Bookish Quote of the Day!!

"Plant trees. They give us two of the most crucial elements for our survival: oxygen and books." A. Whitney Brown

What is Bookshout!?

It's amazing to me all the social networking websites that keep popping up. I've recently come across BookShout!, which sounds like another interesting way to connect with other readers to discuss books.
 
According to the BookShout! website:

BookShout! is a social reading application where users can create reading circles, share reading notes, and invite others to join in on reading a particular book. BookShout! is a cross platform application which runs on iOS, Web, and Android. The user can save and access notes and books across each platform.

 Watch the following video about BookShout!

Anyone out there using BookShout!? How do you like using the BookShout! application? 

Hay-On-Wye is the Bibliophiles' Mecca

I came across an article on Oddity Central website titled Hay-on-Wye – The Bibliophiles’ Mecca by Spooky. The following is a quote from the article by Spooky:

Home to the largest secondhand bookstore in the world, Hay-on-Wye is more than just a little town on the border between England and Wales, it’s book heaven on Earth.

The history of Hay-on-Wye as the “town of books” began on Fools’ Day of 1977, when during a bold publicity stunt, bibliophile Richard Booth announced the independence of Hay-on-Wye as a kingdom of books, with him as the monarch. Ambassadors were sent to the International Court of Justice, in Hague, and a rowing gunboat started patrolling on the river Wye. Since then, he managed to establish a healthy tourism industry based on books, and thousands of visitors come to Hay-on-Wye every year, to look for whatever books they need.

I now want to visit the town of Hay-On-Wye! I love visiting bookstores so, why not make a visit to visit to the largest secondhand bookstore in the world??

Click on the above link to checkout the pictures of the bookstores!

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Want to Reread

Normally, I'm not a person who rereads books or at least not very often. However, every once in a while I find myself wanting to reread a book I read years ago that was particular well written and struck a cord with me.

The following is my top ten list of books I'd like to reread:

1. The Master and Margarita by Mikail Bulgakov
2. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
3. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
5. The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi
6. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
7. Grayson by Lynne Cox
8. Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
9. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
10. Queenie by Micheal Korda

So, which books do you want to reread? Give me your top ten list!

Bookish Quote of the Day!

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it." J.D. Salinger

Yuletide Yarns by Gail MacMillan

I loved reading Yuletide Yarns by Gail MacMillan last year around the holiday season!

Yuletide Yarns is filled with several, holiday themed short stories, and many of the stories feature animals in them. The stories contained within Yuletide Yarns will appeal to a wide audience of all ages! 

So, if your looking for a quick holiday read this season to delight the senses, then this may be the book for you!

Blame It On The Mistletoe by Lily Graison

Book Cover

Blame It On The Mistletoe by Lily Graison is another fun, fast, holiday romance, short story filled with charm that will warm the soul. 

Here's a synopsis of Blame It On The Mistletoe from Lily Graison's website:

When Macy Carter’s parents order her to bring her live-in boyfriend Sean home with her for Christmas she has no idea that her little white lie is just about to snowball into a fabrication of monstrous proportions. Sean isn’t her boyfriend, he’s her boss. Now she has to reveal the lie she’s been telling her family for the past two years or hastily concoct an elaborate ruse to fool them instead.
When Macy tells Sean Mathis of her predicament he does what any gentleman would - he laughs and then agrees to help her out. Little does he know that one misplaced word in their little scheme will backfire and land them both in the hot-seat.

Secluded in the mountains, surrounded by snow and good will, Sean and Macy can’t help looking like the perfect couple. So perfect that the family decides a Christmas wedding will make it a holiday none of them would ever forget!

If you're a sucker for fun romance stories with a happy ending, then you'll enjoy reading Blame It On The Mistletoe!! Blame It On The Mistletoe is approximately 68 pages in length and I was able to download it for free from Amazon earlier this year to my iPad.

Vampire For Christmas by Felicity Heaton

Vampire For Christmas by Felicity Heaton is yet another holiday themed novella I've read this year just in time for the start of the holiday season. Vampire For Christmas is a steamy paranormal romance.

I enjoy the holiday season, but I wanted to move away from traditional holiday tales and read something slightly different this season. I felt that Vampire For Christmas by Felicity Heaton was off the beaten path as this novel combines the romance, Christmas and vampire genres together.

The basic plot summary for Vampire For Christmas involves Shannon, a demon hunter with the undisclosed agency, who is working her last assignment with Rafe, a reformed vampire, before being transferred to a new location and working solo assignments as a demon hunter. Together Shannon and Rafe have been perfect partners in saving humankind from the demons that have plagued the mankind. Together they keep the world safe.

Shannon can hardly wait to complete her last assignment with Rafe and move on with her life. She can't stand vampires or any other type of demons, which is why she hunts them down. Even though Rafe is a reformed Vampire, Shannon still doesn't trust him. 

Rafe has fallen in love with Shannon during the two years they've been demon hunting partners. Yet Rafe has been unable to share his feelings with Shannon and he realizes he must do so soon or risk losing her forever. 

Will Rafe share his feelings of love with Shannon before it is too late? If so, will Shannon reciprocate his feelings? Or will her past continue to haunt her and keep her from falling in love with a good man despite the fact he's a vampire?

Merrie Axemas by M. R. Sellers

I enjoyed reading Merrie Axemas by M. R. Sellers. It was a free download from Amazon that I was able to read on my iPad.

Merrie Axemas is described on the author's website as:

A creepy, holiday-themed, paranormal thriller novella.

Little Merrie Callahan is all grown up now.
She doesn’t believe in Santa anymore.
But she still has an axe to grind with the man in the red suit…

And, for FBI Special Agent Constance Mandalay, the Christmas Holiday will never be the same again.

Something happened in Hulis, Missouri on Christmas Day 1975, and for the residents of the small town it changed the season forever. Now, it’s happening again. For FBI Special Agent Constance Mandalay what starts out as a perplexing case turns into a waking nightmare, and the Christmas Holiday will never be the same for her again.

I don't usually read many 'paranormal thrillers', but had decided to expand my horizons by reading more books from different genres. I'm glad that I chose this particular novella as it is well written and I can see why it has received so many good reviews on Amazon's website. 

I enjoyed the fact that Merrie Axemas is a nontraditional holiday themed work of fiction, which made it more intriguing to read. Even though, this novella is billed as a 'paranormal thriller', I'd also think it would fall into the horror genre as well.

I also understand that Merrie Axemas is a shorter version of M. R. Sellars full length novel, In The Bleak Midwinter, which I look forward to reading as well.

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

"A library is thought in cold storage." Herbert Samuel