Guest Reviewer: The Husband

Good Evening Everyone!

What do you all think of Guest Reviewers?

I've toyed with the idea of having my husband review a few books now and then here at red headed book child.

Yes, it is my blog. Yes, I am the big crazy book person in the family. Yes, I do want to continue to have a credible, reliable blog. Yes, I still want to deliver solid, honest reviews.

Well, I think I will still do all this. My husband, when motivated, is a voracious reader. He can read, during a lunch break, 200 pages and then finish the book the next day. I admire him for his concentration and speed! He doesn't judge. He is not picky. He trusts what I recommend to him and he is always honest.

A pretty decent guy I may say so myself. And so I think he would make a good addition to my blog on a very occasional basis. (once a quarter?) I strive to have variety on my blog and my husband can jump genres without batting an eye.

My passion is to recommend and talk about books and having this blog feeds that passion. If I can have a little extra hands in the book basket, it's all good for me.

I am going to continue to post on my sidebar what he is reading and leave it up to him which book he wants to review.

Profile: The Husband-

His name is Sean. He is a fix it guy. He is a musician. He is a great father. He is an amazing cook. He loves to garden. He hates to clean. He enjoys piles. He always has dirty socks but manages to always smell nice. He drives a truck. He hates to shop. He is super smart. He rubs my feet every night.

And he is all mine. :)

What do you guys think?

Will you all still love me tomorrow? (don't you just love that song?...Dirty Dancing comes to mind...!)

red headed book child

Week in Review: March 7- March 13

blah.

I'm tired.

time change, poo. working doubles, poo. kiddo not sleeping, poo.

there's your Week in Review.

more exciting news to come.

(sigh)

red headed book child

Review #49: Circle of Friends: Book 5- Heather by L. Diane Wolfe (BLOG TOUR)

Title: Heather- The Circle of Friends Book V

Author: L. Diane Wolfe

Publisher: Dancing Lemur Press

Format: Review Copy for Blog Tour

Genre: Fiction/Young Adult

Series: The Circle of Friends

ISBN: 978-0-9816210-5-0

Price/Pages: $19.95/275

My Review and Description:

I was asked to participate on this blog tour quite some time ago when I was pretty fresh to the blog world. (not that I'm an old hat by any means) I was honored to review a book by a blogger that I had come to know and follow and respect.

That blogger buddy/author/inspirational speaker is L. Diane Wolfe. The Circle of Friends series are five different stories of young adults navigating life's choices with humor, spirit, faith and inspiration. I have only read the latest installment Book 5, Heather.

Heather's story begins with a new position at Clemson, coaching basketball. She is enthusiastic and ready for the challenge however her personal life is far from stable. Her father, her constant supporter, is dying. Her best friend and former crush, Matt is married with new babies. Her little sister, Dawn, lacks ambition and responsibility towards life.

Through this all she reunites with Mark, Matt's older brother and they begin a unexpected relationship.

I had no idea what to expect when I read this. Like I said, I have not read the others and I was worried that they would be some how connected and I would be at a loss for back story. But really the history of the characters is explained quite well and the character's themselves are created quite nicely. You really are given solid personalities with each character.

This book had strong themes which I enjoyed. I haven't read much faith based fiction and though I would not entirely categorize this as that, I felt that the pace of this book was based on making smart decisions. This is not something you find in a lot of novels. Heather was extremely devoted to her family, in supporting her mother and in caring for her father. She was motivated in her career and demanded the best out of her athletes. When faced with a possible serious relationship her and Mark were both up front and honest, sometimes to an annoying fault, about who they were and what they wanted.

Though in the beginning I struggled with Heather, I did end of warming to her in the end. She had a transformation throughout this book, rightfully so, due to some serious life changes. I reacted to her reactions quite strongly at times and would try to struggle through some of her actions, especially towards her little sister. Heather could, quite frankly, be a bitch sometimes. :)

In the end, what L.Diane Wolfe created here was a realistic story of a professional, hard-working woman, close to her friends and family, and working her way through her life being as honest and true to herself as possible. It is worth reading for young adults and old adults. We could all learn from the importance of valuing ourselves and those around us.

Rating: 5 stars/6 stars

Thought-provoking, heart-warming, humorous and spirited. I recommend it.

I will be interviewing L. Diane Wolfe on March 19 so please stop back.

If you would like more info on her now, check out her website Circle of Friends or her blog Spunk on a Stick.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Reading.

red headed book child

Award Love

I have been a lucky blogger in the last few months to receive a host of Blog Awards from my fellow bloggers. Due to craziness in my personal life and lack of large chunks of time, I have yet to "give back" in the awards department. I wanted to take atleast a few moments to acknowledge all of the awards I have received from some of my favorite blog friends and some new ones as well. Thank you so much for awarding me and thinking I am, in some way shape or form, the bee's knees. ( i just like saying bee's knees...do they have them? )

In no particular order, here is a list of Awards I have been given.

Honest Scrap Award

-Given to me by Nikki at Wicked Awesome Books and Kathleen at Blog o' the Irish

You Don't Say Award

-Given to me by Ryan at Wordsmithonia

Prolific Blogger Award

-Given to me by Jennifer at Crazy-for-Books and Rachel at Home Girl's Book Blog

Sugar Doll Award

-Given to me by L.Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick

One Lovely Blog Award

-Given to me by Stacy at A Novel Source

Beautiful Blogger Award

-Given to me by Bobbie at Til We Read Again

Whew!

Thank you all so much. I know they all come with special instructions but I have to say I cherish all of you and enjoy reading all of your blogs that I give them all back to YOU. I am going to do my best with honoring all of the specifics of each award but it will be a little at a time.

I just wanted to make sure I get a mention out there in thanks!

I appreciate it. And for some reason if by some weird way I am not following you (either I did something funky while cleaning up or just never clicked on follow to begin with, please let me know. I am horribly computer challenged. !)

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.

red headed book child

R.I.P Corey Haim

I had a massive crush on Corey Haim when I was a kid. My cousin and I would watch "The Lost Boys" every time we we would see each other resulting in it being banned from our households by my mom and hers. We would bring our favorite pictures of him with us over to each other's houses for sleepovers. We would post them by our beds and then watch the movie. I also can't tell you how many times I have seen "License to Drive", "Dream a Little Dream" and "Lucas".

Drug addiction is a powerful beast. It's sad to see it take another.

red headed book child

Review #48: Falling Apart in One Piece by Stacy Morrison

Title: Falling Apart in One Piece, one optimist's journey through the hell of divorce

Author: Stacy Morrison, editor in chief of Redbook magazine

Format: ARC

Genre: Memoir

ISBN: 978-1-4165-9556-4

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Price/Pages: $26.00/288 pages

Release Date: March

My Review and Description:

Divorce, you say? Is there something you are not telling us?, you may be saying to yourself when reading this.

I would respond. No. No secrets here. I am just a fan of well written memoirs. I believe we all have a story to tell and if you can tell yours and have others learn from it, then you've done a good job. Stacy Morrison does just that. She wrote an excellent memoir not only about her divorce but of her struggles with being a new mom, a single parent, a busy professional, a homeowner, a daughter, and a friend to her ex-husband.

Her story is similar to many. Extremely educated and an ambitious professional, Morrison had very exact ideas of what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. She takes us on a journey of her life in the world of magazine publishing and her climb to the top. While becoming more and more successful she discovers love and eventually marriage.

The life she creates with her husband is envious and what seems effortless, known to her friends as the least married like couple out there. A child would make it close to perfection.

But ten years in with a five month old baby and a new house in Brooklyn her husband tells her he is done. Just like that. She is left devastated, furious and knee deep in navigating single motherhood and solving years old poor plumbing in her fabulous new home.

The journey she takes after that moment is full of definite hard times and roads that seem long and unending. As a new mom, I would gasp at some of the struggles she had to go through alone with her son; the unexpected accidents, the desire to keep some normalcy in his life, the battles in communicating with her ex-husband over his needs.

But even as a woman, she writes with such unflinching honesty that no matter where you are at as a reader; married, single, dating- you really understand every emotion she goes through. Her intellect also really shines through in her writing style; honest yet well thought out, timed, and constructed. As I read, I felt that she wanted to tell her story a certain way, with a particular beat to it and time line. It would be easy to sum it up with he left me and I cried but she really goes deep in examining her issues that she brought to the table, her parent's interesting marriage and her friend's relationships.

I learned a lot from this book actually and I was surprised that it had such depth and heart. I would recommend it for a book club choice. In fact, my book club is tomorrow and I am thinking of bringing it along for my pick (that and Little Bee!). It has so much to offer as far as learning. Questions that popped in my mind while reading it include: Do I take my husband for granted? Do I manage my personal life like I do my professional life? Is my home a business too? Have a talked about happiness with my husband lately? How has having a child changed us? Are we happy with those changes?

It definitely got me thinking a bit. So because of that, I think it would be a good choice for discussion.

Rating: 5 stars/6 stars

As a memoir fan, I would give this book a solid 5, definitely worth recommending and passing along to those married or in a relationship in your life. Single readers would enjoy it as well but I think overall it would be most relatable to those in a relationship.

Stacy Morrison is the editor in chief of Redbook magazine. You can check out that website and also her own here and here.

Thanks for stopping by and as always, Happy Reading!

red headed book child

Week in Review: Feb 28- March 6

week in review

Yesterday I decided to drive down to see my parents, which is only an hour away. I took the kiddo along, leaving my husband time with his pal to dink around with his new computer. I get off the exit to my hometown and decide that I wanted to drive past my childhood home. Good idea?

I think not. I happen to be listening to the song "Heavenly Day" by Patty Griffin which, if you haven't listened to her, please do so now because she is amazing! Anyway, this song is beautiful and makes me cry my eyeballs out every time regardless of mood or location.

Well, where I grew up USED to be the country. It is now Cookie Cutter McMansion Ville. I was hoping I had a carton of eggs with me so I could litter this new neighborhood with slime! Okay, I know development is going to happen. I get it. My hometown is hip. It's happening. It's unique and cozy and everyone from the big ol' city wants to live in this cute little town. I get it. But stay away from MY home darnit.

SPACE. That's what I remember from my childhood. Miles of cornfields, green grass, dirt roads, trees big and burly, gardens, stray bunny rabbits, wood piles, sour apple trees, dirt pies, and crickets at night.

Sigh.

Now I'm sure living there you would get paved roads, toxic fumes from SUVs, and noise. Ack.

But I digress. The new neighborhood made me cry, the song made me cry and all the memories of my Grandma raising me in that house made me cry.

I used to come home after an hour bus ride from school to the quiet afternoon of my house in the country. I would walk in the door, my grandma would be sitting at the kitchen table finishing up her "stories". She would greet me with a smile and fix me a snack. It would be her and me until just about dinner when everyone else got home.

Those were good times.

And I guess that's what I have to remember. Screw (literally) driving down memory lane.

As for my book world, I kind of stink. I have to read 2 more books for blog tours and sadly I am not in the mood for either of them. This is when required reading and reviewing kind of stink. (sorry)

I checked out The History of Love (my book club pick) and Ghouls Gone Wild (for fun). I hope to read those this week.

I only wrote a review for the romp Cowboy Trouble by Joanne Kennedy and hopped on the ol' Book Blogger Hop over at Jennifer's Crazy-for-Books.

I hope. I hope. I hope this will be the last week I will say,

"I promise to spread that Award Love".

(nervous laugh)

Thank you to all of you who sent me some awesome advice as to how to JAZZ up my blog.

I have decided to give myself freely to Parajunkee. I should be sassy and beautiful by April just in time for BEA and the Book Blogger Convention.

I think that's it this week. I'm currently watching the Oscars and am ticked that Matt Damon didn't win, happy "The Weary Kind" won for Best Song and hoping that Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges take the gold at the end of the night. Hopefully there will be no more Miley Cyrus...what is she doing there anyway? :(

Happy Reading!

red headed book child