So, I was just wondering…

I love books, I really do. I have them all over my house. Before I started blogging I was always picking up a book here and there from used book sales. My public library has a small bookcase that is stocked with used books that they sell. Although they have a huge sale every summer I know I can go to those shelves any time throughout the year and possibly find some goodies.

I keep my own books all neat and tidy in my bedroom on a wooden bookcase that had previously belonged to my children. When they outgrew it I packed up their books and filled it with mine. (Note to shelf – remove those old Pokemon stickers) When that was full I put some on the shelf in my nightstand next to my library books, and then piled more next to the nightstand and then piled more next to that pile.

Now that I get books to review my own books seem to get neglected. I don’t get to those or my library books as often as I would like. With more books I’ve needed more space. We have floor to ceiling shelves in our family room that contain special books – reference books, sets of books we bought the kids (Time Life, etc.), cookbooks, the family bible. When a friend was moving he gave my mom a set of wooden shelves and she gave one of them to me. I put them next to our fireplace and that was a lifesaver! Of course I filled that baby right up. There is a method to my madness.  I keep the books to be reviewed on the closest shelf and they are in order of how they arrived. Books that are autographed are on the top shelf and books that I plan to review but aren’t committed to are two rows deep on the other shelves. I also have a row of books that I’m reading (kind of) on our big, square coffee table. And sometimes there’s a few under it too… To everyone else it just looks like I have books piled everywhere but I really do have a system. Really.

So I was just wondering, where do you keep your books and how do you organize them?  Do you have shelves, boxes, bins, baskets or something else to contain them in? Please tell me you have books piled up somewhere too! I can’t be the only one who has them in every room of the house…

Giveaway: Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein

On impulse, Jenna Rosen leaves the party she and her real estate developer husband, Robert, are attending in Seattle, takes his BMW and drives north to Bellingham. Again on impulse, she hops on the ferry to the Alaskan town where her Tlingit Indian grandmother lived and died. But there's more than impulse at work here: Jenna and Robert's 5-year-old son, Bobby, drowned in Alaska just two years ago, and something is drawing Jenna back to the scene. On the ferry, she's given a carved silver charm of a Tlingit spirit called a kushtaka, a stealer of souls. "Tlingits don't have good and evil," a local shaman explains, telling the story of how the spirit known as Raven gave the world the sun, moon, and stars by stealing them from someone else. As Jenna learns more about the kushtakas, helped by this very sophisticated shaman and an understanding fisherman, she begins to believe that her son's soul is being held captive by these spirits, as revenge for her husband's greed. Garth Stein's persuasive prose draws us into a book that mixes fantasy with tragedy and the natural human desire for closure.

My recent review

Thanks to Terra Communications I have one copy of this book to give away.

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Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to :

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page
3 . Share 2 "teaser" sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser".
4. Please avoid spoilers!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The trouble with a close family is that it suffers closely, too. I stood with my two sons in the cold and put my arms around them, feeling the shoulders of men.

~page 33
Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday at The Printed Page is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

I haven't done this in a few weeks so I have some catching up to do. I hope you've had lots of goodies delivered to your mailboxes too!

I Am Ozzy
by Ozzy Osbourne

Won from Bookin' With Bingo


Once Dead, Twice Shy
by Kim Harrison

Traded with Holly from Writer's Block Reviews


Jumping Off Swings
by Jo Knowles

Traded with Holly


Meredian
by Amber Kizer

Traded with Holly


City of Glass
by Cassandra Clare

Traded with Holly


The Bride Collector
by Ted Dekker

For tour and review from Hatchette Books


Milk Glass Moon
by Adriana Trigiani

Used Book Sale at my library


Dead Witch Walking
by Kim Harrison

From Paperback Swap


The Crazy School
by Corneila Read

Won from Bookin' With Bingo

Stephanie Plum movie

I'm a little behind with the news since this was announced in February but I still had to post it here. Janet Evanovich's first book in the Stephanie Plum series One For The Money, is finally going to be a movie! According to this article from NYDailyNews.com it's been in the works since 1994 but didn't come about sooner because of casting issues. Supposedly Reese Witherspoon was to be the original Stephanie Plum character but Katherine Heigl (from Grey's Anatomy) has been signed for the part. That's not who I had pictured (Sandra Bullock maybe?) but according to the blurb in my local paper the author was happy with the choice. The books make me laugh and I hope the movie does too. Who would you choose for the lead role?

Changes

I'm back!!!! Kind of anyway. Thanks you for your kind words about my health issues. I've had problems with chronic back and pelvic pain for several years and I have good days and bad. Winters are especially hard and this one was no exception. I had some procedures done in the last few months with needles and stuff and it often makes things worse before it gets better. It's been hard to sit at the computer, or anywhere else for that matter, and I wasn't really feeling up to it anyway. I've missed you all so very much but it was also a nice break for me too. The pressure was off for a while and my blog most likely suffered for it but I needed the time away.

Now I'm doing my spring cleaning, in my home (kind of) and on my blog. It was time for some changes and I was looking for ways to try something different and crafty. When I read a post about creating headers from photos I started my new project. It's been so frustrating but lots of fun too and I've learned so much!

It started with some photos that I had taken around the house during all four seasons last year. I took them from the same locations so I could compare them eventually. My favorites were from our front porch with a view of the flag and yard. I decided to try to put them side by side in a new header and the post I found showed me how. I started with the idea from Sneaky Momma Blog Designs (she has the best tips and explains them so well!) which led to an easy tutorial from Clover Lane. They introduced me to Picasa for my photos. It's free and I love it! I found my background at Hot Bliggity Blog and used some digital scrapbook pages from Shabby Princess. It took a lot of struggle but hopefully it will be easier next time and I learned so much. There's still some tweaking to do but this is it. So, what do you think? Is it "springy" enough?
Thanks for hanging in there with me and I look forward to hearing from you and visiting your blogs. I hope your Spring is off to a wonderful start. Stay tuned for reviews, contests and more. I'm still a bit slow but I'm getting there. Tomorrow I am fortunate enough to be able to park my butt on the bleachers for my son's first high school baseball game of the season. I'm hoping for sunshine!

*(Happy 17th birthday to my baby boy! You finally have that night license. I love you!!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!