My newest Christmas ornament! I LOVE IT!!!

My VERY TALENTED friend, Lisa Clarke, of Polka Dot Cottage, decided to make a small set of family ornaments again this year! This made me VERY happy to hear and I immediately ordered. I got ours in the mail today and this made me very Happy! LOL Can you tell I'm in love? Just look at the details! The hair, the freckles, the dog. The heights...scary to think my girl is just that much shorter than me, but she really is! My boy's hair sticks up in real life just like this one! And this is proof that my blonde hair is real. Really it is. (Okay, it used to be.)


Lisa is SO talented! She makes jewelry (I own multiple pairs of her earrings as do most of the ladies in my family). She makes fun flip flops. She makes scarves and hats and aprons and skirts. And many, many other things. I am in awe of her. You have GOT to click on on of these links and go check out her store. It's all her. Oh, and she's got a blog too and is quite humorous. I suggest subscribing to her blog - you won't be disappointed.

Okay, back to my rabbit hole. I wish I had more time to give this blog more attention, but I will some day, I promise!

Look what I got today!

I love Random House. They sent me a new book to read AND some chocolates!!! Every book needs chocolates! The book is Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg. I have not anything by her before so hopefully it's a good one. And due to the bribe of chocolates, this book moves up in the tbr pile!

Review: The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

I am a HUGE Michael Connelly fan and was very excited to see two books coming out this year! Scarecrow came out over the summer and I read it last week.

Summary: Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paper to write the definitive murder story of his career.

He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow's so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent.

Jack is soon running with his biggest story since The Poet made his career years ago. He is tracking a killer who operates completely below police radar--and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. Including Jack's.

It had been awhile since I had read about these characters so had to search my brain a bit for the details I remembered. Given my swiss-cheese brain, it was not the easiest thing to do! But I digress.

I enjoyed Jack! He was so believable I wanted to slap him a few times. LOL The other characters are quite fun and pull the book together well. The plot was fun, suspenseful and interesing.

But.

There was something about the book that is keeping me from saying this is one of my top reads of the year. It took me about a week to get through this book. I know that may not sound like a long time, but it is for me for a favorite author in my favorite genre. However, I can't put my finger on it. It was still a good book though and I do recommend reading it, especially if you like Michael Connelly.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Need young adult book help!

My girl is in 7th grade. She needs to read two books by the same author. They need to be about 200 - 250 pages each. It cannot be a book that has been made into a movie. She likes adventure books, romances and puzzles. She loved the entire series of Twilight. Some of her favorites when she was younger were Because of Winn-Dixie, Judy Blume, Holes, Calder Game.

What are your suggestions for her?

Review: Undone by Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter is one of my favorite authors from the past few years. I have read all of her books, both from the Grant County series and the Atlanta series. So when I started looking for what books I missed, I was very excited to see that Ms. Slaughter had a new one out. The best part was that Undone combines characters from both her Grant County and Atlanta series!!!

Summary: In the trauma center of Atlanta’s busiest hospital, Sara Linton treats the city’s poor, wounded, and unlucky—and finds refuge from the tragedy that rocked her life in rural Grant County. Then, in one instant, Sara is thrust into a frantic police investigation, coming face-to-face with a tall driven detective and his quiet female partner…. In Undone, three unforgettable characters from Karin Slaughter’s New York Times bestselling novels Faithless and Fractured collide for the first time, entering an electrifying race against the clock—and a duel with unspeakable human evil.

In the backwoods of suburban Atlanta, where Sara’s patient was found, local police have set up their investigation. But Georgia Bureau of Investigation detective Will Trent doesn’t wait for the go-ahead from his boss—he plunges through police lines, through the brooding woods, and single-handedly exposes a hidden house of horror buried beneath the earth. Then he finds another victim.…

Wresting the case away from the local police chief, Will and his partner, Faith Mitchell—a woman keeping explosive secrets of her own—are called into a related investigation. Another woman—a smart, upscale, independent young mother—has been snatched. For the two cops out on the hunt, for the doctor trying to bring her patient back to life, the truth hits like a hammer: the killer’s torture chamber has been found, but the killer is still at work.

In her latest suspense masterpiece, Karin Slaughter weaves together the moving, powerful human stories of characters as real as they are complex and unforgettable. At the same time she has crafted a work of dazzling storytelling and spine-tingling mystery—as three people, each with their own wounds and their own secrets, are all that stands between a madman and his next crime.

With my swiss-cheese memory, my lack of reading and such, it took me until about the middle of the book to remember all the back stories of the main characters. But that did not keep me from enjoying the story. The characters are so alive in these books. In fact, I debated giving the book a lower rating because I am not happy with some of the choices of the characters. Like, I am mad at them so won't rate them as high as they should be. LOL

I was amazed at who was the killer and definitely did not see that. These books don't keep you on the edge of your seat with the suspense of the chase but rather include the emotions and thoughts of the hunters to make such a complete story.

Being the serial reader that I am, I do recommend going back and reading the entire set of books. Some of the character development might not be as interesting or understandable if you don't. But it's a good book all on it's own as well.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I blame it on...

I feel like I'm finally becoming me again. Is that weird?

About a year ago my husband started a new job in a different state. However our house didn't sell until January. So for four months we lived apart during the week and I was sort of a single mom. Yet I was still able to blog, scrapbook, work, take pictures, and keep up with everything (okay ... most everything).

When we moved at the beginning of February, it was three hours away. I moved to a town where we knew no one. I did move within a half hour of my sister with her cute little boys. I was blessed to be able to continue to work my old job remotely from my home. I love my new house. My kids settled well into school. Being the social creatures they are, they made friends very quickly. Sports starting in the spring and the busyness was renewed.

But I wasn't reading, blogging, taking pictures or scrapbooking. My house was a wreck. I wasn't really me. (well the house being a mess is probably the real 'me' LOL)

I blame it on...

- Depression - clearly I went through a depression. Knew it, wasn't any option but to go through it. Also gained a few pounds. What's up with that? I mean, I was already depressed... did I need to do something to further that issue? LOL

- Facebook - I had just joined facebook last fall and got thoroughly addicted. It seemed like such a great way to keep in touch with my wonderful friends that I left and to meet up with friends I haven't seen in almost a lifetime. However, do you know how easy it is to spend hours on facebook without really anything to show for it? And when you are supposed to be working from home and your work computer is on the same desk as your home computer.... it's quite easy to do both. Or to pretend to do both. And it was just so much easier to think of short statuses than entire blog posts. Too much effort was needed to blog. Plus, I needed to be reading to blog about reading.

- Not knowing anyone.

- The library - this sounds odd doesn't it? But my new library does not work well with my swiss cheese memory. When I put books on hold and they come in, it sends one email. One. And I only have three days from the time of that email to pick up the books. I'm sure that's a reasonable time for normal people, but I can never seem to get there to get the books. I either need a longer time or more reminders. But they aren't asking me for ideas. So, having no books to read just contributed to the no reading.

I'm not sure why or how, but I am reading again. I've been focusing on my favorite genre of serial killers and murder mysteries but am getting the itch to read a good women's friendship book. Getting an itch to read is good.

I have people to talk to - at the soccer and volleyball games, I have people who actually choose to sit by me. And they talk to me. On purpose. I'm being funny but have been working very hard to not become stalker lady and scare away potential friends. We've been getting together with the sister and her family. We even invited one of hubby's high school and college friend over along with her family and had a great time.

I'm still addicted to Facebook and don't see that changing any time soon. LOL

So, what did I miss during my hiatus? What good books are out there that I need to put on my tbr list? Any changes to the book blogging arena that I need to know about? Any new blogs? Talk to me!

Review: Evidence of Murder by Lisa Black

Last year I read Takeover by Lisa Black. It was her first novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it (my review). I listed it as one of my top reads of 2008. I was excited to get an email from Lisa a few weeks ago saying that her next novel is out. Evidence of Murder starts off about 8 months after the end of Takeover.

Summary: Eight months ago, forensic investigator Theresa MacLean lost her fiancÉ in a bank robbery gone wrong, and she's had trouble concentrating on her work ever since. But now a particularly difficult case may just be what she needs to regain her focus by demanding all her skill, intelligence, and attention.

Jillian Perry has been found dead in the woods, leaving behind a husband of three weeks and a young daughter. The police can't determine how she died—her body shows no visible marks, and the autopsy reveals nothing suspicious—and the leading theory is that she purposely wandered into the forest and succumbed to the freezing weather. But something doesn't feel right to Theresa, and she can't let it go.

To complicate matters, a former boyfriend of Jillian's unexpectedly petitions for custody of the daughter. Obsessed with Jillian, he also suspects foul play in Jillian's death, and now he and Theresa believe Jillian's daughter may be in danger of meeting a similar fate. With a child's life at stake, Theresa must search for evidence of murder—evidence that doesn't seem to exist—before it's too late.

I have to say I was kind of disappointed in this book. It did not have the 'wow' or the suspense that I expected. However, it was still a good read. The characters are believable but could be a bit more....something. The word stiff comes to mind but am just thinking that they could have been more fleshed out or something. I think they didn't really do anything in the story - Theresa was depressed and yet I didn't feel for her.

The plot was very good. I liked the way it was all set up and the work Theresa did within her job and on her own. I was guessing right up to the end on the 'whodunit' - right along with Theresa. She thought she knew who was the killer but there were enough doubts around to make me wonder too. That was fun.

Overall, it was a good book, but not a great one. I am interested to know what others have thought. And I would like to read more from Ms. Black.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars