T-shirt Winners and What We Learned from The Book Thief

Time for our Book Thief t-shirt drawing! We've picked three winners!

But first, in order to enter the contest, everyone had to say what they learned from this book. And I loved everyone's comments! I hadn't planned on sharing these, so I hope it's okay with you all that entered, but they were just too good not to share. Anyway, since this wasn't in the plan, I didn't ask for your blogs (if you even have one) so I haven't linked to anyone (even if I actually do know who some of you are!)

So here's what you said you learned:


Words are important and can save someone. From April

 Death and life intermingle. From Taffy

 I learnt that there's always a light at the end of the tunnel - as cheesy as that sounds. Just because we're going through a tough time doesn't mean it's the end of the world. There will be bad things and there will be good things. From Fatma Shahin

 That sometimes it's okay to read something based on the hype. From Kristilyn

 I thought it was a really interesting perspective on Nazi Germany. It made me think a lot about how hard it could have been to be a German at the time. From Katie

 The biggest thing I learned was that there is beauty in the midst of destruction— pure good in the midst of pure evil. How beautiful qualities like hope, courage, and compassion can come out of terrible things like war, death, and greed. From Hannah

 I learned that words have incredible power to for life or death. I also learned that life must be lived now, while you have it, because it can be taken away at any time. From Jordanne

 That the greatest gift we can give is to love be loved in return. That there is always good and evil and hope and despair. That what we say and write has power and That man is capable of evil and great goodness. The goodness is to be treasured. From Rachel

 Hitler sucks. He cause horror even to his own people. From Jenni Elyse

 This book made me wonder if I would or could respond in the same way under such pressure. Would I treat those that need help the same way? From Josanna

 Just ONE thing? I think I'm going to go with words and how important it is for us to use them for good. Even if our words don't do anything that will change the world, they may change someone's personal world. Does that make sense? For example, Liesel's words didn't change the outcome of WWII. They didn't change Hitler. But they changed Rudy's world, Han's and Rosa's worlds, the mayor's wife's world, and Max's world. We all have that same power. From Britney

 I thought it was interesting to think about the German side of the war and to consider how they felt and suffered also. From Erin

Awesome stuff don't you think? I love it.

And now the winners after plugging numbers into Random.org:

First winner: Kristilyn (won the gray shirt)
Second winner: Taffy (won the white shirt)
Third winner: Josanna (won the green shirt)

Congratulations! We'll be contacting you by email to get your mailing addresses! Enjoy the shirts! Wear them to the movie! :)

And thanks again to everyone who participated in our read along. We've had a blast reading this awesome book with you! We think we're going to have to do it again sometime soon with a whole new book!

Random Sunday Thoughts

Because I can't think straight enough for anything else, let's have a random post today, how about?

** Making Hootenanny (aka German) Pancakes today as part of our conference (aka LDS conference aka a break from going to church!) tradition. So yummy.

** Waiting for youngest daughter to come home from the Shakespeare competition. Sounds like they had a great time and were successful in their endeavors.

** Saw Gravity last night. Oh my word! That movie was awesome! Seriously people. Go see it. In 3D. Full review to come soon!

** Only ONE MORE DAY until we close the Book Thief T-shirt giveaway. You want one, I know it. Fill out the form here.

** We (Kathy and I) went to Rachel's (SmilingLDSGirl) book club last week to discuss The Book Thief. We'd only ever talked online and then showed up at her house for book club! Don't you LOVE the internet!!

** I've been doing tons of Pinterest things, beware a Pin It and Do It update soon!

** And why do I keep feeling dizzy? I hate that!

** We had snow this week. The weather is cool and perfect!

** I started reading a book for a TLC tour that I knew nothing about and was a little worried because it's quite big, but guess what... I'm loving it! I will tell you ALL about it soon!

** Speaking of books and reviewing, why am I getting declined by NetGalley so much suddenly? It's sort of disheartening! But never fear... I have PLENTY to read!

** November starts the big books to movie month! Are you ready? I'm ready! Ender's Game, The Book Thief, Catching Fire. Great Expectation is actually out next week, as will Romeo and Juliet. What other books are being made into movies in these next few months? I think there's more! Oh, more Hobbit of course! It looks awesome. I yes, I don't care what you all say, I'm excited for more Legolas. I've missed him! But especially more Thorin! :)

** Speaking of next week.. JOSH GROBAN! I'm coming! So excited!



Well, and now I must go. Happy Sunday and Happy New Week!

A Tweet to Share

Remember that one time when Markus Zusak tweeted us after a Book Thief discussion and gave us a pretty good compliment? Here it is just in case you missed it as it was pretty early in the morning: 

@SueySays @kamisthoughts @kathyreadsthis ...Provo...I miss you. Best readers in the world.
— Markus Zusak (@Markus_Zusak) October 2, 2013

I swear he just gets more and more cool.

Reading Emotions

While reading certain highly emotional books recently, I've felt the need to have a little discussion! And it's been so long since I've thought up a discussion post, I figured it's long past time!

Something that I find interesting and worth defending is when we read books that bring out some sort of strong emotion and then we base the "goodness" of that book on the emotion. For instance, if the book made you MAD, do you then hate the book because of it? If the book made you cry buckets, do you hate the book because of it? If the book made you CRAZY with frustration, do you hate the book and deem it a bad one?

Yes, the question here is.... do we judge a book good or bad based on the emotions we feel while reading it?

My argument is that a book is good if it causes strong emotions. And that in fact, this is the very definition of a good book. I mean, of course you can still say you liked it or didn't like it, but I'm hoping you'd still say it's a GOOD book. Am I making sense here? That the very fact that it stirs up strong emotions and causes some sort of reaction for the reader makes it be a good book, and one that you should talk up and recommend around.

So on the other hand, if a book is emotionally dead, perhaps that's a bad book. Now, I'm a little squirmy even using the terms good and bad for this discussion because it's all so relative, right? But I think you get what I'm saying here, yes?

At any rate, I find myself always defending books when people say the reason they didn't like them was because of a certain emotion. And I'll always say... but, but, but that's what made this book so GOOD! Now, I don't know if that's right or wrong that I do this defending thing, so that's what I'm wondering here.

What do you think?

Book Review: Felicite Found by Julia King

Book: Felicite Found by Julia King
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Supporting Utah Authors
From: the author for a blog tour of sorts

This author, Julia King, has been coming to our Utah blogger parties for several years now and this year, she brought her book to share with us! I love it when that happens. So we bloggers agreed to take turns with the book and to read and review it. Lucky me! I got to be first!

So, this is the story of Pierre and Felicite. They live in Paris (awesome!) and one morning as he is walking to school he sees a girl jump of the bridge into the River Seine. Of course, being the gallant and cool boy that he is, he saves her!

She has no memory of her past, but through a series of flashbacks and dreams she remembers that her name is Felicite. Pierre falls madly and passionately in love with her despite the curse that seems to be following his family for many generations, the one where all the males die before their time. Because of this he has vowed to never fall in love and marry and cause pain to his beloved.

That was before Felicite. Now, he wants to forget all the bad things and just take care of her and be with her forever. But then, she starts to remember more and more and all the happy endings they are both dreaming about, it appears, will never come true.

I totally enjoyed these characters, the setting and the Gothic feel to this story. The flashback bits were especially heart wrenching and Felicite's back story is quite brutal. I loved being able to picture Paris! And this the Pont Neuf and the view from the Eiffel Tower!

My only complaint was that perhaps this book could have benefited by a bit more editing help. And also, the insta-love thing is pretty strong! Beware if you are bugged by that! Pierre, dude!  I fell in love with him, and he's a sweet boy, but wow, he has it bad for this girl he saved! :)

Bottom line: It's a fun ghostly Gothic love story set in the most wonderful Paris. I totally enjoyed it.

Other Reviews:

Truly a haunting love story.  From Morgan

Written with just enough foreshadowing to anticipate what might be around the corner, only to be surprised and horrified by an unexpected turn. From Mariah

 I on more than one occasion found my self completely surprised by the turn of events.  From Elizabeth

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Turn Offs

Today's prompt over at The Broke and the Bookish is to list things that totally turn us off during the reading of a book. Hmmm, I guess I'll just start listing and see what comes to me!

Top Ten Turn Offs!

1. Preaching of any kind
2. When I suddenly notice that there's a big author agenda happening! Ugh.
3. One of the examples for the prompt was absent parents, and I would have to say YES to this one.
4. Whiny chick lit characters
5. Unnecessary descriptive words and adverbs, show don't tell!
6. Romantic moments that leave nothing to the imagination!
7. Torture
8. F bombs, they are rarely necessary and are usually for shock factor. I don't need that.
9. Too much explanation which tends to make me feel like the author thinks I'm really really dumb.
10. No character development at all. That'll be one sad book....

How about you? What are your book turn offs? 

September 2013 Reading Wrap Up

Another pretty good month for me! What a fun mix of books this was!

The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale (re-read): a Mormon housewife befriends her Hollywood crush

Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles: The step son of this football playing girl's sister moves and causes all sorts of issues!

Pieces by Michelle Davidson Argyle: Naomi moves on after her kidnapping... or does she?

Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson: Kate finally gets to visit Blackmoore, but it's not all she thought it would be.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher: A girl who commits suicide sends tapes to her "friends" to explain why.

Blackout by Robison Wells: Teenagers have been infected with some sort of virus that gives them superpowers and some of them have begun to destroy the world.

Felicite Found by Julia King: A girl jumps from a bridge in Paris and is rescued by this nice boy who then learns she is someone he didn't expect her to be at all!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (re-read): Liesel survives Nazi Germany by stealing books from the mayor's wife.

Okay, so I'm big on the re-read this month, eh? Yep. Sometimes it happens! But lots of brand new books too! Anyway, so if I take the re-reads out of the mix, I would have to say my favorite of the month is definitely Blackmoore!

Plans for October

• Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson for an ARC tour
• Agnes Grey re-read for book club...maybe
• Tinkers by Paul Harding for our city's Big Read
• Fiesta of Smoke for TLC Blog tour
• Across a Star Swept Sea
• Bellman and Black for RIP, maybe The Vampire Lestat too?
• ....and now I just found out that And the Mountains Echoed just came to the library for me!

I have so much to read!