Saturday, August 30, 2014

Saturday Odds & Ends (5)


I love books, you all know that, but I thought that sometimes it would be nice to talk about other things that I love as well.
As usual, my lists are always in no particular order.

A Few of my Favorite Musicians


Tori Amos



Linkin Park



Bryan Adams



Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (USS)



Radiohead



Thursday, August 28, 2014

Thursday Thirteen (52)


Thursday Thirteen is a weekly meme with a simple theme: each Thursday you blog a list of 13 things. What kind of things? Any kind! Just come up with a list theme and run with it.
*All of my lists are in no particular order.*
 

I’m Having Trouble Blogging


1. It’s summer.

2. I’m out with my kids a lot.

3. I’m tired from working.

4. I’m out taking pictures more than I’m inside reading.

5. I’m reading, but finding it hard to concentrate on reviews.

6. I’m having difficulties enunciating my love for the books I’ve read.

7. I love reading… and sometimes I just want to read.

8. I’m so fucking tired.

9. I’ve become addicted to Netflix.

10. I’m stressed about stuff.

11. My hours at work have picked up.

12. I’m reading a lot of different series’ back-to-back.

13. There are too many damn good books out there!


Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Future Favorites (181)

Future Favorites is an awesome blog feature created by Alex over at Electrifying Reviews. I post about a book that is yet-to-be-released that I can't wait to read!



Jinn & Juice by Nicole Peeler
Release Date: November 25, 2014 by Orbit

Cursed to be a jinni for a thousand years, Leila nears the end of her servitude -- only to be bound once again against her will. Will she risk all to be human?

Born in ancient Persia, Leila turned to her house Jinni, Kouros, for help escaping an arranged marriage. Kouros did make it impossible for her to marry -- by cursing Leila to live a thousand years as a Jinni herself.

If she can remain unBound, Leila's curse will soon be over. But Ozan Sawyer, a Magi with the ability to See, Call, and Bind jinn has other plans.
Oz needs Leila to help him penetrate Pittsburgh's steel-soaked magic, a juice potent but poisonous to supernatural creatures, in order to find a missing girl with her own mysterious connection to Kouros. Unfortunately for Leila, becoming Bound to Oz may risk more than just her chance to be human once more -- it could risk her very soul...

Jinn and Juice is the first in a new series by fantasy writer, Nicole Peeler, set in a world of immortal curses, powerful jinni and belly dancing.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Sundays with Sarah (44)


To find out more about Sarah and this feature go here.


How I spent my summer vacation

Well welcome everyone to another post for Sundays With yours truly, Sarah.

Well, now it’s time for the end of another summer for many, and for most with lots of memories of good times, making new friends or hanging with the old ones. Over the summer I spent time at Birch Bay Ranch near Edmonton, Alberta. It was such a great summer making all sorts of friends, hanging with horses, to even decorating for special themed meals for the kids.

I spent about 90% of my summer at Birch Bay Ranch, mainly taking photos and decorating but also helping to create awesome themed meals for our different weeks of kids’ camp. Birch Bay Ranch has many different activities from Horse Back Riding, dodge ball, field games and sports, archery, air soft targets, rock climbing, Burma bridge, the K3 and Super Zip lines, Crate climbs, and the big super swing. I spent some time swimming in our ice cold pool, and so much more.



I know I sound like I am promoting the ranch...ok in part I am, but also because it is such a great camp. Our furthest camper came all the way from Jamaica. He was also our chef's nephew. And speaking of chef...I'm fat now because of her, lol. The food was always so darn awesome and I even helped make a lot of the meals. Primarily I made soups and salads and unlike most kids camps, we make things from scratch.

So where is Birch Bay? Well, it sits near Cooking Lake, AB, near Sherwood Park. The camp was created in 1966 and has been operating as a camp for kids for nearly 50 years. That’s long for any camp. During the months of May-June, and Sept-Oct it operates as a rental camp for school groups, organizations and more who want to either stay the night and camp in cabins or use the many ropes facilities and buildings. They have many awesome horses and a trail system spanning almost 80 acres. During the summer it is a Christian camp and is loads of fun and more.



Now...that covers pretty much my summer with one exception...

I did get a chance to go back to Barrie, ON to see my awesome BFF Amy and to take one of my friends' grand-kid to see One Direction in concert in Toronto. That trip was awesome and this time the roads were beautiful. The only down side is when I got back I had to deal with so much bad news that I wished my trip lasted longer.

Anyways with the new school year starting and kids going back, I'm getting back to my normal everyday routine soon as well. Most of us will get the summer time blues and most will feel the depression of not having so much fun. You will all get through it.

So to wrap up this week's post, I will close with this...

1 month before leaves fall off trees
2 months before snow hits and Halloween
3 months before Remembrance Day
and...
4 months before Christmas and the end of the year...

that is all.

See ya all next week!


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Future Favorites (180)

Future Favorites is an awesome blog feature created by Alex over at Electrifying Reviews. I post about a book that is yet-to-be-released that I can't wait to read!



100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
Release Date: September 2, 2014 by Simon & Schuster

Finn Easton sees the world through miles instead of minutes. It’s how he makes sense of the world, and how he tries to convince himself that he’s a real boy and not just a character in his father’s bestselling cult-classic book. Finn has two things going for him: his best friend, the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl he’s ever loved.

Then Julia moves away, and Finn is heartbroken. Feeling restless and trapped in the book, Finn embarks on a road trip with Cade to visit their college of choice in Oklahoma. When an unexpected accident happens and the boys become unlikely heroes, they take an eye-opening detour away from everything they thought they had planned—and learn how to write their own destiny.


Sunday, August 17, 2014

Sundays with Sarah (43)


To find out more about Sarah and this feature go here.


Hi everyone, welcome to another Sundays with Sarah the sporadic blogger on A Simple Love of Reading.

Greetings everyone!

Well it's been several months since I made my last post for Sunday's with Sarah. Mind you I also don't know how many actually read my posts but still. This will be a short post but more will come.

I have been so swamped with life over the past few months that things have been so stressed and hard to deal with. Before I tell you some bad let me at least tell you some good. First of all this is part 1 of a few part post I will be hopefully trying to post in the next few week as I will have more time on my hands.

This summer I made another trip to Ontario to my most awesome friend Amy in Barrie, Ontario. I had an awesome companion (whom I am not able to name in this post publicly) and the trip was made special when we got a chance to go see her favorite 2 bands "5 Seconds of Summer" and "One Direction" in Toronto. The concert was incredible. As usual we drove for almost 3 days there and back but this year we had extra days to relax and soak up the fun. The trip was exhausting but overall it was good. We were able to visit our favorite restaurant in Thunder Bay, and the Anicinabe Park campsite in Kenora was exceptional. The most expensive place for gas that we saw was Upsala at $2.49/ltr but the average cost was around $1.34/ltr. Gas in Edmonton...$1.09 avg.

We had a great visit and now we are hoping that Amy will get a chance next year to visit Edmonton for her first time out west. Cross those fingers.

I've spent the majority of my summer helping out at Birch Bay Ranch Christian summer camp in Cooking Lake, AB. The summer camp has been memorable and incredible. I made new friends, and reconnected with old acquaintances. More to come.

Now as for the bad...

First of all, on the way back from Ontario, the starter in my car died and we got stranded in Saskatoon for almost 6 hours. The ordeal was hell but in the end we got the car fixed, albeit temporarily. I got back to Edmonton but the car was really dead. Cost a bit to fix but that's another story.

This summer also hit me hard as over the summer (mainly recently), I lost a close friend of mine due to depression and family related matters. On top of that, I will also be losing another close friend because of something that was said by them to someone else and because of that I have been requested that I am to distance myself from them. Whether it was said realistically or just for attention, it will hurt that person. I dislike losing friends and they sort of don't know it yet and when they learn about things it will not be easy and will hit them hard. People have many habits of jumping to conclusions and for this instance. I have been asked to stay out of their life indefinitely because if not there will be bad consequences to me... at least they had an awesome vacay as well.

I will explain more later.


But for now I do want to talk about something that has been bothering me and I need to talk a bit about it...

We all have bad days and good days but for some the bad can be so overwhelming that we don't know what to do about them. Depression is now on the rise in all people and I myself am a sufferer of severe clinical depression. It has been part of the reason why I haven't been writing much as I’ve been trying to keep myself insanely busy to keep my mind occupied. But I want everyone to know that if you know of someone who is depressed, please be there for them. We all need someone to love and hold and to comfort us. I know that the next month and a half will be exceptionally difficult to deal with especially since I've been asked to distance myself from an incredible individual but who has made things problematic for me because of some hidden feelings they have. I want you all out there to help and to hold onto those who are suffering from feeling alone, or depressed and such because we all need someone in our lives who can care deep enough to wade through the roughest parts and hold on tight.

Don't let depression consume, but instead get help with it. Children are harder to manage especially teenagers and girls to boot.

Anyways, this post is short for now; I will be making a larger post next week.

Take care and I hope you call can start following more as I will be writing more in the coming weeks.

Take care.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Why Haven't I Read You? (63)

Every Wednesday I’ll choose a book off one of my (many, many) shelves that I haven’t read for some reason or another, and include the first few lines from the first page.
Feel free to join in, and comment about the books I feature if you have read them!


Jason was going to Brain Camp. It had another name, a real name, but that’s what everyone called it.

“Okay,” he said, wedging a final pair of socks along the edge of his suitcase. “The list. One more time.”

I picked up the piece of paper beside me. “Pens,” I said. “Notebooks. Phone card. Camera battery. Vitamins.”

His fingers moved across the contents of the bag, finding and identifying each item. “Check and double-check. With Jason it was always about being sure.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen



Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Future Favorites (179)

Future Favorites is an awesome blog feature created by Alex over at Electrifying Reviews. I post about a book that is yet-to-be-released that I can't wait to read!



Empire of Night by Kelley Armstrong
Release Date: April 7, 2015 by HarperCollins

Sisters Moria and Ashyn are the Keeper and Seeker of Edgewood. Or at least, they were.

Their village is gone. Their friends have betrayed them. And now, the emperor has sent them on a mission to rescue the children of Edgewood—accompanied by Prince Tyrus and a small band of imperial warriors. But the journey proves more perilous than they could have imagined. With treachery and unrest mounting in the empire, Moria and Ashyn will have to draw on all their influence and power to overcome deadly enemies—not all of them human—and even avert an all-out war.


Monday, August 11, 2014

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (187)



Books I read over the last few weeks:
With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent
Gasp by Lisa McMann
Bared to You by Sylvia Day
Reflected in You by Sylvia Day
Entwined with You by Sylvia Day
Invincible by Diana Palmer
When You Dare by Lori Foster

The book I’m reading now:
Trace of Fever:
Undercover mercenary Trace Rivers loves the adrenaline rush of a well-planned mission. First he'll earn the trust of corrupt businessman Murray Coburn, then gather the proof he needs to shut down the man's dirty smuggling operation. It's a perfect scheme—until Coburn's long-lost daughter saunters in with her own deadly plan for revenge.

With a smile like an angel and fire in her eyes, Priscilla Patterson isn't who she seems to be. But neither is the gorgeous bodyguard who ignites all her senses. Joining forces to plot Coburn's downfall, Priss and Trace must fight the undeniable heat between them. For one wrong move, one lingering embrace, will expose them to the wrath of a merciless opponent…

Books that spark my interest this week:
Savor the Danger by Lori Foster
Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong


Sunday, August 10, 2014

Sunday Odds & Ends (4)


Although this is usually Sarah’s bloggy spot, she has been extremely busy and has not been able to post for a while. So I’m going to do an Odds & Ends post to fill in the gaps so to speak. I love books, you all know that, but I thought that sometimes it would be nice to talk about other things that I love as well.
As usual, my lists are always in no particular order.

Places I Dream of One Day Visiting
(In the very, very far future...)


New Orleans


Greece


Scotland


Africa


Italy


Ireland