B is for Bittersweet It’s day 2 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter B Day. A reminder that my theme for 2017 is Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. Presenting three novels suited for young adults that explore the sweet with the bitter: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell Black Beauty is a magnificent horse with a big heart. Sewell’s novel follows Beauty as he matures from a colt to an adult. As a…
A is for Audacity. It’s here! What day is it? It’s day 1 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter A Day. What is it, you ask? And how can you participate? Bloggers from all over the world write 26 posts in the month of April, one blog for each letter of the alphabet, six days a week with Sundays off. Anyone who blogs or likes to read blogs can join in. Click here to get started!…
Can you believe the A to Z Challenge is almost here? What is it, you ask? And how can you participate? Bloggers from all over the world write 26 posts in the month of April, one blog for each letter of the alphabet, six days a week with Sundays off. Anyone who blogs or likes to read blogs can join in. Click here to get started! Here is this year’s scoop from the A to Z Challenge folks: Each day…
Good day, Readers! Welcome fellow Book Challenge by Erin participants! Have you been busy reading now that 2016 is behind us and we are firmly established in the Year of the Rooster? I hope so! As for me, it’s time to update my reading progress for Book Challenge by Erin 2017. Here’s what I read so far with my comments: 5 points: Freebie – Read a book that is at least 200 pages. Frannie and Tru by Karen Hattrup Loved the…
“Ignorance is strength”~George Orwell, 1984 This week we heard the phrase Alternative Facts issue from Kellyanne Conway’s lips. Alternative Facts, as defined by Kellyanne, include Donald’s erroneous claims that a million and a half people attended his inauguration, that his was the most watched ceremony ever, that three to five million illegal immigrants robbed him of the popular vote, that those who walked in the Women’s March hadn’t voted. I listened to Kellyanne and laughed. Aloud. Like many others, I…
My mother always said I was born one hundred years too late. She could be right. I make quilts the same way my grandmother made them a hundred years ago—by hand. I used cloth diapers (albeit with a diaper service) when my daughters were little, and I use cloth napkins every day. When I buy milk, I choose glass bottles. (I’m not usually allowed to buy milk.) I line-dry my laundry in the sun. I sleep with white cotton sheets—old,…
It’s Book Challenge by Erin time again! I’m excited about the categories and really jazzed about my choices this time! I even found a couple of books for the challenge round (assuming I make it). Ha! Last time I came really close to completing the challenge round–just off by two books, I think. 5 points: Freebie – Read a book that is at least 200 pages. Frannie and Tru by Karen Hattrup 10 points: Read a book that starts with the…
Ghost Movie Review: The Forest Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I’m excited to participate in a discussion and movie review with the fabulous Tasha Drake! We’ll be discussing the recent ghost movie The Forest, so please hop on over to Tasha’s neck of the woods and join the talk. Do you love ghost movies? Of course, you do. Let us know your favorites!
Review: The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Barry I was excited to get my hand on this book. I adore Barry’s other novel, The Lace Reader. The Fifth Petal opens Halloween night with a possible murder. What fun for me to snuggle in bed on a stormy Halloween night and begin this novel! Talk about synchronicity. Then the other bit of synchronicity—that same week I was helping my students analyze The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which, like The Fifth Petal, takes place…
Upon waking the morning after the election, I dressed myself in black. Head to toe, underwear to shawl. I was grieving. I was mourning. I was despairing. I thought: Never in my lifetime will a woman be president. I thought: I live in a country in which the loudest, meanest barnyard brute gets to win. I thought: Half of my country hates Barack Obama, a leader I respect. An astute leader without a hint of scandal. No Twitter rants. Yet…
It’s heeeeere… The third annual Trick or Treat Book Blog Hop! Today’s the day! Right now. Don’t delay! Free books! Started by author Patricia Lynne (@plynne_writes), the Trick-or-Treat Book Blog Hop features authors who give away free books in honor of Halloween and spiced cider and spooky October nights. Readers, you are in for a treat—no trick—as you add to your TBR list! For your Halloween trick or treating pleasure, I will be offering both of my ebooks—the time-slip ghost novel Moonlight…
Review: Small and Spooky Edited by M.R. Nelson You’ve heard of flights, yes? Kayleigh Kulp of Wine Enthusiast Magazine explains that flights, “which usually consist of three to eight tastes of comparable wines, are designed to encourage novices and experts alike to explore….” Borrowing from that concept, M.R. Nelson has created an interesting niche of literary Taster Flights in the publishing world. Her latest offering, Small and Spooky, is just up my dark alley. In this taster flight, M.R. Nelson…
Review: Haunted Souls by Kathryn Knight I like the double entendre of the title Haunted Souls; it’s not just a ghost who is haunted in Kathryn Knight’s novel. Emily Shea and her former lover Staff Sergeant Brett Leeds are both haunted by their pasts. Emily is raising a child alone and is tormented by the fact that she has never been able to share this news with his father, Brett. Brett is haunted by the events he witnessed in Afghanistan, events…