Top 10 Books that Influenced Me Most

Have you read any of these? I found this tag on Booktube and thought it was a good one because it is easy and I enjoyed seeing what others had for their most influential books.  Since I put in the effort to make this, I thought I should post it here as well.

Feel free to write a blog post or do a video on 10 books that influenced you most and please share your link in the comments below so I can find it!  If you are interested in any of these, I believe I have reviews of them all on this blog.  Just use the search box in the upper left corner to find them.
    
Happy Reading!

Monday Quiz Meme About Me

And now for this weeks Questions:

1. What is your favorite thing about November?
The holidays and more time off work!

2. What was the last thing that you bought that you regretted soon afterwards?
strawberry shortcake flavored gum--way too sweet--yuck! Now I'm back to my Spearment.

3. What is your go to snack food?
Trail mix. Just found a Nutrition bone health nut mix by Planters that's really good!

4. Do you believe that newspapers should charge for their online content?
I don't care what they do.

And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

My question for you is:

5. Are you voting tomorrow or have you already voted? If you are not voting in this election, why not?
We voted by mail.

This is the Acting Balanced: Monday Quiz Meme.

Monday Quiz About Me

Welcome to Monday Quiz About Me hosted by Acting Balanced and Touristic.  These are Karen's answers:

Just answer the questions and add one for your readers to answer in the comments.

1. What is the most interesting fact you have learned recently?
That the Red Panda's feet are all furry, they do not have pads like cats and other animals.

2. The alarm goes off on Monday morning. What is your first thought?
Time to feed the pets.

3. What is the most memorable movie line of all time?
"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"

4. Describe a situation that always seems to try your patience.
When I'm using the computer and it takes forever to respond or when it takes me 3-4 tries to get the capcha code right when trying to leave a comment on a blog.

Now, here's my question for you: What are you reading now? Happy Reading!

Aww Mondays

Just thinking about reading all these books tires me out!

Gerard has a lot of books on order at the library, and it always seems that a ton comes in all at once.  This group some he didn't finish yet that he got before plus a new slew of 14 that filled a whole library shelf just for his!  

Do you order books from your library too?

Unfortunately, we just won't be able to read all these in three weeks and they are not renewable because others are waiting.  We went through them and decided to forego reading these at this time:  

The Speaker For The Dead by James Dashner is the sequel to Ender's Game which we both loved; however, I read a little of the introduction and it said that it was really written to stand alone and wasn't necessary to read the first book to enjoy which led me to believe that it really doesn't have that much to do with the first book.  Furthermore, there are a lot of unusual names in it which is a distraction to me so we decided not to read this one after all. 

Karen read the first 50 pages of Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman and just couldn't get interested in it.  We aren't listing it as a "dud" because it's not terrible.  It's about two different families and the wedding of their children. 

The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen
The Man In The Rockefeller Suit--The astonishing rise and spectacular fall of a serial imposter by Mark Seal
Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan
The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson
Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen
Disturbance by Jan Rorke
From This Moment by Shania Twain

If you read and think we would like any of these on this list, please let us know in a comment and maybe we will reconsider. If you have a cute picture that makes you say "Aww," or to find more "Aww" pictures, check out the "Aww Mondays" linkup over at Comedy Plus.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

Our Friday Fragments

Half-Past Kissin’ Time host the Friday Fragments linky. It’s just short blurbs from your week that aren’t enough for a whole post by themselves. Here’s ours for this week:

1) Last week Mrs 4444 left me a nice comment: Your header is my current favorite in Blogland--GORGEOUS! That made my day! My favorite blog header is at Jennies Happy World-it's a castle layout with little shields for her tabs! What's your favorite blog header? Go let them know and make someone's day! Watch our "behind-the-scenes" video on making it.

2) Not much interest in our book giveaway for a mom--I'm surprised! It's really quite a nice book on parenting.  If you know a mother of young boys, this would be a great gift! Just leave a comment to enter stating why you would like to have it.

3) Gerard has been watching the hockey playoffs and we are pleased to see the Bruins are still in it after winning game 7 in overtime. Go Bruins! Hockey is exciting!

4) Glad to see the Browns Peyton Hillis beat out Michael Vick for the cover of the video game, Madden ’12. I only played it once, but it’s fun!

5) We finally gave in and bought a new Whirlpool dryer from hh gregg—it gets hooked up tomorrow! They take away our old one too so that’s good. The new one has some kind of sensor so it automatically goes off when the clothes are dry but no timer that buzzes to let us know! Isn’t that strange?  UPDATED 4/30/11:  Oops, when the guy came to install it, he said we need a gas on, not electric.  Now we have to wait one more day.

7) Our high winds Wednesday night knocked over the tree at the church a block from our home. Fortunately, our roof held, our power did not go off and we have no trees in our yard.  I would have taken a picture but by the time I got home from work, the church had it all cleared away.  When will I learn to always bring my camera with me?

8) We took Abby to the vet for a routine wellness exam and they found ringworm in her stool so gave us some medication that should clear it up for her. She seems fine and acts normal so good thing they found it early. They said it was quite common in dogs this time of year.

9)  As of 5 a.m. this morning, we got 88 comments on this blog.  You have only two more days to comment to help raise money for the Japan relief effort through Samaritan's Purse.  We'll donate 50 cents per comment.  Oh, and you may want to visit our post about things we learned this week over at Right Where We Belong.

Why not visit Friday Fragments for more and link some of yours up too.

Find more Friday Fragments at Half-Past Kissin' Time. Be sure to check out what we learned this week at "Right Where We Belong."

Our Friday Fragments

Mrs. 4444 at Half-Past Kissin' Time hosts Friday Fragments each week where we can post snippets that aren't really big enough for posts by themselves. Thought you might enjoy something a little different that lets you get to know us a bit better.

Got the “Blue Screen Of Death” on our computer this week and had to have the hard drive wiped clean and windows reloaded. What a hassle! Can’t find our original operating disk and now have no word processing program! ARGH! Can’t open our documents!  This is why we didn't get to read as many Tuesday Teasers as usual this week.

Karen entered a drawing at work for two Browns hats and a set of Browns coasters for Support Staff Appreciation Day.

Going to go to good old reliable paper and pen to make our reading lists. I had summaries of the book on mine too though—good thing we have this blog and Shelfari and Goodreads!

Both Gerard and I are doing a special puppet presentation for grades 1-6 at Parma Heights Baptist Church on Easter Sunday called “More Than A Miracle” at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

We are thrilled that the Cleveland Indians are in first place and rooting for the Bruins.

Gerard and I are currently reading the same books: Trapped by Michael Northrop, Ender's Game by Orson Card, Dogs Don't Lie by Clea Simone Live To Tell and Gone by Lisa Gardner. Gerard will soon be reading The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials too. Our review of Ender's Game will be up tomorrow. We both liked it!

Visit The Gatekeepers Post to see our interview with Jeff Rivera, author of "Forever My Lady" about being book bloggers. 

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

Our Friday Fragments

Every Friday Mrs 4444 at Half Past Kissin’ Time sponsors Friday Fragments giving bloggers a chance to share snippets that aren’t enough for an entire post. On our “Right Where We Belong” blog we always share things we learned during the past week so I thought over here, we could actually do a variety of fragments, so here we go:


It was fun to get back on http://www.pogo.com/ this week. I played Backgammon to refresh my memory and lost the first game but won the second—even doubled my winning game! It’s a great site for people who like to play games—it has all kinds, you can play for free against other people with chat or just against the computer.

I read Couples Who Pray this week and now Gerard and I are praying together again! I registered us online for the 40-day prayer challenge at http://www.coupleswhopray/. I hope it’s not going to be a nuisance.

Took off work went to the Indians-Red Sox game at noon on Thursday. Good food, exciting game. Of course, we brought books along that we read on the bus.

Our daffodils and crocuses are up and our hyacinths are just starting to pop up. I keep telling myself that these spring showers bring May flowers.

I’m getting Dogs Don’t Lie by Clea Simone from the library tomorrow. She blogs about her cats over at The Conscious Cat.

Tuesday Teaser: "Rose In A Storm"

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. 

Only have one for you this week:

Rose sank into a state of absolute focus. She dug and dug and dug, aware neither of pain nor cold, only of Sam beneath the snow.

From Rose In A Storm by Jon Katz. My review of this book will be posted Wednesday--this book really good!

Meet us On Monday

1. What do you put on your hot dog?

Karen: Ketchup and sometimes mustard sometimes. I have hot dogs two or three times a year.

Gerard: I guess ketchup but I don’t really like hot dogs.


2. Do you play Sudoku?

Karen: No, it takes too long. I was curious about it though so tried it just by putting numbers in haphazardly. Then I spotted a small book on how to do it at Marc’s which I browsed through and tried again with success!

Gerard: I have no interest in these things whatsoever.


3. What is your favorite vegetable?

Karen: Corn on top of mashed potatoes is my favorite, but only have it if we go to a lunch buffet on rare occasions.

Gerard: What's a vegetable? The closest I come to eating vegetables is drinking V8 Fusion. I like tomatoes on burgers.


4. Do you color your hair?

Karen: No, I hate to spend any time fussing with my hair! I’m just going to go gray and be happy I have hair!

Gerard: Of course not.


5. What is your favorite brand of clothing?

Both of us like L.L. Bean and St. John’s Bay.

Meet more bloggers over 40 at Meet Me On Monday.

Meet Us On Monday

Here's the questions from last week's meme hosted by Never Growing Old to help our readers get to know us better so sometimes we'll post it on this blog, and sometimes on our Right Where We Belong personal blog.

Questions:

1.  Do you like your ice cream in a dish, waffle cone, pretzel cone, sugar cone or cake cone?

Gerard likes his in a bowl. Karen likes it all those ways! My favorite flavor is Turkey Hill's chocolate marshmallow. Related posts: Grab A Spoon And Meet Me For Ice Cream and I Made Ice Cream Cake, Cereal On Ice Cream

2.  Do you read the newspaper daily?

Moe, our first cat reading paper with Gerard

Gerard does but Karen usually reads it every day except Sunday. Related posts: "How Do You Read The Newspaper?",
Poop Bags,
Interview Your Pet

3.  Marinara or meat sauce? We both like Marinara better.


4.  Last time you cried?

A Very Sad Day when 3 cats had to be put down

Gerard doesn't remember when he last cried but Karen cried Jan. 1 of this year when I read on Mountain Woman's blog that she had to have her beloved dog, Faeden put down over the holidays. Having our first cat die on New Year's Eve of 2007 and having to have three of my dad's cats put down, I empathize with anyone experiencing this. I know Mountain Woman had a very special long-lasting bond with Faegen. He had bone cancer and was in great pain. Related post: Sylvester Went Out A Champ

5.  What word/phrase do you find really annoying?
Gerard's is "It is what it is." Karen's is: "At the end of the day."

Meet Us On Monday

Here's the questions from last week's meme hosted by Never Growing Old to help our readers get to know us better so sometimes we'll post it on this blog, and sometimes on our Right Where We Belong personal blog.


1.  Have you (only you..not a group) ever won first place in anything?
2.  Are your toes always painted (sorry guys...this question for girls only)?
3.  What color eyes do you have?
4.  Look to your left....what do you see?
5.  Soft cookies or crunchy cookies?

1.  Karen won first place for her green peppers she grew in her garden at her elementary school.  Gerard never won first place in anything as an individual but we did as a team both in bowling and volleyball.

2.  Never paint my toenails because I always wear socks and shoes.

3.  We both have big brown eyes.

4.  To the left is our cat, Manny, right is our cat Spunky Doodle.  They always come when I'm on the computer.

Manny on my Left

Spunky Doodle on my Right

5.  Karen prefers the soft, Gerard prefers the crunchy.  Speaking of cookies, I ordered four boxes of Girl Scout cookies.  Have you ordered yours yet?

Book Tag: 5 Questions

(den) Made by Karen's Dad

I thought this was a pretty interesting meme that I saw by BeautyBooksEtc on YouTube so both Gerard and I decided to do it.  If you are reading this and like it, then consider yourself tagged.

What is your all-time favorite book ever?



Made by Karen's dad



Karen: Other than the Bible which I believe is God’s Word and has had the hugest impact on my life, I think I’d have to go with Beautiful Child by Torey Hayden. I love stories about teaching and this one has the dynamic of tension between two different teacher’s as well as a touching story about a special needs class with a physically abused girl (the beautiful child) who broke my heart. I gleaned several teaching tips from this and laughed out loud at certain parts but cried at the end. This was a WOW book for me—an emotional page-turner with teaching strategies!

Gerard: This is really hard but I'd say it's Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. I thought it was fantastic because it had everything I look for in a book: twists and turns, believable characters, hard to put down, interesting subject and a great ending! In my opinion, this is her best book!

What is your least favorite book:

(basement) Made by Karen's Dad

Karen: I’m not sure if this means my least favorite being the least of the books I like the most which would take too long to figure out or a book I absolutely hated which is what I will answer. Not counting ones I didn’t finish, I’d have to say it’s a tie between Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan by Paula Cohen about an old lady believing she was Shakespeare’s mistress and At Home In Mitford by Jan Karon about the daily business of a priest in a small town. It just dragged along but I finished it because my sister-in-law recommended it.

Gerard: My worst was The Tower, the Zoo And The Tortoise because I just never could get into it even though I wanted to like it because of all the hpye it got. I did not "get" it at all.

Meet Us On Monday

Here are the questions:

1. What is your favorite kind of pie?
Gerard's: Pumpkin
Karen's: Lemon Meringue with Pumpkin very close

2. Have you ever ran out of gas in the car you were driving?
Gerard: No.

Karen: Yes. Actually, I took some teens to a park and ran out in the parking lot. One of them went and brought back some gas and put it in for me too. They all got a big laugh out of it.

3. How many languages do you speak?
Gerard: Just English
Karen: Just English, although, I did take German for 9th and 10th grade.

4. Do you take daily vitamins?
We both do.  Centrum Silver for both.  (Click on the link to read about the funny story about my dad and Centrum.)  Karen also takes Citracal and Glucosamine Chondroitin.

5. What is your worst eating habit?
Gerard: Never eats any vegetables.
Karen: Eats pizza usually three meals a week, sometimes four. I only have two pieces though at each meal.

Now go meet some more over 40 bloggers at Never Growing Old.

We're It--Been Tagged by Coffee N Crackers

This is a fun simple tag meme and since we were tagged by one of our regular commenters, CJ'Alhafiz at Coffee N Crackers, we decided to participate and go head and answer these questions.  We're even going to follow the rules this time and tag four others!

The Rules

1) Accept the tag and link to the tagger at the beginning of your post.
2) Answer the questions honestly in your post by listing four things.
3) Pass on the love by picking four other people to tag and listing them at the bottom of your post. Notify them that you tagged them.

4 things that are in my handbag or backpack or briefcase

Karen Says:

1--Checkbook.

2--Change Purse with my bus tickets and some change.

3--New Testament.

4--Cough drops in case someone starts coughing on the bus.

 Related post:  "Look What's In My Purse"

Gerard Says:

1--Book currently reading.

2--Sandwich.

3--Cookies.

4--Fruit.

4 favorite things in my bedroom

Karen & Gerard say:

1--Abby, our dog (she sleeps in there every night with us)

2--Bed

3--Poster of Gerard and Abby

4--Poster of Gerard and Moe (our first cat)

4 Things on My Desk

Gerard says:

1--Book rack that Karen's dad made to sit on a desk or table.

2--Husky dog pen/pencil holder with pens.

3--Phone.

4--Framed picture of us with Abby wearing her graduation cap when completing intermediate dog training at PetSmart.

Karen says:  Which one?  I have 3 desks--two at home and one at work.

Guess I'll do my computer desk at home where I blog:

1--Giraffe noteholder.

2--Golf bag pen/pencil holder.

3--Notebook for jotting down things blogging related.

4--Clock and timer (I know that is two things, but they are both to keep me aware of the time and remind me to get off the computer!)

4 Things I've Always Wanted To Do (but haven't yet)

Karen says:  

1--Try to hit a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher. (Yes, this is Karen.)

2--Volunteer at an animal shelter.

3--Bowl a 300 game.  The closest I ever came to it was 234. 

4--Retire!


Gerard says:
1--Go to a Ohio State football game.
2--Go to Fenway Park to see a Red Sox game.
3--Go see the New England Patriots play.
4--Retire!

4 Things I Enjoy Very Much At The Moment
Karen says:
1--Relaxing at home petting my cats and dog.
2--Blogging.
3--Watching football with Gerard.
4--Reading.

Gerard says:
1--Planting our new mum plant.
2--Watching football.
3--Walking Abby.
4--Petting Abby.

4 Songs I Can't Get Out Of My Head
Karen says:
1--"When We All Get To Heaven"
2--"It's Such A Pretty World"
3--"How Majestic Is Your Name"
4--That's really all I have.

Gerard Says:
Don't have any.

4 Things You Don't Know About Me
Karen says:
1--I had my first gray hair when I was in first grade.
2--I hate politics because it's so frustrating not knowing who to vote for.  Especially this coming election, it seems all the candidates to is criticize their opponents.
3--I am a morning person, always up by 5 a.m., even on the weekends.
4--I didn't like school very much.

Gerard Says:
1--I like to wear footies to bed on cold nights.
2--I like listening to sports talk on the radio.
3--I never went to college but still like to watch college basketball and football.
4--My favorite sport is hockey.

4 Bloggers I am Tagging
1--Kate at The Parchment Girl
2--Bloggin' 'bout Books
3--4 The Love Of books
4--Just One More Paragraph

        

Teaser Tuesday: "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" & "Room" & Better Together

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 & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser. 

Karen's:

While everyone was talking about my not living, Jesus said to me that I would survive the accident.  He also told me I would breathe on my own after some time had passed.

From p. 30 of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven by Kevin & Alex Malarkey

Gerard's:

"Look, it's like on Dora," says Ma, "when she goes to one place and then a second place to get to the third place. For us it's Truck, Hospital, Police. Say it?"

From p. 110 of Room by Emma Donoghue

Ours:

It's nearly impossible to sit in a church pew absorbing Scripture for 30 years but doing little for those around you, and still claim to love God.  The Bible says, "The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (I John 2:4 NIV)

Taken from p. 21 of Better Together--What on earth are we here for? by Rick Warren.

Meet Me On Monday by Gerard

Here's the questions for this meme hosted by Never Growing Old to help our readers get to know us better so sometimes we'll post it on this blog, and sometimes on our other blog.  Today, I put my answers here and Karen's are over at Karen & Gerard Zemek since we each have some different answers on this one. 

1.  Do your pants get hung on a hangar or folded?  I hang mine on hangers.

2.  If you are stranded on an Island, what 3 things would you need to have with you (not including humans or electronic devices)?
A book, a knife and my dog.

3.  Where is the farthest you have ever traveled to?
Niagara Falls on the Canadian side when I was a kid.  As an adult, it would a safari place in Ohio which was about an hour and a half drive. 

4.  Do you live in a house, trailer or apartment, etc.?  We live in a brick house on a quiet street.

5.  What is your most hated household chore?  Cutting down the Day Lillies in our backyard.

Meet Us On Monday--Oct. 4, 2010 (Bloggers Over 40)

We thought you might like to get to know us better so we will do this meme now and then hosted by Never Growing Old.  Here's the questions for this week. Sometimes we'll post it on this blog, and sometimes on our other blogs. Go over there to meed more bloggers over 40 or to join it!

Questions:
1.  What is the best dish you can make?     
The best I ever made is ice cream cake. 

2.  How often do you change your sheets?
         About once every two months.  I know we should do it once a week, but it just doesn't happen that often.

3.  What is the longest car trip you have ever taken?
         King's Island in Cincinnati. (4 hour drive)

4.  What is your favorite fruit?
         Karen's:  grapes        Gerard's:  apples and bananas

5.  Would you rather have breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast?
         Breakfast for dinner.  We both like cereal and breakfast food.  I could eat it anytime.

This was fun.  I included some links to posts we've done about these things if you would like to read more about it.  I hope you will visit our other blogs as well!

Teaser Tuesday from "Mockingjay" and "Word of Honor"

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 & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser. 

Karen's:

The sound of the gunshot shattered through Dan's brain with as much impact as if the bullet had traveled the phone line. He clutched the phone and shouted, "Jill! Jill!" She was no longer holding the phone, and he could hear screaming in the background, things crashing, people yelling.

From p. 39 of Word of Honor by Terri Blackstock.

Gerard's:

He doesn't know that I'm already asking for the moon by demanding they spare Peeta's life. Before I can decide whether or not to tell him, a bell signals the end of our eating shift.

From p. 53 of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

When Do You Write Your Book Review? (Book Blogger Hop Sept.24-27)

The question this week is:
When you write reviews, do you write them as you are reading or wait until you have read the entire book?

We always write our reviews as soon as we finish reading the book.  Sometimes, I will jot down notes as I read, especially if I come across a great quote I want to share in my review. 

Join the Book Blogger Hop at Crazy-for-Books.

Teaser Tuesday: "The Listener" and "Flight To Heaven"

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 & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.

Karen's:

"I've been a Christian for ten years, and not once in those ten years have I ever led anybody to Christ.  Until about an hour ago, I never even wanted to."

From p. 47 of The Listener-What If You Could Hear What God Hears? by Terri Blackstock.

Gerard's:

Suddenly I found myself suspended in midair, hovering over the wreckage of my body.  My gray pants and short-sleeve shirt were torn to shreds and soaked in blood and fuel.

From p. 29 of Flight to Heaven (A Pilot's True Story)--A Plane Crash...A Lone Survivor...A Journey To Heaven--and Back by Capt. Dale Black