April Book Club Selection

Hey Y'all!

I've been to Texas recently and now I'm craving Bar Bee Q and talking with a drawl. My kids got stick horses and cowboy hats and they are calling everyone partner!

Thank you to everyone that voted for our next book club selection!  The book that had the most books was....The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.

I will be giving away TWO copies of this book so please leave a message telling me what you did for Spring Break this year. Contest ends on Friday, April 5th.  Entry today!



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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Dear God," she prayed, "let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere - be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.” 
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn


Books like this are why I love historical fiction. I love the story telling of a time so long ago, the hardships and fears that made our ancestors so strong and resilient. 

Francie broke my heart and made me yearn for something more for her. I wanted so desperately for her to get a break. No matter what came her way, she found a way to make her circumstances better. I love that her most prized possession was her education and the lengths she went to to make it successful. She excelled at everything she tried and put all of her heart into it. 

Now that the book is over, I miss her and wonder what she's doing. Is there a sequel to this book? I wish there was.....



“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.” 
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Must Read List

So many books.....so little time!

My must read book list continues to grow and picking one for the book club is becoming harder and harder for me and Mimi.

Which means we need YOUR help picking our next book.  We need YOU to give us recommendations.  What books are on your must read list?  Is there a classic that you haven't tackled yet?  A new best seller that everyone is reading?  Tell us!

We'll pick a couple from the comments and we'll each pick one from our list and then we need YOU to vote for our next book.

Let's hear it?  What are you excited to read?

Literary Friday: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

I'm linking up with Ricki from Art @ Home to tell you what I'm reading this weekend. I started this book a few days ago and I'm so excited to curl up with this book and a blanket and a half a dozen cups of hot coffee because the news folks are saying we're getting 14 inches of snow tomorrow.

 I'm stocked up with food and k-cups so I say....BRING IT!


This book came highly recommend by my partner in reading crime, Mimi. We do have similar tastes in books (and politics) so I generally always like what she likes.

I read a passage from the book this morning that made me so happy.  I love her ritual of reading.

Home at last and now it was the time she had been looking forward to all week: fire-escape-sitting time.  She put a small rug on the fire-escape and got the pillow from her bed and propped it against the bars.  Luckily there was ice in the icebox.  She chipped off a small piece and put it in a glass of water.  The pink-and-white peppermint wafers bought that morning were arranged in a little bowl, cracked, but of a pretty blue color.  She arranged glass, bowl and book on the window sill and climbed out on the fire-escape.  Once out there, she was living in a tree. 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the story of Francie and her early life in Brooklyn. She loves to read and buy penny candy. Her family is very poor but they find ways to make some things special. I can't wait to devour this book and learn more about Francie and her family.

This work of fiction by Betty Smith was first published in 1943 and was an immediate best seller and was later made into a movie.  Stay tuned for a full review!

 What are you reading this weekend?

FREE Magazines

I love to read.

I'll read anything I can get my hands on really.

In addition to my 'book love'.  I also have a pretty healthy magazine obsession.  I say it's healthy because my love of magazines hasn't put me in the poor house (yet), my kids haven't gone hungry because of it and I don't hide them around the house.

You know how sometimes you stumble upon something when you were looking at something else on the internet.  Let me tell you how my latest discovery went down.

I woke up early this morning and decided to make some notes for a PTA meeting I'm having this afternoon but first I checked facebook (you do this too, I know you do).  I saw a posting from Read Across America asking me if I saw the live event this morning.

I didn't see it.  I didn't know about it so I googled NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY.  First of all, the NYCPL has the best website I have ever seen.  So much information and a great kids section with book lists and games.  I'm going to explore it further....probably in 6 months because OH MY GOSH...I am just not going to have time.

I then googled DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY to see what I could see and low and behold, I found something amazing and I squealed with delight.

FREE Digital Magazine Subscriptions.

So then I went to my local library website which...frankly, is very much lacking and I searched all over the place (I'm an excellent researcher) and I found that MY library is offering them too!  And then I signed up and put in my library card number and 100 magazine were available to me with the touch of a mouse.

I'm going to have quit blogging and PTA to read all of these!  

What are you waiting for?  Go see if YOUR library has this offer.  Unless of course you don't like magazines.  Then go back to whatever it is you were doing.

OH and you don't have to have an eDevice to read them.  You can read them on your computer.