Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me?

Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? And Other Concerns Author: Mindy Kaling and Michael Schur Genre: Humor Essay Publisher: Random House Audio Release Date: November 1, 2011 Audiobook: 4 hours and 37 minutes Narrator: Mindy Kaling Source: Free from E-Library

My 2nd Write On Review-a-Thon 2014: Wrap Up

Hosted by The Book Vixen

I didn't do too hot!

Nope not this time!

I finished one and got two in draft form.

Hopefully, I will do better next time.

Review: Getting to Happy

Getting to Happy Author: Terry McMillan Genre: Contemporary Fiction Series:  The sequel to Waiting To Exhale (Book 2) Publisher:  Viking Adult Release Date:September 7, 2010 Hardcover: 400 pages Source: Purchased from Borders Bookstore

Sunday Delight: A Bit of Good

Happy Sunday everyone!

I hope you all had a great and productive week full of fun.  I had a good week.  Last week was my honey''s birthday.  We had a great time together at a comedy and Blues show along with a wonderful dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  Compliments of an amazing "girlfriend".  LOL!  

I thought I would have had time to get some blogging done but that just didn't happen.  I am going to try and give it another try this week. 

And I am happy...it just started raining!!  YEAH!

Here and Now

Time: 11:17 am
Drinking: Hot Green Tea with Honey

Eating: Nothing

 Listening To:  My Gospel Playlist on iTunes
Watching: Nothing!  My honey is watching ESPN again.

My 2nd Write On Review-a-Thon 2014: Goals

Hosted by The Book Vixen

Now that I have a bit of time to get a few things off of my to do list, I figured I would start with my growing list of book reviews I need to get to.  I did this event in February and I completed all of the book reviews I had to do.  Now I am back to being back logged on reviews.  As of right now I have 3 reviews to do.  1 in draft form to complete and 2 quicky reviews to do as well.  

But by the time this event starts I might have 3 quickies and 4 reviews to do.  

Click the button to see all the event details and to sign up!

Review: The Husband's Secret

The Husband's Secret Author: Liane Moriarty Genre: Adult Contemporary Publisher:  Penguin Audio Release Date: July 30, 2013 Audiobook: 13 hours and 44 minutes Narrator: Caroline Lee Source: Purchased from Audible.com

Christmas in July Giveaway Hop

Announcing the “Christmas in July” Giveaway Hop
July 22nd to 31st
Hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & Laurie Here

Christmas seems like a million years from now.  But you and I know that it will be here before you know it!  So why not get a Christmas book to get you in the mood a bit early this year.  

This a great giveaway hop just for that!

Enter to win a copy of

The Nine Lives of Christmas by Shelia Roberts
 

Two people are about to discover that when it comes to finding love, sometimes Christmas magic isn’t enough…sometimes it takes a pesky orange cat named Ambrose.

When a guy is in trouble, he starts making deals with his Creator…and Ambrose the cat is no exception. In danger of losing his ninth and final life, Ambrose makes a desperate plea to the universe.  He’ll do anything—anything!—if he can just survive and enjoy a nice long, final life. His prayer is answered when a stranger comes along and saves him—and now it looks like he has to hold up his end of the bargain.
The stranger turns out to be a firefighter named Zach, who’s in need of some serious romantic help. If Ambrose can just bring Zach together with Merilee, the nice lady who works at Pet Palace, it’s bound to earn him a healthy ninth life.  Unfortunately for Ambrose, his mission is a lot harder than he ever thought.  Merriliee is way too shy to make the first move on a ladies man like Zach, and Zach thinks he’s all wrong for a nice girl like Merrilee.  Now it’s going to take all of Ambrose’s feline wiles—and maybe even a good old fashioned Christmas miracle—to make them both realize that what they’re looking for is right in front of their eyes.

Sunday Delight: Trying to Get Back At It

Happy Sunday everyone!

 Today is the second day of Bloggiesta and I have knocked out all the easy stuff on one blog so far.  That just leaves me a day of not so easy stuff, like writing reviews and post for this blog now.  I am thrilled to be able to take a minute to do all of this blog work but I honestly need a week long Bloggiesta to really get everything I want to do DONE!  Mostly it's the review to do list that is killing me.  I have 7 reviews to do. (2 of them are mini reviews).  I am going to try and get something off of that list today.  Hopefully! I was just going over the new book spreadsheet I made and I realized I have 6 book either currenly reading or on the DNF list.  I need to stop starting new books and just focus on that list next.  I think that will be my new goal for the month of August.  Just clean up that list.

Here and Now

Time: 11:47 am
Drinking: Hot Green Tea with Honey

Eating: Nothing

 Listening To:  My Gospel Playlist on iTunes
Watching: Nothing!

What I Am Reading...

The Barbarian Nurseries

Summer 2014 Bloggiesta Tutorial: Thinglink for Book Bloggers

Hosted by Bloggiesta 

Have you ever wanted to add a little something to your blog that other blogs don't have?

Do you want to add something different to your book reviews that is unique?

I have found the coolest website to answer those questions.  

 Click the button to go the site.

So for this Bloggiesta I am going to show you what Thinglink.com is and how to use it.

What is ThingLink?

ThingLink is the leading platform for creating interactive images for web, social and advertising channels.

Be creative! Make your images come alive with video, text, images, shops, music and more!

Every image contains a story and ThingLink helps you tell your stories.
Hoover your cursor over the images below and click a button or two.
Examples

Thoughtful Thursday: Number of Characters

Hosted by Reading Is Fun Again

Pam over at Reading Is Fun Again started this meme to get a book blogger thoughts on a few bookish things. You know how much I love sharing my thoughts/opinions on stuff, so I thought it would be perfect to add my two cents in too! Stop by her blog and join in on the Thoughtful meme.

I created Thoughtful Thursday, because bookish thoughts kept popping up in my mind while reading, and I wanted to explore these questions and get your opinions too! -From Reading Is Fun Again

Thoughtful Thursday Question

 How many characters do you like to meet and get to know in a book? Do you prefer a book with just a protagonist and a handful of central characters or do you like to meet lots of characters?

Summer 2014 Bloggiesta: Goals

Yeah!  My most favorite Blogging Event is happening THIS WEEEKKKEENNNDD!!

Calendar is cleared!  Kinda!!

Snacks are bought!

Honey has been notified!  (Even though it's his b-day weekend!)

I am on Bloggiesta Time!  OLÉ!!

And this is the first time I DON'T have a few million things I want to do on both of my blogs. Work has been a bit slower and I used that time to get caught up on a few things.  This means I will be spending time hosting a mini-challenge, visiting other participants, Tweeting, and joining all the Bloggiesta activities more!  OLÉ!
(Click the banner to sign up)

If you have a ton of things to do to get your blog on point, perfect and presentable sign up.  That's what Bloggiesta is all about!

Quicky Review #21: Go the F**k to Sleep & Seriously, Just Go to Sleep

Welcome back to another Quicky Review.  

A lot of the time I like to read short stories, prequels and free audiobooks that are short and sweet.  But why do a full review on a story that is say...80 pages long.  So I do Quicky Reviews for the shorties and children books as well.  Basically, the short stories get short reviews.

Here are just a few sentences on two books  (about 20 pages or less).

There are other Quicky Reviews for you to check out too and don't worry there will be more to come. I like short stories because most of them are FREE and I can get in and out of one in no time.

Previous Quicky Review

Quicky Review #18: Night of Cake and Puppet, Agatha Christie, and England My England

Quicky Review #19: The Free, Not A Match and Homeland
Quicky Review #20: How to Be Beyonce? The Nerd's Guide to Being Confident and Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Review: The Happy Wives Club

The Happy Wives Club Author: Fawn Weaver Genre: Faith Based Relationship Publisher: Thomas Nelson Release Date: January 7, 2014 Paperback: 272 pages Source: Free from Publisher at BEA14

Sunday Delight: Need a Week

Happy Sunday everyone!

This week has been a bit busy and I have been making a real effort to get back on my regular blogging schedule.  It's hard when you have been off for a bit!  As of right now I have 4 book reviews to do with 1 of them in draft form, and 4 DNF I want to get back to and finish.  One day!  I need a week of sleep and a week of reading to get myself caught up.  Oh and a week of writing reviews and blog post too!  So...like a month off from EVERYTHING else!

One thing I have started is a book spreadsheet.  More about that later but I just want to say...I love it!

Here and Now

Time: 11:59 am
Drinking: water

Eating: Marie Callendar's Cornbread with honey butter.  YUMMY!

 Listening To: Joss Stone Radio on Pandora.com
Watching: Nothing really!

What I Am Listening To...

Attachments

2014 Half Year Reading Challenge Stats

Can you believe it's July already?  I feel like we were just chatting about all the reading challenges we were going to sign up for and all the others we wanted to sign up for but didn't.  Now it's 7 months later and I thought I would be in better shape with all the reading challenges I signed up for than I am at the moment.  

I purposely picked these challenges and levels so I wouldn't put to much pressure on myself this year.  Well....what happened to that plan?  I don't know!  I thought by now I would have completed over half of them.  

I am not throwing in the towel yet!  I have a game plan and it's all about crossing as many challenges as possible.  

Here are my stats as of today with the 12..yes 12 reading challenges I signed up for.

Review: A Wanted Woman

A Wanted Woman Author: Eric Jerome Dickey Genre: Thriller Publisher:  Random House Audio Release Date: April 15, 2014 Audiobook: 14 hours and 26 minutes Narrator: Zoë Bell and Dominic Hoffman Source: Purchased from Audible.com

Quicky Review #20: How to Be Beyonce? The Nerd's Guide to Being Confident and Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Welcome back to another Quicky Review.  

A lot of the time I like to read short stories, prequels and free audiobooks that are short and sweet.  But why do a full review on a story that is say...80 pages long.  So I do Quicky Reviews for the shorties and children books as well.  Basically, the short stories get short reviews.

Here are just a few sentences on three audiobooks  (about 2 hours or less) I got from Audible.com. 

There are other Quicky Reviews for you to check out too and don't worry there will be more to come. I like short stories because most of them are FREE and I can get in and out of one in no time.

Previous Quicky Review
Quicky Review #17: Miss Moppet, Sleep Donation and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Quicky Review #18: Night of Cake and Puppet, Agatha Christie, and England My England

Quicky Review #19: The Free, Not A Match and Homeland

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books pt. 6

 

Inspired by POC Reading Challenge

All of the participates of the Diversity on the Self 2014 Reading Challenge (aka D.O.T.S.) have been keeping up and reading a wide variety of books as well as doing an amazing job of reading, reviewing, and linking up books by People of Color.  

You can see the books and linky here

January Review Link Up
February Review Link Up

March Review Link Up  

April Review Link Up 

May Review Link Up

June Review Link Up 
July Review Link Up

  I have been trying to post helpful book links but I have missed a month (or two).  Every month I will post 12 more books in various genres and release dates that are...what I like to call "Diversity Approved Books"to promote books to you and the D.O.T.S. participants.  All of these books are by a person of color OR have a main character of color.  

Sometimes these books don't get the love they should and hearing about them is so very rare.

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books: pt. 1

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books: pt. 2

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books: pt. 3 

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books: pt. 4 
Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books: pt. 5 

By the way, it's not to late to sign up.  Click the reading challenge button and link up your sign up post.  Non bloggers are welcomed too.

Happy Independence Day

Review: The Golem's Eye (Bartimaeus Sequence #2)

 

The Golem's Eye (Bartimaeus Sequence #2) Author: Jonathan Stroud  Genre: Children's Fantasy  Age Range: 12 and up Series: The Bartimaeus Sequence Publisher:  Listening Library Release Date: January 13, 2009  Audiobook: 16 hrs and 8 mins   Narrator: Simon Jones Source: Free from e-library

July 2014 Reading Queue

June is over and now it's really, really summer.  It's also the half year mark for all the reading challenges.  So my focus of July is getting reading challenges caught up.  I am not doing so hot on my own reading challenge (D.O.T.S.) and I need to focus...focus...FOCUS!

 Reading Queue is a meme hosted by Book Tasty and Books: A True Story.  Click the covers to read more about the books I list below.

What is the reading queue all about?

Reading Queue is a monthly meme where you share what books you plan to read for the month. You can hop to other blogs and see what others are reading and maybe find someone reading the same thing as you! Or you can ask for people to vote on what you should read next if you can’t decide.

So here is what I have lined up for the rest of July.

Book Club Pick for July

Diversity on the Shelf 2014: July Review Link-Up

 

Inspired by POC Reading Challenge

Summer Time!  Summer Time!  It's all about enjoying the sun and having some fun!  I love summer and July is the best time to get some sun and reading.  

Welcome back to Diversity on the Shelf 2014 Reading Challenge.  This is the June review link up.

Every month I post a linky for you to add your reviews towards this challenge.  Please have a direct link to the book you are reviewing to the linky.  No links to blog home pages please.  If you don't have a blog, please link to your Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook, LibraryThing or other account where you are reviewing the books for this challenge.

Books that qualify for this challenge are by people of color or with a main character of color.  All shades and races of color are welcomed and encouraged here.  

If you still need more clarification on what a person of color is Click Here.

If you haven't signed up for the challenge yet, don't fret you still have time.  Just sign up here! 

If you need a few suggestions on what to read for this challenge check out the list of links to blogs, book list and more. Links here or the side bar menu.