Friday, 29 August 2014

Feature and Follow Friday


Question of the Week: Tell us about a book character you’d trade places with

I wouldn't mind having Claire Bynes life in The Widow's Guide to Sex and Dating. She's rich, lives in New York City, has amazing connections, is dating the sexiest actor in Hollywood, and has all the time in the world to write. But I'd want to bring my kids along too.

Featured blogs this week are Words I Write Crazy

The Rules of Feature & Follow Friday:
To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
  1. (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
  2. (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
  3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
  4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say "hi" in your comments and that they are now following you.
  5. If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn't have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
  6. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "HI"
  7. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
  8. If you're new to the Follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
My favorite way to follow is through Bloglovin and now Feature and Follow Friday has graphics to let your readers know. Feel free to follow any way that you want (I'll take all the follows I can get) but I do favor Bloglovin. 

2014 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge

2014 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge

I have completed the 2014 Romance Reading Challenge hosted by the bookworm. I really love romance and want to read more straight forward "chick lit" without subgenres so I was excited to find the 2014 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge hosted by The Book Vixen. The cutoff date to sign up is Sept 30 so I'm happy to have found it now.

Reading Challenge Details:
  • Runs January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014 (books read prior to 1/1/2014 do not count towards the challenge). You can join anytime before 9/30/2014. Sign up on The Book Vixen’s blog.
  • The goal is to read 10 contemporary romance novels. Books that qualify for this challenge can be young adult, new adult, or adult. Books can be M/F, M/M, or F/F. Books must be a work of fiction (sorry, nonfiction does not qualify for this challenge). Romances with the following elements do not qualify for this reading challenge: paranormal, historical, time-travel, fantasy, science fiction, or mystery/suspense/thriller.
  • Books can be any format (print, ebook, audio).
  • Novellas that are at least 100 pages in length, as well as full-length novels, will count for this reading challenge.
  • Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed.
  • To join this challenge, grab the 2014 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge button and post this reading challenge on your blog to track your progress. Please include a link back to this sign-up post so others can join the reading challenge too. You do not have to be a book blogger to participate; you can track your progress on Goodreads, LibraryThing, BookLikes, Libib, etc., so as long as you have a dedicated shelf for the 2014 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge and your profile is not private. The point of linking up is to have a place where people can see what you’re reading.
I have decided to forgo the review link-up for 2014. If you plan to review the books you read for this challenge, link them up in your 2014 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge post.

Sunday, 24 August 2014

Bout of Books Read-a-thon Wrap Up Post

Bout of Books

I read a little bit of Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote this morning (about 30 pages) but completely flailed the rest of the day. (I find that word "flailing" so very useful.)

I reached my goal of 3 books though and for me that was huge. Granted they weren't the three books I set as goals but that doesn't matter. Three book is still three books.

Tonight I watched the True Blood series finale and it was pretty disappointing. I'm pretty ticked that I invested seven years of my life in Sookie's life for that crap ending. Don't worry I won't give away spoilers but it was not what I expected at all.

However, now I want to do this and I'm as serious as a heart attack when I say it (or should I say vamp attack?):

I want to finish this wrap up post by sending a big thank you to Bout of Books because this read-a-thon helped me reach over 100 twitter followers and get more traffic to my blog.

I'm not done read-a-thoning yet though! I will continue participating and updating my progress on the Beat the Heat Read-a-thon. 

Saturday, 23 August 2014

Bout of Books Day 6 Update

Bout of Books

Today I finished I Heart My Little A-holes by Stephanie Meyer. The review can be found here.

This means that I have finished a total of 3 books! Woohoo! While they are not the same three books I had set as goals, I'm still pretty stoked that I finished the amount that I wanted.

I want to read at least one more novella. The books that I got are more serious. They are considered "classic literature." It's pretty weird to go from a Twilight book and a book about kids being a-holes to something by Choplin, Camus, or Capote but that's what the plan is.

Speaking of kids being little brats, the reason the novellas are all C's is because my toddler decided she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs in the library and I had to get out of there fast because everyone was staring at me with eye daggers. 

I'm also participating in the Beat the Heat Read-a-thon so this book counts towards the six books I'm reading for it.

I Heart My Little A-Holes by Karen Alpert


Book Description from Amazon.com
When your son wakes you up at 3:00 A.M. because he wants to watch Caillou, he’s an a-hole. When your daughter outlines every corner of your living room with a purple crayon, she’s an a-hole. When your rug rats purposely decorate the kitchen ceiling with their smoothies, they’re a-holes. So it’s only natural to want to kill them sometimes. Of course you can’t because you’d go to prison, and then you’d really never get to poop alone again. Plus, there’s that whole loving them more than anything in the whole world thing. Karen Alpert is the writer of the popular blog Baby Sideburns. You may have seen some of her more viral posts like “Ten Things I Really F’ing Want for Mother’s Day,” “Daddy Sticker Chart” and “What NOT to F’ing Buy My Kids this Holiday.” Or you may know her from her Facebook page that has over 130,000 followers. I Heart My Little A-Holes is full of hilarious stories, lists, thoughts and pictures that will make you laugh so hard you’ll wish you were wearing a diaper.

This book was hilarious. Karen Alpert isn't afraid to write all the things that many of us parents are thinking. Us really dark, somewhat messed up parents. But we're like that in a good way because we aren't afraid to own our dark sides and don't walk around saying things like, "I'm so sad my kids are starting school. I want them home with me all day every day." No you don't. Karen and I both know you are lying. That, or you are someone seriously codependent who doesn't know how not to be a mother and feels insanely guilty for God forbid wanting a little time to yourself.

Okay I can keep sharing all the things Karen Alpert and I agree on or I can actually review the book. This book was tears streaming down your cheeks, pee your pants funny. At first I was kind of annoyed that Karen brags about how funny she is in the introduction but by the end of the book I wanted to cut out a little gold medal from yellow construction paper that says "World's Funniest Mom." (If you have read the book you will totally get that reference.)

Now her book is not perfect. She uses the word "f'ing" way too much even for me. She could have left out one or two stories about poopie diapers. And I wish she didn't comment about her spelling as much as she does. (Crap I need spell check and still got supercalifargilisticexpialidocious wrong. Who f'ing cares? I don't f'ing care if you needed spell check to spell a f'ing word. See how that's kind of f'ing annoying to use the adjective f'ing all the time?)

And since I have never read her blog all of the material was new to me. I've seen many reviewers that say they think Karen is hilarious but they paid for a book that they could have read on her blog for free. Not cool. 

Lastly calling Target "Tarjay" bugs the crap out of me but I won't hold that against her.

However, being the kind of person that I am, I found Karen Alpert to be a dark and twisty kindred spirit and was laughing hysterically through most of the book. At the very least I was nodding my head in agreement. And to all the mothers that claim it sounds like Karen doesn't love or want her kids, bullshit. She's just venting. And that probably makes her way more sane than all of us mothers holding in what we really think about parenting. It takes real courage to say what you really think and not care what other mothers think. Because mothers are the most judgmental people on the planet. My rating Photobucket 

This review is already long enough but Karen does include a list of Book Club Questions that I simply must answer because it just seems fun. 

1. The protagonist is you, Karen. And no one cares that you don't know if that was spelled right. I went over this spelling thing earlier.

2. I call vaginas vajayjays and penises penises. Yeah for some reason I don't give boy parts cutesy names. Passing gas is farts and bowl movements are pooping.

3. Your kids are normal a-holey. Here's an example of my kid being extra a-holey: Right now my 18 month old daughter thinks it is fun to throw everything at your face. She has a good arm too and it hurts. 

4. Are you a good mother? Yes. I had my doubts when you said you played 2 Live Crew and the like in your car with your kids until you explained that you turn the sound off during the bad words like a censor. But as a mother of older children I must warn you. That trick only lasts so long and soon they will be screaming the swear words at the top of their lungs when you turn the sound off. And since you are driving all you can do is put your arm behind you and swat at the air. And they will laugh at you when you do.

5. My favorite part of the book was when you said "If Caillou was a real person I'd gladly go to jail for killing him." 

6. No I have never seriously considered murdering a cartoon character. Because they are cartoons and would just come back to life. Duh!

7. The serious chapter took a lot of guts to admit. However, thank God, I have never experienced anything like that.

8. My favorite photo was Daddy's Sticker Chart. lmao

9. Offended? No. Annoyed? Yes. You don't need to f'ing say f'ing all the f'ing time or comment about your spelling. I'll even let you keep your f'ings if you stop commenting on your damn spelling issues. Nobody cares!

10. Most of the mothers I know would freak if they read this book. They can't handle the truth!

11. Is it wrong to call your kids a-holes not to their faces? I must admit I'm kind of on the fence about this one. But I have referred to my kids as "little shits" many times so I guess it's not really all that different. My book would be called I Heart My Little Shits.

Bout of Books Spell It Out Challenge


Kimberlyfaye Reads is hosting the Spell It Out Challenge! You have to spell out a word using book titles.

In honor of the season 8 premier of Doctor Who and meeting the 12th doctor I decided to spell out Who. I wanted to spell out Doctor but I couldn't find another book that started with O. 

I should be reading right now but instead I am watching Day of the Doctor and then Time of the Doctor will be coming on. After that is the preshow with Chris Hardwick (I have a total crush on him!) and then the season premier. 

It gets over just after 10 PM so I will still have some time to read!

*Correction* Oops! I assumed the read-a-thon ended tonight but it goes through Sunday! I may even be able to get two short books finished then! And I don't feel so guilty about watching Doctor Who all day. 


Friday, 22 August 2014

Feature and Follow Friday


Question of the Week: What book/series do you think would make a better TV show than a movie?

Answer: That's easy! I always thought Bridget Jones' Diary would make a hilarious tv show.

Featured blog this week is Blue Books and Butterflies.

The Rules of Feature & Follow Friday:
To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
  1. (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
  2. (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
  3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
  4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say "hi" in your comments and that they are now following you.
  5. If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn't have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
  6. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "HI"
  7. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
  8. If you're new to the Follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
My favorite way to follow is through Bloglovin and now Feature and Follow Friday has graphics to let your readers know. Feel free to follow any way that you want (I'll take all the follows I can get) but I do favor Bloglovin.