March 5 is World Book Day

Don't know how I missed it, but yesterday was World Book Day 2015. Today is National Unplugging Day. Seems like it really should fall on the same day as World Book Day since the idea is to get offline and do things in real life like read.

So, in honor of World Book Day 2015, I want to ask you a question. Can you name 5 books that have really impressed you/ stayed with you over the  years? Don't think about it too hard. It's just for fun.

My 5, well 6. And the list could have been even longer. In no particular order:

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

Illusions by Richard Bach

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint

The Outsiders by S.E.Hinton

Will you share your 5 or so books in the comments? i'm curious. Happy Reading!

Review: Process by Sarah Stodola

Published January 20th 2015
by Amazon Digital Services

Sarah Stodola has written an interesting book in Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors. This book is of interest to more than just those drawn to the writing life. People who are interested in how their favorite books might have been written will enjoy it as well. 

From the Introduction: "Process will also interest those who love literature with without wishing to create it themselves, in the same way that seeing the way a car motor works can be fascinating for mere drivers. One of the great surprises of writing this book was that looking under the hood did nothing to diminish the awe that my favorite books inspire in me. If anything, I grew more fascinated."

There are all kinds of writers included from plotters to pantsers and more. Each entry contains a brief biography of the writer. At the end of the biography, there is "A Day in the Writer's Life" describing briefly how a day might go as the author works. Sections are: Nine to Fivers, Productive Procrastinators, Autodidacts, Plotting Ahead, Winging It, The Author as Protagonist, Slow and Steady, The Social Butterfly and the Lone Wolf, and Two Takes on the Digital Age.

Authors included are: Franz Kafka, Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, Richard Price, Edith Wharton, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, Salman Rushdie, Joan Didion, Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Junot Diaz, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, and Zadie Smith.

        

I gave this book 4 stars. I enjoyed reading about these authors. It made me hungry to learn more about other favorite authors. This book is well written. Occasionally the bio and the day in the life overlap  a little in content, but that's really not an issue. It just puts some of the information in another context. I would give this book as a gift both to future writers and to people I know enjoy reading the authors included or just plain  love literature.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. 

All quotes come from an unpublished ARC and are subject to change in the final copy.

Kensington Killer Cozies

Kensington Books is offering the first book in some of their cozy mysteries for $1.99 for the month of March. 

I purchased Working Stiff by Annelise Ryan. It's the first in the Mattie Winston series. I recently reviewed Book 6, Stiff Penalty. That was my first exposure to the series. I enjoyed it enough that I want to read them all. 

There are many other popular series on sale as well. So, if you like your cozies, you might like this sale. They are e-books. I am not getting paid to share this with you. I just thought that you might find it as interesting as I did. 
Kensington Books Killer Cozy Sale

Waiting on Wednesday #76 - Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. 


This week the book I am waiting on is Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep. This is the first book in a new YA urban fantasy series called The BlackBlade series. I've been enjoying her Elemental series for adults, but I haven't read any of her works aimed at the YA yet. On Jennifer Estep's homepage,  there is a brief explanation of each of the series along with relevant titles.This month there is a drawing on Goodreads for a copy of this book.

The synopsis from Goodreads.com: 

There Be Monsters Here. . .
It's not as great as you'd think, living in a tourist town that's known as "the most magical place in America." Same boring high school, just twice as many monsters under the bridges and rival Families killing each other for power. 

I try to keep out of it. I've got my mom's bloodiron sword and my slightly illegal home in the basement of the municipal library. And a couple of Talents I try to keep quiet, including very light fingers and a way with a lock pick. 

But then some nasty characters bring their Family feud into my friend's pawn shop, and I have to make a call--get involved, or watch a cute guy die because I didn't. I guess I made the wrong choice, because now I'm stuck putting everything on the line for Devon Sinclair. My mom was murdered because of the Families, and it looks like I'm going to end up just like her.

 So, what book are you waiting on this week? Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our ever growing TBR lists. 

Teaser Tuesday - Swan Dive by Kendel Lynn

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading.

Anyone can participate. just do the following.

Rules:

• 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 and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

Expected publication: March 17th 2015
by Henery Press

"So far neither of my dating/dates had gone smoothly. Adding romance made dinners with Matty awkward. A perpetual teenager's first date where I  didn't know how to act or what to say and did weird things like laugh at the wrong moment or too loud or try to fill every natural pause with blather."

- from 30% through on my Kindle 

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

It’s Opening Night at the Ballantyne Foundation’s production of The Nutcracker, but it’s curtains for the Sugar Plum Fairy. When her body is found backstage, fatally poisoned by a cupcake she baked herself, rumors turn to suicide. But Elli Lisbon, director of the Ballantyne and coordinator of the ballet, smells something rotten amidst the sugar and spice.

As Elli applies her PI-in-training skills on the troupe of suspects, she discovers an eccentric herbalist, a temperamental chef, a stalking choreographer, and a bevy of backstage secrets. Between her off-the-record investigation, duty as director, and highly-charged love life, she finds herself caught in a dance to stay one pirouette ahead of a half-baked killer.

I am enjoying this book so far. It has humor and a good mystery. I am about 45% through and I still don't know who did it. The list of suspects keeps getting longer. I'll be reviewing it when I finish it. 

What's your teaser this Tuesday? Leave it or a link in the comments so we can check it out. Happy Reading!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

There is a short Dr. Seuss biography on the National Dr. Seuss Memorial site.

After Dark in the Park by Dr. Seuss appears below.

Tell a Fairy Tale Day - February 26th

I can't believe I missed "Tell a Fairy Tale Day." It was February 26. Of course I didn't know it existed,  but that makes no nevermind. There is a fine article with suggestions for participating with kids at the link above.

Sharing fairytales on a specific day is an interesting concept. I found though that when my daughter was little, we read fairy tales sporadically depending on her mood. And there are some great books out there, both with pictures and without, some classic collections and some more recent, or stand alone stories of all sorts. 

One of our favorites wasTam Lin by Jane Yolen. If you're not familiar with the story, this is the brief synopsis from Goodreads.com: A young girl triumphs over the Queen of Faeries to reclaim her ancestral home and free her true love in this haunting retelling of an old Scottish ballad. What it doesn't mention is that in the process, the girl must hold onto her love no matter what he changes into. This and the lovely illustrations by Charles Mikolaycak enthralled her.

Another picture book that grabbed her attention was Marianna Mayer's version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses illustrated by K.Y. Craft. The pictures are rich with details of the different parts of the story.

Two more modern tales are Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole and The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch illustrated by Michael Martchenko. In both stories, the heroine saves herself. This appeals to some people, but oddly enough there are those who don't like them specifically for that reason as well. I thought it was a valuable concept for my daughter to be exposed to: that sometimes the princess saves herself as well as others.

These are just a handful of the wonderful picture books that are out there to be shared. I will talk about fairy tales in other formats another time. Do you have a favorite? Please share it in the comments. Happy Reading!