TBR Intervention (7)

I haven't participated in this meme from Books4Juliet over the past few weeks because I've been trying to catch up with reviews. I'm still not caught up with reviews, but I figure I can choose one book from my TBR list to read this month. So let's see what it is...

Since I'm reading it for my Random Reads, I'm going to also read it for my TBR Intervention. Is that allowed? Life of Pi has been on my tbr list since October of 2008 so I think it should be allowed. 

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Christian Book Review : A Year with Jesus

Goodreads' description : A 365-day devotional featuring the actual spoken words of Jesus as presented in the Bible.

Too many times the impact and grandness of the actual words Jesus spoke, as recorded in the Bible, are lost in the telling of the story.
In A Year with Jesus, the primary focus is to allow the scriptures that contain Jesus' dialogue to uniquely speak to the reader. The author follows each reading with insights and applications to help explain the context and nuances of the text. The unique titling of each meditation and the nontraditional themes and organization help bring Jesus to our daily lives

My review : I've been reading this book daily for about a month now. I absolutely love it. I've only gotten to the "Love and Hate" section. I can't wait to get to the rest which include "Truth and lies, arrogance and humility, and friends and enemies". It is great to hear exactly what Jesus said about certain topics. It puts the bible into perspective and shows how you can relate it to your everyday life. This book is obviously a little preachy, but not in a bad or annoying way. If you are buying this book, you are probably looking for a little guidance in your life anyway, so it isn't a bad thing. The daily devotionals are a bit longer to read than other devotionals I've read, but I liked that about it. 

I'd definitely recommend this book to any Christians who are looking for a daily devotional or to someone who just wants to look a little bit closer at Jesus' life. 

I received this book for free from Booksneeze. I was not paid for my review and the opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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Top Ten of 2011 Blog Hop Sign-Ups

Hop on over to Fiktshun to sign up for the Top 10 of 2011 Blog Hop.

For the last week of December, myself and (currently) 78 other bloggers will be rounding up our favorites of 2011. I've changed one thing on the topics. I haven't really found many book boyfriends this year. Sad face. So instead, I'm doing CJ (my 1-year-old)'s favorite books of 2011. We read about five books a day, so he has quite a few that he loves. Hope you'll join the fun!

The schedule will be as follows:

Monday 12/26 – Top 10 Books I’ve read in 2011

Tuesday 12/27 – Top 10 Book Covers of 2011

Wednesday 12/28 – Top 10 Book Boyfriends in 2011  CJ's Top 10 Books of 2011 today

Thursday 12/29 – Top 10 Characters in 2011 

Friday 12/30 – Top 10 Books I’m looking forward to in 2012 (Also on this day, we’ll each be adding some kind of a recap of the total number of books read, pages read, etc.)

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Join my A-Z Book Challenge!

In 2011, I challenged myself to read a book starting with each letter of the alphabet. Well, I failed, but just barely. So I've decided to re-challenge myself in 2012, and invite all of you along! So here goes.

Technical Stuff

This challenge will run from January 1st, 2012 until December 31st, 2012.

You can join anytime.

If you are blogger, leave the link to your actual post about this challenge.

If you are not a blogger, leave a link to where you will be keeping track of this challenge.

So there are two different ways you can set up your own A-Z challenge.

A - Make a list now of 26 books, picking one for each letter of the alphabet. For example: A - Atonement B- Black Beauty C - The Count of Monte Cristo D - Dances with Dragons etc.

OR

B - The lazy way (how I do it) : Make a list on your blog from A-Z. Throughout the year, as you go along, add the books you are reading to the list. Hope that by the end of the year you have read one book for each letter. Towards the end of the year, you can check and see which letters you are missing and find books to fit.

Each month, I will add another challenge to this main challenge. It might to read a book with both A and Z in the title or to read a book with 3 words that all start with the same letter. I might host a few random giveaways too for good measure. If you've got some idea for the mini-challenges, send them my way!

Since it is really hard to find titles beginning with X, the letter X just needs to be in the title somewhere.

So to join along....
1. Write a blog post about this challenge and whether you are going go with A or B.
2. Add the button to your blog.
3. Attach yourself to the linky.
4. Follow my blog so that you can see when I post the monthly challenge!


Thanks Liz for asking which kind of book blogs can join. Answer: ANY KIND. You don't even have to have a book blog. Any blog at all or no blog at all. All are welcome.

Thanks Darlene for asking and yes both e-books and audiobooks count.

<a href="http://www.babiesbooksandsigns.com/p/z-challenge-2012.html "> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/munkyluver/a-zchallenge.jpg"/></ a>

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Fun Meme Friday!

Go here to sign up.

What is your favorite Christmas decoration in your house?

My husband and I got married 2 days after Christmas, so we asked that our guests bring us Christmas ornaments as gifts. I got a white tree from Oh My Crafts and I put all of the ornaments we got on there. It's all white and prettiful.

Do you finish your Christmas shopping early or are you the last minute type?

I generally finish the big stuff early and buy a few little things towards the end.

When do you turn on your heat?

In our current apartment, I don't. We live in this little hidey corner of the building, so there are people on pretty much all sides of us plus two floors below us. The heat that those people use just kind of encircles and cocoons us. It's awesome. When I get up in the morning, I generally throw a load of laundry in the dryer and that makes it pretty warm. 

Do you ever wish your blog was private?

If it was, it'd be more of a journal than a blog, no? I have a journal-type thing already so that just would seem like a lot more work for no reason.

Do you put deodorant before or after you put on a shirt? 

Generally before, but sometimes, I forget and have to go back and do it.

Go here to sign up and see the other participants.

If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?

The only person allowed to write a book about my life is me. Also, my husband and I have discussed this and the title we came up with is "Dropped the Ball". As in, these are all the people who "dropped the ball" in raising me. 

If you could have a signed copy of any novel, what would it be and why?

It'd be great if I had some signed Shakespeare that I could sell for a few million. I would love a signed edition of The Great Gatsby though. I just love that book. I don't even know if there are any signed versions of it though. 

Horror or romance?

I generally like suspense more than horror, but I'd probably choose horror over romance. 

If you could choose only one time period and place to live, where would it be and why?

Ancient Rome. So much was happening then, it just seemed like it would've been an amazing time period. It is a toss up though between Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt. It would be amazing to see the pyramids when they were shiny and brilliant to look at and the Sphinx wasn't staring at a KFC. (No really, she is.)

Do you prefer a bunch of small gifts or one big expensive one?

Smaller ones would probably be more personal so I'd prefer those.

Go here to sign up.

What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to books?

This is sort of a more recent thing due to self-publishing. Bad grammar/spelling in books. I've read a couple of self-published books which look like they weren't edited at all. I mean, the least you can do is have your mom give it a good once over. Not all self-published books are like this, but some are. That drives me nuts. I cannot take your book seriously if you can't use proper grammar or spelling. 

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Random Reads (1)

Random Reads is an awesome meme just started by I'm Loving Books. The meme is another one to get rid of books that are on your to-read list. The catch is, you are not choosing the book, it is being chosen randomly for you. In my case, I'm going to use random.org. I have 1320 books on my Goodread's to-read list. I'm going to put in 1-1320 on random.org and see which number it gives me. Then I'll read that book, provided I have it or the e-book isn't ridiculously expensive. Easy peasy. I'm going to be participating once a month. Since today is the first of the month, I'll start today.

So random.org chose #184 which was Life of Pi by Yann Martel. So my goal is to read this book by the end of the month. If I recall, it's a pretty short book so I should be able to read and finish it.

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MG/YA Review and Giveaway : The Magi

Goodreads' Description : Thirteen-year-old Elijah Hawk has never heard of the Magi. He doesn't know about the secret power they have. He has never been to Savenridge, the Magi city hidden deep inside the northern forests. Most of all, Elijah is unaware of the dangers hunting him, in search for something he has. After one terrifying night, however, all of that changes! 

My review : This book was so good! I wanted to read it all at once, but the baby wouldn't let me! The book centers on Elijah Hawk, a seemingly normal guy with a normal family. This all changes one night when his family is murdered. He escapes from the murderer and goes to live with his uncle. There he learns that he still isn't safe. His uncle goes missing and he is sent to a boarding school. While he thinks he is safe at the boarding school, he isn't happy, mostly because the headmaster and instructors are horrible to him. One of his teachers Master Roddick, helps he and his room mate escape from the horrible boarding school and get to Savenridge. 

In Savenridge, Elijah finally starts to find some answers, about who his family is, where he comes from, who the Magi are, and why anyone would be out to hurt him. He also starts to make friends and has some pretty awesome adventures. He learns that there are people who are able to harness the elements of air, fire, water, and earth to create magic.

This story has everything in it, magic, evil henchmen, wizards (called Magi), and elemental powers. To me it was a sort of cross between Avatar (the airbender, not the blue people) and Harry Potter. The only problem I really had with the book was the way the characters interacted with each other. Maybe it's because I'm now old (only 27!) but the way the teenagers spoke to each other just didn't ring true for me. They were extremely polite, even when they were mad or upset. Other than that, great book. I'd definitely recommend this to any fans of middle grade and young adult books. 

I rated this book 3.5 stars. 

Thank you Kevin for letting me read your first book, I look forward to the next. 

Would you like to win a e-book copy of The Magi? Just leave a comment below with which element (air, water, fire, earth) you think that you would be in control of if you were a Magi. 

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