The Sunday Salon Monday December 26, 2011

* Happy day after Christmas! We had a great holiday. My sister and I did Christmas breakfast with my Dad's side of the family and Christmas lunch with my Mom's side. We are so blessed to have so much family close by.

* My big presents this year were a Cuisinart food processor and a Nook tablet (to be shared with my sister). I have been slow to jump on the ereader wagon but I did read a novella on it last night and it was not bad. I doubt I will switch all the way over to it. I have a ton of books on my TBR shelves and there is nothing like holding a real book in your hands and turning the page. :)

* I am still on an unofficial blogging break until January. I needed a break to reevaluate and breathe. I am still working on my goals for next year and I almost positive I will only be doing a few reading challenges. I failed most of the over twenty I signed up for this year. I am worn out on them too. I get excited when I see them come out but I don't have the time and energy to follow through.

* I have been off the diet wagon for the past few months and today was the day to start back. I did not count calories but made better choices. The ocd medicine the doctor has me on is really working and I am having a hard time counting calories and keeping up with what I eat. I want to get in shape and live a healthy active lifestyle.

* Off to read.  I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and plenty of reading time. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Lost Melody by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingLost MelodyZondervan (October 25, 2011)byLori Copeland and Virginia Smith



ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Lori lives in the beautiful Ozarks with her husband Lance. Lance and Lori have three sons, three daughter-in-laws, and six wonderful grandchildren, and two great-granddaughters. Lance and Lori are very involved in their church, and active in supporting mission work in Mali, West Africa.



Lori began her writing career in 1982, writing for the secular book market. In 1995, after many years of writing, Lori sensed that God was calling her to use her gift of writing to honor Him. It was at that time that Lori began writing for the Christian book market. To date, she has had over 100 books published.

Virginia Smith is the author of more than a dozen Christian novels and over fifty articles and short stories. Her books have been named finalists in the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, the American Christian Fiction Writer's Book of the Year Award, and ACFW's Carol Award.



A Certified Lay Speaker for the United Methodist Church, Ginny's messages are always well-received by a variety of audiences in conferences, retreats and churches across the country. When she isn't writing or speaking, Ginny and her husband, Ted, enjoy exploring the extremes of nature – snow skiing in the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City, motorcycle riding on the curvy roads in central Kentucky, and scuba diving in the warm waters of Mexico and the Caribbean.



ABOUT THE BOOK

The beautiful piano sitting in the corner of Jill King's apartment begs to be played. For over a year, it has sat untouched, ever since a terrible accident shattered Jill's ambition of becoming a concert pianist. The ragged scar on her left hand is a cruel and constant reminder of the death of her dream. But another dream is about to come to life---an unexpected, horrifying dream that will present Jill with a responsibility she never wanted. And choices she never wanted to make. Hundreds of lives depend on Jill's willingness to warn her small, oceanside town in Nova Scotia of a nameless, looming disaster. But doing so could cost Jill her reputation, jeopardize the political career of the man she loves, and ruin their plans for a future together. The fate of an entire community hangs in the balance as Jill wrestles with the cost of heeding one still, small voice.



If you would like to read a chapter excerpt of Lost Melody, go HERE.

The Sunday Salon November 27, 2011

* It is always hard to believe when it is Sunday night. Especially hard when we have a long holiday like Thanksgiving. It flew by but I am ready to go back to work. I am creature of routine. I am not ready for Christmas and a new year.

* We only have a little over a month left in 2011. I have a lot of goals to achieve. I want to start the new year with  a clean slate. I want to be caught up on all my review books. My motto this year was Building a Better Brittanie. I have not achieved what I wanted to. I had it and lost it rather. I am trying to think what I want 2012 to be like for my life and come up with a motto. Book wise I have already decided to accept less review books to focus more on reading whatever captures my attention whenever with no pressure. I want to find the pleasure reading used to have for me.

* In my personal life I want to lose the five pounds I gained back and go completely Paleo and stay that way. It feels like it will never happen because I keep falling off the wagon and it seems if it was something I truly wanted  I would make it happen. I lived the past week like mostly before summer 2010 when I started working out and changing my lifestyle and it stinks. The Texas cheese fries and chips and salsa at Chile's are good but not worth the hell that comes with it. It takes effort to change for good I know that. It seems like one part of me cares and the other doesn't and they are at war with each other inside me. It is not a pleasant place to live right now. I need peace and joy and happiness. I know I do not have a bad life and I am very blessed.

* Thank you for reading my ramblings. I hope everyone has a great week with lots of reading time. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee

***I am on page 216 out of 376 and I hope to finish it this week. It is different than most of what I read. It is good so far and of course well written. Both of these authors are great. ***

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card authors are:

Ted Dekker
and
Tosca Lee

and the book:

Forbidden

Center Street (September 13, 2011)

***Special thanks to Sarah Reck, Web Publicist | FaithWords & Center Street | Hachette Book Group, for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

TED DEKKER is a New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels with a total of more than 5 million books in print. He is known for thrillers that combine adrenaline-laced plots with incredible confrontations between good and evil.



Visit the author's website.





TOSCA LEE left her position working with Fortune 500 Companies as a Senior Consultant for the Gallup Organization to pursue her first love: writing. She is the critically-acclaimed author of Demon and Havah and is best known for her humanizing portraits of maligned characters. She makes her home in the Midwest.


Visit the author's website.

Check out the Forbidden Facebook!

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Many years have passed since civilization's brush with apocalypse. The world's greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace... and fear. But a terrible secret has been closely guarded for centuries: Every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity.



But the blood will also resurrect hatred, ambition, and greed.

Set in a terrifying, medieval future, where grim pageantry masks death, this tale of dark desires and staggering stakes peels back the layers of the heart for all who dare to take the ride.




Product Details:

List Price: $24.99
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Center Street (September 13, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599953544
ISBN-13: 978-1599953540

AND NOW...CLICK ON THE OPEN BOOK WIDGET TO VIEW THE FIRST CHAPTER:

The Sunday Salon November 20, 2011

I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving! Where is the time going? I am praying I make it to the new year without gaining anymore weight back. I have eaten around five pounds back. It is the weekends that are my weakest time of the week. Any advice on how to survive a weekend without overeating is welcome. Sugar is also my biggest weakness. I have always liked to bake and now I like to cook too. I have been experimenting with new recipes especially with alternate flours. I made banana nut bread with coconut flour today and I could have eaten the whole loaf. lol

I spend Sundays cooking, eating, and cleaning. I used to spend them reading and eating. I am still having trouble reading. I want to read but there are so many other things I need to be doing and I can't focus or rest because I am thinking about them. I think at this point I would settle for a book a week. I want my life to be more balanced. I want an active healthy lifestyle. Back when I was reading six or seven books a week I was not fit or healthy or trying for that matter. Why does life have to be so complicated or why do I make it that way?

I finished an audio book in the car this week that was pretty good. It is a nonfiction book called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I am trying to get into jogging/running. The whole book was not a how to guide for running but told a story for the most part of him running with the Talmouri Indians. The only thing I did not like was how he took long side stories and then went back to the main story. It was sometimes confusing. There was also almost a whole Cd on evolution that I thought was unnecessary. Overall I recommend it.

Tonight I want clean some more and hopefully finish  a review book. I still have a couple to catch up on. In the new year I will be signing up for a whole lot less tours. I can't handle it anymore. I just want to read what I want when I want whatever captures my attention without worrying about a due date. I feel very guilty and overwhelmed when I miss a date which has happened way too much this year. I am thankful for the books and authors and I do not want to alienate anyone but I have to get some balance for my sanity.

I hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving if you live in the USA. :)