Random Friday: Trailers, Teacher Bullies and Dancing Vikings!

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

It is Friday my lovelies!  Today I am snagging the idea from the superior Fiction Vixen and doing a Random Friday Post! So I give the credit to her for the Random Friday post idea!

*****

This week on My Overstuffed Bookshelf, we reviewed the following books:
SOME LIKE IT HOT by Louisa Edwards
ZACK by Cheyenne McCray
UNLEASHED by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie
Also on Tuesday I featured Part Two of the Home Library Organization feature.  Now I must say that people have been emailing me asking if I will be posting before and after photos of my library.  Yes I will but not until the end of the feature.

*****

Now not only did Fiction Vixen inspire me to start a Random Friday post, but she also mentioned Pinterest.  Oh.My.Gawd! Have any of you joined that site yet? Let me warn you that it is very addicting. I can’t stop pinning! They need a support group for sites like that!  Anyway, I was cruising the recipes on the boards – EASY recipes because I am a lazy cook – and I found this recipe.

15655613142

Well, I actually made that scrumptious treat and it is to die for people!  So easy and now my Mother is begging for me to make it on Thanksgiving. Jeez! As if the turkey, deviled eggs and hosting the dinner isn’t enough! That’s okay. I will suffer through the cooking just to have that delicious treat in my belly.

*****

Speaking of Pinterest, I found another cool blog to stalk – I mean follow for my daily dose of laughter.  I swear The Bloggess has some funny stuff on her blog.  I might have had to clean my computer screen several times.  Don’t be drinking your early morning coffee when reading her posts! My favorite one so far though is when a man should learn how to pick his battles featuring a giant 5 foot chicken. Yes, you read that right. Go read it and be prepared to laugh for hours. KNOCK-KNOCK!

*****

How many times have you watched the trailer for The Hunger Games?  Don’t be shy. You know you have watched it every day huh? Well, I have. Don’t judge me.  I am a trailer junkie, so deal. AH-MAZ-ING!  I am so excited for this movie. It even has my husband a tad interested in going to see it.  WOOT!  Now if I can get my butt in gear and go watch Breaking Dawn this weekend!

*****

My mom called me the other day to inform me that on the Today Show there was a few teachers that are in some hot water for the treatment of a disabled child.  Having a child who is disabled – this made me furious! I urge you to watch the video and make sure your children are safe!http://on.today.com/u2iK8h
*****
And I am leaving you with this youtube video that I found.  I don’t understand what these people were thinking. It is ADULT THEME!!  Seriously, I have no words for this.  Nada.

HAPPY READING!

Unleashed by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

UNLEASHED
Wolf Spring Chronicles #1
Author(s): Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal
Source: Amazon Vine
*I received this ARC free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Reading level: Ages 12 and up
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (November 22, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385740980
ISBN-13: 978-0385740982

SUMMARY:

Katelyn McBride’s life changed in an instant when her mother died. Uprooted from her California home, Katelyn was shipped to the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, to her only living relative, her grandfather. And now she has to start over in Wolf Springs, a tiny village in the Ozark Mountains. Like any small town, Wolf Springs has secrets. But the secrets hidden here are more sinister than Katelyn could ever imagine. It’s a town with a history that reaches back centuries, spans continents, and conceals terrifying truths. And Katelyn McBride is about to change everything.

Broken families, ageless grudges, forced alliances, and love that blooms in the darkest night—welcome to Wolf Springs.

MY THOUGHTS:


When I first saw this books cover, I thought it was beautiful!  I loved the head tilt on the girl with the guys hand supporting her, the moon in the background and the dark and eerie feeling the rest of the cover gives.  It screams paranormal romance to me.


When Katelyn moves into her Grandfathers home after the death of her mother, she feels out of place and depressed from having to leave her happy life behind.  She doesn’t want to live in the woods with a Grandfather she never really knew.  We are introduced to not only her Grandfather but to Trick as well.  Now let me tell you that Trick is a hottie with secrets!  I fell in love with his words and his description.  As if one hottie wasn’t enough, we are also introduced to Justin who has secrets of his own. This creates a love triangle for Katelyn but also “unleashes” secrets that she needs to figure out.  


There was plenty of mystery and suspense to keep this book going with two hot guys to keep you interested enough to figure out which guy Katelyn would choose.  I will say for me though, by halfway through the book it seems to slow down in plot progression.  Then when you are nearing the end, it picks back up and throws you for some loops.  This could have been just my experience with it and could be completely different for you though. 


Another great series to add to your wishlist and devour in one sitting, but not one that was constant thrilling. I will continue the series to find out more. Just an okay book for me, but for you it could be magical.

MY RATING:

 
Okay book, but it left me wanting more! 3 STARS

WOW: Waiting on Wednesday

by ⋅ Leave a Comment
Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. WOW spotlights forthcoming titles that we absolutely can’t wait to read.

10345642
THE SAVAGE GRACE
The Dark Divine #3
Expected Release Date: March 13th, 2012
Publisher: EgmontUSA
SUMMARY:
A troubled soul. An impossible choice. A final battle.
Wrestling with the werewolf curse pulsing deep inside of her, Grace Divine was finally able to find her brother, but it nearly cost her everything.
With her boyfriend, Daniel, stuck in wolf form and Sirhan’s death approaching, time is running out for Grace to stop Caleb Kalbi and his gang of demons. If she fails, her family and hometown will perish. Everything rests on Grace’s shoulders.
The final installment in The Dark Divine trilogy brings Daniel and Grace’s love story to a breathtaking conclusion.

Organization in Your Home Library: PART TWO

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

PART TWO: The big sort!

Last week we discussed the bones of the structure that will be your Home Library.  By this part of the process you should have the layout and the building of your shelves completed.  As you sit there staring at your hard work, you realize the shelves seem to be missing something.  The Books!  Yes my dears, we need to add those lovely books to those shelves now!

But first we need to get some basic stuff done first.  We have to decide what books go on those shelves and how we will organize them.  Are you strictly a young adult book reader?  Are you into the romance books? Or are you like me and have an eclectic taste and read from many genre’s of books?  Since I read from many different genre’s, we are going to use that as our example. Make sure you have an open area of floor space to work in because if you are like me, you have a ton of books to sort through!

When you have all of your books piled high around you we will start the sorting process.  First we are going to sort the books by genre.  Start piles for the different genres that you have.  For example — romance, young adult, erotica, urban fantasy, non-fiction, etc.  Don’t forget to make separate piles for your signed books, review books, and ARC copies if you have kept any! Then lets get up and stretch our legs for a bit. 

Now that you are staring down at your beautiful stacks of books you are probably thinking what the heck have I gotten myself into? Don’t worry lovelies!  You are on your way to bliss. Trust me.

Now comes the more difficult decision of the process. No I am not talking about purging and getting rid of any of those beauties — even though you will have to do that at some point.  I am talking about how you are going to actually arrange them on those shelves now that they are sorted by genre.  I use to arrange mine by author but this was a hard way to keep up with.  I found myself constantly adding new authors, adding more books by the same author and eventually I had to keep moving my books around when a shelf filled up with too many from one author.  However the plus side of doing it by author is the ease in finding a book when you know who the author is.  You just look for the author and then find the book.  You could even take this a step further and copy the libraries and do each author alphabetically. Another way to do it is by series. If you have a lot of books that are series, you can go by the series and then at the end add your single novels.

The way or organization  that has worked for me and is the way that my library is done is like this including a few extra steps:

1. Sorted by books read and not read. ( with the ARCs and signed copies in a different pile)
2. Sorted by genre.
3. Sorted by author.
4. Sorted by series.
5. Single novels sorted alphabetically.

So far this has been a pretty easy system for me.  Let me take you a step further and explain a visual.
I have one bookcase dedicated to just signed books and ARCs that I have kept.  Then I have a few bookshelves dedicated to just books I have read and will reread again and again.  Finally, the rest of the bookshelves are dedicated to books I have not read.  Again, each section of books is sorted by the list above.

Whew! Are you needing a break yet? Go on. Go get your caffeine fix, smoke break or potty break out of the way. I’ll wait.

Now that they all are sorted, we need to start putting them on the shelves.  If you have a mix of hardbacks and paperbacks you might run into a problem of height.  Personally, this does not bother me but if it is a bother to you then you will have to adjust your system to adapt to this quirk.  Some people also choose to sort by color — which I forgot to mention above — but again you will have to adapt that to your system as well.

Now that they are all up on the shelves, step back and admire your hard days work.  If you are like me, you will probably either need more shelves or have to purge some of your books depending on your obsession with books.  My obsession is pretty bad so I just convince my husband that I need one more bookshelf each month! 😉

Now we need to sit and admire the look of our library.  Don’t get to comfortable though! Next week we are going to work on creating a hard copy of your library.  The lists will begin and the monotonous work of creating a list to keep track of what books you own and what books will eventually make it into your home library!

Zack: Armed and Dangerous by Cheyenne McCray

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

ZACK
Armed and Dangerous
Author: Cheyenne McCray
Source: Personal Purchase

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin; First Edition edition (November 25, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312386710
ISBN-13: 978-0312386719

SUMMARY:

Ever since bad boy Zack Hunter left her ten years ago, breaking her heart, Sky MacKenna hasn’t been able to find a man who sets her on fire the way he did. Then he comes striding back into her life–bigger, badder, and sexier than before…. Zack Hunter never thought his job as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent would lead him back to his small hometown, and he never thought he’d set eyes on Sky again. Leaving her behind had been the stupidest thing he had ever done, but this time he isn’t going to let her go. And as soon as Zack lays eyes on Sky, he makes it clear that he intends to make her his all over again. When Sky becomes entangled in the case he’s investigating, Zack can’t help but take the threat personally. As the danger mounts, their passion burns even hotter.

MY THOUGHTS:


After hearing good things about this series, I admit that my expectations were pretty high.  Unfortunately, after reading this book my expectations were shot down. 


As soon as Zack walks back into Sky’s life, I felt like I was reading about a possessive and overbearing man who thinks he can have whatever he wants.  I got tired of his constant “mine” mentality and the caveman-like attitude Zack had towards Sky.  He walked away from Sky long ago, and then he has the nerve to come back for a job and claim her as his.  I wanted Sky to stand up to him and kick him in his man parts to bring him down a notch.  Yes, he was sexy and built like a dream, but his attitude was possessive.  I can see his point of view on leaving Sky those many years ago, but the fallout from it should have been harder.  He should have had to work harder to get Sky in bed and in back into her heart.


If you are already a fan of this author, then you would more than likely like this book.  The sex was steamy and hot, but the story lacked the emotions and heart that would have balanced it out better.  Not a series I will be continuing right now, but I would give it a try later on.

MY RATING:

 
  If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it! 2 STARS