Outlander Read-a-long Final!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Outlander for this read along. I did end up getting a bit behind due to personal illness, but am finally caught up now. 

Here are the final questions/answers.


1. Jaime has the worst case of seasickness. Do you get seasickness or motion sickness? If not, is there something else that makes your stomach a bit queasy? Thankfully, I do not have motion sickness. I am unsure of seasickness as I haven't been on a boat since I was very young.


2. How did you handle reading the details of Jamie’s torture at the hands of Randall? Did you blame Jamie for anything that happened during the encounter with the captain? If you were Claire, how do you think you would have taken hearing about the abuse from your husband? What did you think of Claire’s method’s to get Jamie to start healing psychologically from his wounds from Randall (when she filled his room with opium and simulated another attack by the Captain)? Man that was brutal! I really almost had to stop reading as Jamie went into detail about the horrible things Randall did to him. I do not think I could remain as outwardly calm as Claire did hearing Jamie recount his torture. I imagine she must have been tore apart inside. When she begin filling the room with opium, I honestly thought she was about to take off his injured hand. I don't know that what she did was the best method, she could have killed them both in the process. Thank goodness it worked!


3.  “history, warfare, medicine, sex, violence, spirituality, honor, betrayal, vengeance, hope and despair, relationships, the building and destruction of families and societies, time travel, moral ambiguity, swords, herbs, horses, gambling (with cards, dice, and lives), voyages of daring, journeys of both body and soul…you know the usual stuff of literature.”
Which of the above elements of Outlander were you most looking forward to? Which did you enjoy the most while reading? Which did you enjoy the least while reading? Which did you just not care about? Any of these do you which there were more of? Or less of? I was looking forward to the time travel aspect but was completely blown away by the romance! She really did a great job making me care about Claire and Jamie. I felt their love. Sometimes the history stuff got a little bland, but luckily she moved on soon enough before it got too boring.


4. Share with us your overall thoughts on Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Your favorite quotes, scenes, and/or your favorite words that had you searching for a dictionary. If you haven’t been marking your favorite quotes/passages, you can find Outlander quotes on Goodreads. Outlander is a great book. There were times when I felt like I would never finish it because of the length but I never got tired of it. Diana Gabaldon does a great job of making the characters feel real. The romance was quite possibly the best I've read, especially on Claire and Jamie's honeymoon. 


“For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary. It is all. It is undying. And it is enough.” This was my favorite quote because it is just so true.


I do plan on continuing on to the second book of the series but will be taking a break to read the other books I placed on hold!

Outlander Read-a-long Week 5

This week's questions were presented by Logan E Turner for chapters 29-35

1. We are now settled into life at Lallybroch. What are your impressions of this place, and Ian and Jenny Murray? How do the stories of Jamie’s life here growing up shape your feelings toward him? I really enjoyed getting a picture of Jamie from his childhood. Jenny is a wonderful character, a perfect female version of Jamie himself. 

2. What do you think of the story of what really happened between Jenny and Jack Randall? Could you have been as bold as Jenny? Does this change your understanding of Randall? Jenny did exactly what I imagine Jamie would have done. She's strong willed and deviant. It took much more bravery to stand up to Randall and mock him than it would have to simply endure his assault. By mocking him she could have beaten much more severely once he was angry. Randall is a very sick man. He makes my blood boil.

3. For the second time, we see Claire warning a Fraser about future events. Do you think this is wise? Or does this mess with history/the space-time continuum/the natural order of things? I don't see how she has any other choice. Everything she does, her mere existence messes with history. But at the same point, this is her reality now and she needs to protect herself and those she loves.

4. Do you consider Claire brave or foolish for going after Jamie? Would you be courageous enough to go into enemy territory to try and save the man you love? Absolutely not! I'd go after my husband without a moment's hesitation. That's what you do for love. 

5. Jamie makes a gut-wrenching decision in Chapter 35. Do you blame Claire for putting him in that position? What kinds of repurcussions do you expect? Yes, but it's not like she did it on purpose. She was simply trying to free him. Unfortunately, Randall is only encouraged by the drama and Jamie will be the one to pay.

Outlander Read-a-long Week 4

This week's questions were presented by Into the Hall of Books for chapters 22-28.

1. How do you feel about Claire disobeying Jamie and the resulting punishment he brings forth on her for this? Do you feel that Jamie's punishment was justified by the fact that everyone was put in danger by Claire's actions? Finally, did Jamie's vow with Claire's dagger do anything to sway your thoughts or change your mind on how you initially feel/felt about his punishment?  While I never, ever condone beating (even in the 1700's) Claire definitely deserved punishment. If only I could have delivered the blows myself! I was so angry at her for even considering going back when she had Jamie right there...this amazing man.  

2. Just for fun, what was your reaction to the suspicious black spot Claire spotted on the floor near the area where Jamie was sleeping? Did you have any theories to what it might have been before it was revealed to be a _____? No, I was too busy racing along to stop and ponder. 

3. With regard to the 'changeling' baby Claire and Geilie spotted in the wild - if it were you back then and you happened upon a changeling baby in the wild in a circumstance such as this, do you think you'd have reacted most like Claire or Geilie? Explain. I absolutely would have gone to the baby, especially if I had medical training like Claire, but even if I did not.

4. Share your thoughts on Geilie Duncan. Is there anything that surprised you about her story or were you suspicious of her from the beginning? I was mildly surprised about Geilie Duncan. I have to say the scene where she hypnotizes Claire was just creepy! I really wish Claire had had the opportunity to question her about the mark on her arm and her history.

5. Your thoughts on Jamie's LAST REASON for wanting to marry Claire - the one he had been so secretive about. GO! I had assumed it was something to do with money or an inheritance. His actual reason was much better! I just want to soak him up, he's so sweet.

Visit Logan E Turner for next week's questions and check back in with me next week to see what I have to say about chapters 29-35.

Outlander Read-a-long Week 3

This week's questions were presented by Tangled Up in Blue for chapters 15-21.


1) We FINALLY get to the scene we've all been waiting for. You know what I'm talking about--yay sexytimes! What were your impressions? Was it what you were expecting? Or did you want more? 

I have to say, the honeymoon held the most romantic sex scenes I've ever read. Jamie's inexperience and willingness to please portrayed him as the sweetest, sexiest character I've encountered in my reading history. He's adorable.

2) I know that some readers thus far have been bothered by the fact of Claire being married to Frank but still being involved with Jamie, despite the different time periods. Does their time as newlyweds change anyone's opinion of that? If not, now what are you thinking of the situation?  

Honestly, I thought Frank was so dull that Jamie was a welcomed change. Granted, this isn't moral thinking on my part, but I was glad to be done with him. If it were me and my husband, I would be a bit more frantic to get back and wouldn't be so accepting of a new husband.

3) What did you think about the "waterhorse" that Claire saw? Why do you think Peter was so spooked? And what do you think this means for Claire? 

I'm wondering if he thought she was some kind of witch or something. 

4) If you were Claire and you were knowingly in the vicinity of the stones, would you have done the same thing she did?  

If I were Claire, I wouldn't have even bothered. I like Jamie much more than Frank. However, if it were me then yes I would have taken off for them.

5) What do you think about Captain Randall? How do you think the family resemblance between him and Frank affects Claire and particularly her relationship with Jamie? 

Randall is a devil of a man. I honestly think his resemblance to Frank is part of her attraction to Jamie. If she ever makes it back to Frank I would imagine it would be hard to trust him as easily because of his looks. 

Visit Into the Hall of Books for next week's questions and check back in with me next week to see what I have to say about chapters 22-28!

Trouble in Mudbug

Trouble in Mudbug is a fun little book featuring mystery, suspense, humor and a splash of romance. Maryse has been living single since her good for nothing husband skipped out on her two years ago. Her mother in law, however, has not left Maryse to herself...even in death!

What's worse than a whiny, selfish, intrusive mother in law haunting you? Someone trying to kill you too! Luckily, Maryse has a mysterious (and very sexy) new zoologist working in her office to protect her.

I especially love books that are based in the South and Jana DeLeon hit the mark with this New Orleans series. Best part? You can get the Kindle Edition right now for FREE! Get it while you can, you won't be disappointed.

Gone

Gone by Michael Grant is the first book in YA/Sci-Fi/Horror series that will keep you up at night. First, because it's difficult to put down and secondly, because it's hard to shake the images this book creates.

One second, everything is normal. Kids are in school while their parents work or take care of younger children. Then in the blink of an eye, everyone 15 and over disappears. Gone.

Suddenly these children are left alone to deal with some very adult situations. If that wasn't enough, some of them are beginning to develop some strange powers and frightening animal mutations are starting to appear.

Gone is a nail biting, edge of your seat kind of book. It's disturbing without being overly gruesome. It's frightening without inducing too many nightmares. And there's just a touch of romance, but not too much.

Oh, by the way...I did not appreciate R.E.M's It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) being referred to as an "old" song. Even if it was recorded in 1987 and well before the characters of this book were born. It makes me feel old, ok? So just stop it!

Outlander Read-a-long Week 2

I am thoroughly enjoying Outlander and this read-a-long! Stalking the Bookshelves has provided us with questions for Chapters 8-14.


Here are my answers!

1.  Claire has been given the task of healer at the castle. She must adapt her nursing skills for the time and learn what herbs and etc will cure each particular ailment that is presented to her. Do you have any home remedies that were passed down to you (cure for a cold, bee sting or what have you)?  Nothing uncommon. My family prefers chicken and dumplings to chicken soup though!

2. What do you think would be the biggest challenge of living in the past? (Clothing, hygiene, food, etiquette or etc.) For me I think it would be emulating the language and behavior of the other women of that time. For example, Claire refers to boxing to Jamie and he has no idea what she's talking about. What surprises me, is how Frank got upset with Claire over her vulgar language but she has been able to control it well since stepping through time. 

3. Do you have a favorite character, scene or quote so far? If so, share it with us. Really? Jamie! Duh! I could care less about Frank. In fact, I think Claire should just forget about trying to find her way back to the stones and just enjoy Jamie. I would! Well then again, my husband is not dull like Frank. I'd return to my husband...but if I were Claire, I'd just make myself at home in Jamie's arms!

4. What did you think about the addition of the blood bond in the wedding ceremony? Is this something you would do with the one you love? My husband is important enough to me that I would, but I would not be happy about being sliced open, yow! 

5. Are you reading along closely with the scheduled chapters or are you ahead or behind? I am one chapter ahead, simply because I had to know what happened on their wedding night! Heehee. 

Visit Tangled Up in Blue for next week's questions and check back in with me next week to see what I have to say about chapters 15-21! 

Wonder

Wonder by R.J. Palacio is a story about ten year old August Pullman, a boy with rare and severe facial deformities. August has been homeschooled his entire life to accommodate his many surgeries. Now he is embarking a new journey, entering middle school!

This was a book club read for a local group. They tend to pick some downer books and my expectations for this one were not high. However, I was surprised to find a book the was uplifting and completely inspiring. I wanted to jump into the book and just hug Auggie! I won't give anything away, but this book left me teary. I thoroughly enjoyed cheering August Pullman on throughout this book. A must read!

Outlander Read-A-Long Week 1

Jess at Gone With The Words provided us with some questions for Chapters 1-7. 


Here are my answers!

1. Outlander is a well-known book. Before you cracked it open, what were your expectations or assumptions about this story? Or did you jump into it with a blank slate? I had tried reading Outlander a couple times in the past. I had heard from several people that the books were wonderful, but they failed to mention that the first chapter can be difficult to get through. I had assumed that it was just not my style or that it wasn't the right time for me to read it. Luckily, I found this time that if I had just stuck with it long enough to read chapter 2 I would have been just fine! Once I reached chapter 2 I was hooked! In fact, I had to make myself stop so I wouldn't get so far ahead. I know some of my fellow bloggers/readers have read ahead, but my memory just doesn't allow me to do that.
2. Claire’s husband, Frank, is fascinated with learning more and more facts about his family tree, which extends back pretty far. Do you or anyone in your family keep a family tree? How many years/generations back does it go? If not, have you ever considered or attempted to create one? My grandparents had a plaque given to them containing a lot of information about our family history. I haven't looked it over since I was a kid but it was very interesting and went back several hundred years. 
3. How did you find Claire’s initial conclusion as to her surroundings after waking up from going through the stones? Did you think that was a reasonable conclusion? I did think it was reasonable for Claire to assume she had stumbled upon a reenactment rather than travel through time. Wouldn't you?
4. How about her composed, rational way of dealing with the fact she’s traveled back in time. Did you find it believable? Do you think you would have acted the same way? What good does freaking out do? Every time travel movie or tv show I've watch the person who came from the future (or past) starts telling everyone they see their crazy time travel story. Everyone thinks they're nuts! In Claire's situation I think telling the truth about where she came from could have gotten her killed or at the very least she wouldn't have been given shelter and resources. 
5. At this point in the story, what are your feelings or expectations on Claire and Jamie? Is Frank still a factor for you? This is a point my husband and I have debated about. Claire is still married to Frank and she should respect their marriage by remaining faithful (his opinion), but after a certain point she will need to accept this as her reality and move on with her life even if that means excepting a new man into her arms (my opinion). Personally, I like Jamie a whole heck of a lot better than Frank. I wholeheartedly believe that Frank is the reason that the first chapter of this book is so dull.
Bonus Question: Frank encounters a man outside of the inn where he and Claire are staying. He is afraid it might have been a ghost. What do you believe it was? Do you have any predictions or suspicions on what that was about? Having not read this before, I believe that it was Jamie. I'm guessing he stepped through the stone and traveled forward in time. 

It's not too late to join in! Visit Stalking the Bookshelves for next week's questions and check back in with me next week to see what I have to say about chapters 8-14!

The Power of Six, 365 better each day, and Winning by Losing

I haven't been reading much the last week what with dealing with a three week long migraine. I found it's a little hard to focus on the words when I'm half blind with pain. 

 The Power of Six is the second in the I am Number Four series. Because of my lack of competent thinking at the moment, I'm just going to tell you what I thought of it.

The series itself, while predictable sci-fi/alien/young adult fiction, is an enjoyable easy read. The Power of Six by itself was a little disappointing to me. It wasn't that the story wasn't good or the writing was bad, it's just that it was a middle book, if that makes sense. See this is where my migraine has me go on random tangents!

The book starts where the first book left off and had no real ending. It wasn't even so much a cliff ending to me, but rather just an abrupt ending. There was no closure whatsoever and it just left me feeling like there were chapters missing.

Now I know this is supposed to make me rush out and buy the next book to find out what happens next, but really I just felt like I had wasted my time. Sure I got to meet some new characters and see a little character  development with the previous people, but I just felt like this book was a series of random dialog and fights. I mean, several chapters were of the Numbers just kind of sitting around waiting to happen. And then when danger did present itself, it seemed fairly easy to handle. Not that they didn't struggle, but it just seemed like no big deal.

All in all, if you like the first book, you have to finish the rest, otherwise it's just a waste. It's an enjoyable time wasting read...but still wasteful.




This book had a lot of great ideas, however most of it could be found from just about any magazine on the racks for women.  Lot of it was also common sense, like go outside and listen to music that makes you happy. I had this as a 21 day check out from the library so I didn't have the time to read one a day as I had wanted. Reading a few "days" at a time, the tips started to become a little repetitive. I think it would have been a bit better if the book had been sorted by topic instead of randomly flipping back and forth between weight loss and depression. Overall, many of the tips were interesting and helpful. Actually, I would have liked to see this as a one a day desk calendar rather than in book form.

Unfortunately, my checkout of Winning by Losing expired before I was able to finish reading it, though I did put it on hold for the next available copy.

Going into this book I was expecting...I don't know, Jillian to be mean and yell at me or something. What I found instead was a good break down of really useful weight loss information.

Now I know what you're thinking, rapid weight loss is not healthy. Well! She actually only promotes 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week and the advice in the book is the as what you would find from other sources.

But like I said, I was unable to finish the book due to time constraints. I just have not reached a point where I am able to devote 100% of my reading time to non-fiction or in this case self-help. Anyway, once I have finished the book, I will be soon to update on what I thought of this book.

Coming Soon: Outlander read-a-long

I've been hearing for years now how great the Outlander series is. I think I've tried to read the first book about three times. But every time I failed to get past the first chapter. I just always figured it wasn't the right time for me to read it yet. I guess I was right! Because if I had read it the first time, how would I be able to experience it for the first time with this read a long? 

June 11th - July 23rd I get to read Outlander with a group of amazing bloggers. Lucky for me, they've set up a great schedule breaking the book up into easy to manage chunks and will be doing a series of questions and answers about each chapter. How cool is that?

June 11th – Questions for chapters 1-7 announced at Gone with the Words

June 18th – Questions for chapters 1-7 answered & questions announced for chapters 8-14 at Stalking the Bookshelves

June 25th – Questions for chapters 8-14 answered & questions announced for chapters 15-21 on Tangled up in Blue

July 2nd – Questions for chapters 15-21 answered & questions announced for chapters 22-28 on Into the Hall of Books

July 9th – Questions for chapters 22-28 answered & questions announced for chapters 29-35 on Logan E. Turner

July 16th – Questions for chapters 29-35 answered & questions announced for chapters 36-41 on The Reading Housewives

July 23rd – Questions for chapters 36-41 answered on Gone with the Words. The end.

Want to participate? Click on the icon above to read more and sign up! I'm super excited. :)

I may be crazy...

Book crazy that is.

I go through these phases where I just cannot read enough. There's something so therapeutic about shutting out the real world and escaping into a book. I thoroughly enjoy becoming completely immersed into a characters thoughts and life. So much so, that I am often saddened to finish a book simply because I feel like I am losing my connection with a really good friend.

As you probably can tell, I am going through one of those periods of reading books back to back or even several at a time. I used to never be able to read more than one thing at a time, but now I find myself sometimes keeping one book in my purse, a back up in the car, one in each bathroom and a couple going on my Kindle Fire. To keep from losing interest in a good book or becoming confused about a story line, I'm trying to limit myself to one fiction book at a time.

Right now I am not completely comfortable with my book review skills and that is something that I hope to improve on over time with practice. But I have found recently that I enjoy writing about what I'm reading. Plus I am really forgetful and if I don't write about it right away I won't be able to tell you anything about the book later except for whether I liked it or not.

Oh! I was going to tell you why I am crazy! So over the past week, I've been suffering pretty hard from migraine headaches and today my brain just would not allow me to focus on my current read (The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies)) so instead I started looking for other books to right. That in of itself is a little crazy since my bookshelf currently holds over a hundred unread books from a local book fair I like to frequent twice a year, but I also already have about ten books already checked out from my local library through Overdrive. Since I only have 21 days for each book, I don't want to check out too many at one time. Luckily, they allow me to place books on a wish list. For a couple hours I just browsed around the Overdrive site and various other websites looking for books that seemed interesting. I just checked my list and was startled to find that I had placed 34 books on my wish list. At least next time I need a book I won't have to do much searching!!! Of course this is not to say that I will not happily accept any recommendations you may throw my way!

The Language of Flowers

Victoria Jones is a young woman who grew up shuffled from one foster home to the next with the exception of one woman, Elizabeth, who fought to love and keep her. During their short 15 months together, Elizabeth taught Victoria about flowers and what it's like to be a family. When their little family crumples, Victoria is sent to live in a group home until being emancipated at the age of 18. Her sudden homelessness on her 18th birthday does not improve her distrust and bitterness towards all of humankind. Through Victoria's love of flowers she begins a journey to mend her shattered heart.

The Language of Flowers is a story about mothers and daughters, forgiveness, love and heartache. Vanessa Diffenbaugh weaves a story is equally difficult to read as it is to put down. Her book debut is stunning and realistic.

The back of the book contains a modern dictionary of flowers and their meanings.

I read this book in less than 24 hours, staying up until 3 am to finish it. I felt each characters joys and pains as if they were my own. I highly recommend this book!

Something Missing

 From Amazon:

A career criminal with OCD tendencies and a savant-like genius for bringing order to his crime scenes, Martin considers himself one of the best in the biz. After all, he’s been able to steal from the same people for years on end—virtually undetected. Of course, this could also be attributed to his unique business model—he takes only items that will go unnoticed by the homeowner. After all, who in their right mind would miss a roll of toilet paper here, a half-used bottle of maple syrup there, or even a rarely used piece of china buried deep within a dusty cabinet?

Even though he's never met these homeowners, he's spent hours in their houses, looking through their photo albums and reading their journals. In essence, Martin has developed a friendship of sorts with them and as such, he decides to interfere more in their lives—playing the part of a rather odd guardian angel—even though it means breaking many of his twitchy neurotic rules. 

Along the way Martin not only improves the lives of others, but he also discovers love and finds that his own life is much better lived on the edge (at least some of the time) in this hilarious, suspenseful and often profound novel about a man used to planning every second of his life, suddenly forced to confront chaos and spontaneity.  

Something Missing is a great book. There were many chapters that had me on the edge of my seat and nervous for Martin. I got caught up in the story line right away and found Martin's strict rules for stealing common household items intriguing. I also began to wonder if I was a client with as many times as I've thought to myself "I swore we had one more..." I was slightly paranoid! 

Filled with humor and suspense, Something Missing is a short read that will keep you interested. Check it out! 

Prodigal Summer

From Amazon: Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia. At the heart of these intertwined narratives is a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches the forest from her outpost in an isolated mountain cabin where she is caught off-guard by Eddie Bondo, a young hunter who comes to invade her most private spaces and confound her self-assured, solitary life. On a farm several miles down the mountain, another web of lives unfolds as Lusa Maluf Landowski, a bookish city girl turned farmer's wife, finds herself unexpectedly marooned in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land. And a few more miles down the road, a pair of elderly, feuding neighbors tend their respective farms and wrangle about God, pesticides, and the complexities of a world neither of them expected.

Over the course of one humid summer, as the urge to procreate overtakes a green and profligate countryside, these characters find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with which they necessarily share a place. Their discoveries are embedded inside countless intimate lessons of biology, the realities of small farming, and the final, urgent truth that humans are only one part of life on earth.

With the richness that characterizes Barbara Kingsolver's finest work, Prodigal Summer embraces pure thematic originality and demonstrates a balance of narrative and ideas that only an accomplished novelist could render so beautifully.

I'm not going to lie to you, I struggled getting into this book. A friend of mine accurately described the book as "mothy". The entire book is filled with a lot of scientific talk of nature, especially moths. There's also a scene that I won't spoil for you but one of the characters has a dream about a moth that was quite...unusual. Not that I don't also have strange dreams but this one took the cake in my opinion. 


The book focuses on three main characters who never quite intersect. Deanna is a moody middle aged woman living up 'air in the mountain as a forest ranger. I found it hard to understand her constant mood swings. Lusa is a young widow learning to cope not only with the loss of her husband but also trying to find acceptance among her four sister in laws. I found Lusa to be a likable character and would have happily read a book just about her. Lastly, the was Garnett, a retired high school teacher in his 80's. Garnett is as a crotchety old man as they come. Many of the chapters devoted to him had me laughing out loud. 


The personal story lines of Prodigal Summer were enjoyable, they drew me in and left me wondering what happened to each character after the final page was turned. The long winded paragraphs about bugs, birds, wildlife and plants were dry and tedious reading. I found myself skipping ahead to get back to the story. I also found some of it to be preachy. I don't know how many times I needed to hear each character talk about the importance of leaving predators alone and not using pesticides. I wanted to just scream "I heard you the first time lady!"


All in all, I enjoyed the book but don't think I would read anything else by this author unless it was about these characters (I really do want to know what happened to them). I felt that it slowed me down on my reading (I have something like 12 ebooks checked out from Overdrive at the moment) and made me work too hard at paying attention to what was going on rather than just enjoying the story.

Common Sense Media

Take a look at any of the Porky's movies or revisit cult classic Animal House and you'll see that crudeness in movies is not a new thing. I guess as a parent, I am beginning to notice every curse word, crude joke and potty humor in movies and television shows. Sometimes it's obvious that a movie is going to be crude, but other times it's unexpected. Everyone seems to know that Bridesmaids had a lot of crude humor, Friends with Benefits kind of gives it away in the title, but not all movies come with fair warning.

Even children's movies are not safe from adult humor. I was shocked by a scene in Madagascar 2 featuring a very sexual exchange between two hippos. And I didn't even have kids of my own at that point!


 Now as a parent I need to be careful about what my daughter sees and hears. She repeats everything. Honestly, I don't want my kid walking around talking about butts and repeating sexual innuendo.

The most effective way to avoid this would be to sell our televisions and place our daughter in a tower (making sure to keep her hair CUT!!!) to be sure that she was never, ever exposed to this raunchy world that we live in. Many people are actually doing this. We're being told to limit or completely cut our kids off from tv and video games. We're told that television viewing is bad for their health, discourages family time and teaches our children bad values. A friend of mine just enrolled her son into a charter school that tells kids and parents they need to shut down all devices for weeks at a time and report back about their experiences.

I think it's great that so many families are cutting the cord and spending more time together as a family. Really, it's wonderful. However, there are the rest of us who enjoy watching television. But we're still concerned about what our children see and hear.

Ready for my plug? Oh come on, this is a review blog, so you had to know I was fixing to plug something. Sheesh!

Anyway, when I want to watch something while my daughter is awake or we want to watch a movie as a family, I rely on Common Sense Media to help me out. I use their search engine to find the movie of choice and they then tell me everything I need to know about the movie regarding sex, language (even the word butt), violence, role models, etc. Seriously, everything I want to know before viewing with my daughter.

So if you're one of those parents that took their kids on opening weekend to see Cars 2 and got upset about the violence, this website is for you. Find out before you go if a movie is right for your family. Different things bother different people. Some families would think the scene I embedded from Madagascar 2 was funny and that it isn't inappropriate or that the violence in Cars 2 was tame, but other families might be offended or their kids would get scared. Whatever, it's a great website that I highly recommend!

Best Staged Plans

Best Staged Plans

From Amazon:

"As a professional home stager, Sandy Sullivan is an expert at transforming cluttered rooms into attractive houses ready for sale. If only reinventing her life were as easy as choosing the perfect paint color. She’s eager to put her family’s suburban Boston home on the market, to downsize, and to simplify her own life. But she must first deal with her foot-dragging husband and her grown son, who has moved back home after college to inhabit the basement “bat cave.”

After reading them the riot act, Sandy takes a job staging a boutique hotel in Atlanta recently acquired by her best friend’s boyfriend. The good news is that she can spend time with her recently married daughter, Shannon, in Atlanta. The bad news is that Shannon finds herself heading to Boston for job training, leaving Sandy and her southern son-in-law, Chance, as reluctant roommates. If that’s not complicated enough, Sandy begins to suspect that her best friend’s boyfriend may be seeing another woman on the side.

Filled with characters who are fresh and original, yet recognizable enough to live in your neighborhood—plus plenty of great tips and tricks for fixing up houses, and lives—this is a wise and witty story of letting go and moving on.Best Staged Plans is Claire Cook at her most humorous and heartfelt."

I wanted to like this book. So much so that when my 21 days with Overdrive ran out before I had time to read a single line of it (hey! I'm a busy reader and I just checked out too many at once this time!) I checked it back out. Anyhow...

I felt like the book was kind of dragging along. I'm a quick reader and I tend to read 150 or so pages of whatever book at bedtime, more if I'm completely hooked (and not completely exhausted!). But I was reading this one only a chapter at a time. Which is why it took me a couple nights to reach 46%. I know it was 46% because that's what my Kindle Fire told me and also where I quit this book.

Backing up...The plot is basic about this woman who so desperately wants to move out of her family home and into something smaller, something fresh and new. In the process, she will be kicking her grown son out of her basement. Claire Cook switches between dialogue of the main character, Sandy, complaining that her family isn't doing enough to ready the house and flashbacks to when Sandy's children were young and the house was newly theirs. When an opportunity arises for Sandy to head to Atlanta to stage a hotel, she packs her bags (May I note that she does this without discussing the trip and extended stay with her husband. In fact she only tells him when he walks into the bedroom to find her packing.) and heads south.

Arriving in Atlanta she stays with her newlywed daughter, Shannon, and her son-in-law, Chance. For an unexplained reason she seems to despise Chance. She's just short of rude to her son-in-law (though it seems like up to this point she had been bitchy to everyone) with her only excuse being that she doesn't know what her daughter sees in him, though he is nice enough.

Back to way I stopped at 46%. Call me sensitive or defensive if you like. Upon arriving at her daughter's new home (which she also talks trash about), Sandy finds Shannon in the kitchen wearing omg! an apron while cooking dinner. Chance leaves the kitchen to sit in the living room while mother and daughter catch up. When Shannon announces that she needs to iron her husband's work shirt all hell breaks loose. Sandy embarks on a two page tangent on how she raised her daughter better than this, that women fought and died for the rights to equality that Shannon so clearly chooses to throw away, and why on earth did Sandy waste all that money on Shannon's education just to have it wasted. Seriously. All over cooking dinner for her mother's arrival, wearing an apron...to protect her clothes, and ironing her husband's shirt. Seriously. Oh but wait, Mom wearing just joshing you! Hahahahahahahaha CLICK, I am so beyond done with this book.

As I said, maybe I'm defensive but this just grated on my nerves. While yes I am a stay at home mom, my husband and I share responsibilities in the home. We did this before kids, before I left the work force and will continue to do it. I do wifey things for him, but he helps me with things as well. But even if I did all the "wife" duties, that doesn't make me a slave for my husband nor does it throw away women's rights. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing household things...besides someone has to do it right? What is Chance is a terrible at ironing? I know I am! What got me the most was when Sandy's blood boils over the whole thing. Why is it so terrible that her daughter did this one thing?

Anyway, this book was dry and in my case offensive. I wasn't very into it to begin with, but that whole thing just ended it for me. The cover was very pretty though. ;)