Still Top 1% Goodreads Reviewer

On April 6, 2016 I received an email from Goodreads :)



Here's my read shelf:

Review Coming ...

Review of Memories of Me: A Complete Guide to Telling and Sharing the Stories of Your Life by Laura Hedgecock will be coming later this evening so please come back then.  I will tell you now though that it's a fantastic resource book full of helpful worksheets. 

Now off I go to say farewell to my brother who's off to the Philippines and celebrate 3 family birthdays and 2 graduations.  Full day.  See you later!

Disney's Frozen

My two little ones enjoyed this movie, especially my girl.  Thought some of yours might as well so here's the link (click on image) to purchase it and few other related items from Amazon.


2 disc BluRay/DVD + digital copy @$19.96
HD plus bonus features @$19.99
6pc PVC figures @$29.09
Little Golden book @2.74

**Oh, and just in case you haven't seen this amazing lip sync of one of the song's from the movie, "Love Is An Open Door", here it is:



Hmmm, how many takes did this really take?

Taking December Off

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This is what I want for Christmas ...spa massage in Hawaii!!  A girl can dream ...sigh.

Balancing "real" life with the commitments of book blogging have been doing a number on me again so, I need to step back and take a breather.  The plan is to take December off from blogging and book review requests (though I have a prescheduled post this week).  I'm hoping it's enough time to fully evaluate and develop a plan for the future of this blog.  Ergo, I'll see you next year!

Have a great month and a very Merry Christmas (don't be surprise if I sneak a post on Christmas day too ..I foresee missing you too much)!!

Lub ya'll,

Review Coming ... The Hero by Robyn Carr

Sad news last week spilling over this week so I'm running a bit late.  So come back later today for my review of the 3rd book in the Thunder Point series, The Hero.  ~Thanks.

I'm Late, I'm Late for an Important Date!

I apologize, I'm running a bit late.  Please come back later today for my review of Lifestyles of the Great & Spacious.

Calling All Filipino Book Bloggers

Add your blog to the Filipino Book Bloggers database...

Here's a message from Honey @Coffeespoons:

"Dear Pinoy book bloggers: we've finally put up the sign-up form for the Filipino book blogger database. It's open to any Filipino who has a book blog. We'd like to make the list public and available to whoever asks for it (e.g., authors, publishers, other book bloggers, etc.). But we'll only make your info available if you want us to do so.

Otherwise, we'll keep your info private, but you'll be added to the stats. So that we can prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there are a great many Filipino readers.:)

Go sign up!"

Go HERE to sign up.

Review Coming ...

I apologize, I'm running a bit late.  Review of Are We Special is to come later today.  I'm giving it 5 stars. Please come back and I'll tell you why.

Glimpse of My Stressful Week

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My checklist this week:
Prepare 4 promo posts; 2 books to read and review; got called in to work; daughter's swim lessons; Cub Scout pack meeting; making quesadillas for 35 kids; bake at least a couple dozen cookies; son's pre-school graduation; birthday parties for nephew and soon-to-be 5yo ..more cooking and now add party game planning; come up with end of school-thank you teacher gifts x3; prepare sharing time lesson for church; grocery and shopping for said activities; and of course, my ever ending homemaker duties ..cook, clean, laundry, and as Lily from Snowflower and the Secret Fan puts it, bed business!  But above all that, my brother and 2 nephews just left for the Philippines after vacationing here in the States.  I'm super sad.

Me stressed? Nah.  Just going to cry a little bit ..or maybe a lot.

Treasure Blume Review Is Coming ...

With her love of sweaters, goofy hair, and awkward manners---not to mention her family curse---Treasure Blume knows love is not in her future. That is, until she matches wits with Dennis Cameron, a divorced chef with a six-year-old daughter. Full of mischief, mayhem, and laugh-out-loud humor, this is an unlikely love story you'll want to read over and over again!

It's been a crazy weekend so reading and blogging have been backed up.  So much so that I found myself cramming to read this 304p book (most of last night and waking up early to finish it) to meet today's deadline.  I've got volunteering at my daughter's class to go to this morning so I won't be able to write a review until later this afternoon.  But I did want to tell you that I loved it!!  I'm giving it a rating of 5!  I had a hang up but ...all good. I want to see this turned into a movie!  Anyway, I'll tell you more later.  :)


Kindle edition: $5.99

Nominate A Real-Life Heroine and Free Ebooks

***Hip hip hooray to Harlequin for recognizing real-life heroines!  You rock!!  Thank you for allowing me to extend this information to my readers.  ~To my readers, feel free to pass this news so that special someone can be acknowledged and her inspiring story told through a novel!  How cool is that?  There's big moolah for the winner's charity too.  See, I told ya Harlequin rocks!!  :)

HARLEQUIN'S MORE THAN WORDS AWARDS, 2014:

CALLING ALL REAL-LIFE HEROINES!

Each year, the Harlequin More Than Words award is given to three women who have worked hard to change people’s lives for the better. Inspired by their accomplishments, Harlequin donates $15,000 to each winner's charity of choice and then pairs each winner with a bestselling Harlequin author who turns her story into a novella that's released to the public as a free e-book.

Nominations for the 2014 awards have just opened and will be open until August 9th. To nominate someone you know who is making a difference in the world, or to nominate yourself, you need to submit a few sentences on the nominee, the charity she's involved in, what inspires her and how she's inspiring others. The nomination form is available HERE:

After the nominations are closed in August, the entrants are narrowed down to 5 finalists and the public votes for 3 winners (in November). Then, winners are announced in December, and honored through the $15,000 donation, the novella written about them and feature coverage on Harlequin's site! (http://www.harlequinmorethanwords.com/). It's a great program to honor all of the women who spend their time and energy doing things for others and might not be getting the recognition they deserve!

As a bonus, you can check out the 3 ebooks about the 2012 winners - available for FREE!

The books are:

- Good Neighbors by Sheila Roberts (inspired by Sally Spencer, who manages a mentoring program that rescues at-risk children)
- Just Joe by Carla Cassidy (inspired by Helen McGovern, who oversees Emergency Food Network, a food bank that serves all county residents, including those with health restrictions)
- Light This Candle by Cindy Dees (inspired by Mindy Atwood, who runs Patches of Light, a nonprofit organization where anonymous angels pay the rent for parents of desperately ill children)

Download them for free from Harlequin HERE.

Download them for free from Amazon HERE (Kindle-friendly versions).

Download them for free from B&N HERE (Nook-friendly versions).

My Google Reader Disappeared Today!

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Well, the quick link to it anyways.  Usually when I'm on my Dashboard I'll have that "View .." oh shoot, I don't exact remember the term (it's that elephant memory again)!  Basically the link to go to the Google Reader so I may read the posts of those I follow. 

I didn't panic too much because there's been so much craziness with Google Reader so the feeling wasn't a shocker.  The split second I did panic was to wonder what to do next.  I Googled and found another way to get to the my GR ..you have to go to another address bar and type in, google.reader.com oops, that's reader.google.com.  Viola!  It was there!

Now my dilemma is which other Reader to switch to because GR will really disappear in July.  I've been hearing mainly a couple ..Bloglovin and Feedly.  I've heard both have easy transfer system but curious about the pros and cons to them.  And is there anything out there that has the widget like Google Friend Connect?  Just wondering if you might share your experiences. 

Thank you.

Amazon Spring Deals

Several promotions going on at Amazon.com this season and thought I'd provide you the links to check them out. Perhaps you'll find something there that catches your fancy.

Happy shopping!

Shop Amazon - Children's Books for Easter --ends 3/31/13

Shop Amazon - Gifts for Easter in Toys   --ends 3/29/13

Shop Amazon Easter Shop - Candy, Clothes, Décor   --ends 3/31/13

Shop Amazon - April Fool's Day Shop - Books, Toys  --ends 4/1/13

Shop Amazon - Spring Cleaning Event  --ends 4/27/13

Shop Amazon Outlet - Clearance, Markdowns and Overstock Deals  --ongoing

Yay, I Can Reply Now!

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I just found out that my REPLY button on the comment section works for me now!  I've been having problems with it since August of last year when I enabled the comment/reply thread.  For some reason the reply button wouldn't go anywhere.  Anyway, I'm jazzed that it's functioning correctly now.  I don't know what sparked it to operate.  The only thing I can think of that I changed in my settings was clicking on "Registered Users" when asked who can comment (because I had been getting tons of spam comments and a blogger suggested to do that ..worked by-the-way).  I did that at least a couple months ago.  If that was it, shoot I could have replied way back then! 

Oh, the joys of Blogger!!  Now the upcoming of end of Google Reader is another to hurdle.  Any suggestions there?

I'll Be at Mel's Shelves

Good morning (or good night to the otherside of my world)!  Just wanted to let you know that I'm guest posting at Mel's Shelves today.  I've resurrected an old book review and linked another ...The Road and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy.

Mel's pretty new at book blogging so please stop by to say hello.  She's learning quickly and have set herself up a wonderful blog.  I've found her selection of books quite refreshing and I think you might too. :)

Guess What?

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It has been a frustrating 6 months or so but I think I finally got my reading mojo back!!  Yay!!  :D

That said, I'll take recommendations.  Perhaps one of your 5-star books?  Ready. Set. GO!

P.S.  I recently finished a 5-star book that I recommend be on your TBR list ... 1966 Newbery Winner, I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño.  My review to come soon. 

International Book Week?

I saw a friend of mine on Facebook post this challenge (the statement below) on her status and was curious if it was true.  So I Googled for it's validity and really didn't find one that confirms that it is truly International Book Week but I thought it'd be fun to play along anyway. 

I think it's too hard to guess such randomness so I'm going to say who the author is. 

I'd love to hear your guess.  Also, I invite you to play along so leave me your book quote in the comments (including author) or if you make your own post in your blog, please leave me a link and I'll stop by and visit.

Okay, here's the challenge:

It's international book week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence. Don't mention the title.

"And yet she had never been in a library." ~Paulo Coelho