So Many Books, So Little Time

#FitReaders is hosted by The Geeky Blogger's Book Blog and That's What I'm Talking About . The past two weeks have not been the best for me with regard to exercise.  Work has been the epitome of stressful and I have had to work from home in the evenings.  This has cut into some of my workout time.  Also, Julia has been sick for much of the week so that hasn't been helping. Last week I only exercised once-30 minutes on the treadmill.  I'm kind of disappointed in myself because it probably would have helped my stress levels if I had done more.  This week I ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I'm hoping next week to get back up to at least four workouts throughout the week. One thing I am proud of is that I gave up sweets for Lent.  I have not had any sweets for a week and a half.  Even though it's hard, I actually feel so much better.  Some of the stomach issues I was having are not really an i...

Synopsis:  Sam Thomas takes readers back to Puritan England with midwife Bridget Hodgson, hailed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “one of the most fascinating detectives in contemporary mystery fiction.” Winter has come to the city of York, and with it the threat of witchcraft. As women and children sicken and die, midwife Bridget Hodgson is pulled against her will into a full-scale witch-hunt that threatens to devour all in its path, guilty and innocent alike. Bridget—accompanied once again by her deputy Martha Hawkins and her nephew Will Hodgson—finds herself playing a lethal game of cat and mouse against the most dangerous men in York, as well as her sworn enemy Rebecca Hooke. As the trials begin, and the noose begins to tighten around her neck, Bridget must answer the question: How far will she go to protect the people she loves?   My Thoughts:  The Witch Hunter's Tale is the third book in Sam Thomas' Midwife Mystery series and so far it is my favo...

Publication Date: January 14, 2015 iUniverse Formats: eBook, Paperback Pages: 208 Series: Book Two, The Puritan Chronicles Genre: Historical Fiction It is 1693 in Hereford, Connecticut, when Mary Case, the spinster daughter of a Puritan minister, finds herself hopelessly smitten by the roguish thief, Daniel Eames. Betrothed to a man she does not like or love, she is soon compelled to help Daniel escape from jail. Suddenly, she finds herself on the run, not only accused of being Daniel's accomplice, but also of murder. The fugitive pair soon finds solace-and a mutual attraction-among the escapee's Algonquin friends until two men from Daniel's dark past hunt them down. After Mary is captured and returned home to await trial, a tragedy takes the life of her younger sister, revealing a dark secret Mary's father has kept for months. But just as Mary learns she is pregnant, she makes a horrifying discovery about Daniel that changes everything and prompts her to develop an unl...

Publication Date: June 15, 2014 Fireship Press eBook; 404p Genre: Historical Fiction Close to the Sun follows the lives of fighter pilots during the Second World War. As a boy, Hank Milroy from Wyoming idealized the gallant exploits of WWI fighter aces. Karl, Fürst von Pfalz-Teuffelreich, aspires to surpass his father’s 49 Luftsiegen. Seth Braham falls in love with flying during an air show at San Francisco’s Chrissy Field. The young men encounter friends, rivals, and exceptional women. Braxton Mobley, the hotshot, wants to outscore every man in the air force. Texas tomboy Catherine “Winty” McCabe is as good a flyer as any man. Princess Maria-Xenia, a stateless White Russian, works for the Abwehr, German Intelligence. Elfriede Wohlman is a frontline nurse with a dangerous secret. Miriam Keramopoulos is the girl from Brooklyn with a voice that will take her places. Once the United States enter the war, Hank, Brax, and Seth experience the exhilaration of aerial combat and acedom during t...

#FitReaders is hosted by The Geeky Blogger's Book Blog and That's What I'm Talking About . I'm a little late posting this week but I thought I would put something up since I missed last week.  It has been a rough week but I still managed to get in four workouts last week and four workouts this week.  I've been doing the 30 Day Shred two days a week and running on the treadmill for 30 minutes two days a week.  I actually am enjoying working out and hope to add an extra day soon.  I borrowed a Jillian Michaels DVD from the library and will be trying that out next week.  It's a little longer than the 30 Day Shred but the same concept. I plan to work out at least 4 days next week and have a food related goal that I'm working on but am not ready to post about (I keep failing at my food goals so I don't want to put it out there yet).  This week I finished three books:  Make You Mine by Macy Beckett, The Witch Hunter's Tale by Sam Thomas a...

 I'm linking up with Bookishly Boisterous' Bookish (and Not So Bookish) Thoughts again today!  Check it out here . 1.) I finally got around to opening up a 529 college savings plan for Julia.  For some reason, this makes me feel like a grown up.  I don't think we'll be able to pay for her tuition in full but it's better than what the hubs and I had (which was nothing). 2.) The hubs gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble for my birthday and I bought the Harry Potter boxed set.  It's so pretty (ignore the bad picture)!  I've decided to start a reread of them this year and hope to get through at least the first three books.  I've only reread the last book and I read books 1-5 over ten years ago so it's definitely time to go back to them. 3.) Speaking of rereading, I am taking the second half of the Laura Ingalls Wilder class this spring.  It starts in April and I can't wait to delve  into her later books. 4.) I have been reading sl...

From Goodreads:  He is her dashing Master of Horse. She is the 25-year-old newly crowned English Queen, a title she holds only because there is no male heir to inherit it. Yet in spite of her tenuous hold on the throne, young Queen Elizabeth begins a flagrant flirtation with the handsome but married Lord Robert, taking long unchaperoned horseback rides with him and constantly having him at her side. Many believe them to be lovers, and over time the rumors grow that Elizabeth is no virgin at all, and that she has secretly borne Lord Robert's child. When Robert's wife is found dead, lying at the bottom of a staircase with her neck broken, there is universal shock followed by accusations of murder. Picking up where Alison Weir's bestselling novel to date, "The Lady Elizabeth," left off (but standing completely alone), "The Marriage Game" tells the dramatic story of the "Virgin Queen's" reign, framed by Elizabeth's long an...

Hey Everyone! It's time for another Mailbox Monday post. I have been such a slow reader lately!  I really need to speed it up because the books keep coming in. From the Library: Invaded by Melissa Landers Make you Mine by Macy Beckett Purchased:  Sorry for the bad picture.  The hubs gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card for my birthday and this is what I bought! When I read these books initially, I got them from the library so it's nice to own them.  Now I can reread them and read them to Julia when she's older. What books did you get this week?

From Goodreads:  FRANCE, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another. Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as onl...

We're already one month into 2015, can you believe it?!  I had a pretty good reading month, numbers wise, though the last two books I finished were really difficult to get through.  I think because of that, it felt like a slow reading month. I read one awesome book and the rest were mediocre or worse.  Hopefully the books I choose in February will be more enjoyable. Here are my January numbers: -6 books read    -1 non-fiction    -3 historical fiction (I plan to read at least 25 for the Historical Fiction Challenge)    -3 review    -3 library books    -0 books I own I think that is pretty good though I am going to try to cut back more on the review books and add in more books off my shelves/kindle/nook.  Goodreads says I'm on track to meeting my goal of 80 books so that makes me very happy. Here is what I read in January: 1.) The Towers of Tuscany by Carol M. Cram (for Historical Fiction...

Hello!  It's time for Mailbox Monday again!   I hope everyone had a great week!  Friday was my birthday and I got a Barnes and Noble gift card; I'm still deciding what to get.  I'm not sure if I want to get the Harry Potter box set or if I just want to blow it all on ebooks.  Decisions, decisions.  This week I received a couple of ebooks.  I love ebooks because they don't take up a lot of space but it also doesn't feel like I got anything because they aren't really tangible.  Oh well, they're still books! From the Library (ebook):   Redeployment by Phil Kay I'm reading it right now and it's haunting but so good. For Review (from HFVBT):   The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose The Witch Hunter's Tale by Sam Thomas What books did you get this week?