Anna Tan's Blog, page 79

#atozchallenge: 2016 Theme reveal #atozreveal

I'd briefly thought about doing this last year, but the problem then was that I didn't have the time to sit down and write. I didn't want to simply dash out something half-baked and then have regrets. So I took the easy way out and did a series on the A to Z of (mostly) worship songs, which was pretty fun, and kicked off my currently slightly sporadic Music Monday posts.

So, this series veers far away from the usual stuff I post on my blog (books, books and more books - plus the occasional fla...

Palm Sunday

http://lent.goarch.org/palm_sunday/le...
You came riding on a donkey. Who rides on an ass, really. I mean, where's the grand entrance? That's not showing power and authority. You gotta come with a cool ride. Ferrari. Lamborghini. Okay, maybe an Audi or BMW. Coming in on an ass is like... driving a second hand kancil. Or puttering in on a kapchai. No class. Poor.Forgettable.Like, dude. At least spend some money on a good quality horse, okay. Doesn't need to be a pedigree race ho...

#bookreview: Esther's Gift by Bette Lee Crosby

Esther's Gift: The Lei Crime Series: by Bette Lee Crosby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a cute little novella (novella? Longer short story?) that I picked up because:
a) Bette Lee Crosby offered it and
b) it's set in Toby Neal's Lei Crime series world.

I made the mistake of thinking that it might also be a murder mystery in Hawaii, but although it's set in Hawaii and someone dies (well, a few people die), it's not a murder or a mystery. Okay, fair enough - the blurb does tell it as it is: "Est...

#musicmonday: If not for Your grace | Israel Houghton

Hello! I'm back :P
It's been a while.

Grace that restores
Grace that redeems
Grace that releases
Me to worship
Grace that repairs
Visions and dreams
Grace that releases
Miracles

#fridayflash: Talk me down

Talk me down, she said, like she was on the edge of a building, waiting to jump. Maybe she was. I don't know. But she'd laid down her dreams and bared her soul and she stood there, looking at me with soulful eyes.
Help me or talk me down. She said it like a command. I could either help her achieve all the things she'd wanted to do - too many, too varied to remember - or I could talk her out of it, telling her that it wasn't possible.
So I did.
I tore her down word by word, telling her that she c...

#bookreview: Board Stiff by Piers Anthony

Board Stiff by Piers Anthony
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hot off reading Ogre, Ogre and saying that I don't find puns funny anymore, I went on to read this. Why? Because I'm a sucker for punishment maybe. Or maybe because I had downloaded a copy of this for review from Edelweiss and figured, "what better way to review this than to see how Piers Anthony has grown since whenever ago?" Ogre, Ogre is book 5 in the series, I think, published in 1982 whilst Board Stiff, #38 was published in 2013.

I enjoy...

Mosaics: #booklaunch and #bookreview

Today's the day, all the excitement, all the anticipation, and now it's finally here. Don't forget to enter the mega giveaway, including a Kindle Fire, a $50 gift card, and a paperback library, at the end of this post!

A project focused on bringing women's voices to readers and celebrating the stories they have to tell, including stories by Keyan Bowes, Carol Cao, Chelo Diaz-Ludden, Sarina Dorie, Naomi Elster, Jordanne Fuller, Ari Harradine, ...

#fridayflash: Poetography by #kafayatquadri

The pictures align in front of me, showing me the things she has seen, the places she has been, the words that leak out from her heart. They speak of things I know but do not understand, plumbing the depths of her experiences, echoing the chambers of her soul, so that I wish I could.

But I can’t.

I look with eyes that do not see, listen with ears that do not hear. There is incomprehension because I cannot make myself care enough for another to feel their heartbeat, to sway to their music, to ac...

#bookreview: The Last Days of Magic

The Last Days of Magic: A Novel by Mark Tompkins
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I requested an ARC of The Last Days of Magic from NetGalley because it was a good fit with the trend of stories I'd been reading (and writing). There were Celts, fairies, magic, druids, kings, goddesses and Fomorians. Besides, who can resist the line, 'Drawing on myth, legend, fairy tales and Biblical mysteries'? This, I thought, is something I could get behind.

Except that the novel starts with a disjointed story of a dead...

#musicmonday: The Light Will Come | Phil Wickam

It's funny how a song grows on you, creeping from ambivalence into a kind of obsession.

But here is courage to face your fears - look, the light has come.