Get Lost in Literature

Hello all! I'm just giving an update on what's happening at this blog. You may have noticed my Monday Book Reviews have lessened, making my blog a little slow and desolate. Just letting you know it's not forever. This year I'll be participating in  April Blogging from A to Z Challenge  again, which is a blogging challenge where bloggers pick a theme and 26 alphabet based topics to go with it, all to be posted in the month of April. This year, I'll be participating with another set of A-Z Book Reviews (some old and some new) but I was missing books for the letters H, Q, X, and Z. I've been spending much of my time tracking down books for the missing letters and trying to read and review those books in time for April. So basically what I'm telling you is you're going to go from too few reviews to too many. I'm hoping to have it all under control by mid-March. Those four missing books will be read, the reviews will be pre-scheduled to post on their own,...

  American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise   by Joe Drape "The three hardest things to predict the outcome of are a ballgame, a love affair, and a horse race." In 1978, a horse named Affirmed managed to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown of horse racing. It would be a 37-years before the next horse was capable of accomplishing the same feat: American Pharoah in 2015. This isn't a particularly long book, but it took me forever to read. It's not a particularly emotional book (I don't think, anyways) but it kept making me emotional. I've been a horse lover all of my life, even making the financially irresponsible decision to buy one of my own, and a longtime fan of horse racing. I wasn't even born in 1978 when Affirmed won the Triple Crown... and while I'd seen video of Secretariat moving 'like a tremendous machine' it wasn't the same as ex...

Today's Top Ten Tuesday , hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl , is a list of the Top Ten Books I Never Reviewed. I liked all of these books, so it's a surprise to me that I never made time to review them. And at this point, it'd be necessary to reread them to make sure they were getting the rave reviews they all deserve which I don't really have time for right now.  1. Wicked by Gregory Maguire 2. The Host by Stephenie Meyer 3. Dracula by Bram Stoker 4. Ursula Under  by Ingrid Hill 5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 6. Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques 7. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemsin 8. The City and The City by China Mieville 9. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card 10. The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint Have you read any of these? What's a book you loved but never reviewed?

Book Beginnings on Fridays by Rose City Reader - Share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. "I was beginning to believe that I was never going to see a horse capture the Triple Crown." American Pharoah by Joe Drape This is the first sentence from the author's note at the beginning of the book, and I'm in total agreement. I wasn't even alive in 1978 when Affirmed claimed the title. I was beginning to think it couldn't be done. Book Blogger Hop Q: Have you ever read a Nicholas Sparks romance novel? If so, what is your opinion on his endings? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer) A: No, I haven't read anything by Nicholas Sparks as I don't read a lot of romance.

Valentine's Day approaches! And I have a confession: I don't really care. I don't mean that to be facetious but the reality is I haven't got much of a romantic bone in my body. I actually like the day after Valentine's a little better, because I can buy chocolate at next to nothing because it was all poured into a heartshaped mold that stopped being relevant the moment the clock hit midnight. Given all that, it probably won't come as a shock to you that I don't read a lot of romance novels, and when I do, it's not usually the romantic elements that made me pick it up in the first place. My GoodReads 'Romance' shelf list 27 books in all, and some of them are sequels so I'm not sure they count. Because picking up romance is such a rarity for me, and it is Valentine's Day (almost), I decided my list today should be Top Ten Romantic Books & Why I Read Them . (hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl ) 1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I like vampire...

  "Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities." Violet Sorrengail, frail and fragile, trained her whole life to be in Scribe Quadrant, wanting nothing more than to be surrounded by books, recording history. But her mother, the general, has other ideas. She's being sent to college to train in the Riders Quadrant to follow in the footsteps of her siblings to become a dragon rider. The problem? Besides being too weak to carry her own bag, she'll be in a school where every test she takes is graded by life or death and everyone wants her dead. I can absolutely see what the fuss is about, this was a little addicting for me. I was pulled in right away by the idea of Violet, this smart young woman with physical infirmities being forced into a war college where only the strongest survive. She's the heroine of the story, so you know she's going to survive, but s...

Book Beginnings on Fridays by Rose City Reader -  Share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. "On the White House roof, tucked into a corner of the Promenade, there's a bit of loose paneling right on the edge of the Solarium. If you tap it just right, you can peel it back enough to find a message etched underneath, with the tip of a key or maybe a stolen West Wing letter opener." Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston I just finished my first romance novel Red, White & Royal Blue . It was cute. Maybe someday I'll read another one. Book Blogger Hop Q: Do you prefer to read series one book after another, or can you read other books in between? (submitted by me, Idea-ist @ Get Lost in Literature) A: I prefer to read a series one book after another, but sometimes that's not possible if the sequel hasn't...

  Happy Sunday! The Sunday Post is a weekly news meme created by Caffeinated Reviewer . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you'll join me. The month of January was a cold one, and I mean cold ... we had one day with a high of 8 degrees and a real feel of -2. And I know that out there, there are places that get colder. This is not the coldest place on earth, not even the coldest place in the USA, but for us it was 'frickin' freezin' in here, Mr. Bigglesworth.' My reading month has been a bit slow, I've been working a lot of overtime lately. I started reading American Pharoah  by Joe Drape,  but it's slow going; that's got nothing to do with the quality of the story as it's quite good, but with the sentimentality of the reader. (It keeps making me cry.) I'm also reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros,  late to the party, I know. I did get at least two reviews posted in January.  Carving Shadows into Gold by Brigid Kemmere...