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What are you reading now?
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Becky
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Mar 05, 2016 07:29AM
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I'm enjoying The Builders by Daniel Polansky. I've heard it is dark but I find it fun and whimsical.
Just started
The Fire Inside by Michelle Bellon
Powerful and Illuminating…
Aiden, a doting husband and father, had the perfect life - a job he loved, a beautiful son, and a loving wife. In an instant, everything is taken from him and Aiden believes his life is over. Falling into a deep depression Aiden all but gives up on his job, his friends and himself. But when a mysterious force grants him the power to heal those around him, Aiden is forced to pull himself out of his misery in favor of the greater good. When he meets Ryan, a hardened, pessimistic teenager living on the streets, and Norma, a woman whose marriage is crumbling around her, Aiden acknowledges that maybe life still has a purpose and this ability to heal may be more powerful than he ever imagined.
The Fire Inside was a Finalist in the USA Book Awards for New Age Fiction.
About the author:
Michelle Bellon lives in the Pacific Northwest with her four children and fiancé, Seth. She loves coffee and has an addiction to chapstick. She works at a surgery center as a registered nurse and in her spare time writes novels. She writes in the genres of romance suspense, young adult, women’s fiction, and literary fiction. She has won three literary awards.
http://goo.gl/EdBjjl The Fire Inside (Kindle ed.)
http://goo.gl/ARqfyh The Fire Inside (Book ed.)
https://goo.gl/S8dRO5 Michelle Bellon's Facebook Page
https://goo.gl/GgznIM Michelle Bellon's Facebook Author Page
http://goo.gl/Hur94K Michelle Bellon's Website
Finished 
The House at the End of Hope Street which I picked up as a "blind date" with a library book. It was spectacular. I loved the house, I loved (and hated) the characters. The implication of the house and all that came with it. The renewal of strength within the women who have walked in and out of the house. A quick and easy read. There was a great following of the characters. I highly recommend, awarded 5 stars for me. 
The English Patient which was a very unique writing style. It was a 3.5 star read for me. I definitely love the move more. The movie had better flow, but I enjoyed the characters of Kip and Hana more in the book. The English patient and his love for Katharine are MUCH better portrayed in the movie. With that being said, there were still a lot of beautiful parts of the book and it is something that should definitely be read in one's lifetime. it has a unique way of showing the flitting thoughts of passion, obsession, adoration, morphine haze, desperation, etc.
Awoken which was a great start to a new series. I would have liked to feel a bit more for some of the characters, but it was so enjoyable to read that it was still worth of 5 stars for me. I can't wait to read more about the Lucidites, and I love the twists and the ending.Also finished
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly as it is one of those books I had never gotten around to reading. I'm so glad that I was finally able to read this. The implications of the amount of work that had to go into this are insane. Everyone should read this at least once. I love the wit of the man. 4 Stars
The Fairy Boy of Calton Hill for my read & Review and it started out well. There is a bit of different lingo being written by a Scottish author, but I have found that if I envision a Scottish accent (such as Sean Connery) when I read it that it makes the flow seamless. Once the book picked up around the 24-25% mark It was a very quick and exciting read. I loved all of the new creatures and implications of the tunnels. It did escalate quickly into dark events towards the end. I can't wait to read the next one. 4 stars for me.Also finished
Autobiography of a Geisha to continue on with my Asian/Geisha theme of late ;) Sayo Masuda has a VERY hard life from the time the book starts around the age of 6. She was a hot springs resorts geisha which was a lot closer to artistic prostitutes. I feel like Memoirs of a Geisha combined this and Geisha, a Life to come up with a story. There were some specific names such as Chiyo and events from this book that couldn't be found anywhere within Geisha, a Life. Also the intro by the translator mentions Memoirs of a Geisha specifically. By the age of 21 Masuda had experienced insane hardships. Not necessarily a happy book but still worth the read. 4 stars. 
The Perks of Being a Wallflower for a march standalone read and it is great so far. I loved the letter style of the writing. This was one I am happy to have finally read. It seemed a very straight forward look at the entrance into the high school world in the early 1990s. There were many sensitive issues that were touched upon but in a way that flowed with the story. 5 stars for me.STILL READING
Token Huntress for my pen pal read! finishing tonight
One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment which is very well written at times painful to contemplate.and just started
Red Queen for the March Series read.and
Persuasion for a challenge of a book written before 1900.
Just started
at lunchtime, I'm a big fan of Hiaasen and Dorsey and this looks to be the same type of fun.
want to read the red queen series so bad
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I'm reading:
I'm currently reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - can't believe it took me so long to actually read this book :) - and Boy's Life by Robert McCammon - an amazing coming-of-age story. And listening to The Terror by Dan Simmons.
I reread Elantris thinking I would need to be up to speed on that to read The Emperor's Soul since it was supposed to be Elantris 2. I certainly enjoyed rereading Elantris. The Emperor's Soul's was pretty good as well but really had nothing to do with Elantris.....
I'm reading The Magicians
, but I should rather say I'm struggling through it.It started off quite good, but the choice of protagonist and the pace of the story has made it quite difficult for me to really get into it.
The story itself is quite interesting, but the pace is off for me - it took far too long for the plot to really get going. While that delay can be attributed to world building, too many years in the story get crammed into too short a space to really get a chance to explore said world and "bond" with the characters.
Now that the plot actually got going, it just suddenly exploded - as though everything is trying to get wrapped up too quickly. So basically, the book is, for me, a weird mix of too slow but at the same time too fast - and it's leaving me disconnected.
I think this will be a case where I finish the first book in the series and leave it at that.
FINISHED
Persuasion for a challenge of a book written before 1900. I had read about half of this before so I was easily able to get back into the flow. I love Jane Austen's witty sense of humor, it is what always draws me into her books. This one was definitely the best of all that I have read thus far. 5 Stars for me.Also finished
One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment which is very well written at times painful to contemplate. This book had incredible flow for the subject matter and was very well researched trying to find eye-witness accounts of different types of affects. Of course the author Mei Fong has spent decades reporting in China and was an "unwanted" daughter of China herself, so she was able to relate in an intimate way. She dove into topics to include the aging population, the effects on the economy, forced sterilization and abortions as well as issues with the adoption agencies. 5 Stars for me.
Red Queen for the March Series read. This was a 4 star read for me. If the story line wasn't so original, I probably would have gone with a 3 star. There is a lot of predictability and lack of description. I'm not sure that I feel the emotions that are supposed to exist, but I don't find this book as annoying as some others have. The basic concept is very intriguing, I just want the book to talk more about. I will still read more of the series. 
Happy Cooking: Giada's Recipes and Tips for Making Every Meal Count...Without Stressing You Out I wanted this to be so much more than what it was. I think it was partially a problem of food preference, I wasn't even interested in most of the recipes and only found 3 I wanted to try in the entire thing. The end of the book just threw in some random recipes that seemed out of place and the photos are so staged that It looks like Giada is angry at her taco. I love Giada, not this cookbook. 2 stars for me
Token Huntress for my pen pal read! There were so many characters and so many places to get lost. I love the main concept of this book and the token huntress definition. Delivery needs some polish. some glaring grammatical and spelling errors that should be easy to correct. the prologue needs serious work, it was hard to want to press on after reading more than 10 new names with zero description of what they looked like and what the setting was in a few short paragraphs. I'm glad that I did press on because the story is good, just needs more polish, I'd love to read a newer released version. with more flow, deception and emotional connection built in for the characters. 3 stars for me 
The Cat Who Came for Christmas from my childhood and to fulfill a challenge group question. My grandmother got me this book in 1991 when I was 7 and I ready it many times in my youth. it had been many years since I had revisited it and just the opening paragraph brought me back into the story of polar bear the cat. The wording still drips with humor and sarcasm and a sense of begrudgingly accepting a life both in new York and as a new cat owner. of course no one (except b of course current lucky people owned by cats) could guess what an impact play bear would come to have on life. still great, still 5 stars for me.
Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways To Love Your BodyThere are parts I can relate to others than I bet would be great for other people. I like style that it is written in, feeling like Kate is talking to you while you read. Solid 3.5 for me. got a bit repetitive, but love the concept of listening to what your body is telling you and customizing a plan for yourself. the dream board got disruptive to the flow, but had a lot of great intro concepts. 
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone I had started this book years ago and could not make it through to the end. That was long before the movies came out. I ended up revisiting this book after a "blind date with a library book" in which the book was wrapped in paper with a short blurb on the cover so I decided to give it another go. Just the beginning reminded me why I had put it down in the first place, it just was a lot of mean people and young kids as main characters, not really my cup of tea, I forced myself to press through and by the time that Hogwarts comes around it does luckily pick up. Overall tough I must say that 3.5 is the most that I can award it. The ideas are original but not necessarily ones that I like. The audience is very obviously the middle grade reading crow 11-17ish. The chants and songs are original but also annoying, not really anything I would want to be repeated. The ideas are what pushes me through this book. I do like the mystery woven throughout but wish there was less immature squabbling between the characters to get through to rally get to the meat of the story. Even on the "good" side there is a lot of wishes to carry out harm and even death to other barely known characters, which seems a bit extreme to me for this age. I have repeatedly heard that this series does get better with each book, so one day in the future I will find myself in the 2nd book, because I do feel that this series ha potential if it can get more lively. Lots of great ideas here though.
Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong Another AMAZING job by Kelley Armstrong. She does not rank in my top all-time favorites for nothing. I love the short snippets into her dark and twisted mind. I really hope to see more of these stories developed in the future, if I could only pick one, it would have to be the first story about the Rakshasi. I want a WHOLE series on "Amrita" and her kind, how fascinating. Loved Nick's brothel problems and anything that returned to Cainsville and the Otherworld. The most disturbing stories were the one were The Screams of Dragons and Suffer the Children, my goodness. I love her and hope she never stops writing, because I will never stop reading. If you love anything about Kelley Armstrong or any book she has ever written, I highly suggest checking this one out, it's good for a long it down or a moment or two to check out a story or two at a time. High re-readability. Well done once again. Easy 5 stars 
Refining Felicity This book was a delightful random pick from my local library. It was light it was fun, and it was hilarious. In the book the Tribble sisters, Effy & Amy must teach Felicity (19) about the manners of being a lady. It appears her father wanted a son and got stuck with her instead and now she has become too crude to attract a suitor of any standing. With the help of the older (30) Lord Ravenswood, The Tribble sisters are able to pretend at wealth and do their best to turn Felicity into a proper lady. The writing is witty and entertaining. If you want a nice light read this is perfect for the occasion. 5 stars
Only the Stones Survive genuinely stuck at a 3.5. the intro, the world building, the descriptions are immaculate. the story is disjointed and slow and falls flat for me. the ending left me feeling disappointed, like I kept reading for this. this one was a much slower finish as it was hard to get into the flow of reading it. I get that it was supposed to be philosophical, but it brought up all kinds of ideas and then just dropped them without development. great thought, but delivery needs more work, 3.5 stars
Lacy Eye was a 4 star read for me. It could have been less predictable, but it still had great suspense. I don't want to post any spoilers, it was definitely worth the read though. 4 starsAlso finished
My French Whore This book had a very strange tone to it, I'm not sure whether I liked it or not. I left it feeling strange and like I would never get the time back. I'm stuck right in the middle at 3 stars 
Dewey's Nine Lives: The Legacy of the Small-Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions for the second half of March group read. this was a good read with a lot of touching stories but it could have been better. I feel like the author interjected so much of her opinion into the stories of others instead of just letting the stories happen that it took away from their meaning. she should have let the stories be told and then commented afterwards. it was like someone telling a conversation and telling you a story to be constantly interrupted. with that being said, Dewey obviously was a very special soul that so many of us find within our pets and animals. I am happy that he could impact so many people during his lifetime. as a fellow Maine coon cat owner I was drawn to him, and this is still a good read. having never read the original Dewey, I would Iike to go back and read it now. 3 stars for me. Currently Reading
Occupied for the read and review and I am definitely intrigued and disgusted by some events at the 15% markJust starting
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics for another group read.Last night I started
The Ugly Princess: The Legend of the Winnowwood to reread it for the read and review since it's so great.Also
This Is Why You're Single because I get the feeling it's going to be hilarious.For my cookbook obsession I'm reading
From Junk Food to Joy Food: All the Foods You Love to Eat...Only Better
I'm reading "Ruins", which is the last book in the Partials trilogy by Dan Wells. Then, I'm going to read "All the Light We Cannot See".
So this is a little sad. I read
both of which have been highly recommended by like everyone and i wasn't a big fan of either of them :'( lol. Such a bummer when thats happens :/
JURASSIC PARK. so sad the actor died who played Hammond in the movie version. :(
Just finished
, the third book of the Iron Druid Chronicles. Terrific series, although the cliffhanger at the end of this one almost killed me! LOL Now I'm starting one of the books I won on a Goodreads giveaway,
while I wait for Amazon to send me the next two in the series.
I am reading Wuthering Heights ❤
Finished Razor Sharp - J.A. Schneider. Now I am going to read NYPD Red 4 - James Patterson.
Danielle Marie wrote: "I am reading Wuthering Heights ❤"i started this but had to put it down for time reasons. Most people don't like it I can't say the characters are likable but certainly interesting because of how unlikeable they are.
Fiona (Titch) wrote: "Finished Razor Sharp - J.A. Schneider. Now I am going to read NYPD Red 4 - James Patterson."He is so popular but I do not think I've read any of his books. Actually I think the first Maximum Ride book. I've heard he's a pretty strange machine with his releases. getting other writers to write for him for a small fee etc. maybe they do get royalties i can't say for sure but I know a lot of authors who do this pay the actual writers a small fee up front and they get no control over the book or rights and no royalties.
because of this I'm put off by his name. but his books do sound interesting and are very popular of course.
I just finished Radiant Shadows and The Rithmatist early I read Mistborn: The Final Empire so thats to Sanderson books so far this year. :D
Sanne wrote: "I just started reading 
"How was it? I've picked this book up before but put it down many times.
Chakara wrote: "Fiona (Titch) wrote: "Finished Razor Sharp - J.A. Schneider. Now I am going to read NYPD Red 4 - James Patterson."He is so popular but I do not think I've read any of his books. Actually I think ..."
It's been a while since I've read his books, but I need to keep up with the series I've read lol x
Fiona (Titch) wrote: "Chakara wrote: "Fiona (Titch) wrote: "Finished Razor Sharp - J.A. Schneider. Now I am going to read NYPD Red 4 - James Patterson."He is so popular but I do not think I've read any of his books. A..."
yes I understand. Good luck with that one I've heard he likes to drag it out. Milk the series for all the money they can get out of it.
Chakara wrote: "Fiona (Titch) wrote: "Chakara wrote: "Fiona (Titch) wrote: "Finished Razor Sharp - J.A. Schneider. Now I am going to read NYPD Red 4 - James Patterson."He is so popular but I do not think I've re..."
I don't read as soon as they are out lol. I have other books I read in between :-)
Just finished 15th Affair - James Patterson. Now I am going to read Play Dead - Angela Marsons for review on Netgalley.
Just finished
. Now reading a sci-fiction
.
Less then 100 pages in and already loving
It took a chapter or two, but I am hooked now!
Restless by Michelle Bellon
Funny, romantic, sexy…a love story.
You grow up. You get married. You have a family. At least, that’s what Malea Winters believes she’s supposed to do. So why is it that every time she comes close to finding that happily ever after, she runs?
When she meets Garrett Taylor, she warns him that she’s not the marrying type because history has shown that long-term relationships are not her forte. She has a tendency to leave when things get too serious; the direct result of being raised by an emotionally detached mother and a stepdad with philandering ways. So she swore off men and surrounded herself with her best friends; three quirky, funny women who are facing challenges of their own.
But Garrett is everything she’s ever looked for; charming, successful, fun, and sexy. Despite her better judgment, his persistence pays off and she finds herself falling for him.
Learning how to love and be loved will be the hardest lesson she’s ever faced. The question is, will her relationships survive that lesson?
About the author:
Michelle Bellon lives in the Pacific Northwest with her four children and fiancé, Seth. She loves coffee and has an addiction to chapstick. She works at a surgery center as a registered nurse and in her spare time writes novels. She writes in the genres of romance suspense, young adult, women’s fiction, and literary fiction. She has won three literary awards.
http://goo.gl/qb7brZ Restless (Kindle ed.)
https://goo.gl/S8dRO5 Michelle Bellon's Facebook Page
https://goo.gl/GgznIM Michelle Bellon's Facebook Author Page
http://goo.gl/Hur94K Michelle Bellon's Website
Finished Play Dead - Angela Marsons this morning. Now I am going to read/listen to Captivated by You - Sylvia Day.
I read Collective Mind book and wondered one question. According to the book every person can sell creativity from their brainand ask for that everything they want.. money, house and so on.
But the rest of their life spend like "a vegetable". And it's becoming a popular trend!
Many people live a wealthy life.
So I wonder what will be your choose? Money or creative?
I've been doing some serious binge watching of Grey's Annatomy. So kind of fell off the face of the earth. Man that show is SOOO additive!!!!Managed to read
and really enjoyed it, thinking 4 stars. Also just finished
which was awesome!! can't believe i haven't heard of it before!!about to start
I tried reading a few other books, mainly
, and some sort of sci-fi book but they couldn't hold up to Grey's Anatomy and its awesomeness.
Shut Up & Read
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