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Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-reading so I can remember the story and read the rest of the series. Done.

This reading was to make sure I knew where the story was going before I start on book two. I still loved it. Especially with the narration of Khristine Hvam. She reads this flawlessly. I can’t imagine reading this book without her talented voice in the background. I stand by the review I wrote in February 2014:

***
Oh. My. Gosh! I think this is the best book ever! Thank you to all that recommended it so highly. I, too, now sing its praises!

Laini Taylor is the storyteller’s storyteller. Once I started into the world that she created I didn’t want to leave. In fact, though the copies I had of the hardback and the CDs were borrowed from the library, I couldn’t bear to return them had I not gone ahead and bought the Kindle and Audible versions to read again. And while I was at it I picked up the next in the series.

Oh, and I need to sing a few praises to the narrator, Khristine Hvam. I was caught up in the sound of her voice and her ability to wring out every nuance each word and even syllable the book had to offer.

The main character, Karou, is real, palpable. I could see through her eyes, smell what she smelled, anguish in choices to be made or mistakes that resulted. The cast of characters surrounding her were also real. I keep trying to come up with another word, after all this IS fantasy, but that is all I can come up with, real.

Magic is in abundance in the book, whether it is meant to be or not. Yet it is highly believable. And always leads to hope. Hope is the theme, I think. It made me feel it deep inside in places that haven’t felt it for a while. Hope. How many books give you that? That is a priceless commodity.

Please read this book with the audio along side. It immerses you into this world and you will feel hope, too.

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Horseback Riding-How to Ride a Horse and Improve Your Horse Riding SkillHorseback Riding-How to Ride a Horse and Improve Your Horse Riding Skill by Rick Tomson

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

While I was on my equine wishing, I ran into this freebie. Glad it was free. As it was, I couldn’t finish. I read to about 60% in before I just couldn’t handle it anymore. For having two authors listed, this seems written by one in grade school. Aside from the many editing errors, the authors couldn’t decide which money to bid on switching from pounds to dollars in turns. As much as I wanted to learn something about riding a horse, I found myself running to Google to see how much it would cost to ride a bought versus a rented horse, whether I was in England or the USA. And the bits about actual riding had so many errors that I just couldn’t feel I could trust the instructors. Sorry guys.

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Keeping a Backyard HorseKeeping a Backyard Horse by Marguerite Madden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In my latest research on all things possible on that acre I will, I hope, be living on soon, I thought I would entertain my twelve-year-old self with a bit of horsing around. When this book presented itself as free, I had to grab it. I wasn’t disappointed.

This book is chocked full of information a newbie would need before acquiring a backyard horse. Imagine that, a backyard horse. Yeah, this fed the imagination. Don’t know if a 65-year-old has any hope of starting out with a horse, especially with my osteoporosis. But I can dream, can’t I?

Okay, the only thing I did find a problem with beyond the possibilities, is that this book attempts to be written from the horse’s point of view. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold true very long. I think the author would have done better by not incorporating this idea. The changing viewpoints made me dizzy. That is the only reason I am not giving this book five stars. Because other than that method of writing, the book was quite interesting. And made me wish…

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Locavore U.S.A.: How a Local-Food Economy is Changing One Community - A Chapter from the Book Change Comes to DinnerLocavore U.S.A.: How a Local-Food Economy is Changing One Community – A Chapter from the Book Change Comes to Dinner by Katherine Gustafson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting read. Rather than a how-to farm like I have been reading a lot of lately, this was about how to make the urban life work for communities. The author doesn’t offer hard answers to the questions of how to live a more healthy lifestyle, eat organic, chemical-free foods, and try to make money for your community. Instead, she takes us to a couple communities that are trying to do that with food co-ops and community manufacturing plants.

The fun part about this book wasn’t due to what I read. It was how I read it. I just picked up a Kindle Fire 6 HD that has text-to-speech. Oh. My. God! If I thought the 2nd Generation Kindles were good, this wipes them out of the water. I could set the speed of the narrator, who sounded like a real person. And I found that you could download other voices like those with British or Australian accents, male and female. I can hardly wait to use these. And you can download other languages so when I want to play with Spanish or German I will have someone to pronounce these out to me in story form. Seems like a great way to improve language skills.

Anyway, back to the book. I recommend this book to everyone. This is a conversation we all need to get involved in. How healthy is it to eat food shipped from across the continent or even from around the globe. How healthy is it for our planet to keep moving food in this fashion. It is a short read but powerful.

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I know all this personally!

joey's avatarjoeyfullystated

Before we left for vacation, I tried to touch on the angst of anxiety disorder before a trip. I wanted to go into detail about what that’s actually like for so many of us whose brains overshoot the adrenaline. This isn’t a typical post for me, but I got some feedback on that post that made me feel like I had an audience for this.

I can look back now and see that even in my young adult years, I had control issues when it came to my environment. Specifically, coming and going. I set out my clothes the night before school. I made lists. Instead of being picked up, I met most of my dates at the location, I was usually the designated driver when I went out with friends, and I particularly hated waiting for anyone and everyone to be ready to leave, which is why I liked driving —…

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