25 Random Things about me

This is going around Facebook and I wanted to participate here on my blog and in Facebook!

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I've been married for over 14 years! That's longer than anything else I've ever done.
2. I worked for the CIA as a co-op in college. Don't ask or I'll have to shoot you.
3. I am very lazy.
4. I always said I wanted 2-4 kids, but meant 4. I had 4 pregnancies, 2 miscarriages and 2 kids. Done!
5. I love to watch NFL football! My husband is a football widower in the fall.
6. I've become a NASCAR fan over the last few years.
7. I enjoy taking pictures of people, especially children, doing things. Not so much pictures of things and places.
8. I love reading mysteries. I enjoy many other types of books, but mysteries are my first love.
9. I thoroughly enjoy writing my blog!!!
10. I went to a different elementary school every year growing up.
11. I only lived in three states - Ohio, Florida, and Indiana. I've lived in Indiana for 16 years, longer than any other state so far. Ohio will begin winning again soon! Woohoo!
12. I have very few regrets in life and I attribute that to trusting God. He's awesome!
13. My kids are my best accomplishment so far!
14. I need to volunteer to serve more.
15. I was very introverted, awkward and shy in high school. I was a wanna-be! LOL
16. I am very blessed with many friends here in Indiana that will be sorely missed. They better come visit!
17. I have completed over 20 scrapbooks. The first 17 or so are traditional paper scrapbooks. The last 3 have been digital. I LOVE digital scrapbooking!
18. My daughter is nothing like me as a kid - she's so outgoing, sure of herself, funny. She's definitely her father's daughter. And I love them both!
19. I've never had any broken bones and only been in the hospital due to babies and miscarriages.
20. I am horrible at small talk.
21. My favorite tv shows are Survivor, The Closer and CSI. But I DVR a whole lot more.
22. My boy is quite witty - I so enjoy his love of humor. And his compassion.
23. I am friends with my mom and my sister. Am excited to be moving closer to both.
24. I have great in-laws.
25. I wish I had learned to play the piano.

Still alive and kicking!

Been crazy around her with getting everything ready to move. We should be in the new house by the end of the month. So hopefully I'll be able to get back to a more normal routine of reading and posting. Know that I am thinking of everyone! And missing reading!!!! There are some great books out now that I am dying to read. And I'm excited to see all the new suggestions from out there!

Review: Breathing Out the Ghost by Kirk Curnutt

I have a book that an author signed for me! Kirk Curnutt signed his book to me, Michele and even wrote me a little note! Isn't that cool? I feel like I've won some award! LOL (Yes, I am a dork!) I read Mr. Curnutt's book, Breathing Out the Ghost, as part of his TLC Book Tour. I enjoyed it!

Summary from his website: Colin St. Claire is on a dangerous mission. His young son is missing, and he is on a self-appointed quest to find the boy, or at least find the man he believes is responsible. Fueled by uppers and a profound lack of sleep, Colin’s road soon becomes an uncontrollable spiral of blurry white lines, of fleeting forms in the night, ghosts of memory as intangible as vapor . . . Assisting him is Robert Heim, a former private investigator who lost his license in the line of duty—and it is a sense of warped duty that still ties him to Colin, though his own family, a loving wife and children, beckons him back home . . . The answers for both men may lie not with the man they believe is the perpetrator, but with a long-suffering farmer’s wife, Beverly “Sis” Pruitt, whose own daughter was claimed by violence, years prior.

In the shape of a noir thriller, Curnutt fashions a gripping tale of the consequences of unchecked grief, of painful truths hidden as though they were dark secrets, and what salvation remains possible for good men who enter the darkness and become the ghosts they are chasing.

I had to read it in spurts - partly because of my crazy life at the moment, but also because it felt like a book that I could only take a little bit at a time. I've thought about that since and not really sure what it was about the writing that made me read it that way, but I am not really sure. There were parts that were hard to read - one of the fellows that we hear his POV was a little crazy, so he tended to rant and ramble.

I thought the book was going to be a mystery - what happened to the little boy and why - but it really wasn't. It was more a look at how different people handle life's stresses, specifically child tragedies. The book was not really about 'figuring it out' but more about the people dealing with things never being figured out. To me, the ending left some things unresolved and as a mystery fan, I didn't like that.

It was set just about 30 minutes from me, in Shelbyville, Indiana. That was really cool. I recognized road names and such - another fun part of the book for me.

Overall, I liked the book, but obviously not the content. I clearly did not want to think about a missing child, especially as it would get me thinking about what I would do if one of my kids went missing or something worse.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I LOVE my LOLAs!

As I've discussed before, LOLAs is my book club. We've been a book club for over seven years of which only missed the first few months. I've laughed, learned and cried with these ladies. And I am going to miss them terribly.

We had our monthly meeting last night. The book discussed was The Lace Reader. I was a bit late (basketball game for my girl) so missed most of the book discussion. Sounds like the reviews were mixed. I'll let them comment here if they want to clarify.

What I want to share is how GOOD they were to me last night. As I said, I was running late - ended up being about an hour and a half late! But as I knew they'd still be chatting and eating, I went anyway. Especially because I wanted to give them all hugs and say good-bye. We'll be in Ohio by the next meeting.

They gave me an awesome going-away present! It's an ink drawing of our library. And it's beautiful!

For those who don't know, Columbus, IN is known around the world for the architecture here. I, personally, don't know diddly squat about architecture, but I know that tons of people have heard of our little city because of it. And it is fun to look at. I just don't understand it. But I digress.

Here's our library:

Isn't it cool? I am already trying to decide where to put it in the new house. Near the wall bookshelves in the family room? Above the couch in the living room? Very fun to figure out!

I neglected to take my camera into LOLAs but our hostess for the evening took a picture of all of us. We were only missing one, but I'll pencil her in the picture later. :-) When I get the picture, I'll add it in here.

Thanks so much ladies for being such wonderful friends over the years. I have enjoyed talking about books, kids, jobs, food, husbands and many other things with you. I will definitely miss you. I will look for a book club at my new house but it will be hard to match up to LOLAs.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Associate

Waiting on Wednesday is a way to showcase books that are not yet released but I am excited to see they are coming out. It's hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Later this month, John Grisham is coming out with a new book! It's called The Associate. I have thoroughly LOVED all of John Grisham's books and I am sure this one will be just a good. I need to get moved so I can get the library card at the new place - need to put this on hold!

Summary (from Amazon): Kyle McAvoy grew up in his father’s small-town law office in York, Pennsylvania. He excelled in college, was elected editor-in-chief of The Yale Law Journal, and his future has limitless potential.

But Kyle has a secret, a dark one, an episode from college that he has tried to forget. The secret, though, falls into the hands of the wrong people, and Kyle is forced to take a job he doesn’t want—even though it’s a job most law students can only dream about.

Three months after leaving Yale, Kyle becomes an associate at the largest law firm in the world, where, in addition to practicing law, he is expected to lie, steal, and take part in a scheme that could send him to prison, if not get him killed.

With an unforgettable cast of characters and villains—from Baxter Tate, a drug-addled trust fund kid and possible rapist, to Dale, a pretty but seemingly quiet former math teacher who shares Kyle’s “cubicle” at the law firm, to two of the most powerful and fiercely competitive defense contractors in the country—and featuring all the twists and turns that have made John Grisham the most popular storyteller in the world, THE ASSOCIATE is vintage Grisham.

Tuesday Thingers: LT Authors

Over the holidays, Marie, The Boston Bibliophile, stepped down as host of the Tuesday Thingers weekly question and handed the baton over to Wendi of Wendi's Book Corner. Wendi started last week with a question on the different areas of LT that we were familiar with. I missed that question while traveling but basically I only use my home page and my library. And sometimes the groups.

Here's today's question from Wendi: Last week, I asked about your favorite areas of Library Thing, some that you were familiar with, some that you were curious about, and some that you had never really looked at. It was great to look at all the different areas, and I even learned that sometimes it pays to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page . . . I learned that there were links that I had completely missed! Yikes!

One person mentioned that they wanted to learn more about LibraryThing Author. I happened to stumble upon this great page within the site that has some great information on it about LT Authors, becoming a LT Author, and how readers can use the section to learn about their favorite authors, the books they read and what inspires them.

Did you know that there are 1497 authors participating in LT Authors? If you haven't checked it out, head over for a moment and see if you can find out something new about an author! If you don't have time to go snooping, have you ever looked at the LT Author page before? Did you know that it is for authors and readers alike? Have you ever looked up a favorite or new author on LT to see what they read and if they have left any comments or reviews themselves? Have you ever told an author about LT Authors and encouraged them to check the site out?

I have never looked at the LT Author page but have been thinking I'd like to explore that area soon. Maybe after the move and things settle down. I'd like to get to know more authors and explore the work that they do, how they come up with ideas, their writing process, etc.

It would be interesting to see how diverse their reading is too - do they read books like what they write or never read those types of books? How do they keep from 're-using' an idea or concept they read in another book? I am meaning sub-consciously. I find all that fascinating and am looking forward to exploring it.

Thanks for the great question Wendi! And thanks for taking this on.

Let me know your thoughts on LT Authors or other authors ways of doing things. And if you want to see more answers to the Tuesday Thinger question, pop over to Wendi's Book Corner!

Top Reads of 2008

I read 101 books in 2008. That's only a few more than the 95 I read in 2007. I had issues in the fall both years - maybe I should stop blaming my different life stressors and just realize that the fall is a hard time for me! LOL

Listed below are all my 5 star ratings in my library for the year 2008. I broke them up into a few categories. Since the biggest genre of books I read is mystery/thrillers I made that it's own category. But just because you don't generally like mysteries, it doesn't mean you won't find something you like there. They are listed in the order that I read them, so the early ones don't have blog reviews (blog started in May).

If you've read any of these, let me know your thoughts. If you have a top reads list of 2008, I'd love to add it or link to it at the bottom. Let me know!





Non-fiction
+ Mission Possible: Wonderful story of God and a Wyclife Translater in the Jungles of Papua, New Guinea - Marilyn Laszlo
+ Mistaken Identity - Don and Susie Van Ryn [my review]
+ The Oxford Project [my review]

Mysteries/Thrillers
+ Strangers in Death - J.D. Robb
+ The Appeal - John Grisham
+ T is for Trespass - Sue Grafton (Kinsey Millhone series - LOVE it!)
+ Takeover - Lisa Black [my review]
+ Beyond Reach - Karin Slaughter (Sara Linton/Jeffrey Tolliver series) [my review]
+ No Time for Goodbye - Linwood Barclay [my review]
+ The Accident Man - Tom Cain [my review]
+ Say Goodbye - Lisa Gardner [my review]
+ Fractured - Karin Slaughter [my review]
+ The Darker Side - Cody McFadyen [my review]
+ The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly [my review]
+ Triptych - Karin Slaughter [my review]

General Fiction
+ Sarah's Quilt - Nancy E. Turner (Book 2 of These is My Words - top read in 2007)
+ The Star Garden - Nancy E. Turner (Book 3 of These is My Words series)
+ Dominion - Randy Alcorn [my review]
+ Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart [my review]
+ Love Walked In - Marisa de los Santos [my review]
+ The Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry [my review]
+ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows [my review]