Book Blogger Hop/Book Beginnings and The Friday 56 - 6/2/2017

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Ramblings of A Coffee-Addicted Writer, Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice and Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The idea is to share a sentence or so from the first page and the 56th page of the book you are currently reading!  Also, I will now also include a brief synopsis.

This week's Book Blogger Hop's question.
Do your bookshelves have books ONLY or do you also have bookish items on the shelves?

Most of the books I have are on my Kindle now.  I keep a pile of my most recent books that I've bought at used book sales, etc. on my nightstand, but those on a bookcase in the basement, I believe only have books, but I'm not in the basement much, so my husband may have somethings other than books on there.

A Brief Synopsis: The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.

Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
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Beginning of the Book

Dear Readers,
When you are entrusted to tell someone else's true story - whether as an author, actor or director - I believe you have a responsibility: to do justice to whose story it is. That's how I approached the true tale of the radium girls from the very first moment I discovered it.

Page 56

It was the "lip, dip, paint routine" all over again, but with an all new cast.

Is this something you would read?  What are you reading this week?

WWW Wednesdays 5/31/2017

It's time for the weekly meme, WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam
@Taking on a World of Words.

All you need to do is answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

So let's get onto it!

What are you currently reading?  I am reading an ARC of The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore.  I was going to read In The Country We Love by Diane Guerrero, but I decided to wait for the Kindle version; I'm on reserve for it, but there's about 6 others ahead of me and only one copy.  I'm also listening to Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and only have a couple hours left.

What did you recently finish reading?  I finished listening to One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline, last week and over the weekend, I finished reading American Pickers: Guide to Picking by Libby Callaway with Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz, and Danielle Colby

What do you think you’ll read next? I'll listen to Uprooted: The Japanese-American Experience during World War II by Albert Marrin and I think I might read the ARC  A Stardance Summer by Emily March, since I am taking part in the blog tour on June 25th for this book's release..

What about you?  Have you read any of these or do you plan to? What are you reading?

The Book Blogger Hop/Book Beginnings/ The Friday 56 5/26/2017

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Ramblings of A Coffee-Addicted Writer, Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice and Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The idea is to share a sentence or so from the first page and the 56th page of the book you are currently reading!  Also, I will now also include a brief synopsis.

This week's Book Blogger Hop's question.

What is the most fun part/aspect of being a book blogger? Seeing what others are reading and getting to interact them.  

A Brief Synopsis:  Diane Guerrero, the television actress from the megahit Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, was just fourteen years old on the day her parents and brother were arrested and deported while she was at school. Born in the U.S., Guerrero was able to remain in the country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career for herself, without the support system of her family.

In the Country We Love is a moving, heartbreaking story of one woman's extraordinary resilience in the face of the nightmarish struggles of undocumented residents in this country. There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US, many of whom have citizen children, whose lives here are just as precarious, and whose stories haven't been told. Written with Michelle Burford, this memoir is a tale of personal triumph that also casts a much-needed light on the fears that haunt the daily existence of families likes the author's and on a system that fails them over and over.

Beginning of the Book

One moment - that's all it takes for your entire world to slit apart.  For me that moment was when I was fourteen.  I returned home from school to discover that my hard-working immigrant parents had been taken away.  In one irreversible instant - in the space of a single breath - life as I knew it was forever altered.

Page 56

One of the children Mami was walking with was Lily's son.; when the ICE officer pulled up alongside her and got out of the car, Mami started to cry; she knew what was coming.  

I'll be starting this over the weekend.  I've been wanting to read this for quite awhile.

What are you reading this weekend?  

WWW Wednesdays 5/24/2017

It's time for the weekly meme, WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam
@Taking on a World of Words.

All you need to do is answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

So let's get onto it!

What are you currently reading?  I have picked up American Pickers: Guide to Picking by Libby Callaway with Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz, and Danielle Colby.  I really have enjoyed the TV series on The History Channel and hope I like the book, too.  It's pretty short, only about 200 pages.  I'm still listening to One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline.  Have less thanhours to listen to and really wondering what the next twist will be.

What did you recently finish reading?  I finished this week This Land Is Our Land by Linda Barrett Osborne and the audiobook, Teenage Diaries: Then and Now by Radio Diaries.  I also ended up marking DNF to The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.  It just wasn't for me and I checked out some Goodread reviews and a YouTube review of the series and decided this book wasn't going to get any better for me.

What do you think you’ll read next? I'm not totally sure.  Maybe The Radium Girl by Kate Moore or In The Country We Love by Dianne Guerrero.  My next audiobook will be Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery.

What about you?  Have you read any of these or do you plan to? What are you reading?

The Book Blogger Hop/Book Beginnings/ The Friday 56 5/19/2017

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Ramblings of A Coffee-Addicted Writer, Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice and Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The idea is to share a sentence or so from the first page and the 56th page of the book you are currently reading!  Also, I will now also include a brief synopsis.

This week's Book Blogger Hop's question.

What do you do with books you no longer want? Do you donate them? Do you take them to a half-price bookstore? Does a friend or family member benefit?

I brought a whole bunch of books to be donated some months back.  Most of my books now are on my Kindle and unfortunately can't be shared or passed onto others.  The physical books that I still have I want to keep at this time, but will donate if I decide to get rid of some of them.

A Brief Synopsis:  American attitudes toward immigrants are paradoxical. On the one hand, we see our country as a haven for the poor and oppressed; anyone, no matter his or her background, can find freedom here and achieve the “American Dream.” On the other hand, depending on prevailing economic conditions, fluctuating feelings about race and ethnicity, and fear of foreign political and labor agitation, we set boundaries and restrictions on who may come to this country and whether they may stay as citizens. This book explores the way government policy and popular responses to immigrant groups evolved throughout U.S. history, particularly between 1800 and 1965. The book concludes with a summary of events up to contemporary times, as immigration again becomes a hot-button issue. Includes an author’s note, bibliography, and index. 

Beginning of the Book

All eight of my grandparents were born in Italy.  They came to the United States in the 1880s and 1890s.  At least two of them arrived before 1892 when Ellis Island opened to process the millions of people emigrating from Europe.  My grandparents were immigrants to this country.  So were the English settlers of Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims in 1620.

Page 56

That's how it was for me, too, four years ago.  But I went to school and now maybe I will get a better job because of it.  And then my family will come over and our dreams will be true.

I was hoping to be done reading this and on to the next book, but you know how life always gets into the way of reading.  I should be done with this by the end of today or early on Saturday, but I'm not positive on which book will be next.

WWW Wednesdays 5/17/2017

It's time for the weekly meme, WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam
@Taking on a World of Words.

All you need to do is answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

So let's get onto it!

What are you currently reading?  I am reading an ARC, Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate and kind of struggling to get into it.  I decided to check the reviews on Goodreads to see if I could get some perspective.  I think I will mark this a DNF due to some heavy topics I do not feel like reading about.  I am also listening on audio to One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline  I'm not too far into it.  Just over 12%, but its got me hooked already.

What did you recently finish reading?  I finished The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine on audio and I finished reading Falling Hard by Stacy Finz.  It is #9 in the Nugget series and I just loved it.  If you enjoy Robyn Carr and her Virgin River series, you should like Stacy Finz's Nugget series.   

What do you think you’ll read next? I'm not entirely sure which book I will choose to read next.  I have several choices.  I will hold off on Radium Girls by Kate Morton, which I was considering last week.  The topic is too heavy.  I want to read it just not now.  I'm thinking in the fall September or October.  I have several library books checked out, both from Overdrive and from the town library, so my choices are This Land Is Our Land by Linda Barnett Osborne, The School for Good and Evil by Sonia Chainani, American Pickers: Guide to Picking by Linda Calloway, et al, and In The Country We Love by Dianne Guerero.  I also have Anne of Green Gables on audio up next and another audiobook became available on Overdrive, Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War ll.  What a choice!

What about you?  Have you read any of these or do you plan to? What are you reading?

The Book Blogger Hop/Book Beginnings/ The Friday 56 5/12/2017

I missed last week's Friday posting.  The book, I was reading last Thursday/Friday really did not lend to Book Beginnings/ the Friday 56.  And I read the majority of books on my Kindle, so the question on Book Blogger Hop about reorganizing my bookshelves didn't really apply.

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Ramblings of A Coffee-Addicted Writer, Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice and Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The idea is to share a sentence or so from the first page and the 56th page of the book you are currently reading!  Also, I will now also include a brief synopsis.

This week's Book Blogger Hop's question.
If you read a book you ended up hating, would you stay away from future books by that author, or would you give them a second chance?


MY ANSWER:  It depends.  If I had read the author before and liked him/her, I'd just chalk it up to a bad book or one I didn't enjoy; even the best author has one of those occasionally.  If I never read the author before, it still depends.  It depends on why I didn't like the book.  Was it I didn't like the writing style, bad grammar/spelling undeveloped characters or plot, or just not liking that particular story.  There is an exception, I won't read anything by Gillian Flynn or Paula Hawkins or anything that is compared to their books, I just could not stand Gone Girl or Girl on the Train and I know I am in the minority, but we're all different in what we like to read.  

A Brief Synopsis:  This is the summer of Annie Sparks—at least according to her. No more supporting lazy jerks or coddling irresponsible family or taking care of anyone who doesn’t deserve her help. Instead she’s headed to an estate in a remote mountain town, to spend her summer with her boots covered in mud and her hands working the earth. Love is the last thing on her mind.

Nugget is a long way from Logan Jenkins’ old life as a Navy SEAL. But before he starts fresh in the private sector, he receives a bequest from a man he never knew: his biological father. To learn more about his background, Logan makes his way to his late father’s estate, where he is immediately knocked on his heels by an incredible woman with a heart of gold.

Annie’s not looking for a fling, and Logan knows Nugget can’t be forever, so falling in love should be impossible. But when they’re together, time stops, and suddenly the impossible seems like the only thinkable option . . .

Beginning of the Book

The big gate stopped Logan Jenkins in his tracks. He didn't know what he was thinking coming here like this  But his curiosity had gotten the better of him.  A man ought to know where he came from and who his people were, he supposed.  ago, he hadn't given a good goddamn.  Then boom, his life changed with one phone call.

Page 56

The little town served her better than Davis, which over the years had grown to big for her comfort level.  Nugget had a market, gas station, a feed store and two restaurants.  What more did a person need?

My thoughts:  This book 9 in the Nugget series.  It feels so good to revisit this town.  Although this book is the 9th in a series, it can also be a stand alone.  Stacy Finz is starting a new series in July in a town near Nugget.  There will also be a Christmas book out for the Nugget series that I'm excited for.  I love the author's writing style, it feels like a cozy pair of pajamas that you can't wait to get into.