Bloggiesta!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to remind you all that Bloggiesta is coming up in just under three weeks! We are going to try doing a FOUR DAY blogathon this time around, starting on Thursday March 27 and lasting through Sunday, March 30. 

Start thinking about your To Do Lists (here's an example of one) and we'll have a link up for those on the Bloggiesta site a week before the event starts. 

We have a ton of awesome mini challenges lined up. You are going to LOVE them! I can't wait! :)

I hope you can all join the fun. Mark your calendars and spread the word!

Throwback Thursday: Misc. Book Thoughts for the Day TAKE TWO

I woke up this morning wondering what I could post today. Then I thought about how it seems like the Throwback Thursday meme is so big and widespread lately. Not just on Instagram, but everywhere, so I wondered if someone was already doing a Throwback Thursday sort of blogging meme, and sure enough. I found one! In fact I think today is the first day! Great minds think alike, eh? I found it over on Tanya's blog called Mom's Small Victories. The idea there is simply to link up an old post to give it more love.

However, I want to go further and take an old post, show it to you and then "update it"... sort of. Make a new post that discusses and old post. Something like that. I thought it would be fun to start doing something like this as part of my "wow I've been at this blogging thing for seven years next week!" celebration. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

So I looked over some old posts... really old posts. Wow. That's a trip. And here's one I wrote on September 7, 2007:

Misc. Book Thoughts for the Day

What I'm thinking today, regarding books anyway:

• I need to read one other Markus Zusak book.... Underdog. It's on Amazon for a mere $80! What's up with that? Out of print already? Rare, and collectible? Hmmmm.....
• Like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm starting to gather a bunch of YA books to read over the next few weeks for the book fair. I hope I find some great ones!
• Bud is getting off to a good start in his AP English class and has read Animal Farm, and The Lord of the Flies so far. Next up is Robinson Crusoe.
• I'm so excited for my book club in a couple of weeks! We'll be talking about Stephenie Meyer's books and every one is buzzing! I hope to have a ton of people here.
• When will the next Eragon and the next Inkheart books be out? I'm going to go crazy!
• I decided to make good use of my Amazon Wishlist this coming holiday season, something I've not really done before. It will be interesting to see if it is beneficial. Do you think someone will buy me the Underdog book? I'm going to put a bunch of piano/music books on there too I think.

I guess that's all of my main book thoughts for today!

Have a great weekend people!

*************************

And now... my current comments on my old post:

1. Yes, I had come into my Markus Zusak infatuation by this time! Little did I know how it would TAKE OVER!

2. Ah, so GLAD that they re-printed Underdog so I could get my hands on my very own copy and read it! Lovely little story, the introduction to a sweet character named Cameron Wolfe.

3. Ah.. reading books for the book fair! The good old days! I loved doing that. I saw someone the other day who is still over there at the elementary school doing book fair and it sounds like all is well. I do wonder, however, if someone gathers a bunch of books to read ahead of time in order to talk them up to the kids. I wonder.

4. I next talk about Bud and his AP English class. This is the son who is GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW! I don't think he's read a book for fun for.... I would say years now. This is a very sad thing. I wonder if his life will calm down sometime in order for him to feel like he can read a book again.

5. Ah book club and our excitement over the Twilight books! Wow, things have changed with that now, have they not? To be excited about Twilight now... oh boy. Anyway, we did have one book club member back at that meeting in 2007 (okay it was JENNY!) who came and threw all of her Stephenie Meyer books on the floor and announced, "I hate these books. If you want them, you can take them!" I will never forget that moment!

6. Being excited about Eragon and Inkheart! That seems so forever ago! I loved them though.

7. Ah, the Amazon wishlist. I use it for my own wishing, but haven't really shared it much for others to use to get me things. It's a strange feeling doing that I guess.

Fun look back! I think I will have to do this again sometime! Not sure if it will be every Thursday, but maybe. We'll see!

Do you have an old post you'd like to share? Link up over at Mom's Small Victories!

Book Review: Death Sworn by Leah Cypess

Book: Death Sworn by Leah Cypess
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ★
For: Review
From: Edelweiss

Another book were I went in expecting nothing in particular and I came out wanting more! Ah, now the wait for book two! (I'm assuming there's a book two, because there's much much more to this story!)

The whole story all takes place in a massive underground cave where all the assassins live. Ileni, a powerful young sorceress comes here to teach these boys magic and to find out who killed her predecessors. The problem is, she is losing her own magic, a secret she must keep from them or they'll just simply kill her. It also makes it hard to solve the mystery!

The sorcerers and the assassins in this interesting world have a sort of truce, and one common goal... to bring down the Empire. This Empire... we didn't learn much about. I'm thinking that's coming in the next book! All we know is these other two groups feel very oppressed by this entity and they want them to fall and they've been working on it for hundreds of years.

It's a bit of a dark tale with all the talk of killing and such. But we learn that these really scary boys are actually kind of nice (especially one of them) and very cool too. When Ileni learns what happened to her predecessors, the plot thickens and her whole purpose is turned on its head.

Loved this book! Much sneaking around, cool fight scenes, a dark and mysterious boy, a powerful girl, a scary setting, a creepy old master. Not to mention the awesome writing. I want to write like this! I read this book in nearly one sitting and dang... I don't have that kind of time right now!

Bottom line: A new-to-me author that is now on my must-read list. I can't wait for the next book!

Other Reviews:

I loved that there was so much suspense in this novel along with the action. Ileni's trying to track down a killer, and watching her get closer and closer to her goal made me read this book all in one go. From City of Books

Ileni rocks this story with her courage and determination to uncover century old mysteries! From Bewitched Bookworms

The story in this book is pretty amazing. And I loved reading about it. It was exciting and mysterious and just all kinds of awesome. From Carina's Books

But what Death Sworn is lacking in world-building, it more than makes up for with a twisty-turny plot and engaging characters. From Great Imaginatons

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Haven't Read

Okay, I've read a lot of stuff. But yes, there's LOTS I haven't read. Today's prompt is to list some popular authors that we haven't yet read. This should be pretty easy.

Ten Popular Authors I Haven't Read... YET

1. Tana French
2. Donna Tartt
3. Terry Pratchett
4. Gillian Flynn
5. Nora Roberts
6. David Leviathan
7. David Foster Wallace
8. Wally Lamb
9. Jennifer Weiner
10. Sarah Eden


So.... which author do I need to add to my list this very minute?

Link up your list over at The Broke and the Bookish!

Book Review: Panic by Lauren Oliver

Book: Panic by Lauren Oliver
Genre: YA Contemporary
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆☆
For: Review
From: Edelweiss

Here's one of those books I requested to review without knowing anything about it. Just familiar with the author. I guess that's how most of these review books go, right? So it's always interesting to get into reading it and realize, oh, so that's what this book is!

This book is about a group of kids who get involved in the town's traditional summer game they call Panic. This is where kids put money in a pot and then they are challenged (there are anonymous judges who come up with the challenges) to do really scary dangerous life threatening things. The one left standing at the end wins the money.

Yes, this one had me on the edge for much of it. The challenges are crazy! But I just had a hard time believing any sane kid would do these things. So, there's the rub. These kids have issues and problems and are motivated by things that are bigger than themselves. Their lives don't mean much to them. Only that money in the end.

It's a tough story to read. There's lots of gritty issues. Bad parenting. Revenge. Kids in peril. Sad sad stories. But there's good too. And what keeps you reading is hoping the good wins out in the end. And to see how very much these kids change.

It's told from the view point of two of the kids, however there's actually four kids at the center of the action. We get deep into their lives and feel the motivation they all have for playing the game. It's pretty intense.

While I enjoyed it, I didn't enjoy it enough to give it my normal high rating. Mostly because I get frustrated sometimes with these stories that have SO MANY bad things happening. Is this REALLY how the real world is? Really? Maybe some places are. But nevertheless, it frustrated me.

Bottom line: Gripping anxiety ridden tale that is mostly depressing but uplifting enough to redeem it.

Other Reviews:

It’s really a rather simple concept: teenagers are daredevils to pass the summer and possibly win a lot of money; things go wrong; many of these kids are dealing with pretty major stuff. But, Oliver makes it so not simple. Her writing is absolutely beautiful. From Proud Book Nerd

The premise is not believable. Not even believable enough that I could suspend my disbelief (and I'm pretty good at that.) It's not only the game, it's the money. There's no way you could get kids to bring a dollar a day to school. Never. From Annette's Book Spot

But Oliver sells the hell out of it with down-on-their-luck characters that have heartbreakingly believable motivations From Presenting Lenore

Overall, Panic has a great message and a premise with a lot of potential, though the way it's carried out is a bit lacking. From City of Books

Life Story: Movie Memories

In honor of the Academy Awards tonight, I thought I'd bring back a feature I started last year, but didn't stick to, and tell you stories from my life. . . specifically today, movie memories! Yay for the movies!

As long as I can remember my family has been a movie going family. This is despite the fact that we had many little kids, something that seems to deter families from going to the movies at times. My first movie memories are of going to the drive in . I remember getting our pajamas on, and my mom popping corn and putting weird things on it to make it different, and then we'd pile into the blue station wagon and go park at the drive in. However, I don't remember any of the movies I saw there. I remember the little contraction you put in your window for the sound... and the sound was terrible. Or I think sometimes you could find it on a radio station, which seemed pretty science fiction-y to me and very cool. But I can't think of what the movies were, sadly.

Later on, when we were a little older, I remember movies being a reward for staying on task with our chores. We had point system of some sort and if we got to a certain amount of points, we could pick a reward. Most of us chose to go to a movie.

I think one of those movies was Savannah Smiles, a movie filmed locally so it was fun to see familiar landmarks. I remember choking up and sobbing nearly uncontrollably at the end of this movie. This movie doesn't get near the recognition it deserves!

Another interesting thing about my movie memories is that I somehow  remember where I was when I saw a certain movie, for the most part. Back in the day, they had ONE movie showing at ONE big movie theater. In Salt Lake it was the Centre Theater, where I saw so many awesome movies like Star Wars and all it's sequels (the originals) and Star Trek and it's sequels, and The Right Stuff, and Ladyhawke, and Amadeus and Top Gun. And so many others.

Closer to home we had another big theater called The Villa, where I saw all the Indian Jones movies, and War Games, and Ferris Bueler and       .

Of course, both of those theaters are gone now.

The small little mall theaters made their debut during my childhood though, and I remember going to them for the summer movies (or the PTA movies as we called them then. ) That was a blast.

Other random movie memories:

• going to Grease when I was 14 years old and loving the music, but having most of the innuendos of the story go over my head.
• being late for ET and being so so mad about that and mad about missing the first little bit that I was crying through the whole movie.
• falling in love with Star Wars, which is a whole story in and off itself that I typed up in a post here!
• seeing Flash Gordon the night before my mom had baby number 8. My dad kept going out to call her and check on her.
• swooning over every leading guy but especially: Tony from Escape to Witch Mountain, Han Solo, Flash Gordon, Matthew Broderick in anything, Michael J. Fox in anything, the Karate Kid dude, oh, and does anyone remember Stewart Petersen? He was in Where the Red Fern Grows and Seven Alone. Loved him too!
• seeing Yentel on the first date with my now husband (then we were seniors in high school.)
• seeing The Princess Bride... in the theater... and being BLOWN AWAY at how awesome it was! (And where I actually fell in love with Mandy Patinkin!)
• seeing Gone With the Wind in the theater when they brought back for a special engagement
• seeing Star Wars.. over and over again... IN THE THEATER
• remembering people talking about Jaws but feeling I was too young to see that one. It was PG after all. I don't remember when I first saw it, but sadly I don't think it was on the big screen, so it must have been way later.
• seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another big movie from my day. Such an awesome story! 
• loving all those movies with John Cusak and Andrew McCarthy and others. Some Kind of Wonderful and Say Anything. Oh, and Robert Downey Jr of course! Swoon.
• not being much into the musicals, but I loved A Fiddler on the Roof. 
• going through a Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock phase in high school!  

In high school, the big invention of the VCR made it's debut. Suddenly, we could watch a movie anytime we wanted at our own homes! The novelty of that fact was amazing! My friend got one of those big huge player machines and we watched a few things at her house. My family never got one (until I was gone) and in fact I never had one at my own house until being married for several years. When we wanted to watch a VCR, we rented the playing machine too! Sadly, I can't remember the very first movie I watched on VCR. That would be interesting, don't you think?

At any rate, I've always loved the movies. I love going out to see them, I love the big screen, I love the big sound, I love the music. I love how amazing the actors are. I love the stories and the emotional involvement.

If I had to list some of my favorite movies they'd be:

• Star Wars
• Ladyhawke
• The Princess Bride
• A Knight's Tale
• Batman Begins
• Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one)
• Somewhere in Time

And now add Gravity to that list for sure! Good luck to that movie tonight!

Here's to the movies! May they never die!

What movies have you loved over the years? Do we share any of the same? What's your first movie memory?

Reading Recap February 2014

Wait, what? I only read four books this month? I guess maybe I've been doing other things? And to think I had such high expectations for this month. Well, it was fun to try.

Here's the books I fit in:

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton: a grandma and her granddaughter both go on individual searches for what happened to the grandma in her childhood.

Perfect Lies by Kiersten White: Annie and Fia are determined to take down the bad guy who started the special school for girls... which isn't so special.

The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen: Jaron has to rise up to the title of king to figure out how best to fight the war threatening his kingdom.

Dangerous by Shannon Hale: Maisie Danger Brown goes to space camp a normal one armed girl and leaves as a super hero!

Lots of fun books here. I can't pick a favorite! Even with only the four books this month, it really has been a great reading month.

On to March!

Plans for March:

• finish Panic for review. 
• start and finish Death Sworn for review.
• read The Enchanted for a blog tour
• read Visible City by Tova Mirvis for review.
• THEN read Evertrue!
• Read Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story for research.
• Read Roomies before it's due at the library. Hopefully I can renew once!
• Read one book from my new LTUE book stack.
• Read Countess Below Stairs for book club.

Sheesh. Can I do it? And host a wedding and host Bloggiesta (March 27-30.. BE THERE!) and plan another wedding? And keeping fixing my Nano book? And .... I forget what else....maybe sleep here and there.

Here's to READING YOUR HEADS OFF!