Top Ten Tuesday: Last Books I Accquired

What have I bought, checked out or been given lately? Here you go:


Checked out:

1. This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
2. Saga by Brian Vaughn
3. It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han


Bought:

4. Ink and Ashes by Valynne Maetani
5. Elevated by Elana Johnson
6. The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West
7. Love, Lucas by Chantele Sedgwick


ARCs

8. Mysteries of Cove: Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage
9. Mania by J.R. Johannson
10. The Eternity Key by Bree Despain



Well, at least that's some of them. It looks like a much wimpy-er list than I actually imagine it to be!

What have you checked out, bought, or acquired lately? Link up over at The Broke and the Bookish!

Book Review Discussion: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Book: Cress by Marissa Meyer
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:★★★★☆
For: Fun
From: bought it cheap for Amazon Kindle

Short Synopsis: So Cress has been held prisoner in a space ship for seven years. To keep herself occupied, she's followed the story of Cinder and Scarlet and everyone (from the feeds and such you know.) And she's fallen in love with Captain Thorne from afar. Well, one day she makes contact with them and they decide to rescue her. But all goes very very badly. And soon, she and the Captain are walking through a desert, then kidnapped and it's just all crazy stuff. Meanwhile, we are also following the story of Cinder as she plans to stop the wedding of Prince Kai. Also, Scarlet who really gets a bad wrap in this book and ends up as a toy for a crazy girl named Winter.

My Response: It's a crazy fast paced story that I really really wish hadn't ended when it did! So much stuff to wrap up! What about Scarlet? And Cress and the Captain??? What about them? And poor poor Wolf! Ah, no wonder everyone is dying for the next book! So yeah. A very engaging story with wonderful characters. And the tie in to the fairy tales remains genius. Truly. It's amazing.

Bottom Line: If you have yet to read this series, what are you waiting for? Maybe for Winter to come out? Well, then, wait a few more months then read them all at once!

Let's Talk About: If you have read these books, what do you think about the fairy tale tie in? Sometimes I miss them at first then suddenly I realize and I'm like... oh, YEAH! She did THAT??!! :)

Other Reviews:

Overall, Cress was a good read. In fact, better than I expected. The quirks and questions that I – and many others – raised throughout the series are slowly starting to get answered. Meyer continues to grow as a writer, while keeping her ability to bring new takes on old classics. From Fantasy Book Critic

Meyer does an expert job of respecting the integrity of each fairy tale arc while at the same time meshing it with the other fairy tale plot lines, so that it seems as if they unquestionably belong together. From Rhapsody in Books

Cress has lots of echoes of the original story, and I loved being able to pick those out and see how Meyer had incorporated them into her sci-fi world. From Fyrefly's Book Blog

I cannot recommend this series enough. Meyer is truly creative. From Annette's Book Blog

Currently: Feeling Jet Lagged

Actually, after four days, the jet lag is receding pretty well. So I think we've just about survived that!

Watching: I started watching Call the Midwife.. a couple of episodes worth. I'm not sure I'm quite hooked yet. I mean, it's good. BBC and all. But watching babies be born, and looking so realistic and all... ah... not sure I want to watch that over and over! I'll probably keep watching though. What do you think? Have you watched these shows? Did you love them?

I watched Cinderella and The Longest Ride on the airplane ride coming home. Both... okay. Cute, romantic and stuff. I guess that's my review for you there.

I'm dying to get hooked on something really fantastic for summer watching. Suggestions?

I'm also dying to go see Jurassic World which came out the weekend we left so I'm playing catch up with it. So sad it's not at the Imax anymore, but oh well. Anyway, hopefully I can make that happen this week.

Oh, I watched the season six trailer for The Walking Dead! It looks ruthless!! But then why wouldn't it, right? It looks like a stand off between Rick and Morgan. Am I right?





Listening: My sister showed me this song the other day and I can't stop listening to it. It's Matthew Morrison whom I love and I guess it's from the Finding Neverland musical? Or something. But anyway, give it a listen and let me know if you love it too:




Reading: I have several books started that I need to finish, but last night I started yet another one... Animal Farm which I need to read (re-read I should say) for book club. Hopefully that will only take a couple of sittings and then I can concentrate on finishing a few others.

Blogging: Still hoping my mojo comes back for blogging. I need some exciting blog project or something. No, scratch that. I don't need more projects!!!

Writing: I only thought about my characters a little bit while I was gone. But I did think about them. And yesterday I tried to figure out where I'm at and what I was doing with my story and I'm so messed up! Anyway. Here's hoping I can find a groove with that again. I want to put the Austrian waiter kid into a story so bad! And so instead of working on what I already have going, I'm day dreaming about what his story should be. Awesome.

Planning: Oh, this week is crazy. I'm planning on a writing chat, a gig being a host for an author (Sara Zarr) at a symposium at the college, book club, and a Star Wars marathon! What else should I plan?

Health Watch: Before I left for the trip, I did the scale thing one more time and TEN POUNDS DOWN! After the trip, it's back up about three or four. Whatever. That's with walking miles and miles a day and eating really sporadically, so I don't get it. Maybe gelato and pasta/pizza every day had something to do with it though? But dang, I sweated off at least five more pounds I know it! Anyway, back to the Zumba for me.

MISC:

• My son and daughter in law are living with us for a few weeks in between houses. So that's fun.
• Now that I'm nearly done with jet lag I'm fighting a stupid cold. I can't even remember the last time I had a cold. Years I think. So that's weird.
• I'm so jealous of San Diego Comic Con! We need to get all the people to come here instead! So that's frustrating!
• Our gardening is failing. I think the zucchini I planted was mislabeled because zucchini is not growing. And everywhere I planted seeds, weeds are growing instead. So that's maddening.
• The air here is so wonderful and dry and cool even when it's hot! So that's refreshing!
• Um. I can't think of anything else interesting. So, that's it!

Europe 2015 By The Numbers

Sunset in Florence Italy

Sometimes after having an epic adventure, I like to sum up the experience by making a numbers list.

And so I give you, Europe 2015 by the numbers:

Plane rides: 6
Train rides (not counting trams or subways): 6
Boat rides: 3
Bus rides: 4
Cars rented: 1
Taxi rides taken: 3
Countries visited: 7 (France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Vatican and Monaco)
Princes seen: 1
Popes seen: 0
Big famous cities visited: 11 (Nice, Verona, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Munich, Zurich, Interlaken, Florence, Rome, Venice, Monte Carlo)
Small non famous cities visited: 10 plus (Eze, Brienze, Brannenburg, Parma, the five Cinque Terre villages, San Gimigiano, Fussen, Wimmis, etc.)
Average miles walked each day: 6
Average steps taken each day: 17,000
Fastest we drove on the autobahn: 160 kmh
Photocops that busted us: 1 (going 100 in an 80 kmh tunnel, but we still don't know if we really got busted)
Tunnels driven though: countless
Ten mile long tunnels driven through: 1
Alp summit driven over: 1
Pictures posted to Instagram: 63
Selfies posted to Instagram: 7
Airbnb apartments we stayed at: 6
Times we almost got pick pocketed: 1 (that we know about anyway)
Naked statues we saw: countless
Castles/palaces we visited: 5 or so
Churches/Basilicas we visited: probably 10 at least
Guided tours we went on: 5
Hikes we hiked: 1 big one, several little ones
Whole pizzas I ate: 4
Different kinds of pastas I tried: 10 at least
Gelato consumed: countless
Roman arenas visited: 2
Waiters fallen in love with: 1 (I thought there'd be more gorgeous Italian waiters, but no, this one was an Austrian boy.)
Different ways we learned to say thank you: 3 (merci, danka, gratze)

I'm sure there are many many other things I could list but I'll leave it at that for now! Stay tuned for more trip posts. You know they're coming!

June 2015 Reading Recap

A Favorite June picture:
The gondola ride in Venice!

Half of June was spent on the trip and I didn't end up reading much. But here's what I did manage during that month:


Okay for Now by Gary B. Schmidt: Supposed trouble maker Doug Swieteck (from The Wednesday Wars) has to deal with growing up and life after he moves to another town.


Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor: This is the story of how 12 year old Addie learns to deal with her depressed and dysfunctional mom.


Cress by Marissa Meyer: The third book in the series where many of the stories come together, but highlights Cress who has been held captive in a spaceship for seven years and finally Captain Thorne comes to her "rescue." She is then whisked right into the middle of all the excitement and action. Review to come soon!


I started a couple of other... This Shattered Word and Clockwork Angel but left both of them home when I went to Europe in favor of taking my Kindle. So I will pick them both up again and finish them this month!


Favorites of the Month: I totally enjoyed Cress and Okay for Now got a well deserved five stars!

Plans for July:

• read and review Mania, which came out this week and should have already been read by me!
• finish This Shattered World, Clockwork Angel, and Snow Like Ashes
• read Animal Farm for book club

That's about all I'm aiming for right now!

How's your summer reading going? Don't you hate it when you don't read as much on vacation as you think you will? I did finish one other book, The Duff, which I'll add to my July list. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Hyped Books That I've Never Read

The prompt today is to list hyped books that I've never read. Some of these are recently hyped and some go back a few years! Keeping you on your toes! Do we have any of the same books listed?

Ten Hyped Books I've Never Read

1. Gone Girl
2. The Martian
3. All The Light We Cannot See
4.Yes Please
5. The Rosie Project
6. The Fifty Shade books
7. The Shack
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
10. The Girl on the Train


Have it be known that there are some on this list I'll for sure read and some I for sure won't!

What books are on your list today? Be sure to link up over at The Broke and the Bookish!

Twenty Bookish Questions

And now it's survey time! This questions were lifted from Trish at Love Laughter and a Touch of Insanity. If you want to see where she got them and her answers, click on over and give her a visit! 

1. Favorite childhood book:

Just one of many

2. What are you reading right now?

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

None at the moment. I usually don't have a bunch from the library.


4. Bad book habit:

Laying it down, open, pages down, without a bookmark.
Oh, possibly buying too many!

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?

6. Do you have an e-reader?

Yes, yes I do. And I love it.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

At least two usually.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?

Um... very much yes. I used to go wander the library and pick out whatever looked good. I rarely do that now. I have too many on my shelves to read! Because somehow starting a blog meant buying more. Or something.

9. Least favorite book you read this year:

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year:

One of many, but this one is in my head at the moment

11. How often do you read outside of your comfort zone?

Not often, but now and then. I'm not usually afraid to try most anything.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?

YA for sure... fantasy and contemporary both.

13. Can you read on the bus?

I don't ride the bus but if I did, probably not. I used to not be able to read in the car, but as I've gotten older I can do it as long as we are on a straight steady road.

14. Favorite place to read:

It's toss up between the bed and the couch.

15. What is your policy on book lending?

I'm a bit wary and people have to prove themselves. If they pass the test, I'm usually okay lending, though I will keep track of who has what (usually) and will bug for it back. I will not lend out signed copies if I can help it.

16. Do you dog-ear your books?

Nope.

17. Do you write notes on the margins of your books?

Nope, but I think it would be cool if I could make myself do it.

18. Do you break/crack the spines?

Not really, but maybe a little accidentally.

19. What is your favorite language to read?

LOL! Um, English! But I did read a few novels in French back in college days!

20. What makes you love a book?

awesome characters, vulnerable villains, beautiful writing, romance, intense action, cool worlds, emotion emotion emotion, unique plot and story idea, learning about another place or historical person