The Sewing Machine

Today I started "The Sewing Machine" by Natalie Fergie. It is a story spanning four generations

Review: Murder at the Mansion (Victorian Village Mysteries, #1)

Murder at the Mansion (Victorian Village Mysteries, #1) by Sheila Connolly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A new series by one of my favorite authors Sheila Connolly, a little mystery, a little history and a little genealogy. The heroine of the series Kate Hamilton is a hotelier in Baltimore when a childhood friend asks her to help "save" their hometown. Sheila paints a picture of a small town who's best days may be behind it unless it can be re-imagined. The old 1800 mansion the town recently acquired figures prominently in Kate's revitalization plan for the town and her life.

Best yet, my favorite character Nell Pratt and the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society from Sheila's Museum Mysteries series is called upon to help sort out some historical finds at the Henry Barton estate. Whether the treasures inside the estate will be enough to save the town only future books will tell.

Unfortunately, Kate and the police first have to solve who killed Kate's high school nemesis at the Barton estate.

Review: My Life to Live: How I Became the Queen of Soaps When Men Ruled the Airwaves

My Life to Live: How I Became the Queen of Soaps When Men Ruled the Airwaves by Agnes Nixon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What an amazing life Agnes led! It was interesting to know the first show Agnes worked on "Guiding Light" was the first show I worked on, albeit decades apart. Continuing the how small is this world, one of her early scripts picked up by Hallmark Hall of Fame “Forgotten Children” starred Morgan [Dylan, GL] Englund’s mom Cloris Leachman. The biopic of Martha Berry and the founding of Berry College, which is supported by Daughters of the American Revolution. If only I had half the talent of Agnes…

Review: Fundraising the Dead

Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sheila Connolly has created a series I just love. Based in Philly, Nell works in the nonprofit world at a historical museum, hello Cathy! Board member Marty Terwilliger, who is related to almost everyone in town, is the best friend a fundraiser can have. The museum staff is dedicated and interestingly quirky. The collections in the museum can provide fodder for many a story. The FBI connection is an interesting twist to the typical cozy format. I am thrilled to see the series is now available on Audible.

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Review: Yellow Brick War

Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Danielle Paige has knocked it out of the park again! Book 3 continues the battle between Dorothy and Amy, two Kansas girls in the land of Oz. Amy's trip back to Kansas brings home how much she has grown during her time in Oz. Her new found maturity and strength is needed as she battles Dorothy, the "good" witch and her vice principal.

Yellow Brick War has lots of twists, turns and dimensions; who knew I'd be rooting for Madison? I have thoroughly enjoyed the series thus far and look forward to the next installment.

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Review: The Fifth Assassin

The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Fifth Assassin is the second book in Brad Metzler's Culper Ring series. I highly recommend reading the series in order starting with The Inner Circle. Archivist Beecher White and the Culper Ring continue their mission to protect the presidency of the United States. For fans of AMC's TURN, it is a kick to know the spy ring has survived and is still active.

In this installment we meet another one of Beecher's childhood friends, Marshall Lusk, wondering is he now a friend or foe. The author switches from present day to childhood throughout the book telling parallel stories. Towards the end of the book this jumping around gets distracting. The murders of the priests storyline is tied up at the end of the book. The ongoing struggle between Beecher and the President and why the residents and actions of a small town in Wisconsin 20-30 years ago play such a pivotal role in that struggle is still a mystery. I'm looking forward to reading The President's Shadow to find out.


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Books Read, Goals Met

Dad taught me years ago to keep a book list, mainly to keep track of which audiobooks we had purchased and which one of us had read them. I was thrilled when a friend introduced me to Shelfari.com, an online bookshelf where I can keep track of my read and TBR lists, dust free. Since then GoodReads has become the latest bookshelf darling allowing authors to connect with readers and I dabble there as well. 

One of my favorite features of these online bookshelves is reading challenges. Years ago I joined Shelfari’s 50 Book Challenge group. For me, this has been an easily achieved goal, so I quickly added the 100 Reading Challenge group. This year my first book was How to Change Your Life in the Next 15 Minutes and the last Killer Karma. In between I’ve read 3 of Danielle Paige’s wildly successful Dorothy Must Die series, found a great new series, Jefferson Tayte Genealogical Mystery by Steve Robinson and caught up with favorites like WEB Griffin, Lorna Barrett and Mary Higgins Clark. 

My goal this year was to read at least 50 books, but ultimately to read 100.

My favorite book of the year was The Island at the Center of the World a non-fiction historical look at the founding of New York City. Besides being a fascinating look into the past, while I was reading it I started to help a friend with her ancestry search and found her family prominently featured in the Island, a fact we had no clue about when the quest began.

On Friday as I watch bowl games, I will open my 2016 50 Book Challenge goal and expect to add the 100 Book Challenge by June.

Cross-Bred Reader Mutt

The polar vortex that has been keeping my state in the deep freeze, has me reading more voraciously than usual. Meeting my 100 book challenge this year will be a snap, as I've already read 25 books this month. Obvious I am an obsessive reader, but what other kind of reader am I? Laura E Kelly created this great infographic, “Which Book Reader SpeciesAre You?” 

What kind of reader are you? I totally fit the Situational Book Lover. I gleeful admit to being a App Happy, Kindle Convert, Travelling Reader who prefers being an Audiobook Listener, but when necessary will be a Bathroom Reader who ends the day as a Sleepy Bedtime Reader that guilty admits to sometimes crossing over to The Spoiler. This doesn't mean I'm a one category girl. Hi, my name is Kim and I'm a Compulsive Book Lover. As in a Compulsive Book Buyer... of free interesting e-books. I get daily e-mails detailing new freebies from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. I am also a Multi-tasker... I have an audiobook for the car & gym, books on my Kindle app & nook reader, and at least one genealogy book open on my computer. Time to hit the gym with the White Queen. Hope to see some comments on what kind of reader you are!

Overdrive is going all MP3 for Audiobooks

I wonder how Amazon via its audible.com is going to respond to Overdrive's announcement to do away with DRM audiobooks. Cory Doctrow has written an interesting piece on the latest win for audiobook listeners. I hope in the long run this will result in a decrease in audio production costs so that more books can be recorded.

Book Blitz Month

According to the B.U. Bridge, January is...

National Book Month and National Book Blitz Month. National Book Month, which is sponsored by the National Book Foundation, invites everyone to take time to read a book. National Book Blitz Month, which was created by a public relations executive to encourage authors to promote their own books, focuses attention on improving the relationships between authors and the media in order to create a best-selling book.

I have been inundated with free for a few days’ e-book offers, now I know why. And before you ask, no these are not from book stealers. These are offers from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Ihave taken advantage of the opportunity to tryout new to me authors. One thing I have noticed is most of these books are shorter than most of my reads. This works well for me. As mentioned in a previous post, my goal this year is to read 100 books. Books read in 2014 to date = 20. Thanks to Book Blitz month, I am well on my way to meeting my goal. 

New Year Goal - Let's Read!

Happy New Year! The ball has dropped, the party is over. The time has come to set goals for the coming year. One goal for me is easy: a commitment to read 100 books this year. I set and achieved this goal for the past few years. It is so easy to do. To double the fun, I create a post on Shelfari.com group 50 Book Challenge. Once I reach 50, I move on to the 100 Book Challenge group. Then I start to read. Cozy mystery and family history are my current favorite topics. 

Audio is my top choice for cozy mysteries and best sellers. My Audible.com wish list is long and growing. I'm happy to see that their list of cozy authors is growing as well. The Roxbury Library is helping feed my appetite as well. Besides their audio selections available via Overdrive, they have added another option: One Click Digital. Both of these sites will also allow e-book borrowing with your library card. 

When I have run out of audio choices, my next format choice is e-book. I've got a nook for the pool, a nook for reading by the fire and a tablet for reading on the go. The last one can also read Kindle books. I finally broke down and downloaded the app after I found a great new site Book Bub for free e-books. No this is not a site that cheats authors out of royalties. This site will send you an email alerting you to free book deals being offered by Amazon, B&N and others.
 
Keeping with my fiscal conservation in regard to reading, Google Books offers up a wide array of family histories that I tap into as I do my family tree. It is amazing how many genealogy books have been digitized by Google and others. It is exciting to find documentation of my connection to generations 6, 7, 8 back. It's even neater to find my grandpa in a book on a revolutionary patriots Alexander Alexander and Bancroft Woodcock.

The number 100 seems daunting at the beginning of the year. I look forward to the challenge of reading that many different books. Besides if it really gets tough, I can always read some kiddie books to my nephew to catch up.

May ~ Among Friends

Thank you for your generous donations to this Spring's Book Sale! Your donations from your bookshelves allow us to offer the wide assortment of thousands of books each sale.

The semi-annual book sales generate the largest portion of the funds the Friends use to support the library. Since we 2002, we have raised over $76,ooo through the book sales. The funds we've raised have gone toward the audio & DVD collections and supporting your favorite programs like the Adult Summer Reading and more.

We want to add a special shout out to Blue Diamond Disposal for donating a dumpster for the sale. Thank you!

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Among-Friends.html?soid=1104907686970&aid=XEhbrImAp1E

Recycle Books at the Roxbury Library

Hooray - today has arrived. In my quest to de-clutter my home and life I have been tossing, selling and giving away un-needed items from around my house the past few months. I even took a pass at my book collection, amassing 5+ bags of books to be donated. And there they've sat in bags & boxes cluttering up a corner of my guest room rather than gathering dust on my shelves. 


Professional organizers recommend removing boxed items ASAP, so why have these books been around for months? Well, the Roxbury Twp Friends of the Library (where I serve as VP) only has book sales twice a year. This year do to the Jewish Holiday schedule are well known book sale has been pushed back from the usual 1st weekend after Labor Day to the end of September. Consequently we didn't open the doors for collection until today.


So today, the car gets packed and my books will be looking for a new home. Stop by the Roxbury Library Sept 23-26 and take home a few of my books.

The Wildwater Walking Club

I love to listen to books while driving in the car and running errands. The current book playing on my MP-3 is The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook. So far, this is a fabulous read.

I’ve got a lot in common with the lead character, Noreen Kelly. I’m single, live by myself, out of a job I had for a number of years, and trying to discover what to do next. After wallowing in the depression of job loss she wakes up to find she’s packed on the pounds. To combat the weight gain, she straps on her pedometer and heads outside for a walk. This galvanized to pick up a pedometer of my own. After leaving the store I strapped on the pedometer to start counting my steps.

Guidelines suggest we should be aiming to walk 10,000 steps every day for weight management. A sedentary person (me), tend to average 1000-3000 steps a day. That’s a long way from 10,000 steps. So I grabbed friend and went walking around Horseshoe Lake. Not only was it energizing exercise, it was enjoyable to spend time catching up with a friend. Best yet, it has inspired me to do it again.

Steps on Day 1 8604