blog

TBR Graveyard

I’ve been meaning to weed my TBR list down a bit, but only recently did I actually sit down and get to work on this daunting project! Working a few at a time, I thought it might be fun to share the titles I remove and my thinking behind the removal thereof.

Enjoy!


Seven Stories About a Cat Named Sneakers by Margaret Wise Brown… Probably added to my list when I came across it while shelving books at my library. Not really feeling like reading kid books right now.

Dragon Keeper by Carole Wilkinson… Same as above, discovered while shelving and just not interesting to me anymore.

Dark Horse by Kate Sherwood… Probably suggested on a listserv or newsletter asking for reviews. It’s been ages and I think it’s time to take it off the list.

Red & the Wolf by Kailin Morgan… Let me be entirely honest, here, I have NO idea why this was on my TBR. So, we’re going to remove it and carry on.

Struck By Lightning by Chris Colfer… Added when it was published and I was still interested in Glee.


Have you removed titles from your TBR?
Which ones and why?

blog

The Sunshine Blogger Award

Good morning to you all!

I was nominated by the wonderful Evelyn, of Evelyn Reads, for the Sunshine Blogger Award. Every time I see she’s posted something new, I have to hop right over and read it because she shares such great insights AND is great at convincing me to add books to my reading list, lol.

Evelyn always puts a big smile on my face. ๐Ÿ˜€


The Rules are simple:

  1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
  2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
  3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
  4. List the rules and display the sunshine blogger award in your post/or on your blog.

Evelyn’s questions:

Do you ever feel second-hand embarrassment when reading? If yes, name a scene that really made you cringe?

I think this has happened a time or two, actually, yeah. I can’t think of a specific scene, but it’s usually when a male author is trying to write a teenage girl and, clearly, doesn’t know how they think or act, lol.

One example of this, and it’s still a REALLY good series, is The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. Such an amazing series, but there were moments you could tell it was a grown man, writing how he thought a teenage girl would behave/think/etc etc.

If you could have one item of clothing from a book, what would you pick? Be aware that any magical properties wonโ€™t transfer to our world.

Magical properties won’t transfer, huh? In that case, I think I’ll choose either a Silmaril (I know, bad choice) or a wand from Harry Potter. I know they won’t have magic, but they’d still be really cool conversation pieces!

What book would you love to see adapted?

Oh, I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see either Semiosis by Sue Burke or Down by Ally Blue adapted to the big screen!

What is your most recent book purchase?

Lol, actually I purchased three books for my mother’s birthday just last month! She’d been wanting to read some of the METRO books and I was really happy that I found them for her. ๐Ÿ˜€

What is your favorite bookish trope?

Magical libraries, I think. That, and probably soulmate stuff… LOVE soulmate stuff!

What is your biggest bookish pet peeve?

Price tags and damaged spines. Hate them.

What would you like to see more of in books?

I’m a sucker for found families and would murder to have more books with this… for now, I’ll continue getting my fix from fan fiction, lol.

What is the first book you ever read by yourself?

Had to ask my mother, lol, but it was the picture book adaptation of Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion. I really should have guessed that one.

Recommend a book that you think does not get enough love!

The Cure by Sonia Levitin is one of those books that never really lets you go. It comes back to you at the strangest of times and the impact it’s had on my life is crazy. I suggest it to just about every person I meet.

Do you loan your books to friends/family?

Most certainly! I love to share my favorites with my friends and family… if I’m lucky, they’ll get hooked as well, lol.

What is a post youโ€™re proud of? (link it!)

I’m really pleased with my Knittering posts, where I get to natter on about my experiences knitting. ๐Ÿ™‚


My nominations:

My questions:

  1. What do you listen to on your commute?
  2. Do you have any hobbies besides reading?
  3. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
  4. What’s the last book you read?
  5. Do you prefer hardcover or paperback?
  6. What is your Hogwarts House?
  7. Do you agree with the Sorting Hat’s decision?
  8. Capes or no capes? (did you get that reference?)
  9. Do you have a song you associate with a book or book series?
  10. Given the option, would you live in the city or in the country?
  11. What’s your favorite flavor of ice-cream?
blog · book review · review

Book Review | Carthago by Christophe Bec

Title: Carthago

Author: Christophe Bec, Eric Henninot, Milan Jovanovic

Publisher: Humanoids, Inc.

Release date: August 6, 2019

Format: Paperback

Page count: 288

Genre: Science-fiction

My rating: โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜†


Carthago contains the first five issues of the popular French comic book series all in one convenient paperback edition.

I requested this title through my library’s Inter-Library Loan service and it came from the Las Vegas – Clark County Library District!

My mother was a travel nurse for many years and when she was working in Las Vegas, we had a card for the system. When we visited a couple of years later, we made sure to stop by the library just because we could, lol.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I added this to my to-read list, but I knew I liked sharks and oceans are a great source of mysteryโ€ฆ so I was pretty sure I’d enjoy at least a little of this comic.

Having just completed Carthago, I can say that it’s well worth the read. From the moment I opened the front cover to turning the last page, I could not put it down!

The novel starts as it means to go on… bloody. An older whale, trailing behind it’s pod is attacked by a shark, bitten in half, and it’s body left to sink into the forgotten waters of the deep. And this is just the first victim of these larger than life sharks!

And then we begin to meet our human characters, of whom I was particularly drawn to Donovan, a man serving out a life debt to the insanely rich (and old) Mr. Feiersinger, and Lou, let’s just call her a child of the sea, shall we. ๐Ÿ˜‰

The story jumps around, visiting different locations and different moments in the character’s many varied histories, but it never once was confusing or difficult to follow.

It was like peeling back the skin of an onion to discover one new piece of information at a time. And I really liked the effect!

The other thing I really enjoyed in this series (and I can’t wait to get my hands on volumes 6-10) was the sheer scale of it all. When the humans are in the water or the when the sharks (and other creatures) are drawn in close to boats, you can practically feel the size differences.

These sharks are immense.

There is no other way to describe the Megalodon. It could bite a whale in half and swallow a human whole without batting an eye and Carthago brings this fact into striking reality time and time again.

The mysteries of an ancient, underwater civilization, the tempting intrigue of the human-like being that saved a diver, and a little girl who is of two worlds is just the very tip of the iceberg for Carthago.


Find it at…

blog · ocoee river · tennessee

Travel | White Water Rafting 2007

Possibly one of my favorite pictures

My “summer cleaning” for this year appears to be mostly digital, lol. I’m basically just going through old files and folders, deleting things I no longer want or need, and sharing fond memories.

This particular memory is from all the way back in 2007, when I went on a white water rafting trip with the young adult group from church (not youth group, we were all adults at the time).

I’m particularly proud of how this picture turned out โค โค โค

I don’t remember exactly where we went, but some research leads me to believe it was the Ocoee River in East Tennessee, pretty much nestled right into the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains. My camera, at the time, was not waterproof so I don’t have any pictures of the actual rafting, but I did take lots of nature pictures from around the cabin and the woods.

Our cabin was right on a little river and I could have spent hours sitting on the porch, listening to the water and the wind and the birds.

If I could live the rest of my days in the mountains, I would do so in a heartbeat! It’s not often that you can go someplace and not hear traffic or sirens or just the sound of other people, but it was so indescribably peaceful on this trip that I can’t even say.

I’ll have to see if I can get some of my girlfriends together for a trip like this in the future!

No streetlights or telephone poles in sight
The view from my bedroom was so peaceful

Have you ever been white water rafting?
If not, would you want to go?

blog · book review · review

Two Book Tuesday

I’m sitting here, enjoying the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, waiting for my coffee to finish brewing and thinking about the books for today. It’s the kind of morning where you could easily have slept in, or pulled yourself from that comfy place under the covers and enjoy the sun coming up on a new day.

Tuesday just might be my favorite day of the week.

But you’re not here to listen to me go on and on about days of the week, lol, you’re here for the books! Rather than including a book I’m reading and one I’m about to read, this Two Book Tuesday is about two books that I am reading. They’re a little behind from their original TBR month, but life has conspired to keep me from my ‘4 books a month’ goal, lol.

I hope you enjoy my rambling about two really good books!


Now that I have a computer again, I can spend money during the Steam Summer Sales, lol. One of the games I purchased was the Windows version of one of my favorite PS4 games, Final Fantasy XV.

Between fighting zombies in 7 Days to Die and the Covenant in Halo: Reach, I started a brand new game in Final Fantasy XV and it felt a little like coming home, which is the best way to tell if the game was good for you. ๐Ÿ™‚

The Dawn of the Future begins near the end of the game, but before the final battle and epilogue.

We get to see Ardyn as the healer king and his tense relationship with his brother Somnus, learn more about Niflheim and it’s people, and we get to see Luna in her wedding dress, yay!

I’ve really only taken a nibble of this book, but I’m already hoping for a happy ending.

Oh, and the artwork is absolutely breathtaking! There are images of characters both known and unknown, illustrations of events past and future, and towards the back of the book a collection of promotional pictures.


I’m half-listening and half-reading Undetected by Dee Henderson, lol.

Purchased as a title from Kindle, I decided to try out the Audible Whispersync function. Basically, you get to listen to someone reading you the book while it follows along by highlighting the words being spoken.

So far, it’s a pretty fun book.

I really enjoy the camaraderie the captain and crew of the USS Nevada have for each other and the rivalry they have with the blue crew, with whom they share joint custody of the submarine.

It’s fun and believable and really helps to show the family that these crews become to one another whilst aboard their ship.

This bit made me laugh out loud when I read it…

Weโ€™re going to snuggle with the Seawolf. Letโ€™s remind them whoโ€™s the better boat.

Mark Bishop captains the USS Nevada, spending months at sea before coming ashore to watch another captain take the submarine out before he gets to return to her. Mark desperately wants to find a wife that he can build a relationship with, honor as God requires, and love for the rest of his days. But he’s still not 100% over the death of his first wife and it’s made him skittish to try his hand at dating again. He’s looking for serious and isn’t sure he’s going to find it.

And Gina Grey? Well, she’s a wicked smart woman who dreams of being married before she’s thirty. After a bad break-up, she moves out west to be with her brother, to work, and hopefully to find the man of her dreams. She’s been praying for the right man to come into her life and maybe, just maybe that man is the one she meets when he’s buying ice cream after returning to shore.

These two are super cute together, their love for God and for each other is refreshing to see and I look forward to reading more of Dee Henderson’s works in the future.