reviews
The Lightning Thief (book 1) – Rick Riordan
You may have likely saw the movie, but hopefully that did not prevent you from reading the story. We all know that books are always better than their movie counterpart, right? Although I do thoroughly enjoy the movie version, I have read The Lightning Thief several times. It is that good.
It is funny, it can be sad. It will make you laugh out loud, and make you angry. You will certainly be rooting for the success of Percy Jackson on his mission. Being the son of Poseidon, Percy has a lot to learn about thy mythology side of his life, while trying to save his life.
Grover and Annabeth, best friends and residents of Camp Half-Blood join Percy as he tries to find the stolen lightning bolt, and save his mother’s life at the same time. You’ll meet Medusa, Hades, Athena, and many more Greek gods.
This is a lengthy series, but one you do not want to miss. Once again Rick Riordan delivers characters and storylines that you want to read again and again!
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I Need To Find Out How To Make This Happen!
A book tree? Yes, me please! Life could not get any better than that!
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Enough Of That Fiasco!
I (hopefully) moved all of my blog information back to wordpress.com, and am hoping for a fairly quick reply from Bluehost to refund me my money from my 3 year hosting plan that I paid, minus of course the 5 days of stress when I attempted, unsuccessfully, to use it.
For those of you that have managed to migrate your blog to a self-hosted website, I am beyond impressed. This experience was so stressful to me that I do not know that I would ever attempt it again. And that is really too bad because my control over my blog is again limited.
If you have self-hosted and found an amazing hosting site that did not find it necessary to charge $19.99 just to talk you through the process of moving your domain name, let me know. And no, I did not pay them anything to help me; it did not appear very user friendly right from the get-go.
So, after today, hopefully I can get back on track with my daily blogs, and I apologize for all the errors and non-existent webpages you were likely directed do.
Have a Happy Tuesday!
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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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Tuesday’s Thought For The Day!
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Murder at the Cherry Festival – Richard Baldwin
Another great read by Richard Baldwin, this Michigan-based story takes place in Traverse City, one of Michigan’s more beautiful towns if you have never been there.
I have seen some reviews to Mr. Baldwin’s books that are pretty harsh, critiquing the fact that the local police would never let a citizen assist in any cases, etc. etc. This story is fiction. Fiction. It is an easy read, and flows nice right from the beginning, to the middle, and the ending is something that you usually don’t expect or see ahead of time.
This story concerns the murder of Tom McNutt, Grand Marshal for the Cherry Festival, and winery owner with a score of enemies. There is one witness, a teenage girl, and a list of suspects as long as your arm. The descriptions are spot on, and the characters are well developed.
There is nothing too complicated here, and is a good story to read on a cold and rainy weekend, which seems to be the current season in Michigan.
This is the 3rd book by Mr. Baldwin that I have read, and I will definitely be getting more!
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Friday Fun Facts!
Patricia Cornwell
Born: June 9, 1956
Wrote: numerous Kay Scarpetta novels, starting with Postmortem, as well as The Body Farm, Potter’s Field, and numerous others, with the latest being 2014’s Flesh and Blood. She has also written a couple other series, but no where to the extent of the Scarpetta series.
Awards: Too many to list them all, but they include the Edgar Award, Sherlock Award, and British Book Awards.
Personal: Patricia married one of her professors shortly after graduation, and divorced 9 years later. She was in a relationship with a married female FBI agent before meeting and marrying Staci Gruber in 2005.
She suffered with Anorexia Nervosa and depression, as well as bipolar disorder.
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Do Not Forget! The Hunter Awakens Release Party!
It’s close, have you joined this event yet?
July 8th, 2014
7-9pm Eastern time
Use the link below and be sure to attend! You do not want to miss this one!
https://www.facebook.com/events/769023239795535/
booksandopinions.com 