Happy Birthday to Me!!

I am a whole quarter old today!  Woohoo!

My hubby bought me:

It is one of my favorite movies, and I'm way excited to have my own copy!  My family keeps asking me why I don't own it, and they think it is crazy that I didn't, but now I HAVE ONE!!  Whoopie!!

Hubby is also taking me to Carrabas tonight for yummy dinner and creme brulee!!  Yummmmmm!!

And tomorrow, we going to watch Singing in the Rain on the big screen!!!  

Let the celebrations begin!!


Just for fun,  I share a birthday with John Quincy Adams (our 6th president) and E.B. White!!  It is way cool to share a birthday with such a beloved author!  

Princess Academy

Goodreads Description:    Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.


My Thoughts:

-    Miri is a good person.  I loved her character.  She was wise, spunky, studied hard, stood up for herself, etc.  I want to be her friend! 

-    This book had a lot of the same elements as the Bayern books.  The feel was the same, and it had a "speech" in it.  It could almost be part of the same series.

-    I loved the ending!  From the bandits til the end is so great!!  The beginning is a tad slow, but the ending is awesome!!

-    I loved that Miri wanted to share her love for reading with everyone!  She wanted to teach the whole village to read!  I admire that.

-    I think any girl can relate to this book.  There is something in here for everyone.

-    It was a really fun read.  It was a typical Shannon Hale book, so you know it will be good, and it will make you feel happy.  

The Help

My Thoughts:

-    Those white ladies are snobs!!  It makes me sad that there are real people like that.

-    They wore wigs in the 50s?

-    Minny cracks me up!  She is hilarious!!  I feel bad for her though.  A crappy job and an abusive husband would be horrible!  I'm glad she got to work for Celia. 

-    Celia was funny.  She was so dumb, but at least she was nice.  She probably worked harder than any of the other ladies! 

-    I really liked Skeeter.  She was a great character, and Emma Stone did a wonderful job.

-    I am never going to eat chocolate pie again.  EW!

-    I can't imagine letting someone else raise my child.  It would take all the joy out of family life.  Why have kids if you are only going to pick them up once a day, if that?!?!?  I felt bad for the kids in the movie.

-    I really enjoyed the movie, it was well done, and it was really heart felt.  I liked the messages of the story as well, especially that doing the right thing takes courage sometimes.  I loved that.

-    I couldn't understand some of the dialogue.  They either mumbled or I had to have my hubby interpret for me.  I have a hard time understanding Southern accents sometimes. 

-    I laughed, I cried, it was a great movie!  I'm excited to read the book!

Tyson's Thought:

-    I learned a lot about Crisco, loved the surprise pie, and I'm hungry for fried chicken.

Hubby's Thought:

-    It was very good, and also made me want to eat fried chicken.

Killing Lincoln

Goodreads Synopsis:    A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly

The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history—how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.

In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth—charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist—murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions—including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action,Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.

My Thoughts:

-    This is not your typical history book.  It is very captivating.  I was hooked from the beginning, and it is a great time of year to read something like this!  

-    All history books should be written like this.  I think it would be more effective, and it is definitely more interesting and entertaining.

-    You need to be familiar with certain things in history to understand some stuff.  It throws a lot of names, events, and places around without a lot of explanation.  I didn't have too much trouble following what was happening though.

-    I love how descriptive the whole day of April 14 was.  It was so gripping and interesting to know what happened in such detail on that day.  I really enjoyed reading what Boothe did that day.  

-    Wives rule!!  I laughed so hard when the book described how Lincoln and Grant had so much power and prestige.  They could command armies, but when it came to their wives, they were helpless.  Hilarious!

-    The book happens over a short period of time.  It starts 14 days before Lincoln's Assassination, but it is packed full of so much stuff.  It was so awesome to read about all the details I didn't know about the whole event.

-    Boothe's ego is HUGE!!  I can't believe he thought he was going to be a hero for killing Lincoln, and I can't believe he wanted to be so theatrical about it!  

-    I didn't know Boothe had so many people working with him.  There was a lot that went into his plan.  I can't believe his conspiracy was funded!

-    I really enjoyed the pictures and maps that were provided.  It was really cool to put faces to names, and see a diagram of things.  

-    I loved the whole the book.  Everything was so well done.  I am more aware of what happened on one of the most memorable days in history!  Anyone can read this and understand it.  It is so gripping, and I loved reading about our history this way.  

Happy Independence Day!

I love that we get the opportunity to celebrate the day of our Independence!!  It is a great time of year!  I love our country, and I love what our Forefathers did for us!  They were truly inspired.  

Happy Independence Day!!!

The Royal Treatment

From Goodreads:    Desi Bascomb's job as a princess substitute has gotten a whole lot more glamorous now that she's advanced to Level 2 within the Facade Agency. Life should be perfect, but Desi can't seem to shake the feeling that there is more going on with the agency's magic than she's been told.

My Thoughts:

-    I cracked up during the very first scene!!  Hot Cross Buns is one of the first songs I learned too!  I love that Kylee is a fellow clarinet player! 

-    This one wasn't as fun as the 1st book.  I laughed, but not as much.  There was a lot more drama, like HS girl drama, and I wasn't into that.  I wanted to read about Desi subbing, and less about her actual life, even though her job is part of her life.

-    The ending was exciting!!!  I hope it means what I think it means!!

-    I LOVE the old movie references,  especially the Audrey Hepburn ones!  Hepburn is the greatest!!

-    I really like the relationship between Desi and Kylee.  Every girl needs a friend they can talk to.

-    I really want to Celeste to go suck an elf!  (koodos to whoever knows what that is from!)

-    Even though I didn't enjoy this one as much as the 1st book, I still really want to finish the series.

June Book Club

For June, we read

 

SPOILER ALERT!  DON'T CONTINUE READING UNLESS YOU'VE READ THE BOOK OR DON'T CARE IF YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The snackage I provided was Butterfly's Dust and Criollo

(aka Pina Colada and Cakebites).  Convincing huh?

I thought it was clever :)

We had a grand ol' time, and covered many topics of conversation, including:  Hugh Grant, Les Miserables, Chick Flicks, Child Birth, Circumcisions, Strippers, Miscarriages, Brave, food, and much more.  Yes, we did talk about the book too.

Things we discussed from the Poison Study:

The whole commander is a female and a male was a bit confusing.  We decided that he was born a woman, but was a man trapped in a woman's body, and some magic was involved in changing him.

Erin and Emma thought Yelena was going to end up with Ari cause they had some banter and closeness between them.  Later they could accept Valek as the love interest.  The rest of us are swooning over Valek.

Rand's character was questionable.  We talked about how we didn't trust him or want to like him, but he did some likeable things.  Everyone knew there was something off about him from the get go.  He had some weird mood swings.

We felt like some of the sexual abuse wasn't really needed.  We could understand that Yelena was raped and she killed Reyad, but some of the other stuff was cringe worthy (like the naked gymnastics).

Everyone didn't really want to prolong the next 2 books cause we all just want to DEVOUR them, so we decided to read Magic Study and Fire Study for next month.

The Demon King Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered and participated in this giveaway!  I enjoyed all your comments!

The Winner is.....

KAPRI from Book Fanatics

Congrats Kapri!!  I'll be contacting you soon for mailing info!  You have 48 hours to reply or I'll choose another winner.  

Cyrano de Bergerac

From Goodreads:    Regarded as one of the greatest dramas ever written, this story of the silver-tongued soldier whose unfortunate looks drive him to woo his love by speaking for his handsome but dull-witted rival is beloved around the world.

My Thoughts:

-    This was a really fun and beautiful play.  I laughed and almost cried.

-    I couldn't pronounce a lot of names, but it didn't detract from the story at all.

-    I liked the first few poems at the beginning.  They were really fun and used well.

-    I think I would almost fall for Cyrano as well.  He was very witty and eloquent.  He is really prideful though, and I don't know if I could get over the big ego.

-    The ending is sad, real sad.  Why do plays have to end sadly?  

-    Even though it is written as a play, it was really easy to read, and I could picture everything. 

-    I've never read this classic play before, but I'm glad I did, and I really want to add it to my library now.  It is a keeper!  

-    I'm going to be thinking about this play for next few days.  

Cinder

Goodreads Synopsis:    Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

My Thoughts:

-    The story and characters are brilliant!!  This is such a unique twist on a classic fairy tale that has been re-told countless times!  Meyer has brought the story back to life!

-    I love the font.  It's so different, but still easy to read.  Plus it looks really cool.

-    A lying sensor would be very useful, but I wouldn't want everyone to have one, just me.

-    The plot was predictable.  I figured it out really early in the book, but the story is still great, and it kept me captivated.

-    It ends with a bit of a cliffhanger!  Grrrr!!  I'm angry that I have to wait for the 2nd book to find out what happens!!!!!

-    I loved all the characters!  Even the evil characters, they are the kind that you love to hate.  I hope justice is served in a very brutal manner!  I LOVED Cinder!  She is a girl I can really relate too.  I enjoyed her attitude and confidence.  I also liked Prince Kai!  He is a wonderful knight in shining armor type protagonist.  

-    I didn't have a ton of thoughts while reading, I just enjoyed the story and let it take me along for the ride.  It was a really fun read!