The end of year shuffle...

With the end of year in sight I have had to put my constant reading on the back burner. I have 2 kids at home for one more week, so my attention has one more distraction and when I say distraction I mean it lovingly and a distraction from reading.

However with Christmas I got $70 in bookstore gift cards. Boy does my family know what I like. I have the lists ready and when I enter the store I will purchase the books for upcoming challenges.

The New Year will bring my growing of knowledge into the book blogging world and hopefully a more organized page once I get the kinks worked out.

Looking forward to challenging myself more and entering more of the wonderful Reading Challenges that are out there.

See ya in the year 2010!

Teaser Tuesday:12/8/09

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. I am a bit late with this post, since I have been on the go, go, go. Figured better late than never!

The rules of Teaser Tuesday:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share 2 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

My teaser for the week:

The Accidental Mother
By: Rowan Coleman

"Sophie instinctively steeled herself as she followed Bella back down the hallway to the living room, imagining the very worst that could have happened. She did not imagine hard enough."

Can't wait to read more Teaser Tuesdays!

Family Tree: Review

Family Tree

By Barbara Delinsky

When Dana and Hugh Clarke's baby is born into their wealthy, white New England seaside community, the baby's unmistakably African-American features puzzle her thoroughly Anglo-looking parents. Hugh's family pedigree extends back to the Mayflower, and his historian father has made a career of tracing the esteemed Clarke family genealogy, which does not include African-Americans. Dana's mother died when Dana was a child, and Dana never knew her father: she matter-of-factly figures that baby Lizzie's features must hark back to her little-known past. Hugh, a lawyer who has always passionately defended his minority clients, finds his liberal beliefs don't run very deep and demands a paternity test to rule out the possibility of infidelity. By the time the Clarkes have uncovered the tangled roots of their family trees, more than one skeleton has been unearthed, and the couple's relationship—not to mention their family loyalty—has been severely tested.

My Thoughts:
From the moment I started this book I was captivated. As a mother I too wanted to protect the most innocent character in this book, the baby. Barbara Delinsky did a great job making the emotions in the book seem real and I truly felt every one of them. While I was reading I would lose myself in the in the mess that came with the birth of this child. Secrets that had been kept hidden for years were forced in the open, peoples character were in question. The only thing negative was that this story had to end.

This Chick rated this book:

On My Wishlist: 12/2/09

On My Wishlist is a Wednesday Meme hosted by Book Chick City. What you do is list the books you want to buy and haven't yet.

This could be a deadly Meme for me, since I am adding books to my wishlist everyday. With them posted and visible everyday I am going to use all my willpower to not buy them right away!

On my wishlist for today (I am choosing a few... there are so many more!):




Promise Not to Tell
By: Jennifer McMahon


Description of Book:

Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered - a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del - shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl" - was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems...and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten.


Accidentally on Purpose: A One Night Stand, My Unplanned Parenthood, and Loving the Best Mistake I Ever Made

By Mary F. Pols

Description of Book:

At thirty-nine, movie critic Mary Pols knew she wanted to have a baby. But never—not in a million years—on her own. To take on the physical, emotional, and financial challenges of motherhood without a perfect soul mate/husband would be absurd, kind of like not bothering to use a condom during a one-night stand with an adorable but jobless guy ten years her junior.

Pols spends the ensuing weeks despairing over everything, from the financial nightmare of single motherhood to the end of her hopes for a traditional life. Not the least of her worries is finding the right way to drop the bombshell on loved ones, including her five siblings and

eighty-four-year-old father, who has a German temper and an Irish Catholic attitude toward babies out of wedlock. Yet faced with the frightening, lonely truth that this might be her only chance at motherhood, she plunges ahead with the pregnancy and an Odd Couple version of a co-parenting relationship that looks like one more disaster in a long line of romantic disappointments. But even as she tries to give her son's young father a radical makeover, she realizes that his devotion and love for their child matters more than his spotty résumé or his inability to remember to put oil in the car. With humor, insight, and compelling honesty, Pols reveals what it means to compromise in the name of love and to find joy in an accidental life, suddenly brimming with purpose.

Girl in the Mirror
By Mary Alice Monroe

Description of book:

Charlotte Godowski was used to the horrified stares she received from strangers. She'd learned to accept her facial deformity, until one cruel incident compelled her to have the surgery that changed her life forever.

Charlotte Godfrey is beautiful beyond compare. In Hollywood, where such beauty is power, her rise is meteoric. Suddenly she has everything she could want: acceptance, a future and a love she believes can see to the true beauty within.

Charlotte Godowski and Charlotte Godfrey are two sides of the same women -- a woman who can trust no one with her secret. But when fate forces Charlotte to deal with the truth -- about her past, about the man she loves, about herself -- she discovers that only love has the power to transform a scarred soul.

This is just a snippet of my forever growing to-read book list. What is on your wishlist? Don't forget to head to Book Chick City and leave your link.

Teaser Tuesday: 12/1/09

I have seen this meme for a while and I finally caught it early enough in the day to participate (doing happy dance). This is in fact the first meme I have ever done on this blog.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should Be Reading:

The rules of Teaser Tuesday:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Open to a random page.
3. Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
4.*** 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!)
5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser Tuesday:

Family Tree
by Barbara Delinsky

"Hugh turned and glared at his brother and uncle. He felt like he was being cornered, pushed toward something he loathed but was helpless to stop."

Head on over to Should be Reading to participate in today's Teaser Tuesday!

Pretty Little Liars #2 Flawless: Review

I read Pretty Little Liars #2 for the Pretty Little Liars Challenge over at Trisha's book blog.

Pretty Little Liars #2 Flawless by: Sara Shepard

Spencer stole her sister's boyfriend. Aria is brokenhearted over her English teacher. Emily likes her new friend Maya . . . as much more than a friend. Hanna's obsession with looking flawless is making her sick. And their most horrible secret yet is so scandalous that the truth would ruin them forever.

And why shouldn't I tell? They deserve to lose it all. With every crumpled note, wicked IM, and vindictive text message I send, I'll be taking these pretty little liars down. Trust me, I've got enough dirt to bury them alive.

My Thoughts:

I spent the first book being a mom and angry with the actions of these girls. This time, however, I finally got emotionally attached to each and every girl. So far every book has a big secret that is revealed even though the whole "A" mystery is still that... a mystery. I am dying to know who is this "A" person is and all the secrets that still need to come out. This book may not be the type of books I tend to read, but I am now invested in the story line.

This Chick rated this book:

2010 Reading Resolution Challenge

I have been going through all the many many challenges out there in the blogging world and came upon Jenny's over at Jenny Loves to Read. She is hosting her very first challenge, and this is going to be a fun one! It has a New Year's resolution theme and titled 2010 Reading Resolution Challenge. We all make resolutions, well I know I do it, and what better way to make a resolution with what I love to do best... READING!


Here are her rules:

*Create your personal reading resolutions for the upcoming year in a post and link to it at the bottom. If you don't have a blog, that's cool too. Post your resolutions and updates in the comments of this post.

*Make sure to link back to this page so others can visit your pages and blogs.

*Get started on your resolutions! Once every 2 months, starting on February 15th, I'll have a post to check-in and see how everyone is doing. Kind of as a reminder to you to check your own progress.

*Challenge runs from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. There is no pressure or consequences with this challenge. I view it more as a personal challenge I can grow from. (Sounds corny, I know.)

Oh where oh where do I begin? There are so many habits I really do need to fix.

1. I resolve to go to the library. I cannot leave the bookstore without buying a book and I am running out of book shelves to store them. When I go to the library I will bring a book I have finished to donate as well.

2. I resolve to read books I have not finished and are collecting dust, because they are on my "to finish reading pile."

3. I am always reading the review section of People magazine and always say, "I really want to read that book." I resolve to read one book from an issue of People a month.

Lastly,
4. I resolve to try at least 1 genre I have not tried to read. This will be the hard one, because I have this preconceived notion that I will not like it.

I have a feeling these resolutions will be ones I actually keep. I mean it has to do with reading, so how could I not?