"The Rescue of Belle and Sundance" by Birgit Stutz and Lawrence Scanlan

The Rescue of Belle and Sundance—One Town's incredible race to Save two Abandoned Horses by Birgit Stutz and Lawrence Scanlan is a great true story! Two horses are trapped on a mountain in six feet of snow, not to mention, blizzard-like conditions at 40 below zero! Around Christmas, people come out and shovel and shovel and some bring blankets. This is a remarkable story of two horses that have the will to survive and determination of the people who come to rescue them. I really enjoyed this book. If you love animals and are looking to read a feel good story, look no further—this is it!
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

Tuesday Teasers: "Words" and "The White Cascade"

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser.   

Karen's:

This is the longest part of the day--when it's too dark to read.
When I read . . .
I forget.
That's how it works.

Taken from page 5 of Words by Ginny L. Yttrup.

Gerard's:

"I saw the first rush of snow reach the track [and] swallow the trains," he said. "And then there was neither tracks nor trains. . ."

Taken from page 161 of The White Cascade--The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche by Gary Krist.

Happy Reading! We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"Never Trust a Squirrel!" by Patrick Cooper

Our dog likes chasing squirrels so liked this book.

Never Trust a Squirrel! by Patrick Cooper, illustrated by Catherine Walters is a preschool picture book about a squirrel, a guinea pig, and a fox. I liked the big pictures and the fact that this book actually has a plot to it. It's a cute little story.
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"Calico Joe" by John Grisham (UPDATED)

Calico Joe by John Grisham is really, really good!  It's about a relationship between a son and his dad off the field as well as on it.  The gist of the story is the dad, a major league pitcher, hits his son's favorite player with a ball on purpose, knocking him out of the game.  I liked the dialog between the son and the dad.  The ending was sort of predictable, but I liked it anyway.  I think you would have to be a major league baseball fan to appreciate this book, but it's a quick read and entertaining!  Enjoy and play ball!
(Gerard's review)

Karen's review:

Calico Joe by John Grisham is not one of his better books.  It’s about a pitcher to beaned an outstanding rookie, Joe, permanently ending his career.  This book shows baseball at its worst.    The most disturbing part of this book was when the pitcher was actually teaching his 11-yr-old son the fine art of throwing at a hitter’s head.  The highlight of the book was Joe’s willingness to forgive the pitcher.  It does address the issue of dying and it was said how many regrets the pitcher had. 

 

I thought this book was okay but liked other books he wrote much better.  This is not a baseball book I would recommend.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

 We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"Insurgent" by Veronica Roth

Must Read but read Divergent first!

Insurgent by Veronica Roth is the second book in the Divergent series. It took me a few pages to get back up to speed with the story line and characters, but once I did, WOW! This book is awesome, as good as the first, if not better. There is action galore, we find out more about Tris and Tobias. It's another page turner that I didn't want to put down—finished it in two days. Book three comes out in October and a movie is in the works--can't wait! 
(Gerard's review)

Karen's review:
"Insurgent" by Veronica Roth is the second book in the Divergent series.  Tris a/k/a Beatrice and Four a/k/a Tobias deepen their relationship and we get to see inside the headquarters of Amity, Candor, and Erudite, visit the home of Four’s parents in Abnegation and Four’s mother in the factionless area.  I really liked when the Dauntless were staying at Candor headquarters and Tris and Four were given the truth serum.  Life in Amity was pretty funny but when the Dauntless decided to return to their own headquarters, I felt things get more interesting.  From that point on I was into it and had a hard time putting it down.  This book has lots of action and intense moments which kept my interest as well as some funny parts.  I was glad to see Tris and Four’s relationship develop too and how they both struggle to trust each other.

I liked the first book better but this one was good too.  However, was confused by some things such as (1) why there were so many dauntless traitors everywhere.  It didn’t seem as though they were still controlled by a simulation and if they were, why then were there any dauntless left normal that were not divergent?  (2)  for Tris to forget to bring the gadget that paralyzes people with her when entering Erudite headquarters through the window was hard to swallow.  (3) Why would dauntless want to completely destroy everything in Erudite—including the hospital?  (4) Why would the dauntless just give their guns over to the factionless during the attack at Erudite headquarters?  The ending with the video, I really didn’t understand at all.  I look forward to reading the next book in this series and finding out more how everything will change.     

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.