Contents of blog copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2023
I've been gone a while. I started reading fanfiction to escape and I got sucked in an abyss.

I have no idea if someone else is hosting similar challenges. I just grabbed some of what I have hosted before.

Here's to a happy year of great reading
Jan2023: Not much has changed. Writing a fanfiction now O_o as well as reading but I bought 7 new books in December and hope to get those read soon. Crossing fingers about adding challenges (late!)

Monday, November 30, 2009

What's in a Name? 3


This was a bit stressful because I was having trouble finding a medical term. I still wondered if it would happen again for 2010 and it is!

It will be hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads for 2010 and she explains why the change. Sign-up with Mr. Linky or leave a comment if you don't blog.


Rules:

Read Six books during 2010 -
1. A book with a food in the title
2. A book with a body of water in the title
3. A book with a title (queen, president) in the title
4. A book with a plant in the title
5. A book with a place name (city, country) in the title
6. A book with a music term in the title

Really, that's it, six books. Challenge runs Jan 1 to Dec 31 and you can use the books for your other challenges. There is more info on Beth's post so click over, read through it and join in the fun.



My List:
food - A Clockwork Orange
body of water - Whiskey Gulf
title - How to Tempt a Duke
plant - Out of the Pumpkin Shell
place name - The Hunt for Atlantis
music term - Life in the Pit (Orchestra pit)

What are you Reading?


What are you reading on Monday? is a weekly meme hosted by J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Book blog where you post books completed last week and plans for upcoming books. Jump over to her blog and see who else is participating.


Monday, November 30
Finished this Week
Begger's Banquet
The Christmas List
A Highlander Christmas
The Vanishing Sculptor

reviews posted: 1
plus 2 short stories


Still Reading/Started
Falling into the Sun- started reading again!
The Untamed Bride - later
A Highlander Christmas
The Vanishing Sculptor
The Christmas Cookie Killer - may give up, don't know if I'll even make it to page 50!

Planning to Read/Start
Defenders of the Scroll
The Once and Future King
Nefertiti
The Third Man Factor
Moonstone

Library Books Now Available
Murder Is binding


and Reviews needed to Complete
A Circle of Souls
The Right Side of the Tracks
True North
Benny & Shrimp
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
Red in the Flower Bed
Second Chance
Nine Things Nathan Saw a Night
The Tallest of the Smalls
A Sportscasters Guide to Watching Football
plus any/all of the previous books read....

why, yes, the list does seem to be getting longer! And I found out I haven't posted a couple of reviews that I thought I had.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Challenge Completed



This was fun. My post about the challenge is here.

I read A Highlander Christmas - my review is here. And finished reading The Vanishing Sculptor tonight, just in time.

ARC Reading Challenge


I know I said I was going to be more selective in what challenges I joined but this is reading my review books and I'm doing that anyways! The scary thing for this one is seeing how far behind I am on my reviews!

This challenge is being hosted by

Teddy Rose at

So Many Precious Books, So Little Time.

Challenge information and sign-ups are here.
Challenge runs from Jan 2 to Dec 30.

List ALL the ARCs you have right now then add to the list as you receive them. Cross off the ones you've read & reviewed. There are three levels based on how many you do, I'm going for the Gold. There's more but that's the basics.

Q: Some of the books sent to me for review are final copies. Do they count? I hope so, they're on the list. - all of them count, see comments =)

Books arrive from authors, GoodReads, LibraryThing, publicists, publishers and for blog tours.

Books as of November 29, 2009
1. The Hole in Our Gospel
2. Falling into the Sun - finished Dec 1-09
3. the Lie
4. Only in New York, Darling!
5. Possible Futures
6. Dirty Little Angels
7. Whiskey Gulf
8. Playing House
9. Health Beyond Medicine
10. Your Legacy of Love
11. Defenders of the Scroll
12. The Hunt for Atlantis
13. The Art of Meaningful Living
14. The Masonic Myth
15. A Songbird in My Heart
16. Across the Endless River
17. Nibble and Kuhn
18. Raising Dragons
19. Children of Dust
20. Prince Harming Syndrome
21. Agony Hill
22. The Brimstone Murders
23. Solace
24. The Recipe Club
25. Thirsty
26. The Lost Child
27. Stepmonster
28. But Then Again I Could Be Wrong
29. The Manufactured Identity
30. The Cost of Dreams
31. When Mermaids Sing
32. Yellow Moon
33. The Alphabet Challenge
34. The Silent Gift
35. The Gathering Storm
36. Conflicts with Interest
37. Miracle in Sumatra
38. Life after 187
39. Janeology
40. Rainbow in the Night
41. The Little Known
42. Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart
43. On the Edge
44. 18 Billion
45.
46.




waiting for:
Flying Free: 1/21 still waiting


Blog Tours:
Moonstone
The Culture of Excess
By the Time You Read this I'll be Dead
Out of the Pumpkin Shell
Gateway
Unity
When the Whistle Blows
Shadowed Summer
Forget-Her-Nots
Dark Divine
Princess For Hire
The Male Factor - progress report 1-15
Whisper
Of All the Stupid Things
The Mark


Behind in reviews:
Benny & Shrimp
A Circle of Souls
A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
The Tallest of smalls
Second Chance
Nine Things Nathan Noticed At Night
Red in the Flower Bed
True North
The Right Side of the Tracks

New Books in the house

Two wonderful people have weekly memes about what has shown up in our mailbox the previous week.

Kristi at The Story Siren
& Marcia at The Printed Page.
Jump over to see what others have received this week.


Review books that have arrived this week:
The Silent Gift
The Gathering Storm
Moonstone
Conflicts with Interest


Purchased (physical store):

Defending Angels
Haunting Jordan
Christmas Jars Reunion
A Highlander Christmas
The Christmas Cookie Killer

mail order delivery:
An Ice Cold Grave
Ice
The Dragon Book


Spotlight on...

Andrea Israel is a producer/writer for ABC's Focus Earth. She was a producer/writer on Anderson Cooper 360, Dateline, and Good Morning America (which garnered her an Emmy Award). Her story In Donald's Eyes was recently optioned for a film. Ms. Israel is the author of Taking Tea. Her writing has appeared in many publications.

Nancy Garfinkel is co-author of The Wine Lover's Guide to the Wine Country: The Best of Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino (Chronicle Books, 2005). A creative strategist, design consultant, writer, and editor for magazine, corporate, and non-profit clients, she has won a host of graphic arts and editorial merit awards. She has written extensively about food and graphic arts.


Thank you to Caitlin Price of FSB Associates for sending me a copy of The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship to review.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

100 Best Novels?

from the website: The goal of the "100 Best" project was to get people talking about great books. We succeeded beyond our wildest imaginings -- more than 400,000 avid readers rushed online to cast votes for their favorite books and the students of the Radcliffe Publishing Course quickly responded with rival list of 100 Best Novels.

Click on over to read all of it. You'll find three lists; 100 chosen by an editorial board, 100 chosen by readers and 100 chosen by the students. Is this 300 titles? No, but it is over 200. If I've done my copy/paste and editing correctly there are 208 titles.

I joined a perpetual challenge (here's my post, if you're interested) to read all of them but for whatever reason it is no longer being hosted there. That's okay, it's not like I was there all the time, I haven't read (or re-read) a book from the list! I'm going to run with this one on my own, first goal is to read the 25 titles that were on all three lists. No, not all this year but this is the list I'm starting with. This nice thing is that several are on next year's reading list already.


Animal Farm - Orwell, George
As I Lay Dying - Faulkner, William
Brave New World - Huxley, Aldous
Brideshead Revistited - Waugh, Evelyn
The Call of the Wild - London, Jack
Catch-22 - Heller, Joseph
The Catcher in the Rye - Salinger, J.D.
A Clockwork Orange - Burgess, Anthony
A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway, Ernest
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck, John
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Heart of Darkness - Conrad, Joseph
Invisible Man - Ellison, Ralph
Light In August - Faulkner, William
Lolita - Nabokov, Valdimir
The Lord of the Flies - Golding, William Gerald
Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell, George
On The Road - Kerouac, Jack
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce, James
Slaughterhouse-Five - Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sound And The Fury - Faulkner, William
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway, Ernest
To The Lighthouse - Woolf, Virginia
Tropic of Cancer - Miller, Henry
Ulysses - Joyce, James

What? A Book for every letter?

The idea is to read a book for each letter of the month for a year. Once I find where I found it, I'll link but for now I just want to see if I can do this with the books I need for the challenges I have officially joined. I had trouble finding a J title for the A-Z challenge and now I'm going to need THREE of them, and what's with all the U's! And the E's!

My Review books will be a HUGE help but I don't know if I want to find specific letter title to find my other challenges/free reading. For now, this is what my list looks like. I'm pretty sure the challenge started 11-1-09 so I'm listing the ones I need to read next year as well as the ones I'm reading now. I've even finished some!

Thanks to Bitsy at Fabula: A Book Blog, I now know this challenge is the....

Monthly Mixer Mele
hosted at Jen's Book Talk.
Challenge dates are Nov 1, 2009 to Nov 2, 2010.
edited 12-11 to remove unread books....

N - In the Night Kitchen - finished Dec 31
O -
V - The Vanishing Sculptor - read Nov 29
E -
M - A Magical Christmas Present - finished Dec 8
B - Blaze of Memory - finished Dec 9
E -
R - Remember Summer - Jan 22

D - The Dragon in the Sock Drawer - finished Nov 4
E -
C - The Cat Who Saw Stars - finished Nov 4
E -
M - Moonstone - finished Dec 20 review
B - Begger's Banquet - finished Nov 24
E -
R - Bed of Roses - Jan 23

J -
A -
N -
U - The Cat Who went Underground - finished Nov 3
A -
R -
Y -

F - Falling into the Sun - finished Dec 1 review
E -
B - The Black Stallion and the Shape-shifter - finished Nov 14
R -
U - Simply Unforgettable - Jan 18
A -
R -
Y -

M - The Masterharper of Pern - finished Dec 22
A -
R -
C -
H - A Highlander Christmas - finished Nov 28

A -
P -
R -
I -
L - The Christmas List - finished Nov 26

M -
A -
Y -

J -
U -
N -
E -

J -
U -
L -
Y -

A -
U -
G -
U -
S - A Snowflake in My Hand - finished Nov 13
T - That Holiday Feeling - finished Dec 6

S - A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football - finished Nov 3
E -
P -
T - The Tallest of smalls - finished Nov 17
E -
M -
B -
E -
R -

O -
C -
T -
O -
B -
E -
R -


74 letters = 74 books
challenge overlap accepted (whew)
Not necessary to read in order
Only one letter per book


11 books read in November which is pretty good since I didn't even see the challenge until the 26th. For some reason I thought it was too late for this year {shrug} but I'm going to join this one officially. =)

Nov = 11
Dec = 7
Jan = 2
Feb =
Mar =
Apr =
May =
Jun =
Jul =
Aug =
Sep =
Oct =

Review: A Highlander Christmas

A modern-day Magical Christmas story.


A Highlander Christmas
Janet Chapman

Pocket Star
Mass Market Paperback (& ebook)
October 2009
334 pages (pub says 352 but my copy has 334!)

purchase from the publisher.
I purchased this book from Barnes & Noble

from the Publisher:
Camry MacKeage has absolutely no intention of telling her parents that she left her job as a NASA physicist for the small-town life of a dog-sitter -- which is why she's spending the holidays alone in coastal Maine with her furry friends Tigger and Max. Unfortunately, her irresistibly handsome rival, scientist Luke Pascal, accidentally spilled the beans. Now he's on a mission from her mother to tempt Camry home for the family's annual winter solstice celebration. But Luke is hiding his own secret, and he'll need a little bit of magic to earn Camry's trust...and a whole lot of mistletoe to seduce his way into her heart.


My thoughts
I joined two Christmas/Holiday challenges and was at the bookstore wanting a couple more new books. I had already made my selection when this one caught my eye. Picked up because of the front cover, purchased to find out what a NASA Physicist and a Highlander have in common. It read a little like part of a series (it is) but I was able to enjoy it without reading any of the other books.

The is a romance novel with a magical bent without being paranormal. It's just that things seem to happen, the exact things they need to happen, exactly when they should. As well as a few people thrown in who shouldn't be there.

I did read it in parts and throughly enjoyed myself. I wanted to shake Luke for not believing at the same time not sure what he was supposed to be believing! You'll meet some interesting characters and one of the ending sentences had me looking up the rest of the series. So turn off the phone then curl up with the fireplace going and enjoy the ride.

Oh, and the "family's annual winter solstice celebration" is more than just a solstice celebration, it is the birthday of ALL the children so of course Camry has to be there.

Rating: 4.5

Quote it Sat

Quote it Sat is a Weekly Event
hosted by Leslie at That Chick that Reads.



"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."
Kurt Cobain

If only we can believe this & act on it....

found on gmail's Quote of the Day

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thankfully Reading Weekend

I tried to unplugged all weekend but it just didn't work so I thought I'd check out what challenges are coming up and what do I find? One for this weekend! Friday, Saturday and Sunday.


This is a very informal reading challenge, read about it HERE. There is a Mr. Linky to sign-up with.

I read The Christmas List yesterday (doesn't count). There was time in the morning, during the drive to my SIL's house then finished it while the carrots were cooking!

Today I started A Highlander Christmas. I think this may be part of a series but it doesn't matter, I'm enjoying the book. I also picked up Falling into the Sun again and am having an easier time of it.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Tomorrow brought a new post about completing the challenge. ;-)

Friday 56: Knock, Knock

The Friday 56 is hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to Storytime with Tonya and Friends.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Moments went by, but no one came to the door. Carolyn rang the bell again but still got no answer.

"Are you sure you saw somebody?" She asked with a frown.


This is from the Christmas Cookie Killer. I purchased this book for two challenges but was only able to read to page 14. Now it is sitting on my desk waiting for me to post about it, try reading it again, or give up and take it back.

As I haven't gotten this far, I don't know who's house they're at, who is with Carolyn or who saw what. I don't even know if there are only two people at the door.

Fearless on Friday: My Child is in Danger

I am part of the Tomas Nelson Book Review Blogger program. I tell you this because I reviewed Fearless in September through them and have been given the opportunity to share excerpts with you.

The files were sent as pdf so I'm crossing my fingers that this works.....



the link takes you to Scribd where the chapter is uploaded on private. You must use the link to read it. Please tell me how long it take for it to upload for you. I may need to figure out another way to do this.

Don't forget to check out chapter 1: Why are we afraid?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving....

I'll be spending the weekend in the real world but want to wish all who celebrate Thanksgiving a....


and if you don't - have a great weekend.

My Personal 10*10*10 Challenge


I don't know if anyone will be hosting an official challenge but I need a place to organize my reading goals and a way to not forget about them.


10 categories, 10 books, during 2010 (there is no way I want to say read by Oct 10.

10 books may count double. I feel that I'll have the hardest time with the 60's.

(Yes, there will be an official 10-10-10 challenge at LibraryThing!)

12-30: Last minute changes.... again....

1. Signed
2. Teen and younger
3. the 60's (published in or about)
4. Review Books
5. Books Won
6. Fantasy/SciFi
7. Nonfiction
8. Romance
9. Just because books
10. New to me authors (non-review books)

I played around with the 60's and it may be the perpetual challenge books that hold me back. I still want to read the dusty and forgotten, mystery/thriller/suspense and Christian fiction. Maybe next year ;-D



Title - finished date review link


1. Signed
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

2. Teen and younger
1. 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert - Jan 1
2. The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola - Jan 1
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

3. the 60's (published in or about)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

4. Review Books (planned)
1. The Silent Gift
2. Conflicts With Interest
3. Whiskey Gulf
4. Playing House
5. Across the Endless River
6. Nibble & Kuhn
7. Thirsty
8. the Lie
9. The Manufactured Identity
10. The Cost of Dreams

5. Books Won
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

6. Fantasy/SciFi
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

7. Nonfiction (planned)
1. The Hole in Our Gospel
2. But Then Again I Could Be Wrong
3. Possible Futures
4. Health Beyond Medicine
5. Your Legacy of Love
6. The Art of Meaningful Living
7. Children of Dust
8. Prince Harming Syndrome
9. Solace
10. Stepmonster

8. Romance
1. Vision in White - Jan 8
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

9. Just Because books
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

10. New to me authors (non-review books)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.


wondering if I can put a Mr. Linky here to link reviews.... would it open up to a new window? Might be worth a try.

2010 Reading through the Seasons

Get ready to read through the seasons again! Last year was insane so I've made some changes. This year it is only four books, one for each season.



Rules:

1. Four books, one for each season.

2. Title must have a season, not holiday, winter, fall, autumn, spring, summer

3. Jan 1 to Dec 31

4. Leave a link to your post about the challenge & I'll add you to the participant list.

Everything else is fairly flexible. Reviews, lists, even a blog is not necessary and books may be used for other challenges. It would be nice if you posted a short summary about the books you read so we can add to our TBR piles/wish lists.



FYI: If you'd like to review your books or even just tell us about them, I have Mr. Linky set up

Winter - Spring - Summer - Fall/Autumn

A Circle of Souls giveaway

Way to go & WooHoo to Preetham Grandhi. His book, A Circle of Souls, is part of The Booktrib Giveaway!

100+ for 2010


J Kaye at J Kaye's Book Blog is hosting the
100+ Reading Challenge

some of the Rules:

1. read 100, or more, books during 2010. The book doesn't count if you start it in 2009. (Q: what if we start it over?)

2. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Young Reader, Nonfiction – as long as the book has an ISBN or equivalent or can be purchased as such, the book counts.

3. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.

4. Crossovers from other reading challenges count.

Sign-up here with your post about the challenge. There are almost 100 signed up, are you next?


1. 10,000 Dresses
2. The Knight and the Dragon
3. Christmas Kittens
4. Summer Kittens
5. Vision in White
6. The Male Factor
7. Heart Quest
8.
9.
10.

Colorful Reading Challenge


Rebecca at Lost in Books is hosting a
Colorful Reading Challenge


Read 9 books during 2010, each with a different color in the title.

No need to make a list but Yellow Moon is a review book so you bet I'm going to count it ;-) I'm going to make a list anyways, I can always change it later.


My list, for now
1. Vision in White ~ Nora Roberts - Jan 8
2. Yellow Moon ~ Jewell Parker Rhodes
3. Black Beauty ~
4. Where the Red Fern Grows ~
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray ~ Oscar Wilde
6. A Clockwork Orange ~ Anthony Burgess
7.
8. Lavender Morning ~ Jude Deveraux
9. Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal ~ Chuck Pfarrer

October Book Report

Total titles/bindings: 30 (I didn't list ebooks under 100 pages)

Total pages read: 7759 (including those below)
average read per day: 241.97
page average from ebooks under 100 pages: 258 pages total (I didn't read many short stories this month)


library books: 10


New-to-me (print) fiction: Wake, Vampire Academy, Fade, Benny & Shrimp, Right Next Door, The Midnight Twins, The Sweetgum Ladies Knit for Love, Dragonling, vol 2, Magic Lessons, Magic or Madness, Thanksgiving at the Inn, Magic's Child, Red in the Flower Bed


New non-fiction: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, The Noticer


Re-reads: Causing Havoc, Simon Says, Hard to Handle, The Cat Who Lived High, The Cat Who knew Shakespeare, The Cat Who Played Post Office, Ghouls Don't Scoop Ice Cream, Dragonlin, The Cat Who tailed a Thief, The Cat Who Moved a Mountain


electronic titles (new & re-reads): Unrequited, Two In, Two Out, Tigers and Devils, Saving Noah, Uneven

A-Z Wednesday

A-Z Wednesday is a Weekly Event
hosted by Vicky at Reading at the Beach.


Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!
To join, here's all you have to do:
Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments
If you've already reviewed this book you can link the review also.
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

This week's letter is "P"


People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks

Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: December 2008
format: Trade paperback
pages: 400
fiction > literary

My Review


from the back cover:
Hanna Heath, an Australian rare book expert, has been offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding-an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair-she begins to unlock the book's mysteries, ushering in its exquisite and atmospheric past, from its salvation back to its creation through centuries of exile and war.


It says it's inspired by a true story but I enjoyed the book as wonderful fiction without the need to find the true story to compare.

available at Penguin. The link goes to the paperback format but it is available in hardcover, audio CD, audio download and ebook. The link is also the US site, I'm sure the book is available at all of Penguin's sites.

Wishful Wednesdays


Wishful Wednesday
is now hosted at The Bluestocking Guide


Here are the rules:
1. Answer the question, “What books have you been wishing for/wanting to get lately?”
2. Grab the button to the right
3. Post a permalink to your answer in the comments.
4. Visit around.
5. Have fun!
HTML TAGS WILL NOT WORK. So just post the link. If you want it to be neat, post your link in the URL box next to your name.


I'm going to (mostly) use this to share what's on my wish list, most of which I have no idea where I found first.
This one was recommended at Amazon. I like reading novels that involve crafts.



Tangled Up In Love
Heidi Betts

St. Martin's Paperbacks
February 2009
320 pages



Ever since Dylan Stone beat Veronica Chasen out of a prime position at the Cleveland Courier, they’ve been bitter rivals, engaging in a very public war of words in their competing newspaper columns. They routinely challenge each other to go bungee jumping, white water rafting, or into tattoo parlors to see who will wimp out first. But Veronica’s latest taunt may be Dylan’s toughest assignment yet: She dares him to learn to knit.

Dylan is not going to let something his grandmother can do scare him off. He’s man enough to make a scarf—and attend Veronica’s weekly knitting circle. But when the infuriatingly handsome Dylan shows up at the craft shop and charms all the ladies, Veronica starts to get all knotted up in something that feels a lot like love...




Loves Me, Loves Me Knot follows and while the book sounds ok I'm not digging the cover so I'll wait to read this one before committing to book 2. Then it looks like a third is arriving in February 2010.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Three New Review Books

I don't have cover graphics right with me but wanted to tell you about three new children's books I received for review.

Red in the Flower Bed:
An Illustrated Children's Story about Interracial Adoption

The journey of adoption is beautifully depicted with the comforting imagery of a poppy flower who is welcomed into a garden family. It is a charming story of "seeds" being planted in the perfect place - exactly where they belong. Children and adults will enjoy this simple yet meaningful story and homespun illustrations. The book's loving approach helps children to understand adoption. Andrea Nepa has captured the essence of adoption and family, and has illustrated it beautifully with images and poetry that even a small child can comprehend and enjoy.


Second Chance:
How Adoption Saved a Boy with Autism & His Shelter Dog
Over the past 10 years, author Sandra Gerencher has been on a mission to save dogs from high-kill animal shelters. Her first rescue was P.J., the black and white Pomeranian in the story. She also adopted the orange Pomeranians Shelby and Lil Rascal, and of course, Chance, the big black Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix. All characters in the story are based on Sandra's real life family. The book is filled with softly blended watercolor photos of her loved ones. Her most significant adoption was her son, Terry. He was considered a special needs child because he was born with a genetic disorder known as Fragile X Syndrome. The disorder can cause many cognitive disorders, such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mental retardation and depression.



Nine Things Nathan Noticed at Night
Nine great things happen when the sun sets for the evening. Each page includes a statement about what is happening and then some fun facts and information about that event. Written from a Christian perspective, the story describes how God made things when He created the Earth. While the story was written specifically for ages 3-8, children of all ages will enjoy this book. Even adults can admire the beautiful watercolor artwork.


Special Thanks go to Mary Ann Langan of Tribute Books for sending me htmls for review

Teaser Tuesday

MizB at Should Be Reading hosts this cool weekly event.

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:

--Grab your current read
--Let the book open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
--You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

I was going to use this as my Saturday quote as it has a life lesson for us but it conveys the feeling of the book so well....

Quality is not duration or endurance. It is a timeless, elusive commodity. It is a word that, more than defining life, we strive to make synonymous with life for every patient.


Page 41, A Snowflake in my Hand by Samantha Mooney

Monday, November 23, 2009

Challenge Update

I had gone through my challenges to see which ones were complete and which I had no hope of completing. I've already signed up for several more for next year and I'm having second thoughts. I like the idea of having a list of new books to read but have discovered that lists aren't working for me. Even the Random Reading Challenge isn't a good idea. I'm going to have to list the challenges I like but not sign up officially.

I KNOW I signed up for other challenges but I didn't list them on my challenge page so now I'm going to have to look for them, grrrr - found three more.


Completed:
20 Books in 2009 - it was stupid for me to even sign up for this one! I mean, come on, 20 in one year? I read 20 in January!

100+ Reading Challenge - granted it says "+" and the year isn't over yet but I'm closer to 300 than 250 so I'm considering this one completed

2009 Pub Challenge - I read more books published in 2009 than I thought I would then when you add in review books? I had no problem hitting 9 but I'm not going to sign up again, I don't want to keep track of it.

A - Z Reading Challenge - I finally found where this one is and they're hosting it again for 2010. I had fun with this one.

August Reading Challenge - All you can read for August only. This was Pizza's first challenge, and if he does it again, I may be signing up.

Christmas in July - This one is mine and I'm hosting again in 2010. I better sign up!

Confuzzled Faerie Book Challenge - This one was fun. I have more books then I thought that fit in and found a new author.

Cozy Mystery Challenge - I love to read cozy mysteries but I didn't get the books reviewed! Next year I'll be much more careful about that.

Dewey's 24-Hour Reading Challenge - this was way too much fun. I hope to make some bookmarks as prizes for 2010 and read more than this time.

eBook Reading Challenge - this is like 20 in 2009, it was a joke to join because it was 10 in 2009! I'll continue to read ebooks, I just won't join the challenge.

In Their Shoes - I'll continue to read memoirs, just not officially as part of a challenge.

The Love Bites Reading Challenge - I liked this one but it's 3 books in 3 months with reviews so I don't think I'll do it again.

National Just Read More Novels Month - just novels, no re-reads. Maybe, maybe not.

New to You Authors - this one bumped me out of my comfort zone but the review books will do that now.

R.I.P. IV - I'll be joining this one and looking for books to read for it during the year

Reading through the Seasons - This one is mine. I'll be hosting again in 2010 with some changes. Which reminds me that I better get that posted!

Ride the Reading Wave - young adult. There are four levels with 12 being the minimum. Undecided about joining officially.

Romance Reading Challenge - 5 romance in 12 months? piece of cake

Summer Reading Challenge - as many as you can for the challenge period. undecided

Summer Vacation Reading Challenge - I loved picking out books for this one but she wants reviews and I didn't get them completed

Support Your Local Library - 25 is the minimum for 2010. I did over that this year but can I keep it up?

What an Animal Challenge II - I liked finding books for this one but with "title" one of the choices and me reading The Cat Who books.... I completed this one way ahead of time.

What's in a name? - I got stressed about this one. Will need to see what the choices are before committing to it for next year.


Abandoned:
999 Challenge - Sure I would have loved to have completed this one but I did better than I thought I would but it's almost December and I still need 4 banned/challenged books, 7 health/fitness related and all 9 James Bond books. They were good categories in January but I lost site of the goal and never opened my James Bond gift set.

Be Inspired (self-help) - I had such plans and I failed completely.

The Christy Awards Challenge - it was a good idea but I just can't to it.

Clear Off Your Shelves - I've been re-reading old books, reading new purchases and review book. None of these fit in this challenge

Every Month is a Holiday - I like this idea, I just didn't make the time needed to devote to searching for each book. It would be nice to do and I hope the site stays up.

Royal's Romance Reading Challenge - I was able to read all but one of the books but didn't get any of the reviews completed.

Serial Readers - I joined when I started read the Valdemar books but quit when I realized the 9 books (3 trilogies) didn't count because I didn't want to read another three.

Young Readers Challenge - I could read the books but was having trouble post my reviews on a specific day.


Perpetual:
100 Best Novels - I want to read or have some desire to read most of this list, I'm just glad there is no time frame.

Disney Literature Challenge - read the originals.

I Read Banned Books - I want to do this, just haven't yet.

Prey Challenge - this is my challenge but I haven't started. Can't get to my books.

PB&J Challenge - picture books and juvenile, want to re-read what I have at he house and decide what to keep and what not to.



Closed/not completing:
Banned Book Challenge - from The Pelham Public Library, in Fonthill, Canada. Don't know how I did, I never updated the post.

Christian Reader Challenge - I wanted to read 10 but only read 4. Not sure if that is a failure or not.

Fantastical Challenge - I didn't read this one very well, reviews seem to be my problem

The Genre Challenge - I discovered this one late and found that I have read a variety of genres. I just didn't get the required reviews done.

Harry Potter Reading Challenge - as much as I want to re-read the series, I'm not going to get them done in the time frame.

Herding Cats II - simple enough, I just haven't made the time to go searching.

Military Challenge - 1 out of 2, started the second so I may complete this one yet.

Non-Fiction Five - books read but not all of the reviews were completed

Random Reading Challenge - I can't even remember to do this with the books I have left.

Read Your Own Books Challenge - You would think this one would be a no-brainer but I've checked out a lot of library books....

Read-a-Fest: Lisa Jackson - this one came and went so fast, I think I had four others ending at the same time.

Reading My Name - The books were read but the reviews were not completed.

Re-Read Challenge - so I'm re-reading but not remembering the review or link!

Rescue Challenge - I did get rid of 6 books but I only read 1 of them before doing so

Romance Club Reading Challenge - I didn't "Read a romance from a sub-genre you don't usually read from" but considering how many sub-genres I read it was a difficult task just finding a book. I did, just haven't read it.

Sookie Stackhouse - I can't find my books

TBR Challenge - I just picked a bad list to begin with then in my excitement over review books and other challenges, forgot about these.


Open/Upcoming:
Arthurian Challenge - to March 2010

Cat Sleuth Challenge - to June 30, 2010

Chill Baby, Chill - Dec 21 to Mar 19

Christmas Reading Challenge - Nov 26 to Dec 31

Fall into Reading - Sep 22 to Dec 20

Holiday Reading Challenge - Nov 20 to Dec 31

Lisa Jackson Reading Challenge - to Dec 31, 2010

Pages Read Challenge - met goal in July

Reading through the Seasons - Jan 1 to Dec 31, this is mine & I need to do it.

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is a Weekly Event hosted by
Marcia at The Printed Page
jump over to see what others have received this week.


Review books that have arrived this week:
Yellow Moon


Purchased:
Happy Hour
The Blind Side
Shadowland
The Christmas Secret
Sandworms of Dune
If I Am Missing or Dead
The Girls Who Went Away
The Girl on Legare Street
Dracula (B&N Classics)
Christmas Cyclopedia


and a big thank you to ....
Michelle Scott for Saddled with Trouble & Murder by the Glass
Cheeky Reads for
A Highlander's Temptation

What are you Reading?


What are you reading on Monday? is a weekly meme hosted by J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Book blog where you post books completed last week and plans for upcoming books. Jump over to her blog and see who else is participating.


Monday, November 23
Finished this Week
The Tallest of the smalls
Fanuilh
Wizard's Heir
The Cat Who Sang for the Birds
The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts
The Cat Who Said Cheese
Arm Candy
plus 9 short stories


Still Reading/Started
Falling into the Sun- haven't picked it up again
The Untamed Bride - later
Intertwined - had to return to the library, partially read!
The Vanishing Sculptor

Planning to Read/Start
Defenders of the Scroll
The Tallest of the smalls
The Neighbor - had to return to the library
The Once and Future King
Nefertiti
The Third Man Factor


Library Books Now Available



and Reviews needed to Complete
A Circle of Souls
The Right Side of the Tracks
True North
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
Red in the Flower Bed
Second Chance
Nine Things Nathan Saw a Night
The Tallest of the Smalls
A Sportscasters Guide to Watching Football
plus any/all of the previous books read....

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Spotlight on...

Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.)

Gordon and Ilona currently reside in Georgia with their two children and three dogs.

They have co-authored two series, the bestselling urban fantasy of Kate Daniels and romantic urban fantasy of The Edge.

A BIG thank you to Gordon for sending me Magic Strikes.

You can find out more about the authors and their novels at their website.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Quote it Sat

Quote it Sat is a Weekly Event
hosted by Leslie at That Chick that Reads.



"Men will die on both sides," he said quietly.

"And there is no need. Only Zarnak's greed for power."

Alayah smiled sadly. "I fear, my son," she said softly, "that greed is at the root of most wars."

pg 205, The Dragonling, Collector's Edition, Vol. 2 by Jackie French Koller

Friday, November 20, 2009

Fearless on Friday: Why are we afraid?

I am part of the Tomas Nelson Book Review Blogger program. I tell you this because I reviewed Fearless in September through them and have been given the opportunity to share excerpts with you.

The files were sent as pdf so I'm crossing my fingers that this works.....



the link takes you to Scribd where the chapter is uploaded on private. You must use the link to read it. Please tell me how long it take for it to upload for you. I may need to figure out another way to do this. The chapter actually starts on page 12 if you want to jump right into it.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

A Note from the Author: The Recipe Club

Tales of Thanksgiving Food and Friendship
By Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel,
Authors of The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship

For some people, Thanksgiving evokes warm feelings triggered by memories of a close-knit family gathering, where relatives share traditions and a home-cooked meal.

For others . . . it's the beginning of a holiday season stuffed with lunatic relatives, family dysfunction, bitter recriminations, and heartburn.

We heard a wide range of Thanksgiving Tales this year while traveling around the country for our Recipe Clubs. Inspired by the plot and structure of our book, Recipe Clubs are storytelling and friendship circles in which women gather to share true-life food-related stories along with recipes. Recipe Clubs are not about cooking; they're about creating community and fostering friendship . . . they're about laughing and crying . . . they're about honoring our own lives and the lives of others. They show us how the simplest, sweetest, or funniest tales about food can turn into deep revelations about our lives.

Just about everybody has at least one quintessential Thanksgiving food memory that perfectly captures the complicated feelings surrounding the holiday. Here are some of our favorites:

GIVING THANKS
One Recipe Club friend recalls the first time she ever cooked a Thanksgiving meal on her own. Her mother, who traditionally did the meal, was recovering from surgery. Her father was working. And her sister was flying in just in time for the meal, but not early enough to help cook.

So our friend rose to the challenge, proclaiming that she would do the entire meal, on her own. No problem -- until reality set in. She woke at dawn, shopped, chopped, and soon realized her oven was half the size it needed to be. By the time the turkey wanted basting the chestnut stuffing required baking -- and the brussel sprouts were definitely not cleaning themselves!

But things really went south when it came time prepare her grandmother's famous pumpkin pie. This was the pie recipe that had been handed down through generations. If it didn't come out perfectly, our friend knew she'd feel like a failure.

Of course, nothing went right. The pie crust was too wet, then too dry. There was too much nutmeg, not enough ginger. With every crimp of the dough her head swam with the imagined voice of her southern grandmother: "A woman is judged not just by who she is, but by what she can bring to the table."

When the pie came out of the oven, the crust was too brown, and there was a giant crack running down the middle of the filling. Our friend fought back tears, took a deep breath, and set the pie out to cool, knowing more clearly than ever that neither it -- nor she -- was, or would ever be, perfect.

But when it came time for everyone to gather at the table, something shifted. Her parents and sister praised her hard work and loved the meal. And our friend realized she had somehow been carried on the wings of the generations of women who had cooked before her, without complaining, to serve a Thanksgiving meal to their family. She felt truly thankful for all the work that her mother, grandmother, aunts -- indeed all the women she'd known through her life -- had accomplished each holiday. Triumphant, connected, and happy, she understood that food cooked with love is its own kind of perfection.

FINALIZING THE DIVORCE
One Recipe Club friend recalled her first Thanksgiving after her divorce.

Since carving the bird had always been her ex-husband's job, she delighted in finding a new, turkey-free recipe. She settled on an apricot-glazed ham, and went to work cooking a glaze of brown sugar, cloves, and apricot nectar (an ingredient that gave her extra pleasure knowing her ex-husband detested it.)

When her grown children came for dinner, they were childishly upset not to have their usual 12-pound bird. But it was delicious, and in the end each one complimented the chef. On her way out, the youngest daughter told her mother, "maybe we all need to learn how to gracefully accept change."

For this new divorcee, serving ham became a way of asserting her independence, showing her children there was life after marriage, and teaching the whole family to find new ways to be together.

IT'S ALL RELATIVE
The truth is, we don't pick our relatives. So if the Thanksgiving gathering of the clan is an annual emotional challenge, you aren't alone.

In a recent Recipe Club circle of old friends and new acquaintances, we met a woman who admitted that for most of her life she dreaded Thanksgiving; all it evoked for her were memories of family fights. The contrast of what she knew Thanksgiving was "supposed" to be, versus what it was in her home, always made her feel ashamed and disappointed. And yet every November she felt compelled go home for a family Thanksgiving meal.

But one year, that changed, when her parents and brother decided to have Thanksgiving away from home. They journeyed together to Nantucket, where they ate dinner at a seaside inn. The inn served a New England clam chowder, rich with cream and warm on a cold autumn night. And they discovered that a new location, with new foods, away from the house where memories were often more fiery than the jalepeno cornbread, turned out to be just what the family needed.

Now, every year, back at home, they have a new tradition: serving New England Clam Chowder at their Thanksgiving feasts, each spoonful bringing back fond memories of a peaceful and loving family holiday.

A FAMILY OF FRIENDS
Finally, a little tale of food and friendship.

A reader of our book told us that she had a choice this year. She could invite Uncle Tim and Aunt Zoe, the way she does every year, and spend the entire holiday worrying about whether or not the perpetually complaining couple were happy. She could include cousins Beth and Sean, knowing they would be competitive, putting down her choice of food, her way of cooking, her table setting. She could extend an invitation to her brother and dreaded sister-in-law, who would sit in silence the entire meal and pick at the food.

Or . . . she could shake things up and do something entirely different: invite only friends. True friends. People she enjoyed being with. Who made her laugh. Who spoke truthfully. Who shared her passions for good books, good wine, and good music.

She took the leap. She dumped the whiners, broke with tradition, irritated several family members -- and never looked back. The moral: good food and good friends are the perfect combination. Sometimes it's a good idea to trim the guest list before you serve the bird with all its trimmings.

©2009 Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel, authors of The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A-Z Wednesday

A-Z Wednesday is a Weekly Event
hosted by Vicky at Reading at the Beach.


Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!
To join, here's all you have to do:
Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments
If you've already reviewed this book you can link the review also.
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

This week's letter is "O"




The Outstretched Shadow
The Obsidian Trilogy, book 1
Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: August 26, 2004
format: Mass Market Paperback
pages: 736
fantasy (good vs evil)


from the Publisher:
Kellen Tavadon, son of the Arch-Mage Lycaelon, thought he knew the way the world worked. His father, leading the wise and benevolent Council of Mages, protected and guided the citizens of the Golden City of the Bells. Young Mages in training-all men, for women were unfit to practice magic-memorized the intricate details of High Magic and aspired to seats on the council.
Then he found the forbidden Books of Wild Magic-or did they find him? Their Magic felt like a living thing, guided by the hearts and minds of those who practiced it and benefited from it.
Questioning everything he has known, Kellen discovers too many of the City's dark secrets. Banished, with the Outlaw Hunt on his heels, Kellen invokes Wild Magic-and finds himself running for his life with a unicorn at his side.
Rescued by a unicorn, healed by a female Wild Mage who knows more about Kellen than anyone outside the City should, meeting Elven royalty and Elven warriors, and plunged into a world full of magical beings-Kellen both revels in and fears his new freedom.
The one thing all the Mages of the City agreed on was that practicing Wild Magic corrupted a Mage. Turned him into a Demon. Would that be Kellen's fate?
Deep in Obsidian Mountain, the Demons are waiting. Since their defeat in the last great War, they've been biding their time, sowing the seeds of distrust and discontent between their human and Elven enemies. Very soon now, when the Demons rise to make war, there will be no alliance between High and Wild Magic to stand against them. And then all the world will belong to the Endarkened.



The trilogy has a page with buy links (for mmp) at Tor Books

amazon.com still has it available in hardcover as well as mmp and for the Kindle.

My copy is hardcover and it is a hefty book. Just an FYI, To Light a Candle and When Darkness Falls are book 2 & 3. I purchased the first two at a used bookstore and was so excited to read book three that I went with the Kindle version.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Excerpt: Stepmonster

Misinformation From the Stepmothering Industry

by Wednesday Martin, Ph.D.,
Author of Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers
Think, Feel, and Act the Way We Do

Books for stepmothers tend to perpetuate certain myths. The myth of the blended family and the myth of the maternal stepmother are the most glaring examples. These books' relentlessly upbeat tone can make stepmothers feel as though our own occasional negativity and impatience regarding his kids are freakish. Other books on stepmothering are so lighthearted, so insistent that we see the humor in our situation and in our responses to it, that reading them feels suspiciously like being told that our concerns don't matter and that we just need to lighten up. But the real problem with many books for stepmothers is not what they imply, but what they actually say:

Remember that his kids will always come first.

Leave the disciplining to him.

You will regret it forever if you lose your temper or say something nasty to your stepchildren, so whatever you do, don't.

With patience and love, they will come around.

The fact that these directives have become a virtual mantra, the unassailable golden rules of stepmothering does not mean that they are right. For example, a number of stepfamily experts concur that in a remarriage with children, giving the couple relationship priority is crucial (see chapter 6). It may jar us to learn that our concept that "the kids are the most important thing" is misguided, even destructive to our partnerships. The ideas that you should be second and should accept it, that his kids came first chronologically and so are first in his heart, and that his believing and acting on these ideas makes him a good person are powerful, deeply ingrained beliefs. But all of them can be fatal for the remarriage with children. They are even bad for the children, giving them an uncomfortable amount of power and focusing an undue amount of attention and pressure on them.

Andrew Gotzis, M.D., a New York City psychiatrist and therapist who works with couples, echoed the advice of a number of marriage counselors when he told me, "In a remarriage with children, the hierarchy of the family needs to be established quickly and clearly. The kids need to know that the husband and wife come first and that they are a unified team." Otherwise, Dr. Gotzis cautioned, the kids can split the couple apart and create tension in the marriage indefinitely. To remarried couples with children, the scenario of kids turning to Dad when Stepmom has said no, or vice versa, in an attempt to split the team is all too familiar. A woman with stepchildren may exhaust herself with her attempts to resolve such situations. For this reason, sociologist Linda Nielsen notes that a woman with stepchildren will have more success when she adopts the attitude "My main goal and my main focus is to build an intimate, fulfilling relationship with my husband and to take better care of my own needs, not to bond with or win the approval of my stepchildren." Nielsen notes that a shift like this cannot happen in a vacuum; the woman's partner needs to be on the same page with her. If the marriage is to work, Nielsen insists, "her husband has to be committed to creating a [partnership] around which his children revolve rather than a marriage that revolves around his children. Especially when his children dislike their stepmother, the father has to make it clear that the kids will not be handed the power or given the precedence over his marriage."

"Things didn't improve until I let my daughter know that, even though I loved her, my ultimate loyalty was to my wife," one man who had survived a rocky early remarriage with children observed. We can only imagine the resultant fireworks in that household. But the outcome was a stronger marriage. This in turn gave his daughter proof that marriages can last. It also replaced what could have become profound confusion about her unchecked power in the family with a sense of secure belonging.

As for the advice "Leave the disciplining to him," whoever said it never went to a home while the stepkids were visiting and their father was out. Certainly, no one is saying to step right in and start issuing orders to your stepkids in your first days and weeks together -- and few of us are likely to do that, fearing that we will be perceived as wicked. But what works in theory -- you should hold back more or less indefinitely so that you don't seem like the villain, backing up your husband rather than doing things yourself -- doesn't always work in practice. What happens when a stepchild does something that crosses the line but hubby isn't around? Are you to sit on your hands and bite your tongue rather than issue a firm "That's not okay, and you know it"? Moreover, firsthand experience has often demonstrated that the longer a woman with stepchildren waits, the harder it is for her ever to draw the line or be taken seriously as an adult with authority. I can attest to this fact. Because I was more or less a fraidy cat in the first year of my marriage, I had to be a tiger for the subsequent two or three years, as my stepdaughters still occasionally tried to walk all over me, just to see if they could. This was hardly their fault; I waited ages to take a stand about things such as snide remarks, dumping suitcases in the middle of the floor, and ignoring me.

Sometimes it is easier and smarter to ignore a stepchild's annoying habit, to decline to get involved in an emotion-charged discussion over her sweet sixteen party, or to be the voice of reason when planning her wedding. A number of women with stepchildren have found that "disengaging" is, in some situations, far and away the best strategy for them (see chapter 4). Other times, ignoring bad behavior just feels like being stepped on and creates a breeding ground for more resentment. And then what?

The culture at large is eager to gloss over women's anger in general, and advice for stepmothers in particular is full of warnings that if we express it, the consequences will be dire and irreversible. This strikes me as absurd. It would be the rare stepchild who never went through a phase of wanting to provoke his or her stepmom. Of course we lose our tempers, inevitably. And although it can feel catastrophic -- What if they hate me? What if they think I'm wicked? -- expressing our anger is, in my opinion, something we should do sooner rather than later. Otherwise, we risk setting the bar too impossibly high for everyone and creating a situation in which kids, teens, or even adult stepchildren go on pushing our buttons forever in an attempt to see where our limit is. Most of all, we need to learn as soon as possible -- to experience firsthand -- that being disliked is an occupational hazard for stepmothers, not a referendum on our worth. "Dad's girlfriend Laura yelled at us once in the car," my stepdaughter told me solemnly in our early days together. I didn't know exactly why she was telling me this, but I knew how Laura must have felt, and I admired her for letting the girls know when she thought they'd gone too far.

You're not my mother! Most of us fear that it is yelling or disciplining or losing our tempers or not being nice enough or patient enough or selfless enough that will keep our husbands' children from accepting us or drive them away. If only we had so much control. Instead, unrealistic expectations about blending and being maternal, difficult developmental stages, competition that is largely inevitable and unavoidable, misinformation about stepmothering, and a host of other factors play a bigger role in the way a reconfigured family group coheres -- or doesn't. We are not, in fact, their mothers. Happily ever after and happiness all around are ideals -- unlikely ones at that, even in traditional nuclear families. Eventually, we may find that we have arrived at a place of comfort, familiarity, and real pleasure with our husbands' kids. But if our happiness is contingent on his kids being happy for us, being happy with us, and loving us, then we have given away our greatest power and put everything at risk.



The above is an excerpt from the book Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers Think, Feel, and Act the Way We Do by Wednesday Martin, Ph.D.. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 Wednesday Martin, Ph.D., author of Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers Think, Feel, and Act the Way We Do
Disclaimer

In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Book Dragon's Lair. All books I review are either borrowed, purchased by me, given as a gift, won in some kind of contest, or received in exchange for an honest review.