Bout of Books Read-A-Thon 13.0 Sign-Up

I wasn't sure if I would be signing up for the Bout of Books Read-A-Thon 13.0 or not as May is a busy month for me between Mother's Day, my mom's birthday and my birthday and other things that always seem to come up during the month of May... But I've decided to participate in this round after all!! Yippee!!!

Below is the official blurb Bout of Books Read-A-Thon 13.0:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 13 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I'm so glad that the Bout of Books Read-A-Thon is a low pressure read-a-thon... I have decided to set some reading goals for this read-a-thon. My goal is to finish listening to the audio version of Innocent In Death by J. D. Robb, to finish reading Duplicity by N. K. Traver and to read graphic novel Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi.

Even though Bout of Books Read-A-Thon 13.0 starts tomorrow, there's still time to sign up for Bout of Books Read-A-Thon 13.0 through Tuesday, May 12th!!

Novellas, Do You Read Them? Do You Enjoy Reading Them??

I enjoy reading novellas as they are usually fast, fun reads!! Novellas are also a great way to discover new (to me) authors or genres. In recent years, I've read more novellas that I can recollect. Some novellas were good, some were atrocious, and still others were somewhere in between.

Below is a short list of some of the novellas I've enjoyed reading and reviewing in recent years.

The Forty Fathom Bank by Les Galloway

The Diaries of Adam & Eve by Mark Twain

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Larger Than Life by Jodi Picoult

Appalachian Serenade by Sarah Loudin Thomas

Macaron Murders by Harper Lin

The Love Thief by Daisy Jerico

Press One For Yes by Falafel Jones
Midnight in Death by J. D. Robb

Laid Bare by Cathryn Fox
Ivan (Her Russian Protector #1) by Roxie Rivera

Sheriff in Her Stocking by Cheryl Gorman

Lustbound by Natasha Storm

I'm sure I have forgotten to list a few of my favorite novellas.

Which novellas have you enjoyed reading??

Do You Read Celebrity Memoirs/Biographies?

Honestly, I normally don't read many celebrity memoirs or biographies as their lives are already pretty much 'open books' as it is. Today it seems like so many of the current celebrities live their lives on public display through reality television shows... Or their lives make headlines on a wide variety of television news shows and/or talk shows, as well as through a myriad of gossip rags that reading about the lives of most modern day celebrities isn't normally something I gravitate towards.

However, earlier this year I received a free copy of Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir  by Toni Braxton from Dey Street Books through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program. I recently read and posted my thoughts about Braxton's memoir here on my blog... Before reading Toni Braxton's memoir, Unbreak My Heart, I was familiar with her songs Breathe Again, Unbreak My Heart, and Another Sad Love Song. But I wasn't familiar with Braxton's personal life at all... Like her strict religious upbringing, two bankruptcies, that Braxton's youngest son was diagnosed with autism or that Toni Braxton herself was diagnosed with Lupus... Let alone that she has starred in her own reality television show titled Braxton Family Values!! So, needless to say, much of what I read in Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir by Toni Braxton was news to me.

I found reading Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir to be entertaining and informative. I liked that it wasn't too heavy and that Ms. Braxton covered a lot of things that happened in her life both good and bad. I am now willing to explore other celebrity memoirs and biographies.

Do you read celebrity memoirs and/or biographies? Which ones have you read and would recommend reading?

Friday Finds # 80

Friday Finds is a book meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm. Friday Finds is a chance to share and show off the books you discovered during the week and would like to add to your reading list... 
 
Or a place to simply feature the books you've actually purchased throughout the week and have added to your to be read pile!

This week I have added two nonfiction books to my ever growing 'to be read' pile as follows:

Enough Already: Create Success On Your Own Terms by Mike Iamele
Switch On by Nick Seneca Jankel

Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir by Toni Braxton

I received a free paperback copy of Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir by Toni Braxton for free through Goodreads First Reads. The following is my unbiased review for Ms. Braxton's memoir.

Before reading Toni Braxton's memoir, Unbreak My Heart, I was familiar with her songs Breathe Again, Unbreak My Heart, and Another Sad Love Song. But I wasn't familiar with Braxton's personal life at all... Like her strict religious upbringing, two bankruptcies, that Braxton's youngest son was diagnosed with autism or that Toni Braxton herself was diagnosed with Lupus... Let alone that she starred in her own reality television show titled Braxton Family Values!! So, needless to say, much of what I read in Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir by Toni Braxton was news to me. 

Honestly, I usually don't read celebrity memoirs as their lives are already pretty much 'open books' as it is. Their lives are on public display through television news shows/talk shows, as well as through a myriad of gossip rags. And of course with the advent of reality television shows, their lives are readily on display for public consumption. So, most of the time it's doubtful one will learn anything new from reading a celebrity memoir. 

Even though I'm not a huge Toni Braxton fan myself, I was curious enough about her life to want to read more about it. She is a talented singer and always seemed to have a squeaky clean image, at least to me anyway.

For me, as I've already stated, I learned a lot of new things about Toni Braxton that I never knew about her before reading her memoir. However, if you're already a huge fan of Ms. Braxton's music, then much of what is written may not be all that newsworthy to you. 

As far as a memoir goes, I felt it was well written and flowed fairly well. I liked that it wasn't too heavy as far as memoirs go and that Ms. Braxton covered a lot of things that happened in her life both good and bad.

The following is a summary of Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir by Tony Braxton from Amazon's website:

In this heartfelt memoir, six-time Grammy Award-winning artist and star of WE TV’s reality hit Braxton Family Values, Toni Braxton writes about her personal life decisions and their impact on her health, family and career.

While Braxton appears to be living a gilded life—selling 60 million records, appearing in sold-out Las Vegas performances and hit shows like Dancing with the Stars, and starring in her own reality series—hers is in fact a tumultuous story, a tale of triumph over a life filled with obstacles, including two bankruptcy filings. The mother of an autistic child, Braxton long feared that her son’s condition might be karmic retribution for earlier life choices, some of which will shock fans. But when heart ailments began plaguing her at the age of 41 and she was diagnosed with Lupus, Braxton knew she had to move beyond the self-recrimination and take charge of her own healing. Intensely honest and deeply inspirational, Unbreak My Heart is the never-before-told story of the measures Braxton took to make herself and her family whole again.

I'm giving Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir by Tony Braxton a rating of 7 stars out of 10 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!

Bookish Quote of the Day!!!

Top Ten Tuesday --- Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

There are several books that I'll probably never ever read in my lifetime. The following are ten random books that I probably won't read:

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Ulysses by James Joyce

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
The 50 Shades Trilogy by E. L. James
The Quran

So, which books made your list??

Do You Read Or Listen to Audiobooks While You're Sick??

Okay, maybe that's an odd question to ask of readers, but it's a curious question that has come up none the less! 

I am currently at the tail end of a cold. In fact, it's the first cold I've had in a very long time. I found myself not blogging for eleven days straight due to not feeling my best. And reading a book while I've been sick has been sporadic at best, especially when I was at the height of feeling my worst. 

When I'm sick with a cold or flu, I find myself really, really tired and trying to deal with the symptoms of a cold or flu the best I can. So, I find that trying to read or listen to an audiobook doesn't come easily for me during this time as I usually find it difficult to focus on the material at hand. However, with that said, I did manage to ever so slowly, read Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers when I could find the energy to do so.

How about you? Do you read and/or listen to audiobooks when your sick with a cold or flu?

Which Novel(s) Would You Like to See Made Into A Movie?

I've become a fan of the His Fair Assassin Trilogy series by Robin LaFevers. I read the first two novels, Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph, last year and recently finished reading the last novel, Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers a few days ago. 

I would love to see these three historical fiction novels (that make up the His Fair Assassin trilogy) made into movies. The stories are good/solid and so are the characters... And if done right by Hollywood, these three novels would make excellent movies! 

Which novels would you like to see made into movies?

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

Third Novel in the His Fair Assassin Trilogy

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers is the third and final novel in the His Fair Assassin Trilogy. It is 464 pages in length and falls into both the young adult and historical fiction genres. 

Last year, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first two novels in the His Fair Assassin Trilogy, Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph. So, I looked forward to reading Mortal Heart this year to finish off this awesome series and see how it all ends.

I've had Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers in my eBook collection since Christmas time 2014... In some ways, I've been dying to read this novel to see where the story leads and learn more about Annith's life (one of the trained three 'Fair Assassins'), but on the other hand I didn't want to read this novel because I didn't want the series to end!!

Mortal Heart, as far as a novel goes, didn't disappoint! It was a fast read that kept my attention from the very start and kept my attention all the way through to the very end. Annith, one of the characters we learn about initially in Grave Mercy, is the primary character in Mortal Heart. I learned way more information about Annith, the abbess, Mortain (the God of Death) and other things in this novel than I thought I ever would. There is a lot of juicy details that happen in Mortal Heart, but I don't want to reveal spoilers to those that have yet to read Mortal Heart... So, you'll just have to read Mortal Heart for yourself!

The following is the publisher's summary for Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers from Audible:

In the powerful conclusion to Robin LaFever's New York Times bestselling His Fair Assassins trilogy, Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.

She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind, doesn’t mean she has.

I'm giving Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 stars! Until my next post, happy reading!!!