Why I Love Wednesday
April 25, 2012 by 1 Comment
Why I Love Wednesdays…Child Characters
Mocha Girl Alexis from Reflections of a Bookaholic started a Wednesday Meme called Why I Love Wednesday. What is a Meme you ask? According to wikipedia…The term “Internet meme” refers to a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet, largely through Internet-based email, blogs, forums, Imageboards, social networking sites and instant messaging. Basically, a topic from the meme host (Alexis) is posted on participating blogs with blog authors answering it on their site (here).
The topic this Wednesday is…Child Characters
This is a great one this week. There are so many child characters in books that I love. Our book of the month The Darkest Child was full of kids. Rozelle never stopped making them. But none of them compared to my favorite Child Character…Rue.
Rue had a sweet nature, loving those close to her, and hates to see them hurt. Her greatest joy in life was music, and she loved singing with the mockingjays at home. The mockingjays back home liked her and are used to her because she was the one who sang a four-note melody that signals the end of a work day out in the field. She is excited at the prospect of adventure – one character trait that she does not share with Katniss’s sister, Primrose.
She is also very observant of her surroundings, noticing every piece of information she saw when spying on the Careers.
Rue fully understood the inhumane and brutal nature of the Hunger Games, and refused to sink down to the level of the others. Instead of attacking at the first sight of other tributes, she spied and gathered information that helped her and Katniss form a plan on how to wipe out the Careers. Katniss supplied a bit of emotional support to Rue, giving her the hope that maybe it wouldn’t be all bad.
It is also her personality that set her apart from Prim. Prim could not stand to see anything get hurt and would have definitely not been able to harm anyone in the Games, but Rue was ready and willing to go forth with the plan, seeing it as an adventure (Prim sees adventures as an ordeal). Teaching Prim to hunt was a disaster, with her crying over the shot animal and wondering if there was time to rush it home and nurse it back to health, whereas Rue was prepared to do whatever to survive. Rue was also very bird-like, the way she was able to move swiftly through the trees without being noticed.
Who is your favorite child character?
Mocha Girls Read-A-Thon Wrap Up!
April 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Dewey’s 24 Hour Read A Thon…Completed!
Sunday was the Dewey’s 24 Hour Read A Thon and 442+ readers participated from all over the world. Where people meet (online) from London, Canada, and Texas (lol!! My families inside joke) Dewey’s Read A Thon helps to build awareness of reading and some people even raised money for every page read for their causes.
I wanted to tell you all about a few Mocha Girls that participated in the Read A Thon. Here are their wrap up post.
Mocha Girl Jade of Sort of Beautiful
1. Which hour was most daunting for you? I think hours twenty-two through twenty-four were the most daunting because my eye were getting tired and I wanted to hit the bed.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Dark Lover by J.R. Ward, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas, Knight in Shining Armour by Jude Deveraux, and Only Hers by Francis Ray.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? This would require some thought of which I’m foggy right now. I have no qualms with the read-a-thon so no, no suggestions. I had a blast.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I think the mini-challenged staying up for multiple hours worked as I didn’t have to get to them right away if I wanted to concentrate on reading.
5. How many books did you read? Three books and 25 pages of another book.
6. What were the names of the books you read? The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas by Louise Rennison, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, and Dixie Riggs by Sarah Gilbert.
7.Which book did you enjoy most? Harry Potter and Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas.
8.Which did you enjoy least? The Woman in Black
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? N/A
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I would definitely be a reader and donate. I could potentially be a mini-challenge host in the future.
Mocha Girl Alexis of Reflections of a Bookaholic
- Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 4 or 6 AND 24; around the time when the excitement dies down but we still have a long way to go.
- Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The Sweetheart Hoax by Christy Hayes and The Bungalow by Sarah Jio
- Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Maybe update the website and move old stuff. It can be confusing to figure out what is going on.
- What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? hosts on readathon blogs. There weren’t any late/forgotten posts/hours this time
- How many books did you read? 4 1/4
- What were the names of the books you read?
- Garden Spells
- Veil of Night
- The Sweetheart Hoax
- The Bungalow
- Which book did you enjoy most? The Sweetheart Hoax
- Which did you enjoy least? Veil of Night
- If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Disallow facebook as an option for people to sign up under. Create instructions for first-timers, possibly even a video. It seems intuitive but it doesn’t seem to be.
- How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? Very likely
- What role would you be likely to take next time? Same. Mini-challenge host and reader
It’s official. I survived another readathon. I signed up for it awhile back, but wasn’t sure if I’d be up to it. By Friday evening, I decided to go ahead and do it. I’m behind on my annual reading challenge so it would give me a chance to catch up a little.
Starting at 7:00 a.m. Saturday, I joined hundreds of other readers around the Web. I moved quickly through Bernice McFadden’s The Warmest December, but it was a bit heavy for such an early morning read so I switched gears with my next selection, Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill.
I enjoyed Fales-Hill first novel, Up One Flight, and though this book was okay, it wasn’t as entertaining as I would have liked it to be. From there I moved to Venise Berry’s Colored Sugar Water. Berry is one of those “Where Are They Now” authors I wrote about last year. I have a few of her books on my shelves and enjoyed her in the past so I thought I’d give this book a re-read. I think I enjoyed it much more the first time I read it. This time it seemed too heavy on spirituality and Christianity. Everything has a time and a place and this wasn’t the time for it, in my opinion.
By 5:00 p.m., I was starting to wonder if I’d make it through the rest of the readathon since my picks so far hadn’t impressed me. I returned to Mary Kay Andrews, one of my favorite southern lit authors. I’ve read the other two books in one of her series, but not Savannah Blues, so I picked up Kinderella and plowed through it. As usual, I loved the book.
From here I switched to Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which has been sitting on my shelf for months. I’ve picked it up and read a few pages here and there since December. I decided to go ahead and finish it just so I could move it from my “reading” to “read” list on Goodreads. I won’t go into detail since reviews are coming later, but I was disappointed. I know others around the Internet have given it four and five stars, but there were some things that stuck out to me that just wouldn’t let me do it.
Around midnight I declared myself done and the readathon a success and I went to bed, only to awaken at 5:00 a.m. all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. What’s a girl to do? Of course I picked up a book. My last read for the readathon was Catherine McKenzie’s Arranged. I loved her book Spin and was anxious to give her latest a read. Even though I didn’t finish it before my 7:00 a.m. official cut-off time, I continued with it throughout the day and thoroughly enjoyed it.
That’s it. I made it through five and one-half books within 24 hours. Now it’s on to writing reviews.
If you participated in the readathon, how did you do? Any favorites? Did you discover anything about your reading habits?
Starting at 7:00 a.m. Saturday, I joined hundreds of other readers around the Web. I moved quickly through Bernice McFadden’s The Warmest December, but it was a bit heavy for such an early morning read so I switched gears with my next selection, Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill.
I enjoyed Fales-Hill first novel, Up One Flight, and though this book was okay, it wasn’t as entertaining as I would have liked it to be. From there I moved to Venise Berry’s Colored Sugar Water. Berry is one of those “Where Are They Now” authors I wrote about last year. I have a few of her books on my shelves and enjoyed her in the past so I thought I’d give this book a re-read. I think I enjoyed it much more the first time I read it. This time it seemed too heavy on spirituality and Christianity. Everything has a time and a place and this wasn’t the time for it, in my opinion.
By 5:00 p.m., I was starting to wonder if I’d make it through the rest of the readathon since my picks so far hadn’t impressed me. I returned to Mary Kay Andrews, one of my favorite southern lit authors. I’ve read the other two books in one of her series, but not Savannah Blues, so I picked up Kinderella and plowed through it. As usual, I loved the book.
From here I switched to Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which has been sitting on my shelf for months. I’ve picked it up and read a few pages here and there since December. I decided to go ahead and finish it just so I could move it from my “reading” to “read” list on Goodreads. I won’t go into detail since reviews are coming later, but I was disappointed. I know others around the Internet have given it four and five stars, but there were some things that stuck out to me that just wouldn’t let me do it.
Around midnight I declared myself done and the readathon a success and I went to bed, only to awaken at 5:00 a.m. all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. What’s a girl to do? Of course I picked up a book. My last read for the readathon was Catherine McKenzie’s Arranged. I loved her book Spin and was anxious to give her latest a read. Even though I didn’t finish it before my 7:00 a.m. official cut-off time, I continued with it throughout the day and thoroughly enjoyed it.
That’s it. I made it through five and one-half books within 24 hours. Now it’s on to writing reviews.
If you participated in the readathon, how did you do? Any favorites? Did you discover anything about your reading habits?
Congratulations to all the Mocha Girls who participated in the Read A Thon! See you in October for the next one.
May Book of the Month: The Lost Years
April 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“Credit Clark for her intuitive grasp of the anxieties of everyday life that can spiral into full blown terror” – New York Times
After seven days of nominations and seven days of votes cast…Mocha Girls Read May’s book selection winner is The Lost Years by Mary Higgings Clark
Synopsis
In The Lost Years, Mary Higgins Clark, America’s Queen of Suspense, has written her most astonishing novel to date. At its center is a discovery that, if authenticated, may be the most revered document in human history—“the holiest of the holy”—and certainly the most coveted and valuable object in the world.
Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons believes he has found the rarest of parchments—a letter that may have been written by Jesus Christ. Stolen from the Vatican Library in the 1500s, the letter was assumed to be lost forever.
Now, under the promise of secrecy, Jonathan is able to confirm his findings with several other experts. But he also confides in a family friend his suspicion that someone he once trusted wants to sell the parchment and cash in.
Within days Jonathan is found shot to death in his study. At the same time, his wife, Kathleen, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, is found hiding in the study closet, incoherent and clutching the murder weapon. Even in her dementia, Kathleen has known that her husband was carrying on a long-term affair. Did Kathleen kill her husband in a jealous rage, as the police contend? Or is his death tied to the larger question: Who has possession of the priceless parchment that has now gone missing?
It is up to their daughter, twenty-eight-year-old Mariah, to clear her mother of murder charges and unravel the real mystery behind her father’s death. Mary Higgins Clark’s The Lost Years is at once a breathless murder mystery and a hunt for what may be the most precious religious and archaeological treasure of all time.
Author Biography
Mary Higgins Clark's fame as a writer was achieved against heavy odds. Born and raised in the Bronx, her father died when she was eleven and her mother struggled to raise her and her two brothers. On graduating from high school, she went to secretarial school, so she could get a job and help with the family finances. After three years of working in an advertising agency, travel fever seized her. For the year 1949, she was a stewardess on Pan American Airlines' international flights. "My run was Europe, Africa and Asia," she recalls. "I was in a revolution in Syria and on the last flight into Czechoslovakia before the Iron Curtain went down. After flying for a year, she married a neighbor, Warren Clark, nine years her senior, whom she had known since she was 16. Soon after her marriage, she started writing short stories, finally selling her first to Extension Magazine in 1956 for $100.
Left a young widow by the death of her husband from a heart attack in 1964, Mary Higgins Clark went to work writing radio scripts and, in addition, decided to try her hand at writing books. Every morning, she got up at 5 AM and wrote until 7 AM, when she had to get her five children ready for school. Her very first book was a biographical novel about George Washington, inspired by a radio series she was writing, "Portrait of a Patriot." Originally published in 1969 by Meredith Press with the title Aspire to the Heavens, it was discovered years later by a Washington family member and re-issued in 2002 with the title, Mount Vernon Love Story.
Mary Higgins Clark's first suspense novel, Where Are the Children? was published by Simon & Schuster in 1975. It became a bestseller and marked a turning point in her life and career. It is currently in its 75th edition in paperback and was re-issued in hardcover as a Simon & Schuster classic. (read more)
Congratulations to Ms. Clark for becoming Mocha Girls Read book for the month for May 2012.
Feel free to leave comments and thoughts here as you are reading the book. I’m looking forward to reading this book and hearing what everyone thinks of it.
Keep the pages turning!
♥Mocha Girl Alysia♥
Read A Thon: Wrap Up
April 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I didn’t make it! At all! Last October Read-A-Thon, I stayed up the whole time but this one…Well around hour 16 the computer or internet started slowing down, and I poured myself a glass of white wine. I jumped back on the sofa and Viola…It’s Sunday at 8am! What??? Note for next Read-A-Thon..no wine!Congratulations to all of the readers that finished all 24 hours and congratulation to all the readers that finished a book or more.
Here is my recap:
- Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 17!
- Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I think shorter books are great! Books under 200 pages and short stories.
- Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-Thon next year? I liked October 2011′s Read-A-Thon better. The hourly winners, the listing of winners of blog challenges on the site and the prize list.
- What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-Thon? I loved the length of time each challenge lasted.
- How many books did you read? 1
- What were the names of the books you read? Love in the Cholera, Teenie, An Old Song for Wrong Women
- Which book did you enjoy most? Teenie by Christopher Grant
- Which did you enjoy least? An Old Song for Wrong Women
- If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? They did a great job. I loved the cheers!
- How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Next one I am going to be a reader and I will donate to the prizes for sure. I am going to start saving up for it now.
How did you do? Did you finish all 24 hours? Did you finish any books?
Don’t forget to vote for the May book of the month. The voting will close tonight at midnight!!
