Top Ten Tuesday ~ Books I'm Looking Forward To In 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by 

The Broke and the Bookish. 

This weeks topic: Books I'm looking forward to in 2015

10 ~ The Summer of Chasing Mermaids

by Sarah Ockler

Sarah Ockler has been recommended to me by several people and I have yet to read one of her books, but this one looked too good not to have on my list this week!

9 ~ The Boy Most Likely To (My Life Next Door #2)

by Huntley Fitzpatrick

If you haven't read My Life Next Door yet I am going to get my 13 year old to call you and talk you into it!  We both ADORED this book and are super excited for The Boy Most Likely To!

8 ~ Last Year's Mistake
by Gina Ciocca

This book just looks like something I would read and from reading the synopsis I am really looking forward to it!

7 ~ The Ruby Circle

by Richelle Mead

I have loved Adrian from the moment he was introduced in Frostbite and I look forward to this installment in the Bloodlines series.

6 ~ Lady Midnight (Dark Aritfices #1)

by Cassandra Clare

It's time to enter a new phase in the world of shadow hunters, vampires, werewolves and all the other creations Cassandra Clare has built for us.  I look forward to this series as I did the others.  I loved The Infernal Devices so much and wasn't sure about another shadow hunter series at the time, but it makes me wonder what is in store for this new series. 

5 ~ Let's Be Crazy (Oh Captain, My Captian series #4)

by Lindsay Paige and Mary Brown

Let's Be Crazy is the 4th installment in the Oh Captain, My Captain series by the fabulous duo of Lindsay Paige and Mary Brown.  If you haven't read anything by these ladies, especially if you enjoy sports romance, you are really missing out!

4 ~ Contradictions

by Tiffany King

I'm a huge fan of Tiffany King and I am certainly looking forward to this last book in her Woodfalls Girls series coming in 2015!

3 ~ Saint Anything 

by Sarah Dessen

This is a book I heard of at Y'allFest this year and it looks so good!  I have read a few of Sarah Dessen's books and my teenage daughter loves her so I know this one will be one we are both looking forward to.

2 ~ Nepenthe (A Bracing For Love Novel)

by Lindsay Paige

If you read Bracing The Blue Line you may remember the over baring Kennedy brothers.  Nepenthe is about Corey Kennedy, Lucy's oldest brother.  This book is going to be so amazing I can barely stand the wait until it is released!  

1 ~ Nowhere But Here (Thunder Road #1)

by Katie McGarry

Everyone knows by now I have such a love for Katie McGarry's books.  She is a fantastic author and I am always on the edge of my seat waiting for her next release. Nowhere But Here will be the start of a new series for her and I'm sure it will be well worth the wait!  

That's it for me this week!  What's on your list?

Uncle Remus ~ His Songs and His Sayings and Read A Classic Month

In 1880, Joel Chandler Harris, a moderate white Southern journalist, published a collection of black folktales, proverbs, songs, and character sketches based on stories he had heard as a child. In his introduction, Robert Hemenway discusses the book's enduring popularity, pointing out that the character of Uncle Remus, the docile and grandfatherly ex-slave storyteller, is a utopian figure-a literary creation by Harris that reassured white readers during the tense and tentative Reconstruction. By contrast, the feisty Brer Rabbit was a mainstay of black folklore long before Harris heard of his exploits. Brer Rabbit's cunning and revolutionary antics symbolically inverted the slave-master relationship and satisfied the deep human needs of a captive people.

So, here's a bit about my reading for the month before I get to my "sort of" review.  I have an author/blogger friend named Robert Zimmerman (his blog is A Life Among The Pages) who has a habit of talking me into things I don't want to do.  Sometimes I'm happy about it after all is said and done, like the fact I like Gilmore Girls now and sometimes it just ends up being a thorn in my side, like "Read A Classic In November" has been.

I have been so busy lately.  I have barely read a book every other week the last couple months.  It has been terrible.  So in November not only am I trying to read, but I'm reading a classic which I have a hard time due to my past experience with them not being the best.  I hated reading them in school and the couple times I have tried since I have hated it within a couple chapters.  It just isn't really for me.  So this time I thought I would maybe listen to a classic.  It's almost the same as reading and to some it is the same.  I had 8 hours in the car to myself while driving to Yallfest in November so this was going to be cake!  Yeah, not so much.  Within 3 chapters I was about to fall asleep at the wheel, not because the book I was listening to was bad (The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells) but just because the listening and driving wasn't a good mix for me over a long distance.

A couple weeks pass and I start thinking about what else I could maybe fit in and might be a bit more fun to read AND something my kids might enjoy at the same time.  I remembered seeing the Disney movie "Song of the South" as a kid and loving it.  I have always loved the stories told by Uncle Remus because they were so funny.  So I talked my 9yo into letting me read her a story about Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox.  After a page or two she stopped me with "I don't get a thing you're saying Mom!" That's because I wasn't really good at reading "Southern" out loud which is how these stories are written.  I had to keep stopping and telling her what was happening and before long she was bored.  I pulled out the Disney version of the book and redeemed myself with her at least.  It was much easier for her to get and we had a fun time laughing over these few stories I remembered.

  

Then the teens came home and I MADE THEM sit down and let me read the book to them as well. They thought it was funny too and I felt like I at least passed a little something different I enjoyed as a kid on to them.

The next night we were all hanging out and I decided to read them some of the differences in the versions of the stories.  We listened to a few of them on audio as well and this week I have heard "de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' Nuthin'" and "Brer Fox, he lay low" about 100 times....literally! We all loved the Tar Baby story and have been laughing about it all week.  Since my kids speak fluent southern is sounds fairly authentic as well.

I went through and read a few more of the stories and although I didn't read the entire book, I wanted to share the small experience I did have with reading a few of these adventures with my kids.  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we did it.  I want to finish reading them, or listening to them, sometime soon. Perhaps when I'm wrapping Christmas gifts in the coming weeks.  I found the writing EXTREMELY hard to read out loud, but not so bad to read to myself.  Years before living in the south (I have been here 16 years now) I would have probably found it even more difficult, but I actually found it getting easier the more I read.

I thought I would be fun as well to ask my kids what their favorite part of the stories were and here's their replies:

Ainsley ~ 9 
"I liked the story where Brer Rabbit talked Brer Bear into trading places with him for the dollar a minute job when he was in the trap Brer Fox set."

Meaghan ~ 13 
"de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' Nuthin' and "Brer Fox, he lay low." (That was her exact answer when I asked her her favorite part! I told you....I've heard it all week!)

Beighley ~ 17 
"I liked the Tar Baby story and when they threw him in the Brier Patch." (He's a man of few words.)

I want to thank Rob for making me, once again, do something I didn't really want to do that didn't turn out too bad.  If nothing else, my kids and I have something else we share that we all like.

You can catch Rob's Read A Classic In November post HERE and maybe you will be inspired just a bit to read a classic yourself sometime soon.

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Winter To Be Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by 

The Broke and the Bookish. 

This weeks topic: My Winter To Be Read List

10 & 9 
Torn ~ True Love 
Tore ~ Divided Love
by K.D. Ferguson

These are the only books I purchased while at Y'allFest this month (a small miracle I know) and I enjoyed meeting author K,D. Ferguson very much so I am looking forward to reading this series.

8 ~ Any Book by Colleen Hoover

I have been all but yelled at by so many people for never reading anything by Colleen Hoover that I guess it's about time I get her bumped up on my TBR.  

7 ~ Daughter of Smoke & Bone Trilogy

by Laini Taylor

This is another series I have been putting off for a while.  I am really in the mood for a good fantasy series so I look forward to getting to this one.

6 ~ Contradictions

by Tiffany King

It's no secret that I love Tiffany King.  Her books are amazing and I am certainly looking forward to reading the final book in the Woodfalls Girls series...Contradictions.

5 ~ City of Heavenly Fire
by Cassandra Clare

I haven't had time to finish this series yet, mostly because I need to reread books 4&5 before I read this one.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this series ends. 

4 ~ Shadow and Bone Trilogy

by Leigh Bardugo

This is a trilogy that has been sitting on my shelf for a long while.  I look forward to sinking in to it hopefully while the weather is cold this year.

3 ~ The Weight of Destiny

by Nyrae Dawn

This book was a must have for me.  I love Nyrae Dawn's books so much and this one is calling out to me like crazy!  I also would like to note that I LOVE this cover!

2 ~ The Oh Captain, My Captain Series

by Lindsay Paige and Mary Brown

My best author discovery of the year was Lindsay Paige and Mary Smith!  I love these ladies and their work is amazing!  I am looking forward to this great series that they have released so fast that I can't seem to catch up with it!  

1 ~ Breaking the Rules

by Katie McGarry

Katie McGarry is a must have author for me and I look forward to every one of her books.  I can't wait to devour this installment of the Pushing The Limits series.

That's it for me this week.  What books are on your Winter TBR?