Mailbox....Thursday??

Okay, I know it isn't Monday but I just couldn't wait to tell you about what my favorite UPS guy delivered. Not because of what it is (I mean of course I love what I got) but because of what it means. I got 3 new audiobooks!! Why is this so important??? Because it means I am going to be driving...far. Yes, the time is here for my trip back to California!!! I am finally leaving Dementorville and going back to the state that loves me...for good this time. You have no idea how excited I am about this.

Yes, North Carolina has grown on me and there are things that I will forever miss (like the awesome thunder storms and the warm rain...even if it does create the most awful humidity ever) but California is where I am meant to be. My family is there and I mean really...I was raised in Sonoma County, where the best wine in the country, possibly the world, is made. Northern California here I come. Plus, if I am really lucky, I will be living even farther north in CA where I will be the proud...dare I say it...OWNER...of an adorable condo. Ok I can't say it because it hasn't been finalized yet and I just about had a heart attack typing that one word. Dear God escrow must be the longest thing to wait through known to man!

Moving on...

Knowing that this trip was coming, I have been scouting for the perfect audiobooks to join me on this glorious drive. I finally decided on Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, and Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk. And yes, I took the picture of them surrounded by the boxes that are overtaking my apartment. I can't wait to start listening. We hit the road a week from Saturday!

The Stolen Crown Winner

Congratulations!!!

Linda 

you are the winner of a signed copy of 

The Stolen Crown by Susan Higginbotham.

Thanks to all who entered the giveaway.

Last chance to win The Stolen Crown!!

Only 2 more days to enter my giveaway for a signed copy of The Stolen Crown by Susan Higginbotham!

Ends May 2.

Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell

Island of the Blue Dolphins
by Scott O'Dell

This is the only book that I read for the Shelf Discovery Challenge that was a reread and I saved it for last because I remembered loving it when I was little.  I was not disappointed reading it again!  I'm kind of in love with it, and really what's not to love?  You have a young girl alone on an island that is shaped like a dolphin fighting wild dogs while taming birds and otter and then you get to the author's note and find out it was based on a true story!!!  How did I not remember that?

It was a quick read but I loved every second.  It was strange to read the one part I remembered the most and how it was barely even a part of the story:

On the sixth day, when the storm had ended, I went to the place where the canoes had been hidden, and let myself down over the cliff.  This part of the shore was sheltered from the wind and I found the canoes just as they had been left.  The dried food was still good, but the water was stale, so I went back to the spring and filled a fresh basket.

The part that stuck with me was about the water.  Reading this in elementary was the moment that I found out water didn't last forever, it became stale.  This was such a shock to me that the image of the canoe with water baskets in it has stuck with me and it is what I think about anytime stale water comes up.  I'm ashamed to say that the image in my head did change over the years and without my realizing what happened I switched out the baskets for plastic water jugs...come on Jess there's no plastic on the Island of the Blue Dolphins!

Basically read this book.  It's like Snow White meets Hatchet, without prince charming or the creepy dead pilot in the plane that crashed in the water.  Okay so clearly you know what part of Hatchet has been burned into my skull, and I couldn't stop thinking about Snow White and the animals that constantly follow her around.  I'm not making this sound right, just read it. 

*I read this book as part of the Shelf Discovery Challenge.

**Source: I bought this book with my own sweet loot.

Flowers in the Attic - V.C. Andrews

Flowers in the Attic
by V.C. Andrews

I was and still am very confused by this book.  It has been a long time since I read V.C. Andrews and I thought this would be a good choice for the Shelf Discovery Challenge.  I mean come on, 4 kids locked in an attic...I was intrigued by what motives their captors could possibly have and what the outcome was.  Seriously though...390 pages of 4 kids in an attic, it got a bit old...fast.

Then, surprise! Part 2 is much better.  I finally cared what was going to happen to these kids and felt like there was something worth reading about.  There was danger and drama and a mouse named Mickey...how cute is that!  the problem was that throughout the entire book I just kept going back and forth between needing to know how it ends, to make sure revenge is had and then being bored enough to want to give up and move on to my next book.

The end finally became more steady with the intensity and after reading the last page I quickly flipped a few pages to the second book in the series (the book I bought includes the first 2).  The last chapter took on a kind of horror story feel (which I guess it kind of was but I didn't really feel it until then) and I really enjoyed that part.  My biggest issue was part of the storyline.  I read all kinds of books, true stories that have harsh details of all kinds, but I had a seriously hard time dealing with the way the relationship between Cindy and Chris played out  Maybe it's because I wasn't expecting it, but I was surprised at how much it bothered me, especially since it was fiction.  

Have you read Flowers in the Attic?  What did you think?

*I read this book as part of the Shelf Discovery Challenge.

**Source: I bought this book with my own sweet loot.

Anne of Green Gables, Avonlea, and the Island & LibriVox

I found an awesome new thing...well 2 new things...well more than 4 new things.  Okay I am getting ahead of myself.  A few months ago I discovered a website.  I was in desperate need of an audiobook to fill some time (this was before I became completely sold on the gloriousness that is audiobooks) and I came across something wonderful in iTunes, free podcasts of audiobooks.

Where do you find these you are surely asking?  LibriVox.org I say.  Check out the website to see all the books that you can listen to for free or you can search iTunes for LibriVox.

Okay now on to the wonderful new books I have listened to.  Anne of Green Gables!  I know, I have to be one of the last people in the world to read all about Anne but I have to admit I just never really cared.  When I was in college, my roommate owned the movies and I got about 10 minutes into the first one and decided it was a waste of time.  Oh was I ever wrong.  How have I gone so long without loving Anne.  Oh oh and Mrs. Rachel Lynde with her "that's what!" I love it all.

So after Green Gables I moved on to Avonlea and finally Anne of the Island.  Here is where I come to my problem...I can't find the next audiobook anywhere!  It may actually be a good thing because now I have a good excuse to buy the whole book set.  The thing is that I would listen to it at the gym and I LOVED it.  so I am going to have to read Anne of Windy Poplars fast so I can get back to my audio.  I started and am just about finished with Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bedier (not as good as the movie but still enjoyable).  I have a ton of audiobooks to choose from when I'm finished but I WANT ANNE BACK!!  I love her and I want more.  Who knew that I would fall in love with this sweet redheaded girl.  I thought she was blah and was convinced the books didn't have anything to interest me.  Clearly I was wrong.

Does this mean I should also read the Little House series?

Moral of the story:  Read Anne of Green Gables and check out LibriVox.org.

** I was not compensated in any way by LibriVox I just know an awesome deal for free stuff when I see it and wanted to pass it on.

The Stolen Crown - Susan Higginbotham

The Stolen Crown: The Secret Marriage that Forever Changed the Fate of England
By Susan Higginbotham

Let me just say that when you take the drama of the War of the Roses and the fascinating, easy story-telling of Susan Higginbotham, you can’t go wrong. I loved reading about the excitement that unfolded from the point-of-view of Harry Stafford, the person who betrayed a king but about whom little is actually known, as well as the perspective of his wife Kate Woodville who was the sister of the queen and to who history has not been the most kind.

I don’t know about you, but for me this is a very confusing time period. I’m not talking about keeping all the details straight (which, hello, is ridiculous to attempt during a cousin’s war) but oh my emotions, I couldn’t keep them in check. One chapter I am living this person and wanting them to succeed and the next chapter I am wishing them dead. I think the changing narrations between Kate and Harry also added to this effect and I loved it.

I also love the spunk that Higginbotham writes into her female characters when they are young. I think it makes them seem more real because I know if I was raised prim and proper (which of course I am) I would be doing absurd things whenever I could get away with it. Plus, it just makes the story that much more entertaining. It was quite amusing when I found young Harry to have similar qualities.

“I told Grandmother when she talked to me this morning that I thought you were too French,’ Harry said solemnly. ‘But she told me that I was being foolish, that when I was older I would be delighted with your French ways. She didn’t say why. Anyway, she told me that it was either you or the Earl of Warwick’s girls…she thought that I would enjoy marriage to you more. And she said that you would probably be a better bearer of children for me…So I said that I guessed that you would do, and Grandmother said that I was shaping up to be a man of sense after all.”

Please Harry, don’t hold back. The dialogue throughout the story is entertaining and it builds such fantastic chemistry between the characters. I know that there are many versions to every story but I like to believe it happened the way that Higginbotham tells it…full of drama and passion and betrayal and redemption.

If you want to check out this book (you know you do) I am giving away a signed copy.  Check out my post from last week to enter.


**Source: This book was purchased with my own sweet loot.