Thursday’s Tale: The Hunter and the Polar Bear

by Carol2 Comments
Someone- I won't say who- thinks he saw a bear in the neighbor's backyard last night. It's not impossible, but bears in town usually get publicity and as far as I can tell, no one else has seen this one yet. And his friends at work had been talking about hunting and about the bear one of them has seen on his property, which is nowhere near us. Not that someone is suggestible, but. . . I did ask him if the bear asked for honey and he said no. Anyway it did make me look up a tale about a bear for today. "The Hunter and the Polar Bear" is an Inuit folk tale retold in The Eskimo of Alaska by Norman Chance, 1966. Once there was a poor hunter. He always went out but never got anything. Finally one day he saw a polar bear. As he crawled toward it over the ice, the bear said to him, "Don't shoot me. If you follow me and do...
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#AMonthofFaves – 10 Favorite Book Covers

by Carol13 Comments
Today’s topic for “A Month of Favorites” is obviously all about the covers. “A Month of Favorites” is hosted by Girlxoxo, Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge. Today's link-up is over at Traveling with T. I'm actually not much of a cover person. Rarely will I actually read a book because I love the cover. If I had to choose my favorite covers in general my list would be entirely different, but for these 10, I'm only looking at books I actually read in the past year, and they're in no particular order.    1. Caught Dead by Andrew Lanh 2. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith 3. The Long Way Home by Louise Penny    4. Delicious! by Ruth Reichl 5. Invisible City by Julia Dahl 6. The Girl with a Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson   7. The Lost Girls of Rome by Donato Carrisi 8. Blame it on the Mistletoe by Nicole Michaels   9. The Lazarus Curse by Tessa Harris 10. The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan What covers make your...
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#AMonthofFaves: 5 Books By Theme

by Carol7 Comments
  Today’s topic for “A Month of Favorites” is choose-your-own-theme for 5 favorites. “A Month of Favorites” is hosted by Girlxoxo, Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge. Check out Estella's Revenge for today’s link-up. Five Favorite Fairy Tale-ish Books 1. The Flying Witch by Jane Yolen - an original tale based on the Baba Yaga legends. I especially liked the happy ending. 2. The Little Moose Who Couldn't Go To Sleep by Willy Claflin - a great read-aloud moose tale told by a moose 3. That's What Leprechaun's Do by Eve Bunting - not laugh-out loud funny, but entertaining. Leprechauns can certainly be mischievous. 4. Wickedly Magical by Deborah Blake - a new take on the Baba Yaga legend. Not a perfect book, but a good opening to a series. 5. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum - it's a classic, and I was surprised by how much it differed from the movies....
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Readers’ Workouts 12/2/2014

by Carol4 Comments
Last week was Thanksgiving - lots of food, family, friends and little exercise. Actually, that's not entirely true. My brother was in town and he's good at getting me motivated. Saturday we went for a run together - he had to run way slower than he usually does, but he didn't complain. We ended up going 7.44 miles at just under 12 mins/mile, according to his gizmo, which is the farthest I've run. It goes a little quicker when you have company, I think, but that's not usually an option for me. My friends don't run and I'm not good at making new friends. Sunday I worked out with dumbbells at home and did some jumping jacks. Monday I did nothing  - because I picked up my new car!! I know it's not workout related, but I wanted to share anyway. I am so happy. This one's windows will actually go up and down, the exhaust system doesn't sound like a truck and...
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Thursday’s Tale: The King’s Thanksgiving

by Carol2 Comments
  "The King's Thanksgiving" may not be necessarily a traditional folktale, but I liked it and it seems fitting for today. The author and date are unknown. Every child in the village was very much excited on account of the news that had come down from the castle on the hill. Because it had been such a rich harvest, the fields yellow with grain and the orchards crimson with fruit, the King was going to keep a thanksgiving day. He was going to ask some child from the village to come up the hill to the castle and eat dinner with the Prince and Princess. It was rumored, too, that this child would be given good gifts by the King. But it must be a very special kind of child indeed. That they all knew. Then the village children remembered everything that had been told them by their mothers, and their grandmothers, and their great-grandmothers about the castle kitchen. Scores of cooks and scullery...
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The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

by Carol2 Comments
I think I mentioned yesterday that I enjoy a little predictability and The Job fits with that. Sometimes I don't want character growth, I don't want change. This is one of those series. It's funny and, if you've read the prior installments, you know the broad outline of how it's going to go. Nick and Kate are the same as they were in #1. He's a bad guy, but working for the good guys at the moment. He's brilliant and sneaky, has a great sense of humor and is just rather sexy. Kate is no-nonsense, tough as nails and could kill you with a straw. And together they are perfect. The are, of course, attracted to each other and the flirtation is a great addition to the story, but I hate to admit that I'm glad they're still in the flirting stage. I don't know that I want to see them have a "real" relationship. I like them as they...
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