A book tree? Yes, me please! Life could not get any better than that!
I Need To Find Out How To Make This Happen!
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Smooth Moves and Switching Over
I Hope This Goes Better Than I Am Expecting! Probably not what you expected either, from the title!
I am moving my blogs to a self-hosted website, so I can have more control over how my pages look, as well as what add-ins are displayed. I am hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. So, I will be absolutely devastated if my followers don’t get redirected to my new website as it states it will do.
I know several of you are following two of my blogs, and one of you is following all 3 ( J ). I do not know how long this transition may take, but I will definitely keep them open where they are at until I know I can export everything over.
So, if I disappear for a while, I apologize, I will just be sitting in front of my laptop, crying because I messed something up!
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To Heaven and Back – Mary C. Neal, MD
Mary C. Neal, a highly skilled Orthopedic surgeon, drowned in a kayak accident. A trip down a waterfall found her pinned underwater, unable to be rescued by her companions before she drowned. This trip led to another profound trip that would change her life forever.
Mary wasn’t raised in what some may consider an overly-religious environment. She knew who God and Jesus were, but her family’s religious activities did not move beyond attending church on Sunday. The divorce of her parents at a time when divorce was still uncommon, 1971, filled Mary with embarrassment and an overpowering desire to drive away any man who was interested in her mother.
Allowing her life to spin out of control, drugs and alcohol became a part of her teenage life until an automobile accident would change her life. A missionary trip to Mexico would put her on the path to her future medical career.
As an adult, Mary had the ideal family life; the white picket fence with all the extras. After the kayaking accident, her brief trip to heaven had her feeling joy and love that she still finds difficult to describe. She was saddened when she was told it was not her time, and she had to return to Earth, and her body.
This was the beginning of a very difficult, very intense healing process for Mary, both physically and emotionally. Like others who have had this experience, Mary did not want to be on Earth, she wanted to be in her heavenly home. It was not that she did not love her family, it was due to the profound feelings she experienced while in heaven.
A premonition from her son that he would not reach his 18th birthday indeed came true, and brings another aspect to this story of how her experience helped her accept and handle such a devastating situation.
This book is one of several detailing life-after-death experiences. It does have a fairly strong religious overtone to it, but it is certainly not bashing you over the head telling you to “repent and be saved!” I do have a strong faith, but have also had others who are not religious read this book and tell me they thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister – Gregory Maguire
This is not your mother’s fairy tale! Gregory Maguire has created quite the niche for himself, reconstructing fairy tales we have heard our whole lives, giving us the backstory, and twisting it up a bit.
What really happened with Cinderella, her step-sisters, and her step-mother? It is all right here.
This story is told from the viewpoint of Iris, who is burdened with taking care of the disabled Ruth as well as keeping peace in the family. (There is even a twist there, but no spoilers from me!)
Clara is beautiful. Her step-sisters Ruth and Iris do not fail to notice this. Her own mother had kept Clara locked away from the world before she died. Things would not change very much for her with her new family.
Iris wants nothing more than to paint, and be with her tutor’s apprentice.
There are many subplots, and lots of twists and turns. Everyone has an agenda, telling themselves they only want the best for themselves and their families.
This is not a complicated read, with too much going on that you cannot follow the many plots going on. If you think you know what really happened to Cinderella, I would like to suggest you open this book up and read about it from a different perspective. It is certainly worth the time and effort. You will not be disappointed.
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Reading Things you Would Really Rather Not…
…I have been doing a lot of this lately. Being about halfway done with my MBA has me reading textbooks, data, statistics, charts and graphs, and the occasional book written on leadership. I am happy with how far I have gotten so far, and that I made the decision to take this journey for myself.
I just always seem to forget how much time I do not have for reading, until I am no longer able to do it. It just took me a month to finish a book I could have read in one day. A month! Anyone who knows me knows that me needing a month to finish the book means one of two things; either the book was absolutely horrible, or I was just too busy.
Luckily I have gained the courage to stop reading horrible books. You know what I mean, right? You start reading a book, and it is terrible, yet you feel terribly guilty for leaving a book unfinished. I have finished my fair share of not-so-great books because I was not brave enough to close it without ever knowing how it ended. Well not anymore. Not for me. I have finally started to realize the value of my time, and it is much too valuable to read some of the garbage I have come across lately. It almost makes me feel sad to think of the number of books I have not been able to finish lately. Did you see my blog post (okay, rant!) on self-publishing? You may want to check it out. It’s right here: https://booksandopinions.com/2014/08/05/do-you-self-publish/
I have a stack of books I want to read, sitting next to my stack of school books. I have a few days break between classes, and am wondering how many books I can get read in that amount of time. I am not a fan of wishing my time away, but I cannot wait until it gets closer to the holiday season, and I have some extended time available to do my favorite thing: sit in a reclining chair with a good book, my cat, and read myself into oblivion.
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Friday Fun Facts!
Scary Books? How do you feel about them? I used to be able to read them all the time, and I loved it! Now they just kind of freak me out 🙂 I used to love being curled up in my bed with a small lamp on reading a book that just literally freaked me out. I would hear sounds that I heard every day in my house, and now I would start wondering who or what could possibly be in my house! It has been a while since I have read a truly scary book, I think Dr. Sleep by Stephen King was the last. I think I am going to have to revisit some classics, including this one that completely scared the bejeebies out of me. I still question if this is a true story or not, and definitely lean towards true. I will admit that I can no longer watch any scary movies, but The Amityville Horror movie, both old and the remake, completely freaked me out.
What is your favorite scary book?
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Tuesday’s Thought For The Day!
The only thing worse than not reading a book in the last ninety days is not reading a book in the last ninety days and thinking it does not matter. ~Jim Rohn
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Tuesday’s Thought For The Day!
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For Your Reading Pleasure! Meet a New Author
July 8th, 2014 – 7 to 9 pm, Eastern Standard Time
Joe Roper: Author and Writer at Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing.
Here is your chance to catch a new series right from the get-go! I am definitely going to be there, and as long as you have an internet connection that enables you to read this post, you can make it to the release party too!
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Find it on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/769023239795535/769236923107500/?notif_t=event_mall_comment
Hope to see you all there!
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Abraham Lincoln
I bought this book several years ago off Ebay, along with a smaller book about Abraham Lincoln and his Step-Mother. I really never had any intention of reading either, as I just purchased them to put with all the rest of my Abraham Lincoln things I have collected over the years.
With all the big names that contributed, I think I may indeed end up reading this!
booksandopinions.com 