Happy New Year! ✨🎈🎉🎉🎉🎈✨

Violets Are Blue by James Patterson

Great read! This was my first Patterson book and I can now see why he's such a popular author. he writes in such a way that is very easy for anyone to follow. His word usage and sentence structure is plain but very blunt and to the point. His story is well told. He definitely takes you on a splendid roller coaster ride with his larger than life characters. Although this book was #7 in the Cross series, I did not feel at all lost or left out of the story. Patterson carries on gracefully in this way. Very good read. I'm looking forward to reading more from Patterson soon!

BOTM December Picks

I just can't wait to dive into these!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

❤️🎄✨🎀❄️🎅🎁☃️❤️

The Icewind Dale Trilogy by R. A. Salvatore

I can't. I'm sorry, I just can't get into books like this. I started reading this book at the suggestion of my husband but I just can't. I like fantasy fiction but I'm a bit picky about this particular genre because I can't get into books like this. The names of people and places are ridiculously hard to pronounce (even just in your head), the scenes & stories are typical cliche's and it is extremely difficult for me to get into the story at all. Its just not for me.
However I'm sure someone that enjoys high fantasy such as World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons on a frequent basis would really enjoy these books. Would definitely recommend to someone fitting this description.

Astrology and You by Carroll Righter

Great read. Although my copy is dated 1956 it still is extremely valid and has very relateble information. The author speaks in layman's terms very well so that the reader may understand each concept. She makes tons of references in each section and even adds a little of her own flare so it doesn't sound robotic. This is a very good read and a great addition to any library. Highly recommend.

Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister by Gregory Maguire

I'm sorry, I just cannot get into this story. I don't know what it is exactly but I just can't get into it and it's boring as hell. The author writes very well and very clearly. I've read a couple other books by him. But for  whatever reason I just simply cannot get into  this story. Just not interesting at all for me. I gave it a chance. That's all that matters.

NAM by Mark Baker

I don't really know what to say about this particular book. Please forgive me but I'm still in a bit of shock. These are REAL stories of the war in Vietnam told by REAL people who were there and experienced it. The things that our troops had to endure are just unbelievable. And if their physical situation wasn't bad enough, their mental and emotional states were worse. And then to have gone through all that just to come home unwanted, unloved, unvictorious and even branded as a murderer... just heart wrenching. These veterans we're (and are) shunned by the very government and country they fought for. Simply unbelievable.
As for the book itself, it is very well written and easy to get into. The author did a great job compiling these testimonies. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

Hellboy vs. Krampus... it's on!

Icelandic Jolabokaflod

  This is a very interesting tradition Iceland has. I, being a lover of Iceland and it's traditions, love the idea of this tradition in particular. I feel that due to our advances in technology and certain other aspects of our culture here in the US that we are losing touch with literature and the written word in general. This is a very sad thought.
  Now I'm not saying that smart phones and the like are a bad thing necessarily, but there needs to be a balance here. Perhaps that's the real problem... we don't know how to balance our lives. Perhaps we, as a country, should start observing a similar such holiday as Jolabokaflod and reassimilate ourselves to our written word culture. Not to mention how our "book" culture is disappearing to the point of becoming a cult fad. It's definitely sad and distressing to know that our schools no longer teach our children how to write in cursive, that high school graduates can't survive academically in college and that we'd rather watch a YouTube video on our smart phone than read a book. The state of our nation in this respect certainly needs some fixing.
  But the good news is that it's not too late. With movies like the Harry Potter series and Lord of the Rings series reading (especially in the Young Adult genre) is becoming "cool" again. I still think it's sad that it takes a great movie(s) to do this but that's just my opinion. The fact is that it's helping the problem. People, and especially young adults, are reading again. This is a step in the right direction but we still need more. We need more role models that read and appreciate writers/books. We need more big bookish events where readers of all ages can get involved. Instead of Box Office Hits we need Book Office Hits LOL 😋 The smallest steps in the right direction can make way for many more.
  I personally am starting by observing Jolabokaflod in my family this holiday season. I am planning on going to at least 1 big bookish event in 2018. I'm going to get my son and I involved in our local library & reading groups/challenges. And I have signed on to becoming a Book Fairy this year for the holiday season (I will be publishing another blog post about this soon). These are my personal pledges to myself in an effort to help and encourage our Book Culture to grow.
  Do you have any such pledges? I'd love to hear about them. Please share them in the Comments section of this post. Look forward to hearing from you all! And God Jol! (Good Yule) 📚🏔️📘🎀🥂🍖💌🎅📖🎄☃️🎁📙🍻🥧❄️📚

Book Treasures

So I was reading my current read, NAM by Mark Baker, last night. It was a casual night like any other. Had the Netflix fireplace going, Christmas tree on, Hershey laying beside me, and a warm cup of tea. I turned the page in my book and a piece of paper fell out... OMG! Upon closer inspection I noticed that it was a page from a date book... from 1984! WOW! I know I love finding little book treasures that previous readers have used as bookmarks but this one was exceptional. This little piece of paper is older than I am! It's almost as if I'm practicing biblical archaeology! LOL Right? What an amazing treasure. I'm surely keeping this one ❤️

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

***Spoiler Alert***
Okay. I'm going to try to be as nice as I possibly can. I am a huge fan of the movie Practical Magic of which this book is set to be a prequel of. Unfortunately when you write a prequel to such a big and beloved cult classic such as Practical Magic you're bound to run into fans like me who know the movie backwards and forwards and can pick out details that seem incorrect in your writing. There is one scene in the film in particular that I feel the author of this book did not pay much attention to. In the beginning of the film just after the two little girls go to stay and live with their aunts there is a scene where all four of them are sitting at a table outside having tea. During the scene Aunt Jet and Aunt Franny talk about Franny's poor Ethan and go back and forth arguing whether his death was an accident or not. There was an Ethan mentioned in the book however it was not a person who could ever have been a lover of Franny. Franny's main lover in the book (her seeming to be the protagonist of the book) was named Haylin and eventually died of cancer. This could not really be misconstrued as an accident. It is true that the author could be speaking of some other lover that happened between the book and the movie (a span of approximately 30 years) however the way that Haylin is spoken about in the book makes me wonder why he was not the lover spoken about in the film.
Also included in that one scene in the film was when young Sally asks both of her aunts if their mother had died of a broken heart because their father had died from an accident and their mother had died fairly soon after their father had. This is not the way it happened in the book at all. In the book at describes their parents of having both died in a automobile accident together.
the book also describes Sally & Gillian's mother (Regina) as having long black hair like her father with ashen gray eyes. in the movie however she has long blonde hair as pictured in one of the very first scenes of the film.
I know that I'm nitpicking here, but I guess I wish that if someone decides to write a book based on a film that they would do their research correctly and have their written work reflect the film accurately and vice versa.
On a completely different note the book was fun, light-hearted and entertaining and was all in all a great read. I don't mean to be petty in this review and I've only taking off one star for the things that I have picked apart. Readers of this review must understand that the film is very close to my heart. So I had to approach this book with caution. But I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would want to read it. It was written very well and is very easy to read, easy to follow and easy to dive into. A great read! 🌟💖🌟

Reading Buddy

My best reading buddy is my little spoiled rotten rabbit named Hershey. He likes to check out which books I'm currently reading. Then after he thoroughly inspects everything he may lay at my feet with me on my chaise lounge. He's my sweet comfort. Love my bunny ❤️🐰❤️

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The Beginning

Who here likes books??? 📚📖📚
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