What's On Your Nightstand? July 27, 2010

Heavens to Betsy! I am definitely still feeling overwhelmed. I want to read everything! The first picture is of the library books I have checked out right now. The second stack is the Steeple Hill books. The third picture is of the books I need to read and review. I have more books on my TBR but these three stacks are the organized. lol I am currently reading Crazy Love by Frances Chan and it is really good. I am feeling very convicted. I am also reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake which I hope to finish tonight. I am going to the beach on August 18 for four days so I will be taking a lot of books with me. :)

What's On Your Nightstand? January 26, 2010

I love this meme from 5 Minutes for Books.
http://www.5minutesforbooks.com/
The goal is for others to see what you are reading/going to be reading. I love visiting everyone's blog and seeing their lists/pictures. I choose pictures because I have a large TBR and its easier to see them. One stack is my library books I have checked out. It is not too bad right now. One stack is all the Love Inspired books I need to read. I had it somewhat read down before the end of the year but it is now out of control again. I need to read one a night to get it back under control. lol They are short, fast, easy, usually good books. The other two stacks are books sent to me to read and review. I am so excited about them. I can't wait to read them. :)

The New Classics Bookclub

I participated in this off and on last year. Some of the books were rereads for me or just too long. I really like the changes they are making this year. I am participating in several reading challenges where I will be reading classics so I will use them for this also. :)

From the 5 Minutes for Books Website:
http://www.5minutesforbooks.com/2191/the-new-classics-bookclub-sign-up/

-We are going to reduce the frequency to quarterly — meeting up here on the 5th Tuesday of the month. Each quarter you can link up your reviews and thoughts of the classics that we've read over the previous quarter.

-You pick the books you want to read, you pick when you want to read them, and you pick how many you'll read.

-It's my hope that even though we aren't reading the same book, we'll still build a community of classics-lovers. If someone posts a review of a book you've read, go over and comment and join in the discussion, just as if we were holding a regular "bookclub chat." I also think that by doing it this way, we'll find books that we want to add to our list, or read reviews that will convince us that we can finally take a book that we thought we really should be read off that list for good.

What's On Your Nightstand?

What's On Your Nightstand is hosted by 5 Minutes for Books and is on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

The above pictures are the books on my dresser which I use kinda like a nightstand. The middle stack does not have deadlines they are just for fun.That stack is actually smaller than last month. I have read lots of my Love Inspired Suspense books. I have other books but I am not sure which library books I will be keeping out and which ones are going back. There are some that cannot be rechecked anymore. :)

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center and 5 Minutes for Books Bookclub

About the book:
Lanie Coates’s life is spinning out of control. She’s piled everything she owns into a U-Haul and driven with her husband, Peter, and their three little boys from their cozy Texas home to a multiflight walkup in the Northeast. She’s left behind family, friends, and a comfortable life–all so her husband can realize his dream of becoming a professional musician. But somewhere in the eye of her personal hurricane, it hits Lanie that she once had dreams too. If only she could remember what they were.

These days, Lanie always seems to rank herself dead last–and when another mom accidentally criticizes her appearance, it’s the final straw. Fifteen years, three babies, and more pounds than she’s willing to count since the day she said “I do,” Lanie longs desperately to feel like her old self again. It’s time to rise up, fish her moxie out of the diaper pail, and find the woman she was before motherhood capsized her entire existence.

Lanie sets change in motion–joining a gym, signing up for photography classes, and finding a new best friend. But she also creates waves that come to threaten her whole life. In the end, Lanie must figure out once and for all how to find herself without losing everything else in the process.

Katherine Center’s Everyone Is Beautiful is a hugely entertaining, poignant, and charming new novel about what happens after happily ever after: how a woman learns to fall in love with her husband–and her entire life–all over again.

My Review:
I read Everyone is Beautiful for the 5 Minutes for Books Book club. The link to the site is http://www.5minutesforbooks.com/
There will be several things going on there for the book club discussion today.

I liked the book. I laughed in many parts. Overall I enjoyed it. I am not married and have no children so it did not touch me as strongly as it did other women. Although it did seem very real. Any woman can identify with not feeling beautiful. One of the main theme's of the book is that everyone is really beautiful just not all in Hollywood's way. I did not understand what all the fuss was about the book before but now I do. I definitely recommend it to all women. :)


About the author:
Katherine Center is the author of The Bright Side of Disaster. She graduated from Vassar College, where she won the Vassar College Fiction Prize, and received an MA in fiction from the University of Houston. She served as fiction co-editor for the literary magazine Gulf Coast, and her graduate thesis, Peepshow, a collection of stories, was a finalist for the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. A former freelance writer and teacher, she lives in Houston with her husband and two young children.

www.katherinecenter.com

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This month for the Classics Bookclub hosted by 5 Minutes for books.com I reread The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I studied it in high school but I really did not remember all the details. The writing is beautiful and there are several good quotations from it. I love this book cover. The main theme is the achieving the American Dream and the book proposed that was what Gatsby was after. Did he achieve it is one of the big questions? I think that may be where the title came from. Overall it is a good story and I think that is why it remains a classic. I love the last page especially the last lines of the book and they really stuck with me so I want to post them here.


Gatsby believed in the green light, The orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . And one fine morning --

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.



Next month's book is Everyone Is Beautiful by Katherine Center. We will be alternating classics with contemporary from here on.

What's On Your Nightstand Tuesday Hosted by 5 Minutes for Books

My immediate TBR with deadlines.

More TBR some timeline some not.

Combination

My Library Stack:

Some days I feel a little overwhelmed. So many books so little time and I want to read them all. :)

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

This month at 5 Minutes for Books the Classics Bookclub read Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. I was excited because I could not remember if I ever read it and I wanted to. FYI This was my first time reading it. It was great. I think it is a wonderful adventure story and I enjoyed all the places that they stopped at. The characters are interesting and to me Passepartout stands out the most. I highly recommend this book. :)
My favorite I also really liked is Journey to the Center of the Earth which I have reread several times.

The First Lines Which I loved:
Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world.

Summary:
Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions £20,000 that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days, and he is determined not to lose. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, the reserved Englishman immediately sets off for Dover, accompanied by his hot-blooded French manservant, Passepartout. Traveling by train, steamship, sailboat, sledge, and even elephant, they must overcome storms, kidnappings, natural disasters, Sioux attacks, and the dogged Inspector Fix of Scotland Yard to win the extraordinary wager. Combining exploration, adventure, and a thrilling race against time, Around the World in Eighty Days gripped audiences upon its publication and remains hugely popular to this day.

What's On Your Nightstand? March 24, 2009

The short stack is my to review very soon TBR. The middle top is also review soon. The rest are I want to read but they are not review copies. The third stack is a combination of review and library books. I loaned the School of Essential Ingredients to my Mom so I will read it when it comes back to me and it is a library book.

5 Mintues for Books Classics Bookclub-Hamlet

This month's selection was Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
Apparently I am not good at reading plays without a teacher. I did not finish Hamlet. I think I am going to rent one of the movies others are recommending and then try it again.

What's On Your Nightstand? December

On My nightstand I have a few challenge books to finish before December 31, 2008. Also some review books coming up and a few contests too. :)


By the Decades:
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Chamber Music by James Joyce
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hobbit by J. R. Tolkien


The A-Z Challenge
Sky Burial by Xinran
A Valley of Betrayal by Tricia Goyer
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro


Review Books
The American Patriot's Handbook by William Bennett and John T.E. Cribb
Only Nuns Change Habits Overnight by Karen Scalf Linamen
Never Say Diet by Chantel Hobbs
Gatekeepers by Robert Liparulo
Blood Lines by Mel Odom
Fireflies in December by Jennifer Vanlent
Sweetwater Gap by Denise Hunter


Other
How Not to Die by Dr. G
Hamlet by William Shakespeare (for 5 Mintues for Books Classics Challenge)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for the 5 Mintues for Books Classics BookClub. I was actually supposed to have this post up last Tuesday but at least it is here is the way I have been going this week.



I am surprised that I have not read this classic before. I have read Great Expectations many times. I have read Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities and I think one other. I am a fan of Charles Dickens. All that to say I did like the print version of A Christmas Carol. I have seen the stage version many times and of course the different movie variations. I kept hearing in my head the sound effects and seeing past performances. So that did distract some for me.



I felt like the book had details in it that I do not remember from the stage and movie productions. I really liked reading Dickens's famous words for myself like God Bless Us Everyone said by Tiny Tim. The language and different sayings in the book are interesting. I heard Dickens's version in his words. But I like the stage/movie version too. I don't think I can pick one version as a favorite. I think that is a testament to Charles Dickens and his original story. The characters are interesting and plot unique as in the original. I think everyone knows at least the basics of this timeless tale. It encourages us to see beyond ourselves and not be selfish. I think it is a long lasting classic and deserves it.


I highly recommend reading A Christmas Carol even if you have already seen another form of it. It is definitely worth it. :)

What's On Your Nightstand? November 25, 2008 Edition

What's On Your Nightstand is hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the fourth Tuesday of every month. The purpose is share what you are currently reading and see what others are reading. Currently I have bookmarks in a lot of books but most have been moved to the TBR shelf. My current stack I keep on my dresser and sometimes nightstand. My camera is dead and we cannot find the charger so I will just list what I am working on right now. :)



1. The Truth About You- Your Secret to Success by Marcus Buckingham (Nonfiction)





2. Shadows of Colossus by T. L. Higley (Fiction)









3. Dark Pursuit by Brandilyn Collins (Fiction)










4. The Jesus Who Never Lived by H. Wayne House (Nonfiction)






5. Healing Waters by Nancy Rue and Stephen Arterburn (Fiction) Cannot wait to read;loved the first Healing Stones.








6. Every Now and Then by Karen Kingsbury (Fiction)











Plus the various other books that I need to finish for the Fall Reading Challenge 2008 which ends on December 20. And the other books for challenges I need to finish before December 31.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

For the month of October I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith as part of the Classics Bookclub at 5 Minutes for Books. I am amazed that I have not read this book before now. I read tons of books in school. I am very grateful that I read this book. This is the story of Francie Nolan who grows up in pre WWI Brooklyn. Her family and her are very poor but in the end she still looks upon her childhood with a certain fondness. The book is full of memorable characters like her aunts and grandmother. It is not a fast paced novel but a journey throughout the Nolans life. I was a little unhappy with the ending. I wanted to know what definitely happens to Francie. Over all even though it deals sometimes with difficult subject matter I do highly recommend this.

What's On Your Nightstand? October 28, 2008 Edition

It's the fourth Tuesday of the month, so that means it's time for another edition of What's On My Nightstand over at 5 Minutes For Books

My camera is missing in action so this month I will have to list the titles. I keep most of my TBR stack on my dresser. My nightstand holds my older TBR stack.

On my dresser now:

* The Face by Angela Hunt

* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Bettie Smith

* Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet

* Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

* An Irishwoman's Tale by Patti Lacy

* Forsaken by James David Jordan

* Rain Song by Alice Wisler

* Out of her Hands by Megan DiMaria

* Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin

* One Holy Night by J. M. Hocestler

* White Christmas Pie by Wanda Brunsetter

* Jesus Take the Wheel by Stuart Migdon

* The Life and Death of Gabriel Phillips by Stephen Baldwin and Mark Tabb

What's On Your Nightstand? (A Day Late)

***Instead of just a picture of my nightstand I took one of my dresser which is where I keep the most current TBR stack. Most of these are on my Fall Into Reading Challenge List.***

What's On Your Nightstand?

I have taken pictures of my TBR stacks again. What I am immediately reading is on my nightstand and dresser. The bookshelf is also TBR. To participate click on the icon above.

Classics Bookclub hosted by 5 Minutes for books

I am joining another somewhat reading challenge. This one is hosted by 5 Minutes for Books. With this challenge a different book considered to be a classic will be picked for every month and on the first Tuesday of that month a discussion will take place.

From their website:

So here's the challenge:

Read or re-read the book in question (this month it's Pride and Prejudice).

If you'd like write a "before" post stating why you are reading the book, or what your impressions are going into it, feel free.

Whether or not you write a before post, link up your after post on the day in question. Our host (this month it's Lisa) will give you some questions to ponder or address in your wrap-up post if you'd like.

If you'd like to visit and comment on other's wrap-up posts, you can truly enjoy the virtual book club.

So, grab the book and start reading! On September 2 you'll find us here waiting for you to share your thoughts. Lisa will post some questions sometime the week before if you'd like a little guidance.

What's On Your Nightstand?

5 Minutes for Books is hosting a What's On Your Nightstand? Meme every fourth Tuesday of the month. You can take pictures and post them or write a description etc. of what books are on your nightstand.


I took pictures(somewhat blurry and off centered ;) I took the books off my nightstand and put them on my bed to take the picture. Then I took a picture of the books on my dresser. And then I took a picture of the books on my shelves that are TBR just for extra.



Little Baby is my reading buddy. :)










On that shelf only the ones that are stacked are in the TBR pile. The ones behind vertical I have read. The two shelves above that are in the TBR pile and yet I still keep buying books. ;)