I LIKE Thursday

 

 Sharing some good things with others at Not Afraid of Color

I shared this with my book club, but if you substitute “too much fabric” for “too many books” this works for us quilters and makers, also!

I’m not sewing much but are getting the boos is sewn into rows on this one. I’ll show my progress on Friday. 

I am listening to an audible selection, while I’m doing hand stitching, and while I’m doing my morning walk. Have you read this one? It’s one of the summer reads for my book club. I recommend it highly. 

LeeAnna suggested this conversation starter. 

aug 28

do you like amusement parks? which one is your favorite? Do you like rides or shows better?

 Mr Busy and I took a “just us” trip to Elitchs Gardens in Denver in the summer of 1969. He likes amusement/carnival rides. I hate them. We rode the roller coaster. I didn’t like it, but I like him so I did it. The only other exposures to carnival rides and such were local county fairs in South Dakota and a state fair in Arizona when our great grandchildren were preteens. Those were traveling Ferris Wheels, Tilt-a-Whirl, and carousels. We did visit Spokane Washington on a motorcycle vacation to Glacier National Park and beyond, and rode a large beautiful carousel there. It was wonderful. 

I tried the new option to let blogger add links. Let me know how it looks to you. 

August 28th is a special day to me. It was my mother’s birthday. She would have been 103 today. She almost made her 90th birthday. I miss her a lot. 

This is one of the last photos I have of her. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

I like Thursday ~ foreign language?

ME GUSTA LOS          EL JUEVES

I Like Thursday in Spanish.  and  French

j'aime le jeudi

I'm joining LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color. and others today for a chance to answer the prompt about if a speak a foreign language. And also to share some things in my life that I like or am grateful for.  If you want to join in or just look to see how other bloggers answer, go visit

No, I don't speak a foreign language. I took 2 years of Latin and 2 years of French in high school. They didn't offer Spanish then, only French and German. I can count to ten in Spanish. I can decipher some French and Spanish words due to the rules I learned in Latin class.  I  learned that I like words. Oh,  how I wish I was bilingual. I wish I spoke Spanish. When our kids were 6 and 3 we spent 8 months in Nogales AZ while Mr Busy worked for a company across the border. I felt very out of place and wished then that I could speak the language spoken there.  Now I think our country is diversifying quickly, and I have had the chance to know several people who are bilingual in English and Spanish. Our school system has one elementary school that is a dual language immersion program school. Most of you are probably already aware of this idea, but if interested here is a link to our school.  As I understand it, 50% of classes are all in English and 50%  are in Spanish. I have 2 young mom friends whose sons are attending that school. I think there is an application process, not everyone gets accepted. 

I finished listening to Watership Down. I enjoyed it very much. Have you read it? I see that there is an adaptation of the story on Netflix. I wonder if it is any good. 

Next on my reading list is:

    The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

and another essay or  two of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's.  "My Own Words"

Mr Busy and I watched Season 3 of Tom Clancy's  Jack Ryan. We binged it all in about 3 nights!! 

And we have just started Rabbit Hole with Keifer Sutherland.  We have only watched the pilot, and boy were we blown away!  And hooked!!

In March my brother and sister-in-law took a learning trip to New Orleans.  I think it was called Road Scholar. At least that what she hashtagged in her Facebook and Instagram posts.They took some cooking classes at the New Orleans School of Cooking......and shared a recipe which needed this ingredient. I. ordered some and am looking forward to trying to make Shrimp Etouffee in the coming weeks. 

I'm also anxious to get the grill back out on the back deck and ready for  BBQ weather. Burgers and brats inside are just not the same. 

I'm participating in Sandra Walker's Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL. My blocks so far:

It's going to be a fun little quilt!  My photos make the houses look wonky, but they are not. They are 16.5 inches square. ( Now that I have gotten the  grassy strip the right size! ). LOL!

Stay Busy and  Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Slab Blocks Are Green and Wonky

We are home from nearly 2 weeks of road trip and visiting our 2 kids. Our son lives in Phoenix and our daughter lives in Lakewood Colorado.

We had a great time visiting, celebrating birthday and seeing extended family. Two of our great grands live in Phoenix too!.

I finally had time to pull some dark or sage green and make some slab blocks for RSC18.

These have not been trimmed to size yet. I am still on the fence as to what size I want them.  You see that pumpkin peeking at the edge.?

I have been wanting to do this quilt for a long time. It is Halloween Haberdashery from Melissa Mortenson of Polka Dot Chair. So when she had it on sale and was offering a quilt along, I purchased the pattern. I thought I had lots of Halloween fat quarters. And enough low volume fabric for background.

I printed the pattern, because I purchased a PDF from her website. And gathered my fabrics. This is what I accomplished before we left for vacation. 

I think I will just work on it a bit at a time. The pattern is somewhat time consuming for the hats. And maybe I'll end up with a smaller quilt than the pattern.  So another WIP to add to my list. And I need to gather more low volume prints in white with black or gray. It won't be done for this Halloween, but maybe next year. 

That's all for this week and next week is our retreat. I should have lots of photos to show at least! "smile"

I'll link up with Finished or Not Friday and So Scrappy Saturday. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

ps: we listened to two audio books on our road trip. Both Michael Connelly , Bosch series.  The Wrong Side of Goodbye and The Burning Room were both really good and both read by Titus Welliver (  actor who played Bosch on the Netflix series)

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop cause I'm Not Quite Finished!

Summer is quickly coming to an end! I just learned the first day of school is August 21st.  ONE MONTH from tomorrow!

I don't have children or grandchildren who are school age, but our great grandson who lives here in our town starts kindergarten this year. It makes both Mr Busy and me feel OLD!

I have been working on my APQ Challenge for July!  I have a QOV that became a UFO last year after I had a great deal of trouble putting the blocks together. Now it should have been an easy quilt. Like a rail fence with a star detail at two corners.  See this post!.

I was surprised when I went to JoAnns that there was no gold fabric in the Patriotic section. So I looked, and looked and looked. Now, our JoAnns is a relatively small one. Not lots of fabric, no frame section, and maybe 3 employees that day. Sometimes there are only two working. I finally settled on a gold batick, yes it has "leaves" in it, but more subtle than the ones in my stash.

Next I had to decide how to do the corners. Cut a piece approximately 5 1/2 by 3 and lay it over the existing corner, sew it and then trim it. I pondered. I could not see that as a good outcome, with the bulk of the seam and the possibility for a larger more wonky star. So I started to "unsew" each triangle.

Painstakingly, I unpicked the first one. I have an Alpaca Pressing Mat and I love it!.  I pressed, then moved to my regular pressing mat, gave the cut edge a light spritz of Spray Starch, turned it over and pressed it again. It felt really stiff and stable. I added a rectangle of fabric, lined up the already cut line and sewed it on. Success!  I decided to do one corner at a time, to eliminate the possibility of distortion on the bias edge. When both corners are replaced, it is back to the cutting table and my 8 1/2 inch ruler and re trim the corners. There is some waste, but I will use those triangle is another project I have in my head!! That has been my task all week. I have 3 rows done and am starting on the 4th. Luckily I had marked each block with a small scrap of paper Col and Row, so they will go back in order. I did not want to have to rethink that!  I must have rearranged blocks for days last year before I was satisfied.

Here is the first one, Row 1 Column A with one new corner and one old corner, on my alpaca mat.

and the unpicking continued. It was a slow process, but I am happy with the results.

I am almost half way with the block re-do!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

ps: I also finished reading Beartown by Fredrik Backman.  AWESOME!!!!  On recommendation from a friend in Texas, I picked up the sequel at the library yesterday, Us Against You!. I have a kindle book and an audio book that I need to finish, then I will start the sequel.

I'm linking this post at Confessions of A Fabric Addict . She is in the middle of her 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop, but I know she will get her Whoop Whoop Friday post up too.  I am glad Myra is back with Finished or Not Fridays! , so I will be linking up there too.

En Provence Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter Clue #2

Bonnie Hunter posted clue #2 for this years Mystery Quilt on Friday, the 2nd of December. This Triangle in a square block is one I have never made before. So I am using the Tri Rec rulers for the first time. I was a bit intimidated with the angles, but the rulers made it "sew" easy. I always have a bit of a problem with ruler slippage, I think due to the fact that I don't have good strength in my hands anymore. Usually I can solve it with small sandpaper disks, but this time I tried a hint from Pat Spaeth. I used a scrap of shelf liner.  In this picture you can see the little dots I usually use and then the green heart shaped scrap of shelf liner that I am using this time. There is not significance to the shape of the green liner...just liked it.

Here are some pictures of more four patches from Clue #1 and the triangle in a square blocks. I have 10 complete and 15 ready to sew.

All the inside triangle are neutrals in the center and a constant of magenta making the square.

You can't see it very well here, but the fabric on the yellow cutting mat is a neutral with french words and images on it. Score!!!,,, it was in my stash! 

I'll spend the rest of the week, completing these two clues. I am only making 1/2 the amount, so I will get a smaller ( maybe lap size) quilt. 

Hopefully I will be able to keep up and to complete this fun mystery.  Link up HERE to check out what the others are doing. 

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

PS: Book related:  I finished " A Man Called Ove"  by Fredik Backman and narrated by George Newbern and so enjoyed it. Now I am listening to "The Opposite of Everyone" by Joshilyn Jackson. I am liking it. 

Review: The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I chose this book after a passionate review from Sheila at The Book Journey. I was not disappointed.

Joe Talbert is a college student at the University of Minnesota with a writing assignment. He is to interview a stranger and write a short biography of the persons life. Joe decides to go to a nearby nursing home and find a old person who will tell his/her story. At the nursing home, Joe is referred to Carl Iverson. He is a Vietnam war veteran with a Purple Heart. Carl is also a convicted murderer spending his last days dying of cancer at the nursing home, because the prison could not provide final days care.

As Joe begins to hear Carl's story and researches the backgound on his own, he begins to believe that there is something missing. A neighbor, Lila Nash, is pulled into his life when he brings his autistic brother Jeremy home for a visit. He has been interested in Lila for some time, but she does not return his words in the hallway. She does however, respond to Jeremy and thus they find a way to spend time together.

As Joe and Lila start to piece Carl's story together they discover a huge mistake made by the defense 30 years ago. Their passion for "doing the right thing" leads them on a path of interesting discovery and danger.

This book is part criminal mystery, part feel good story. I recommend it to anyone who likes a really great story, told by a really great writer, and in my case, read by a really great narrator.


View all my reviews

Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom

If you read The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, then you have met Belle, the kitchen slave,  Sukey, a slave infant taken from her mother and left at Tall Oakes,  Lavinia, a white endentured servant working at Tall Oakes and  Jamie Pyke, the son of Belle and the master of Tall Oaks, Marshall Pyke.

Now we learn the rest of the story as Jamie is living in Philadelphia as a white silversmith. His story continues as he is adopted by a wealthy white family in Philadelphia and on their passing, inherits their fortune. All the while he is keeping his secret about his heritage. But secrets can't be kept forever and eventually James Burton must face his past.

This book is so well written, just like the first one and I recommend it to any one who likes historical fiction around the early 1800's. I listened to this story as an audio and the narrators were fabulous.

Although this story in mainly about Jamie Pyke's life, a good part of the story involves Sukey and a young woman named Addie, whose family comes to his rescue in a most important way. So I am going to link it to Women's Fiction Reading Challenge because both of these women shaped the future of black's in America at a time when the nation was struggling with the wrong of slavery.

Read or listen to this story and The Kitchen House. They do not have to be read together or in succession, but your experience will be enhanced if you read them that way.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?  is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. Share what you are reading, what you read recently or what you hope to get to in the coming week and then link up with Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great place to see what is going on in the blogosphere and to add to your reading lists.

I am really into this story now. Willa Chance just keeps getting into trouble. And Sheriff Eddie Striker seems to be there at every turn. Who will find out first, who killed Lavinia.

I have just started this library book.  I know I will enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed the ones that preceded it. 


I have this in the audio version and I am listening to it as I get my early morning steps in walking around our neighborhood and while stitching on a couple of recent projects. Multi-tasking is something that gives me a chance to do two things I enjoy or at the least to get into a story as I get some exercise
. 

I am loving the narrator in this one. Very engaging. 


Have you read any of these books?  Happy 4th of July to my American friends and Happy 1st week of July to others. We are still waiting for the new addition to our family. Mama is so ready to be "not pregnant".  Baby is just taking her time deciding to arrive. 


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros. 6-28-16

Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this Tuesday meme. It is a place to share the first paragraph in the first chapter of a book you are reading or hope to get to soon. It is a great place to see what others are reading and add to your ever growing list of title to explore. So let's share. Write a post and then go link up at Diane's blog.

Glory Over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House
Kathleen Grissom
Simon & Schuster  April 2016


Part One
Chapter One

March 1830
Philadelphia

James

     Robert's familiar rap on the door came as I was studying a miniature portrait of myself. The small painting, meant as a parting gift to my beloved, had just been delivered, and I was debating the artist's interpretation. I had to admit that Miss Peale's suggestion to paint my face in profile, and thus avoid the black patch covering my left eye, was a good idea. Too, she had captured my features well in this, my thirty-third year: the length of my oval face, my aquiline nose, and the cleft in my square cut jaw. But I disliked the distinct set she had given my mouth.
     Robert knocked again.
     "Yes", I called, and my butler entered. 


I read The Kitchen House and loved it. So I had to download this audio book so I could again go back and find out what's next.  This is a stand alone novel but brings us again to 1830, the Underground Railroad and life on the plantations of the South. I am looking forward to this one, would you read on? 


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5-16-16

It's Monday What Are You Reading is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. Share what you are reading, what you read recently or what you hope to get to in the coming week and then link up with Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great place to see what is going on in the blogosphere and to add to your reading lists.

Still on my phone/Kindle:  I probably would have finished this one, but there was a bit of a snafu regarding listening while driving. Traveling with Mr Busy dictated that he listen and I re-listen to Ready Player One. Not that I minded, but it did cut into my own personal listening time. 

  

Really enjoying this one. It is so fun to hear her own voice and the voices of her guests. There is a lot of name dropping, but she is in show business and it is all about who and when and with whom. I love it. Must speak to my inner voyeur! 

On my nightstand:

Tamra Wells has loved Charles Lane since her early teens, and he has loved her. The only child of a school principal and his socially ambitious wife, Tamra didn't let love keep her from her goal to become a scientist. She went on to college and then to Paris where she worked for five years before returning home, a beautiful and worldly woman ready to marry Charles, a brilliant young man in a family that owns more land than any other African-American family in Nanticoke, Maryland. This passionate and elegantly written novel is the story of a man and a woman who love each other and have everything except what they really want: a happy marriage. It is also the story of two families that are strong and loving, yet have their problems. Seth Wells, Tamra's father, is a respected school principal whose drinking habits create tension at home. The family stays together, but Tamra like many children of alcoholic parents, suppresses an anger that she can't verbalize. Charles's father, Harlen Lane, is a man of tradition who expects his sons to follow him, and Charles does, forsaking his own dreams of becoming a major league baseball player, to run the family farm. He takes on the task with a vengeance, determined to expand the modest business into a major agricultural complex. Two successful people raised in stable families, neither Charles nor Tamra see how closely they mirror the patterns of their parents' successes and failures. Despite their early - and continuing - passion over the thirteen years of their marriage they find themselves too often angry and resentful to see their own children frightened by the tensions of their otherwise comfortable household. Does their failure stem from Charles's relentless drive to succeed in business? Does it take its toll from a death in the family? Is a lecherous relative a contributing factor? Or is it all simply the let down of a college-educated woman who fears becoming "just a housewife"? 


I finished The Hurricane Sisters and will have a review after my book clubs meets tomorrow evening.  Then next up is a collection of Cozy Mysteries from Leighann Dobbs.  There are four titles; Ghostly Paws, Bake, Battle and Roll,  A Zen for Murder, and Dead and Buried.  I am really looking forward to starting these. 

As I was searching for a cover that I could share, I discovered that a couple of these titles are not the first in the series. That may be a problem for my OCD self. I will see!!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5-2-16

It's Monday What Are You Reading is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. Share what you are reading, what you read recently or what you hope to get to in the coming week and then link up with Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great place to see what is going on in the blogosphere and to add to your reading lists.

On my phone/Kindle: 

Goodreads:

Amy Poehler is hosting a dinner party and you're invited! Welcome to the audiobook edition of Amy Poehler's Yes Please. The guest list is star-studded with vocal appearances from Carol Burnett, Seth Meyers, Michael Schur, Patrick Stewart, Kathleen Turner, and even Amy's parents—Yes Please is the ultimate audiobook extravaganza.

Also included? A one night only live performance at Poehler's Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Hear Amy read a chapter live in front of a young and attractive Los Angeles audience.

While listening to Yes Please, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll become convinced that your phone is trying to kill you. Don't miss this collection of stories, thoughts, ideas, lists, and haikus from the mind of one of our most beloved entertainers. Offering Amy's thoughts on everything from her "too safe" childhood outside of Boston to her early days in New York City, her ideas about Hollywood and "the biz," the demon that looks back at all of us in the mirror, and her joy at being told she has a "face for wigs"—Yes Please is chock-full of words, and wisdom, to live by.

Goodreads gives us credit for 8 pages yet I will spend 10 hrs listening to this audiobook. It seems a bit unfair to me.


Audiobook, Unabridged, 8 pages

Published October 28th 2014 by HarperAudio


Print Book:






Goodreads: 

Hurricane season begins early and rumbles all summer long, well into September. Often people's lives reflect the weather and The Hurricane Sisters is just such a story.

Once again Dorothea Benton Frank takes us deep into the heart of her magical South Carolina Lowcountry on a tumultuous journey filled with longings, disappointments, and, finally, a road toward happiness that is hard earned. There we meet three generations of women buried in secrets. The determined matriarch, Maisie Pringle, at eighty, is a force to be reckoned with because she will have the final word on everything, especially when she's dead wrong. Her daughter, Liz, is caught up in the classic maelstrom of being middle-age and in an emotionally demanding career that will eventually open all their eyes to a terrible truth. And Liz's beautiful twenty-something daughter, Ashley, whose dreamy ambitions of her unlikely future keeps them all at odds.

Luckily for Ashley, her wonderful older brother, Ivy, is her fierce champion but he can only do so much from San Francisco where he resides with his partner. And Mary Beth, her dearest friend, tries to have her back but even she can't talk headstrong Ashley out of a relationship with an ambitious politician who seems slightly too old for her.

Actually, Ashley and Mary Beth have yet to launch themselves into solvency. Their prospects seem bleak. So while they wait for the world to discover them and deliver them from a ramen-based existence, they placate themselves with a hare-brained scheme to make money but one that threatens to land them in huge trouble with the authorities.

So where is Clayton, Liz's husband? He seems more distracted than usual. Ashley desperately needs her father's love and attention but what kind of a parent can he be to Ashley with one foot in Manhattan and the other one planted in indiscretion? And Liz, who's an expert in the field of troubled domestic life, refuses to acknowledge Ashley's precarious situation. Who's in charge of this family? The wake-up call is about to arrive.

The Lowcountry has endured its share of war and bloodshed like the rest of the South, but this storm season we watch Maisie, Liz, Ashley, and Mary Beth deal with challenges that demand they face the truth about themselves. After a terrible confrontation they are forced to rise to forgiveness, but can they establish a new order for the future of them all?

Frank, with her hallmark scintillating wit and crisp insight, captures how a complex family of disparate characters and their close friends can overcome anything through the power of love and reconciliation. This is the often hilarious, sometimes sobering, but always entertaining story of how these unforgettable women became The Hurricane Sisters.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline ( audio)

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline 

audio version: read by Wil Wheaton

Published: August 16, 2011  Random House Audio

Goodreads Synopsis: 

It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready? 


My thoughts:


I really enjoyed listening to this book. Fantasy and Science Fiction are not my usual reads. But I do watch some science fiction, Mr Busy and my kids and grand kids are fans. I did not grow up in the 80's, I was already an adult. I did enjoy the references made to movies and game consoles and music, though. I was raising teenagers in the 80's!

I was captivated by the narration by Wil Wheaton. He did a really great job separating the voices of the various characters. The setting has such a real feel. I think our future may be just like that, only I think (or hope) it will be longer than 28 years. Our younger generation already spends a lot of time in the virtual world. I would recommend this audio version to anyone who might be interested in this story of a world in the not too distant future and the young people that inhabit it. I cannot do a better review than this one already done by Sheila at Book Journey. Click on over and read her thoughts. Just FYI, she loved it and her recommendation played a large part in my decision to download this audio version.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this Tuesday meme. It is a place to share the first paragraph in the first chapter of a book you are reading or hope to get to soon. It is a great place to see what others are reading and add to your ever growing list of title to explore. So let's share. Write a post and then go link up at Diane's blog.

Ready Player One
Ernest Cline
Read by Wil Wheaton
Crown Publishing 2011, trademark of Random House

Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard first heard about the contest. I was sitting in my hideout watching cartoons when the news bulletin broke in on my video feed, announcing that James Halliday had died during the night. 

I'd heard of Halliday, of course. Everyone had. He was the videogame designer responsible for creating the OASIS, the massively multiplayer online game that had gradually evolved into the globally networked virtually reality most of humanity not used on a daily basis. The unprecedented success of the OASIS had made Halliday one of the  wealthiest people in the world.

Have you read this one. Would you give it a try. It is not my usual genre, but I have been a Star Trek fan for years and it is narrated by Wil Wheaton. What can I say?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 4/18/16

It's Monday What Are You Reading is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. Share what you are reading, what you read recently or what you hope to get to in the coming week and then link up with Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great place to see what is going on in the blogosphere and to add to your reading lists.


Listening to:

Goodreads Synopsis:
It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready? 

Normally I do not read or listen to fantasy/science fiction. I am a fan of science fiction movies however. And I am enjoying this audio of Ready Player One narrated by Wil Wheaton!!!  Wil Wheaton!!  (do I sound like Sheldon Cooper?). 

On my Kindle:

Goodreads Synopsis:

When the going gets tough...
Private investigator, Jill Gooder, has been hired to find a serial killer because, as usual, the police can't buy a clue. Jill, the not so proud owner of a crazy, one-eyed cat, probably can't expect too much help from her PA/Secretary, Mrs V, who spends all day knitting.
And just in case all of that wasn't bad enough, Jill's just about to discover she's a witch.
...break out the custard creams. 


I am anxious to get back to reading some cozy mysteries and this looks like it might be a good one. 





Stay Busy and Stay Happy