Month: July 2016

ARC August 2016

Welcome to the 4th Annual ARC August – All August, all the ARC’s. This is proudly hosted by Read Sleep Repeat. So what is ARC August? No, it’s not just Another Reading Challenge, which I happen to be very bad at. But a girl can always try. ARC August is a way to read all the ARC’s filling up your Netgalley and ARC shelves. Past or future ARC’s, printed or electronic editions, it doesn’t matter, just read them.  The rules are very simple: each week in August a linky will go up @ Read Sleep Repeat where you can share your progress. At the end submitted books will be confirmed, so you must review them somewhere. Either on your blog or on social media. If submissions can’t be verified you may be disqualified, so make sure to say something, somewhere.Seeing that I haven’t done anything annually here, my ARC list is still very short. I’ve only registered on Netgalley last month and almost jumped through the roof when I was approved for my first request. I don’t have a clue about Netgalley ratio’s, but anything that can go up, must be good. Most of the time. Except for blood pressure and the petrol price. I […]

Posted July 31, 2016
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The Sunday Post – 31 July 2016

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. This is a post to recap the past week on your blog, tell everyone about books and things you can showcase and share news for the upcoming week. Remember to link your post and to visit others who have linked up.When I was young, we had this really cool add on tv “The end of the month salticrax”. Dumb and Dumber and me never knew that salticrax is proudly South African! I’ve used this add for my Friday Meets on Friday and was quite surprised that nobody thought my “end of the month toppings” were clever. Gmpfff. Until my husband pointed out that most of my readers do not know the add, or salticrax, and will thus not understand.      Okay, I get that. But I still love it! (Salticrax and the add) Today I am on my very last salticrax and NO toppings. This week’s Sunday Post-salticrax is thus dry and unimaginative.  Featured Inkspots Top Ten Tuesday Top Ten Tuesday really is my most-fun, favorite link-up! Every week I think:  “Now this was the most fun ever!”  and then the next week comes along and uhmmm, I’m just having more […]

Posted July 31, 2016
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Froelich’s Ladder by Jamie Yourdon

Froelich’s Ladder by Jamie Yourdon

Froelich’s Ladder by Jamie Yourdon on August 2016 Genres: Fiction Pages: 248 Format: ARC Source: Forrest Avenue Press Buy on Amazon Goodreads Uncle Froelich nurses a decades-old family grudge from his perch atop a giant ladder. When he’s discovered missing, his nephew embarks on a rain-soaked trek across a nineteenth century Pacific Northwest landscape to find him, accompanied by an ornery girl with a most unfortunate name. In their encounters with Confederate assassins, European expatriates, and a general store magnate, this fairytale twist on the American dream explores the conflicts between loyalty and ambition and our need for human connection, even at the highest rungs. Froelich’s Ladder is a Tall tale/Folk tale set in the Oregon Territory and features an eccentric cast of rather believable characters and grazing clouds. Note: a “Tall Tale” is an account that is fanciful and difficult to believe. Normally accompanied by the following facial expressions and large amounts of liquor. One of the similarities between fairy tales and folk tales is that living quarters are never questioned. Whether it’s a beanstalk, a tower, a peach or a shoe – we accept it as appropriate living arrangements. In this delightful tale, Froelich finds himself perch atop the fourth […]

Posted July 31, 2016
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Friday Meets – The End of the month Salticrax

It’s the last Friday afternoon of a rather long and tedious month. The toppings on my Salticrax are thinly spread and unimaginative. Mweh – let’s just leave the toppings. Who cares? As long as there’s still some wine and a good book to read.  Meet me on Friday @ Friday 56 for a bit of Book Blogger Hop to kick-start the weekend with Book Beginnings. Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice. For this date, you will need the following:  Grab a book (Yes, any book. But it might get you to your other Friday activities a bit quicker if you just grab the book you are currently reading) Turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader Find a sentence or two (your other Friday activities might determine this) Post it! Remember to post your link on Freda’s Voice and to visit the other guys in the linky. And don’t forget to list the title of the book and the author as well. I’ve highlighted Froelich’s Ladder  last week on New Beginnings and for a change, I actually did start reading it immediately. This is such a fun read! It reads like a folk tale/fairy tale with the most amazing characters and characterization of things you would never think of characterizing – like […]

Posted July 29, 2016
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The Companionship of Harold Fry and Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

The Companionship of Harold Fry and Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry & The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce on December 2nd, 2014 Genres: Fiction Pages: 700 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Goodreads Two beloved novels in one volume! THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY Recently retired, sweet, emotionally numb Harold Fry is jolted out of his passivity by a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, who he hasn’t heard from in twenty years. She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie–who is 600 miles away–because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die. So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories–flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of […]

Posted July 28, 2016
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Cover Characteristics – Schools

For this week’s Cover Characteristics, we are featuring Schools Cover Characteristics is a weekly meme hosted by Sugar and Snark. Every week they give us these gorgeous themes and then you have to pick 5 covers featuring that theme. If you want to participate:  Pick your covers  Post it to your blog Share your post’s URL in the linky provided by Sugar and Snark Go and check out the other guys who also posted! (This might influence your current TBR list a great deal.) I’ve been out of school long enough to be able to say: It was the best days ever! Today I’m going to take a trip down memory lane and feature two schools that inspired me to attend boarding school and one school that I know inspire a large number of boys in South Africa to go to boarding school.  Maasdorp     Maasdorp was a fictional boarding school for girls and was first published in 1932. The series was written between 1930 and 1960 by Stella Blakemore and these are still very popular amongst  young Afrikaans readers. It features Kobie Malan and her friends (nicknamed Kobie and the three musketeers) and once you’ve stepped inside Maasdorp, you will never forget it. The original […]

Posted July 28, 2016
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Top Ten Tuesday – To Do or not to Do?

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday – Ten books that inspired me to do/not do or learn something new Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly link-up/meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish  where they provide a prompt and other lovers of list-making (me! me! me!) join in with their own top ten list. Feel free to have less than 10 or more if you need to at times and put a spin on the topic if you need to. Just please link back to The Broke and the Bookish  if you are participating. Link up with your BLOG POST (not your blog) in the linky provided and remember to pay it forward!To do1. Do learn to use some of the spell words in Harry Potter as very effective swear words. Do also ensure that your facial expression and tone of voice are in correlation.     2. Do clap your hands as often and as quickly as you can.  Of course you are allowed to stamp your feet as well, but maybe rather try the happy dance. Go on, clap your hands. Tinkerbell will stay alive if you do. Oh, and of course you have to say the words: “I do believe in fairies”. And believe it. Just say it! (Should anyone disobey […]

Posted July 26, 2016
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The Sunday Post – 24 July 2016

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. This is a post to recap the past week on your blog, tell everyone about books and things you can showcase and share news for the upcoming week. Remember to link your post and to visit others who have linked up.I’ve just finished The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennesy and I can hardly see where or what I have to type through my red and swollen eyes. Please don’t expect any quirky remarks from me today. But really please do read Miss Queenie. If you can read it alongside her companion The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry so much the better.     As sad songs and sad books always go, they make you lose track of what you were suppose to do. I actually had this really nice Sunday Post planned, but I have no idea where to find the blueprint under the pile of tissues. The one thing I can remember is that I wanted to change My Sunday Post subheadings to match my page-tabs. So let’s try that (I’m just going to blow my nose first). Featured Inkspots In case you have ever wondered what that is, that is the tab under […]

Posted July 24, 2016
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After You – Jojo Moyes

After You – Jojo Moyes

After You by Jojo Moyes Series: Me Before You #2 Published by Pamela Dorman Books on September 29th 2015 Genres: Contemporary, Romance Pages: 353 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living? Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started. Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . . For Lou Clark, life […]

Posted July 23, 2016
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Friday Meets – 22 July 2016

I didn’t attend my scheduled Friday Meets last week Friday as: I wasn’t on page 56 or even close to 56% on any book The only New Beginnings that were discussed, were our new beginning. (More about that at a later stage) The only hopping was done on the lawn  Let me rephrase: I only hopped on the lawn with children NO hopping was done I do apologize profoundly and I come prepared today! Meet me on Friday @ Friday 56 for a bit of Book Blogger Hop to kick-start the weekend with Book Beginnings. Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice. For this date, you will need the following:  Grab a book (Yes, any book. But it might get you to your other Friday activities a bit quicker if you just grab the book you are currently reading) Turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader Find a sentence or two (your other Friday activities might determine this) Post it! Remember to post your link on Freda’s Voice and to visit the other guys in the linky. And don’t forget to list the title of the book and the author as well. Louisa Clark is back!    You’re not sure who that is? The crazy girl with the massive smile and quirky dress sense […]

Posted July 22, 2016
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