RaT Day #5 – Cover Title Scramble & A Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On!

So the challenge for today is pretty self explanatory – Love.Life.Read has given us the lists and we are to try to crack 5 for each month. I have to say that my OCD driven mind is SO PLEASED with this challenge – this type of puzzle is right in my wheel house! Do I have it in me to figure it out? Well, lets give it a whirl shall we?

May Titles:

1.  hte   h5t   vewa – The 5th Wave ( By Rick Yancey)
2.  eht   scetrsahnen – The Enchantress (Michael Scott)
3. ginwre – Winger (Smith Andrew and Sam Bosma)
4.  sujt   neo   skis – Just One Kiss (By Susan Mallery)
5. yan   shduesc  lwil   od – Any Duchess Will Do (By Tessa Dare)
6.  ti   dha   ot   eb    uyo – It Had To By You (Jill Shalvis)
7. tols  dan   dfnuo – Lost and Found (Nicole Williams)
8.  het   yelbon  gnki – The Boleyn King ( Laura Andersen)
9.  neoc  noup   a   niprec – Once Upon a Prince ( Rachel Hauck)

June Titles:

1. het   nomo   dan  remo  – The Moon and More (Sarah Dessen)
2. egies  dna   ormts – Siege and Storm (Leigh Bardugo)
3. rtas    dsceur  – Star Cursed (Jessica Spotswood)
4. teswe  lsat   ira  – Sweet Salt Air (Barbara Belinsky)
5. het   crenwmeo – The Newcomer (Robyn Carr)
6. veorfre   oto   rfa – Forever too Far (Abbi Glines)
7. het  miatng   fo  deyrr  uanacvhga – The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh (Stephanie Laurens)
8. wot  fo  a  dnki – Two of a Kind (Susan Mallery)
9. neo   etswe  deri – One Sweet Ride (Jaci Burton)
10. hwta  hte   kedu   sesdeir – What the Duke Desires (Sabrina Jeffries)
11. 11) kifagn   ti – Faking It (Cora Carmack)

July Titles:

 

1) fi   het  ohes   tisf  – If the Shoe Fits (Megan Mulry)
2) eth   eegd   fo  vnere – The Edge of Never (J. A. Redmerski)
3) rfits  gisht   a   veonl  – First Sight: a Novel (Danielle Steel)
4) utre   lvoe  – True Love (Jude Deveraux)
5) ehtre   tletil   rdswo –  Three Little Words (Susan Mallery)
6) eht   gniht  si  velia – The Night is Alive (Heather Graham)
7) feprcte  gifln  – Perfect Fling (Carly Phillips)
8) scoeh  hte   gronw   ugy   veag   imh  het  gwonr  gefrni –  Chose the Wrong Guy Gave Him the Wrong Finger (Beth Harbison)
9) meoh  ot   kewihsy   kecre – Home to Whiskey Creek (Brenda Novak)

August Titles:

1.  lafl   fo   veif – Fall of Five (Pittacus Lore)
2. wrnco    fo    gdminhit – Crown of Midnight (Sarah J. Maas)
3. hte   desah  fo  het   onom – The Shade of the Moon (Susan Beth Pfeffer)
4. sero  bahrro   ni  mlobo – Rose Harbor in Bloom (Debbie Macomber)
5. eht   rohe – The Hero (Robyn Carr)
6. gib   ysk diwengd  – Big Sky Wedding (Linda Lael Miller)
7. yatacasw  veoc  a  ltehrse  yab   venlo – Castaway Cove: A Shelter Bay Novel (JoAnn Ross)
8. siht   rilg   a   veonl  – This Girl: a Novel (Colleen Hoover)
9. mtetapinto – Temptation (Sherryl Woods)

Yes, I did all of them…the Panic Monster insisted that I finish what I started. I should also mention that I have never heard of a single one of these books….how out of the loop am I?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

 ** Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On **

Let’s do book shimmies! We made it through the week-long part of the read-a-thon!!! Congratulate yourself and your new bookish friends on their progress so far. Did you get as much read as you wanted to so far? Have you changed your goals for the 24-hr marathon read?

Despite what feels like doing loads of reading, I haven’t finished nearly as many books as I thought I would. So far I have finished:

The Girl in the Green Raincoat

The Psychopath Test

Dark Places

And I am currently reading: Double Feature by Owen King

Joe Hill and author Owen King read “Double Feature”.

So have I changed my plans for the 24 hour RaT? Not so much. I am going to read for a whole 24 hours, but I don’t want to feel pushed to put up big numbers. It doesn’t really matter how many books I read, just that I get to put aside time to catch up on all the reading that seems to have fallen by the wayside (or is buried under yarn). Either way I am very excited to participate – and also to see if I can sit still and read for 24 straight hours!

Read-A-Thon Day #4 – Book Spine Poetry & Tears on My Pillow

Okay Dokey folks, time for some book spine poetry brought to you by Oh, Chrys!! I thought about going through my library and amassing this amazing poem…then I decided that would feel like cheating. As my Summer Reading List is always evolving – based on what we get from the library primarily – I tried to do the best with the actual books on my list. So, as sad as this may be (much like my real poetry, which is why I would never share it) here is my Read-A-Thon Book Spine Poetry Challenge!

Delirium in the woods,

Gulp.

The shinning girls double feature,

The good nurse.

Wow, that was painful! Hope you’ll stay with me through the second part of this post after that atrocity! Just trying to stay authentic, that’s how I roll! 🙂

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

›››› Tears on My Pillow ‹‹‹‹

• 

  The Girl in the Green Raincoat

  Author: Laura Lippman

• Style: Quality Paperback
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
• Length: 158 pages
• ISBN: 978-0-06-193836-8
• Year: 2008
• Publisher: Morrow
• Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Share a quote from your current read or tell us about a book that really pulled on your heart strings. What was it about that book/quote that made you cry?

She knew what it was like to fight for her own life, but this had been different. She was defending her daughter. Now she could only hope that she hadn’t killed her in the process.

Page 147

Obviously this quote was at the end of the book just by looking at the page number. I had invested hours of my time becoming immersed in this story – invested in the characters. Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan novels are of course part of a series, so this book brought me back to characters I have followed for years. I have been following Tess through all sorts of painful and dangerous shenanigans in Baltimore, so when this novella came out after being published in The New York Times Magazine I jumped on it.

In this book, my Tess – after years of rejecting the idea of settling down – is seven months pregnant and on bed rest. Firstly, I was amazed that Lippman went this direction with the character, as a private detective a baby just didn’t seem to fit. I went in a bit weary but Lippman didn’t disappoint me because Tess was as wary of it as I was!

This quote pulled at my heartstrings and indeed made me tear up because I understood, at a very personal level, the idea of protecting your unborn child no matter the consequences. She was so worried about becoming a mother, her lack of motherly instinct, but when the time came it just kicked in. I’ve been told that is how it really is when you have a child. We have never gotten to the baby part, and I was holding my breath to see if Tess did. Want to find out if she got there? Well…READ THE BOOK!

Read-a-Thon Day #3 – Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee!

Hello again friends and neighbors! I am really sorry to be doing this whole two posts a day thing but so much love and effort has been put into this read-a-thon that I think they deserve their own posts. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!

** Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee! Participation Post **

Introduce us to your favorite fictional female – What does she look like? Is there an actress that you think of when you think of the character? Is she tough or timid? You could do a mock interview with your character, or create a bio/resume for her.

With so many strong female character’s out there, how can I choose just one? Well, I can because I have to for the purpose of this post I suppose – so let’s see.

I think my all time favorite female fictional character (wow, try saying that one 5 times quickly) would be Frannie Goldsmith from Stephen King’s The Stand. I know I talk about this book all the time but I just love it! This is a collection of completely amazing characters facing the most horrific situations – good or bad they flourish in that role, right to the very end.

Frannie is…amazing to me. When I first started to write up how I felt about this character I was being overly dramatic about the whole thing. I was trying to write like a literary critic – which I am not – so I scrapped the whole thing. Instead, I would like to outline for you the reason that I love her as a character.

• She remains undaunted by the horrible plague that swept the world. While it of course affected her, it was her resilience to take it day by day that I was so impressed with. Frannie did what needed to be done, stiff upper lip, strong willed and determined to keep living.
• Pre-plague she didn’t want to marry Jess, the boy who got her pregnant. She was young, but old enough to recognize that what she wanted was the baby – not the man.
• She fell in love with Stu Redman (my favorite male character in the book) in a very non-sensational way. They were thrown together and yes, she felt safer with a man, but she would not settle for Harold or anyone else. She found love in tragedy, and embraced it much the way she would have pre-plague.
• She had the strength to carry on with a pregnancy that was a 50/50 shot of being doomed. As someone who has had so many reproductive problems – this strength was startling to me. She defended her life and the life of her child right till the end of the story.
• Even after being confronted with copious amounts of reasons to just give in, she never – ever – did.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

↑ Molly Ringwald in The Stand Miniseries – NOT WHAT I PICTURED! ↑

I have often imagined Frannie in my mind, and these are the actresses that came closest to looking how I pictured her (if you morphed these three together in some way it would be perfect):

Jennifer Lawrence

Rachel McAdams

Elizabeth Olsen

Well that about covers my love affair with my favorite female character. I hope you’ve enjoyed (or survived) this post. If you haven’t read The Stand – go read it – seriously! 🙂

Read-a-Thon Day #3 – The Mysterious Page 99 Test

Since quite a few books suddenly turned up at the library today after sitting for months on our queue there is an abundance of new things to read! This is both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because books! YEA! and a curse because I really need to get on it. It seems a bit fortuitous that they all showed up during the read-a-thon. So here goes the 99 page test!

** Rules **

The object of the game is to pick a book you have not yet read, turn to page 99 and read that page. Then you give a synopsis of that page and tell us if, based only on that page, would you want to read this book.

• 

  The Good Nurse

  The Book: The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

• The Author: Charles Graeber
• The ISBN: 978-0-446-50529-1
• The Synopsis: Page 99 outlines a conversations between two employee’s discussing the accidental overdose of two separate patients in their care. This isn’t a spoiler – the guy was found guilty. The two are mumbling against one another about whether or not these deaths are not a police matter due to the type of drugs found in each overdose. Is it an accident? Is it on purpose? Well – neither know, and they are both clearly befuddled about it and very hesitant to involve the authorities. To me, they both seem like weak, resistant members of a staff that couldn’t fathom the idea of purposeful overdoses occurring on their shift.
• Would I Still Want to Read This Book: Yes! How could not want to read what happens next! Do they call the police? Do they ignore it and crazy nurse goes somewhere else? Do more people get hurt as a result of the huge decision based on what these two decided? How could you not want to know! Fact of the matter, it is going to be hard not to stop the book I am currently reading just to find out!

Read-A-Thon Day #2 – You’re the One That I Want!

Okay friends and neighbors, it’s day 2 of the read-a-thon and I just finished The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson. I have to tell you, this book was delectable! The book discusses so many different aspects of psychology that I just found fascinating. It included; Scientologist views (very anti-mental health care), criminal profilers, psychopathy in the incredibly successful (i.e. CEO’s, Career Military, Politicians, etc.) the Bare Method, mental institutes – I could go on and on. I never believed I could be so naive of how the industry works and the  subtle nuances of how mental health is evaluated.

I suck at reviewing books (I’d rather talk about them and inevitably spoil them) so I guess I will just say this: If you enjoy non-fiction books that; make you squirm, make you think and generally keep you reading even though you know you’re starving then pick this puppy up!

My Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 5 Stars!! – Well, they’re hearts but you get the point.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

“You’re the One That I Want” Participation Post

• List your must-have summer reading (the ones you read over and over again) or give us some of your favorite recommended summer reads.

Summer is a fantastic time for reading, the days nice and long and the sun refueling me from a long winter. I tend to read books I haven’t read in the summer, eager and ready to venture into new and exciting places. I save my favorite for the long winter months when the books are as comforting as a knitted blanket and a cup of tea. For the sake of this read-a-thon I will give you a list of a few books that I can read over, and over, and over, and over again and again!

• The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss – First romance novel I ever read and I will admit it, I bet I’ve read it more than 10 times…all 600 pages of it.
• The Stand & It by Stephen King – Comfort food, book style. These rather epic tomes feel like coming home to family the characters are so vivid. Sometimes, being reminded that humanity and the belief in magic is not lost is what the doctor ordered. What can I say? I am a Stephen King fan.
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski – Every time I open this book, with its warning “This is not for you” I am once again reminded that not everything has already been done. The style, format and narrative is so unlike anything I have ever read before, and every time I read it I discover something new.
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – This is the newest to the collection. I’ve read it twice already and seem to itch to want to read it again. Working in the ICU all through school, life with illness resonates very deeply with me and this is a heartbreakingly beautiful book.

The Flame and the Flower

The Stand

It

House of Leaves

The Fault in Our Stars

There are more, and if you are interested click →HERE← for more information!

Getting bored yet? NO! There is still so much more good to come….although Max sympathizes.

Max Feels Your Pain at My Diatribe.

* New Books to Get My Greedy Hands On *

Books that I want to read this summer? Good grief, the list is ridiculously long. I feel a bit behind in all my reading because I have spent so much spare time knitting and stupid, pesky work takes up way too much time! I have a list for this read-a-thon by it is by no means all-encompassing – so here are the books I am itching to get my greedy hands on!

• The Shinning Girls by Lauren Beukes
• Joyland by Stephen King
• Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
•  The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber
• The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel by Elizabeth L. Silver
• The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman

The Shinning Girls

Joyland

Gulp

The Good Nurse

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton

The Girl in the Green Raincoat

** Click on the links to read a real review and summary of these amazing books on Amazon. This is not a marketing ploy, they’re just better at summarizing than I am! **

Congratulations, you have made it to the end of a post that was far too long! I cannot help it, something about talking/typing about books just prevents me from keeping it short and sweet. So, friends and neighbors, PLEASE share what books you want to read or think I should read…your suggestions are freaking priceless!

 

Class Orientation for Read-a-Thon #SummerLovin13

Well friends and neighbors, looks like this week is going to be a multiple post kinda week. I love it, I just hope to not bore you to tears!

Class Orientation” Participation Post:

• Introduce yourself and set your goals for the read-a-thon. Some interesting information to include in this post would be Where are you blogging from? What got you into blogging/reading? What is your favorite genre? The possibilities are endless, just be creative!

Hello! My name is Rachel and I am blogging from the Buckeye State (Ohio) in the United States. This is the first time I have participated in any group activity in the blogging world, I’ve only been doing this for about 15 weeks so I will try not to judge myself too harshly. I stumbled upon this read-a-thon from a fellow blogger and knew it was something I just had to get involved in.

* * * * * * * *

I started my blog as a way to share my knitting and my families history of knitting with anyone will to read it. As I progressed and the weeks went by, the blog has morphed into something quite different. I talk about books, movies, knitting, my challenges with OCD and even my daily life. It is now akin to a diary that I put out for the world to read, and the feedback has been invaluable. More than just feedback, I have become suddenly immersed with people from all over the world who are passionate about what they are doing – the whole surreal experience has opened my eyes to all the wonderful things there are to do in this world. Suddenly, my bucket list has grown exponentially.

* * * * * * * *

Perfect Example of How I Read!

I have always been a reader, which is odd because my parents are most certainly not readers. My mom was always sewing in her spare time and my dad takes great pleasure in admitting he has never – and I truly mean never – read a book in his life.

Even as a kid I used to go buy poster board, line it into graph paper and keep track of all the wonderful books I could get my hands on. My parents thought it was odd, my brother thought I was a dork (even though he was a huge reader and probably my inspiration for starting to read such great quantities of books) but I loved looking up and remembering all the amazing places I had been with these books. Far away lands with eccentric characters – all while never leaving my room.

After graduation, literature and college where were one in the same. I tore through the classics in a desperate fury to talk to others about it. The air on intellect on a college campus can be pompous, but hey – it was college.

After my second and third graduation,  I realized that reading was just going to be one of those things I could never give up. I read constantly – I even listen to audiobooks when I am working out, knitting, gardening, cooking…pretty much whenever I can. I am a bit pickier with what I read now, having established that I love all genres but now old enough to recognize okay writing from exceptional writing.

Did I mention I have a library in our home with over 1,000 books? Yup, this kid (and her husband, niece, brother, friends) get quite a bit of use of the books amassed in the basement.

* * * * * * * *

So my goal for the read-a-thon….READING! I have so many books on my TBR list that it is embarrassing. I have been working on getting a business off the ground and in doing such haven’t had as much time to read as I would like. So for this week I am putting all other distractions aside and plunging into some amazing books.

Honestly, this was far over due…and my cat loves it!

Max is a Happy Cat When I am Reading!