#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge – Weekly Update #2 April 11th

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Well another week has somehow slipped by. I am anxiously looking forward to the coming week since tax season is over in 4 more days and I will finally have more time for reading! I also have some fun vacations planned in the next couple months that I’m looking forward to. So anyways, I was able to get through 4 books this past week for the reading challenge: The Vintner’s Daughter, Cure for the Common Breakup, You’re So Fine, and Find Me (I finished it this morning so I will have the post up later today). The first 3 books I took out from the Bristol Public Library, and Find Me I borrowed from the Terryville Public Library.

So as part of the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge, there are optional weekly update posts. The topic for this week’s post is: Books you would like to suggest to your library. There have been a number of series and various books over the years that weren’t at my library that I wanted to read. That’s the great thing about CT libraries though, if my library doesn’t have a certain book I can look it up online and find out if another library in CT has it. I can then request that book and it is sent from the other library to my home library for me to borrow! Because of that, there haven’t been too many books over the years that I wasn’t able to find at the library. And for the handful of books that weren’t at any libraries that I could find, I would go to Barnes & Noble and buy the book and then donate it to my library once I finished it! Great system I think.

That being said, my home library usually ends up having the majority of the books that I’m looking for. Partly because I have similar reading interests to some of the librarians and also because they try to order things that they know the patrons will take out (even sometimes specifically me!). So with that in mind, below are a few of the books/series that I have looked for at my home library over the years and have been surprised that they didn’t have as well as a few I’d like to read from my TBR list that they don’t have:

1. The Fairy Tale series by Eloisa James

I thought that this was a really popular series and I was a little surprised that my library didn’t have the series! Especially since there are a lot of romance readers at my library.

2. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

This looks like a good teen series and those tend to be popular at my library.

3. The Great Beanie Baby Bubble by Zac Bissonnette

BEANIE BABIES WERE AWESOME! Every library should have this book, its so relevant to real life.

4. The Pocket Wife by Susan Crawford

To be honest I think my library might have gotten this book in the last couple days but I haven’t seen it there yet. This looks like a great book!

4Apr2015

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge – Weekly Update April 4th

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

As part of the #ReadingMyLibrary challenge, there are optional weekly update posts. This week’s topic is to talk a little about your library. Unfortunately I haven’t yet been able to finish any books for the challenge, this weekend is a busy church weekend for me. I hope to read two books in the next week though and I should have a lot more free time after April 15th (I’m an accountant during the day). Also as a side note if anyone is still interested in signing up, there is still time! You can sign up here until April 15th.

The Terryville Public Library is one of my absolute favorite places. Terryville is a relatively small town, pretty much just a blip on the map, but I think our library has a great selection of books and very good resources as well. I was fortunate enough to work at the library when I was in high school and I loved every minute of it. I have always loved reading so working at the library was a perfect fit for me. Stacking the shelves introduced me to a great number of books of all kinds.

When I went away to college, my home library was too far away to go to as regularly as I would like. So I began going to different libraries in the area to see what kind of book selections they had available. This taught me about my great love for not only my home base but all libraries. I love going to new libraries and exploring the different book selections and seeing all the different set-ups. There was one library up near school that I used to study at a lot. It had huge windows so there was a lot of natural light and they left out puzzles on the tables that people could do. It was this library that made me realize that libraries are hubs of the community. They are used not only for finding a book to read but are used for a great variety of resources and social outlets.

Getting back to my home base library, Terryville Library has a personal connection for me. When I was younger, my mother pointed out a portrait hanging in the library stairwell and told me that one of our relatives had been the head librarian at this library. Her name was Dorothy B. Wilcox, and she is my great-great aunt (there may be more or less greats in here, not exactly sure on the number of greats). Below are her portrait and a brief history of the Terryville Public Library, in which she is mentioned.

From the Terryville Public library Website:

History of the Terryville Public Library 1895 – 2015

The beginning of the Terryville Library dates back to 1839, during the Presidency of Martin Van Buren, when thirty citizens of the Town of Plymouth organized a private subscription library. The records of the Terryville Lyceum Library show that it flourished for twenty years. Shortly after the Civil War, interest dwindled. In 1891 the record ends. At that time, a group of far-sighted townspeople were determined that Terryville should have a free library. Miss Gertrude Ells was appointed librarian at 25 dollars a year and the Terryville Free Public Library was born. Shortly afterward , the Lyceum Library donated all of its books to the new library. The collection was housed in the court room in the town hall. In 1922, when the Terryville Public Library opened the door of the new colonial building, the head librarian was still Miss Gertrude Ells, who had as her assistant Mrs. Dorothy Wilcox. Miss Ells was succeeded in 1926 by Miss M. Gertrude Fenn, whose ancestors had been original subscribers of the Lyceum Library. Mrs. Nelly Baldwin was librarian from 1931 to 1938, succeeded by Mrs. Dorothy Wilcox. Mrs. Wilcox retired in 1964 after forty-two years of service and was succeeded by Mrs. John Cox, whose father James Murphy, was a member of the 1895 committee as well as the library building committee. She resigned in 1970 and was succeeded by Georgiana Miloenson who served until 1972. Mrs. Joyce Reid took office in 1972. The book collection in 1922 was roughly five thousand and is now numbered twenty thousand. In 1975 an addition was added to the present library and dedicated on February 22, 1976. This addition provided over 8,000 square feet to the to the original library. Between 1978 and 2006 there were four head librarians; Barbara Brown, Sandra Miranda, Frances Rice and Sharon LaCourse. Lynn White was appointed Director of the Terryville Public Library in January 2007. Portions were adapted from Plymouth, Connecticut 1776-1976 by J. Francis Ryan.

3Apr2015

Friday Finds (April 3)

Posted in Book memes, For the love of books, Friday Finds by rebeccabook17

FRIDAY FINDS is hosted by A Daily Rhythm and showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list. Whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

My finds this week include 2 different YA novels, a historical fiction and of course a romance:

1. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

I’ve always loved mythology, the stories about Greek gods were fascinating to me when I was younger. This book is about a girl who falls in love with a guy named Henry, who turns out to be Hades. And she will get to be a goddess if she decides to marry him. This is the first in a three (I think its only three) book series. It looks really interesting and I can’t wait to give it a try!

2. The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

Royal wedding! Need I say more? This is a love story of a girl name Rebecca (Woo!) who ends up falling in love with a prince. Just awesome all around.

3. At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen

While I haven’t read Water for Elephants yet, I heard it was a great book. And this book sounds like it will be a great hit as well, a man and wife go to Scotland in search of the Loch Ness Monster. I don’t usually include the blurbs here but even the description of the book was so well written. I love this specific piece “Maddie begins to see that nothing is as it first appears: the values she holds dear prove unsustainable, and monsters lurk where they are least expected.As she embraces a fuller sense of who she might be, Maddie becomes aware not only of the dark forces around her, but of life’s beauty and surprising possibilities.” How could you not want to read this book!!?

4. Heartbreak Cove by Lily Everett

I thought this sounded like a sweet love story. Woman sheriff takes her niece to a town for some quiet healing, and the niece likes horses. Nearby guy who rehabilitates abused horses helps out and then him and the sheriff fall in love. Just love the cover.

So those are my finds this week! Please feel free to share your finds or leave a link to your own “Friday Finds” blog posting below! Happy Friday!

31Mar2015

Bookish Bingo reading challenge – Wrap up

Posted in 2015, Bookish Bingo: Jan-March 2015, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Well this wasn’t the neatest arrangement (below) but I am still learning! So above is my bingo card, completed as much as possible. I’m really pleased with how well I did! I think that if the contest hadn’t been during tax season I would have had a very good chance of completing the whole card! I was able to check off all but five of the squares. Below is each of the books I read, which square they checked off, and if you click on the cover it will bring you to my review on the book. I had a lot of fun with this reading challenge, and I would definitely like to play a game of book bingo again. The three month reading challenge is a little tougher for me since there are so many other challenges and goals I’m trying to reach this year that I decided to set aside to work on the bingo challenge for this quarter. Definitely a lot of fun though and I tried a lot of books I probably never would have read otherwise. There are many different sites that have some form of book bingo, and I would definitely encourage everyone to try it!

2014 Release You Missed

Free Space!

Pink Cover

Blue Cover

Graphic Novel

Middle Grade

Over 400 Pages

Forgotten Fridays Pick

Mystery or Thriller

Fairy Tale Retelling

Romance

Based on Mythology

Start a Series

Epistolary

Magical Realism

Pretty Dress Cover

2015 Debut

Gold Lettering

Mental Illness

POC MC

29Mar2015

Top 5 books I’m Looking Forward to Reading on the Beach

Posted in For the love of books by rebeccabook17

With summer just around the bend, I am using all my powers of positive thinking to get through the last of the cold days of winter and looking forward to the warmth of spring and summer. And so to prepare for the wonderful upcoming summer, I’ve been considering which books I’d take with me if I were to be laying on a warm beach tomorrow. The following list is the five books I currently would like most to be reading on a beach right now.

1. Desperately Ever After by Laura Kenyon

This book is basically a “where are they now” story about our favorite fairy tale princesses. We catch up with Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Penelopea years after they’ve supposedly obtained their “happily ever afters.” I think this would be a fun book to read on the beach, it sounds funny and I love the fairy tale princesses.

2. The Marriage Season by Linda Lael Miller

This book is the third in the Brides of Bliss County series by this author. We will read the story of the third in a group of three girlfriends who is going to fall in love with the third in a group of guy friends. I really mostly want to read this story to find out what the other two charms on the charm bracelet are. Silly I know but it still bothers me that we never found out what the charm for the woman in the last book was. Also I think this will be a light, cheerful read which can sometimes make a really good beach read.

3. The One That Got Away by Bethany Chase

This is a debut novel by Chase. The author is said to have a writing style similar to that of Jennifer Weiner and Emily Giffin, both of which I very much enjoy. I think this would be a good one to read on the beach since it sounds really interesting to me and if her writing style really is similar to those two authors I have a feeling this book is going to just suck me right into the story.

4. This One Is Mine by Maria Semple

I read another book by Maria Semple earlier this year and just loved it. It dragged me into the story and didn’t release me. I devoured it in a day. I’m hoping that I love this book just as much. And if it devours me just as quickly, it could make a great beach read.

5. Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

This book sounds pretty scary to me so I think reading it in the sunlight surrounded by a ton of people is the best way to go. Girls going missing and sisters torn apart, and I guess an unexpected twist that you’ll never see coming.

So those are the five books that I am most looking forward to reading on the beach this summer. What about you? What books are you looking forward to diving into on the beach?

28Mar2015

April reading challenge – #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

For the month of April I will be participating in the #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge hosted by Caught Read Handed and Read What I Like. This challenge is designed to encourage participants to read books that they obtained from a library. They can be any kind of form of book: e-book, physical book, audio book, etc. The reading challenge runs from April 1 to 30. You only have to read one book to participate but if you decide to read more, every five books you read over the initial one will earn you another entry for a chance to win a prize. For more on the rules for this challenge, you can visit either blog listed above. There is also a handy-dandy schedule that you can use to make sure you stay on track!

One of the things I’m really excited about with this reading challenge is the Library Scavenger Hunt the hosts have planned. Not a lot of details on this yet but it will run from April 15 to 30. Make sure to check back to see more on this fun activity!

I thought this challenge would be especially fitting to participate in since National Library Week is April 12 to 18. I tend to make very good use of my library, though the past couple months I have been buying more books than I have been getting from the library. So I am excited to utilize my local libraries a lot more this coming month! Make sure to check back to see my progress! For anyone else who is interested in signing up, the home page for the challenge is here and the hosts answer FAQs here. Happy Reading everyone!

28Mar2015

Gretna Green

Posted in For the love of books by rebeccabook17

Unfortunately, this was supposed to have posted on St. Patrick’s Day but was mistakenly saved as a draft instead of posting. Definitely a user error! Hopefully all you readers will keep in mind that this was posted with Ireland in mind on St. Patrick’s Day. Happy reading!

If you read historical romance novels, odds are you have read one from the Georgian or Regency era. And odds are there’s been some mention of Gretna Green. But for those of you who aren’t aware (and in connection-ish with today’s holiday, St Patrick’s Day!) Gretna Green is part of Dumfries and is a town just over the border of Scotland traveling from England. It is on what was a main coaching route from England to Scotland and is located at the junction of five old coaching roads, the junction being known as “Headless Cross.” And because of its location, Gretna Green became well known for runaway marriages. This tradition began about halfway through the 18th century when Lord Hardwiske’s Marriage Act was signed into law in England. Under this Act, no minor (under the age of 21) was allowed to get married without parental consent. However, in Scotland, boys were able to marry by age 14 and girls able to marry at age 12 with or without the consent of their parents.

This difference in laws created a large influx of young men and women who would flock to Scotland to get married against their parents wishes. And given Gretna Green’s convenient location (right over the border and on the main route from London to Scotland in the 1750’s) many couples would immediately stop here to get hitched as soon as possible. And luckily, in Scotland it was easy to find someone to marry you since, as long as your had two witnesses, almost anyone really could perform a “handfasting” ceremony or a “marriage by declaration.” Since the blacksmith shop was a central hub of towns at this time, most of these runaway marriages were performed over the blacksmith’s anvil, and blacksmiths in Gretna Green became known as “anvil priests.” As noted from the Gretna Green Wedding website “the hammering of the anvil soon became a notorious sound; romantically it is said that like the meals he forged, the Blacksmith would join couples together in the heat of the moment but bind them for eternity.”

To this day, people still flock to Gretna Green to get married, I’m sure some find the concept and tradition romantic (I do). It is mentioned in a lot of books and was even mentioned on the well-known TV Show Downtown Abbey. Even further, Gretna Green marriages have come to represent a general term for marriages that are entered into in a different location than where they live so that they can avoid certain laws or restrictions imposed on them in their home town/country. These “runaway marriage” locations in the United States have included at certain points Elkton, Maryland, Reno, and Las Vegas.

If you’d like further information on getting married at Gretna Green, there is a website you can visit here.

13Mar2015

Friday Finds (March 13)

Posted in Book memes, For the love of books, Friday Finds by rebeccabook17

My finds this week include a memoir, a YA thriller, and of course a romance:

1. He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter’s Quest to Know Him by Mimi Baird and Eve Claxton

This book looks at a man’s life in dealing with manic depression and how it affected the daughter who was forever apart from him. I think that this will be a very interesting book, and there are a lot of “good” things being said about it by numerous sources, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. When I say good I don’t mean happy, skip down the lane holding hands good. This is quoted as being a “disturbing and profoundly moving book” and while I’m sure it will be heart-wrenching, I think it will be a thought-provoking read.

2. The Memory Key by Liana Liu

I think this sounds like its going to be a great book. At some point in the future, there is a viral form of Alzheimer’s that ravages the nation so everyone is issued “memory chips” that are installed in their brains to help them hold onto memories. The heroine’s memory chip gets damaged, so then she starts remembering odd things, but who can tell if they’re real memories or just products of a damaged memory chip? We will find out! (Hopefully)

3. The One That Got Away by Bethany Chase

This is Chase’s debut novel. Amazon compares her writing to that of Emily Giffin, who I’ve fallen in love with this year. I’m excited to give this one a try.

So those are my finds this week! Please feel free to share your finds or leave a link to your own “Friday Finds” blog posting below! Happy Friday!

4Mar2015

Waiting on Wednesday (7): 7 Brides for 7 Bodies by Stephanie Bond

Posted in "Waiting On" Wednesday, Book memes by rebeccabook17

“Waiting On” Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases.

This week’s spotlight is on:

7 Brides for 7 Bodies by Stephanie Bond

Release Date: March 17, 2015

Blurb from the cover (Amazon):

Happily never after…
Carlotta Wren’s life has taken a startling turn–she’s not sure what’s going to happen next. So when her retail job temporarily plants her in the world of wedding planning, she’s happy for the distraction–at first. Because the happily-ever-after setting only heightens the stress surrounding the decisions she faces about her romantic life. The three hot men vying for her attention aren’t going to wait forever for her answer.
On the other hand, at least the bridal show gets her away from body moving for a while, right? Wrong. Because when grooms all over Atlanta start dropping like flies, once again, Carlotta finds herself square in the middle of a murder mystery!

Why Am I Waiting?

I have read every book in the series so far, granted it was a couple of years ago that the last book came out so its been awhile since I’ve read them. But I have been waiting FOREVER for this book to come out it feels like. This is an entertaining and funny series and I think I might re-read the series before I read this book since its been so long since I’ve read any of them. I would definitely recommend giving this series a try! I can’t wait for this book, I’m so excited!

28Feb2015

The Book Blogging Community

Posted in For the love of books by rebeccabook17

I just started blogging during the last year and I really feel that in the past year a whole new world has been opened up to me. The Book Blogging community is astoundingly vast. There are so many people who want to share their opinions on the books they read and to connect with other people who like those books as well. When my husband first suggested to me last year that I should start a blog about my reading, I thought to myself “no one cares what I think about the books I read.” But I’ve found that there is a large not only community but also an audience for book bloggers. People actually are interested in your thoughts about the books you’re reading, especially other book bloggers! The social aspect of book blogging is a great way to get the word out about your blog and increase your followers. Its also a great way to find new interesting books to read!

One of the things I recently discovered is the world of book memes. Book memes are a great way to become more involved in the book blogger community. A meme is usually where you take a picture and add words to them to make the picture more comical (examples can be found here) but a book meme, specifically for blog posts, is a posting with a certain topic that ties in with the day of the week. Usually one site will “host” the book meme and then everyone who posts on that topic can put a link on the host site’s page. This makes it easy to connect with other bloggers posting on the same topic and see how their ideas compare to yours. And the good news is that there are just tons of them. A few examples of book memes that I know of are Friday Finds, Waiting on Wednesday, and Top Ten Tuesday. These are just the few that I have participated in, but you can find a more extensive listing here.

Another interesting aspect of book blogging is reading challenges. The whole idea for my blog started because my mom and I decided we were each going to set goals for ourselves for the year (in 2014), me with my reading and her with quilting. Suffice it to say, I love challenging myself to read more books each year and to read a variety. Due to that, I have been very excited by the great number of reading challenges that are incorporated into the book blogging world. And its also fun to create your own reading challenges. Last year I “hosted” a Spooky Series Reading Challenge for October, and though I was the only one to participate, I still had a great time. This year I’ve joined into a few reading challenges from other blogs, including the TBR Pile Reading Challenge at the Roof Beam Reader site covering all of 2015 and Pop Sugar Reading Challenge for 2015. And a really awesome one I found in January is the Bookish Bingo from the Great Imaginations blog. You get a bingo square with different kinds of books in all the spots. Its really interesting and due to my LENGTHY to be read listing, I am usually able to find books to fit the categories from ones I have been wanting to read but never got around to. Plus I’m discovering a few new books that I never knew about! And that’s just a handful of reading challenges you can find on the web, here’s a listing of a few more.

I recently learned that there are a lot of great resources for book bloggers. There are directories and how-to’s and checklists and pretty much anything and everything a beginning book blogger could ask for. One of these sites is bookblogging.net, which I know will be a site that I am definitely going to use in the future. There are over 1,000 book blogs listed on this site, and the site has a directory for current reading challenges, book memes, blogs, giveaways, and events. Another site is bookbloggerlist.com which looks like a great site for finding other blogs to connect with. I liked that you could pick your blog to be listed under multiple categories on this site as well. I read a decent (though I could be better) variety of books and I don’t like to have my blog required to be pegged down to one category. And the last one I wanted to mention is the Book Blogger Directory Blog which also looks like it will be a great tool in discovering new blogs to connect with.

So overall I think you can tell that I’m really happy to be part of the book blogging community. I’ve learned a lot in the past year and I look forward to growing my blog in the future. Thanks to my loyal followers!