Week In Review: November 8-14

Week in Review

Hello Everyone! What another busy week for me and my family. Luckily I have the weekend off so I can relax and catch my breath. So far the little Red Headed Book Child is feeling good and starting to walk again with his cast off. I always say "Slow and steady wins the race!" for him. He has always had his own pace of things. It look him several months of walking holding onto our fingers before he really wanted to do it on his own. First child syndrome? Hovering mother? Maybe a little of both :) It's hard not to hover over him now after the break. I try to hover quietly and limit my gasps if he falls. ( good lord, it's exhausting!)

As for the rest of the gang, my husband is recovering from a short surgery yesterday and doing well. I am the caregiver of them all and NOT ALLOWED TO GET SICK! Do you hear me Gods?No sickness!!!

My adventures in books this week is me admitting to my addiction of the Frank Beddor/Looking Glass Wars.I'm hopeless. I finished Seeing Redd (review to come) and am now starting Arch Enemy. The illustrations are freakin' amazing! They have pictures of most of the characters in the copy of Seeing Redd that I have and they come to life, so vivid and extraordinary! Once again, don't you just LOVE this cover?

I also discovered the Graphic Novel about Hatter M, one of the characters in the series. How cool is that?

I can't beat this addiction. I just have to go with it. :) I am also reading Alice I have Been by Melanie Benjamin. I guess I'm having a mini unplanned Alice in Wonderland Challenge with myself!

Aside from this I wrote two reviews. One for the children's book Stop it! by Sally O. Lee and one for Turkey Day Murder by Leslie Meier (for the Fall/Winter Mystery Reading Challenge).

I also passed on the Superior Scribbler Award to Christine (The happily Ever after), Amo (When a woman shakes her tablecloth), Alyssa (Teens Read and Write), GMR (Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers) and Rebecca (Lost in Books). I received this award from Kathleen (Celtic Lady Ramblings) and Melissa (Coffee Books and Laundry). Pass it on!

I decided, after much thought, to do a giveaway of my copy of Green by Ted Dekker. I really thought long and hard about this because I just didn't want to look bad, like I didn't take reviewing a book seriously. But I had to be honest with myself and I do this for fun and if it is not fun and becoming a stressful obligation then that needs to end. So the publisher is aware that I am not going to be reviewing this title and that my giveaw

ay winner will be! So check it out if you are interested.

The last note and the one I am very proud of was the nice email and comment I got from the author of The Water Giver. This was the book about the mother and son and his recovery from the skateboarding accident. She wrote this comment on my blog:

"This is Joan Ryan, the author of the book. I want to thank you, Michelle, for your review. You so understood what I was trying to capture -- you got everything -- the pain, the humor, the regret, the redemption -- the messy grappling that is parenthood. Thank you so much. BTW, we're still grappling. Ryan has left college. You can check out my blog, Brain Trust, at my web site (www.joanryanink.com) It picks up sort of where the book leaves off . ."

I was so touched by this and emailed her back to say thanks. I am now following the continued story on her blog. If interested, you should check it out.

That's it for now, folks! Thanks for stopping by and as always, Happy Reading!

* red headed book child