July Book Club Pick

Image from Goodreads

June's book club pick was from C and she chose The Color of Water by James McBride. I was pretty surprised that this book isn't more popular. It was a fantastic read. The Color of Water is the story of the author, James McBride, and his mother, Ruth McBride-Jordan. Ruth was a Jew, born in Poland, the daughter of a rabbi, and raised in the American South. She married her first husband, a black man, in the early 1940's and spent her life raising 12 children in the projects of Brooklyn, and managed to get all her children through college. While Ruth's story is one of overcoming her past of abuse and dealing with prejudice (or not dealing with it), James story is one of self-discovery. He grows up confused, as a black child in a black neighborhood, with a white mother and attending a predominately white school, in the midst of the civil rights movement.  What comes out of their stories in amazing journey in to Ruth's past. Everyone in the group was enthralled with this book, most of us reading it in just a couple of days. Most people said it reminded them of The Glass Castle, but not having read that one I can't say anything about it. However, it did remind me of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, mostly just in the way James talked about growing up poor and, obviously, being set in Brooklyn. We were also surprised at the way Ruth was able to just ignore talking about the issue of race in her house. She refuses to answer questions when James is growing up, and changes the subject whenever it's brought up. However, we were all in agreement that Ruth was an amazingly strong woman, in her own way, and managed to raise 12 children and send all of them to college. I gave this one 5 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend it to everyone.

July was my turn to pick. I went back and forth between several books for a week before I made my final decision. Snobs by Julian Fellowes, The 13th Tale by Diane Setterfield, and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, were all on the table at one point but I ended up choosing my initial pick.

Image from Goodreads

This book is amazing! I'm excited to share it with the book club even though it's a little outside of what most members would usually read. I look at it as expanding their horizons, but I'm also going into this pick knowing that not everyone is going to like it. With my last pick (The Other Boleyn Girl) I think I would have been heartbroken if someone had hated my favorite book in all of existence, but this one I think I can handle it.

Review: New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

Image from Goodreads

Blurb from Goodreads; 
Arriving at his fifth school in as many years, a diplomat's son, Osei Kokote, knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can't stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players - teachers and pupils alike - will never be the same again. 

The tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970's suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practice a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. Peeking over the shoulders of four 11 year olds Osei, Dee, Ian, and his reluctant girlfriend Mimi, Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends torn apart by jealousy, bullying and betrayal will leave you reeling.

This book is a retelling of Othello, set in a 6th grade class in 1970's Washington D.C.. You might think that's an odd setting for any Shakespeare retelling, and you're right. The whole thing just did seem to fit.

I mean the characters were well done, in that they were the typical roles you'd find on any playground. The popular kids, The Loud Girl, The Perfect Girl, The Quiet Girl, The Rich Boy, The Bully, The Sidekick. But as the story progressed these kids got way too adult. The plotting that went on, and the over the top sexual stuff. Maybe things were way different when I was in 6th grade in the late 90's, or maybe I hung out with a different group of people but stuff like this just did not happen. I think it's simply that Shakespeare's work is meant for and written about adults for a reason, and children are supposed to tell these kinds of stories, no matter what time period it's set in. I just can't buy into kids being in this story and having the adult motivations and lines of thought that they did in the book.

By the end of the book I was only reading because it's so short and I felt like I had to finish it. It just didn't work. 1 star- Do not recommend.

Note: I received a free copy of this book through Blogging for Books, in exchange for an honest review.

Barefoot and Balanced Review

Image from Netgalley 

Description from Netgalley; 

Today's kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need “rough and tumble” outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break. So, how can you ensure your child is fully engaging their body, mind, and all of their senses?

Using the same philosophy that lies at the heart of her popular TimberNook program—that nature is the ultimate sensory experience, and that psychological and physical health improves for children when they spend time outside on a regular basis—author Angela Hanscom offers several strategies to help your child thrive, even if you live in an urban environment.

Today it is rare to find children rolling down hills, climbing trees, or spinning in circles just for fun. We've taken away merry-go-rounds, shortened the length of swings, and done away with teeter-totters to keep children safe. Children have fewer opportunities for unstructured outdoor play than ever before, and recess times at school are shrinking due to demanding educational environments.

With this book, you'll discover little things you can do anytime, anywhere to help your kids achieve the movement they need to be happy and healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

I got a lot more out of this book than I thought I would. When I started reading it there was a lot about problems in the classroom, studies that showed kids needed to move more, input from seasoned teachers, the authors experiences running a camp, and all of that is great. This book is well researched and well reasoned, the author makes her point clearly and concisely, but I didn’t feel like it pertained to me and my child. The Toddler has never been in a classroom, so the problems of school age kids, even preschool, seem very far off to me right now. It wasn’t until I got to chapter 8, When Is My Baby Ready For The Outdoors?, that this book really got my attention. Because up till now I’ve never really made outdoor play a priority in our day.

I never even really thought about letting her play outside, let alone play outside unsupervised. She’s my baby, why would she ever need to play without me? But after reading Barefoot and Balanced I’m thinking playing outside might be exactly what she needs. I’ve noticed a lot of things since we began packing for our move and one of them is that she depends on me, or whatever adult happens to be at our house, for play, independent play doesn’t really happen, and creative play doesn’t really happen either; a tea set is just a tea set, the play kitchen is just for storage, empty containers are just empty containers. I’m not giving her space to explore and be creative. She is my baby and she does still need me, but she needs to be able to explore the world and her own limits too. At first, I was sitting on the couch reading, going ‘that's not about my parenting, I don’t need to do that’ and I got a little defensive and wanted to quit reading, but I quickly realized that it is about my parenting, and that reading books like this one, accepting the new knowledge and doing better going forward was exactly why books like this are important to read. It’s not about criticizing parents, it’s about learning to be better parents who are better able to meet our kids needs and let them learn skills that will serve them for their whole lives.

Personal tangent aside; After getting past the school age kids part at the beginning, Barefoot and Balanced has chapters about what ages kids should be outside at, how to involve kids in outdoor time, how to overcome fears about letting kids play outside (I needed that part!), how to slowly transition to and encourage independent play, and how to get younger kids to be comfortable with less parental involvement.  The author also makes a point of saying that it’s still important to play with your kids, play is bonding and will always be important, which made me feel better because I hated the idea of not playing with The Toddler. There is also a large list of recommended reading at the back of the book, and I can’t say I’ll read all of them but it’s something I would like to take a closer look at.

There’s a lot of great information in this book, and I found it a great opportunity to grow as a parent, and I’ve decided to make outdoor play more of a priority for both The Toddler and myself. Since being outside is recommended to help manage anxiety I feel like we can both benefit from it. I gave this book 4 out 5 stars, just because the beginning is a bit preachy, when it comes to schools and recess, and things like that. This was a very informative read, and it’s encouraged me to look more into my parenting and things I could be doing differently. I’ve got a couple of books that are about the Charlotte Mason method  that I bought a few months ago but never read, so those will be coming up soon!

Okay, it’s been a couple of months since I wrote this review and I wanted to come in a update it. Since reading Barefoot and Balanced I have made an intentional effort to make outside time a regular part of our day. Nearly everyday we go outside after naptime. The Toddler plays in the yard while I read a book on the porch, and I have to say it’s probably the favorite part of our day for both of us. It’s relaxing for me and an energy burner for The Toddler. She sleeps better, she plays better, and she’s more independent. If you have children of any age I strongly recommend this book. It’s been a good thing for both me and The Toddler.

Find it on Goodreads here.

I received this book free through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

June Wrap Up

June was a crazy month. Most of the month was spent in a weird comfort reading/reading slump thing because of all that first trimester fun. You know what I mean, anxiety attacks, morning sickness, extreme fatigue. It's been a fun ride...
But as I'm nearing the second trimester and starting to feel better I'm getting back into good routines, and forming new ones in the new house, including having some scheduled reading time each day. Usually it's early morning after The Husband leaves for work and before The Toddler wakes up, afternoons during outside play time because I can sit in the lounger on the porch and read while The Toddler plays. and right before bed. I'm still reading pretty slowly but it's something.
I also made a crazy decision. I talked to my doctor about my anxiety. I've been down the road of uncontrolled anxiety and depression with a new baby and I don't want to go there again. On top of that, as my hormones and body get more and more out of whack, so does my anxiety. My intrusive thoughts are back with a vengeance and I can't deal with this on my own any more. However, the doctor I saw at my last appointment was one I've never met before and I feel like she kind of gave me the brush off. She wants me to talk to a social worker before we talk about medication and she promised to email the social worker, but we'll see if that actually happens. I know all to well that doctors say a lot of things they don't mean or intend to follow through on.

But back to the books! The last wrap up I posted was April so I'll cover May and June, try and set some new goals for going forward, and at the end I'll update on some fun stuff that might be coming up.

Books I Read in May

1. Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

2. Balanced and Barefoot by Angela J. Hanscom (Review coming soon!)

3. The Falconer by Elizabeth May (Review here)

4. 10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac (Review here)

5. The Shoemakers Wife by Adriana Trigiani 

6. Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

Six books doesn't seem bad. But, exactly ZERO of those books counted for the RMSC. So as of May I was still at 10 out of 25. 

Books I Read in June

1. The Cat Who Played Brahms by Lillian Jackson Braun

2. The Cat Who Played Post Office by Lillian Jackson Braun

3. The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lillian Jackson Braun

4. The Color of Water by James McBride

That's it. Just the four, And again zero of them counted for the RMSC. On the plus side I met my Goodreads goal for the year of 35 books and have officially upped it to 50.  

As for goals for July, I think 5 books is a good goal. Two RSMC books at a minimum. I think that's a do-able goal for the next month. I have six months left to meet my RMSC goal of 25 books, so I'm going to need to pick up the pace but I think it's still possible. I just need to get back to reading regularly.

What I'm Reading Right Now

Image from Goodreads

1. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas - I want to get into to this one so badly, but I'm just not feeling it right now. I went though this when I was pregnant with The Toddler too, this inability to read fantasy books. I'm going to keep trying with this one though because I really love Feyre and Rhysand.

2. Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne - I've been making an effort (once again) to simplify things in our home to A) help with my anxiety and B) make things easier to clean/maintain and C) make more time for family and less time for cleaning. I've done pretty well so far and this book was recommended on several minimalist and simple living blogs that I follow so I decided to give it a try. 

Image from Goodreads

3. Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, The Duchess of Lancaster by Alison Weir - I know I've written about how much I love Alison Weirs writing before. During this reading slump I had an urge to read some history so I turned to her. And (BONUS!) this one counts for the RMSC. Katherine Swynford was first the mistress and then the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and her life, although we know little about her, was very interesting. She was the mother of the Tudor dynasty, she and John of Gaunt had several illegitimate children who were then legitimized by the Pope after their marriage, founding the Beaufort line, And Henry VII's mother was Margaret Beaufort! Of course Henry VII was born 100(ish) years after Katherine died but still, without her no Tudors. I could go on about family trees and the Wars of the Roses forever because I really love this stuff but I'll just say this; Read the books!

Upcoming (Maybe) Stuff

I've kind of taken a break from reading ARC's for the last couple of months but now I have a lot of really good books waiting for me on Netgalley and I'm going to try and get back too them. For one of those books I've been invited to participate in a Blog Tour, which I've obviously never done before. It would include a giveaway for my readers but I honestly don't know if I have enough readers to bother participating. So if you read my blog and want to enter a giveaway for a book let me know so I can let the publisher know I'd like to participate in the Blog Tour. 

Next, I got an email today that I'm being sent a box from a marketing company in California. It says it should be here by July 11th but I'm kind of nervous about this because I have no idea what it could be for, the email gives no details whatsoever. I'm assuming it's for the blog but I really don't know. So as soon as I get that I will be opening it and post on here about whats in it, regardless of what it is. Unless it something embarrassing like diarrhea medicine or underwear or something, in that case I'll spare you.  

Book shelf organization post! I unpacked all my books without taking pictures, however they are in no way organized yet, as my motivation to do anything but watch Gilmore Girls and eat watermelon has been nonexistent. So I'll be taking some pictures and doing some organizing in the next couple of weeks. 

Book Club for June! It was my pick for June and I think I picked a good one. I'll be writing the Book Club post in the next couple of days.  

Pregnancy Hibernation and Reading Slump Problems

I went through this too a lesser degree when I was pregnant with The Toddler. Back then it was mostly just a reading slump, since I was working and hibernating wasn't an option. The reading slump was...Extensive. The only things I wanted to read were The Cat Who... books, Spiderwick, and Redwall, and that is literally all I read for over two years. TWO YEARS.

This time I'm in full on hibernation mode and I can feel the slump coming. I'm 200 pages in to A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas and I just can't seem to get into it but I picked up The Cat Who Robbed a Bank and I can't seem to put it down. I'm avoiding leaving the house unless it involves a drive-thru or a bookstore, even though we just bought a new (to us) car so that I'm not stuck at home all day. It's like I just want to be home, and be comfortable, and cozy, and not have to deal with people.

I don't know is pregnancy hibernation is actually a thing or not, but it's pretty real for me. We've had someone at our house almost constantly since we moved in, it seems, and I'm to the point where I just can't stand it anymore. I want to be alone and not have anyone here for anything for like a week, I need some recharging time and I need it fast. But I've also got some reading goals to achieve this year and I do not want another two year reading slump. I need a plan to keep myself from falling into that 'comfort reading' thing that led to the slump last time.

So the plan is as follows, and I'm making this up as I go along so bear with me;

1. Stay home - No leaving the house except grocery shopping and doctors appointments.

2. Read the 'comfort reading books' - That's right. I'm going to read them.

3. Limit the 'comfort reading' - I can easily read one Cat Who... book a day. I can read 3 Cat Who books, then I have to read one other book.

My reading will be slow for a while, and interspersed with lots of Cat Who books. I've read the whole series more times than I can count, and I will probably read them 2-3 times in the next few months but I'm okay with that. So that's the plan for now! Happy reading!

June Book Club Pick

May's Book Club pick was M's pick, The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani. This book was so good. I've known that Adriana Trigiani was a pretty popular author for a long time but I'd never picked up any of her books. After reading The Shoemaker's Wife I've started picking up her books at the library bookstore, because I want to read a lot more of her.

Image from Goodreads 

The writing was so beautiful. The way she described the Italian Alps was amazing. She walked a very fine line between perfect description and over description and managed to stay on the side of perfect. Her characters were unforgettable, Enza's whole family were amazing and I could read a whole book just about the nuns that Ciro grew up with. The romance story was the slowest slow-burn romance I think I've ever read. The story followed how Enza became the shoemaker's wife and it took about a decade for them to finally get together, but it was so worth it.

The only problems I had with the story were that it seemed to go on a bit too long. The majority of the story was, as I said before, how Enza became the shoemaker's wife. Once they were married and off on their life together there was a perfect spot to end the story, with Ciro and Enza walking off into the wilderness of Minnesota to follow their dreams together. But it didn't end there, and I really feel like it should have, the rest seemed like it got chopped off of a different book and tacked on to this one just to fill the word count.

There was also one point where I went 'Wow. Someone's trying too hard.' and that was when Ciro went to Italy to visit after WWI. He was having some internal monologue about how it wasn't his Italy anymore, and how years of poverty had taken it's toll on the people and they'd latch on to the next ideology to come along. And of course that's exactly what happened, Mussolini and the rise of Fascism, was the next ideology to come along. It just seemed so out of place for a young man, even a well read young man, who just left a war zone and was seeing his brother for the first time in over a decade to be sitting in a cafe, smoking and contemplating ideology.

This was a great pick, and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars!

June's pick is from C whose last pick was I am Malala. C always seems to have the most thought provoking picks and this new pick fits right in. For June the pick is The Color of Water by James McBride.

Image from Goodreads

The Color of Water is the story of the authors mother, the daughter of a Polish Rabbi who married a black man in the early 1940's and raised 12 children in the Projects of Brooklyn, I don't know much about it besides what I read in the blurb but it sounds good and I can't wait to read it!


Next month is supposed to be J's pick but she's going to be out of town so I get to pick! I'm pretty excited about it and I think I have my book chosen already, although it might change before the next meeting.

The First Doctor's Appointment

Ok, I'm really late posting this. The appointment was a week ago, but in mu defense I've been really sick. Morning sickness is kicking my butt. Last week there were a couple of days where I couldn't even stand up without getting sick.

Baby 's first picture, 7 weeks 1 day.

And as you've probably guessed from that last statement, everything went great at the doctor's! We got to see the little nugget's heartbeat and it's actually measuring a couple of days ahead of where I thought it would!

So as of today I am 8 weeks pregnant, with a due date of January 15th, 2018. Now I have to decide if I want to try for a VBAC or have another c-section.

April Wrap Up

April was a crazy month! We sold our house, bought a new one and have started moving. Lots of work is being done in the house right now so we can't really move stuff into the house, it's all sort of piling up in garage. I did manage to read nine books is April, though only one counted for the RMSC, the 'Whole Deal' post about that can be found here. I expected things to slow down a bit as far as reading this month since my books have been packed up for a while now.

***I wrote the above before we moved. I've been working on this post for a while! Please forgive it's lateness and shortness!

Books I Read in April

1. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
2. Some Practical Magic by Laurie C. Kuna
3. The Furthest Station by Ben Arronovitch
4. The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan
5. The Perfect Girl by Gilly MacMillan
6. Welcome to the Farm by Shaye Elliott
7. Falling for the Babysitter by Penny Wylder
8. The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
9. Molly Bell and the Wishing Well by Bridget Geraghty

The one book that counted for the RMSC puts me at 10 out of 25 for the year. Which means I'm a little behind but have plenty of time to catch up!

Reading Habits 

So my favorite tea shop has officially closed. But I haven't been drinking much tea or coffee lately. Right now it's ice water and Gatorade. Reading at Biggby hasn't been happening because I'm in bed by 8:30 PM most nights lately. I also never found that 'toddler-proof' bookmark that The Toddler hid on me, even with packing things up and emptying out the house it never turned up.


I'll write more for my May Wrap-Up in the next couple of weeks.

Quick Update Again

I have internet! Our internet just got installed in the new house today! I have posted a review (here) and I'm hoping to have my April wrap-up ready to post tomorrow! It's only 3 weeks late, right?

And because I didn't clarify in the review, I am still pregnant! No bad things to report on that front.

I haven't done much reading in the last week, but we are buying and installing bookshelves this weekend for me and The Toddler so some bookshelf organization posts should be coming soon!

Upcoming important stuff that will probably get posts;
Book Club meeting - May 30th
1st Prenatal Dr.'s appointment - May 30th
Bookshelves - Middle of next week (I hope)

Review: 10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac

Image from Goodreads

Think positive.
Don’t worry; be happy.
Keep calm and carry on.

Maeve has heard it all before. She’s been struggling with severe anxiety for a long time, and as much as she wishes it was something she could just talk herself out of, it’s not. She constantly imagines the worst, composes obituaries in her head, and is always ready for things to fall apart. To add to her troubles, her mom—the only one who really gets what Maeve goes through—is leaving for six months, so Maeve will be sent to live with her dad in Vancouver.

Vancouver brings a slew of new worries, but Maeve finds brief moments of calm (as well as even more worries) with Salix, a local girl who doesn’t seem to worry about anything. Between her dad’s wavering sobriety, her very pregnant stepmom insisting on a home birth, and her bumbling courtship with Salix, this summer brings more catastrophes than even Maeve could have foreseen. Will she be able to navigate through all the chaos to be there for the people she loves?

(Blurb from Goodreads)

Sometimes a book comes along exactly when you need it too, and I needed this book. Today my anxiety is through the roof because today I am pregnant and I know that it won't last. I honestly don't think it will last the weekend. And it's Mother's day weekend. I'm going to miscarry on Mother's day. How ironic. I've spent today trying to keep myself busy. I've tried to ignore the fact that I'm pregnant, I've tried to hold it all together and I just can't. I keep thinking about how after the age of thirty (and I'm thirty) the miscarriage rate goes up by 12%. How 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage. How only 76% (I think) of miscarriage women go on to have healthy pregnancies. I'm sure I read that somewhere.
I keep thinking that it can happen to anyone, and every story and blog post I read today, trying desperately to find some hope, some kind of solace to ease my mind just for a little while, was written by a woman who'd had multiple miscarriages. Multiple. So many women, and so much loss, and why should I be exempt from that? If it can happen to them for no apparent reason, it can happen to me. I think I also read somewhere, after my first miscarriage, that only like 4 or 5% of women have multiple miscarriages, and today I think I read every single one of their blogs. The 4 or 5% thing can't be accurate. There's no way that every single woman who's had multiple miscarriages has a blog and/or visits the same forum. They can't. It's not possible. 

And that's anxiety. 

And it's portrayed perfectly in 10 Things I Can See From Here. Today I was not alone in my anxiety. Although Maeve and I were worrying over totally separate things, just to know that her brain worked like mine does, and no one understands that, that made me not alone today. 

The only complaint I'd have about this book is that I wanted more. More of the characters. I want to know more about Salix and if she got into Julliard, what her life was life growing up in a bus, I want to know what happens to Maeve and Salix when Maeve goes home with her mom, I want to know how Maeve's relationship with her mom changes when she comes home, I want to know more about Billy and his sobriety. Just more. 

I need like a whole series of these characters. 

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommend.  Read it. 

Note: I received a free copy of this book through Blogging for Books, in exchange for an honest review. 

Review: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Image from Goodreads

One girl's nightmare is this girl's faery tale

She's a stunner.
Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty.

She's a liar.
But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she's leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them.

She's a murderer.
Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother.

She's a Falconer.
The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother's murder—but she'll have to save the world first.

The first volume of a trilogy from an exciting new voice in young adult fantasy, this electrifying thriller combines romance and action, steampunk technology and Scottish lore in a deliciously addictive read.

(Blurb from Goodreads)

I picked this book purely based on the cover. I love the cover, and was happy that the book lived up to it. There were some really unexpected elements to this story that I ended up really enjoying, the steampunk element being the most surprising. 

I usually try to avoid steampunk. I've read a few books with steampunk in them but never really enjoyed it. The ones I read were just too illogical for me to be able to buy into the story, and now I just try to avoid them. This book went pretty light on the steampunk elements, just a few things here and there to let you know it was part of the story, you know, horseless carriages, a personal flying machine, no giant half-machine half-blue whale things flying around bombing the shit out of small towns or anything. 

It was light on the romance. This is a big one! The romance didn't really come into it until the end. I mean through out the book it's clear she's trying to deny feelings for Kiaran, there's a couple of points where I was sure they were going to kiss, but of course they didn't. I can see where the author is trying to get the whole 'love triangle' thing going on but I didn't really get that vibe from Gavin. Like I could see him being gay and them being really good friends but not a love interest. 

This book was a bit frustrating though. There were parts where I was just like "Tell the fricking truth, the whole truth!!" It would have avoided some frustration for the characters and Aileana does start doing that towards the end. 

This book is pretty sterotypical YA fantasy. The main character is beautiful, but she doesn't know it. She's clumsy, except when she's fighting gracefully and effortlessly killing monsters, She's tired of her life being caged in by society, but she's not ready to ditch her comfortable life in order to change it. If you've read a lot of YA you've probably read a lot of books like this one. Fortunately for me, I happen to love books like this and I think this main character manages to set herself apart with her interest in engineering, she builds her own weapons and vehicles, and I love that.  Also, the violence! This main character lives for the rush she gets from killing and the way it is written is wonderful, there are more eloquent prose about killing faeries then there are about the romance elements and I love that even more!

The thing I love/hate most about this book? The ending. OMG THE ENDING! I was reading and all the sudden it just stopped in a place where no book should stop. What? What! WHAT?! I was not happy and I loved it at the same time. It is certainly a cliff hanger and I'm so looking forward to the next book!

As for a rating, this book is not perfect, but I loved it anyway. 4 stars out of 5.
Note; I received this book for free, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Quick Update

Things have been crazy busy but I wanted to post a quick update on whats been going on. I've acquired a few new books I'm really excited about and there some personal stuff I'm excited about too!

First; I got this!!!!!

  Second; I got this!! It's my first ever physical copy of an ARC!! I'm really excited to read it, it's about anxiety but I don't know much else.

Third: This is happening!!!! Janurary 15, 2018!!

 If that's not exciting I don't know what is! Right now I'm only about 4 weeks along, so it's still super early, and I haven't told anyone except The Husband and my mom, and a few friends, but I'm excited/nervous/terrified and I wanted to tell someone today.

I'm trying to have a few new posts up this week but our official move date is Friday and things are still really busy, but there will be new posts soon!

Review: The Furthest Station By Ben Aaronovitch

Image and blurb from Goodreads

There have been ghosts on the London Underground, sad, harmless spectres whose presence does little more than give a frisson to travelling and boost tourism. But now there's a rash of sightings on the Metropolitan Line and these ghosts are frightening, aggressive and seem to be looking for something.

Enter PC Peter Grant junior member of the Metropolitan Police's Special Assessment unit a.k.a. The Folly a.k.a. the only police officers whose official duties include ghost hunting. Together with Jaget Kumar, his counterpart at the British Transport Police, he must brave the terrifying the crush of London's rush hour to find the source of the ghosts.

Joined by Peter's wannabe wizard cousin, a preschool river god and Toby the ghost hunting dog their investigation takes a darker tone as they realise that a real person's life might just be on the line.

And time is running out to save them.

With this new novella, bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch has crafted yet another wickedly funny and surprisingly affecting chapter in his beloved Rivers of London series.


This is a novella of the Peter Grant series, it's number 5.7. I honestly never heard of this series until I got the E-ARC for this book and now I'm reading them all. This book was so funny, I loved Peter's dry sense of humor. I love the premise of ghost police in London. I'm not a big fan of the mystery genre but supernatural mysteries, like this one, are so fun to read. 

It gave me the same feeling as reading Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series did. It's not that these are children's books by any means, there's an F-bomb every once in a while and it's a pretty adult concept, but the writing style felt similar, and the attitude towards ghosts and magic felt similar to me. And that's a great thing since I adore the Septimus Heap series. 

The Folly is also a pretty interesting organization. Everything is very scientific. The ghosts are classified into categories, there's methods for testing theories, and yet it combines that science with classical education, learning Greek and Latin. 

I jumped into this series with this novella so I didn't fully understand everything right off the bat but it's written so well, giving just enough information so that even if you're reading out of order you can grasp whats happening, but not overloading you with information either. I loved it enough to go back and read the whole series. I currently reading book 2, Moon Over Soho, and I highly recommend this series. 4 out of 5 stars!

This novella is being released June 30th, so you have plenty of time to go read the other books before this one comes out! 

I received this book for free, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. 

Review: Molly Bell and the Wishing Well by Bridget Geraghty

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Molly Bell is an eleven-year old girl who used to be a whimsical, sporty type of a child with a zest for living. All that has been turned upside down by the untimely death of her mother two years ago. To make matters worse, her father is getting remarried to a high-maintenance beauty that Molly seemingly has nothing in common with, and she comes with an annoying six-year old son, Henry, who finds a way to wreck everything in his path. Molly can't find anything about her new circumstances to be excited about, until her Aunt Joan tells her about the wishing well at Molly's grandparents' farm. According to Aunt Joan, every wish she ever made there came true. And it just so happens that Molly and Henry will be staying at the farm for a week while their parents are on their honeymoon. Molly is convinced if she could just find that wishing well, she could wish for her mom to come back to life and everything will be okay again. But Molly is in for a few surprises, and more than a few hard lessons about being careful what you wish for when the consequences of Molly's selfish desires wreak havoc on her entire family. Can Molly make things right again through the wishing well? Or will she need to find it within herself to bring back the joy in her life that has been missing all this time?

This book was magical. Not in the Harry Potter, Gandalf, Unicorns, kind of way, but in a much more real way. It's about the magic of love, and it's power to heal. It's about how a shift in point of view can change your whole life, and it's about letting kids who are struggling with loss know that they can find a way to be happy again. 

About 20 years ago I was one of those kids. My dad died when I was 1o, from cancer, like Molly's mom in the story, and though I didn't have that shift in perspective that Molly does in the story for many years, reading this book brought me back to that time. 

I loved the way the author wrote about Molly's feelings towards everything going on in her life. Her anger and sadness at her Dad for 'replacing' her mom, her dislike of her new step-mom, her complete indifference to Henry, her anger and disappointment in her friends for seemingly abandoning her when she needed them, and the complete, overwhelming grief for her mom. The part about Molly's friends really hit me because it was so true. When my dad died my friends seemed to disappear, no one at school would talk to me or even look me in the eye; most adults were the same way, murmuring meaningless words before shaking their heads and walking away. People don't know how to handle that kind of overwhelming grief, and that's why I think this is an important book for everyone to read. Having a better understanding of the feelings that go on when a child has lost someone can help them immeasurably, just to know that someone stills sees them the same way, and is still there and willing to sit next to them and look them in eye and say 'I'm here' when everyone else in their life seems to be avoiding them, is an amazing thing for a kid going through that kind of loss. 

The only criticism I'd have for the emotions portrayed in the book is that Molly's anger seemed really downplayed to me. In my experience the anger that comes with that kind of grief runs a lot deeper and is much harder to suppress than it seemed too for Molly. The author could have had a much different experience than I have with grief and everyone does process things differently so I can't say that her portrayal was wrong or bad in any way, though. 

I also loved Molly's Grandpa Cody, in fact he was probably the most emotional character in the story besides Molly.  Grandpa Cody letting go of his anger towards the wishing well was probably something that helped Molly let go of hers and including his PTSD from the war  made him a very real character. 

I loved this book. It's easily 5 out of 5 stars for me and I highly recommend it for everyone. 

Note: I received this as a free e-book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  You can pick it up on Amazon here. 

Book Club Pick for May 2017

Image from Goodreads

Book Club met this week to discuss our April pick, Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. It was S's pick, and was quite a hit with everyone. One of the biggest conversation points we had was the topic of 'Mommy Wars'. We talked quite a bit about the role that the internet plays in the 'Mommy Wars' and how it seems that everyone on the internet is very quick to criticize and voice their opinion but in real life very few of us had ever run into a 'Mommy War' type of issue. Big Little Lies also brought up a discussion about domestic violence. Most of us found the domestic violence story line hard to read because it evokes such strong emotions. We all agreed that in Celeste's case the signs would have been hard to spot and it was unsettling to think that you could miss signs of something like that. It also brought us to discuss sexual harassment, and I was sad to hear how women expect to be made to feel uncomfortable by men if they go somewhere alone, that it's viewed as something that just comes with the territory of being a woman. So it was a pretty heavy discussion night at book club, but no one in our group figured out the surprise ending, we were all pretty shocked by the murder victim and the killer.

May is M's turn to pick. Her last book was Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, which was pretty well liked by everyone but me.  Don't get me started on Bill Bryson. But, M's pick this month is.....

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigani! 

Image from Goodreads

I'm pretty excited to read this. I've been eyeing Adriana Trigani's books every time I go to the book store but haven't picked one up yet because I wasn't sure if I'd like them. I'm going to try something new with this one and try checking out the E-book from my library. I've never checked out any of the electronic stuff so I'll find out how that works.

This is part of the blurb from Goodreads;

This riveting historical epic of love and family, war and loss, risk and destiny is the novel Adriana Trigiani was born to write, one inspired by her own family history and the love of tradition that has propelled her body of bestselling novels to international acclaim. Like Lucia, Lucia, The Shoemaker's Wife defines an era with clarity and splendor, with operatic scope and a vivid cast of characters who will live on in the imaginations of readers for years to come.

The fact that it was inspired by her own family is the part that hooked me, and I can't wait to get started on it! 

What I'm Reading Right Now #13

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a blogger. She was sitting on the couch, a cup of coffee steaming lightly in her hand and her computer on her lap, requesting quotes from moving companies online, so she wouldn't have to make any phone calls. Suddenly, a Toddler jumped onto the blogger's lap, spilling hot coffee all over her chest and her laptop. The blogger yelled, "OUCH!", hot liquid seeping through the thin cloth of her t-shirt, her skin turning bright pink under the steaming wet spot. The Toddler looked shocked and immediately shouted "I sorry, Momma!" 
The blogger recovered from her surprise and said; "It's okay, Sweetpea. Momma's alright." The blogger's Husband comforted The Toddler as the blogger went upstairs to change her slightly damp clothes.When she returned to the living room she once again picked up her computer and wiped coffee off the keyboard. After a few seconds she growled in dismay, her lips curling back off her teeth and her hands turning into fists over the keyboard. Anger, at herself for not making sure to wipe the computer before the coffee had a change to soak in, coursed through her. The mouse refused to move. The coffee had seeped under the mouse pad and only time would tell if it would ever work again. 
Over the next 24 hours the blogger tried to use the computer countless times to no avail, turning it off and on repeatedly and poking angrily at the mouse pad. The next morning she decided to turn the computer off and on again one more time and to her surprise it worked! The mouse pad once again responded under her finger tip and all was right with the world. 
That's my story and I'm sticking too it. 
In other news, we're closing on our house next week! I've been pretty busy and probably will be for the next couple of weeks so for now I'm taking it back down to two posts a week. So, now you know why one post is missing and one is a day late. As far as books this week, this week was a big week for the DNF list. I had to DNF an ARC, which I don't like to do, but I had too. In the second half of this week I decided to take a break from ARCs and just read whatever I wanted. I needed a book that didn't come with an obligation. I didn't finish a whole lot this week but I'm okay with it right now. I finished 3 books, one of them counted for the RMSC, and DNF'd 3. I've updated the DNF list and the 'Whole Deal...' post for the RMSC can be found here. 

Books I Finished 

Images from Goodreads.com

Welcome to the Farm by Shaye Elliott - I loved this book. 5 out of 5 stars! Full review here. 

Falling for the Babysitter by Penny Wylder - I read this whole thing in just a few hours one morning which was nice since I just DNF'd a book the night before and I needed to feel like I finished *something*. This was a super quick romance so I expected instalove, but I found this one kind of hard to buy into. An 18 year old with a crush and a 30 year old guy with a kid. Ok, we'll go with that. BUT- he says something about how the woman he was married too offering to blow him within an hour of meeting him should have been a red flag and then has no problem with 18 year old babysitter girl letting him bang her brains out on day 2, because she's SO DIFFERENT. And the dialogue...Who says words like 'womb' anyway, let alone during sex? He went from barely noticing the neighbor girl to wanting to put a baby in her belly in the space of one day, and decided it was a good idea tell her during sex by saying "I'm going to fuck my seed right into your womb." WHO TALKS LIKE THAT??? NO ONE, THAT'S WHO! So this one gets points for being short but that's about it. 2 out of 5 stars The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata - I decided to give this one another try after DNF'ing it a few weeks ago. I just wasn't able to get into it then but this time I was hooked. This is a slow burn romance, and I usually get kind of frustrated with slow burns, just because it takes so freaking long to get to the good stuff but this one is so so sweet. I swear, for half the book I was sitting on the couch with a stupid, silly grin in my face because it was just so cute. I love the two main characters, the sweet, slow way you can see them falling in love in the small moments. I loved Vanessa, she was so wonderful and I just couldn't help admiring her after everything she'd overcome. And Aiden, it was so rewarding to slowly watch him change over the course of the story and how he really made an effort to show Vanessa how he felt even when he didn't know how. They were so wonderful together. The secondary characters, especially Zac, are really awesome and add a lot to the story, which is uncommon in romance. I also loved that she wrote about football so well. I've read NFL romances before where the author clearly knows nothing about football, and Mariana Zapata is a fan of the game or does really great research. This has officially become my new top romance book I've read this year and I can't wait to read another book by Mariana Zapata. 5 out of 5 stars.  Read it. Seriously, just do it.  What I'm Reading Right Now Images from Goodreads.com Midnight Riot (Peter Grant #1) by Ben Aaronovitch - I'm loving this series. I read an ARC of The Furthest Station last week, and it's book # 5.7 in this series. I picked it up just based off the description, not realizing that it was part of a series, but I liked it so much I decided to read the whole series. I'm about a third of the way through the first book and I have the second one waiting! The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) Brandon Sanderson - I've been listening to the audiobook of this but it's made me realize I actually need to sit down and read it. I like it so far but I'm missing a lot of it because it's not like I'm sitting in one place paying attention to what's going on, I'm packing and running around and missing chunks. So I'm looking to just buy this series.  Molly Bell and the Wishing Well by Bridget Geraghty - This is an E-ARC and it's a middle grade book. I'm just at the very beginning and probably won't get too much into it until I finish The Wall of Winnipeg but I think it will be a pretty quick read.  The DNF List Beauty and the Baller by Abbi Hemp - DNF at 15%. Seriously? The girl in this one is just an awful person. I hated her. Between that and the typos I was ready to DNF but decided to try and keep going because I thought maybe she changes over the course of the story. But then, after meeting the girl twice (once when she harrassed him outside his shrinks office and once when she pretended to be an escort to get in his house and had a conversation that had no substance for all of five minutes) this dude decides he's got feelings for her so strong that it scares him. WTF?!?! Instalove is fine, usually I can go with it, but there's got to be some kind of connection, and some self-centered woman who blames everyone else for her problems acting like a psycho does not a love connection make. SO done. Carnivalesque by Neil Jordan - I had to DNF this at 53%. I received it as an ARC from NetGalley and I was so excited to read it but I just could not read anymore. The writing is beautiful but it got to the point where it was so bogged down with descriptions I just couldn't read anymore. It has a very ethereal feel too it, very other-worldly, but by the halfway point I still had no idea what the plot was, it just got lost in the writing style. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - I finally made the plunge and DNF'd this. It's been weeks and I just can't get into it. Maybe when we're done with the move and things are more settled I'll give it another try.  Book Haul! My favorite second hand bookstore had a bag sale this weekend! I picked up a few books and I'm pretty excited about them!.  Pretty Books!!