Benefits of an E-reader for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. For me, these e-readers have been life savers. By immersible reading, I have found myself reading more than I ever had in my life. Between text-to-speech, Audible and Whispersynch, I feel I am able to stay with the story better than at any other part of my life. I am so glad to see this documented by others in the field.
Tag Archive: Kindle
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I can see my friends faces as they shake their heads and murmur, “It’s about time!” So. Yeah. This is my first Neil Gaiman. Note the five stars. I know! He’s written Doctor Who episodes that I loved. How could I not love his other writing? I do have another book and narration sitting around waiting for me to get around to it. But this one took priority. Library book. They always take top of the list because of their due date. So, sorry other authors, waiting for me to get to your books. When a book comes off hold and lands in my lap, I have to read it first.
Do I dare say I would have love to have a teacher read this aloud to my class as a kid. You know the chapter books that you would have to put your head on your desk as the teacher read. Yeah, it had it’s scary parts, but I think a child could handle it.
Okay. I can, also, hear mumbling about my reading goals of strictly female writers with strong female characters. Well, it’s not written in stone is it? Sometimes a person has to stray to see the color of the grass or, in this case, interesting writing of the others.
Though the main character is a young boy, the heroes of this story were women. Strong women! Witchy, magickal womyn! Without these womyn, this story would be BORING! But you never get to know them or get inside their heads. This is all from the boy’s head. In fact, you never even learn his name or where he is. And since there are references to place in gestures, food, accents, it seems unnecessary to name it. Funny how that bothered me, but I didn’t care if I had the kid’s name. Really. Did I miss something? My guess is this is somewhere in southern US. But other clues made me wonder if it were in some British colony (Australia? South Africa?). Hmmm.
But enough about needing labels. This story was the most imaginative I have read in a while. And yet, maybe because it is coming from inside the head of a kid, the most believable. Ocean in a bucket. I want that bucket! I miss the ocean so here in the Nevada desert I could have my beach!
Oh, and talk about brilliant! The transitions between the boy and his adult self, are seamless. And the character remains the same person. I am more amazed by the book the more I think about it! How is that possible?
So I plan to read more Gaiman very soon! And watch more Doctor Who. Thanks, my friends, for being patient while I catch up! ๐
Zentangle For Beginners: Elevate Your Life With Zentangle Art, Patterns and Shapes for Creativity, Focus & Well-Being by Charlotte Pearce
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Of the freebie Kindle Zentangle books I’ve read so far, this has been my favorite. It was well written, describing the process of getting into the tangle, with zen and scientific results. I got so anxious about this just being wordy. But finally! There are enough illustrations of good Zentangles to give the beginner a chance to decide if this is for them. Worth the price (free) and maybe even worth a little more. After all, you can pick up most of this information from the website: Zentangle.com. Still it is nice that the author shared very different artists work. Try it, you’ll like it!
The Forever Girl by Rebecca Hamilton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I became aware of this book one when I picked up book two for free with Kindle Unlimited. Notwithstanding the inside out reading of Marie Lu’s Legend series, I prefer to read books in their prescribed order.
As the title ‘Forever Girl’ implies, this is a young adult book. And though I loved the storyline and the characters, I just got ill with the sexual teen-angst. If you don’t want to have sex with the guy, don’t sleep with him and then dwell on all things sexual. And, okay, the main character is out of school, in her twenties, still a virgin though I can’t see how. She seems immature. Oh, but don’t get me started on the centuries old vampire with another label. Why has he no more self-control than a child especially when he says he cares for her and wants to wait until she is ready to go adult? But vampires and sexual ambiguity seem to be the theme in young adult books these days.
Had I realized that I would be reading about vampires I might not have read this. It is a worn-out cliche, to say the least. But the drawing card, for me, is the awakening of the witch. Even then the main character was so wishy-washy about moving forward.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t hate this story. The writing was well-done. The story carried me past any errors that might have been there. This next problem I put on me. I started getting mixed up by the extras in the story. It was near the end of the book that the name Paloma came up. I still can’t quite figure out who she was.
It was four o’clock in the morning when I finished the story and quickly opened the next book. So that interest in the story kept me from going to sleep. Read this during the day. The end is hair-raising.
Review: Zentangle: Zentangle Art Basics: How to create beautiful patterns and shapes by Hailey Leman
Zentangle: Zentangle Art Basics: How to create beautiful patterns and shapes by Hailey Leman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have to admit that I have a bit of confusion going on here. I picked up two Zentangle books at the same time. One because it was free and the other because I could get it for free with Kindle Unlimited. This one was $2.99 last I looked. Though I got it for free. Now do I have you confused, too?
Either book is a good starting point for learning about the good that doing a bit of Zentangling can do for you. Both have written instructions for getting started. This one had a couple more illustrations. Just as a hint of the type of designs that one can do simply even if you are not an artist. In fact, that is a point made in both books.
Both books are quick reads, even without pictures. And so I read them both yesterday one after the other.
Which one is best? The one with more pictures. But only because of that. I wish either of them had more visual instructions. Can you imagine being taught to draw without anything to look at to compare to? Yeah. Oh, some are upset about the size of the pictures. I found if I clicked on the tiny picture I can enlarge it to a satisfying size.
My advice? If you see these for free, grab ’em and read ’em. After that head over to Zentangle.com and play around that site. Then go check out the Youtubes that the site recommends. Pick up a Zentangle kit. I did and have loved working with it. One of these days, I will post some of my resulting tanglesย here.
Now I am going to copy and paste this review into the other books review changing only the price range and a word or two here or there. Try Zentangling!
Relic: The Morelville Mysteries – Book 1 by Anne Hagan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One of the book clubs I belong to mentioned that this book was free a while back. I went over to Amazon and found it free on Kindle Unlimited. Then a couple days after that the book was really free, so I turned in my ‘borrowed’ copy and got my own.
Look, um, I’m not crazy about mysteries or suspense/thrillers, so I was hesitant to read this. Turns out it wasn’t too anxiety producing. So I could move to my bedtime book. Well, that is, until near the end of the book when I realized I was still awake reading at 4 AM.
I did like the main characters. I liked how the author, Anne Hagan, divided the points of view between both of them. That way she could let us in both women’s thoughts and actions.
For most of the book, I found the writing fair. Towards the end though, sentences were hard to understand and there were words that should have been other words. Like the word ‘man’ should have been ‘main’. Maybe earlier in the book I wouldn’t have noticed but here we are in the thick of trying to solve the crime and the tempo of action has sped up. I often had to reread passages to understand what happened.
In my opinion, using cuss words should be full out, and in this case warranted, or not used at all. I felt spelling a cuss word with asterisks felt like cheating. It was another thing that pulled me out of the book. The other cheat was in how the book ended. We’re in the middle of the shake-down (or whatever that part of the arrest process is called and we don’t get to see what happened until later. Sorry, I nearly threw in a spoiler. Then when it is all explained, it felt anticlimactic. Then the next book has a preview which is that scene duplicated. Truly a letdown. I do understand why the things in that last part of the book got jumbled. When I write a fast scene or erotica I find my grammar and spelling give up the ghost. And my descriptions are horrid. Note the above review. But I hope that part and the beginning of the next book can live up to the rest of the first book.
By the way, this book can be rated “G”. What I mean is the sex scenes are kept to the minimum. For me, this story didn’t call for long erotic scenes. Maybe in the next book or so? Mostly the story kept to the mystery. Relationships are building, but the main characters try to keep it ‘professional’. I won’t say how successful they were, but the author did a good job keeping it real.
I hope I haven’t been too critical. I did like the book and do look forward to reading the rest of the series. Like I said, I liked the story and the characters. Worth the read, folks!
A Witch’s Magic: A Love Triangle With a Magical Twist by H.T. Night
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Can I give a three and a half star rating? I loved the first book, but this one so left me flat. The first dealt with the power of a blooming witch trying to decide between good and black magic and the decision that needed to be made between her two great guys. Unfortunately, book two was more of the same angst. Nothing got resolved.
I was happy to hang out with old friends. I had grown to really like the characters, even the not so good ones. But I got very frustrated without any progress being made in this book. In the first book, there were even bits of seemingly real information about how to find your center and power. Not much was in this one.
AND I might have been happy just hanging with the friends as I mentioned before, but the book needed more editing. There were places I had to reread sentences to make sense of things. A word left out or not the right word. A sentence of present tense mixed in with mostly past.
Even still, I can’t wait to read the next book.
Beneath the Mask by Margaret McGaffey Fisk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t read ‘romance’ novels. Not if I can help it. But I consider Margaret McGaffey Fisk to be my friend so I felt I should try. I knew I couldn’t go wrong with her writing. I don’t think I saw a passive sentence anywhere in the book. This reading comes close after I read of Pride and Prejudice. If this were to be a contest, this would win heads down!
Passion is what wins it for me. No! Not that kind of passion! I mean the passion this young girl had pursued since she was small. But, now that she was to be presented as a woman… She wants to dance, something frowned upon back in those days.
Dawn Hyde, narrator of the Audible version of the book made this book so beautiful! Her accents and voice changes helped keep the characters separated and unique. I look forward to reading more with her voice.
Okay, for the romanticohics, there is romance in the end, but most of it is this girl coming of age and her trying to live out her passions, somehow. It makes me sad to know women of the past weren’t encouraged to follow their hearts and passions. When I start feeling like we’ve made no forward motion in the feminist movement, reading something like this shows we have made some progress.
I am looking forward to more by Margaret McGaffey Fisk!
The Girl God by Trista Hendren
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, wow. I picked this small but mighty book up for free today from Amazon. I was intrigued by the picture on the front cover and the title. I thought I was getting a children’s book. I believe this is an ‘everybody’ book.
The story was from a mother to her daughter. A sweet simple story. But the wisdom of the story runs deeply. Then there are the quotations throughout; each capturing a piece of my soul. All the illustrations were engaging. I wish I bought this in tree form as I would like to spend more time with the book and with the pictures. At least I can go back to this one in my ‘cloud’.
Because this was so wonderful I went to find other books by Trista Hendren. Yay! The were free with Kindle Unlimited!
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I finished this masterpiece a couple of days ago. It was part of my anti-depression about my husband being in the hospital while I was home with fibro-flare. In this case, I would say misery loves company. Or… at least things aren’t as bad as it was then.
This was a birthday present from me–to me! I had picked up the whispersync for voice also so I was able to listen to Emily Bergl’s narration. I have to admit she is not my favorite narrator. But once she was into the story I felt drawn in and forgot that there was a narrator.
Laurie Halse Anderson always amazes me with her works. This book is no exception. Wow! The amount of research that she dug through to write this fiction is overwhelming! This is based on a real epidemic that happened just a few years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Yellow Fever takes over. But no one knows yet that it is due to the mosquitoes. Medicine was still in its infancy. Through Ms. Anderson, we get to see what could have happened to a young girl, her family and her community.
Okay. Confession time. I have never been a history buff. I did have a fabulous professor in college that made me appreciate it a bit. That class was when I was in my forties. So imagine how long it was that I hated history. I think with books like this I might have been able to relate to historical events as a middle grader on. This younger generation is so lucky to have such writers as Laurie Halse Anderson!
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