reviews

Real Murders (Don’t Panic! It’s A Book)

Angela3 Comments

My latest read I started, I have read it before, but am definitely happy to be reading this one again, and will be getting all of the books in this series. Not too many things make me happier than going to Barnes and Noble!

Title: Real Murders – An Aurora Teagarden Mystery

Author: Charlaine Harris

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime: New York

The 1st book in the Aurora Teagarden Mystery series
The 1st book in the Aurora Teagarden Mystery series

Main Character: Aurora Teagarden; 4’11” tall, big, round tortoise rimmed glasses, and was lucky enough to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a librarian (Oh, I wish!!)

Aurora, affectionately called Roe by those near and dear to her, is one of 12 members of a club known as “The Real Murders Club”. They meet once a month to discuss murder cases. Each person gets one month a year, and they bring in guest speakers, such as a detective that worked on the case, news reporter,  or a family member.

By the time I reached chapter 3, we already had our 1st dead body. Mamie Wright, a fellow member of the Real Murders Club, is dead in the kitchen of the VFW hall where they have their monthly meetings. Found by none other than Aurora.

I will introduce you to the rest of the residents as they become more important to the story.

It has been so long since I have read this story that I really do not remember what happens, or what the body count might be by the time I make it to the end. I think I will have plenty of time to read today since the second round of Michigan blizzard is set to hit around noon.

Are you going to get some reading done this weekend?

Friday Fun Facts!

Angela2 Comments

Roald Dahl

 Roald Dahl

Born: September 13, 1916

Died: November 23, 1990

Wrote: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and other stories.

One of many famous stories
One of many famous stories

Interesting Facts: Mr. Dahl was a regular writer for Playboy. He flew fighter planes during WWII. He wrote all of his stories in a garden shed behind his home. His first job was with Shell Oil Company. Due to an accident his son had at 4 months old, that caused water on the brain, he helped invent a shunt that has saved thousands of children’s lives. He died of Leukemia. On Mr. Dahl’s request, when he died he was buried with his snooker cues, a power saw, a bottle of Burgundy, HB pencils, and chocolate. Children still visit his home where his second wife lives, asking if he lives there. She says they are devastated when she has to tell them he passed away.

What Should I Crack Open Next?

Angela5 Comments

I am looking at a couple books on my shelf that I haven’t read in so long, I do not remember what they were about. I have to say though that they couldn’t have been all that horrible or they would be in a box in my basement that I have no intention of ever opening again.

Have you ever moved and kept moving unopened boxes from house to house? I boxed up stuff and moved it into my house, in the basement. Lived there 11 years. Hauled those same boxes, never opened, back upstairs and into my new basement. Guess what? 4 years later, and they still aren’t opened. It’s almost like having my own personal time capsules that I never intended to make. Honestly, at this point, there can be any number of things in these boxes that I would rather not be reminded of!

Moving Boxes

So, I am thinking of getting back into Charlaine Harris’s Murder Mysteries series with Aurora Teagarden as the heroine/detective/always in the wrong place at the right time. I have read a few of these, but not all of them. I wish she would stop writing the True Blood series and focus on this one instead!

The 1st book in the Aurora Teagarden Mystery series
The 1st book in the Aurora Teagarden Mystery series

Have you read these wonderful little books? They are a quick read, fun and full of mystery. Or do you have a book in mind that I must absolutely read? If you do I would love to find it and read it!

Remember That Story About The Tooth Fairy?

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You know, “What-the-Dickens”? That guy. Yep. I’m still reading it. Except I haven’t picked it up in a week. Since about the time my 1st college class started for my MBA. So, I don’t know about you, but I find this completely unacceptable. So I will find a way to manage my time to include my recreational reading and blogging, and tell you how this story ends. Patience is a virtue, right?

 

and that right there is the truth!
and that right there is the truth!

More to come, sooner rather than later (fingers crossed)!

Friday Fun Facts!

Angela3 Comments

J.D. Salinger (Jerome David)

Born: 1-1-1919

Died: 1-27-2010

JD Salinger
JD Salinger

Wrote: The Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, as well as 3 other novels, including short stories that appeared in The New Yorker. He was drafted into the Army and served from 1942-1944. He was hospitalized after suffering a nervous breakdown after the war. Mr. Salinger lived a very private life, last published a book in 1965, and gave his last interview in 1980.

Odd Fact: Mark David Chapman, the man who assassinated John Lennon, was found with a copy of the book at the time of his arrest and later explained that the reason for the shooting could be found in the book’s pages.

Quote: “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye

I have to be completely honest and say I have never read this book! I am ashamed to even say that, but I guarantee after reading the synopsis of this book, I will own it before the weekend is over.

What did you think of this story?

He’s In Trouble Now !

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So our little friend What-the-Dickens is finding himself in a messy situation. He is hell bent on finding McCavity, a huge white cat that tried to eat him. It’s the first living thing he saw, and he is bound and determined to find this McCavity, give her a gift, and ask to be her pet.

Sounds reasonable to me.

So on his journey, he manages to be adopted by an out-of-tune rust-throated grisset (a bird of some sort). She snatches him from the ground, but when her babies won’t eat him (they prefer worms of course) she plops him in her nest with the others and flies off to find food for all of them. As timing would have it, What-the-Dickens peeks over the edge of the nest and sees McCavity walking past the tree. She sees her lost dinner, and up the tree she goes. The birds fly the nest, and What-the-Dickens falls out, discovering his webbing helps slow him down from a fall. Once again, he has lost sight of McCavity, and he’s off again, searching for this cat so he can be her pet.

At what is the start of his career as the Tooth Fairy, What-the-Dickens passes the zoo, and an enormous lion with a toothache, knowing it must be a relative of his beautiful McCavity. Not knowing the lion is drugged up on morphine for his surgery the next day to remove the tooth, What-the-Dickens tries to find out if he knows where McCavity might be, ends up in his mouth, and discovers the infected tooth. Surely this huge cat will help him on his way if he removes this tooth, right?

So remove it he does, lucky to not be eaten, and getting no further help, heads off with the tooth as a present for his future owner, and the start of a career under his belt.

What’s up next for What-the-Dickens? Hard to say, but surely there is more trouble heading in his direction!

I Still Need To Give This Book Away!

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I Still Need To Give This Book Away!

The original winner of this book never contacted me. It’s full of great recipes and a back story and I would love to give this book to someone! Interested? Let me know in the comment section and I will draw a name this Saturday and send it on its way!

Cinderella At The End!

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For more information on the author, go here: http://cinderellaatemydaughter.com

Cinderella Ate My Daughter, by Peggy Orenstein. If you are a Mom, Grandma, or Aunt to girls, this is an excellent book with lots of facts and some interesting stories.

This about covers it!
This about covers it!

The end of the book was in the time frame of when Tangled was about to be released by Disney (2010ish) so even some of the statistics I am going to share with you may have increased exponentially since the release of this story.

Shocking, almost impossible to believe, statistics:

The Global revenue Disney experienced from their Princess franchise in 2000: $300 million. In 2009? $4 billion.

The percentage of children ages 8-12 who regularly used eyeliner doubled between 2008 and 2010. Doubled. DOUBLED. What in the world is an 8 year old doing wearing eyeliner?

Nearly half of girls between 6 and 9 regularly use lipstick or lipgloss. (I do not know the number surveyed so it is kind of hard to tell you what the halfway point is, but for me I would have to say 1 out of 2 is one too many. My 9 year old uses chapstick. Plain, colorless, flavorless, chapstick).

Age of Barbie target audience when she was released in 1959: 9 to 12 years old. Age of Barbie target audience today (2010)? 3 to 7 years old.

In 2009, 12,000 Botox injections were given to children between the ages of 13 and 19. (I have absolutely nothing to say about this. I am just dumbfounded).

In 2008, 43,000 children under the age of 18 surgically altered their appearance. (HOW and WHY is this even possible? Unless if it is a life-saving, necessary surgery or a surgery to stop a child from being bullied, i.e. noticeable birthmark that gets them teased, the Doctors doing plastic surgery on children who aren’t finished growing should lose their license to practice, and the parents should just lose their parental rights.)

Between 1996 and 2006, the percentage of children under the age of 12 admitted to the hospital for eating disorders rose 119%.

Between 2000 and 2004, there was a 70% drop in the number of female college freshmen listing computer science as their major.

The age at which children express brand consciousness? 24 months.

I know everyone raises their children differently, and dependent on a person’s upbringing, it may be perfectly normal to allow your 16 year old to have plastic surgery. I have just voiced my opinion about how I feel as the mother of 4 daughters, and my intention was not to offend anyone. But I will certainly not ever apologize for the fact that I find it ridiculous and absurd that any girl under the age of 19 would be allowed to have botox injected. Exactly what is going on with your face at younger than 19 that needs to be fixed?

Good Gracious, I pray for strength, knowledge, and always being able to stay one step ahead of these girls I am still raising to be women, in the hopes of not only keeping them safe, but making them strong, intelligent women.

(Orenstein, Peggy, 2011, pgs 205-206)