Bookstore Ads Capture The Magic Of Reading!!

I love reading and find delving into a well written and engaging book to be an absolutely magical experience!! Don't you as well?!?! 

So, when I came across an article titled, New Bookstore Ads Capture The Magic of Reading on BuzzFeed, I couldn't help but smile at the wonderful pictures (ads) that capture the magic of reading books. Checkout the ads by clicking on the link above.

Until my next post. happy reading!!

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

Friday Finds #29

Friday Finds is a book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. 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've only added one new book to my reading pile. It's an unabridged audiobook titled Spilt Milk by Brazilian writer Chico Buarque.This will be my first experience with anything written by Chico Buarque. I'm looking forward to experiencing this novel in audiobook format as I've really become addicted to listening to audiobooks versus reading them. 

Which books have you added to your reading pile or reading wishlist this week?

Payback's A Beach by Falafel Jones

Unabridged Audio Version

I recently finished listening to the unabridged audio version of Payback's A Beach by Falafel Jones and narrated by Rob Ellis... Lucky me, received this audio edition for free from Audible.com!! Receiving this audiobook for free in no way affects my review of it! I share only my honest opinion of how I felt about what I read or listen to here on my blog.

Payback's A Beach is the second novel in the Max Fried Mystery Series. Last year, I read and reviewed the first novel in the Max Fried Mystery Series titled, Life's A Beach Then You Die by Falafel Jones, and I have eagerly awaited for the release of the second book in this series. 

So, when I finally learned about the second installment of the Max Fried Mystery Series, Payback's A Beach, I looked forward to reading it... In this case, I had fun listening to Payback's A Beach as I've become quite the audiobook addict!!

So, what did I think of Payback's A Beach by Falafel Jones? I enjoyed listening to it very much. I liked most of the characters, especially the lead character of Max Fried, who is witty and has a really good sense of humor. I was also happy to see more of Mariel (Max's wife) in this novel as well. The storyline was good and well developed. I didn't guess who the killer was until close to the ending, which was a good thing as who wants to guess the killer to early in the storyline?!?! I liked a lot of the red herrings that were thrown into this novel and kept me guessing as to whodunnit. I also felt that Rob Ellis did a really good job of narrating Payback's A Beach.

I'd rate Payback's A Beach by Falafel Jones 7 stars out of 10 stars! It's an engaging novel and one I finished listening to in two days.

As an added bonus, Falafel Jones is offering readers a FREE CODE for the Audible.com version of Payback's A Beach! This offer is on a first come, first served basis until Falafel Jones runs out of these Free Codes. So, if you'd like to receive one of them, you'll need to email Falafel Jones... For more details on where to email Falafel Jones, check out the following blog post on Falafel Jones's blog.

Until my next post, happy reading!

Grace, Jack & Magical Cats by Mary Matthews

Lucky me, I received a free copy of the unabridged audio version of Grace, Jack & Magical Cats Cozy: Mystery Boxed Set, Volume 1 by Mary Matthews and read by Sheila Book from Audible.com. Receiving a free copy of this audiobook in no way affects the thoughts expressed in my review as follows below. 

This unabridged audiobook contains the following four titles:

Splendid Summer

Emeralds, Diamonds & Amethysts

Cheri Ami

A Christmas Feral

I was disappointed with the audiobook on many different levels. First off, I that Sheila Book wasn't a very good narrator/dramatic reader. She is one of the worst dramatic readers I've listened to during my audiobook listening experience. When trying to impersonate a man's voice or some female voices, Ms. Book sounded like she had marbles in her mouth... It just sounded stiff and unnatural.

As far as the stories are concerned, I thought they were all boring. I don't think Mary Matthews is a very good writer. She used a lot of the same canned phrases in each storyline. She repeated some of the same information in the same story... Like how many times do you want to hear about Orange Avenue being line with citrus trees in the same story?? 

The stories themselves were boring, fluffy, drivel with no real substance to them. Some mystery would be thrown in to the mix and solved haphazardly with the help of the 'magical cat(s)'. The worst story of them all was A Christmas Feral, which was Mary Matthews take on the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol and it involved cats. 

I also didn't like any of the characters in the stories. Let's just say, I was happy when I was done listening to these audiobooks. I'd give Grace, Jack & Magical Cats Cozy: Mystery Boxed Set, Volume 1 a rating of two stars out of ten stars.

Until my next post, happy reading! 

Amtrak Launches Writers Residency

Okay, so I discovered through and LA Times article written by Carolyn Kellogg that Amtrak launches writers residency after author request. In the article, Ms. Kellogg writes the following:

Ask and ye shall receive. At least when it comes to authors and Amtrak.

Amtrak has launched a still-unstructured writers residency program thanks to an offhanded remark by Alexander Chee and some impassioned pleas on Twitter.

In a PEN Ten interview that posted Dec. 23, Chee, author of the forthcoming novel "The Queen of the Night," said that trains are his favorite place to write. He then commented, "I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers."

Not two months later and Amtrak does. The first writer to accept its residency and blog about it is Jessica Gross, who traveled from New York City to Chicago and back.

That's kind of cool that Amtrak is now offering a writer's residency! I like taking Amtrak from my home here in Carpinteria, California down to San Diego to see my parents. If I'm traveling alone, I find myself reading a book during my five hour train ride... Just imagine the writing one could accomplish in five hours?

Do YOU Want to Write Ernest Hemingway??

Well, guess what?? There's now an app out that will help you write just like Hemingway! I came across an article titled Learn to Write Like Papa With the "Hemingway App" by Jennifer Miller. In her article, Miller writes:

"Most technical writing is awful," says Adam Long, who works in marketing. "Ever read the full manual for a new gadget, or even for your car? Me neither--they’re verbose, confusing, and use jargon the rest of us don’t know." He says that lawyers are also chronically poor wordsmiths. "There’s a good reason why it takes you three years to learn how to screw up the English language," he says. Adam and his brother Ben Long have created the Hemingway app to counter all of the horrendous prose used across all areas of business writing. It may not turn you into a great storyteller, but, drawing inspiration from Hemingway's lean style, it does promise to strip the extraneous, the weak, and the complicated from your writing.

After reading Miller's article, it appears that the "Hemingway App" was created for technical/business writing... But, I wonder if the "Hemingway App" could be used by those writing novels? Would you want to use the "Hemingway App"?

Anais Nin --- Erotica 101

I just read an article titled Erotica 101: Meet the first woman of erotica, Anais Nin by Sara Dobie Bauer. In the article, Sara Dobie Bauer writes:

Nin is best known for her diaries, scrupulously kept from 1931 through 1974. Her diaries were published in several volumes, which together fill over 40,000 pages. For a woman writing in her time, she was groundbreaking. She openly discussed sex, marriage and feminism. Her writings are controversial even today; imagine the row they caused in the mid-1900s.

Nin herself was a highly sexual creature. She was a dancer and model, praised for her beauty. Although she married at 20, she had a string of lovers, which included famous author Henry Miller and his wife June.

Click on link above to read the entire article written by Sara Dobie Bauer. 

Sure, I've heard of Nin's work Delta of Venus and her affair with Henry Miller, but that pretty much sums up what I know about Anais Nin. I've never read anything by Anais Nin before and am not sure that I will.

Has you read anything written by Anais Nin? Is her writing any good? Is her writing style still relevant today?

Are These Really the 5 Worst Books Ever Written by Great Authors?

I came across an article written in the New Republic titled The Five Worst Books Ever Written By Great Authors by Isaac Chotiner. Curious as to which authors and book titles were referenced in
Isaac Chotiner's article, I decided to take a peek at the article. 

Interestingly enough, I've only hear of one of the book titles mentioned in Isaac Chotiner's article and the remaining titles were unknown to me. More than likely, I'll never read the book titles sited by Isaac Chotiner.

Are the books mentioned in Isaac Chotiner's article really the worst books ever written by great authors? Who's to say really. They may be the worst ones out there, but there may be other book titles that are worse. 

Until my next post, happy reading!