"Dumping These Four"

Gerard orders books from the library all the time and waits for them to come in.  Often, he'll get a truckload all at once which is what happened last time.  When this happens, he doesn't stick with a book if he's not into it.  This morning he brought me these four and said, "I'm dumping these" and plopped them down for me to include in our "Dud" list (Click our Duds tab above for more we gave up on and why).  

Please keep in mind, just because the books didn't appeal to us, doesn't mean it's a bad book.  Everyone has different tastes so you may like some of these.  If you did, please leave your thoughts in a comment here.

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!

"How They Grow: Owl" and "The Miracle of Easter" (Reading online)

Did you know you can help organizations get more books in the hands of children for free just by reading children's books online at We Give Books?  These are the two I read this morning:

Ages 0-3 (science)

How They Grow:  Owl by DK Publishing is a cute picture book that shows how the owl looks and what it does from the time it is hatched until it's full grown in 12 weeks.  See, even reading these children's books, you can learn things quickly.  For example, I didn't know it takes 12 weeks for an owl to be full grown.

Ages 4-7 (history)

The Miracle of Easter by J. M. Malone is a nicely illustrated book that quickly tells the story about Jesus beginning with his wondrous works through his resurrection.  I was disappointed though with the ending because the book did not tell how after He rose from the dead, he was actually still on Earth for awhile before ascending to heaven and seen by many people.  I feel this book is a bit misleading and would not recommend it for that reason.

(Karen's reviews)

I do recommend that you check out this site to help kids get books.  It's all free!

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!

"The Storyteller" by Jodi Picoult

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult is so good! Wow, oh wow, where to start? It is about an old man who was a German S.S. guard at a Nazi war camp. Now he wants a favor from a woman, one she is not sure she can do. There are several good story lines in this book. You get the Nazi guard story, a fantastic story from the young girl’s Jewish grandmother who was in the death camp, and the story that she was writing, which is sort of what the book is based on. I just loved it! As usual for Jodi Picoult’s books, the ending is shocking!
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

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!

"The Tutor's Daughter" by Julie Klassen

The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen is a clean historical romance that held my interest all through with the mysterious events that happen to Emma, the tutor's daughter while staying at the cliff-top manor where her father tutors two teen boys. This book is very interesting because of the family secrets, interesting characters and the family dynamics involved. Emma knew the older two Weston boys, Philip and Henry, from when they attended her father's boarding school. Their father invited Mr. Smallwood to live at his manor and privately tutor his two younger sons, Julian and Rowan, when the academy's last student left.

I liked this book very much because although it is a romance novel, there is a lot of mystery in it as well and it doesn't have any sex scenes at all. It's a very enjoyable read and a couple times while reading I actually said, "oh no!" right out loud! This is also one that when reading on the bus, I almost missed my stop. I looked up just in time. I highly recommend this one for a book club because it has interesting discussion questions in the back covering topics such as life choices, homeschooling, special needs kids, history of shipwrecks and the characters in the book. I liked this one much better than the first book I read by Julie Klassen, The Girl in the Gatehouse.
(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!

Linking up with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, responding to the prompt to share a book review.

Tuesday Teasers: 3 This Week

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 (well, we cheat and choose specific ones)
• 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.   

Gerard's

Josef lets out a breath he has been holding. "So it is not a no," he says cautiously. "This is good."

From page 54 of The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.

The black-masked figure raised his Taser again. Calmly inserted a fresh cartridge. Took aim. Fired.
My fifteen-year-old daughter started to scream.

From page 19 of Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner. (My review will be up tomorrow.)

Karen's

Heart pounding, Emma gingerly leaned forward and peered around the corner. She held her candle at waist level, too nervous to lift it high, uncertain what she might find.

From page 116 of The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen. (historical romance--my review will be posted Thursday.)

Happy Reading!