It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - July 12

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday.

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Welcome back to Monday. For our family, it is also welcome home! After driving straight through, we are home from the Outer Banks. What a great time we had. Tropical Storm Elsa brought us a bit of wind and rain, but it didn't interfere with our plans too much. 

View from our street

Enjoying frozen yogurt at The Surfin' Spoon

They actually have three books out now

The Elizabethan Gardens

The Elizabethan Gardens

Elizabeth II replica

Beach time

Beautiful sky on the way back from Raleigh

Rainbow after a shower on Wednesday.

Theo isn't much of a car fan

Brought these home for me from The French Door in Nags Head and Mermaid's Purse in Manteo.

While we were away, the 14th anniversary of The Book Connection happened. I really should keep track of these things. 

Thankfully, vacation means time to read. I caught up on the Rocky Bluff P.D. series and a young adult fantasy novel that was overdue for me to review. 

Read my review here

Read my review here

Read my review here

Read my review at The Children's and Teens' Book Connection 

I want to finish this one up, because it has been on my Kindle for a while. 

I am also reading this one, though I might have to break off since I have new books to review for book tours.

These are virtual book tour ones--you know, the virtual book tours I said in January I was cutting back on--coming up in August and September. 

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

We stopped back in at Book Warehouse in Nags Head. Books at a bargain make me happy. 

I picked up these four historical mysteries by Kerry Greenwood for my mother-in-law. 

Then I grabbed this one for me.

I snagged this Kindle freebie yesterday.

That's it for me this week. Not sure how much reading I will get done since I start back to work early tomorrow. Hopefully, I can keep up a decent pace. 

What are you reading this week? Hope you'll share in the comments below.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - Aug 12

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Hello from the Outer Banks. This is a picture I took from the beach this morning before 9 AM. This is the time to come--temperatures are more comfortable and no one is here. I really enjoyed the walk.

I finished this book yesterday. What a riot. My review will appear on August 19.

I'm starting this one today.

Next up are these ones.

That's it for me. What have you been reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - July 8

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Hello from the Outer Banks. The weather has been a bit wet the past two days, but my philosophy is always that a rainy day at the beach is still better than a sunny day at home. Theo thinks so too. He loves the beach. Not a huge fan of the water, though.

I haven't read as much as expected. I'm still working, which is part of it, but just haven't found a book I must read cover to cover yet. 

Finished this one and need to post a review at TC&TBC. 

I am reading these two right now:

This first one is slow going. Right before I started it, I discovered it is part of a trilogy. That might have a bit to do with why I'm not thrilled. 

This was supposed to be my first read of the year, but I had to put it aside to stay up on reviews. I'm about 30 pages in. It's hard to imagine Marilla as a young woman, but I bet I'll enjoy this one.

I read the preface, but haven't gone further with this one. I also read some of the workbook I bought to go with it.

I'll probably read these two next.

What are you reading right now?

My Favorite..Dream

My Favorite.. is a weekly meme hosted by Maureen’s Books. In this meme we share every week something we love with each other. Because let’s face it.. The world can be a dark place and it’s time to share something positive. For more info and the upcoming subjects visit the My Favorite Meme.. page.

Dreams are so much fun. We are encouraged as children to dream big, but then we become adults and we tend to satisfy ourselves with smaller dreams. I have two favorite dreams and they are tied to each other.

My first favorite is to retire to Manteo, North Carolina. It's my favorite spot on earth. I can't wait to see it again in a couple of weeks. We've begun looking at property on the Outer Banks, but probably won't be able to buy in Manteo since rental income would help finance having the second house. Manteo isn't exactly the hot spot for OBX rentals. It is, however, a nice place to spend some time walking the boardwalk in downtown, grabbing an ice cream at Big Buck's, popping in at Downtown Books or any of the other shops, or hanging out on the waterfront. It's where we go to relax, which is why I would love to own property there, but anywhere on the Outer Banks would make me happy.

When I retire to the Outer Banks (hopefully Manteo), I would like to write full time again. I love selling real estate, but my true joy is writing. That's why I continue to blog despite my crazy work and personal schedules.

What are some of your favorite dreams?

Musing Monday - June 26

Musing Monday is hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker.  It is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ___, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK'S RANDOM QUESTION:   What is your favorite spot to read during the summer?

Happy Monday! I am feeling good because I made some decisions last week and made progress on real estate, writing, and blogging goals.

As far as real estate goes, I'm actually taking a vacation. I plan to be almost totally unplugged from work once we leave. I still have to check on a couple of things if there is an emergency, but no two weeks of working from the beach this year. Also, I've begun reaching out to the communities I am really interested in working, so hopefully once I return I'll have some new business to look forward to.

Last Monday, I reviewed my writing goals at TC&TBC--my kid's book blog. Happy at the progress this year and hope to do some writing from the beach.

As far as blogging goes, this is where it gets really exciting. I merged The Busy Mom's Daily and Cheryl's Christian Book Connection into An Imperfect Christian Mom. I'll give up the domain on BMD to save money and the new blog will give me a good spot to talk about Christian fiction and non-fiction in addition to family friendly products and movies and my motherly rambles. Here is my list of active blogs:

The Book Connection - you are here. :)
The Children's and Teens' Book Connection (picture book through YA)
Books Can Be Deadly (mystery, thriller, suspense, crime novels, and true crime)
An Imperfect Christian Mom
Busy REALTOR® Mom (going to change the name on this one and keep it just real estate)
Laura's Little Houses (Little House and Laura Ingalls Wilder blog--not as active as I would like but some neat stuff there)

I also blog the first and third Fridays at Christian Children's Authors.

In other news, I'm currently reading....

Finally, the answer to this week's question is easy: my favorite summer reading spot is on the porch of the beach house--which I'll be seeing soon. 

That's it for now. Hope you'll share your musings.

Musing Mondays - July 25

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme now hosted at Jenn's blog Books And A Beat that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What’s your most favorite “chunky” book? (over 500 pages)

We had another wonderful vacation on the Outer Banks. As I mentioned before we left, I had plans to read... a lot. Well, that was prior to real estate. I worked a fair amount from the beach, so I read less than half what I usually do. That said, working from the beach is heck of a lot better than working from home.

Here is what I got a chance to cross off my TBR List:

Treasure Your Marriage by Cherishing Your Spouse by Suzzanne Uzzell
A Loaded Gun by Jerome Charyn
I Have Faith by Davin Whitehurst
Anna's Healing by Vannetta Chapman

What I am still reading is Portrait of a Conspiracy by Donna Russo Morin. I like it. The story is engaging and the characters interesting. I'm just a bit confused by the whole thing. I feel like I don't know what is going on and I'm twenty chapters in.

I'm also reading A Simple Vow by Charlotte Hubbard. I'll be reviewing this one on July 29th, so be on the lookout for that.

As for my favorite "chunky" book, I would have to go with The Stand by Stephen King. It took me a while to get into, but once I did I was hooked.

What has your reading week been like?