⭐️Book Review⭐️ The Art and Making of The Stand

I am not the biggest Stephen King fan but have read a few of his most famous works such as Misery, It and of course, The Stand. All excellent reads! I watched the 90’s miniseries some time ago and though she special effects were terrible, I did enjoy it and having read the book, found it to be a good adaptation. Of course, nothing can ever beat the book which is in my opinion, one of the best books I’ve read and though it does drag occasionally, it’s a excellent read. When the 2020 updated miniseries aired, I found myself enjoying it supremely and the cast was exceptional. So when I heard about the book about the making of the miniseries I had to get it and it was a quick but interesting read. I recommend this book to any fan of The Stand and if you’ve not seen the 2020 version, no, it’s not like the book and of course things had to be left out and changed. No adaptation is perfect but I enjoyed it. The dvd is scheduled for a October 2021 release if interested. 4.5/ 5 🌟Thanks for reading!

Summer reread

So even though I have some books I haven’t yet read, I thought it was time for a reread of a series I previously blogged about….. The Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. If you haven’t read my previous entry I’ll say this much—— I loved the ending of True Blood more then the ending of the book series that the TV show was based on. That being said, with the reread, I am noticing the differences made between the show and books and find myself wishing something from the books had made it to the show. I think I’ll always prefer the tv show simply because I hated the way the books ended but am giving them another shot. The books are much better than twilight though and I recommend that people read this series and watch True Blood. Happy reading!

⭐️Book Review⭐️ Return of the Witch

As soon as I finished the first book of the series, The Witches’ Daughter, I knew I had to get my hands on the sequel book and boy, am I glad I did. The sequel picks up after the events of the first, five years later. Tegan, the sullen young teen from the first book is coming into her own as a person and as a witch. When the enemy thought trapped at the end of the first book returns and kidnaps Tegan, it’s up to the heroine Elizabeth to take a journey through time to find her friend and save her from the clutches of the wicked Gideon. I couldn’t put this one down, I had to know what was gonna happen and I am intrigued as to learn how these books cross over with the upcoming Found Things book Four that I discussed in a previous entry. Review 5/5 ⭐️

Book four of the found things series which is supposedly going to cross over with the witches books

⭐️Book Review⭐️ Rosie’s Traveling Teashop⭐️

I’ve really been trying to read books outside my wheelhouse. My fave genre is the supernatural (Vampires, witches, etc) but I was drawn to the cover of this book by Rebecca Raisin. It looked like a warm hug of a book and boy am I glad that I read it! The story follows a woman who has a good career as a chef but leads a disciplined and scheduled life. After finding her husband has cheated on her, she gets drunk and when she wakes up one morning, she finds out she has purchased a camper van/ food truck combo. When she meets a woman who runs a nomadic book van, Rosie decides to take a chance and escape her structured life to try a new, nomadic one. It’s just a fun, perfect summer read and I plan to read other books by this author for sure! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ five stars out of five!

⭐️Book Review⭐️ The Witches’ Daughter

In a previous post, I recommended another series by author Paula Brackston called the Found Things series. Then at my local bookshop I came across a intriguing book cover and it happened to be part of another series I had not been aware of. The Witches’ Daughter is the first in a series of books about a immoral witch who has been followed through the centuries by a wicked warlock who has twisted fantasies of them being together. In the modern era, our heroine Elizabeth meets a teenage girl who comes to want to learn witch craft. Elizabeth must try to save her new protege from the ghosts of her past. From what I have heard, this series and the Found Things series are going to crossover with the fourth Found Things book due in November and I’m intrigued as to how that will work. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series! Book rating 4.5/5 ⭐️

⭐️Book Review⭐️ Luck of the Titanic

I’ve always been intrigued in the story of Titanic. The people, the ship, the arrogance and hubris that brought the so called unsinkable ship to a resting place two and a half miles down in the Atlantic Ocean. I went to the artifact exhibition once years ago and it was interesting and sad at the same time. It’s heartbreaking knowing and learning about the stories of whole families wiped out and yet there are tales of heroism as well. This story is a fictionalized tale of a half Chinese brother and sister reuniting on the ill fated ship, hoping to start new lives. But of course, the iceberg looming causes chaos, panic, death and hope all at the same time with the characters that the author brings to life within the pages of this book. Real and fictional characters collide in this clever and sometimes poignant book and I learned that the Chinese were unfortunately treated poorly back in 1912. If you love the history of the Titanic as I do, you’ll likely enjoy this book as well. 5/5 stars rating for this one.

The importance of taking care of yourself……lesson learned and applied

You know you have a problem when you don’t want to do your favorite thing—— for me, it’s reading and after a crazy week of thinking on things and feeling not quite right, I went to the doctor today. Took a mental health day and got myself back on anti depressants. I feel good that I finally decided to get back on track with that and perhaps the unpleasant co worker I have should be thanked for helping me realize I have to care for myself too. And no longer do I feel shame or embarrassed for having anxiety and depression. It’s still hard for me to talk about though but I have found people that I can talk to. Though that took a lot of time to get to that point. I was given tomorrow off too to recoup and bounce back and I believe in myself. I am my own cheerleader and I am proud of me. And to those who put others and things before themselves, don’t. Self care is very important. Don’t sell yourself short by ignoring the signals you get from your body. We all have to take care of ourselves. We got this 👏🏼 Thanks for reading ❤️ and now to return to my passion 📚 📖

Self care

I want to digress from books to talk about a struggle I am sure I’m not alone in. Anxiety and depression most surely suck. And there is such a stigma attached to it it seems like. The other day mine was triggered after a unpleasant co worker swore at me while I’m just doing my own thing. I have a lot on my plate and focusing on my work works for me. This woman’s tirade? It shook me and upset me and as I calmed down I realized that perhaps I wasn’t doing as well as I thought it was. That I had ignored signs my body had given me. Lack of sleep, boredom and lethargy? Yup to all three and though I work in a stressful job I have worked hard to better myself and handle myself better. But this woman is not going to break me. I’m using this incident to return to the doc and probably go back on meds. And me and this woman and a manager are going to sit down and have a meeting and be honest with each other so we can move on. This individual is not ruining my job nor ruining the progress I have made in my life. I’m taking control and nipping my mental state in the bud and doing something about it. Don’t let anyone dull your sparkle. I love that quote ❤️ 💕 thanks for reading.

Current read …..and other thoughts

I’m so happy that nice weather has come to stay here in NY. I’m also glad that I no longer have to wear a mask at work and things feel more normal again though I believe people are being cowardly cancelling fairs and festivals in my region for the second year in a row. My thought now after being so patient and seeing the survival rate of this virus is that if you are that scare of covid then stay home and let people have fun. I take the virus seriously of course but come on, there is a vaccine and the survival rate, again, is high. Ugh. But I still plan to have and make fun this summer. But onto my current read……. I have always found the story of the Titanic an amazing, interesting and sad story. I even went to the artifact exhibition years ago and it was quite sobering. So when I hear about any books related to the ill fated ship I of course have to read it. The one I picked up is fiction and non fiction combined, with real characters integrated with a fictional story. The Luck of the Titanic is the story of a young girl who stows away on the ship to reconnect with her brother. The girl is half Chinese as is her brother and what I didn’t know before was how poorly the Chinese people were treated back in 1912. I’ll review it when I am finished but 100 pages in, so far so good. Thanks for reading and for the support and happy reading! 📚 🌞

🌟Book Review🌟 The Ravens

I do love the supernatural genre of books an as I stated in a previous post, the cover of The Ravens certainly stood out to me! I finished this book in five days and it was engrossing and one of the best books I’ve read. I feel like it would make a good tv series. I found the characters engrossing and the plot twist towards the end was something I hadn’t seen coming. For me, I liked the characters and the setting at the university. The one thing that I wasn’t a major fan of was the simplistic way the hero of the book, ViVi, took so easily to witchcraft and that she used her powers she did not know she had fairly well. That’s a very small criticism though as I really adored this book. I’m hoping to somehow get my hands on a advanced review copy of the sequel! Fingers crossed. Thanks for reading 📖