Things You Can Read had an interesting post on television and reading—and how it affects children’s development. One of the articles to which the post points is to a paper by Dr. Susan R. Johnson, a pediatrician specializing in children’s behavior and development. I have to say I did find that she made several somewhat terrifying points in “Strangers in Our Homes: TV and Our Children’s Minds” (do keep in mind that I am prejudiced toward reading *grin*). Image Credit: The American Kid Terrifying to a parent in that the paper makes some time-consuming suggestions in as much as we tend to use TV to keep the kids quiet and out of our hair and terrifying in the points Johnson makes. One point that stood out to me in particular was about imagination. That in reading, a child must exercise their mind and create pictures from the words s/he reads while television fills in all the pictures and doesn’t require any real thought. This reminded me of one of my childhood books that I recently mentioned in my post “Back from the Grave”. A story about a little girl who played nurse to wounded animals. It so inspired me that […]

Five amazing, wondrous book blogs which provide a different perspective, pour forth humor, educate me, or simply fill me with spectacular ideas, thoughts, or dreams. #1 – Romance Man The Romance Man is too funny for words. I haven’t been following for long and it seems as though half of his posts are commentary on his life while the other half does refer to books. It doesn’t matter which as I do enjoy his perspective and willingness to share even the most embarrassing moments in his life. He and his wife, Lexie, are lucky in each other. #2 – Books, Movies, Reviews! Oh My! Admittedly, I am prejudiced towards this one as Stormi Johnson asked me to post reviews on her site. It’s a fascinating inside look at how book promotions are accomplished and how Stormi uses her knowledge to help independent and small press authors to market their books online, help them with their social market media, and organize blog tours. It’s certainly been an eye-opener for me as I’m such a homebody tucked into my own reading! #3 – C.S. Lakin’s Live Write Thrive Lakin’s Live Write Thrive is full of useful information for authors on setting scenes, […]

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Blood Bornin Paperback edition on April 27, 2010 and has 466 pages.Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon First in the Vampire paranormal romance series. Warrior Rising, the second in the series, was to be published in the spring of 2011 and the publishers have chosen not to go ahead, so I’m guessing that this first installment didn’t do well. My Take A bit cold, detached…I really can’t put my finger on what is so different about this story. Possibly, the lack of heat between the major protagonists as well as the agonizing process involved in the Warriors contacting their conduits. It seems like one heckuva lotta work for a human to go through and fraught with failure. There’s a foreword that explains the Warriors followed by a prologue which sets the scene about the conduits and introduces Sorin. The rebellion certainly proves that vampires are still human in their emotions. Envy, jealousy, and a desire for power is not constrained to only non-vampires. It certainly does confirm that life is cyclical as Luca […]

Penguin and Random House are in talks regarding a merger. I don’t know if this is good or bad. Probably both for authors. For more information, check out the article put out by the Huffington Post.

Five books that I have owned forever but have never gotten around to reading. Those volumes that lurk upon my shelves, squinting down at me with their beady little words, shaming my guilty conscience with my procrastinating ways. #1 – The complete set of Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire Chronicles I bought this set ages ago because I fell in love with his great-granddaughter’s work, Joanna Trollope. I have absolutely no excuse for not having dived in to read these… #2 – Diet & Self-Help Books Well, I hate to cook or pay attention to food, so all those diet books that blather on and on about weighing this and tracking that just do not appeal. It’s too much work. I don’t want to be bothered…especially when I have all these luscious books to read and kittens to play with. As for the self-help books… Such books are primarily about commonsense or they rattle along about some odd metaphysical, abstracted reasoning. And I’d rather be reading something fun. Self-help is just NOT fun. #3 – The Bible A religious friend thought that I should have my own bible. While I appreciate the thought and I do mean to get round to it […]