Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Teaser Tuesday:  Library of Souls Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "I stopped to gape at them, stunned to realize they weren't lampposts at all but desiccated heads impaled on long spikes.  They were horrible, skin drawn and gray, tongues lolling--and yet, despite not being attached to throats, three of the heads had spoken to us." --page 137           Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs It was a little slow going getting into this final installation of the Miss Peregrine series, but it has definitely picked up. Happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is:  FREEBIE .  Yay!  So, because I missed last week's Top Ten, I am going to go with that topic... Top Ten Complete Series I Have Yet to Finish . Here they are: Inkworld   by Cornelia Funke Finishing School  by Gail Carriger The Chemical Garden by Lauren DeStefano Contours of the Heart by Tammara Webber The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman Edilean by Jude Deveraux The Tudor Court by Philippa Gregory Wildwood Chronicles  by Colin Meloy The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff Some of these I've only read one book in, while others are nearly complete!  What are some series you need to finish? Also, look for next week's top ten:...

Teaser Tuesdays:  The Revenge of Seven Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "The Mogadorian opens his mouth for another disbelieving protest.  He's cut off by a scrape of metal, Five's blade popping out from beneath his sleeve.  Without hesitation, he drives the point into the underside of the officer's jaw and straight up into his brain.  Before he starts to disintegrate, there's a look of total surprise on the Mog's face" --page 139           ----- The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore I love this series!!!! Happy reading!

Teaser Tuesdays:  Shadow Spell Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "She needed to set it aside for one bloody night, she told herself.  Connor, Cabhan, her mother, the whole of her family.  One quiet night, she decided, in her pajamas--with a thick layer of one of Branna's creams on her face.  Add a beer, some crips or whatever junky food she had about, and the telly. She'd opt for no more than that. Opting for the beer to begin--it wouldn't be the first time she'd taken a cold beer into a hot shower to wash away the day--she started toward the kitchen, and someone pounded on the door" --page 135            ----- Shadow Spell by Nora Roberts Happy reading!  

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is:  New Series I Want to Start Reading .  I'm going to go with series that I want to start in general though...not just new ones.  In no particular order, here's my list: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Because I love Scotland...and miss Scotland...and like historical stuff. Legend by Marie Lu This sounds like a fun series.  Similar to lots of dystopian series out now, but fun regardless. The Selection by Kiera Cass I love the cover art on this series. Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia Saw the movie, Beautiful Creatures, and it was decent.  I would like to see if the books are as good as everyone says. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare Again, would like to see if they are as awesome as everyone claims they are....

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekley meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to highlight releases they are eagerly awaiting. Here's what I'm looking forward to: Title:  The Revenge of Seven Author:  Pittacus Lore Publication Date:  August 26, 2014 Page Count:  416 Summary via Goodreads The worst was supposed to be over. We were reunited after a decade apart. We were discovering the truth of our past. We were training and getting stronger every day. We were even happy... We never imagined the Mogodorians could turn one of our own against us. We were fools for trusting Five. And now Eight is lost forever. I would do anything to bring him back, but that's impossible. Instead, I will do whatever it takes to destroy every last one of them. I've spent my entire life hiding from them, and they've stolen everything away from me. But that stops now. We're going to take the battle to them. We have a new ally who knows their weakn...

Nora Roberts' The Last Boyfriend Logistics Title:  The Last Boyfriend Author:  Nora Roberts Published:  May 1, 2012 Publishing Company:  Berkley Trade Page Count:  319 Summary via Goodreads Owen is the organizer of the Montgomery clan, running the family's construction business with an iron fist - and an even less flexible spreadsheet. And though his brothers bust on his compulsive list-making, the Inn BoonsBoro is about to open right on schedule. The only thing Owen didn't plan for was Avery McTavish... Avery's popular pizza place is right across the street from the inn, giving her a first-hand look at its amazing renovation - and a newfound appreciation for Owen. Since he was her first boyfriend when they were kids, Owen has never been far from Avery's thoughts. But the attraction she's feeling for him now is far from innocent. As Avery and Owen cautiously take their relationship to another level, the opening of the inn gives the whol...

  Today is the first day in the Bout of Books 10 reading challenge and I'm ready to go!  I've decided that I'm going to do the following for the challenge: 1.  Continue working my way through A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin.  I am currently on page 699 of 978.  The series is just too good to step away from!  Totally doable to finish this one. 2.  I am also going to continue plowing through Watership Down as it's the one on my nightstand and I always read a chapter or two before turning the light off at night.  I can't remember what page I'm on exactly, but I think it's around 223 of 391. 3.  On Saturday I hopped over to a local consignment/thrift store to donate some items...and buy some things, because that's how I roll.  Ended up walking away with three books for a buck:  two romances and a non-fiction World War II book...I'm eclectic.  Of those, I plan on reading The Stanislaski Brothers: ...

Happy Tuesday, fellow A-Zers.  Today brings us to the letter S and it's all about:  W.G. Sebald, Art Spiegelman, and Alexander McCall Smith. W.G. Sebald (1944-2001) German writer W.G. Sebald is pure brilliance.  Prior to his untimely death in 2001, Sebald was heralded as one of the greatest living authors and believed to be a future Nobel Prize winner for Literature.  His father was a member of the Reichswehr in1929 and then transitioned as a member of the Wehrmacht under the Nazis, though he remained a fairly detached figure.  During World War II, Sebald's father was a prisoner of war until 1947.  Because of much of his experience during the Nazi Regime, Sebald focuses the majority of his work on the Holocaust and post-war Germany.  Heavy themes of memory and loss of memory (both personal and collective) and decay run rampant through his work.  In addition, he utilizes elaborate and old-fashioned language in the original German inte...

TGIF!  I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sure ready for the weekend and I plan to do a bit of reading...like always.  So, to continue on with this wonderful alphabet of writers, we come to D and I bring you:  Katherine Dunn and Jude Deveraux, the first women writers to appear on my list! Katherine Dunn (1945-) An Oregon writer, Katherine Dunn is probably best known for her novel Geek Love , but she is also a journalist, poet, voice artist, and radio personality.  She has had many columns published in various magazines, including Vogue , Playboy , and the LA Times , and has also been recognized for her writing on boxing ; Dunn is a writer for cyberboxingzone.com , an online boxing magazine.  Geek Love is a great look into the seedier side of a traveling circus, focusing on the sideshows instead of the main stage acts. *Recommendation:  Geek Love Jude Deveraux (1947-) Sometimes you just need a little cheesy romance book to take you a...

Midway through the week and it's time for an installation of Why I Love Wednesday, a meme hosted by Alexis from Reflections of a Bookaholic .  Today's topic is Favorite Childhood Series .  And, like many women my age, my favorite childhood series is, hands down, The Babysitters Club . I loved, loved, loved The Babysitters Club .  I wanted to be a part of that club so badly.  I wanted to start my own Oregon chapter and conquer the needs of frazzled parents in a fun, timely, and enthusiastic manner.  Instead I contented myself with reading about the exploits of Stacey, Mary Anne, Claudia, Kristy, Dawn, Jessi, Mallory, and Logan and the town of Stoneybrook.  My favorite character was always Claudia because she was an artist.  I also really liked Dawn because she was earthy and crunchy (a very Northwest trait).  The issues that the series dealt with were spot on for me as a child/young teen and I really connected with these characters. My love ...

Getting back into the swing of things has taken a bit of effort on my part.  It seems that, with everything going on outside of the blogging world, my poor blog has taken a tragic hit.  I've been so neglectful of consistent posting...though I do have several (perhaps ten or so) drafts in the works to be edited.  Wow.  So, to help aid my way back into consistent blogging, I'm participating in this week's edition of "Why I Love".  I've been participating in this blogging meme for a while now, but have missed weeks recently.  However, here's my attempt at getting back in the groove!  This week's topic is Favorite Series . There are so many series that I absolutely love.  The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, Harry Potter by JK Rowling, Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan...and on and on.  But I'm not going to talk about any of those, mainly because I've written about every single one of them in some capa...

Oh Janet Evanovich...perhaps you should wrap up Stephanie's story OR finally make a few decisions about her character development (or lack thereof as of now).  I really wanted to like Explosive Eighteen .  I really did!  Unfortunately, it's more of the same ole shtick with a ho-hum plot.  We left Stephanie in a great place in the last book in the series:  going on a Hawaiian vacation with a mystery man.  Now, my hope was that the mystery man would be Morelli.  I wasn't let down in this case...kind of.  There was a really weird turnout to poor Stephanie's tropical vacation and she was hesitant to talk about why it was cut short and why there was a distinctive tan on her ring finger.  Say what?!  I won't give anything else away. This installation of the Stephanie Plum series involves our heroine in an international jewel heist, a case of mistaken identity, and lending a hand to mortal enemies.  It also finds Stephanie, like always, ...

It was a beautiful, sunny day here in the PNW, though I forgot to take a picture of it (I even thought to myself while I was driving home from work: "take a picture of the sky because it's an amazingly nice November day.  That doesn't often happen here").  However, that has absolutely nothing to do with today's post.  I just thought I'd share :) Instead, it's time for "Why I Love".  This week's topic is.... series or stand alone novels .  Intriguing and important!  While both have their positive and negative attributes, I have to give the honor to those novels that can stand alone.  Those that don't depend on anything else to make them complete.  Those that come full circle within the given pages.  It's so satisfying in that respect. Don't get me wrong, I love a series just as much as the next girl ( Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games , and Stephanie Plum to name a few), but there's something about a sta...

That's right!  Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street makes me teary-eyed.  Not because of the plot or characters or anything like that, but because of the fact that I can close my eyes and see exactly what the characters are seeing.  I can walk and ride along with them in every aspect.  Sad and teary-eyed because I miss it so much.  Ugh.  Now I don't even want to write this.  My dreary day (though fantastic weather-wise with it's overcast skies, slight mist, and chilly breeze) is now reflected with a dreary mood :( A view of the lovely sky from my backyard today. Anywho...moving on to the book.  LOVED IT!  I like the fact that McCall Smith originally created this as a serial and ran it in The Scotsman every week and I can only image how fans reacted.  Personally, I would have found it nearly impossible to wait for the next installment to come out.  Oh the pins and needles!  However, since there are currently five b...

I posted a teaser for Jude Deveraux's The Scent of Jasmine yesterday and managed to finish the book yesterday evening.  And, I have to say, the book was a pleasant surprise.  Most romance novels have a set in stone formula, which this one does stick to, but for some reason I found this book much more compelling than most.  I've read some of Deveraux's other novels, but none seem to stick out in my mind.  This one does that. The book follows Catherine Edilean Harcourt, lovingly referred to as Cay, and Alexander McDowell's adventure across the Southern states.  Cay has inadvertently placed herself in Alex's protection after helping him escape from prisoner for a crime he claims he's innocent of committing.  Along the way they encounter obstacles which must be overcome.  They discover certain truths about each other and their respective circumstances.  They grow as people.  I think what I like most about this book was the characters.  C...