Waiting on Wednesday - So Far Away; Meg Mitchell Moore

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating! Want to participate? Post your own WOW entry on your blog, and leave your link at Breaking the Spine. My pick was released last week:

So Far Away; Meg Mitchell Moore

Reagan Arthur Books

Thirteen-year-old Natalie Gallagher is trying to escape: from her parents' ugly divorce, and from the vicious cyber-bullying of her former best friend. Kathleen Lynch is an archivist at a Boston library, a widow, estranged from her only daughter. Their very different lives are joined by a woman long-dead--Bridget O' Meara, who came to Boston in 1925 to work as a maid. When Natalie discovers Bridget's diary in her mother's attic, she embarks on a quest to learn more about the woman on the page, finding an unlikely and sometimes unwanted ally in Kathleen. As they unlock the secrets to Bridget's life, and her link to theirs, they learn that their present day fears and frustrations are more timeless than they seem, and that solace can come from unlikely sources.

The heartfelt storytelling that won Meg Mitchell Moore praise in her debut The Arrivals continues to shine in her page-turning new novel.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

Every Tuesday, I'll be posting the opening paragraph (sometimes maybe a few ) of a book I decided to read based on the opening paragraph (s). Feel free to grab the banner and play along.   

This week's selection is from a book that I started over the weekend  (only finished 5 chapters so far -- it's over 1,100 pages but I'm reading it on my Kindle over a (7) week period for a read-a-long. Have you read it?

  The Stand; Stephen King

 THE CIRCLE OPENS

"Sally."

A mutter.

"Wake up now, Sally."

A louder mutter: leeme lone.

He shook her harder.

"Wake up.  You got to wake up!"

Charlie.

Charlie's voice.  Calling for her.  For how long?

Sally swam up out of sleep.

First she glanced at the clock on the night table and saw it was quarter past two in the morning.  Charlie shouldn't even be here;  he should be on shift.  Then she got her first good look at him and something leaped up inside her, some deadly intuition." 

UR; Stephen King

Title: UR

Author:  Stephen King

Publication Year: 2010

Publisher: Simon and Schuster 

Edition: audiobook 

Reader: Holter Graham 

Source: Library 

Date Completed: 5/2012

Rating: 3.5/5

Recommend: yes

I've been on a Stephen King kick in this past year, ever since I feel in love with 11/22/63 at the end of 2011. I then listened to The Gingerbread Girl on audio (a short novella, and next up was an audio book (another novella) called UR.  The story is about an English teacher in his 30's, named Wesley Smith. He and his girlfriend Ellen have just broken up. She couldn't understand his obsession with books and why he had so many in his house.  He decides to purchase an eReader (yes a Kindle) to spite her.

When Wesley's Kindle arrives, "it's pink", and he is puzzled. He clearly must have received some other person's purchase. From the minute he first powers on the device, he is amazed at all the books he now has access to at his fingertips, but before long it's pretty clear that this is no ordinary eReader. There's a function on this pink Kindle marked UR and when used the UR takes Wesley to parallel universes, where never heard of before literary titles by folks like Hemingway are available for this Kindle.

While the entire audio book is only (2) cds, the later portion of the story got a little weird I thought. I still enjoyed it, and while this book definite works as a promotion for the Amazon Kindle, it was still  a fun audio book. I think most book lovers feel this way as well.  The reader Holter Graham did a great job.

Mailbox Monday - June 4th

Welcome to this week’s Mailbox Monday hosted in June by Alternative Read.

I received (3) beautiful hardcover's from Publishers: Objects of My Affection; Jill Smolinski (Touchstone), Heartbroken; Lisa Unger (Crown) and Abdication; Juliet Nicholson (Atria Books) and another hardcover, Joy Fit Club, Joy Bauer (Wiley) through the Amazon Vine Program.

How was your week for new books>

A House in the Woods; Inga Moore

A House in the Woods; Inga Moore

Candlewick Press 2011

(an awesome book for kids)

I've been meaning to post a review of this children's book for a while. Everything about it made me smile.  It's one to add to my list for purchase.

A House in the Woods  is a story about animals learning to live in harmony.  You see there were (2) little pigs that made a comfortable den and hut for themselves in the forest, and they were quite happy there. One day when the two friends went out for a walk, a bear and a moose, founds the pigs homes quite comfortable.  Of course since a moose and a bear are much bigger than tiny pigs, their homes were destroyed, and now all (4) animals were without a place to live.

Moose had an idea, why not build a new house that all (4) of them could live in?  They enlisted the help of Beaver Builders to help gather the lumber. Beavers requested that they be paid in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Beavers felled the trees and the other animals helped with the building.  The result == all the animals were able to live in harmony, each had a comfy place to sleep, and the beavers were thrilled to see their hard work was rewarded.

The story is sweet, the water-color-like illustrations done by the author are beautiful.  It's one of those great children's books that you will be happy to read over and over again to your little ones.

5/5 stars

(2) Children's Book Reviews

A fewbooks for kids that I've been meaning to post about.

 

I'll Save You Bobo!

Eileen and Marc Rosenthal

Atheneum Books - 2012

After reading and enjoying, I Must Have Bobo, I was anxious to take a peek at the Rosenthal's latest book, I'll Save You Bobo.

In this book, Willy is a little boy who is having a hard time reading a book about dinosaurs to his pal Bobo -- his cat Earl keeps disturbing him.  Willy is disappointed in the book so he tells Bobo that they should write their own book about Bobo having his own scary adventure in the jungle.  Once they begin their own story the adventures begin, but not without Earl the cat causing some havoc once again.

Cream color pages with colorful drawings by Marc Rosenthal.  Not very many words, and the ones that are on each page are in large letters for extra emphasis.  Cute, but not exceptional.  I liked the first book in the series a bit more.

3/5 stars

Cat Heaven; Cynthia Rylant

Blue Sky Press - 1997

Cat Heaven, is a good book, written in a sensitive manner, about what supposedly happens when a cat dies.  It's a faith based story, about what the cats encounter on their way to heaven such as, sweet grass to play in, crickets and butterflies, plenty of milk and even catnip.  The book talk's of God's kitchen with all of their favorite foods, looking down at their former family from heaven, and getting to sleep in God's bed. Of course the cat's are happy there, because "all cats love heaven."

The illustrations, done by the author, are bright, happy and colorful.  It's ultimately a hopeful story.

4/5 stars

Saturday Snapshots - June 2nd

Saturday Snapshot

is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books.

Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

I brought my good camera to work two days last week, hoping to catch some fuzzy goslings for Saturday Snapshot, but no such luck.  This guy however, seemed pretty photogenic:)

These were taken at work as well -- to me they looked artificial they were so pretty.