A Day of Books

This weekend I was up in Pennsylvania visiting my parents and going book shopping with my mother and youngest brother, Stephen.
We started at the local library book sale where it was a Dollar a Bag day. Best book sale day EVER! When you go in, the "cashiers" hand you a plastic grocery bag. However many books you can fit in that bag is $1. Let me tell you, my mother and I have got the bag packing down to an art. Such an art, in fact, that I actually start to feel pretty bad about getting so many books for so little money. Usually I just shrug the feeling off and am just thankful that I was able to get so many good books. This time I didn't get that feeling, but I decided to request a third bag even though I was perfectly fine with just two. So I paid $3 for all of the books in the picture below instead of $2.

Not a bad haul for $3 if I may say so myself.

Next up, the Salvation Army store. They were having a 50% off everything in the store sale. I didn't get anything other than books. Yes, I only bought eight books there, but they didn't cost too much considering the 50% off deal. These eight books cost me $3.59.

Not too shabby.

And last but not least, the crowning achievement of my Saturday search for books. I have been collecting Trixie Belden books for years, but haven't found any in almost as much time. I've looked on eBay multiple times, but always ended up turning away mainly due to how much each book cost. Plus, on top of the winning bid, there is always shipping costs. Anyway, I normally wouldn't spend $6 on a used book, but in this case, I definitely made an exception.

Total tally for the day...55 books for $12.59. I did a pretty good job. Did you get any new books this weekend?

Updated Booklist for April

Well, obviously I've been out of touch with ya'll for pretty much all of April. I can tell you that it wasn't because I was reading. April ended with only 8 books having been read. What can I say...I was busy trying to get my Mary Kay business moving. Anyway, here's my updated list. The first four books of April were my favorite.

January

Sandry's Book ~ Tamora Pierce
Tris's Book ~ Tamora Pierce
The City of Ember ~ Jeanne DuPrau
The Mary Kay Way ~ Mary Kay Ash
Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg ~ Gail Carson Levine
Teddy Jo & the yellow room mystery ~ Hilda Stahl
Teddy Jo & the ragged beggars ~ Hilda Stahl
Teddy Jo & the magic quill ~ Hilda Stahl
Land of Hope ~ Joan Nixon Lowery
Land of Promise ~ Joan Nixon Lowery
Boxers for Dummies ~ Richard Beauchamp
Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand ~ Gail Carson Levine
Ellen Foster ~ Kaye Gibbons

February

Coffee with Plato ~ Donald R. Moor
A Time for Witches ~ Lynne Hansen
Reckless Revolution ~ Lynne Hansen
Gilded Delirium ~ Jordan Stokes & Mattew Belinkie
The Mark on the Mirror ~ Margaret Sutton
A Thousand Goodbyes ~ Jim Hube
Coffee with Mark Twain ~ Fred Kaplan
A Member of the Family ~ Cesar Millan
The People of Sparks ~ Jeann DuPrau
Tanglewreck ~ Jeanette Winterson
Alanna The First Adventure ~ Tamora Pierce
In the Hand of the Goddess ~ Tamora Pierce
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man ~ Tamora Pierce
Lioness Rampant ~ Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Choice ~ Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Queen ~ Tamora Pierce
The Wednesday Letters ~ Jason F. Wright

March

Coffee with Shakespeare ~ Stanley Wells
The Good Guy ~ Dean Koontz
Shadowfires ~ Dean Koontz
A Wife After God's Own Heart ~ Elizabeth George
The Fairy's Return & Other Princess Tales ~ Gail Carson Levine
The Princetta ~ Anne-Laure Bondoux

April

City of Bones ~ Cassandra Clare
City of Ashes ~ Cassandra Clare
City of Glass ~ Cassandra Clare
Bloodhound ~ Tamora Pierce
Net Force: Virtual Vandals ~ Tom Clancy
Miracles Happen ~ Mary Kay Ash
Flying Blind ~ Frank Peretti
Dragonsong ~ Anne McCaffrey

Next up...working on reading through all those books that I got this weekend in Pennsylvania.

Mullet Alert

I know that there have been a number of mullet sightings made by my Facebook friends in the past year, but I have to admit that this is the first that I've seen in a very LONG time. I had seriously begun to think that perhaps I was correct in my hopes that the mullet had gone the way of the dodo. Extinct. No such luck. This mullet sighting took place at a Hardees in Pennsylvania. Just after leaving the library book sale, Mom, Stephen, Brooklyn and I stopped for brunch at Hardees. Here's what we saw.

Here's the backside.

And a side shot.

It is quite terrifying, isn't it. Have you seen any scary haircuts lately?

Easter Weekend

Can I just say that I really dislike cleaning? BUT, it sure does make me feel better about being at home when my house is straightened up and smelling like orange or lemon. I suppose it's because of Easter, but I woke up this morning with a driving need to clean my house. Of course, it also helped that it was raining outside this morning. I don't know about you, but cleaning is harder to do on a sunny day than on a rainy day. I do have to vacuum still as well as scrub my bathroom and laundry room, but pretty much everything else is done. Yay!
To be completely honest with you, I haven't cleaned my house so thoroughly since last year. I have touched up here and there and Joseph has vacuumed more than I, but neither of us has really gotten everything. Anyway, all of that to say...I'm almost done with cleaning my house!

Tomorrow, I'd like to have my mother-in-law and father-in-law, husband, and brother all join me at church. I honestly don't believe that they all will, but I still want to ask.

Ar you doing anything special for Easter?

Book List (updated for March)

So, The Wednesday Letters squeaked into February at the last second to bring the total of my books read through Feb. to thirty, however, because I was busy with church functions, Facebook, dyeing my hair, playing Guitar Hero World Tour, work, and Mary Kay, March only added six books to my list. Of course, I was also trying to read through the HUGE stack of magazines that I still had unread (some from last year, even!) as well as attempt to clean up some of my VERY messy house. Anyway, enough excuses!

January

Sandry's Book ~ Tamora Pierce
Tris's Book ~ Tamora Pierce
The City of Ember ~ Jeanne DuPrau
The Mary Kay Way ~ Mary Kay Ash
Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg ~ Gail Carson Levine
Teddy Jo & the yellow room mystery ~ Hilda Stahl
Teddy Jo & the ragged beggars ~ Hilda Stahl
Teddy Jo & the magic quill ~ Hilda Stahl
Land of Hope ~ Joan Nixon Lowery
Land of Promise ~ Joan Nixon Lowery
Boxers for Dummies ~ Richard Beauchamp
Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand ~ Gail Carson Levine
Ellen Foster ~ Kaye Gibbons

February

Coffee with Plato ~ Donald R. Moor
A Time for Witches ~ Lynne Hansen
Reckless Revolution ~ Lynne Hansen
Gilded Delirium ~ Jordan Stokes & Mattew Belinkie
The Mark on the Mirror ~ Margaret Sutton
A Thousand Goodbyes ~ Jim Hube
Coffee with Mark Twain ~ Fred Kaplan
A Member of the Family ~ Cesar Millan
The People of Sparks ~ Jeann DuPrau
Tanglewreck ~ Jeanette Winterson
Alanna The First Adventure ~ Tamora Pierce
In the Hand of the Goddess ~ Tamora Pierce
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man ~ Tamora Pierce
Lioness Rampant ~ Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Choice ~ Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Queen ~ Tamora Pierce
The Wednesday Letters ~ Jason F. Wright

March

Coffee with Shakespeare ~ Stanley Wells
The Good Guy ~ Dean Koontz
Shadowfires ~ Dean Koontz
A Wife After God's Own Heart ~ Elizabeth George
The Fairy's Return & Other Princess Tales ~ Gail Carson Levine
The Princetta ~ Anne-Laure Bondoux

I have to say that since the last book list was posted, I found two new favorites...The Wednesday Letters and The Good Guy. The Wed. Letters was a Christian romance which is a genre I have not read in such a long time because they seem to be all the same storyline. BUT, my mother-in-law had lent it to me telling me that it was really good and that she thought I would enjoy it. Let me tell you, I tried to read that book for four months! I just couldn't get into it! So, finally, at the end of February I just decided that I couldn't leave a book unread so I would just have to grin and bear it. I'm so glad I did because the book was incredible!

As for The Good Guy, let me just start by saying, Dean Koontz is a very secular writer. As in...his books can get graphic. Blood, guts, gore, horror, suspense, and VERY occasionally...a rape scene. I tell you this because his books aren't pretty, but they are extremely well written. Dean Koontz certainly knows how to make you HATE the bad guy and how to sympathize with the good guy while still realizing that the good guy is only human himself. The Good Guy was no different. It was ALOT less horror and sci-fi (which still only happens rarely in Dean's books that I've read), but the gore and suspense was typical of Dean. A Christian author that writes in a VERY similar style is Ted Dekker. I have honestly found myself mixing the two authors up more than once. Of course, Ted Dekker leaves out the rape scene, and most of the time, the guts and gore, but the suspense level of Ted's books is the same as Dean's.

So, sorry I took so long telling you about my two favorites without really saying anything about them. I don't like to critique books. It takes the fun out of reading them. However, if I dislike a book, I usually have no problem critiquing.

Have I asked all of ya'll who YOUR favorite authors are? and what books you've read lately?