What's In A Name 2014 - Completed

I joined this challenge again this year. It is one of my favorite, if not THE Favorite.  Charlie at The Worm Hole did an amazing job this year, picking categories. 

The challenge runs from January to December. During this time you choose a book to read from each of the following categories (examples of books you could choose are in brackets):

• A reference to time (Eleven Minutes, Before Ever After)
• A position of royalty (The People’s Queen, The Last Empress, The Curse Of The Pharaoh)
• A number written in letters (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, A Tale Of Two Cities)
• A forename or names (Rebecca, Eleanor & Park, The Unfinished Work Of Elizabeth D.)
• A type or element of weather (Gone With The Wind, Red Earth Pouring Rain)

Late in February, Charlie added a sixth category: book with a school subject in the title ( The History Boys by Alan Bennett, Angelology by Danielle Trussoni, Mastering The Art Of Soviet Cooking by Anya Von Bremzen. 

Tonight I finished the 6th book to complete this challenge. Since January 1, I read:

• A reference to time : A Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury
• A position of royalty : The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
• A number written in letters: One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
• A forename or names : Peony in Love by Lisa See
• A type or element of weather: The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard
• A school subject:  The Driving Lesson by Ben Rehder

Thanks Charlie for taking over this challenge. It was great. I will look forward to 2015. 

Until next time,

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

The Driving Lesson : What's In A Name 2014 - Bonus

The Driving Lesson by Ben Rehder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I did not know what to expect after the first paragraph. But it turned out to be a wonderful coming of age story about a grandparent and his 14 year old grandson.

Charlie Dunbar is the only son of Glen and Sarah Dunbar. Charlie is what I would call a typical 14 year old. He knows right from wrong, but he can be "bullied" into making a wrong choice by someone calling him names. So starts the journey of Charlie and his Opa.

As they travel across country from Abilene TX to Seattle WA and stops in between, Charlie "Bud" and his grandfather learn to trust each other, learn to be honest with each other and generally have a great time.

This story touched me. I am a grandparent. I wonder if I would have made the choice Charlie's grandfather made if my diagnosis had been terminal? Would I have been brave enough to share with a young, almost adult grandchild. I doubt it. This is a great story. I cried, I laughed and shook my head in amazement. I recommend it for all.


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Review: Peony in Love by Lisa See

This challenge is hosted by Charlie The Wormhole. You can check it out at her blog and click on the image on the right hand side. This fulfills the #4 item in the challenge, a title with a forename or names in the title. I am going to try for the bonus, of a title with a school subject in the title.  Hmmmmmm?




Peony in Love by Lisa See
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Chen Tong (Peony) is a 16 yr old maiden, the only child of privileged couple. As she celebrates her 16th birthday she is already betrothed to a man she has never met. As all girls her age, she is in love with the idea of romantic love. She knows that because her marriage in imminent and arranged she will never know real romantic love. This thought is enhanced by the popular opera The Peony Pavilion, which tell the story of forbidden love between Liu Mengmei, an impoverished scholar and Du Liniag, a beautiful maiden he meets in a dream.

As Peony reads the opera she is mesmerized. Later in the Chen Family Villa's garden she watches the opera through a screen separating the women from the rest of the opera goers. As she watches eyes land on the profile of a handsome elegant young man and she in instantly enthralled.

The story explores the journey of love and destiny, desire and sorrow, the living world and the after world.

This is a beautiful tale that sort of sneaked up on me.At first I wasn't sure if I liked the spoiled privileged young Peony. But as the story progresses, I was caught up in her journey into the three realms of Chinese lore. Several times I had to stop,close the book and just give it time to sink in. Although I didn't want to put the book down, I had to pause to digest and savor the story.


View all my reviews


Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

IMWAYR? The Goldfinch, Sleight of Paw and Peony in Love ( again)

Join us at Book Journey, where we all share the books we are reading or listening to this week. Sheila hosts this delightful meme and her posts are fun. Link up at Book Journey and see what everyone is reading.

Not much has changed in the last week in the reading department.  I did finish The Secret Life of Bees and  I listened to a few more pages of The Goldfinch.  

 I liked this book at the beginning and even through the middle, now I am at 70% and I am not liking Theo Decker very much right now.  I am hoping for redemption for him by the end of the book. We will see. 

Sophie Kelley's book Sleight of Paw still resides in my car. It is an interesting story with a middle aged librarian who "owns" cats. Well not really owns them, but shares her home with them. There is a love interest that I am hoping evolves to a real relationship, but I am not sure if it will or not. There has also been a murder, hence the cozy mystery genre.    

I am about 1/3 of the way into Peony in Love.  Lisa See tells the history of life in China in the 17th century with great detail. You are transported there, you can practically smell the ginger and jasmine. Peony falls in love with a man she can never be with. Her marriage at age 16 is already arranged. How will she survive?

Hopefully I will make some strides this week. I have not been very productive at all. 

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Intro Tuesday Peony in Love 7-15-14

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros. Here she shares the first paragraph or ( a few) of a book she is reading or thinking about reading soon. Join us by clicking on the link above and adding your post of your first chapter first paragraph of your current read. It's a good way to get the feel of a book you have only heard about and have not had the opportunity to actually check out.

My First Chapter First Paragraph Intro today is from Peony in Love by Lisa See.

Two days before my sixteenth birthday, I woke up so early that my maid was still asleep on the floor at the foot of my bed. I should have scolded Willow, but I didn't because I wanted a few moments alone to savor my excitement. Beginning tonight, I would attend a production of The Peony Pavilion mounted in our garden. I loved this opera and had collected eleven of the thirteen printed versions available. I liked to lie in bed and read of the maiden Liniang and her dream lover, their adventures, and their ultimate triumph. But for three nights, culminating on Double Seven - the seventh day of the seventh month, the day of the lovers' festival, and my birthday - I would actually see the opera, which was normally forbidden to girls and women. My father had invited other families for the festivities. We'd have contests and banquets. It was going to be amazing.

I have been wanting to read this one since I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. And I am participating in the What's in a Name 2014 challenge, so this read will fulfill the #4 of that requirement - read a book with a forename or names in the title.


Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 7-14-14

Join us at Book Journey, where we all share the books we are reading or listening to this week. Sheila hosts this delightful meme and her posts are fun. Link up at Book Journey and see what everyone is reading.

I am still at the same place listening to The Goldfinch as I was last week. Not much progress on that one. I did finish We Are Water by Wally Lamb and I have yet to get a review on paper. It was disturbing and compelling all at the same time. I am sorting out my thoughts.

I started

I had not read it not have I seen the movie, but  The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is the first read for the fall of my face to face book club and I wanted to read this one first. It is awesome. I am really enjoying it. Finally a book that is uplifting and powerful after the last few I have read. I will finish is probably tonight and then I hope to start on Peony in Love to satisfy another challenge I am doing. 

Also, still residing in my car is 

this one is fun too, but I haven't progressed very far. 

Until next time,

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

The Scent of Rain and Lightning.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Nancy Pickard
Ballentine Books  2010
5/5 stars


On a warm summer afternoon, Jody Linder is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents house. From her upstairs window she wonders why they are here, do they know about her liaison with Red Bosch.?  No, that couldn't be it, they are dressed in polished boots, pressed jeans, fresh white shirts....her uncles suspiciously clean visiting clothes disturb her.

The three bring news she never wanted the hear. The man, Billy Crosby, convicted of murdering her parents has been released from prison.  Would he dare come back to Rose, Kansas, where her grandparents ranch has been her safe haven?

I fell in love with spunky Jody Linder. She is living her life with a catastrophic past. On a stormy night 23 three years ago, her father was murdered and her mother disappeared.  She has lived just a few doors down from the wife and son of the man accused and convicted of the murder. Jody and Collin Crosby have spent their growing up years avoiding each other in this small town. Now she may have to come face to face with Collin and his father.

This is a wonderfully written story that tells of what can happen when people are quick to judge and slow to look for the truth. And it tells of the healing power of truth if we can open our hearts and minds to look for it.

This book is set in Rose Kansas

and will fulfill the "book with an element of weather" in the title section of

Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intro The Scent of Rain and Lightning.

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile By The Sea hosts this meme where we can share the first paragraph or two of our current read, or one we expect to start soon. It is a great place to check on some new titles, and get an idea of the first chapter.  Join us at Diane's blog every Tuesday and link your first paragraph of the first chapter.

1
June 9, 2009
Until she was twenty-six, Jody Linder felt suspicious of happiness.
She hated that about herself, because it tended to sour some otherwise pretty damn fine moments, but this was Rose, Kansas, after all. Only the year before, a pencil tornado had dropped down and killed three people only a few miles from her hometown. A tornado, when the sun was shining! In the winter, there were ice storms. In the summer, there were grass fires. At all times, people she knew went bankrupt, lost their homes, their ranches, their jobs. Or, they died just when you least expected them to. A person could, for instance, belong to a nice family living an ordinary life in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and on some innocent Saturday night, violent men could drop in like those tornadoes and turn nice people into the dead stars of a Truman Capote book. Such things happened. That wasn't paranoia. It was a terrible fact that Jody knew better than anybody - or at least better than anybody whose father had not been murdered when she was three years old and whose mother had not disappeared the same night. 

I started this book on Friday night. I am nearly 1/2 finished. It is really good and I am enjoying it a great deal. It will complete an item in the What's in a Name 2014 challenge sponsored by Charlie at The Worm Hole. This is the gateway post. . A book with a weather element in the title. What do you think? Would you continue on?




Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

A Time to Dance : What's in A Name 2014 and Mega Mix II.

A Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 from the book: "They are the perfect couple-envied by their friends, cherished by their children, admired by their peers. But John and Abby Reynolds know they are pretending to be happy. In fact, they're waiting for the right time to tell the kids they're going to divorce. But at the family meeting where they plan toe tell their children, Nicole shares a surprise of her own; she's getting married. How can they spoil her joy with their announcement? They can pretend a little longer - until after the wedding. But questions begin to haunt them as the date draws nearer. What happened to the love and commitment that held them together for so long? Is it still there somewhere under all the pain and misunderstanding? And is it still possible, alone in the moonlight on an old wooden pier, to once more find..a time to dance? "

my thoughts:  This story is very close to home. I understand the pain and misunderstanding. I understand the hurt and the loss of trust. I understand the anger and the vindictiveness. This story touched my heart. I picked up this book at a bookstore on the sale rack. I had not heard of Karen Kingsbury, but the title spoke to me. "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance." Ecclesiastes 3:1,4. I had no idea what the focus of the story was, but I needed to hear it.

Mega Mix II Challenge on Goodreads



Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros A Time to Dance

Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this meme every Tuesday. It's a way share the first paragraph of the first chapter of you current read or maybe from a title you just finished. Hop on over to Diane's blog and link up to share yours or to read what others are reading.

Last week I shared that I was going to start Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman.  However, when I finished Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs, I wasn't feeling Wildflower Hill. In fact, I ended up coming down with a nasty stomach flu and spent Thursday and Friday in bed. Saturday was a bit better, but then Mr. Busy got sick. Needless to say all our Easter plans got cancelled. We both are better today. It helps that the sun is shining, the weather is warm, I even have the front door open and screen partly open. I can hear birds singing and you can almost hear the grass start to grow! LOL.

Anyway, I decided to chose a different book to read. This one has been on my bookshelf for a few months.

a Time to Dance 

Karen Kingsbury

Timeless Love Series #1

Thomas Nelson Inc.   2001

Without question, it was the moment Abby Reynolds had waited for all her life.

Beneath the Friday-night lights, in the biggest college stadium in the state of Illinois , Abby's husband was on the brink of winning his second high-school football championship.  Moreover he was about to do so largely on the talents of their older son, the team's senior quarterback. 

Now, I did not pick this book because of the first paragraph or the first two. I picked it because of the title,  A Time to Dance. It is part of  a favorite bible verse of mine. Ecclesiastes 3:1,4 .  Also it fits into 2 challenges that I am doing this year. Mega Mix II from Love of Reading group on Goodreads and What's in a Name 2014 hosted by Charlie at The Worm Hole.  I am about 1/3 of the way finished, the story is touching my heart.

Do the first two paragraphs of the first chapter grab you?



Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? A Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. As she says, it’s “a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!”



This week I am reading:

 

From Goodreads: A Time to Dance (Timeless Love #1)by Karen Kingsbury4.28 of 5 stars
John and Abby were the perfect couple. But after surviving twenty-one years of love, loss, and laughter, they are about to lose it all. They've become strangers, and finally they make the sad decision to divorce. They gather their three children to tell them the news, but before they can speak, their daughter makes an announcement of her own: she's getting married that summer. Determined not to ruin their daughter's season of happiness, Abby and John secretly agree to put their divorce plans on hold. But as the wedding nears, they are haunted by questions. And is it possible to find joy, after all these years, and perhaps the time...to dance?

I had no idea what to expect from this book, Karen Kingsbury is a new author to me, though I have been getting her facebook page on my news feed for some time. It is a very Christian based story with lots of scriptual reference. And the subject matter is familiar to me. It is touching my heart.


Mr Busy and I are still listening to The Collectors by David Baldacci. We have been away from it for awhile. On Thursday I came down with an awful stomach virus that laid me low for almost 3 days and on Saturday, it got a hold of Mr B. He is still just "puny". We listened some yesterday, Easter was a bust for us, but we both fell asleep. Guess we need the sleep more. Hopefully this week , it is supposed to be warmer and sunny, we will both start to feel better and we can finish it. It is due back at the library on Wednesday, but I can always renew it and take it back later. Hope you all have a super week. I will be working on a quilting project in addition to getting some reading done.




Until next time


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

The Sugar Queen - What's In A Name 2014 #2

The Sugar Queen
Sarah Addison Allen
Bantam Books
June 2008

Josey Cirrini
Chloe Finley
Della Lee Baker

Josey Carrini is 27 years old and know these 3 things for sure: winter is her favorite season, a Southern belle she isn't and sweets are best when eaten in private, in her secret closet.  Josey is content, sort of, with her life in her mother's house, being at her mother's beck and call. After all, she is obligated after being such a brat as a child.  All that changes after retreating to her room one night to console herself with hidden treats and paperback romances, when she finds local waitress Della Lee Baker hiding in her closet.

At Della Lee's urging, she slowly is giving up on caramels and moon pies, and meets Chloe Finley, who makes the best sandwiches in town. Chloe has a secret too. Books keep finding her and she has a tie to  Josey's longtime crush, Adam the mailman.

On the surface this seems like a sticky sweet fairy tale of a story. But I liked it!. Josey, though a bit of a wimp, is really very strong. And she accepts Della Lee in her closet, I think, because she knows Della Lee can help. Her friendship  with Chloe benefits them both in the long run, and we learn as the story progresses why Josey's mother is such a B**ch.

Ms Allen has sprinkled this story with wit, and warmth and even a bit of magic as she weaves this tale of love, friendship and family.  She assures us that there are possibilities in every day and all we need to do is be open to receive them, whether interlopers in the closet, books appearing where we might trip over them, or even mail delivered  by a seemingly uninterested man.

I needed to read this book. It was fun, it was magic.  I gave it 5 Happy Hands.

Until next time.
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

What's In A Name 2014 #3 and Where Are You Reading? Wyoming

What's In A Name 2014 is a challenge that is hosted by Charlie at Worm Hole. You can click on this link to get to the sign up post and learn a bit more about this favorite of mine challenge. This books fulfills the # 3  part of the Challenge, a title with a number written in letters.

I am also linking this review to the Where Are You Reading Challenge hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.You can either click the link above to check out Sheila's blog or here to see Where I have been reading.

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though I have read other reviewers say this book was unlikable or unbelievable, I liked it. I also found that although I know the story is fiction, I could believe the events. Maybe it stems from growing up in the region. I know the Black Hills, Ft Laramie, Ft Robinson, the Tongue River, the Big Horn Mountains. I have visited museums and historical sites that show that the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the Crow all lived in the place I call home.

I grew up listening to the Dakota Sioux at Pow Wow in the Black Hills. I have seen the native dress and watched the native dancers.

I loved the pictures that Jim Fegus painted of the wildlife and the landscape. The descriptive words of the Indians and the treatment of the very real emotions that the White Women experienced.

This book was recommended to me by several friends and they did not steer me wrong.


View all my reviews


Until Next Time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

is set in the late 1800 in Nebraska and Dakota Territory. The places mentioned in the story are in what is now Wyoming. 

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Into - 1000 White Women

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph or maybe two of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph (or2) of the current book you are reading.

[NOTE: the following entry, undated appears on the first page of the first notebook of May Dodd's journal.]

I leave this record for my dear children, Hortense and William, in the event that they never see their loving mother again and so that they might one day know the truth of my unjust incarceration, my escape from Hell, and into whatever is to come in these pages...


23 March 1875

Today is my birthday, and I have received the greatest gift of all ~ freedom!


Would you read on?

Based on actual historical events, this novel follows the indomitable May Dodd as she travels to the Cheyenne, becomes the bride of Little Wolf, chief of that tribe, and struggles with living in and being loyal to two different worlds. 



I have had this book on my TBR list for over 2 years. It was first recommended to me by a friend. I have since heard several other mutual friends have read it and decided that I would pick it up in the new year and that it would fulfill one of the parts of the What's In A Name Challenge sponsored by Brit at The Worm Hole

I am extra excited, the actual book that I checked out of the library this morning is signed by the author, Jim Fergus.  It says" To my readers at Campbell County Public Library - Jim Fergus."  I don't know how they acquired this copy or if he was actually here in Campbell County Wyoming but I want to find out!.  He lived in Northern Colorado when this book was published, so it is not out of the question that he may have actually been here to sign book copies. We are only about 4 hours from the border between Wyoming and Colorado. Now he lives in southern Arizona, so I am assuming they have had this copy for awhile.

Anyway!

Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy