Dune Read-Along

I shall be joining this Dune read-along hosted by Jenni, Suey and Kami because...well we're reading it for book club so I have to read it anyway.  No I'm Teasing. It's going to be fun.  There's Twitter chats and a mini series watch -along and discussion posts and it's just going to be awesome. Hopefully the book is as good. ;) 

Schedule

• Section 1: April 19 – 27
• Section 2: April 28 – May 6
• Section 3: May 7 – 16

Discussion Posts

Each discussion post will go up on either Suey’s, Kami’s, or Jenni's blog at the end of each section.

• Section 1: April 27 on Jenni's blog (jennielyse.com)
• Section 2: May 6 on Suey’s blog (It’s All About Books)
• Section 3: May 16 on Kami’s blog (Kami’s Library Thoughts)

Twitter Chats

• 
  Section 1: Monday, April 27 at 9:00 pm MDT
• Section 2: Thursday, May 7 at 9:00 pm MDT
• Section 3: Saturday, May 16 at 9:00 pm MDT

Watch-along

The watch-along will be onSaturday, May 30 at 6:00 pm MDT and we'll watch until we’re done with the whole mini-series (about 5 hours). Join us via Twitter using #DuneRAL.

If you've been wanting to read this book or if you're just a fan of scifi, you should totally join us. These ladies really know how to host a read-along. Link up here if you want to join. 

Review: The Princess Guide to Life

Title The Princess Guide to Life
By Rosie Blythe
Genre Self help/non-fiction
Pages 312

First sentence From supermodels to precocious 8-year-olds, nearly everyone has some anxiety about their looks.

Synopsis
Everybody has the wrong idea about Princesses. Sure, we dress like superstars and rarely have to buy our own drinks, but we're not divas. (Life's too short to throw a tantrum because a barista spelled your name wrong.)

In this entertaining and insightful book, Rosie Blythe offers a fresh perspective on what it means to be a powerful woman in the 21st century. (from Goodreads)

What it has going for it
I'm not big into self help non fiction. Though I wouldn't exactly categorize this one as self help, there isn't exactly a better way to do it. So, for the sake of calling it something let's just stick with self help. The author of this one contacted me and asked me to review it and after reading the description I thought, "I could use some princess-afying", so I agreed. The book covers everything from appearance to personality to handling difficult people and even has a section on books and movie recommendations. The section on Creating a Princess Persona was dead on! I loved it. Sure, the title of that section sounds like it's going to tell you to be all prissy but it wasn't. It had a great part about femininity vs Feminism that was just perfect. Mostly I loved that this book just made me want to grab life by the horns and love it and that's just what I needed right now. 

What's lacking
I only had two problems with this one. First, it wasn't anything new. It's not like I haven't read or heard these things before, so it's not horribly original. And second, There was a section on handling difficult people that listed all types of jerks but didn't really offer THAT much advice on dealing with them. It just went on and on about the different types of a-holes in the world and, yeah, I already know about them all. I've worked customer service my whole life! Other than that the book was fun and makes you want to better yourself. 

Yea or Nay?
If you like this kind of book, whether for light reading or serious soul searching, yes, I'd recommend it. 

While I've been gone

I've been missing for the past two years. It's not because I don't like blogging or reading, though. As you all may remember. I met a hot guy, went on vacation, got married started a business with my husband and now...Now I've bought a house. We've been remodeling like crazy and while we still have things left to do and projects left to finish (mainly the yard now), the big project, the basement, is done!!!! Wahoo! You have no idea how much I hated working on it. And for the record, we weren't picking out paint and cabinets and hiring big muscley men to come do all the work. WE did all the work and it sucked. Sigh! I'm glad that's over. Anywho, here's some before and after pictures. In case you're interested.

We had to completely gut one of the bathrooms due to water damage.

Much better.  Love my lights.

The downstairs bathroom

Look at the disgusting dated tub, oh and the walls

Voila! You Like? 

The scary old windows

OK so you can't see the new windows but still.  

Notice the hole on the wall where the dryer plugs in and the vent going out a window

Look, a dryer vent in the wall. 

The room we turned into a kitchen

Ta da! What do you think?

So, there a you have it. What do you think? 

March Wrap Up

I'm so embarrassed by my pathetic numbers in March but here you have them anyway.

Wonder
Too hyped up. It wasn't that great.

The Fetch 
I'll just stick to the authors other books. Great idea, poor execution.

 Speechless
Ugh! Snotty girl does horrible thing. Tries to change. Doesn't change. Just terrible!





And that, my friends, is all I read this month. I didn't have a favorite this month, sadly. Least favorite was Speechless.

Maybe in April I'll get more reading done. Here's hoping!

Review: Speechless

Title Speechless
By Hannah Harrinton
Genre YA contemporary
Pages 288

First Sentence Keeping secrets isn't my specialty.



Synopsis
Known as the high school gossip, Chelsea Knot has a big secret. In a drunken stupor she blurts out that secret about a boy that results in him getting beat up and ending up in the hospital. Even though she turns in the perpetrators she still can't rid herself of the guilt. So she takes a vow of silence. She won't be spreading any more rumors. She won't speak at all. Saying sorry isn't enough.


What it has going for it
Well, I loved the idea of this one. I saw so much room for a snotty gossipy girl to learn and grow...but alas.

What's lacking
My biggest issue with this one, aside from the fact that the main character really doesn't learn from her experience, was that nothing followed through. For example. Chelsea, our chatty Cathy, gets her idea to take a vow of silence from an article about a monk. He took a vow of silence and learned to meditate and self evaluate. So, of course at the beginning I'm thinking: "aw sweet, she's going to realize that not only should she keep her mouth shut but that maybe her arrogant judgey attitude was crap!" Alas, our character never learns a thing. She had the decency to report the perpetrators, at least, and had to endure a minor amount of bullying but other than that there was no change of character. Sure, she got a new group of friends that welcomed her with open arms, which she didn't deserve, and yes, she isn't quite so high and mighty in the end but the changes in her attitude were concocted by the author. Never does Chelsea look at herself and realize what a horrible person she was. Alright, I'm going to stop. The book really wasn't that terrible. I just really wanted the character to self evaluate and grow but she just lucked out and moved on.


Yea or Nay?
You won't be missing anything by skipping this book.