because they crossed out "Party A" and "Party B" and wrote in Bride and Groom. Their marriage license was rejected because they altered the form, so they sued.

It seems that when same sex marriage was legalized, the forms were changed to read Party A and Party B. California officials received numerous requests from residents all over the state who wanted to be identified as bride and groom, so they agreed to change the forms once again.

Now couples can declare themselves

Bride and Groom, Groom and Groom, or Bride and Bride or just leave it blank all together.

My fix would have been to have two forms. Keep the Party A and Party B form and have a secondary form with Bride and Groom. How difficult would have that had been. Now they have to toss all the old forms and make new ones. The new forms will be available November 17th.

What a waste of money, plus don't you think they should really wait until after the election. When Proposition 8 passes in November, they'll just have to change them again.

Musing Mondays - reading habits changes

MUSING MONDAYS today asks…

How has your reading changed over the years? Have you started reading more “meaty” books (books with more substance)? Or, have you gone to more “fluffy” reads? Perhaps you’ve done neither, and you’ve just always read the same type of thing! If that’s the case, why? Are you willing to step out of your reading ‘comfort zone’ and try something new? What would you recommend to someone who needed to “branch out”?

My brother got me started reading science fiction when I was a teenager, some 40 years ago. I read everything A - Z from Piers Anthony's Dragonlance series to all of Margaret Weis's stories. My old apartment had wall to wall bookshelves totally filled with books.

I have branched out over the years and now our home has bookshelves in every room, overflowing with every genre. Unfortunately our house doesn't have enough room for all my books. When Father and I were married 11 years ago, I packed up all my sci fi books and we temporarily put them on shelves in the garage until we had time to unpack. They now reside in the same boxes in the bottom of my closet. We still don't have room. Perhaps I should have a book give-a-way or contest. The owner of Bookloverscafe, my favorite used bookstore, practically drooled when I told him about the books - I'll probably just bring them in to him for credit.

I have gone through periods in which I get caught up in reading only one genre or one author until I get through all their novels like Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, Mercedes Lackey or Ted Decker.

Last year during National Novel Write Month I discovered romance again when I read my first Nora Roberts book. Of course, that lead to reading ALL her books, including her futuristic J.D. Robb series. I also discovered a vast range of romance books from the typical boy meets girl to the suspense thrillers.

Thanks to the internet and the million, interesting blogs out there, I have discovered many, new books and authors that I wouldn't have normally read; fiction and non fiction that have taken me out of my "comfort zone."

What would I recommend to someone who needs to branch out? I would recommend taking up a challenge such as one of those found at Novel Challenges like "really old classics challenge" or the "martel-harper challenge."

I would tell them about one of the books that really stretched my imagination such as: "Thr3e" by Ted Dekker or "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Satterfield or "The Island of Lost Maps: A true story of Cartographic Crime" by Miles Harvey.

The older I get, the more eclectic my reading gets.

So, how has your reading changed over the years?

Head over to Should Be Reading and find out what every one else has to say.

Martel Harper Challenge

Interesting Book Challenge

Dewey from Hidden Side of the Leaf is hosting the Martel-Harper Challenge.

Canadian author Yann Martel who wrote Life of PI sends the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, a book to read every two weeks. Martel was one of 50 authors who went to the house of commons to celebrate the fifty years of the Canada Council for the Arts. The Prime Minister seemed less than interested and did not speak during the occasion and continually shuffled papers. The complete story may be found at the link below - What is Stephen Harper reading.

Martel decided "For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website.”

Dewey is hosting this perpetual challenge to read 2 books per quarter from the list. On "What is Stephen Harper Reading" site is a list of the 39 books he has sent so far with a copy of the letter that accompanied the book.

Book # 1 is The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy
Book # 2 is Animal Farm which I read a long time ago so will skip it.
Book # 3 is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie

I'll just add #1 and #3 to my fall reading list.

If you want to join into the challenge, head on over to dewey's and sign up.

It would be interesting if someone choose to do the same thing to our newly elected president - whomever it may be.

Book Review - Shadow and Silk

Shadow and Silk

Ann Maxwell

Back cover: "Professor Dani Warren was willing to risk her reputation searching for that priceless piece of sacred Tibetan silk. And if she had to trust mysterious "risk-management specialist" Shane Crowe to help her recover it, she was willing to take the gamble--even if the real danger lay in Shane's fierce desire to protect her at all costs...

Shane suspected there was a lot more to this recovery job than his clients were letting on--even if they were Tibetan monks. And with his company's reputation on the line, he has not choice but to rely on Dr. Warren's expertise in his search. But Dani's surprising savvy in handling big time trouble was shaking up the icy concentration and well-honed instincts Shane relied on most. And now every move, every heated embrace was bringing them closer to the treasure of two lifetimes--- and an unthinkable choice..."



Dani is an archeology professor in pursuit of rescuing an ancient Tibetan silk cloth on the black market. The buy is interrupted by an assassin who is intent in getting the silk. She is also in danger of being captured by the Chinese army who are moving in at the same time. Shane,who also wants to rescue the silk for the tibetan monks, must decide whether to save the silk or Dani.

He saves Dani and they run for their lives. There is a strong attraction between Dani and Shane, but only one thing stands in the way. Shane as taken a vow of celibacy and is determined not to break that vow. They are also in a race with the villainous katya and Kasatonin, who share a rather twisted sexual relationship, to recover the silk.


As always, Lowell AKA Ann Maxwell has written another romantic suspense story with three dimensional characters and complex story line.