Musing Mondays

You all know what a thief that I am. Today I steal from my buddy J. Kaye. I should feel bad, she's a friend. But I don't, because I'm amoral.

WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW?
I'm reading Uglies by Scott Westerfield and I'm listening to Last Known Victim by Erica Spindler.

WHY ARE YOU READING WHAT YOU’RE READING? PLEASURE? FOR REVIEW? SOMETHING ELSE?
Uglies is a group read, the audio is for pleasure. I will review both as I like to hear myself talk. Or read myself write. Does that even make sense?

WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?
The last book was The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert. Enter to win HERE!

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL BE READING NEXT?
Something horror. I am a dork and I have THEMES for my reading. I will alternate group reads with a theme read from my TBR library. October is horror (duh?!!). November will be books with fall in the title or on the cover - or something like fall - autumn. You get the picture. December will be Christmas. December is always Christmas. I love Christmas. Again, huge dork.

WHAT WAS THE BEST BOOK YOU READ THIS MONTH? WHY?
Best book would be Naked in Death by J.D. Robb. If you recall (why would you?), I gave it a 4/5.

WHAT WAS THE WORST BOOK YOU READ THIS MONTH? WHY?
I guess the least-enjoyed book was Death and the Language of Happiness by John Straley. I don't tend to read books that don't hit it for me within the first 1/4 of the book (yeah, I am dorky enough to figure where that is), but I have been hesitant to stop reading books lately, and think I have done pretty well.

Contest Winner

Congrats to ASHLEY who won Death and the Language of Happiness by John Straley. Ashley, I have sent you an e-mail. Please reply by Sunday, 10/05 so that I can send you the book, otherwise I will have to pick another winner.

Everyone else, try your hands at winning The Intelligencer. It's a very interesting book, and a pretty cover too. I don't really know what that has to do with the price of pigs in China, but so be it.

Handbag Giveaway!

Those who know me well know that I am handbag crazy.  Some might even call me a purse whore.  Not that that's a bad thing - at least I don't think so!  Anyhoo - Handbag Planet is giving away a handbag every hour on the launch day of their site - October 15th.  And they have some really faboo bags there.  All you have to do is enter your first name, your e-mail address, and pick a bag.  Simple and wonderful!  Good luck - but don't win the one that I want.  Seriously.

BOOK REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert - CONTEST CLOSED

An antique book found in present day London leads P.I. Kate Morgan into the life of Christopher "Kip" Marlowe, playwright and spy for Queen Elizabeth I. Morgan believes the book is a collection of coded intelligence documents from the Elizabethan era. In it, she hopes to discover the name of Marlowe's killer - and the volatile secret that someone is willing to kill for today.

The Intelligencer takes the reader back and forth between 1593 and today. Secrets, mysteries and spies abound in both time periods. Many of the 16th century characters (including Marlowe) really did exist, which adds to the interest. At first it is pretty slow-going. But slowly, the mysteries unfold. And let me tell you, this book has plenty of mysteries - a minimum of 6 different puzzles!!! By the end of the book I was really enjoying it, and trying to figure everything out myself! What almost ended up a 1 or a 2 became a 3/5 for me. I'm too lazy to research it, but I would not be surprised to learn that this is the first of the series. This was a decent little puzzler.

This book can be yours! To get a chance to win, comment below. You all know that I always have a catch. So, this time the catch is: would you rather be a spy, a P.I., or neither. As for myself, I think I'd want to be a P.I., I'm pretty nosy!!! A winner will be chosen randomly on 10/10. Like all of my book contests, it is international. Good luck!

Wordless Wednesday - Melons

Anyone have an idea what sort of melon plant this is?  We found it growing wild in Arkansas.

Slippers!

Well, these are the slippers I made for Del. I do have other yarn colors than just green. This color was his choice, though.

Project Complete!

Well, after lots of practice on my stitches, and choosing then re-choosing patterns, I finished a scarf.  It's not really wide, but I'm rather fond of the stitches.  It's super-soft, too.  Today I am finishing off a pair of slippers for hubby.

Win! Win! Win!

That is just what MILLIE did! She has won my copy of Damien the Man by Richard D. Nybakken. Millie, I have sent you an e-mail confirming your win. Please e-mail me your address by Saturday, 09/27/08, or I will be forced to pick another winner.

Thanks everyone for playing. Don't forget to enter to win Death and the Language of Happiness by John Straley before the contest ends on 09/28. Good luck to everyone in that one!

BOOK REVIEW: The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner

A young woman shows up on the doorstep of mercenary J.T. Dillon. She says her name is Angela, and she needs his training to learn to fight an abusive ex-husband. It all sounds simple enough, except for the fact that it's all a lie. Angela is really Tess Williams, and her ex is Jim Beckett, a serial killer who recently escaped from prison. After Tess helped put him away, Jim promised her that he would come back for her.

This was a great suspense novel. Jim stalked and intimidated like nobody's business. His killing spree continues, and Tess' terror rises. The hero character in J.T. is marvelously flawed. He feels like he has let down all the women he has loved - his sister, his wife. He doesn't feel capable of helping or protecting anyone. To be of use to anyone, he has to battle his own demons that are still alive and well in his memory.

For all the suspense this novel held, the major dramatic scene left a little to be desired. I felt like there should have been more to it. I was disappointed in the relationship between Tess and J.T., too. Still, it was a good book, a quick read. My rating: 3/5.

I cannot offer this one as a raffle, the library wants it back! If you're looking for some tense and suspensful reading, check this out.

Wordless Wednesday - Oh deer!

Winners abound!

My darling friends, I have winners reading this blog!!!!

Yes I do!

First of all, I had to draw a new name for The Callahan Brothers Trilogy. Dawn M., come on down! This lovely (and long) book is all yours!!

And The Baby Bears package goes to Shawn who has a sis-in-law expecting her 1st!

Shawn and Dawn (I didn't plan that, really), please e-mail me with your addresses! I have already sent you two e-mails as well. As usual, if I don't get a response in a week (by 09/24), I will be forced to draw another name.

BOOK REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Death and the Language of Happiness by John Straley - CONTEST CLOSED

Death and the Language of Happiness
Cecil Younger is a P.I. in a small town in Alaska. He doesn't get a lot of work considering his wherabouts, and he really tends to screw up a lot. So why would 97 year old William Flynn want to hire him to kill a man? And why did Flynn do it through Younger's shrink and lawyer?

Working on the advice of his lawyer and psychiatrist (& the fact that he is so many payments behind on his house that the realtors are fighting for it!), Cecil takes the job. Now he really doesn't want to kill anyone, but just maybe he can solve a few mysteries along the way.

This book had a lot of potential. There was a present-day murder to be solved, as well as some missing people from 1919. Unfortunately, Straley spends so much time writing about the labor movement and the Armistice Day massacre that the story gets a little lost.

The cast of characters was very interesting: recovering addict P.I. And the girl who loves him, emotionally disabled roommate (and charge) Toddy, 97 year old codger who may or may not be crazy, murderous father-in-law, Union supporters, etc. I would have preferred learning more about them than about the history of unionization. Someone with strong union ties would probably be fascinated by this book. I was not. However, finding out who the murderer was and the identity of several people kept me reading. It is also a fairly short book, so it didn't hang me up for long. My rating: 2/5.

This book is up for grabs! Please comment below if you would like a chance to win this book. a winner will be chosen 9/28 at random. To enter, please state in your comment if you have ever been to Alaska. As for myself, I have not, though I had cousins who grew up there. When we were little, she saw her lightening for the first time in Illinois. She had never seen it in her part of Alaska.

OMG! I am PG-13!

My buddy J. Kaye did a post recently about blog ratings. So I went to the handy-dandy website mentioned, and my blog is PG-13 (see above)! Apparently I mentioned Death 6 times recently, Dead once and Steal once! It doesn't help that my last book was Naked in Death. But maybe I have an obsession with the subject???

No wonder I'm on the crazy pills!

BOOK REVIEW: Naked in Death by J.D. Robb

Naked in Death is the first of J.D. Robb's Eve Dallas series. J.D. Robb, of course, is the pseudonym of Nora Roberts. Eve Dallas is a New York police detective in 2058. She's worked hard for what she has, even while pushing back demons from her childhood. Her hard work pays off when the Commander gives her the lead on a Code 5 case: extra-sensitive, for her eyes only. The grisly murder of a prostitute, the chilling threat '1 of 6', leads that point to multi-millionaire Roarke, to whom she is strangely drawn. But the job comes first, and she has to stop the killer - whoever he is - before he completes his task.

I have only read one other J.D. Robb, Remember When. Half of that book is by Roberts, half by Robb. I know what you're saying, she's the same person!!! That may be, but when she's writing, she definitely writes as different people. Roberts is soft, and she tends to include a paranormal angle. Robb is harsh and edgy. She writes of a future that is starkly different from our present. When I read the Robb portion of Remember When after the Roberts portion, I didn't like it. It was too cold, too futuristic. That shows how good of a writer Roberts is.

Anyhow, I wasn't looking forward to Naked in Death. I didn't like Robb before, why would I now???? Well, the difference is that I didn't read soft and flowery Roberts beforehand. Naked in Death wasn't such a shock to my system.

To my surprise, I enjoyed the book a lot. I did a lot of guessing as to who the culprit was, which is always fun. Joyfully, I figured it out, but it took nearly all of the book to do so. I liked the futuristic world this time, and I liked getting to know Eve from the start. I can't wait to pick up the next one! My rating: 4/5.

Sadly, the library wants this book back. I recommend that you find your own copy somewhere, and savor this quick, action-packed read.

MOVIE REVIEW: 21

21 is Blackjack. And it can be beaten, or so says Professor Mickey Rosa.  Using his top students, Mickey forms a team of super-geniuses. They understand simple math and probability, making them perfect card counters. While counting isn't illegal, the casinos naturally don't like to lose their edge. Someone has to pay.

Starring Kevin Spacey and Jim Sturgess, this film went largely unnoticed. I recall seeing ads for it when it first came out, but nothing more until I saw it in a Redbox.

I really liked this flick. A group of college students who would normally be focused on physics and med school, higher math and scholarships now discovers the high of winning and beating the odds. In Boston, they are normal kids, sometimes unnoticed. In Vegas, they are THE high rollers. But even the smartest kids can get caught. This was just a good, fast-paced movie. The ending was fantastic! Granted, I still don't understand their little +16, +3, etc., I still thought the movie was great. My rating: 4/5.

Wordless Wednesday - Hello Froggy!

And the winner is.....

JACKIE B.!!!

Congrats, Jackie B.!  You won my copy of The Callahan Brothers Trilogy!  I have sent you an e-mail request for your address.  If you did not receive it, please just e-mail it to me.  If I don't hear from you by next Monday, September 15th, I will have to draw a new winner.

I hope you enjoy the book!

Meanwhile, I hope you all have entered to win my other two great prizes, The Baby Bear Prize Package and the book Damien the Man.  If you haven't entered, hurry, hurry, run, run!!!!

MOVIE REVIEW: The Producers

Mel Brooks does a delightful remake of his classic The Producers. Starring Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and Uma Thurman, The Producers is about a couple of dishonest Broadway producers who plan to put on a musical so bad that they close on the first night and can run off with the money from the patrons.


I've never ever seen this movie or play. Now I have to ask myself why!??!!!!?! This was such a fun movie to watch. The tunes were catchy, and I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud! And the dance numbers? Holy cow! This movie is probably the closest you will get to having Broadway in your living room.
I just loved The Producers. Once again, the viewer gets to enjoy the genius of Mel Brooks. Lane is over the top. Broderick is cowardly and wonderful. And Thurman is a darling little sexpot. If you haven't seen it, check it out! My rating: 5/5.

MOVIE REVIEW: Prime

Prime stars Uma Thurman as Raphi, a 37 year old divorcee' who unknowingly falls for her therapist's (Meryl Streep) son Dave (Bryan Greenburg). She keeps sharing all of the intimate details of her life, including her sex life, with therapist Lisa. It doesn't take long for Lisa to piece together this puzzle, and yet she keeps the knowledge to herself. How long can Lisa keep the secret to herself, especially when she doesn't approve of Dave dating a Gentile.


It was rather humorous to see Lisa getting more and more uncomfortable with the intimate details of her son's sex life, especially when Raphi describes Dave's penis as so perfect she wants to knit it a hat!!! The love storu was so-so, I frankly expected a bit more. The movie, to me, seemed more like a movie about life than about love. My rating: 2/5.

I'm Obsessed

A long while back I purchased something similar to a Crochet for Dummies kit from a favorite craft store. I finally dug the darn thing out this week, but I wasn't too hopeful. The abbreviations seemed like greek to me: sc, dc, ch, etc. Besides, all I've ever been able to do is make a chain - a really long chain, but that doesn't make much of a piece of clothing, no matter how many times you wrap it 'round you!!!


But I painstakingly read the instructions, went through step by step by step. No skipping ahead, no matter what I thought I knew. I just kept at it with a diligence that I've never had before.


And so here I am, crocheting a scarf. It's not perfect, but it's good practice. I may never be as talented as my buddy Naida at the bookworm. But I'm enjoying myself, and I'm not spending all of my time on the computer (as you may have noticed!).


I'll show you all the finished product, if you promise not to laugh or even snicker!

BOOK REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Damien the Man by Ralph D. Nybakken - CONTEST CLOSED

The Rapture. Many people may not know what this means. Christians have been awaiting this day since they have professed their faith. It's the day when all Believers will be taken by their Heavenly Father to be with Him in heaven. But what about the people that remain? Nybakken's Damien the Man tells their story.



Damien the Man begins right at the moment of The Rapture, and takes the reader all the way to Christ's glorious return to Earth. It focuses primarily on Mike and Tracy Nelson, who have lost friends to The Rapture and are now trying to find their way in a different world. Using a tape left by their friends, the Bible and another reference book, the Nelson's stumble their way to a new faith amidst the dangers of Evil rising.



This book felt to me like a summarized version of the Left Behind series. The characters aren't as interesting, and the story isn't as compelling. Granted, Jerry Jenkins & Tim LaHaye had several books in which to tell their story. All the same, I felt that Nybakken could have written a better story. This book just seemed dry to me. Interesting and important story, but only for the subject matter, not for the writing. My rating: 2/5.



I won this book in one of J. Kaye's raffles. I am passing on the bloggy love to one of you fine folks. To enter, please comment below on whether or not you have read any, all or none of the Left Behind series. A winner will be drawn at random September 19th.



Please note that this is a used book. It came to be from J. Kaye in near-perfect condition. In my possesion, however, it had an unfortunate accident involving spilled coffee. Only the edges of a few pages on a corner are affected. But they are affected. You have been warned.



Good luck everyone!

Wordless Wednesday - Into the Wild

September Giveaway - Baby Bears! - CLOSED

Babies, babies, babies! Everywhere I look, another pal is having a baby! In celebration of babies everywhere, September's giveaway is for the wee ones!

As you all know from a previous post, I am a little crafty (emphasize the little). So, I cross-stitched another Bear Baby Bib. (Modeling the bib is Stitch - he is not part of the give-away!) I wanted to give it away to a lucky reader, but it just didn't seem enough. In stops my buddy at lmkquilts. She sweetened the giveaway pot by adding a darling Bear Fleece Blanket, which would normally sell for $20.00 at her etsy store.

Your task, darling reader, is to go check out her store. Tell us all of the wonderful item that you like the most from her shop. You may not be able to limit it to one item. I understand, she has a plethora of wonders at her place. She has the most darling quilts, potholders, and don't even get me started on her Holiday Items!!!!

Comments must be made byTuesday, September 16th. A winner will be drawn randomly from those who comment.

Contest Coming!

Just so you all know, the September contest will be coming soon. I am waiting for one last thing, and then I can go-go-go! I'm super-excited about it! (Really, I'm excited about most things, you may have noticed that.) So keep your eyes peeled, I hope to have the contest up this week!

BOOK REVIEW: Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen

A young wife is pushed off a cruise liner for knowing too much. Her scientist husband is in deep with the wrong sort of people, and tossing wife Joey overboard seems like the only option. What follows is a humorous romp set in the Everglades involving an ex-cop, a farmer, hired muscle, a mistress, and a dead wife who just didn't stay dead.



This book is a crack-up. The characters and situtation that they get into are over-the-top, yet still fun to read. After good-for-nothing hubby Chaz pushes her off their anniversary cruise, Joey Perrone is miraculously rescued by ex-cop Mick Stranahan. Instead of reporting the crime to the cops, Joey begs Mick to help her with a bit of revenge of the mental variety. Mick agrees, after all, who can say no to a beautiful and naked woman that you pulled from the sea?



This was a quick and fun read. I liked it so much that I picked up two more of his books at Half Price Books today. Reading his book was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend some time. My rating: 4/5.



I cannot offer this one up to you all as it is a library book. I should have another book raffle for you shortly. In the meantime, make sure you are signed up for The Callahan Brothers Trilogy contest!