Writer's Workshop - The top of my TBR Pile

 2. List the top 5 books on your list to read next.

I love to read.  A lot.  I regularly have between 30 and 40 books out of the public library.  Some are audio books, some ebooks, but most are physical books.  And the books cover a wide variety of genres and subjects.  Graphic novels, paranormal romance, mystery, political non-fiction, books about Autism, classic fiction, banned books... Like I said, I love to read. 

I also usually have at least 2, sometimes 3 books at the same time.  Most often, there's one audiobook (I'm listening to The Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes as I'm typing this), a physical fiction book, a graphic novel and an ebook.  I flip between them depending on what I'm doing and what mood I'm in.  All of this is to say that I have a lot to choose from and I this list may change by the time I link it to Kat's page.

So here is what leads the pack at the moment:

1. 
   
    
   
   
   
   I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J Trump's Catastrophic Final Year by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker - This is one that's been on my list for awhile. I've heard good things about it and I'm curious to read what Leonnig and Rucker have to say about the past crazy year.  I enjoyed A Very Stable Genius so I'm expecting the same here.
   
   
2.  
    
   
   Final Exam by Maggie Barbieri - This is the 4th book in Maggie Barbieri's Murder 101 series.  The series involves a professor at a small Catholic college outside of New York City.  She manages to get herself involved in solving murders that seem to be happening around her.  Through the first murder, she met her boyfriend, a NYC Detective.  In this book, she is supposed to meet her boyfriend's family for the first time but gets embroiled in another murder near her home instead.
   
   
3. 
   
   
   
   Chase the Dark by Annette Marie - I was introduced to Annette Marie's writing through her Guild Codex series and decided to try one of her earlier series as well.  This is the first book in the Steel & Stone series.  It's an urban paranormal series and a lot of people on the Annette Marie group on Facebook recommend it.
   



4. 
   
   
   
   Mile High with a Vampire by Lynsay Sands - This is a GoodReads win through their giveaway program.  I used to read the Argeneau series but somehow fell away from it.  The good thing about this series is that I can jump back in anywhere without missing too much.  So I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing this one (in the hopes of winning more awesome books).
   



5. 
   
   
   Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch - This is one that's been on my shelf for awhile, so I'm at a read it or return it stage for it.  I love books that talk about changing language and how we're getting where we are.  So this one is probably the next one I'll grab.

And a bonus one, this one being for my November Graphic Novel Book Club read, Loki: The God Who Fell To Earth.  Monday is the October meeting, and for that we read Jughead: The Hunger, Vol 1 & Vol 2.  I have a tendency to get those out through Hoopla and read them fairly quickly after the meeting is done for the month.

Thankful Thursday - EventBright

 I will admit that I'm more than a bit tired right now, so writing my Thankful Thursday is a bit more difficult than I'd hoped it would be.  Because, of course I don't have any idea what I could write a lot of Thankfulness about.  But then I set upon EventBright and how much I've been getting out of them lately, and how I wish I'd found them even earlier.

For those who aren't familiar with it, EventBright is a events website.  Local events, online events, whatever you may want to get a bunch of people together for.  There are a lot of free online events that are offered through them, everything from webinars on tech topics to meditation to book clubs and everything in between.  I go through, looking for things that catch my attention every day or so, because I never know what might catch my attention.

Mainly, I'm using EventBright for two things - writing prompts and book clubs.  Both are things that I love to do and want to focus on more, so this gives me a chance.  Each time I start a new group - be it book club or writing event - I'm always nervous about talking too much.  It's what I do when I get nervous.  But so far, everyone I've dealt with has been incredibly kind and welcoming.  I'm so thankful that I have a chance to meet people and talk about things that I enjoy.

The journal I use for my writing - because it fits!

New Year's Resolutions

Okay, so there's still a few weeks left until 2014 is a thing of the past.  And honestly, I'm not really "resolving" to do and not do these things.  It's more like goals that I'm hoping to make happen over the next year.  And some of them, I'm hoping to start before the year is over.

Yeah, I'm rambling.  I figure why not jump back into my blog in typical "Amber" style.

Anyway, it's Monday, I feel like making a list and this is the one I'm going to make.  So here we go!

1. Update my blog at least 3 times a week - I'd love to update it daily, but that's asking the impossible.  Yeah, Pete's in school now (and has been for a few months) and, in theory, that should mean I have more time on my hands.  Instead, I feel more brain frazzled than before.  So 3 times a week, and trying for more actual updates than memes that only require me to write one or two things.  That sounds plausible - at least until the end of January when I forget and my blog goes dormant once more.
2. Take more pictures - I realized how badly I'd fallen down on the job this year when I really had to scrape to find enough pictures for our yearly calendars.  (The best gift we've ever come up with, year after year.)  You'd think with a digital camera, a smart phone and a tablet with a camera that I would have had MORE pictures.  Nope.  So this year, that's gotta change.  I don't want another year of just finding pictures of the back of the kids' heads everywhere.
3. Actually review some books - I love to read.  Always have.  And I love sharing what I've read.  But for some reason, I have this mental block about actually DOING it.  I've even got my reading blog out there that should be the perfect vehicle for it.  But do I ever make time to sit down and do my reviews?  Nope.  Instead, I end up sitting at the computer playing game after game of Bingo and feeling like I'm doing nothing with my life.  So this one kinda goes with the blogging thing.
4. Make up a cleaning schedule and STICK TO IT - We moved to a new apartment at the end of October and I refuse to let it get to the state the old apartment was.  So far, I've been doing a (semi) decent job of not letting things get too bad.  But I don't ever want to get to that point either.  So I'm going to try some FLYing, some of my own stuff, remembering the use the white board to update chores that need to be done and by who.  Because I can do this!
5. Have all the boxes unpacked by summer - Ideally, I'd love to have them unpacked before the first of the year, but I'm trying to be a realist here.  I may want to get my house in perfect shape, looking great and having a place for everything, but life happens and I'm naturally indolent.  I can only push myself so far with things.  So by summer... yeah, that's possible.

There are more things that I want to resolve, I'm sure.  Less time on the computer.  More time with my family.  More exercise and more focusing on me.  But it's good to start small and add rather than overwhelm myself now and set myself up for failure.

Give Aways Galore

No, not me.  I haven't teamed up with anyone that wants me to do giveaways here.  (Though if any of my readers have something they think would be great to giveaway on my blog - a book you'd like me to read, a product you'd like me to try - just drop me a line!)

But there are a lot of great giveaways out there.  Come check out some of the ones that I've put my name in the hat for.

On Cami's Books, she's giving away a copy of Bloodbourne by Gregg Luke.  You need to be subscribed to her blog and comment to enter, but there are extra entries for posting to Facebook or Twitter, as well as for putting a link to the giveaway in your blog or on your sidebar.  The giveaway ends September 12th.

At Our Ordinary Life, she's giving away a DXG Luxe Collection  Camcorder.  The main way to enter is to comment and tell her which other camera from DXG would fit your lifestyle, as well as the way you use cameras and taking video.  But there are also a ton of other ways to get extra entries.  You can become a fan of DXG on Facebook, Blog about it on your own blog (gets you five entries), grab her banner for another entry, subscribe to her blog (which is a fantastic blog that I love to read!), tweet and follow her on twitter, follow her through Google Friend Connect and follow her on Facebook, tweet daily for an extra giveaway, Like Our Ordinary Life on Facebook, use the tweet button to tweet the post, list the giveaway on a contest site and comment on a non-giveaway post.  Yep, she's got a lot of ways to get a lot of extra entries!  All the links you'll need are in the post, so follow my link to the post above and check it out!  The giveaway ends September 30th.

Midnight Mommy is giving away a Double Gusset Pocket Cloth Diaper in thanks for her 450 followers.  There are lots of ways to enter - following her, tweeting about the giveaway, grabbing her button.  Tons of them that can give you a chance for this win!  I won't be joining this one, since we're getting closer every day to getting Pete out of diapers.  But I know I have a lot of green parents that this would appeal to that read my blog.  So go check it out!  The giveaway ends October 1st.

Book & Movie Dimension is giving away a copy of RJ Gonzales' book, Mundahlia, the first book in The Mundahlian Era series. To enter, follow the blog through GFC and comment with your GFC name.  You can get extra entries by following RJ Gonzales on Facebook, by following his blog or by adding the button for either Book & Movie Dimensions or RJ Gonzales to your blog.  I've done all of them, I think.  Being the reader that I am, how could I do less?  The giveaway ends Septmeber 16th.


I'm sure there are a lot of other great giveaways around.  If you have one that you'd like me to add for my next Giveaway post, please drop me a line pointing toward it.  I'm going to try to do this kind of a post once or twice a week.  Because, even if it may lessen my chances to win a great prize, I can't keep these goodies to myself!

Just a general update for now

I'm punting the various posts that I'd planned to update tonight to tomorrow.  A part of me wants to do the A to Z challenge posts, my Feel Good Friday, Swap-Bot Saturday and Silent Sunday, and a bunch of other posts as well.  But then there's the other part of me that's thinking that I'll be a bit more focused tomorrow.  I'm kind of brain dead tonight, plus I'm on the Netbook.  I've gotten used to using the larger screen on the desktop so having so much less space on the Netbook screen makes it harder for me to do a bunch of the things that I want to.  Better to post when I'm in the headspace for it, or so I think.

I'm still doing updates for the blog.  I'm probably going to fiddle with the logo a bit more, since my wonderful friend Kerri pointed out that the colors don't work too well for those with color blindness.  But I don't mind because I've enjoyed fiddling with it.  I think I've gotten everyone updated in my blogroll, but who knows.  I'm also thinking of adding a few more bibs and bobs to the right, though I haven't had a chance to really look through the Blogger widget list yet.  Tomorrow, I hope, I'll be putting a bunch of the blog buttons and links for the weekly blogging prompts and memes into my Challenges Page.  I'm also thinking of putting an About Me page up there as well.  Blogging, like life, is a constant change to keep from getting boring.

This has probably been one of the busiest weekends I've had in a long time.  Yesterday was all the various reading related things and today has been a bunch of out and about things.  I dropped Rich and the boys off at church and ran to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things (which turned into a lot of things).  I needed to get some stencils for one of my swaps, and I needed to get a gift for a friend's son who had a birthday today.   While I was there, I picked up a card for a swap that I'm in, some stickers that I figured I'd find some use for, some clothes for the boys and exercise pants for me, shorts and a shirt for Rich and two new pair of sandals, one for each of the boys.  The problem with them growing so quickly is that they can't rewear anything from last year.  And all the hand-me-downs from Teddy are starting at size 2T because I'd given my 18 month stuff up to friends in need.  Pete may get into 2T and 24 month stuff by summer, but right now he's in 18 month.  And it's been HOT out - yesterday and today were in the 90s.  Tomorrow's supposed to be in the 70s, but it's supposed to rain.  The rest of the week is supposed to be cooler.  But tonight... the low is supposed to be 69.  Thank heavens for AC!

After I picked Rich and the boys up from church (and felt like a complete and utter slob because I was in my work-out clothes), we went over to walk at Mill Creek-Blue Hole Road with the SparkNashville group to walk.  Teddy was up near the front with our friend and leader Camille.  She loves walking with him because he has a 5 year old's energy and he takes off.  He loves walking with her because she's just awesome.  Rich and Pete hung out at the playground while I walked around with Dawn and her beautiful dogs.  Bonny, the other member of the group that shows up at the walks with us, leaves us all in the dust.  Someday, I'm hoping to keep up with her!  I actually walked about 2 miles today and I was BEAT when I finished.  I think it's the longest I've walked since I'd gotten back into exercising.  So I'm not really surprised that I was beat.  Add the heat into that, and I'm surprised I made it that far!  It was good to see everyone, though.  I'm hoping to see them again next week at the next Mayor's Walk.  We'll see how that goes.

We stopped at Olive Garden for lunch and, as per usual, my boys charmed the pants off of the waitstaff.  That's my boys.  One of the guys said about Pete that he's just in love with him. I can't blame him!  The only problem with going to Olive Garden was me trying to walk.  I don't know what I did to my left ankle, but it's hurting.  I was hoping some Advil and rest would help it after I got home, but no such luck.  I came back downstairs after an afternoon nap and had a hard time getting downstairs.  I probably wouldn't have tried to come down if Rich had been home - he had a tutoring job at 5 - but leaving the boys alone downstairs by themselves for a couple hours would have been a major recipe for disaster.

Now that Rich is home and the kids are in bed, I'm sitting in our comfy white chair that's in direct line of the AC register.  Life is good.  So I'm enjoying relaxing, watching Terry Fator (which is one of Teddy's all time favorite DVDs - which reminds me, I need to buy him Winston the Impersonating Turtle for Christmas.  I think he'll be ecstatic!)

I'm trying to decide what to read tonight.  I've got my list of books here that I picked up at the book sale yesterday.  These will get added to my To Read pile eventually.  The pile just keeps getting bigger and bigger...

Anyway, here are the books that I picked up.  I haven't read a lot of them before, so if anyone knows things about them and wants to give me a heads up on their thoughts of them, feel free.




Some of these are old favorites -I've listened to Spell of the Highlander and Acheron, I've read Fractured, The Thirteen Problems and Callahan's Legacy and Our Town is probably my favorite non-musical theatrical production.  Those were wonderful finds. I've heard good things about Lyndsay Sands and the Discworld series, so I figured I couldn't go too far wrong with either of those.  I've read Weis and Hickman before, so I figured I'd probably enjoy Into the Labyrinth.  The Bill Harley CD I got mostly for the boys.  They've been listening to his Town Around the Bend at bedtime (an awesome CD of lullabies they ask for nightly), so I figured this would work well for them.  But some of these others are completely new to me.  I look forward to diving into them!

And now, after I've done lots of chitter chat about everything, I'm thinking bed will be good again.  Wish I had my camera on me, though.  My cat, Lemon, is lying in the middle of the floor, spread out on his back, paws pushed out in four different directions.  He looks incredibly comfy and cute.  I do love my fur baby!

Good night, wonderful readers!  Have a wonderful night's sleep and a great Monday morning!