Audio Books: For the Multitasking Maniac

Posted by Read Drink and Be Bloggy

     I love reading, I love seeing the words unfold on the page and feeling the paper between my fingers. I love the smells and textures that come with books. I also enjoy being able to read in the dark with my EReader while the baby sleeps beside me. What I've recently fallen in love with, though, is audio books. Though expensive, audio books allow for unlimited possibilities for the multitasking maniac: yours truly.

     When I turn on my audio book I can rock the baby or play with the baby, or if they baby is sleeping I can crochet or knit. When I’m having trouble sleeping I can put on my audio book and close my eyes and just let the voice actor lull me to sleep. Of course there are problems with this: Audio books don’t save your place, they just keep on playing until they reach the end so losing your place is common if you’re listening to fall asleep. Also, you’ll miss things if your attention drifts away, something very common with the ADD mind.

     It’s one of those things you have to weigh the pros against the cons. The only real con I think might hinder my going audio book crazy is the price: 34 dollars for a book that, honestly, I can listen to in just one day if I wanted to, is extremely irresponsible. So I joined Audible’s little club and promised myself I wouldn’t listen to a book in one sitting. My life is crazy right now so it’s pretty easy to keep this promise. With one free book a month and discounts on the other ones I think it’ll be worth it! Of course I can’t stop my Amazon addiction: I saw a book in Costco that I thought looked interesting but it was 12$. I found it on Amazon for .98 cents 4$ for expedited shipping and bam! I got a book for 4.98$. I think I’ve mentioned that I actually have an Amazon allowance: if someone doesn’t monitor my book addiction I’d spend our entire savings on books. There’s just SO many! I’ve given up on going back to my old favorites over and over, but I think with my Charley Davidson audio collection I can easily relisten to all of them while I’m waiting for a month to pass so I can get my free audio book, and I’m sure you know by now about my addiction to Charley… I’m thinking of renaming this blog Addicted to books. But didn’t you know that already? I mean this is Read Drink Be Bloggy!

     I’d like to hear more about YOUR reading addictions and I’m missing having comments from my readers! So go comment crazy!! I’m excited to hear from you all!



     And as always, Keep Reading!
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Voice or Choice?

Posted by Read Drink and Be Bloggy


Voice Or Choice?      
      The topic of transgender teens has, and unfortunately, probably always will be a pretty touchy subject with most people. Tonight's Glee did a fairly tasteful job of doing an episode containing this issue. I can't help but wonder, though, does putting these teens struggle on television give them a voice or does it offer a choice to teens who feel uncomfortable in their own bodies?
     Let’s face it; no one did High School gracefully. I wasn't so much popular as notorious: people still recognize me and I often have no idea who they are. I'm pretty good with faces but I chalk it up to having been in the dramatic spotlight one too many times throughout my youth. Still, having dramatic friends and being look at as somewhat as a freak in high school is nothing compared to these teens who don’t even identify themselves as the sex of their body parts. I can't imagine going through my life with girly bits and always feeling like I was a man.

     I’m not typically the kind of person who wonders these things. I know that when I saw the character Wade stand up for himself and for who he wants to be I swelled with pride for the character, and when he/she started singing I was in awe! I mean I’ve seen drag queen performers who weren’t this convincing. It was obvious to me that Wade really was Unique. To me, I think any opportunity for a show to stand up for those who are different is a great thing. But I do have the voice of some people, who are less open minded, in the back of my head. Almost every show on tv now has a gay or lesbian couple, and while I love my LGBT community I sometimes find myself wondering if this isn’t so much giving a voice to the LGBT community as it is almost glamorizing it. Showing a boy who feels like a girl and that moment when he embraces who he is and puts on that dress and high heel shoes and have a glorious moment fills me with pride for this boy, but to a younger child this image might be confusing. Why is this boy dressing like a woman? He seems so happy, should I be wearing dresses? Might be some questions a very young child might ask themselves. It goes back to the nature vs nurture issue. How much of who we are is programmed in our DNA and how much is the way we are raised? I probably wouldn’t even be thinking these things if I hadn’t worked with children and seen for myself how moldable their little minds can be. There was a student at one of my schools who wasn’t even two years old and wanted to wear high heeled shoes and dresses, even when offered the male alternative. His parents just went with it, his father even said to me “If he ends up being a cross-dresser at least he’ll be the best damned cross-dresser out there.” Gotta say I love his attitude, I just wonder; were they nurturing his nature or were they nurturing one possible outcome for this child’s future? It’s certainly not the easy way things could go for this kid, for any kid, being LGBT is one of the toughest lives out there. 
      So what’s my point? I love the LGBT community, I love every time I hear they have won a case for their fight for human rights, I love seeing LGBT embrace who they are and succeed, I just can’t help but wonder about this very touchy subject. Could they have had it easier? Of course, we could all pull our heads out of our butts and accept them for who they are, give them the rights they shouldn’t even have to ask for, and then there wouldn’t be an issue at all, but until that time… well, what do we do? I guess one way is to be sure that our children are really and truly emotionally ready for the television we allow them to watch. There’s a fat chance that’ll happen, so the real option seems to be to talk to our children, constantly, even if the topics are uncomfortable for us adults, and to pull our heads out of our butts and accept everyone for just being who they are. Because, really, who cares why they are who they are as long as they are happy? And they would be, if humanity weren’t so stubborn about acceptance.

     I have to stop thinking about things and just accept them.
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De-funk My Funk

Posted by Read Drink and Be Bloggy

De-funk My Funk:
Have you ever lost your inspiration? Lost a story? I feel like I missed my chance with my last story idea by waiting too Long to actually put my fingers to the key board. I've lost my excitement and the drive to write. Actually, I've lost a lot of my drive recently. I'm not sure what cause it, possibly lack of sleep, or an increase in stress. I took on a lot of projects and now I feel like I'm drowning in them. The worst part of drowning is that the one thing that I want to do, the thing that would make me the happiest, is what's been lost: my writing. Not just my blogging, which has been at a decrease as well, but my creativity. Is it possible to use up your creativity?
I took on knitting, crochet, I've got my own blog as well as guest posting on three other blogs, and I started my own business! I'm now a consultant with the Pampered Chef, not to mention being a full time mom. I love ALL of these ventures, but I miss my writing. I'm exhausted. My weight loss is totally of track.
My Pampered Chef is taking a lot more work than I anticipated and is making me feel as though I'm hounding my friends and my family for purchases ALL THE TIME and getting little to no interest, but they are great products and I believe in them and I know I could do some good with the money as well as possibly using the business I do some good in the world by donating some of my benefits to charities and organizations that are near and dear to my heart. I can't do any of these things with our buyers, though, so I'm left with calling everyone I know or Facebook stalking them and constantly asking them to buy products. No one wants to host parties.

 On another note, my knitting has been replaced by crochet. I really enjoy all of the fun things that can be done with crochet that's pretty impossible with knitting unless you're far better at it than I am. Still most of my projects have flopped and I'm not trying as hard to get the done and sell them as I was. A lot of this started when Jesse lost his job. Having him around all the time is nice but it's also one more huge distraction. This is mostly my fault because since he's home I feel like we should be doing things. But neither he nor I have been doing what we REALLY should. Also, baby is now mobile. My leisurely days are over. To top it all off my little Angel has been a bit of a hellion lately. I don't know if it's teething or a super early onset of rebellion and independence. Whatever it is it's keeping my up at night because I'm not able to do what I need to during the day. I wish I was
sleeping better! I wish he would sleep better! You know how when you don't sleep your brain malfunctions? Your memory is shot, linguistics is suddenly a skill you wonder if you ever had, and thoughts escape nearly quicker than they came, and let's not forget emotional overdrive, and a big ol' bite from the cranky bug right on the tooshie. I hate being sleep deprived.
What I really hate, though, is feeling like I'm losing the most interesting part about myself: my creative writing. So any of you writers, how do you begin to get your interest back in a story? HAVE you ever lost interest in a story? Do you have any exercises that help get your creative juices flowing? How about
ways to balance a heavy work load?


Category: 3 comments

Bookshelf of Holding :: Lover Reborn Review

Posted by Anonymous
As I said in my preview, I was not looking forward to this book and, to be completely honest, I was prepared to hate it.  But, I am happy to say, I ended up really loving it.  I think what I enjoyed best was seeing that the other previously paired couples were having issues in their relationship.  JR Ward seems to make it a point to show that although these mated couples are in love, they still have relationship issues they need to work through.  This isn't the first book she has shown this concept in, either.  I like that "happily ever after" doesn't mean "ridiculously and unrealistically 100% perfect bliss" it means that love is there, but so is life and life brings issues, problems, and growth within a relationship.

** SPOILERS **

This book seemed really long - but in a good way.  It really focused on Thorment getting passed the loss of his mate (and unborn son). It was torturous to read his journey in dealing with such a huge loss. Having such a monumental issue to deal with would have been ridiculous in a shorter book, so the length was a huge plus. I wish that No'One had more of a backbone earlier on in the book, but you could see her growth as well (just not on as large of a scale as Thorment's).

** END **

Overall, I think this book pulled me, successfully, back on the Black Dagger Brotherhood train. I was starting to waiver with the last few books, but I enjoyed this one so much that I am looking forward to the next one!

Rating: 4 stars (should read)

Keep Reading!
Rhianna (Check me out at Good Reads to see what is on my bookshelf!)


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E-Reader E-Smeader

Posted by Angie
Hi again friends!

I've been working on a post about Alice In Wonderland (my favorite story of all time) for a bit to post for you. Since it's unfinished I thought I would post an honest bookworm's thoughts of the e-reader vs book debate.
    I've had a lifelong love of books, I blame my parents for that. When I was a little kid growing up in Brooklyn we had almost weekly trips to our local library. To this day I can remember it! The gleam of the tile floors as you enter the building, the way your shoes clicked and squeeked as you walked over them to the stairs. The sound of us pounding the steel steps on the way up to the children's floor because, well why on Earth would we walk NORMALLY over such fabulous noise makers? Most of all I remember the smell, you know what I mean, the rich Earthy smell of hundreds of books of various ages, lined up on wooden shelves. It is such a wonderful smell. Then there was the feel of the books. The texture of the old pages, the slickness of the new ones. There is nothing like having a book in your hands. 

  
Me & my Baby w a new book!

   This mad love of that place, that smell, those textures followed me into adulthood. Naturally I've been passing that on to my children. My son, who is 8, used to LOVE to sit and read with me. Since he now is required to do it for school, his love of books is somewhat diminished. I remember that phase, it will pass. Right? Right?! My two little girls also really love books, even if we aren't the ones reading to them. So now that books are so rampantly available on electronic readers, what's a book worm to do? How do we make the next generation understand the excitement that comes with getting a new book in our hands? Where does the love of the actual written page go?


   The new era of electronic reader has pushed many, if not almost all, brick-and-mortar book stores out into the void of space and bankrupcy court. The closing of the local Borders store brought an actual tear to my eyes. My son even commented how he will miss going there with me. My kids and I loved to go to book stores to get a new book, just as much as they love the library visits they take with their Grandma. We didn't get to go there often but we did get to go, it was a special treat for us all. Are libraries next up on the list of businesses to be destroyed by all things e-? I hope not.
   But I digress. Here is a link to a good review site of the many different kinds of e-readers (here). I myself was hesitant to get an e-reader, I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon of just anything, especially electronics when they get "updated" so often. However last year I got my darlin Hubby a Kindle for Christmas. I wasn't sure on this since he, like me, is a big book person. He loves it though! Granted we didn't run out and toss all the books in our house but we did go through and make a few piles of books where the actual book itself is sentimentally preferred over an electronic version of it. The rest got donated to our local library.
   Each of our kids has a three-shelf book shelf in their room, all overflowing with books. We plan on keeping it that way. Children need the joy of reading a book, with pages to turn & the whole bit. That's is our stance on it and you can't convince either of us to change it. Go ahead and try... Eventually we will get an e-reader device of some kind of course for the kids, as they age and get into the real good stuff. For now they can have books, and the messes that accompany them.
  I myself have an e-reader on my cell phone. I just finished my first book on it too. I just read "First Grave on the Right", as suggested by the Fabulous Cait. (Link to Author Here) I loved it, the book & the reader on my phone! I don't get long breaks at work so it was convient to have the reader on there. I loved how easy it was to just grab and go, the reader keeps my place. Which I LOVE. I'm notorious for losing bookmarks & so I would then bend the page of the book...gasp!
  

   So now that I've experienced the joy & convienience of the e-reader, I'm hooked. They are so handy to have, and there is no heavy pile of books to take on vacation or clean up. Don't get me wrong, I will still own books, actual paper containing books but....I love my e-reader...shhhh don't tell my books.

So do you have a reader? What kind? Which do you prefer, the book or the reader? Sound off in the comments & I'll see ya on the next pixellated page!!

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Hunger Games

Posted by Read Drink and Be Bloggy

Hunger Games:

     Last night I finished The Hunger Games, the book. I was blown away by the ending. *SPOILER* The Muttation dogs attacking Katniss, Peeta, and Cato, the revocation of the two can win rule, and then Katniss literally clawing at the glass calling out Peeta’s name while the doctors work to save his life… Did any of you feel like these things were missing from the movie? That’s because they were. The suspense of them anyway.

     Other than those few things I really felt like the movie captures the books very well as far as the story goes, but some of the emotion I found a bit lackluster, a few more differences that left me a little… shall we say… Hungry? The costumes were breath taking, the attention to character detail was fantastic, and the casting was OUTSTANDING. I’ve heard there were some people who were upset that Rue and Thresh were black, I have to say… were we reading the same book?


The author’s colloquialisms made both Thresh and Rue’s ethnic background very apparent to me. The author seems to make that point by describing Thresh’s strength and speed and even the location Thresh decides to live in reminds me very much of the tall African savannahs. Also, the speed, dexterity, and athleticism that Rue exhibits at such a young age are common with African American athletes.

     I love that Foxface’s hair was the exact color I pictured it, and that even Ceaser’s eyebrows were blue. At first I wasn’t sure about Josh Hutcherson being cast as Peeta, but as the movie went on I thought he did a great job. I also adored Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. I honestly hadn’t put too much thought into the other characters, not even Cato, although I did think they all did a very good job.  When I heard Lenny Kravits was going to be Cinna I was very shocked but he pulled it off beautifully. I had always pictured Haymitch as a drunken version of Mad Eye Moody, but I really liked Woody Harrelson. He made me really feel for Haymitch and it was much more obvious the change between drunkard who doesn’t care about his protégé’s to someone who would do anything to help them get sponsors.

     So here’s what I missed: I missed feeling the connection from Peeta towards Katniss, I missed the tug of war of Katniss’s emotions about returning his affections. I felt like the movie way underplayed the love story! From the moment she pulled her hand away on the carriage I knew this was going to be the case. I kept hoping they would recover it but they never quite managed it. In the book Katniss and Peeta are holding hands so tightly that they are literally hurting each other, but neither one wants to let go. Through the whole book I could feel how much Peeta adored Katniss and her blindness to it actually irritated the hell out of me (I’ve mentioned before how annoyed I get when the character is missing something super obvious, it’s a flaw… I’m working on it).  I knew in the back of my head that Gale would be an issue when they got home if they both survived, but until I reached the end I had no hope they would. I felt as though the movie missed the connection Katniss had with Haymitch, not only that she hated his guts most of
the time, but also how well she understood his meaning behind giving and with holding gifts. For the most part I felt like Katniss was sort of indifferent to Peeta, they didn’t ever make it very clear that they were supposed to be playing the “friends or lovers” angle from the moment they got off that chariot. It just seemed like it happened more naturally. I really missed that Katniss didn’t scream Peeta’s name when they announced there could be two victors, but I suppose a whisper can be equally effective when you’re on film, and it is such a small thing, but it’s also one thing that helps get Katniss out of the dog house during their closing interview.

     Speaking of dogs… in the books my heart actually froze up when I realized what Katniss did, that the dogs actually were parts of their former competitors, it was never clean just how much they were though. In the movie they were big and scary, but it wasn’t a sick and twisted thing that the Capitol did like it was in the book. Also, Peeta was not fatally wounded by the dogs and so their desperation to commit suicide felt a little hasty. I truly believe had Peeta not been on death’s door already Katniss would never have thought about taking her own life instead. I also didn’t feel like Katniss needed

Peeta, it very much felt like a slap in the face to the Capitol. There also was not that horrible moment on the train home when Peeta believes she made it all up. True, Katniss is torn, on the one hand she doesn’t ever want to be married or have kids, but I truly believe that she deeply feels for Peeta. I also believe, though, that if Katniss allows those doors to be opened towards love she may be flooded by them. I know somewhere she loves Gale, she just hasn’t allowed herself to ever feel romantic love before. I start book two tonight and I believe a lot of my questions may be answered, and I’m sure a lot more will be asked as we head into book three.

     I have a lot of questions regarding the cut backs to the Capitol and whether or not they took snipits from book two and stuck them in the first movie. I guess only my reading further will tell! In any case this was definitely the best book to film adaptation I have ever seen,  and I’m excited to see the future of this series.


Keep reading and watching my friends!
Category: 2 comments