So Many Books, So Little Time

Hey all!  I'm linking up with Top Ten Tuesday over at The Broke and The Bookish.  It's the first one I've done in ages! This week's topic is: Top Ten Books I've Read So Far in 2015 Now I don't have ten favorites yet (the year's only half over!) but I do have a few that stand out as being my favorites so far. 1.) Missoula by John Krakauer - This book was so rage-inducing but it was so well-written and about such a fascinating topic.  As someone who works at a university that recently had a sexual assault scandal, it felt very relevant.  I think this is a book everyone should read. 2.) The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - Seriously, the best book I've read this year.  It's absolutely beautiful and heart-breaking and inspiring all at once.   3.) The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder - I re-read the Little House series this Spring starting with By The Shores of Silver Lake and enjoyed them all so much.  ...

Publication Date: June 29, 2015 CreateSpace Formats: Kindle & Paperback Pages: 388 Genre: Historical Fiction/Adventure/Action What is it we normally expect of the leading character in our books? Self-sacrifice? Bravery? Strength of character? Possibly with a hint of self-deprecation? Well, Cassius doesn’t have any of those. Cynicism – yes. Cowardice – possibly. Prepared to live a lie in order to further his own ends – absolutely! It is Rome AD 9 and Augustus Caesar rules Imperial Rome at the height of its power, as the Roman Empire stretches across the known world. Cassius, son of one of her most powerful families, is the personification of Rome’s imperial strength: wealthy, popular, a war hero with a decorated military career. None of Rome’s fashionable parties are complete without him. But he hides a secret. After his nerve is broken in Germany, even the thought of genuine armed combat is enough to send him into a cold sweat. But this doesn’t dissuade him from living off a false...

Publication Date: November 10, 2015 Medallion Press Paperback; 456p ISBN-13: 978-1605426273 Series: The Sarah Weston Chronicles, Book Three Genre: Historical/Archeological Adventure In Delphi, the mountain city deemed by the Greek gods to be the center of the Earth, a cult of neo-pagans re-create with painstaking authenticity ancient rituals to glorify the god Apollo and deliver oracles to seekers from around the world. When antiquities are stolen from a museum in nearby Thebes, British archaeologist Sarah Weston and her American partner, Daniel Madigan, are drawn into a plot that goes beyond harmless role-playing: someone’s using the Delphian oracle as a smoke screen for an information exchange, with devastating consequences for the Western world. Pitted against each other by the cult’s mastermind, Sarah and Daniel race against time and their own personal demons to uncover clues left behind by the ancients. Their mission: to find the original navel stone marked with a lost Pythagorean...

One of the reasons I have been MIA lately is because I was busy getting ready to make a wedding cake for a friend's wedding.  It was a long, stressful process that I'm so glad is over.  Almost every month in May was devoted to prepping for it and I'd been testing cake and frosting recipes for 6-8  months prior.   I baked all the cakes the weekend before the wedding and froze them.  I baked every day for four days (it was Memorial Day weekend).  I had no idea how long it would take to bake all the layers and I baked extras just in case. Baking Day The wedding cake was three layers and square.  There was a 6", 10" and 14" layer.  Square cakes suck.  I don't ever want to do one again. When I signed up for this gig, the original plan was for a round cake but the changed their minds. Practice layer I made the weekend before the wedding. I took the day off before the wedding because I wanted to get most everything done t...

Synopsis: The Grip of God is the first novel in an epic historical trilogy, The Tiger and the Dove. Set in the thirteenth century, its heroine, Sofia, is a young princess of Kievan Rus. She begins her story by recounting her capture in battle and life of slavery to a young army captain in the Mongol armies that are flooding Europe. Not only is her life shattered, it is threatened by the bitter rivalries in her new master's powerful family, and shadowed by the leader of the Mongol invasion, Batu Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson. How will she learn to survive in a world of total war, much less rediscover the love she once took for granted? Always seeking to escape and menaced by outer enemies and inner turmoil, where can she find safe haven even if she can break free? Clear eyed and intelligent, Sofia could be a character from The Game of Thrones, but she refuses to believe that life is solely about the strong dominating the weak or about taking endless revenge. Her story is ...

Hello! It's a been a long time since I have done a Mailbox Monday post!  I've been trying to get one up for a while so this post is going to include books I have picked up over the last few weeks. Amazon has had some really interesting kindle books on sale so I've splurged a little recently and am going to have to cut back a bit soon....maybe. Purchased (ebooks) :   The Amber Keeper by Freda Lightfoot - I can't resist any book that is historical fiction set in Russia! A Dark Lure by Loreth Anne White -This was a kindle first read book.  I've been really craving thrillers lately so I had to check this one out. Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka - My child is the definition of 'spirited'.  I've heard this is an excellent book and I'm excited to see if it helps me parent my child better American Ghost by Hannah Nordhaus -  This is a ghost story and historical narrative wrapped into one.  I can't wait t...

The wait is over. Sophie Perinot, author of The Sister Queens, has a new book available for pre-order! Medicis Daughter travels forward three-hundred years from Perinot’s last novel to the intrigue-riven French court of Charles IX, spinning the tale of beautiful princess Marguerite who walks the knife’s edge between the demands of her serpentine mother, Catherine de Medicis, and those of her own conscience. This is a coming-of-age story that will remind audiences that, when it comes to the 16th century, the Valois are even sexier than the Tudors—and just as treacherous. Publication Date: December 1, 2015 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Formats: eBook, Hardcover Genre: Historical Fiction Winter, 1564. Beautiful young Princess Margot is summoned to the court of France, where nothing is what it seems and a wrong word can lead to ruin. Known across Europe as Madame la Serpente, Margot’s intimidating mother, Queen Catherine de Médicis, is a powerful force in a country devastated by religious ...

Hello!  I know I've been MIA lately but I'm hoping to start coming back slowly!  Thank you for your patience with me. May was an awesome reading month!  I read 11 books which is a TON for me especially considering May was so busy.  I guess it helped that I reread several Laura Ingalls Wilder books and those are pretty easy to read.  I have now read 38 books this year; I'm almost halfway to my goal of 80!  I read a wide range of books this month and it was really nice to just kind of pick up what I wanted without the pressure of review books. In addition to reading a lot in May, the hubs, toddler and I went to Colorado to visit my brother.  It was a really nice little trip and Julia did pretty good on the 8/9 hour car ride.  We also went to 4 kid's birthday parties, celebrated Mother's Day, the hubs' birthday and a friend's high school graduation and I made my first wedding cake.  It was kind of a whirlwind. June ...