Blog Hop! (8)

It's Friday again!  And time for another Book Blogger Hop!  

The Book blogger hop is hosted by Crazy-for-Books and is a weekly event held for finding some new blogs.

If you sign the MckLinky please be sure to post about the hop on your blog.

And an added twist is to tell us about some of the blogs you've found on the hop.  

I've just found too many to list!  

This week I may not have a lot of time to check out too many today (Friday) but Saturday is devoted to checking out some new ones and catching up on reviews (to be posted this weekend and next week).  

Be sure to enter The Body Finder *signed* and signed swag giveaway that ends tonight 4/30!  I have it posted for ending at 9 pm but I'm pushing it to midnight as I won't be able to tally until tomorrow.  

I also have a giveaway for Avatar and other goodies (link to your right).  

Please be sure to leave a comment if you stopped by!  

This week was a crazy busy and very fun week!  My mom and sisters have been here all week and we've done loads of fun stuff.  Despite the rainy weather.  Here's a rundown and pictures of all the fun!

Monday we went to the Lilac Gardens for a few minutes.  Got rained out though : (

Isn't this a beautiful garden?  I want that fountain!

Then on Wednesday we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

And the beach.

Oceanside Oregon.

See those nasty clouds?  

Me and my kiddos.  Jaevin wouldn't look. The roar of the water was too awesome, I guess.

On Thursday Phaedra got to check out her school she'll go to next year and meet the kindergarden teachers.

We did a LOT of shopping so no pictures of that.  I only showed a few of my trillions of pictures, but its a peek into my awesome week!

Kids Pick Wednesday (1)

Kids Pick Wednesday!

Is a weekly meme I'm trying out on Wednesdays featuring children's books.  My daughter (5) loves books and reading and going to the library is her favorite thing to do.  I've noticed that several of my followers have children and I thought maybe some would be interested.  I'll try it out this week and we'll see how it goes.  I'm still thinking of a cute name for it too.  And if it goes over well then I'll get a button made.  So please leave a comment and let me know if it's something that interests you.   And if you have a cute name and will let me use it if I like it then let me know it too!

This week I'm going to start with a book we picked up at Goodwill outlet yesterday.  It's a book that held her attention for almost the entire shopping trip (2+ hours!) and it's called Adventures of Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.  It's an I Can Read book and includes Finders Keepers, The Dangerous Deep, Spike and the Substitute and Tattle Tale. It's 128 pages, so is quite long for a children's book. But it reads quite quickly and you don't have to read all of it at once since it's several stories in one. My daughter loves the bright colors of the fish and the illustrations really seem to catch her eye, and mine as well.  The story reads smoothly though it doesn't rhyme.  All in all I thought this was a great story for my 5 year old daughter.                                                

Rating-

Illustrations: 5 moons

The story itself (including how it reads): 4 moons

Do you have a Kids Pick?  Leave a link to yours! I'll be at the beach all day today, but I'll be checking them out the first chance I get!

Review: Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater

         

Description from shelfari: 

" Ballad is giddy, intoxicating, and threatening all at once." —Tamora Pierce In this mesmerizing sequel to Lament , music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James' musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realizes that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.

Ballad is the sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception.  Lament and Ballad are both on my favorites of 2009, but Ballad, I think, was definitely my favorite of the two.  This one is told from James' point of view and I really fell in love with his character.  He was witty in a totally awesome way and his personality is to die for.  If I met him in real life his personality would be something I'd fall in love with regardless of how he looked, but I'm just going to imagine he's a cutie.  

After I read the book I posted this review on shelfari (it was in my hiatus from blogging after my baby was born). 

"Wow.  This is a brilliant book.  I fell in love with James in this book and can't wait to see what happens with him in the future.  His personality is just so amazing I think I could read anything from his POV all day."

Very short, I know, but hey, I was (am) a busy mom.  It's hard to write up a review when it's been awhile since you read the book so I'm not sure I can really add anything except that it's beautiful and this is, in my opinion, one of Maggie's best pieces.  I really think the beauty of her writing came through in this one and I may like it even more then Shiver.  I think sometimes her books are somewhat lacking in activity.  Like not much is always going on, sometimes just mundane and what we would consider boring tasks, are happening, but Maggie's way with words made it all interesting, entertaining and beautiful.   That is what gives it 5 moons from me and makes it a favorite.

You can find Maggie at her website: http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/ where you can also find links to her blog (lots of awesome creative writing and short stories on her blog!).

You can click below to order from amazon or purchase from your favorite bookstore.

  

Teaser Tuesdays (1)

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can play along!  Just do the following: 

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Magpie knew that faeries lived in isolation, ignorant of the world, but she was still shocked.  How could it not be known in Dreamdark that the dragons were extinct?"  Blackbringer (Dreamdark) by Laini Taylor.

It's Monday! What are you reading? (3)

It's Monday, What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila at One Persons Journey through a World of Books.  

What are you reading is where we gather and talk about what we've read in the past week and plan to read this week.   It's a great way to network and find more great books to add to our list to-be-read.  

Last week I didn't get a lot read.  I read Linger by Maggie Stiefvater and English Trifle by Josi S. Kilpack (review for May 5th).   I also started on Blackbringer by Laini Taylor again (poor book kept getting put aside) and am almost finished with it.  It's pretty good now that I've had a chance to get engrossed in it.  

For this week I plan to finish Blackbringer, of course, and then I may pick up 13 Treasures, Need, or possibly Hold Still.  I have so many to read it's hard to say for sure.  But those are a few on the top of my list.

My mom, two sisters and nephew are here visiting this week.  I had hoped to have some reviews done before but I haven't got them done.  So hopefully I'll still be getting daily posts up but if I miss a day then it's because I'm having so much fun with them!

Have a great week everyone!  And don't forget to enter my contests.  The Body Finder book and swag contest ends on the 30th!  

What are you reading this week?

In my Mailbox (6)

In my Mailbox is a weekly meme that was inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie and is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.  It is where we talk about the books we got that week whether we got them in the mail, at the library or they are e-books.

This week from the library I got: 

Need by Carrie Jones (about time!)

and Thirteen Treasures by Michelle Harrison

I got Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick in the mail from amazon (SO excited about this one!)

And for review: e ARC of The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan

And I believe that's all that was in my mailbox this week.  What was in your mailbox?

Blog Hop! (7)

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly event hosted by Crazy-For-Books.  It's a great way to find some new blogs, some more books to add to your already toppling pile (not literally, more like toppling list, Ha ha), and meet some great new bloggers (and old ones too!).
I can't believe this is my seventh blog hop!  And I'm still loving it just as much as I did in the beginning.
Please leave me a comment and let me know you stopped by and I'll try to stop by yours as well.  This is a busy weekend as it's my anniversary and my mother and two sisters (and nephew) are arriving Sunday from South Dakota.  But my plan is to check out a few blogs before all the craziness begins!

I also have a couple giveaways going on (look to your right on the sidebar) so be sure to enter if you haven't already! I also have a list of all my reviews on the left sidebar down a bit, if you want to check them out!  Thanks for stopping by!

Review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Description

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by an alien species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves: Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love. Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.

Being as all the books I've been reading lately are for reviews in the future then I thought it was time to dig up some older books I've read and posted reviews elsewhere.  Earlier this year I read The Host by Stephenie
Meyer and was completely blown away.  I had it on my shelf for over a year before I finally picked it up and I had it in my head that I was going to make myself get to page 50 and if I wasn't into it by that point then I would read something else and then read another 50 pages, and so on.  By page 50 I was so engrossed in the story there was no way I could have put it down to read something else!  I'm not a fan of science fiction with aliens and aliens taking over the earth really did not interest me at all.  I had so many people pushing me, urging me to read it that I was just going to make myself.  I posted my review on shelfari after reading it and this is what I said.

"Not being a sci-fi fan I put this book off for two years before finally giving it a chance.  I was so surprised when I got into the book and I couldn't put it down!  It was amazing!  Although it's technically sci-fi with aliens, it isn't really ABOUT that so much.  If your holding off on reading it because of the alien aspect, please don't let that hold you back because it's SO much more then that!  If your holding off because your not a Stephenie Meyer fan, please don't let THAT hold you back because you would never even guess the author.  It was written beautifully, it pulls you in less then a quarter of the way in and it's nearly impossible to put it down after that point.  I can't believe I waited so long to read this book!  I know it has mixed reviews, but I found it to be fantastic!"

If you've been holding off on reading The Host I really hope my review may have convinced you.  It really is an amazing story and it pulls at the emotions so strongly that you'll find yourself crying, laughing, hating and loving, right along with Melanie and Wanderer (Wanda).
I give this book 5 Moons!

The Host is now in paperback!

Earth Day!

Today, my friends, is Earth Day.  On my giveaway I asked what exactly do you do on earth day, or what do you do through out the year that is 'green' or earth friendly.  I didn't say what I do though and this post is mostly dedicated to that.  If your looking for a book review or something book related I apologize.  I will have more reviews posted soon!  And I have plenty of past reviews for you to read if you haven't already.
Earth day around my house has never been a big deal.  The reason for that is because we are always quite 'green'.  But I realize that I need to teach my children more about the earth and not littering, and how trees are good for us and all that good stuff.  In the past we lived in apartments (this is our first Earth day in a house!) and so we'd go out and pick up garbage in the parking lot.  This year we're going to plant trees and flowers (we're beautifying the yard anyway so that's not a biggie) and then we're going to make a worm home!  My daughter LOVES worms and everyday begs to go out and find worms.  Most days we do because I'm gardening anyway.  But building a compost bin/worm house will be something new and fun to do.  I have plenty of coffee grounds saved up!

Things we do all year around that are green and earth friendly are:
Cloth Diaper
Recycle
Use reusable shopping bags
Use reusable water bottles and coffee cups (when going to Starbucks, etc)
Limit electricity (hang dry clothing and diapers when possible, turn off lights, tv, computer, etc)
Use one car most of the time. (Our second car isn't dependable so I refuse to drive it. When I NEED a car then my husband drives it to work. He also carpools so he doesn't always have to drive.)
I use only green cleaners.  Vinegar and water work great for many things. I use a laundry detergent that is eco friendly and allergen free (and cloth diaper safe!).  My dishwashing soap is also eco friendly.
I buy used clothing as often as possible and buy organic and /or unbleached cotton clothing when I'm able.
We limit meat intake (I rarely eat meat anymore) and this is why.
When getting rid of items I think are junk I list them on freecycle (so far everything I've listed has been taken!) instead of throwing it in the garbage to go in the landfill.
What else is there?  Hmmm.... I'm sure there's more that we do, but that's most of it.  I hope if you don't do these things that you will consider doing them!
Have a wonderful Earth Day!  And don't forget to enter my Earth day contest to win Avatar (the movie), stainless steel waterbottles (BPA free!) and reusable shopping totes.  When I reach 175 followers I will be adding The Adoration of Jenna Fox to the giveaway.

I won an Award, I'm a Prolific Blogger!

A prolific blogger is one who is
intellectually productive,
keeping up an active blog with enjoyable content.

After accepting this award,
recipients are asked to pay it forward
to  seven other deserving blogs.

Bewitched Bookworms awarded me this wonderful award!  Thank you guys!  It means so much to me since I'm still fairly new at this.  I'm happy to find out that people are happy with how often I post and the content is enjoyable to them.  So without further ado I must list the seven other deserving blogs.

Lori from Pure Imagination- She's been amazing in giving advice and teaching me all sorts of tricks to blogging.  I'm constantly learning new things from her.  She's also been amazing in designing my blog and buttons.  I read her blog everyday and she has some amazing reviews that often sway me or nay me on a book. 

Angel from Reading Angel- She's been on this road of blogging right along side me.  Her and Lori and I bounce ideas off of each other, plan fun and exciting events together and we mostly all love the same books.  I read Angel's posts everyday and every review usually has some sort of effect on my to-be-read list.  She posts everyday and the content is always interesting to me.  

Violet from The Eager Readers-  This is a fairly new blog to me.  She found my blog the night before Kimberly Derting's book signing and then came up to me before the book signing.  We hit it off immediately and plan to do many more signings together.  We are also working together in our giveaway of The Body Finder and swag giving extra entries to enter or follow the other's blog.  I've been visiting at least nearly every post on her blog since we met and she has amazing reviews.  They are so organized I really feel put to shame on my sometimes hurried and not always thorough reviews.  We seem to have very similar taste in books and I'm sure will be good friends for the years to come.  I love that she does flower Fridays and she has the most gorgeous pictures!  

Bella at Obsessed! I love her reviews and how she's so honest and her reviews are interesting!  Once you start reading you can't stop.  Sometimes even after she says there are spoilers I just can't tear my eyes away because what she's saying just pulls me in.  

Dawn from Dawn Hullender's Southern Musings-  I find her blog full of interesting content and she posts regularly (not that I've been able to check everyday ;(  She always seems so great at commenting on my blog as well which is always appreciated!

Amanda at Not-Really-Southern Vamp Chic- She has interesting content, she posts at least fairly regularly (I confess, I can't read EVERY blog everyday!) and I love her reviews!  She's also awesome about ReTweets!

Jessica at Shut Up! I'm Reading! She has a wonderful blog with fantastic reviews.  Being a fan of YA it's nice to get the teens Point-Of-View as well.  She writes so well I never would've guessed her for a teen if I didn't know better!  (Although I think I wrote better as a teen then I do now ; )

Oh man, is that all?!  I feel like I've left so many great blogs out, but that is seven so I must stop... 

It's Monday! What are you reading? (2)

It's Monday, What are you Reading is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Now I have to admit I did horribly on my reading this week.  It was nice weather and I have an entire yard and several gardens that need A LOT of work! So I spent my days mostly doing that.  I did get a book finished and a book partway read.  

So for books I finished last week it is only:

                                                                      

                                            The Iron Daughter.  It WAS fantastic though!

I also worked on, but didn't get real far so this is on my finish this week list:

  

                                                                

 Blackbringer by Laini Taylor.  It's good, but I feel I'm not being fair as I was far too excited about The Iron Daughter and Linger (which I'm reading NOW!)

                                                                 

Then because I have a review to post of it on May 5, I have English Trifle by Josi Kilpack to read.

                                                                 

That is probably all that I'll have time for as my mom and two sisters from SD are arriving next Sunday.  Lots of cleaning and stuff to do in preparation!  I do need to pick up Need by Carrie Jones from the library, so that'll be on my list to read soon as well.