Shelving Saturday - #3

Welcome to Shelving Saturday

Shelving Saturday is a weekly blog event I have started here at Eastern Sunset Reads.   Each week I will post a shelving dilemma or question and you can join me in the response. Please feel free to post on your blog and link back here, please be sure to post the link to your response in the comments so I can come and check your Shelving day out!

Today's Shelving Saturday Question:  Do you have a shelf dedicated to a particular author? Or perhaps rather long series by an author?

I do (actually I have a couple)!

I started reading Robin Cook's medical mysteries when I was in high school and planning on becoming a neurosurgeon. I absolutely loved each one of his books so I have continued to collect them. There are so many I have dedicated an entire shelf to his books.  I don't quite have them all so Thomas Harris has joined him on the shelf and one of Laurell K. Hamilton's as well, just as space holders until I do finish my Robin Cook collection.

I also have a shelf dedicated to all the Saddle Club Books by Bonnie Bryant.  This was a set of books I loved as a girl. My friend and I use to act them out, and pretend that we were the characters on our horses.  I was Carol and she was Stevie.  It took me a while to get all of the books but I finally did, all 108 of them! The shelf now shares with several of my middle reader horse book collections (this shelf is usually stacked double deep but I pulled the first row off so you could see the set).

So tell me about your favorite authors that have whole shelves or boxes in your home! Lets see those pictures too if you have them!

~Ang

In My Mailbox - #3 & Bedtime Story: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

   In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by The Story Siren that I have decided to participate in.

How IMM works:
Make your own IMM post! You can post about books you've bought, gotten from the library, received for review... books don't have to arrive via your mailbox. 
I post every week, but you don’t have to. You can do one week out of the month or every other week it’s up to you. 
You don't have to call your post In My Mailbox... (some people don't even have mailboxes!)
I post my IMM on Sunday, but choose a day of the week that works for you.
Once you have your IMM posted, come back to The Story Siren on Sunday and add your link to the list. 
Try to post a comment on other bloggers IMM posts. I don’t expect you to post a comment on every single one, but pick a few!

All book bloggers are welcome, while I’d like to keep the theme to YA literature it’s NOT a requirement.

There is no right or wrong way to do In My Mailbox, you can vlog, you can take fun picture, you can use the books cover art, it’s up to you!

Most importantly HAVE FUN!

So Here is my In My Mailbox #3

Barnes and Noble had a great sale for the classics that I need for my own personal reading challenge so . . .

I picked up the following titles:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

War and Peace by Leo Tulstoy

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Anna Karenina by Leo Tulstoy

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

And you see that last book?! A person on the mlparena announced that she had the first book in a trilogy published so I had to get a copy for myself!

The Secret of Shadow by T.J. Silver

Synopsis: "Charbroiling a cheerleader, twisting a tornado in history class, darting head-on into a Shadow-wing dragon named Drakyus...it wasn't exactly how Thunderstorm Valdar had pictured his first day at his new school, Paracelsus Academy. Thunder and his family had just relocated from Chicago to Silver Oak, a move he wasn't thrilled about. Up until that fateful day, Thunder had been an ordinary - though socially awkward - teenager who didn't know that his uneventful life was about to change forever."

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

And Now for a little bedtime story . . . .

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barret

Synopsis: "The tiny town of Chewandswallow was very much like any other tiny town except for its weather which came three times a day, at breakfast, lunch and dinner. But it never rained rain and it never snowed snow and it never blew just wind. It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed things like mashed potatoes. And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers. Life for the townspeople was delicious until the weather took a turn for the worse. The food got larger and larger and so did the portions. Chewandswallow was plagues by damaging floods and storms of huge food. The town was a mess and the pople feared for their lives. Something had to be done, and in a hurry."

From Amazon.com

My Review:  I had never read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs before, and I don't recall my parents ever reading it to me or my brother either.  Now that I have read it I can kind of understand why.  Honestly, I was not thrilled with this book. I don't really understand the point of the story, there really wasn't a moral to it. Granted it was a fun little story the grandfather told but not something I would read to my own kids.

My Rating:  I think I would give Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs a rating of 2 Paw Prints.  Unfortunately, I think the movie was better than the book this time.

Follow Friday - #1

 To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1. (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list
2. (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers - http://magnet4books.blogspot.com
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "HI"
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you're new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

I decided to join in Follow Fridays, you can never have too many friends and I always have fun reading new blogs.

Q. Circle time! Time to share. What character in a book would you most like to be, what character in a book would you most like to date?

Its hard to remember all the wonderful characters from the books I have read. I think though I would choose to be one of the heroines from the Camelot series by Sarah Zettel.  I have always wanted to be a strong woman character, who can stand her ground, fit, with a quick wit and most importantly shoot a bow and arrow, something I am determined to learn some day.

Or I thought about Anita Blake written by Laurell K. Hamilton, just because she is such a bad a$$.  She is so cool, strong, confident, sexy, everything every girl wants to be (and she gets to play with the coolest weapons), but I wouldn't want to be dealing with all the magical stuff or 'Mommy Dearest' like she has to.

As far as someone I would date, with out a doubt it would be Brigan from Fire by Kristin Cashore! The depth of his character, the harsh exterior, the amount of confidence and knowledge he has, especially considering he was put under a lot of pressure.  I love how as you get to know him you see the tender side that raises his daughter, and the gentle hand with a horse. I definitely love his character!

Ok enough of my yammering on and on!  How about you? Who would you be or date?

May RAK

I signed up for my first month of RAK - and already have plans for a few of my own to send out ;)   Please join us . . . .

RULES:

• Sign up each month that you'd like to participate.

• Show off your participation by grabbing our RAK button :)

• Create a wish list (on Amazon, Goodreads, or your blog etc) and post it in the Google Doc located in each R.A.K post for the month.

• If you choose to do a R.A.K for someone, check out their wish list and contact that blogger for their address.

• At the end of the month, SHOW US YOUR R.A.K!

Make a post saying 'Thank You' to whoever granted one of your wishes and share it with us :)

OPEN TO EVERYONE!

Let's keep our International bloggers in mind and in our hearts.

Remember, there's always the Book Depository and they offer FREE shipping!

Easy peasy!

Booking Through Thursday - #2

Booking through Thursday is a weekly event hosted by Deb at BTT

This weeks Question is:

And–the reverse of last week’s question. Name one book that you hope never, ever, ever gets made into a movie (no matter how good that movie might be).

This is much more difficult than last week's question, being as the movies I would not want turned into movies already have been. 

Of the books I have recently read I think the one I wouldn't want made into a movie would be Pegasus by Robin McKinley.  No matter how fantastic the effects are in the movie I don't think it could ever live up to my image.  Also it would be so difficult to portray the mind speak that Sylvi & Ebon use as well as the horse language itself. If it did happen to though, I would be so horribly disappointed that the Pegasi don't really exist. I would be crushed.


How about you?

Review: Broken Chords by Barbara Snow Gilbert

Broken Chords by Barbara Snow Gilbert

Synopsis from Goodreads: "Chronicles 17-year-old Clara's struggle to live up to her musical potential yet avoid the pressure of the cutthroat world of young musicians.

Seveven teen-year-old Clara Lorenzo has it all: a great family, friends, Marshall-her love interest waiting in the wings. And to top it all off, she is a brilliant pianist, on her way to a career doing what she loves best.

But does she? Sometimes Clara gets tired of constantly performing. She knows that her ability is more skill than passion. But if she stopped playing, her family would be heartbroken. Marshall would never understand.

Clara must decide whether she can risk giving up a world where her forte is revered for one unfamiliar and uncertain."

My Review:  Broken Chords was a fantastic YA book.  I didn't expect to love it as much as I did, as I don't read  a lot of YA books.  The emotions that Clara feels and the amount of pressure she feels is all too common.  Almost all teens feel the pressure to live up to their parents dreams for them.  Barbara Snow Gilbert did a great job of bringing you a long on Clara's struggles, you not only feel her pain but it reminds you of pain you yourself have felt at one point in time, making it all the more real.  It was a beautifully written book, one that I couldn't put down.

My Rating: I am giving Broken Chords a rating of Four Paws and a Stump Wag. The characters were very personable and the story line on a whole was very believable.  If you have the chance I urge you to pick this one up!

Waiting on Wednesday - #2

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My Pick:

Hit List (book 20 of the Anita Blake Series) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Synopsis from Barnes & Noble : "Word has leaked to Anita Blake that hit men are headed for St. Louis- and that she, Jean-Claude, and Richard are the targets."

You better believe I am downloading this on my Nook the Day it comes out & reading it all day!!

Teaser Tuesday and Catch up

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser this week comes from

A Clash of Kings, book 2 from the Song of Ice & Fire by George RR Martin

"True Killer? I confess, you make me curious. Who do you propose?"

In other news I haven't been active lately due to my schedule of doom starting, 3 weddings in the next 2 months including all the other parties to go along with them, and also 2 graduations.

I spent Sunday planting my flower gardens (I will have to get some pictures for you) and trying to seed the yard and get some actual grass growing.  I also took some time to teach Niko a new trick . . .  excuse the horrible picture but I wanted to get a quick picture before he broke (which I am happy to say he didn't move until I said he could)!

I know its not bookish but I just had to share it with you! I am so proud of our smart pooch!

~Ang