It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday everyone (or Sunday evening here for me – but I post this early to catch out friends in the world who are already having Sunday 😀 )

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Fair warning… this meme tends to add to your reading list!

Check me out!  I was an active blogger this week!  It is true!  I read, I listened to audio…. and wrote posts.  Here is what I put out there this week:

A little paint project with audio on the side…

Catching Fire Movie Review (I liked this one even more than the Hunger Games movie!)

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty (oh wow oh wow!!!)

 

It has been a good week.  I had a low key weekend and wrote up some of the reviews I keep saying I am going to write and then…. do not.  I also have been flying through some really good audio and it feels so good to be back in my audio groove.  Here is what I am reading and listening to this week:

 

Lovable child star by age ten, international teen idol by fifteen, and to this day a perennial pop-culture staple, Corey Feldman has not only spent the entirety of his life in the spotlight, he’s become just as famous for his off-screen exploits as for his roles in such classic films as Gremlins, The Goonies, and Stand by Me. He’s been linked to a slew of Hollywood starlets (including Drew Barrymore, Vanessa Marcil, and adult entertainer Ginger Lynn), shared a highly publicized friendship with Michael Jackson, and with his frequent costar Corey Haim enjoyed immeasurable success as one half of the wildly popular duo “The Two Coreys,” spawning seven films, a 1-900 number, and “Coreymania” in the process. What child of the eighties didn’t have a Corey Feldman poster hanging in her bedroom, or a pile of Tiger Beats stashed in his closet?

Now, in this brave and moving memoir, Corey is revealing the truth about what his life was like behind the scenes: His is a past that included physical, drug, and sexual abuse, a dysfunctional family from which he was emancipated at age fifteen, three high-profile arrests for drug possession, a nine-month stint in rehab, and a long, slow crawl back to the top of the box office.

While Corey has managed to overcome the traps that ensnared so many other entertainers of his generation—he’s still acting, is a touring musician, and is a proud father to his son, Zen—many of those closest to him haven’t been so lucky. In the span of one year, he mourned the passing of seven friends and family members, including Corey Haim and Michael Jackson. In the wake of those tragedies, he’s spoken publicly about the dark side of fame, lobbied for legislation affording greater protections for children in the entertainment industry, and lifted the lid off of what he calls Hollywood’s biggest secret.

I just started listening to this one.  I grew up on the Corey Feldman (and the late Corey Haim) movies…. Dream A Little Dream, Gremlins, Goonies, Stand By Me….  his story is one of tragic grace.

 

 

Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced parents. She’s got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up and falling in love with William Ashe, who willingly steps between the robber and her son.

Shandi doesn’t know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It’s been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his world. But William doesn’t define destiny the way others do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in facts and numbers, destiny to him is about choice. Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, making choices that will reveal unexpected truths about love, life, and the world they think they know.

A typical fun southern Jackson read… I am a little over half way through this one.

 

 

 

Summer blockbusters and independent sleepers; masterworks of Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Martin Scorsese; the timeless comedy of the Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton; animated classics from Walt Disney and Pixar; the finest foreign films ever made. This 2014 edition covers the modern era, from 1965 to the present, while including all the great older films you can’t afford to miss—and those you can—from box-office smashes to cult classics to forgotten gems to forgettable bombs, listed alphabetically, and complete with all the essential information you could ask for.

I am always looking for great movies so this guide is right up my alley!

 

Nestled in Puget Sound, Whidbey Island is a gem of the Pacific Northwest; accessible only by ferry and the soaring Deception Pass Bridge, it is known for its artistic communities and stunning natural beauty. Life there is low-key, insular, and the island’s year-round residents tend to know one another’s business. But when the blooddrenched body of Russel Douglas was discovered the day after Christmas in his SUV in a hidden driveway near Whidbey’s most exclusive mansions, the whole island was shocked. A single bullet between his eyes was the cause of death, but no one could imagine who among them could plot such a devious, cold-blooded crime. At first, police suspected suicide, tragically common at the height of the holiday season. But when they found no gun in or near the SUV, Russel’s manner of death became homicide. Like a cast of characters from a classic mystery novel, a host of Whidbey residents fell under suspicion.

Brenna Douglas was Russel’s estranged and soon-to-be-ex wife, who allowed him to come home for a Christmas visit with their children. The couple owned the popular Just B’s salon. Brenna’s good friend Peggy Sue Thomas worked there, and Brenna complained often to her that Russel was physically and emotionally abusive. Peggy Sue’s own life has been one of extremes. Married three times, hers is a rags-to-riches-and-back-again tale in which she’s played many roles: aircraft mechanic, basketball coach, the “drop-dead gorgeous” beauty queen as a former Ms. Washington, Las Vegas limousine driver, million-dollar horse breeder, wealthy divorcée. But in 2003, her love affair with married guitarist Jim Huden led the two Whidbey Island natives to pursue their ultimate dreams of wealth and privilege—even at the expense of human life.

I have a confession… I enjoy (probably not the right word…) Ann Rule’s true crime books.  I have not read one in a long time and I have never tried one on audio.  EXCITED!

Bloodmark and Lady Catherine, The Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey are up to be read.  I am excited about both and have a cabin weekend coming up and one gets to go with!  Which will be?  Which would you take along?

So that’s the week!  Thanksgiving is pretty quiet for us as our family is quite small and we just stay home.  This year will be exciting as both my boys will be home for the first time in 4 years now that Brad is out of the Navy!!!  I am looking forward to hanging out with them. 😀

I would love to see what you are reading this holiday week and weekend!  Please add your What Are You Reading post to the place below where it says “click here”

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For those of you that read mainly middle grade and childrens books, be sure to also link to the younger version of It’s Monday by using the link below!