Monday, March 28, 2016

Mondays - 03/28/16

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been and plan on reading over the week. Recently taken over, this meme is managed by my Kathryn at the Book Date.


My week:
A stressful, rollercoaster week due to an family member's health. Thankfully, we seem to have gotten a reprieve due to a pacemaker placement. Spent a very low-key Easter with the family, feeling grateful.

Current reads:
• Hammer Head - Nina MacLaughlin

Torment Saint, the life of Elliott Smith - William Todd Schultz
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (still rereading) - J.K. Rowling

Finished reads:
• And I Shall Have Peace There - Margaret Roach
• Going Somewhere: A Bicycle Journey Across America - Brian Benson


Sunday, March 27, 2016

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Moon Over Manifest - Vanderpool

Moon Over ManifestTitle: Moon Over Manifest


Author: Clare Vanderpool
PublishedGenre: Children's Fiction
Rating
3/5- Good. Read it, have a good time and move on. Or not.

Book Source: Library

 
Recommended if you like: Children's Fiction, Historical Fiction


 

What Its About:  




Abilene Tucker is a young girl, just twelve, when her father sends her off to live with an old friend, Pastor Shady Howard, in his "hometown" of Manifest, Kansas. Gideon Tucker is a hobo who rides the rails and never settles in one place and its just too dangerous for a twelve year old girl to be living that lifestyle.
But Manifest, Kansas ("A Town with a rich past and a bright future") doesn't quite live up to its nameIt's the Depression, and the only thing scarcer than water is the funding for a "bright future". Abilene feels abandoned by the father she loves dearly and sets out to discover any sign or clue of her father's past and why he has sent her here. But no one in her new town seems to have any stories or information to share about Gideon Tucker. At least, that is how it first appears.  However, with the help of new friends, of all ages and nationalities, Abilene finds not only her father in Manifest, but herself as well.
The Bottom Line: 
A sweet and entertaining book for children with just the right mix of mystery and emotions.  A pleasure to read.



Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Tuesday Tunes - 03/22/16


A good lyric is like a great book...



Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)
Don McLean, Artist & Writer





Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land. Now I understand what you tried to say to me

how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen
they did not know how

perhaps they'll listen now.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Mondays - 03/21/16

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been and plan on reading over the week. Recently taken over, this meme is managed by my Kathryn at the Book Date.


My week:
Relatively calm this week, as its spring break. I got the opportunity to take Thursday and Friday off, which was awesome! I got some reading done, but honestly did mostly errands (this is what you do when you commute to work via train and no longer have a car for post-work trips). 

Current reads:
• And I Shall Have Peace There - Margaret Roach

Torment Saint, the life of Elliott Smith - William Todd Schultz
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (still rereading) - J.K. Rowling


Coming up this week:
I honestly have no clue!

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Sunday Salon - 03/19/16

The Sunday Salon.comSUNDAY POST
The Sunday Salon is now a Facebook group.
The Sunday Post

is a weekly meme hosted by




Life:
And, she's back!
After so many weeks, I am sure that you were all sure that I had finally given up on the blog. But no, not me. I clearly don't know when to give up, so I am back once again!
After realizing that having a keyboard for my iPad would be extremely helpful at work, I decided to finally go get one. Then, my fish died. The one that I have had for a good ten years (honestly!) and talked about in this post:  
 
R.I.P. My beautiful friend.  
Hubby "buried" him by releasing his body into a nearby lake, so he has hopefully gone off to fishy-heaven.  And, in a bout of retail therapy, I bought not just a keyboard, but a new iPad, a mouse (turns out the only way to get that to work is to jailbreak, no thanks), and a new cover. Long story short, I had to go back THREE times to finally get a keyboard that worked, but I did...and here it is. Impressed? Well, I am. And, obvious benefit, it will make blogging much easier!
So, what is up with me?  
Work is busy as usual, though we have finally gotten  a student to help with things. As well, it is the middle of the semester, the mid-semester lull, so I am finally getting caught up. And, the big news at work is finally official: The Boston Conservatory (my company) will be merging with Berklee School of Music. By the middle of this year, we will all be Berklee employees. Exciting, stressful, wonderful, and more than a little scary. Everyone is hoping they still have jobs when this is done, but only time will tell.
The kitties are doing great. Still playful and adorable, though more and more adult every day. Sigh, they grow up so quickly! 





Blogging:
I've got a lot of catching up to do here, reviews and posts and blog upkeep, oh my!

First order of business, I need to update my TBR page. I haven't touched it in months as Shelfari is going away. Is anyone as bummed as I am about Shelfari?!?! Amazon, yuck! Goodreads, blah! Shelfari good! 

But what choice do I have? 

I sucked it up and updated my old (barely used) Goodreads page. It was a RIDICULOUS amount of work as my whole Shelfari book list did not transfer over easily. Lots of extra typing and lost all my followers.  I was not a happy camper! Though to be fair, it could have been much worse. 

And surprisingly, Goodreads has actually gotten better. It has a few key things that they never used to have (and Shelfari did), like the ability to export an Excel spreadsheet of your lists...a Godsend with a list of more than 10,000+ books. So that's a good start, though they still have an ugly set up. Shelfari always looked like an actual bookshelf, pretty!  What matters, I suppose, is it's finally done. Please feel free to visit me over thereand maybe even follow me?!

Well, I could go on and on, but that's going to be it for now.
Have a great week everyone!!

Shannon