State of the ARC 7

Basically every book I am reading (and even the one I am writing) has been put on the back-burner in the last couple weeks because school has started and my classroom has been a hot mess (I teach in a behavior skills classroom). So, I have had hardly any time to read or write, but now that we are getting back into a routine, things are improving and I hope to be back to my normal schedule, or something like it, in the next couple weeks.

State of the ARC is a monthly feature hosted by Avalinah's Books. I am so glad I stumbled upon it, because it is really helping me with my 2018 Reading Goals (also find a related Top Ten Tuesday HERE). Links go to Goodreads, unless I have finished the review, in which case it goes to that. All ARCs are from NetGalley or Edelweiss, unless otherwise noted.

Pending = Zero

Not Started = None

Started = Seven

The First Congress (68%), 2-9-16 (Received one month after publication)

George Washington's Washington (15%), 4-1-18 (received in May from my NetGalley Wishlist)

Trail of Terror, (14%) 10-8-18

Haunted World War II, (12%) 10-8-18

The Invisible Emperor, 10-9-18 (hard copy from publisher)

A Divided Life, (5%) 10-4-18 (digital from publisher)

Sugar, (2%) 11-29-18 (digital from publisher)

DNF = None

Finished/Review to Come = Eight
We Were Eight Years in Power, 10-3-17

American Gothic, 10-4-16

The Black Prince, 5-1-18

Death in Paris, 10-9-18 (digital from publisher)

Cecily Neville: Mother of Richard III, 4-30-18 (received three weeks after publication)

Haunted Castles of England, 10-8-18

I'll Be There For You: The One About Friends, 10-23-18

Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's Unwanted Wife, 10-26-18

Review or Feedback Sent = None

Happy Reading!

Sarah

I'm Alive!

Whew!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone, things are going much more smoothly and while it's not perfect (and never will be), I don't feel like stabbing myself in the eye with a pen.

I plan to be back this weekend with some new reviews and things - not to the degree of before-school, but at least SOMETHING new.

Happy Reading!

Sarah

AAUUGGHH!!

This school year has started off terribly and there are so many bad behaviors to correct that were learned last year with our previous lack of support. I have hardly read at all, which is KILLING ME. I have written nothing all week, also killing me. I am even going up to school today for a few+ hours to redo everything - including lesson plans that I had already written for next week.

Needless to say, I am super stressed and one of the biggest things that helps calm me is reading. I have had time to do that and it is seriously stressing me.

I am not taking a break or anything that severe from my book blogging, but I will definitely be posting a lot less for a while until we get things better under control because I need to focus on the job that pays the bills. I am very blessed to have an amazing supervisor who is helping me out, and I would be lost without her because this situation is so foreign - I have never had a year start like this in the six previous years that I have been teaching in the Behavior Skills Program.

Lots of prayers and happy thoughts are much appreciated!

Happy Reading,
Sarah

Stacking the Shelves #31

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly feature co-hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It is a chance to showcase all the goodies you've collected throughout the week, whether they're bought on-line or in-store, an ARC or a final copy, borrowed from a friend or the library, physical or digital, etc. Never has my addiction been more obvious than when I am now keeping track of every single book I acquire.

Kindle Unlimited

I have cancelled my KU subscription for the time being. I have too many other things going on right now, with my own writing, an already-massive TBR, and school starting up again.

NetGalley
 
 

Withdrawn From Circulation


Gifts From Publishers

Thank you Thistle Publishing!

Thank you Penguin! - And a physical copy even, hooray!

What did you add to your stash this week?

Happy Reading!

Sarah

The Dreaded Day Has Arrived...

Well, it's here folks. Tonight my blissful two-and-a-half months as a stay-at-home mom are drawing to a close and tomorrow teacher meetings begin for the 2018-2019 school year.

Basically, not a whole lot will change except the time it takes me to get around to reading comments, and hopping around to your blogs to see what you've got going on. I will still be participating in my regular memes and features, but my activity will occur more often on the weekends -at least until we get back into the swing of things for the year and I figure out just how late I can stay up while being able to still fully function at school each day!

If you are the praying kind, please lift up my classroom and my students and ask that the changes that occurred over the summer with administration will be for the best (that's definitely what I am praying for, and so far, so good!), and that we can change the climate of our school and progress and move forward. I work in special education and my students have all been diagnosed with emotional disturbances. The saying, "The kids who need the most love will ask for it in the most unloving of ways" applies to my students tenfold. 

If you are a happy thoughts kind of person, that's cool too - same happy thoughts, please!

Our first student day is Wednesday, August 15th. Yikes!

Heeeeere weeeee goooooo!

Happy Reading!

Sarah

The Palmer House Hotel Part III/III

I mentioned in a previous post that Eleanor and I are spending some quality time at home for a few days until school starts. We are having some fun lazy days at my mom's house, and this past weekend we attended a family reunion in a small town called Sauk Centre, Minnesota. This might be a familiar town to those of you who read Sinclair Lewis, as he grew up there. I was extra excited because my grandparents had surprised me with a stay at the Palmer House Hotel, while every else was staying at another hotel a few minutes away. And the reason for this is....

The Palmer House Hotel is haunted!

That was the rumor anyway, and I wanted to see for myself. The Palmer House has been featured on a couple different paranormal shows such as The Dead Files and Ghost Adventures. There have also been several write-ups in the media and such that you can check out HERE. You can also finds books with chapters dedicated to the Palmer House at that link. Mom bought me one, which I am looking forward to reading.

Anyway, this post is going to be kind of long, because there was activity going on from the moment I was unpacking in my room, until literally the moment I left. While I am by no means perfect at this investigating thing, I have been lucky enough to have some interesting paranormal experiences at both the Villisca Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa and The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.  I also lived in an apartment for roughly five years that was also inhabited by what we called 'Ghost Baby', because 'Ghost Toddler' just didn't have quite the same ring to it. I try to look for logical explanations first, before jumping directly to paranormal. I have included a couple pictures and videos too, so if you decide to stick it out through the post, hopefully you find something of interest here. Again, I realize this is longer than any review I have ever written, but I wanted to give as many details as possible to give people some context.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To pick up where I left off in the previous post, I had dozed off around 4 AM. I awoke at 6:20 AM to the loud stomping and pacing, and it sounded much like what I had heard a few hours earlier - and again with the sounds of something being moved or dragged across a hardwood floor. I found it interesting when Kelley had shared with me down in the bar that Kelley has often had guests complain about the noise above them, even when staying on the third floor. I need to do a little more research on the original hotel and see if it was more than three stories (excluding a basement). That would definitely account for the excess noise people claim to hear, even when they are on the third floor.

Just to clarify, the current structure has the main floor where the lobby, bar, and cafe are located. The second and third floors are where guests rooms are, as well as housekeeping and such. Yet another time I was so caught up in what I was experiencing at the moment, I forgot to record. Next time I will do much better on this part, especially when I will be able to be there for a couple days.

After checking the items I had left out (the ring, ball, candy), I was disappointed to see that nothing had been moved. I went back to sleep not long after and woke up for good again around 9:15 or so. I checked a second time, but nothing had been moved. With less than two hours until check out, I wanted to get up to the playroom on the third floor to see what I could find. The room is colorful, friendly room without a door on it, filled with books and toys - especially bouncy balls of different sizes that any kids would love to play.

There are stories of a little boy who likes to bounce a ball up and down the halls. Kelley had mentioned this room the night before and said I should make time to read a story to the children. Guests who have done so have reported it feeling like someone has sat down near them or even on their lap. After taking a few photos, I sat down on the floor with the KII on, plus the small ring and ball Kelley had given me the night before. I also set up my camera to record myself and the room while I was reading - I chose a Berenstain Bears book.

I kind of look like a hot mess after so little sleep, so I hope you can forgive me for not posting it here. I did not see any visual evidence when I watched the video, nor did the KII ever light up above its baseline, but part way through the book I felt a cold spot descend on me, from over my right shoulder and I noted this on the recording. It settled on/around me for about ten seconds, then went away. I did take video of the room also as I walked and talked a bit, but again there was no activity.

After I left the kids room, I decided to take one more video of the hotel itself on the second and third floors, to see if I could see or hear anything. I was about to start when a housekeeper came out of the laundry room. I spoke to her for several minutes there on the third floor. We traded some of our stories, then she went down to the lobby and I continued with my plan to record on the second and third floors to see what else I could find. I hoped to get more audio or visual evidence, but did not. I returned to room #11 after this. I prayed for Annie again and as I was doing so, the KII lit up to the second light briefly in the last two minutes or so. It wasn't huge, but was something - the only activity I had on it aside from the initial camera battery incident. I've been trying to trim the video because I keep getting an error message saying the video is too long. Technology is frustrating me greatly tonight, but hopefully I can get it figured out and add the video at a later point. For reference, the KII lit up when I said I would come back, and also when I prayed for Annie to peace and comfort.

By this point it was 10:30 and I had to get going. I had to check out of my room by 11, then get over to the other hotel to pick up my mom and daughter who also needed be out by 11. This would not have been such an issue, except I had borrowed a Bible from their room and had forgotten to take it back after I verified that there was one in my room. As I got everything together, I opened the door and stood in the doorway. I said out loud that I appreciated Annie letting me stay in room 11 and that none of the spirits there could come home with me, but that I would be back to visit again. Then I closed the door and headed down to the lobby.

Down in the lobby I spoke to the housekeeper again while I waited for Angie to return to the desk. When she came back, she asked about some of the activity she'd heard of from the housekeeper. As we talked I put the KII meter and temp reader on the desk and Angie asked how the KII meter worked. I turned it on and as I explained the lights, how it lights up full twice before returning to the baseline. While I was talking, Angie was doing something with her phone, and at that same time, the KII started lighting up like crazy, all the way to red, repeatedly. This was the most active it had been in my entire time at the Palmer House, as it consistently lit up red multiple times.

(Don't mind my phone ringing - my mom was calling, wondering what was taking me so long 😂)


Angie then showed me the EVP app she had opened on her phone. EVP stands for electronic voice phenomenon, something investigators use various audio devices for in order to hear any responses by a spirit. I asked Angie to moved her phone away from the KII, just to make sure it was not causing the surge. She moved the phone away and the lights continued going straight to red. Angie then asked who was in the lobby with us when the app reported 'Entity Detected'. We got a response, right there in broad daylight in the middle of the lobby...

The voice identified itself as Annie.

ANNIE!

Angie then asked me it I had any questions for Annie, since she was here, and OF COURSE my mind went totally blank. I was in shock. Angie asked Annie if she liked having me stay in room 11. Angie handed her phone to the housekeeper I had been speaking to earlier as we finished up the paperwork. She handed me the replica key chain from room #11 that I wanted to purchase - but I had to pay for it in the cafe. Annie had been quiet for a second and this super weird EVP came through that said, "It's coming for you", which was creepy and weird and none of us knew what it meant or who it was talking to.

Annie responded after that, with a message that made me feel happy and sad at the same time. Clear as day she said, "Don't leave."

"Don't leave."

The housekeeper had come into the cafe after I made my purchase and said Annie sure must have liked me to not want me to leave. I was happy because I felt like we had bonded, but sad that all of this was happening right at the worst possible time, and  could not stay to talk to her any longer. As I exited the cafe and returned to the lobby, I said goodbye to Annie one more time and said I would be back to visit again.

I found this image online at Wikimedia Commons HERE. Only the editing is mine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So what do you think? Have you ever experienced any paranormal-type activity? Do you believe there are 'no such things as ghosts'? I'd love to hear your stories and opinions!

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Stacking the Shelves #30

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly feature co-hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It is a chance to showcase all the goodies you've collected throughout the week, whether they're bought on-line or in-store, an ARC or a final copy, borrowed from a friend or the library, physical or digital, etc. Never has my addiction been more obvious than when I am now keeping track of every single book I acquire.

Kindle Unlimited

Mom Bought For Me


I had such an awesome experience at the Palmer House Hotel last Saturday and Sunday. It is DEFINITELY haunted, but in a totally peaceful kind of way - to me, at least. I am posting about my experiences and you can read them all HERE.

What did you add to your stash this week?

Happy Reading!

Sarah

The Palmer House Hotel Part II/III

I mentioned in a previous post that Eleanor and I are spending some quality time at home for a few days until school starts. We are having some fun lazy days at my mom's house, and this past weekend we attended a family reunion in a small town called Sauk Centre, Minnesota. This might be a familiar town to those of you who read Sinclair Lewis, as he grew up there. I was extra excited because my grandparents had surprised me with a stay at the Palmer House Hotel, while every else was staying at another hotel a few minutes away. And the reason for this is....

The Palmer House Hotel is haunted!

That was the rumor anyway, and I wanted to see for myself. The Palmer House has been featured on a couple different paranormal shows such as The Dead Files and Ghost Adventures. There have also been several write-ups in the media and such that you can check out HERE. You can also finds books with chapters dedicated to the Palmer House at that link. Mom bought me one, which I am looking forward to reading.

Anyway, this post is going to be kind of long, because there was activity going on from the moment I was unpacking in my room, until literally the moment I left. While I am by no means perfect at this investigating thing, I have been lucky enough to have some interesting paranormal experiences at both the Villisca Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa and The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.  I also lived in an apartment for roughly five years that was also inhabited by what we called 'Ghost Baby', because 'Ghost Toddler' just didn't have quite the same ring to it. I try to look for logical explanations first, before jumping directly to paranormal. I have included a couple pictures and videos too, so if you decide to stick it out through the post, hopefully you find something of interest here. Again, I realize this is longer than any review I have ever written, but I wanted to give as many details as possible to give people some context.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To pick up where I left off in the previous post, I am still sitting down in the bar area and talking to Kelley (the owner).

The above image is not mine. I rather stupidly did not take any pictures downstairs, so I had to search around for a while to find a picture of the bar where Kelley and I talked. This image is taken from the website Unexplained Research, from a post about their favorite Minnesota haunts.

As the conversation went on, I was suddenly overcome by coughing fits. Though I was barely starting a cold, I had not been coughing and had no sore throat or anything. I just knew a cold was coming because my nose was a little stuffy. Yet as we were sitting there talking, I kept feeling a scratchiness in my throat, and I coughed and coughed. It was hard to breath with all the coughing. Kelley took off her glasses as this was happening and began wiping her eyes repeatedly. I could see they were watering quite a bit. This spell lasted only 2-3 minutes, then passed. My throat was fine, I stopped coughing, and Kelley's eyes stopped watering. I am not sure what might have been the cause of all this, but it is worth noting once again that the original hotel on the site, the Sauk Centre House burned to the ground in 1900.

We then talked Annie, who I was most interested in. As I said previously, while Annie is not confined to the room, she seems to prefer #11. Kelley has determined, based on the consistent experiences of guests and investigators, that Annie's story is a sad one. Given her attachment, Annie may have been a maid at the original Sauk Centre House, or she could have lived there. It was not uncommon for people to reside in hotels. During her time there, Annie began a relationship with a man who was married. He was supposedly leaving his wife, or getting a divorce. When Annie became pregnant, the man left her instead and would have nothing to do with her. Given the time period which I (and Kelley) think Annie lived, it is likely her family also refused to have anything to do with her as well, being pregnant and unmarried. This would explain the overwhelming sense of sadness and despair that guests report feeling when staying in #11. Kelley feels like Annie is very empathic, and is drawn to others who also are. She advised me that if I were to feel myself becoming upset or emotional, to check myself and separate my own emotions from Annie's. She told me of how a guest was at the sink brushing her teeth and she found herself crying - even though she had nothing to be crying about as she was doing something so mundane. Kelley then told me about a pair of sisters from Wisconsin who were regularly guests, and one time stayed in #11. In the middle of the night one of the sisters began having terrible pains in her stomach. It got so bad, they decided she needed to go to the ER. As the two got ready, then stepped into the hall, the pain ceased. When discussing this in the morning with Kelley, who has no children, she asked the sister who had experienced the pain if she had children, and if it felt like labor pains. BINGO. That was it, the sister confirmed, despite not being pregnant at the time. Kelley also told me after sharing these stories that Annie is very sweet and kind, and has never intentionally hurt anyone (aside from the intense labor pains of course).

It seems like to me that Annie is simply trying to share her grief and sadness and pain with someone, to connect with someone who can understand her. As Kelley and I talked via text a couple nights ago, we pondered the idea that perhaps Annie stays for one of two reasons:

1. Annie is afraid to move on because she thinks she is going to hell
2. She is waiting for the father of her child to come back

Either way, both prospects are incredibly sad. It also may be neither of these options and maybe someday Annie will tell us why she stays, long after her check-out time.

The bar cleared out by 1 AM and for several minutes it was just Kelley, Maria, and me. I had continued to feel little taps on my right leg, my calf and above my knee throughout the conversation, but they had stopped by this point. What I did notice instead, was movement on the stairs. By this time all the lights were out on the main level except in the bar and the bathroom, which I could see from my perch on the end bar stool. The cafe was closed and dark, the lobby was dark,, but plenty of light spilled out from the bar's side door, plus the light from the bathroom located under the staircase. The stairs creak constantly when someone (living) walks on them, yet there was no sound as the movement continued up and down both sets of stairs.

This image is not mine. I failed to take pictures downstairs because I was so busy trying to talk to Annie upstairs. This is still that I found from a YouTube video, which can be found HERE. I did not create the video and have no association with those who made it. I am borrowing the still and added the markings myself to help readers understand the location better.

In my last few minutes downstairs Kelley and I stood in the side doorway facing the stairs, quietly observing. The movement subsided and from that point we said good night and I was off to my room.

I got back to my room around 1:15 AM. Kelley had given me a small ball and a ring to take to my room. Guests have reported, and Kelley has seen it as well, that unseen forces will often knock bouncy balls out of peoples' hands. I tried it a couple times while still downstairs, but had no luck. Kelley recommended leaving them out, because the kids seem to like Annie, so they might come up and play. At that point in the conversation I had told Kelley that I had left some mini Hershey bars out, unwrapped to see if Annie might like one. I had done this on a whim and it was not planned, just something I thought of while I was unpacking earlier. When I told Kelley this she visibly shivered and said that was definitely the right thing for me to do, and that both Annie and Lucy love flowers and chocolate. I wanted to ask about Lucy too, but it was getting late so I am saving that for my next stay!

After setting out the ring and ball and snapping pictures, I started talking out loud to Annie. I explained that our experiences were not totally the same, but that I also had a child and was no longer with her father because we broke up around the time I found out I was pregnant. I explained that it was rocky in dealing with both the pregnancy and break-up at the same time, but I knew at least her feelings of sadness. I also let her know that even though we lived in different time periods, it was still a hard thing to go through. I asked if I could pray for her, and when I received no response I went ahead and prayed that we would both find peace and comfort. I let her know that even though she might have felt like she had done this horrible thing and no one cared about her, that Jesus loved her and she was still a child of God.

By around 1:30 AM I was hearing a lot of very loud stomping from the room above. It sounded like the person was pacing. This had also happened earlier when I had first arrived that afternoon, and also when Maria was up in the room trying to figure out the AC. Maria attributed the stomping to Raymond, who inhabited the room above me - yet another unregistered guest. Raymond could get a bit agitated, quite easily, was my understanding. The heavy walking and stomping went on from that time to around maybe 3 AM-ish. While it is true that the hotel was full that night, thus some of the noise could be attributed to the guests, it can not account for what sounded like furniture or heavy luggage of some kind being dragged and dropped across a wooden floor - especially because all the rooms are carpeted. The stomping and pacing went on in bursts of a few minutes at a time.

A couple times throughout the night I asked Annie if she could/would tell me the time period she lived in. I got no answer out loud, but I kept getting this idea in my head of the late 1800s, possibly the 1860s. The original Sauk Centre House was built in the 1850s. From that point on, nothing occurred that I can confidently attribute to Annie's presence.

I got ready for bed and laid down to read a bit, with the KII and temp reader, as well as my phone and camera, nearby. Around 3 AM, I kid you not, I heard a soft meow. I thought surely I was imagining things, that I only thought I was hearing it, because I had been told about a possible ghost cat earlier in the day. Then, I heard it again. I got up and looked out both windows to see if there was a cat on the fire escape, but could not see one. As I got back into bed, I heard another meow and honest to God, it sounded like something was walking on top of the AC unit. There was nothing on the unit of course, so once again I looked out both windows, but could not see a cat. I laid down for a third time and heard the meowing continue. I grabbed my phone to record it, but it stopped and I did not hear a single meow for the rest of the night.

I began reading again and did so for a while, still keeping an eye and an ear open for anything odd. At about 3:30 AM I heard some very soft knocks on the wall directly across from the bed. I took several pictures, but nothing showed up in any of the photos.

The knocks were not loud and did not last long. I again tried asking Annie about the period she lived in, but got no answer and the knocks stopped after this.

Despite my best efforts to stay awake, I was out by 4 AM and would have a peaceful and relaxing two and a half hours of rest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you still interested? I hope so, because there is plenty more of this story to come, including my very last minutes at the Palmer House on Sunday morning, where I get a message that was reeeealllyyyy hard to turn down.

Have you ever experienced any paranormal-type activity? Do you believe there are 'no such things as ghosts'? I'd love to hear your stories and opinions!

Happy Reading!
Sarah