We Go Together

This is it folks, the end of the Summer Lovin' Read-a-thon. I am quite sad to see it go. A full week inundated in book blogging and reading with a purpose. I am really happy with my progress. I have read some of the "Graduation Day" posts that were linked up already and O.M.G. Some of you people read 8, 10, 18 books!! Uff-da! Even if I didn't have a baby I think 18 would overwhelm me. 

Here, again, were my goals:

1. Read and complete Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank

2. Read and complete an ebook

3. Participate in the daily blog link ups

4. Follow at least 2 new book bloggers

I read and completed 2 ebooks on my Kindle, both of which will be reviewed over at Sunrise Avenue soon. I managed to take part in the daily participation posts, and even several of the challenge posts! I wasn't sure I would have time to get them all done, but luckily I worked ahead and had some of the posts written/started last week when the schedule went up. And I think I added 4 new bloggers to my Feedly and another handful on Twitter. I love seeing all the book related tweets on my feed!!

Well the semi-bad news: I still have 84 pages left of Folly Beach. :(( I put off writing this post until later this evening to see if I could finish it, but I spent a lot of the morning at church and then with family and this afternoon catching up at the gym (finally). Maybe I will still finish it off tonight since I foresee Baby Girl having an early bedtime. 

Overall, this was probably the best read-a-thon to make my first read-a-thon. It had a lot of active participants, amazingly fantastic giveaways, a 24 hours Twitter Party (!!), creative challenges, and fun daily link ups. Read-a-thon Central will have another party in the winter, and I can't wait!! Until then, Christian Sugar Addict will go back to regular programming and the new blog, Sunrise Avenue, will be jumping in head first into the amazingly, awesome world of books! 

Thanks for stopping in friends and have a fantastic Sunday evening!!

.

My Bingo Blog

Folks. I did it. I blacked out my Bingo board.

The scariest part for me was the book rainbow. Most of my books are white and black it seems! Or ....dare I upset a lot of you??...ebooks. GASP. I have waaaay too many ebooks. But I managed to pull off all the colors without touching Baby Girl's books. So Proud. In fact. We will do that first. Please indulge me and say "oooo fascinating!" Thank you :)

Back to my Bingo Board...
Going straight across.

• The first book I read was Valor (review pending over at Sunrise Avenue). 
• You can find 2 of my challenge posts here and a separate post here.
• I tweeted @_RaTCentral_  probably too often :)
• Here is the tweet about what I was reading: "Trying my hand reading Dorothea Benton Frank. Folly Beach inrl is beautiful!! #summerlovin13" (ps I am @am_zech)

Next Row:

• I did all the participation posts! My fave is probably Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On because I got to announce my new blog and I enjoyed the book title scramble!
• I was following Greased Lighting on Twitter all day! I even won a prize! "And....the #SL6 trivia WINNER is......Alyssa @am_zech!!! Congratulations and check your DM for info. #SL24 #SummerLovin13"" SO HAPPY!
• Here are all the authors interviewed through the week. The links lead to the interviews: KA Tucker, Jennifer S. Doktorski, Sarah Fine, S.T. Bende, Jessica Gunhammer, Ardash Vartparonian, and Karla Nellenbach.
• I follow Read-a-thon Central on both Twitter and Facebook!
• And I read PLENTY of blogs this week!! New book blogs and old faves in my Feedly.

NEXT!

• Eat something sweet? Duh. It's me.
• A picture of something I love: 
  
  Chocolate via my instagram (@amzech18)
• I shared a favorite author with Read-a-thon Central on Facebook:

For the Bingo!!::I haven't been huge on following certain authors, but I do have 1 that I've been a fan of since 8th grade: Terry Brooks. I love his epic fantasy world and can't get enough!!

• Picture of the book I am reading..and my coffee...and Greased Lightening :)

via Instagram

MOVING ON:

Of course I checked out all the host blogs! Multiple times! I read all the author interviews and I really enjoyed reading their take on the participation posts. 

LASTLY:

• Read another book! "Okay!" I says. I accidentally read The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back in one day!!
• Do something outside:

 

I was outside reading and walking with Baby Girl a lot this week. Sorry its sideways :((

• And last but not least-a picture of my fave snack while reading. Lately. Trying to stay away from the aforementioned chocolate. 
  

I did it!! I BINGO BLACKED OUT!! 

And, even more amazing......I made it through this post! WHEW!

Night ya'll!

Hound Dog

This is going to be a fun blog link up! Reading everyone's 'bad boy' character will be quite interesting :)

I wasn't quite sure who to pick so I went back to the beginning, my beginning:: Lestat de Lioncourt. Lestat is one of the sexy vampires of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. And well, honestly? I fell in love with him from the Queen of the Damned  movie. We watched it once a week in high school. No. I am not exaggerating. 

While Lestat was something marvelous, they didn't call him the "Brat Prince" for nothing. He did, however, lead me to what I remember as my first 'bad boy' crush: Jean-Claude from the Anita Blake Chronicles. 

Pause for deliciousness. 

Vampire. Master of the City of St. Louis. 400-600 years old. Owner of several nightclubs and strip clubs. He is powerful and strong and deliciously beautiful. 

I fell in love with Anita Blake and her boys almost instantly. Anita is a vampire hunter and also a necromancer. She is well versed in guns and hand to hand combat, an excellent strong female character. Jean Claude is part of her triumvirate, and on numerous occasions, her lover.

Jean-Claude while sincere in his interest in Anita, is manipulative and ruthless, always trying to gain status and power in the vampire world, the extreme bad boy of the fantasy world. 

As much as Jean Claude was completely irresistible, the series unfortunately was not. The books grew widely inappropriate (Jean-Claude is an incubus after all) and so I had to quit reading after book four or five. 

Have you read the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series? Team Jean-Claude or Team Richard??

***Challenge Post: Summer Flings
Here would be my summer fling:
 Damon Salvatore

OR put together...
 The Salvatore Brothers

OR Let's Be REAL...


For my your viewing pleasure!

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!

Hello All!!

First, a bit of fantastic news: I have my new blog up and running!!!

Sunrise Avenue is my new home for blogging about books, life, and let's face it: Doctor Who! I have copied all the Summer Lovin' posts over to that site, but will finish out the challenge here as well for continuity. Eventually I will delete them from here to keep the sites orderly. I am really excited about it and hope you go check it out (work in progress remember!). Feel free to give me pointers about what you like and don't like so I can keep working hard! Click to visit the Welcome page.

Today's participation post is simply to update the masses on our progress! I am proud to report some good success! First, a review of my goals

1. Read and complete Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank

2. Read and complete an ebook

3. Participate in the daily blog link ups

4. Follow at least 2 new book bloggers

Goals 2, 3, and 4 have been accomplished! I meant to read more of Folly Beach yesterday, but it was busy and I was sick, so instead I laid in bed and started and finished another ebook, The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back. Goal one then is up in the air whether it will be finished then or not. 

CHALLENGE POST

COVER TITLE SCRAMBLE from Love. Life. Read.

Guidelines

• Pick 5 from each month and unscramble them. Each grouping of letters is one word (the words are kept in order)
• Put the answers in your blog post
• Link it up!!

.....I should be good at this one.............said the liar.

May Titles:

1) hte   h5t   vewa The 5th Wave
2) eht   scetrsahnen
3) ginwre
4) sujt   neo   skis Just One Kiss
5) yan   shduesc  lwil   od Any Duchess will do
6) ti   dha   ot   eb   uyo It had to be you
7) tols  dan   dfnuo Lost and Found
8) het   yelbon  gnki The Boelyn King
9) neoc  noup   a   niprec Once upon a Prince

June Titles:

1) het   nomo   dan  remo  The Moon and More

2) ormts  dna  egies Storm and Siege

3) rtas    dsceur  Star Cursed

4) teswe  lsat   ira  Sweet Last Air

5) het   crenwmeo 
6) veorfre   oto   rfa Forever too Far
7) het  miatng   fo  deyrr  uanacvhga .....I was pretty sure it started "The mating.." Wrong!

8) wot  fo  a  dnki Two of a Kind

9)  neo   etswe  deri 
10) hwta  hte   kedu   sesdeir What the Duke Desires

11) kifagn   ti 

July Titles:

1) fi   het  ohes   tisf   If the shoe fits
2) eth   eegd   fo  vnere 
3) rfits  gisht   a   veonl  
4) utre   lvoe  True Love
5) ehtre   tletil   rdswo  Three Little Words
6) eht   gniht  si  velia The Night is Alive
7) feprcte  gifln  Perfect Fling
8) scoseh  hte   gronw   ugy   veag   imh  het  gwonr  gefrni       
9) meoh  ot   kewihsy   kecre Home to Whiskey Creek

August Titles:

1) lafl   fo   veif  Fall of Five

2) wrnco    fo    gdminhit Crown of Midnight

3) hte   desah  fo  het   onom 

4) sero  bahrro   ni  mlobo
5) eht   rohe The Hero
6) gib   ysk diwengd Big Sky Wedding 

7) yatacasw  veoc  a  ltehrse  yab   venlo 

8)  siht   rilg   a   veonl  This Girl a Novel

9) mtetapinto Temptation

WHEW! Barely made it :) For loving to read, I am HORRIBLE at word games. Lucky there were enough easy ones for me to do each month! How did you do??

Tears on my Pillow

Greetings Amigos!

Day Four of the Summer Lovin' Read-a-thon and I have been having a fantastic time!

Today we share a quote from our current read or tell us about a book that really pulled on your heart strings. I recently added the Life Changer shelf to my Goodreads page, which includes six spectacular books that have caused me to stop and question my beliefs and/or my life in general.

One book I am currently reading with the blog Good Morning Girls is called Anything by Jennie Allen.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Safe. Comfortable. Happy. Words we all love. Feelings we want. Even crave. We may love God, but being that he's invisible, words like "comfortable" seem to feel better faster. We are all chasing something. Our hearts were made to run hard and fast after things that move us. But as a generation we are all beginning to stir and wake up, identifying that these words don't satisfy for long, especially when compared to God. If God is real, and we are going to live with Him forever, shouldn't He be everything?
Caught in this familiar haze of worldly happiness and empty pursuits, Jennie Allen and her husband Zac prayed a courageous prayer of abandonment that took them on an adventure God had written for them.
"God, we will do anything.''

It is a book that is shaking live throughout the GMG community. And if you are looking for a book to challenge your beliefs, pick this one up!! Here are a few random quotes that I have underlined in my copy:

"It's not just those in prison who are far from God; often it's those of us sitting in the pews, deciding where to go to lunch after this guy finishes talking about a God we barely need" (pg 24)

"I did wonder sometimes, when I closed my eyes and let it get scary quiet, if I was missing the best things, the things that matter most, because I was afraid." (pg 39)

"I believe that being willing to abandon everything requires being willing to go anywhere--and willing to let go of everything. ... If anything has 'buts', it wouldn't be anything." (pg 57)

and last one :))

"..we are actually looking for ourselves to matter. So we keep so busy, so distracted, so in love with everything but our invisible, patient, jealous God." (pg 70).

What books changed your life??

No affiliate links. All book links lead to goodreads.com.

"Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee!"

Greetings friends!

*Goals Update!!!: I finished my e-book goal by reading Valor by Taylor Longford! Still haven't started Folly Beach however...*

Anyone else dying to watch Grease about now? I am for sure, complete with chocolatey trail mix! Today's topic is a bit tougher for me. Although, I love reading, and particularly fiction, I do have a tough time becoming a fan follower of literary characters. TV...don't get me started *cough cough Doctor Who cough*. So I reviewed over my recent-er reads to pick some good female characters, and I am trying to stick to 3!

 

Elyse from Oppression

In the book, Elyse is given a prophecy for her life, and instead of complaining and resisting...she accepts it! I loved that about her and didn't see it as a weakness. Instead it is more like acceptance; acknowledging her importance and her future and acting upon as best she can. I love characters who can be strong and accept their destiny, and not spend three books whining about it. 

Tris in Divergent

I am surprised by how much I loved Tris considering how much I am probably nothing like her. But she is strong and fearless, something I wish I could be more like. Tris makes who she wants to be and doesn't accept her own limits. She is constantly challenging what others think of her and pushing herself to be better. I love that drive and it makes for a great dystopian character!

Hermione from Harry Potter

Let's face it.....she's awesome. Who wouldn't love to be Hermione Granger?? She is strong, brave, intelligent, loving, and kind. The perfect mix. I know she comes off as annoying for books 1-3, especially The Sorcerer's Stone, but she grows on you like a best friend. Hermione is the only one to stick with Harry from start to finish and that deserves some cred (book 5 anyone??)

Like these picks?? Anything you disagree with? I would love to hear it!




No affiliate links. All links lead to goodreads.com

You're the One that I Want!

Hey fellow Summer Lovin' friends!!

Today's participation post is focused on our must have summer reads. Let's be honest friends, is it really a summer read unless it is crazy chick lit???

Some examples of books I have read in the past that would qualify as great summer reads would be:

 One for the Money (and the whole series). Yes now it is a movie with Katherine Heigl that was only liveable because a. she was in it and b. I had already read the books years before. Trust me, the book IS better!

 Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. Straight up sob story here folks. So maybe don't actually read this ON the beach, unless you don't mind people staring at you.

 Mai Tai One On. Ridiculous summer mystery fluff.

And let's face it...
 Treasure Island. What could be more summery than a book on an island searching for treasure with pirates??? SUMMER.


This summer I feel I don't have much good chick lit fluff on my summer reading list. And that disappoints me. I have Folly Beach which is the book I am reading for this challenge. If you check out my To Reads page on Goodreads, what you will find is in need of some drastic updating. But! you may also find a lot of YA 'fluff' that perhaps I should finally get around to.





Which one do you think I should start with first?? Have you reviewed any of these books? Leave me the link in the comments!!


No affiliate links. All links lead to goodreads.com.

Class Orientation!

Hey Book Blogging Buddies!

I am participating in my first ever Read-a-thon here with Summer Lovin' hosted by Reviewing Wonderland.

Today's participation post is about introductions and goals. Well taking a peek around the blog you can see I am not a book blogger :( (but check out this announcement I made last week. I would love all your wisdom and pointers as I get started!!) The book blogging world is something I am just discovering, and loving! Participating in this read-a-thon is part of this discovering process! 

Basics: My name is Alyssa! I am married to an awesome Hubby and now have an eight month old Baby Girl, whom I love to share pictures about in every form of social media. Being a new mommy has cut back on my reading time; my TBR pile is growing HUGE! I am a stay at home mom for now. I am heading into another year of coaching cheerleading (football and competitive seasons). Whether or not I coach the whole year is up in the air with a new baby child. I HUGE GINORMOUS fan of DOCTOR WHO!!! If you are too, we should be insta-friends. I am also a fan of () and !!.

I taught myself to read round age 3 by reading Babysitter's Little Sister chapter books. Loved those, Sweet Valley Twins, and Boxcar children. Because I taught myself to read, I often have difficulty with pronunciation in my speech. I had to figure out what words sounded like in my head and what their meaning was by context.  

Since then, I have been a huge reader, leaning heavily in fantasy (Animorphs as a kid quickly migrated into the world of Shannara), paranormal (before vampires were cool there was Queen of the Damned), and dabbling in sci-fi (Acorna was my big break even though I wasn't a total fan). Now, thanks to Twilight, I am discovering the world of YA. I am finding YA captivating in story and imagination, and they are always a quick, easy reading breeze. I am also reading more non-fic as I get older, specifically Christian lit but also beginning to dabble in bios. 

My goals for this read-a-thon are:

1. Read and complete Folly Beach (a beach read about a beach I have actually visited!) 

2. Read and complete an ebook 

3. Participate in the daily blog link ups

4. Follow at least 2 new book bloggers!

************
CHALLENGE POST!
Today's challenge can be found HERE!
I am sharing from Age of Miracles

 

"My mother had never forbidden me to talk to Sylvia or the other real-timers. It was never explicitly said. But it didn't need to be said. I understood well that I was supposed to keep my distance from them, from Sylvia especially. And mostly, that's exactly what I did." (pg 124)

"Classrooms were half empty all day or, depending on your outlook, half full. Dozens of desks stood unused, attendance sheets went largely unchecked. It was as if certain kids really had been sucked up from the earth to the heavens, the way some Christians were expecting, leaving the rest of us behind, we the children of scientists and atheists and the simply less devout." (pg 47)

Hmm... that last one makes it sound like a religious book, but it is not. Hope this intrigued you to reading it!!

************

I hope I can complete this amazing reading feat in one week! Wish me luck!!

If you are book blogger, leave a note! I would love to stop by your place!

No affiliate links. All links lead to goodreads.com.

My first Read-a-thon!

Hey friends!

Special Tuesday post here: I am going to try my hand at a read-a-thon! Here is the information:

The Summer Lovin’ Readathon is a week-long readathon event hosted by seven independent bloggers! (Oh, Chrys!, Tumbling Books, Effortlessly Reading, Love Life Read, Shelf Addiction, Read Sleep Repeat, and Reviewing Wonderland)

Spend the week reading at your own pace, when and how you want too. There will be daily challenges for awesome prizes and opportunities to get points toward the Grand Prize Packs.

As if that weren’t enough – the week will end with a 24-hr marathon readathon! Twitter parties, mini-challenges, games, prizes given EVERY HOUR, and more chances to get points toward the Grand Prize Packs.

Sign-ups will be open through July 6th!

So happy to have fallen into the world of book blogging!!