Thursday, January 30, 2020

First Line Friday #92


First Line Friday is brought to you by Hoarding Books. Playing along is easy: open the book nearest you and share the first line. Then check out the link to see the other first lines offered up this week.

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"You were meant to do more than just survive. You were meant to thrive."

So Thrive by Casting Crowns is one of the very first songs I heard when Eleanor and I began attending the church we now call home, when she was around seven months old. I could not get the song out of my head, I was absolutely in love with it. The whole cd is amazing and I am excited to finally start this one.

Fun Fact: When Eleanor was much younger and wanted to hear Thrive, she would ask to "listen to Josh". Josh is our worship leader and for the longest time she thought it was him singing on the cd. I don't know if she still thinks this, but it is one of my most favorite memories of when she was itty bitty.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Happy Reading,
Sarah

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Books From The Backlog #31



Books from the Backlog, hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books, is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your shelf unread.

I am featuring books in the order that they were added to my Goodreads To-Read shelf, so sometimes there will be a couple weeks in a row of books on the same topic.

Neglected Book of the Week
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Why did I add The Last Days of the Incas to my TBR?

Because there was a whole world here long before Europe decided to come play and that world, those cultures, are worth knowing about.

Have you read this book, or is it somewhere on your TBR? If you've read it, would you recommend it to others?

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Monday, January 27, 2020

Top Ten Tuesday | Book Cover Freebie



Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is a book cover freebie, so I am showcasing a random assortment of books that I read in December and January that have haunting/beautiful/stunning/unique covers.

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Happy Reading!
Sarah

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Review Bomb | Mary Downing Hahn Edition


I have loved Mary Downing Hahn since elementary school. My most favorite book of hers has always been Wait Til Helen Comes. I also enjoyed Dead Man in Indian Creek and Stepping on the Cracks, which I read countless times as well.

Last fall at my school's book fair, I was psyched to find the new release from Hahn, The Girl in the Locked Room. I had seen it on NetGalley and been so disappointed to not get approved, so I snatched it right up, along with a few other ghostly stories that I told myself were for my students, but were also pretty much for me too. After that I decided to look up all the book Hahn has written in the years since I last read her books when I was a student myself. here were quite a few and I was so happy to find that I enjoyed most of them just as much now as I had when I was a child.

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A girl finds a doll buried in the garden of a home where she and her mother are renting an apartment space from a crabby old lady who seems to hate everyone. Ghostly time-travel ensues. Great adventure.

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The cover of this one is GORGEOUS and had great expectations for it. I liked that it was set during the tragic influenza outbreak of 1918, but I had a hard time liking any of the girls, even the victim, because they were all terrible in their own special ways. Not a terrible story by any means, but not my favorite.

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This one had me from the start. Watch out for Old Auntie...

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I was on the fence about reading this one because I think the whole changeling scenario is weird, but I ended up really liking this one after all. It's still creepy AF though.

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Hahn doing what she does best, bringing the chills in this murder mystery. I like that she writes kids in such a believable way, and it has always been one of her strengths.

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Hahn + ghosts = magic. Definitely one of my favorites. Who wouldn't want to go live with family they've never known and be berated and yelled for not being as wonderful as the dead cousin who was actually a major be-yotch.

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Another spine-tingling, though I did not realize until I started it that I had read this one about ten years ago with one of my classes. Obviously I kept reading it anyway even though I knew how it was going to end. It's easy to feel bad for the boys trapped there, and to want to help them out.

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Eh, I did not care much for this one - until the end. I am not much into the time-travel aspect, but I loved seeing how history was changed for this family because of said time travel.

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Another deliciously ghostly story. I really like how Hahn can make the ghosts be so horrible or rude or mean, and also still make you feel sorry for them because they were not necessarily always that way. Even when they try to kill you.

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Not too into the vampire thing here. It was a decent story but the main character was whiny AF. And really, if the vampire is not named Angel, it is super hard for me to care.

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The book that got me back into reading all the Mary Downing Hahn books I could find at the library. I was so glad to find after reading this one and thinking about it, that Hahn is still a gifted story teller who can provide all kinds of chills and thrills for her readers.

I know these are not much in the way of actual reviews, but I loved most of them and if you have a late elementary/early middle grade reader who is a bit reluctant when it comes to picking out books, you can't go wrong with any of these!

Have you read any of these as a child, or an adult? What's your favorite or least favorite Hahn book?

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Mini Reviews | Minka Kent


I had such high hopes for this author after seeing some really positive reviews. I know that I am not a typical fiction/thriller reader, but I am branching out and finding some new authors and genres. I was so incredibly disappointed with both of these, it was almost enough to send me back down by non-fiction rabbit hole and wait not-so-patiently for Karen McManus to release The Cousins in the fall, and then give me more Nate in what I hope will be a third book in the One of Us Is Lying series. (Please, PLEASE, another book! I have to have more Nate and Bronwyn!!! PLEASE!!!)

Anyway. On to the books which were not great, and a waste of time I will never get back.

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Well, it could have been worse. I am glad I did not pay money for this and got it as my January First Reads from Amazon.

In the end, the book was super predictable and tried so hard to be something it's not - a real thriller. it ends up being nothing more than a dude with a grudge, some identify theft, and a completely ridiculous requirement of suspension of belief.

If you are planning to read the book, skip this part, because there will be some spoilers.

So this dumb-dumb Brienne was attacked one night leaving work and since then has been unable to live alone in this giant house that she inherited from her grandparents. Strange things start happening that make her question her sanity as her male roommate slowly starts to reveal more and more information about who she "truly" is (except isn't). There is the first major plot hole, RIGHT THERE. See, her roommate is pretending to be her husband to convince her she is someone else entirely. EXCEPT the event that kicked off everything in the first place was the mailing of an apartment key to Brienne, WHICH SHE NEVER WOULD HAVE RECEIVED IF SHE WAS NOT ACTUALLY BRIENNE! I mean, seriously.

The whole time I am sitting there reading, thinking this idiot truly will get herself killed because she is not going to the police, and has all these excuses why not and blah blah and FFS, you are living with someone who wants to kill you. She doesn't figure that out right away of course, but anyone with half a brain reading this will see it pretty quickly. And if I am doubting who I am, and being told I am someone I don't remember being, then you can bet your ass I am talking to the police ASAP, considering the fact that they would without a doubt know who you are based on the investigation into your previous attack that lead to this fucked up situation in the first place with you not being able to live alone. Ugh.

The whole body double situation was also really ridiculous, because how on earth did his girlfriend just happen to look enough like Brienne to try to pull this shit off? It makes no sense. None of it does.

The only reason I kept reading is because all that time I thought surely I was wrong, the twist could not be that obvious, it was a red herring. Nope. Sure wasn't. I was hoping for some redemption here but there was none.

Hard pass on this one.

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What. The. Hell.

I was so hoping that When I Was You was a fluke, and this one would be better. After all, the ratings and reviews looked a lot better and it seemed like a much more interesting story-line.

There are drastically different plots running side by side and early on I had an inkling of how they might be connected, but was not totally sure. When Nic started 'discovering' things about her husband and her mind raced off to the worst possible option for the given situation, it was plausible to me. Here is this couple, unable to have children, world-travelers living in our very modern age, contrasted with two young women left alone in a cabin, deep in the woods who have had no contact with the outside world. It's clear that at some point, their stories will converge and I had some ideas on how this would happen.

ANY OF THOSE IDEAS WOULD HAVE BEEN WAY BETTER THAN WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

The story was solidly trucking along and I was thinking this could be a three or four star read. Then the many ideas I had for where it could be going were slowly peeled away as it became clear that none of my ideas would fit within the narrative as we learned new information, so I was even more anxious to get to the twist because it just had to be delicious.

Well, guess what?

IT WASN'T.

It was again simply too unbelievable. You would have to complete disconnect from reality in order to make this seem remotely plausible. Even worse than When I Was You. I have not been so let down by a book in a really long time, not counting the one up there that more so left me just thinking, "Why the hell was this nonsense even written?"

It kills me, because up until the reveal, things were great. I was genuinely captivated by the book, wondering how all the pieces would fit. I unfortunately discovered that not only do the pieces not fit, but they are obviously mixed in with pieces from some other book where they might actually make sense, and we only have half of them to begin with.

After these two duds, Minka Kent is an author I will not longer be reading.

Stacking the Shelves #79


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.

Library

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Kindle Unlimited
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Birthday Gifts
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Mom sent me an Amazon gift card for my birthday and I also had bonus cash from Prime purchases so I was responsible and bought paper towels, toilet paper, dishwasher soap, and two hard cover books. I am contemplating returning the Kindle version of One of Us Is Next because we all know what the next hardcover I acquire will be... THEN in the future when I go to a book signing for Karen McManus I will present them all to be signed, and cry until she promises to write a book with Nate and Bronwyn as narrators again. AND NO KILLING. At least, not killing off any of my favorites. 

What did you add to your stash this week?

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Thursday, January 23, 2020

First Line Friday #91


First Line Friday is brought to you by Hoarding Books. Playing along is easy: open the book nearest you and share the first line. Then check out the link to see the other first lines offered up this week.

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"The New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein began with the most promising source refusing even to get on the phone."

It's too bad this book was not better. Kantor and Twohey are not great authors in long-form and I should have learned my lesson about Kantor from her book on President and Mrs. Obama. Such a wholly important moment, and all the survivors, deserve a much better book.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Happy Reading,
Sarah

Books From The Backlog #30



Books from the Backlog, hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books, is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your shelf unread.

I am featuring books in the order that they were added to my Goodreads To-Read shelf, so sometimes there will be a couple weeks in a row of books on the same topic.

Neglected Book of the Week
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Why did I add Catherine de Medici to my TBR?

Because I know very little about the Medicis and she is the best place to start - and definitely the most interesting, as far as I know anyway.

Have you read this book, or is it somewhere on your TBR? If you've read it, would you recommend it to others?

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Tackling the TBR Week 3: Jan 15 - Jan 21, 2020


My TBR has been out of control for a while now. Then I started tracking weekly my true reading/acquiring habits, and voila! I have been able to keep on top of things a little bit better. I may never get below 1,000 books, but at least I won't be topping out over 5,000!

I will be posting on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and the last day of the month. Feel free to join in if you'd like!

Previous Week's TBR Total: 3,159

Currently Reading: 11

Books Added to TBR: 6

Books Removed from TBR: 1

Books Read: 5

Books DNF-ed: 1

Duplicates Removed: 0

New TBR Total: 3,159

Breaking even is better than nothing! Something is off about my numbers this week and I am not quite sure where the error is. Either way, it will be sorted out by the next post

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Monday, January 20, 2020

Top Ten Tuesday | The Ten Most Recent Additions to My TBR



Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is the ten most recent additions to the bookshelf. I felt this was kind of up to interpretation, bookshelf or TBR? I went with TBR, because I already do a Stacking the Shelves each Saturday and don't want to be redundant. So, here are my ten most recent adds to the ginormous TBR.

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Happy Reading!
Sarah

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Stacking the Shelves #78


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.

Library
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What did you add to your stash this week?

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Snow Day For My Birthday! Snow Day For My Birthday!


❆❆❆❆❆SNOW DAY TOMORROW❆❆❆❆❆

The bummer part of the impending storm is that Eleanor is at her dad's tonight and the roads are supposed to be shit tomorrow because of the ice - we are not actually supposed to get much snow, between 2-5 inches. This means that if the roads are terrible, I probably won't get to bring her home until Saturday, because even though I know how to drive on wintery roads, none of these idiots in Omaha do and I don't trust any of 'em on the road with my baby.

So, until I can get my girl home, I will be all snuggled up with a good book or ten. Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Reading,
Sarah

First Line Friday #90


First Line Friday is brought to you by Hoarding Books. Open the book nearest you and share the first line. Then check out the link to see the other first lines offered up this week.

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"Nearly every American above a certain age remembers precisely where they were on September 11, 2001."



I will never forget this day as long as I live. I was a freshman in college, hadn't even been there a month. I saw the first reports as I was getting ready for class, and the second plane struck by the time I got to class across campus. I watched the first tower fall, and my professor did the unthinkable: he turned off the television because we were not paying attention. Some kids got up and walked out. I wish I would have. I was in shock.


Classes were obviously cancelled. The "preacher" who stood out in front of the Union every day, yelling at us about how we are going to hell because of the homosexuals, was there as usual. I hated that guy, and he's out there on September 11 with same bullshit about how we brought this on ourselves and the people on the planes deserved to die, we all deserve it. People usually ignore him, but not that day. I watched a young woman walk right up to him and get in his face, yelling that if he was any kind of pastor he would be praying for those who were killed, injured, missing. He didn't miss a beat and went right back to his rant about "the gays".

The rest of the day is a blur. I went back to my dorm and watched CNN all day and all night. I fell asleep, finally. It was late but I don't remember when. All I could think about was how the world would never be the same.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Share your story if you'd like.