O.W.L.S. Magical Readathon TBR

It is that time of year again where it Harry Potter time and the OWLS. It runs for the whole month of April. I enjoy doing this readathon just because it is fun and it gives me a variety of books to read. I will put the YouTube announcement below along with my career and the books I will be reading.

She does a great job with this readathon. I hope you decide to join in on the fun. For my career I chose to do Culinary Sorcerer and to do the extra class of Merpeople linguistics. The first four books are the books I must read for my career and extra class. The other eight will be extras but I want to see if I can read all twelve prompts.

 This book will be for Arithmancy and the prompt is magical qualities of number 2: balance/opposites-read something outside your favorite genre. This is a book of poetry and that is way outside my favorite genre.

 Charms is the next prompt I need to read. Charms prompt is to read a white cover. I have decided to read the second book in the Magic Misfits series. This book was also mentioned in my 20 books I want to read in 2020.

 This is my herbology book which is to read a book that starts with the letter M. I also mentioned this book in a previous post about the books I still need to read by my favorite author. I need to read this book also for the Merpeople linguistics class.

 The last book I need to read for my career is potions which is to read a book under 150 pages. This was hard to find because most of my books are over 200 pages. This book is about a song in my churches hymnal.

 This book is for the Defence Against the Dark Arts. Read a book set at the sea/coast

 Transfiguration: book/series that includes shapeshifting. This is book 12 of a long series in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series. Lots of shape shifting and vampires.

 Astronomy: night classes: read majority of this book when it's dark outside. This is the second book in a series I need to finish.

 Care of Magical Creatures: Creature with a beak on the cover. This is the third and final book of the above series. This will finish a series.

 Divination: Third eye: assign numbers to your TBR and use a random number generator to pick your read.

 History of Magic: Witch hunts: book featuring witches/wizards. I was suppose to read this book in January.

 Muggle Studies: Book from a perspective of a muggle (contemporary)

Ancient Runes: heart on the cover or in the title.

I hope you decide to join in on the fun. It is a perfect readathon to help you through these times right now. If you decide to join what career are you going for?
Until next time keep safe and keep reading.

Books Beside My Chairs #13

This is what I read for the week of March 23rd-29th. I read 8 books. One was a reread and I didn't include that book in my yearly count or page total. My yearly total is now at 59 books. Total pages read 2,132. The reread book was On The Banks of Plum Creek By: Laura Ingalls Wilder. I will give you the star rating and the synopsis from Good Reads.

 This is a thriller and I gave it 3 stars. It is the third book I have read by this author. I still like the Death of Mrs. Westaway the best. On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...

The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father).

Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill that will keep you wrong-footed—which has now become Ruth Ware’s signature style—The Lying Game is sure to be her next big bestseller. Another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

 This is a YA fantasy book that I gave 4 stars to. I can't wait for the sequel to come out which should be coming out later this year. On the edge of town a beast haunts the woods, trapped in the Gray, its bonds loosening…

Uprooted from the city, Violet Saunders doesn’t have much hope of fitting in at her new school in Four Paths, a town almost buried in the woodlands of rural New York. The fact that she’s descended from one of the town’s founders doesn’t help much, either—her new neighbours treat her with distant respect, and something very like fear. When she meets Justin, May, Isaac, and Harper, all children of founder families, and sees the otherworldly destruction they can wreak, she starts to wonder if the townsfolk are right to be afraid.

When bodies start to appear in the woods, the locals become downright hostile. Can the teenagers solve the mystery of Four Paths, and their own part in it, before another calamity strikes?

 This is a middle-grade book. I gave it 4 stars. When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl.

George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy.

With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all

 I am not sure where to put this book. It is sci-fi with thriller tunes. I gave 3.5 stars. I didn't like the beginning of the book but as the book went on I started to enjoy it more. Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

It starts with a man in a mask kidnapping him at gunpoint, for reasons Jason can’t begin to fathom—what would anyone want with an ordinary physics professor?—and grows even more terrifying from there, as Jason’s abductor injects him with some unknown drug and watches while he loses consciousness.

When Jason awakes, he’s in a lab, strapped to a gurney—and a man he’s never seen before is cheerily telling him “welcome back!”

Jason soon learns that in this world he’s woken up to, his house is not his house. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born.

And someone is hunting him

 I got this book from the Book of the Month. It was my February choose. I haven't read any of their books before even though I own them all. I really enjoyed this book and gave it 4 stars. You probably know someone like Shay Miller.
She wants to find love, but it eludes her.
She wants to be fulfilled, but her job is a dead end.
She wants to belong, but her life is so isolated.

You probably don’t know anyone like the Moore sisters.
They have an unbreakable circle of friends.
They live the most glamorous life.
They always get what they desire.

Shay thinks she wants their life.
But what they really want is hers.

 This is a middle-grade book and gave it 4 stars. I actually enjoyed this book better than her adult book on the same subject. I wonder what it would be like to be free? Not to need wings because you don’t have to fly away from your country?

Anita de la Torre is a twelve-year-old girl living in the Dominican Republic in 1960. Most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared, Papi has been getting mysterious phone calls about butterflies and someone named Mr. Smith, and the secret police have started terrorizing her family for their suspected opposition to the country’s dictator. While Anita deals with a frightening series of events, she also struggles with her adolescence and her own personal fight to be free.

This is the last book that I read for the week. It is a graphic novel and I gave it 5 stars. Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band—if he can just persuade his dad to let him quit his job at their struggling family bakery. Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easygoing guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.

Writer Kevin Panetta and artist Savanna Ganucheau concoct a delicious recipe of intricately illustrated baking scenes and blushing young love, in which the choices we make can have terrible consequences, but the people who love us can help us grow.

I have two more books that I have started but haven't finished. I am hoping to have them done this week. I have been getting a lot of reading done since there isn't much else to do.
I hope you are all safe and until next time kep reading.

Royal Weekender TBR

I have decided to participate in the Royal Weekender hosted by The Bookie Trials. I will put the announcement video down below along with my TBR. I am a #scribe so my TBR is based on this.
There are a total of 8 challenges. 4 of them for my team and 4 for everyone. I will tell you about those after my #scribe challenges. The readathon is for March 28th -29th

Here is the announcement video. She explains it better than I can.

 This is the one I will like the most. I need to bake something and I have this recipe from a book that I read to David a while ago. I will try to remember to take pictures and then make a post about it.

 This is to fulfill the challenge to read an underrated book. This book has only 1,227 ratings on Goodreads. My challenge was finding a book that I owned that had less then 1,500 ratings on my shelves. I couldn't go to the library since they are closed for lnow.

 This is to fulfill the challenge of a book within a book. It is already on my TBR for March so it was perfect.

This is to fulfill the challenge of calligraphy found on the cover. This is the closest I could find so it will have to do.
As you can see I picked easy and small books. This readathon is only for the weekend and I want to succeed so I chose wisely.
Now for the challenges that everyone will do.
Oath Maker is to share your TBR which I am doing right now. I will post this on several social media platforms.
Tournament Ready which is to join a competition. I don't know if I will get this done but will try.
Power Surge which is to complete a 2 hour sprint. Again I will try but don't know if I will get this done.
Tome Champion which is to complete a book. This one will be done.
These challenges have badges that go along with them and I would love to get them all but I will be happy with 6 of them.
Are you joining this readathon? If you are what team are you on? What are your reading plans? I hope you join along for the fun.
Until time keep safe and keep reading.

The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr Review

As promised here is my review of the Secret Wife of Aaron Burr.

The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr

By: Susan Holloway Scott

Kensington books

Kensington

Historical Fiction

Publish Date 24 September 2019

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I really enjoyed this book except maybe the last 75 pages where it got a little to political for my taste.

The author did a great job with her research even though finding information on Mary was hard. 

I liked how she went into detail on how Mary learned quickly and made herself useful and knowledgeable on everything. I was able to relate to Mary and how she felt. I felt sorry for her when she never felt love and used. I felt for her when she was punished for something that wasn't her fault.

She wasn't African American but was still a slave because of her skin color.

Her life was tough but she made the best of it. At the end I was upset because what she chose but she eventually did the right thing.

I would highly recommend that you read this book.

Top Ten Tuesday #7

Here is part two of my 20 books to read in 2020. They are not in any particular order. The synopsis will be coming from Good Reads as usual.

 I chose this book because I just received an e-arc from NetGalley so I need to read this one first before the sequel. A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.

 This has been on shelves for a long time. I bought this book in Texas when we took my soon to be daughter-in-law to visit the Old Town Springs. My son and daughter-in-law have been married almost 11 years now. It is time to read this book. I couldn't find the synopsis on good reads so this is what the back of the book says. The Amish, one of America's most intriguing people, have survived for 300 years! While much has been written on the Amish, little has appeared about their history.
This newly revised and updated book brings together in one volume a thorough history of the Amish people. From their beginnings in Europe through their settlement in North America, the Amish have struggled to maintain their beliefs and traditions in often hostile settings.
Atlantic crossings, westward migration, military conscription, and compulsory school laws were just a few of the many challenges to the Amish church through the years. Caught in the currents and conflicts of national life, the Amish have remained a distinct people in America's melting pot.

 This book was recommended to me for me to understand David's learning disability. He has a form of dyslexia but it is actually more of a form of dysgraphia. Two neurolearning experts reveal the hidden benefits of having a dyslexic brain.

In this paradigm-shifting book, neurolearning experts Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide describe an exciting new brain science that reveals that dyslexic people have unique brain structure and organization. While the differences are responsible for certain challenges with literacy and reading, the dyslexic brain also gives a predisposition to important skills, and special talents.

While dyslexics typically struggle to decode the written word, they often also excel in such areas of reasoning as mechanical (required for architects and surgeons), interconnected (artists and inventors); narrative (novelists and lawyers), and dynamic (scientists and business pioneers). The Dyslexic Advantage provides the first complete portrait of dyslexia

 This book I have borrowed from Bekah. I really need to finish this last book and get it back to her.
World of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes --
General introduction / by Kyle Freeman --
Introduction to Volume II / by Kyle Freeman --
Note on conveyances --
Return of Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the empty house ; Adventure of the Norwood builder ; Adventure of the dancing men ; Adventure of the solitary cyclist ; Adventure of the priory school ; Adventure of Black Peter ; Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton ; Adventure of the six Napoleons ; Adventure of the three students ; Adventure of the golden ponce-nez ; Adventure of the missing three-quarter ; Adventure of the Abbey Grange ; Adventure of the second stain --
Valley of fear --
His last bow: Adventure of Wisteria Lodge: Singular experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles ; Tiger of San Pedro ; Adventure of the cardboard box ; Adventure of the red circle ; Adventure of Bruce-Partington plans ; Adventure of the dying detective ; Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax ; Adventure of the devil's foot ; His last bow --
Case book of Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the illustrious client ; Adventure of the blanched soldier ; Adventure of the Mazarin stone ; Adventure of the three gables ; Adventure of the Sussex vampire ; Adventure of the three garridebs ; Problem of Thor Bridge ; Adventure of the creeping man ; Adventure of the lion's mane ; Adventure of the veiled lodger ; Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place ; Adventure of the retired colourman --
Introduction to Doyle's parodies --
Two parodies by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Field bazaar ; How Watson learned the trick --
Two essays by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Truth about Sherlock Holmes ; Some personalia about Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

 This book is based off a movie. I have watched the movie a couple of times and now really need to read the book. When we first meet Michael Oher, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write. He takes up football and school after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game in which the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.

 I bought this book shortly after we moved to Colorado. It has been almost 10 years and it is time to get this read.

The year is 1777. America is in turmoil. And Amish life is far different than today.

Pennsylvania in the late 18th century, once called William Penn's Woods, was an assortment of different faiths living together for the first time in American history. Included in this tapestry was a small and struggling population called Amish.

Surrounding this peaceful people were unavoidable threats: both Patriots and the British were pillaging land and goods for the sake of the war, young Amishmen were leaving the faith to take up arms and defend freedom. A simple walk in the untamed forests could result in death, if not from bullet or arrow, then from an encounter with a wild animal.

Amid this time of tumult, Adam Wyse is fighting a personal battle. To possibly join the war efforts and leave his faith, which would mean walking away from the only woman he's ever loved: Lena Yoder. But for that love he's made a promise that may keep them apart permanently.

When Adam withdraws from Lena, she's forced to turn to his brother, Isaac, for support. Must Lena deny her heart's desire to save Adam's soul? And will life in this feral and primitive New World be more than this peace-keeping people can withstand?

 This book hasn't been out to long. I just want to read it and its sequel because I have heard a lot about them. I have enjoyed reading her other books. Cassidy Blake's parents are The Inspecters, a (somewhat inept) ghost-hunting team. But Cass herself can REALLY see ghosts. In fact, her best friend, Jacob, just happens to be one.

When The Inspecters head to ultra-haunted Edinburgh, Scotland, for their new TV show, Cass—and Jacob—come along. In Scotland, Cass is surrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly. Then she meets Lara, a girl who can also see the dead. But Lara tells Cassidy that as an In-betweener, their job is to send ghosts permanently beyond the Veil. Cass isn't sure about her new mission, but she does know the sinister Red Raven haunting the city doesn't belong in her world. Cassidy's powers will draw her into an epic fight that stretches through the worlds of the living and the dead, in order to save herself.

 This is one of his books that I haven't read yet. I am trying to read all of his books. In Boy, Roald Dahl recounts his days as a child growing up in England. From his years as a prankster at boarding school to his envious position as a chocolate tester for Cadbury's, Roald Dahl's boyhood was as full of excitement and the unexpected as are his world-famous, best-selling books. Packed with anecdotes—some funny, some painful, all interesting—this is a book that's sure to please

 I don't need to read the whole book. I just have to read Ironside and the short story at the end.
In Tithe, sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she drifts from place to place with her mother’s rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient and violent power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms—a struggle that could very well mean her death.

In Valiant, the companion to Tithe, seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city’s labyrinthine subway system. But there’s something eerily beguiling about Val’s new friends. When one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature, Val finds herself torn between her affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

In Ironside, the sequel to Tithe, the time has come for Roiben’s coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing—her love for Roiben. But when Kaye drunkenly declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest to find a faerie who can tell a lie. Unable to see Roiben until she has fulfilled his quest, Kaye finds herself in the center of the battle of wits and weapons being waged over his throne.

This omnibus combines all three books into one.

This book I have borrowed from Ashley and need to finish this one plus the rest of the series. This is the third book in the series. Sky stepped out into the sunshine, blinking, still holding the bottle, and a black man, robed like the others, took him by the arm and whispered, 'God be praised, it has found you!'

Everything changes for Sky when he finds a perfume bottle that whiskes him away to the city of Giglia, an ancient city similar to Florence. This may be the beautiful City of Flowers, but things that seems beautiful might also be deadly. As a new Stravagante - someone who can travel through space and time with the help of a talisman - Sky finds himself caught up in a deadly feud between Giglia's two ruling families. Now, the Stravaganti must do all they can to avoid further bloodshed as politics, conspiracy and espionage unfold.

I am hoping to all twenty books read this year. It should be easy if I just put them on my list to reads when I am planning for the month. Right now it seems easy because everyone is at home with the virus. If you have read any of these books let me know what you think of them without spoiling them.
Until next time keep safe and keep reading.