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!!

Review: Welcome to the Farm by Shaye Elliott

Image from NetGalley, blurb from Goodreads. 

A fresh, new guide to the backyard lifestyle 

The homesteading movement is continuing to grow, as more people are stepping up to have a hand in where their food comes from. Whether you want to dabble or immerse yourself completely in the do-it-yourself, back-to-basics lifestyle, Welcome to the Farm is a comprehensive, fully illustrated guide to growing the very best food right in your own backyard. Shaye Elliott takes readers on a journey that teaches them how to harvest baskets full of organic produce, milk a dairy cow (and make butter), plant a homestead orchard, can jams and jellies, and even raise chickens and bees. From her experience running The Elliott Homestead, Shaye provides all the how-to wisdom you need to know about: 

The benefits of a home garden The basics of seed starting Building your own greenhouse What belongs in the winter garden Canning, freezing, and dehydrating techniques and recipes The pros and cons of caged vs. free-change chickens keeping a dairy cow and what to do with all the milk Raising animals for meat Making your own cider and wine and so much more!
Welcome to the Farm is aimed to serve homesteaders and urban-farmers alike, guiding them through the beginning stages of small-area farming and utilizing whatever amount of space they have available for optimal and delicious food production.

The first thing I have to say about this book is that it is seriously beautiful! I love the cover and the pictures on the inside are just as amazing as the cover. I also love the tone of the writing. Reading it you feel like a friend is teaching you about seeds, and chickens, and canning. I've been trying to get started with a backyard garden for a couple of years and have yet to be successful but this book makes me think I can give it another try! 

There is tons of information here, on everything from different methods of gardening (even ones that can be used on an apartment balcony), to butchering your own livestock. That being said, not everything in this book will be for everyone, and that's okay. I will probably never have to learn the proper way to wean lambs, and honestly I don't think I'd want too, but I still need lots of help with seed choices and what works for container gardening. 

I honestly did not know there was a difference between organic seeds and heirloom seeds before I read this. I had no idea that you could purchase dwarf fruit trees for orchards in smaller areas. I feel like I've learned so much about gardening from this one book. I love that the author included resources for buying seeds and plants, lists of essential tools, and words of encouragement and wisdom from other homesteaders/ supporters. She also has recipes for just about everything, from how to freeze herbs in olive oil to head cheese, and step by step canning instructions so you can preserve all the yummy stuff you make. I love to cook and honestly the recipes are my favorite thing in this book!

This book has me looking at dwarf fruit trees for the new house and checking on city ordinances for goats. I feel like there is a lot of good information here for anyone who wants to take control of where their food comes from, even if that just means growing your own lettuce and seeing how it goes. I intend to buy a paper copy of Welcome to the Farm when it comes out! There is so much to learn here! The only 'complaint' I would say I have is that the section on fruit trees is not near the gardening section, it's after all the info on animals, which isn't really a big deal. So 5 out of 5 stars! Totally recommend!

I was given a free copy of this book from review through NetGalley.

Review: The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan

Image from Goodreads

"Just because the men have gone to war, why do we have to close the choir? And precisely when we need it most!" 

As England enters World War II's dark early days, spirited music professor Primrose Trent, recently arrived to the village of Chilbury, emboldens the women of the town to defy the Vicar's stuffy edict to shutter the church's choir in the absence of men and instead 'carry on singing'. Resurrecting themselves as "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir", the women of this small village soon use their joint song to lift up themselves, and the community, as the war tears through their lives. 

Told through letters and journals, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir moves seamlessly from budding romances to village intrigues to heartbreaking matters of life and death. As we come to know the struggles of the charismatic members of this unforgettable outfit -- a timid widow worried over her son at the front; the town beauty drawn to a rakish artist; her younger sister nursing an impossible crush and dabbling in politics she doesn't understand; a young Jewish refugee hiding secrets about her family, and a conniving midwife plotting to outrun her seedy past -- we come to see how the strength each finds in the choir's collective voice reverberates in her individual life. 

In turns funny, charming and heart-wrenching, this lovingly executed ensemble novel will charm and inspire, illuminating the true spirit of the women on the home front, in a village of indomitable spirit, at the dawn of a most terrible conflict.

When I started this book I was sure I wasn't going to like it. Two of the characters were pretty horrible people right off the bat and I almost didn't even want to continue reading about them. But, I thought about The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield; I almost quit reading because I didn't like two of the characters but I ended up loving the book at the end. So I kept going, and I'm pretty glad I did. There were things that bothered me but the good far out weighed the bad.

The way the characters change over the course of the story is my favorite part of this book. I would say that there are four 'main' characters, Kitty, Venetia, Mrs. Tilling, and Edwina Paltry. Three of those four go through significant growth over the course of the story and that more than anything is what drives the story. 

Kitty, who is 13 and the daughter of the Brigadier, really grows up through the year the book covers. She goes from being jealous of her older sister (Venetia) to realizing that she can be special on her own. She is loyal and honest and desperate to prove that she is just as good as Venetia, whom everyone seems to love, and I think she comes to realize that she doesn't have to prove that she's important to anyone, she just has to start believing in herself. Her relationship with Venetia really changes as Kitty comes to believe in herself and Venetia becomes less self-centered. 

Venetia is my favorite character and she probably changes the most though the story. Her story is a sad one, and I will admit I was surprised that I was as okay as I was with what happened to her. When we first encounter her she's pretty self-centered, obnoxious, your basic beautiful 18 year-old who thinks she owns the world. She manages to seduce a painter who has recently moved to town and finds herself deeply in love. I have to admit, the love story was a bit hard to believe since even Venetia herself admits she knows absolutely nothing about him and he refuses to tell her even the smallest things about himself. I had to over look the holes in the love story to keep reading but it was worth it. Anyway, Venetia ends up pregnant and before she can tell her lover he disappears, leaving her thinking the worst; he's either dead after an air raid or run off as a Nazi spy. Venetia agrees to marry in order to cover up her indiscretion, but her fiance finds out about her condition and, well, lets just say he's not happy and he lets her know. 

Venetia ends up miscarrying. However, with the tone of the book, and everything that happens, it's not unexpected. From pretty early on in her pregnancy I got the feeling it was going in that direction, so when it happened I was not shocked. It wasn't the slap in the face that the miscarriage was in another book I read recently, and i feel like it was a big part of her growth. The realization that her actions can have severe consequences, and that she's not invincible, bad things can happen to her, really contributed to her change in attitude. Not that I think she deserved it, by any means. No one deserves that, but it definitely changed her.   

Mrs. Tilling's change was more subtle. She starts the story out quiet and meek, and ends by really coming into her own. She learns that her voice is important and that she has a lot to contribute to the village. I love how things end up for her. I don't want to spoil her story by saying too much about her but I really liked her. 

I loved the attitude of all the women in the village of 'keeping calm and carrying on' and 'stiff upper lip' and all that. They really come together and keep going in the face of all their husbands and sons being gone for the war. I was really disappointed that we didn't get to find out what happened to Mrs. Tilling's son. David. Once he leaves for the war we never hear from him again and at the end of the book it's not even 1941 yet and the war is still going strong. 

This was a good, intriguing read, with great characters who really made it successful for me. 3.75 out of 5 stars.  

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. The cover image and blurb are both from Goodreads.