Top Ten Tuesday #7

From The Broke And The Bookish

This week's Top Ten topic: Top Ten Character's I'd Like to Be Best Friends With


1. Rhiannon from Planning to Live by Heather Wardell. I just finished this one, and I adored Rhiannon. She was such a wonderful friend. I would have loved to have known her.

2 and 3. Stephanie Plum and Lola from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I would hope my car never got blown up while we were hanging out, but I think these two would be great fun to know. I wouldn't mind hanging about Morelli and Ranger with them as well.

4. Moist Von Lipwig from Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. I loved this character and all the trouble he got into. I think he'd be quite fun to have as a BFF, as long as we didn't end up arrested!

5. Firestar from The Warriors series by Erin Hunter. I want a feline BFF too, and Firestar is a lovely, loyal kitty!

6. All the ladies from Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish. I couldn't pick just one of these characters, because I just loved the special bond they had. I wanted friends like this when I read this book. They were fantastic women!

7.  Leah from Leah's Choice: Pleasant Valley Book One by Marta Perry. I can have Amish friends right? She was so wonderful with all the children and later with Rachel in Rachel's Garden.

8. Lady Julia from the The Lady Grey Mysteries by Deanna Raybourn. Julia is so spunky and just totally an interesting character. I love that she thinks for herself and doesn't let her husband control her life, even though sometimes its for her best interest.

9. Holly from Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City. Ah she was so fun and screwed up! I think she would be a hoot to have as a BFF! Plus it would be fun to sort out all her crazy problems

10.  Coraline from Coraline  I loved this character so much. Plus I think I'd enjoy fighting the "other mother" with her!

Fall Into Reading Challenge Wrap Up

Timeline: Sept 1 - Nov 30, 2010

Goal:Complete all 12 reading prompts
~ Special thanks to Sheila @ Bookjourney, Michelle @ Michelle's Ramblin's, Jennifer @ An Abundance Of Books and Deepali @ E-volving Books for help with the prompts!

1. Read a book outside your comfort zone: Kathy Reichs - Bare Bones
2. Read a "chunky book" 500 + pages. Deanna Raybourn - The Dark Road To Darjeeling
3. Read a book with the letter "S" for September in either the title or the author's name. Deanna Raybourn - Silent In The Sanctuary
4. Read a book that is part of a series. Erin Hunter - Forest Of Secrets Warrior Cats Series
5. Re-read a book that you consider an old friend. Eve Bunting - Ghosts Of Departure Point
6. Read something "Spooky" for halloween. Sally Carleen - Shaded Leaves Of Destiny
7. Read a book that was recommended to you by a friend.Nora Roberts Windfall

8. Read one of the books that's been on your TBR the longest. Terry Pratchett - Hogfather
9. Read a book by a debut author. Olivia deBelle Byrd - Miss Hildreth Wore Brown
10. Read a book with a "fall" theme: Margaret Daley - A Texas Thanksgiving
11. Reader's Choice: Brenda Joyce - The Promise
12. Read a book by an author that you love Hope Tarr - A Rogue's Pleasure

Book Review: A Texas Thanksgiving

Author:Margaret Daley
Title:A Texas Thanksgiving
Publisher: Love Inspired
Publish Date: Nov 2008
Rating: 3 Stars
Book Blurb: A frozen turkey dinner is just fine for former soldier and widower Evan Paterson. But his five-year-old daughter deserves better. So when she invites her best friend and her single mother to the Double P ranch for the holiday meal, Evan agrees. But not to a fix-up. Social worker Julia Saunders knows as much about heartache as he does, but Evan isn't ready to love again. Until a duo of pint-sized matchmakers show two stubborn grown-ups what being thankful truly means.

Review: This was a sweet book. Margaret's characters really feel like people we all know. However the plot was a bit too cheesy at times. A rehashed Parent Trap, which is still very cute, but to me the story needed more and the ending a bit too happily ever after, not so much for Evan and Julia but for the subplots that Margaret created. Things don't work out that perfectly. EVER!

The struggles both Evan and Julia went through, that tested their patience and faith were "real life" problems. Single parenting, problems with family etc. What bugged me was Evan's wife, Diana, who passed away of a drug overdose.

Why is it that the former spouse of the heros in so many books are women that run away from their families? Yet in her diaries she says that Paige (her daughter) was the best thing to come from their marriage? It doesn't make sense to me.

The two little girls are what make the story. Ellie and Paige are absolutely sweet and their actions adorable, though sometimes not  quite the way I'd expect a 5 or 6 year old to act.

Overall, this was a good book. If you like faith-based romances it is very good, and has a different scenario from most. Julia is an unwed mother, which is something you don't usually see. It was refreshing to see a character that was a little flawed.

This is the type of book you pick up when you need something to pass the time.

Book Review: The Ghosts Of Departure Point

Author: Eve Bunting
Title: The Ghosts Of Departure Point
Publisher: Point
Publish Date: Oct 1984
Rating: 5 Stars
Book Blurb: After a car plunges over a dangerous cliff, killing its four teenage occupants, one of the four returns as a ghost, tormented by guilt and wishing somehow to prevent another ...

Review: This was my favorite book when I was in grade school. Its only 113 pages long.

It is one of the few "ghost" love stories out there.

The two ghosts, Vicki and Ted, were victims of crashes at Departure Point.  As they come to know each other better they realize why they are ghosts. 

Eve's characters are really likable and mature, even though it is there actions that caused them to be in state that they are in. Another ghost, Rebecca, atones for her actions, and she disappears. She atoned for the actions that held her to her spot.

Vicki and Ted are like two typical teenagers, even though they are otherworldly. Both of them balk at doing something that might cause them to cease to be, forever.  Yet, they do it, in a sort of Charlotte's Web fashion.

Considering the length of this story, it wraps everything up nicely and even gives a hint of a happily ever after. This was the first time I've read this book since I was in school, and it really stands the test of time.

Book Tour and Book Review: Planning To Live

Author: Heather Wardell
Title:Planning To Live
Publisher: Createspace
Publish Date: Aug 31, 2010
Rating: 5 Stars
Book Blurb: Determined to lose weight for her best friend's wedding, goal-obsessed Rhiannon flees her parents' Christmas Day feast to avoid overeating but her car skids off the deserted road into a tree. Trapped and bleeding, with her cell phone out of reach, she struggles to escape, and to accept that she's spent her whole life planning but hasn't ever really lived. Will she get the chance to change that?

Review: Planning To Live is Heather's fourth novel and having finished Planning To Live in a few hours, I have to say, I feel like I was missing out, not knowing her name until now.

Planning To Live is a book for every woman.

Rhiannon is character that readers will fall in love with. She's also the kind of character that you wish were your friend. But lordy she's had it rough.

The love of her life was kidnapped and killed by a crazy ex-girlfriend. Like most women she's battling the scale, and feels that all will be right in the world if the pounds just melt away. In focusing on her weight loss, she loses sight of all the joys of the world around her, and she almost misses out on a second chance at love with her co-worker Andrew. Oh but she's in a car accident on Christmas as she was heading home, but then turned around to go back to her parents house because the roads were bad.

Oh Rhiannon. I wanted to hug you, so many times when I read this. I wanted a second chance for you.

In the 220-ish pages, the reader sees Rhiannon's struggle to survive the accident and also the events of her life up until the moment of the accident.

Heather paints a wonderful picture of a woman who wants to be better, to do better, but ultimately who puts her life on hold until it is just about too late. She's not a character that you pity. As she looks back on her life, you see she has a great boss, a loving family and good friends. If only her priorities weren't so screwed up.

The ending is bittersweet, and I won't give it away, because you have to read this book. Be prepared to cry many times as you read this. Not always because its sad but because there's a part of you in Rhiannon.

The BBC Thinks We're Illiterate!

Not really, but I've seen this floating around on many other blogs over the last few years..and I figured I'd see how I stack up. Some of these are ridiculous because they have the whole bodies of work listed as one. But here's the way it goes

"The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here."

Instructions:

•Copy this list.

•Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.

•Italicise the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.

•Highlight the ones that you have but haven't read.

Now, let's see:
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

Harry Potter series – JK Rowling  (I've read the first 4 books)

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

The King James Bible <--- Catholic girl here, King James is not my version thank you very much.

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell

His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

Complete Works of Shakespeare Why is this here and Hamlet separate? I've read Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and possibly one or two more.

Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger On my TBR pile

Middlemarch – George Eliot

Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

Emma -Jane Austen

Persuasion – Jane Austen

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis

The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

Animal Farm – George Orwell

The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown (own but haven't read yet)

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

Atonement – Ian McEwan

Life of Pi – Yann Martel

Dune – Frank Herbert

Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

The Secret History – Donna Tartt

The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold  hated it with a passion

Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

On The Road – Jack Kerouac

Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

Moby Dick – Herman Melville (Most painful book EVER)

Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

Dracula – Bram Stoker

The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

Ulysses – James Joyce

The Inferno – Dante

Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

Germinal – Emile Zola

Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

Possession – AS Byatt

Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

Watership Down – Richard Adams

A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

Hamlet – William Shakespeare

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

Les Miserables – Victor Hugo (abridged version....though I would love to attempt the whole thing one day)
 
I've read 16. I own quite a few of these and I need to catch up on my classics. I'm also trying to remember if I read any Austen in high school.
 
At least Twilight wasn't listed here..I saw one list that had it...
 
~shudders~

Book Review: Hogfather

Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: Hogfather
Publisher: Harper Torch
Publish Date: Sept 8, 1999
Rating: 4 stars
Book Blurb: What could more genuinely embody the spirit of Christmas (or Hogswatch, on the Discworld) than a Terry Pratchett book about the holiday season? Every secular Christmas tradition is included. But as this is the 21st Discworld novel, there are some unusual twists.

This year the Auditors, who want people to stop believing in things that aren't real, have hired an assassin to eliminate the Hogfather. (You know him: red robe, white beard, says, "Ho, ho, ho!") Their evil plot will destroy the Discworld unless someone covers for him. So someone does. Well, at least Death tries. He wears the costume and rides the sleigh drawn by four jolly pigs: Gouger, Tusker, Rooter, and Snouter. He even comes down chimneys. But as fans of other Pratchett stories about Death (Mort, Reaper Man, and Soul Music) know, he takes things literally. He gives children whatever they wish for and appears in person at Crumley's in The Maul.

Fans will welcome back Susan, Death of Rats (the Grim Squeaker), Albert, and the wizardly faculty of Unseen University, and revel in new personalities like Bilious, the "oh god of Hangovers." But you needn't have read Pratchett before to laugh uproariously and think seriously about the meanings of Christmas.

Review: Everything is a little different in Discworld, but they have their own kind of Christmas, it is called Hogswatch and its man in the big red suit is the Hogfather!

This book was laugh out loud funny, but most of Pratchett's books are. His alternate reality  really makes you look at "our" world in a different light and in this book, it reminds us a bit of what Christmas is really about and if you take certain things out of our lives..be it Santa or God or whatever, we really will cease to be.

The cast of characters is fantastic in this book, Death is star of the show, taking over for the Hogfather to try to save Discworld. I also loved all the other gods and fairies that kept popping up. The "oh God" of hangovers really was hilarious. I'd tell you more but that would spoil things.

The more stable character in this tale is Susan, the granddaughter of Death, who is trying to figure out just what the heck is going on, while trying to remain a little normal. It isn't easy to be normal when your grandad is Death.

The great thing about the Discworld series is that the books for the most part can stand on their own. That's a good thing, since there are around 40 books in the series.  So if you are in for a little fantasy festivity and some mystery and mayhem, check out this book.

Reading Slump

Have you ever had one of those weeks where no matter how hard you try to read, you can't get more than a few pages read?

This is my week.

I had really hoped that this weekend would be a relaxing time where I could kick back and just enjoy a bunch of my books from the TBR pile.

I've made no progress at all.

In my defense, I pretty much handled Thanksgiving dinner for 6 people and did quite a bit of Christmas shopping.

I still feel horrible for neglecting my books this week.

Here's hoping next week will be better for reading.

Book Blogger Hop

The Hop is sponsored by Jen over @ Crazy For Books

Along with providing all of the book bloggers with a great way to meet up and find new reads, she has a get to know you question. Here's this week's question:

 "What is your favorite book cover?"

I don't know that I have an absolute favorite book cover, because there are so many gorgeous ones out there. And covers need to reflect the story or the type of story you're reading

So I'm going to give you two covers I love

All I Want For Christmas #6

This is a feature/meme where I choose a book each week leading up to Christmas and say why it's made it onto my wishlist – and I'd love to see what books everyone else is hoping to get!


I found this meme over at Danya's site, so if you decide to play along, go there and drop off your link.

Author: Suzanne Woods Fisher
Title: The Choice (Lancaster County Secrets, Book 1)
Book Blurb: With a vibrant, fresh style Suzanne Woods Fisher brings readers into the world of a young Amish woman torn between following the man she loves--or joining the community of faith that sustains her, even as she questions some of the decisions of her elders. Her choice begins a torrent of change for her and her family, including a marriage of convenience to silent Daniel Miller. Both bring broken hearts into their arrangement--and secrets that have been held too long. Filled with gentle romance, The Choice opens the world of the Amish--their strong communities, their simple life, and their willingness to put each other first. Combined with Fisher's exceptional gift for character development, this novel, the first in a series, is a welcome reminder that it is never too late to find your way back to God.


Have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for Amish stories? If I haven't. I'm a huge sucker for Amish stories. I've really become addicted thanks to discovering authors like Marta Perry and Beverly Lewis in the past year. Now I gobble these books up like candy.

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday is brought to you by Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

What I'm currently reading:

Author: Terry Pratchett

Title: Hogfather

Book Blurb: What could more genuinely embody the spirit of Christmas (or Hogswatch, on the Discworld) than a Terry Pratchett book about the holiday season? Every secular Christmas tradition is included. But as this is the 21st Discworld novel, there are some unusual twists.

This year the Auditors, who want people to stop believing in things that aren't real, have hired an assassin to eliminate the Hogfather. (You know him: red robe, white beard, says, "Ho, ho, ho!") Their evil plot will destroy the Discworld unless someone covers for him. So someone does. Well, at least Death tries. He wears the costume and rides the sleigh drawn by four jolly pigs: Gouger, Tusker, Rooter, and Snouter. He even comes down chimneys. But as fans of other Pratchett stories about Death (Mort, Reaper Man, and Soul Music) know, he takes things literally. He gives children whatever they wish for and appears in person at Crumley's in The Maul.

Fans will welcome back Susan, Death of Rats (the Grim Squeaker), Albert, and the wizardly faculty of Unseen University, and revel in new personalities like Bilious, the "oh god of Hangovers." But you needn't have read Pratchett before to laugh uproariously and think seriously about the meanings of Christmas.


What I recently finished reading:

Author: Judith McNaught, Jude Deveraux, Jill Barnett & Arnette Lamb
Title: A Holiday Of Love
Book Blurb:  In New York City in the late 1800s, a beautiful but clumsy angel turns a lonely man's life around.... In medieval Scotland, the intrigues of a Christmas Mass imperil two Highland lovers....In Regency London, a world-weary lord receives an outrageous proposal....And in modern-day Colorado, a clever twelve-year-old plays matchmaker for his bighearted but impractical mother.

See my review here

What I plan on reading next:

Top Ten Tuesday #6

This is an meme from The Broke and the Bookish.

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers.


Top Ten Holiday Books

Debbie Macomber's Mrs Miracle: Debbie writes the best holiday stories, but this one is truly a favorite of mine. Watch out for the movie version on Hallmark in the coming weeks. There's going to be a sequel film airing on the 27th too.

David Baldacci's The Christmas Train was one of the best stories I've read for the holidays, a little humor

and some mystery thrown in to make it really interesting.

Richard Paul Evans' Finding Noel: OMG this is a tear jerker, but a beautiful one. Actually any of Richard's books can make this list.

Thomas Kinkade's Cape Light books are the highlight of any Christmas. I used to share these with my grandma before she passed. These are wonderful stories of families and Christmas spirit.

Greg Kincaid - A Dog Named Christmas: I adored this book, it was absolutely heartwarming and touching. The movie was sweet too. Definitely a must read for the holiday.

Max Lucado - The Christmas Candle: This was a short beautiful read, that I could revisit again and again.

No Christmas is complete without THE GRINCH! This story and special are timeless. Christmas would not be Christmas without The Grinch!

No matter what version it is, A Christmas Carol makes the holiday complete. Though I have to admit, I like Catherine Tate's Nan's Christmas Carol, from the BBC last year. It was an interesting spin on this story!!

Vannetta Chapman - A Simple Amish Christmas: I read a galley of this earlier this year, and I have to say, I'll be buying a copy, because this story was so wonderful. You really got the feel of the Amish way of life, and how they celebrated Christmas.

Lori Wilde - The First Love Cookie Club: This was another fabulous read. It is a sweet romance that doesn't forget the meaning of the season.