Books We Loved in 2019

This video is made up of three parts:  the first is books we both loved, the second is ten more that Gerard loved in addition to the first nine, and the third is ten more that Karen loved in addition to the first nine.  For links to reviews of the first nine, see previous post.  To find our reviews, just enter the title of the book in the search box at upper left of our blog.

"The Wonky Donkey" by Craig Smith

The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith with illustrations by Katz Cowley if a cute, funny early childhood book that has been on the best seller list.  That is why Gerard wanted to read it.  I saw this video on Facebook one day so I decided to read it too.  It is very repetitive and could be used to help little children exercise their memory skills.  I thought it was very cute and not just for children as you can see by this video, the grandma was enjoying it as much if not more than the little boy.  It's a quick read for sure--this grandma read the entire book in just over 4 minutes.
(Karen & Gerard, 5 star for children)


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. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

Our 12 Favorite Books for 2017

Out of all the books Gerard and I have read this year, there were only 12 that we both absolutely loved.  We highly recommend all of these to you!  To see our reviews of these, you can use the search box on our blog.  I also did some video reviews for:  The Great Pursuit, Scythe, The Reluctant Queen, Undivided (all mentioned in this video below) and The Selection Series that Gerard did not read and Scar Island.



There are also books I read and loved but that Gerard did not read, and some he read and loved that I did not read.  A separate video will be coming soon showing each of our top 12 favorites for the year  (Karen's add'l 12 Favorites link to video).  Visit my YouTube channel here.

Happy Reading in the new year!

We Both Liked "What Was Mine" by Helen Klein Ross

What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross is fantastic!  Lucy has been trying to have a baby, but it is a no go.  One day she sees a baby alone at a store and takes it!  The next day, she makes up her mind to return the baby to its mother, but she decides otherwise and keeps it, raising the baby girl as her own.  This story is told by a bunch of people that were affected by this decision, which really adds to the story.   I was hooked from page one all the way through!  This page turner is told very well and I liked the ending too, although not everyone may agree.  Read it for yourself to see what you think.
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

Karen's review, 5 stars:
What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross is an interesting contemporary fiction story about Madelyn whose baby, Natalie, is kidnapped by Lucy, a woman who wants a baby but can’t conceive. Lucy raises Natalie as her own, changing her name to Mia. Mia is raised with love and given the best education, never suspecting Lucy is not her real mother until she gets a friend request on Facebook from Madelyn.

This book tugged at my heart and kept me turning pages to find out how Mia feels about her abduction and finding her real family, what will become of Lucy and will Mia keep her bond with Lucy or bond with her real mother? This book shows how good people can make mistakes that affect many lives for years to come. I found myself liking Lucy better than Madelyn even though Madelyn was the victim and suffered a major loss because of Lucy. I never heard of restitution justice until reading this book. I thought the ending was incredible but left me wanting more! I think this would be a great book club read and highly recommend it to anyone who likes good contemporary fiction.


Have you read this one? What did you think of it?  Did you like the ending?  Did you like Lucy?  If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

Shared this review at Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.

Karen's Favorite Reads for 2015

I read 83 books in 2015 and this video shows my top 20 favorites which includes the Harry Potter Series of 7 by J. K. Rowling and the Katie Productions series of 3 by Jenny B. Jones.  The "Books & Cats, Life is Good" t-shirt was a Christmas present from my cats, Manny Boy and Spunky Doodle.  My dog, Abby, got me the whole set of Harry Potter books which by the way, if you haven't yet read, you should!

If you made a favorite book post or video for books you read in 2015, feel free to share the link in the comments.  My husband's favorite book post will be up soon--he's still deciding.

Happy Reading!

Happy International Cat Day!

In honor of International cat day, here are a couple cat book trailers I just saw on YouTube this week:

This was Booktube Read-a-thon challenge to re-enact a scene from a book done by Between Chapters.

After viewing this book trailer done by Why Mermaids for the Booktube Read-a-thon challenge, I quickly borrowed the e-book from the library and am currently reading it on my Kindle.

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. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

Things on My Bookshelves That Aren't Books

What's on your shelf that aren't books?  I have lots more things, but since this is a Top 5 Wednesday tag, we only get to pick five things.

Military Books for Flag Day Video

To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading! Subscribe to my YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/kzemek

Some Military Books For You for Memorial Day!

I thought it would be nice to recommend some military books I enjoyed for Memorial Day. Only eight are mentioned in this video, but additional ones are listed below:

We both liked:

Nubs--A Mutt, a Marine, a Miracle by Major Brian Dennis (children's nonfiction picture book)
Tuesday Tucks Me In by Captain Luis Carlos Montalvan (children's nonfiction picture book)
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (Children's book, sad but very good!)

Gerard liked but I did not read:

Until Tuesday by Captain Luis Carlos Montalvan about him and his service dog, Tuesday.
Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton
Black Hearts by Jim Frederick
Into the Fire by Dakota Meyer (audio book)
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden (sorry no review but he LOVED IT.  Read before we were putting his reviews online).

What military books have you read that you liked?

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. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

Here's a Treat--A 6 WOW Book Video for You!

The books mentioned in this video all are either unbelievable, mind blowing, have twists and/or surprise endings that made me say "WOW--You've got to be kidding me!"  Hope you enjoy watching and choose to read some.  Full book reviews of them can also be found on this blog if you use the search box.

Books mentioned are:
    A Child Called "It" by David Pelzer
    In the Blood by Lisa Unger
    Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner
    Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner
    Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
    The Manhattan Hunt Club by John Saul

These are from a variety of genres to encourage you to expand your reading interests.

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. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

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!

Learning to Juggle Using "The Great Juggling Kit" by Stuart Ashman

I thought maybe some of your were wondering why it is taking me so long to read such a short book of only 63 pages--The Great Juggling Kit--All you need to know to develop amazing juggling skills by Stuart Ashman. It is because I am actually trying to learn to juggle and it's hard. I don't practice much and haven't really even practiced regularly so that is why this book has been showing in our blog header here for over a month now. Hope you enjoy peeking in on me to watch my progress starting with this first video. I know I haven't quite perfected the arch consistently, but do you think I'm ready to move on?

Fortunately, this is a book I own.  If it were a library book, I'd be renewing it over and over!

(I should have made one when I first started using a ping pong ball which was harder because it was so light.) I got a set of juggling balls from our Focus Sports Camp at church a couple weeks ago, and they are much easier to use.

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

"The Cow Loves Cookies" by Karma Wilson is a Fun Read!

"The Cow Loves Cookies" by Karma Wilson is a fun book to read about what animals eat on a farm. The illustrations are very good too! We both enjoyed this children's book and highly recommend it for preschoolers. This is a really quick read!

For a laugh, take a few minutes and watch this video of Karen reading it to our cats, Spunky Doodle and Manny. (When Manny first came into our home, he was kept in a separate room for a few days and Karen would go in and read aloud so he could get used to her voice. He still likes it when she reads to him!)




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.

Behind The Scenes Of Our Blog Header (Writer's Workshop)

This vlog is in response to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop prompt: Tell us the story

behind the title of your blog. What is it? What inspired it? What other options did you consider? Are you happy with it? (I am very happy with it but forgot to mention that little fact in the video. My cats really cooperated nicely for me and were very patient. We tried four times to do this and I'm still not completely satisfied with it. I wanted to do it at the dining room table where I've been stacking the books, but the lighting wasn't good enough there.

Notice, you cannot make cats do anything.  You can only suggest, entice and wait patiently for them.

Check out our book giveaway of "I'm Outnumbered--One Mom's Lessons In The Lively Art Of Raising boys" to a mom (or gift for a mom)--winner to be announced May 1 so you have it in time for Mother's Day.

A Couple Childrens Books

The two childrens books we read this week were Snow!  Snow!  Snow! by Lee Harper and Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit--A Book of Changing Seasons by II Sung Na.

Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit by II Sung Na appealed more to Gerard than me.  It's about different animals and how the handle the snow and what happens in spring.  There are pictures on every page but not particularly cute.

Snow! Snow! Snow! by Lee Harper is a short, fun childrens book with very little writing and big pictures on every page.  Gerard and I both liked it because it was a cute story about dogs going sledding and having a good time like we did as kids and even not to long ago.  We thought you might enjoy a video of us sledding to bring this to life!

This sure beats shoveling!

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help Canine Lifeline (a dog rescue organization that saved our dog, Abby) by leaving a comment on any of our blogs in March. We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month.

Happy Presidents Day!

This video recaps all the presidents in under 4 minutes! Pretty cool, I thought. I'm glad I'm not the President of the U.S.--way too much responsibility! I'm amazed anyone wants that job but I'm sure glad some people do. I found this over at MaryTheKayTheBlog on her Honoring our Greatest Presidents post. She has a trivia quiz over there for you too!

Take A Break From Reading And Decorate!

My pets thought this video was so good, they wanted me to share it with you, so here you go.  Hope you enjoy it.  I thought it was pretty funny.

Spunky Chose The Winner Of "My Funny Dad Harry" Giveaway

Spunky Doodle chose the winner of our Fabulous Followers Giveaway.  The winner will receive an autographed copy of my book, "My Funny Dad, Harry" and a DVD with clips of him in action!  Thanks to all who expressed an interest.  The book is available on Amazon and Barnes Noble.