Change of Plans?

I have been finding it difficult to post lately (anybody else have, "no shit Sherlock" run through their head right then?), so I'm going to change things up a bit.

My dear friend Mindy of Rindy Mae fame does these fabulous posts of Random Thoughts and they are amazing.  I love them.  I look forward to them.  They always make me smile.

So, while Princess Libby is still in her 'demanding-all-of-my-time' phase, that's what I am going to do.  Random little thoughts. Or easy little posts.

For today, I'm borrowing a fabulous idea from Tina Bradley over at Tickled Pink and noting a few of my favourite things based on her list.  So here goes:

Favourite,......
Colour - blue (but this changes on occasion)
Song - Bubbly by Colbie Caillait
Cake - my mom's pina colada cake
Flower - lavender
Season - definitely fall (spring is too messy, summer is too hot, winter is a good second)
Holiday - hmmmm,...does Victoria Day count? (not big on holidays, too much aggravation, though the food is usually good, lol)
Comfort activity - eating! and maybe having a glass of wine.  Okay, definitely having a glass (or two?) of wine.
Style icon - um yeah, I have no style, so,...yeah
Book - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smity
Wine - any red from Kacaba Vineyards (okay, any red really, lol)
Scent - lavender
Guilty pleasure - Grey's Anatomy

Now it's your turn.  What are your favourites?

Lucas, Emma, and The Tall Tower

After Lucas and Carter finished up their green soup, Carter gathered up his ducks and they were all on their way.  Lucas was sorry to see them go.  Carter was great company and the ducks were so good at eating all the bugs.  Lucas could only hope that Carter would come back again some time.

As Lucas turned to go back into the house, he could hear someone yelling?  Someone who was really far away.  “Help me.”

Yes, he definitely heard somebody calling for help.  

Lucas ran through the neighbourhood, stopping every once in awhile to listen for the voice.  He zigged and he zagged until he got to a wall of trees.  Hmmm, he thought, I haven’t seen these trees before.  I wonder what’s on the other side of them.

Lucas got down low and sniggled his way through the bottom of the trees.  When he came out on the other side, bibbidy bobbidy, what did he see?  A huge castle.

Wow, thought Lucas, how in the world have I never seen this castle before?

“You have not seen it before, dear sir, because castles are not meant to be seen on just an ordinary day.  They are meant to be special, glittering and shining in all their perfect beauty only on special occasions.”

Lucas turned to see a little girl standing there.  She was the same age as him, 5, and she was wearing a very pretty pink and purple princess dress.

“Are you a princess?” he asked her.

She laughed.  “Of course I am,” she said.  “My name is Emma and I am the Princess of Portland, daughter of King Chachi and Queen Mindy.”

Lucas bowed deeply,  “I am charmed to meet you, your grace.”

Emma giggled.  “Please stand back up.  I’m more of a casual sort of princess.  You don’t need to bow anymore, but I could use your help with something,” she said.

“Is it an adventure?” Lucas asked.

“Sort of.  There is a little girl who is trapped in the tall tower of this castle and I want to free her.  Do you think you could help with that?” she asked.

“Ha ha.  Of course,” replied Lucas.  “I love doing that sort of thing.”

Lucas and Emma ran to the tall tower to scout out the situation.  They both agreed that it was much too tall for them to jump up, even with a boost.  What they needed was a ladder, but where to find one?  They went searching around the castle gardens for a ladder.  Nope, none to be found.

But what they did find was,….a huge tent.  The Ladies of the Castle were having afternoon tea and sweets under the tent.  Lucas knew he could get the girl out of the tall tower if they had that tent.  “Emma, you have to create a diversion so I can snatch this tent away from the Ladies.”

Emma laughed.  “How in the world am I supposed to do that?”

“You’ll think of something,” Lucas said, running to the tent. 

Emma hopped onto her new bicycle which of course had streamers flying from the handlebars.  She called to the Ladies.  “Dear Ladies, it is time for your entertainment.  Do come see my new bicycle tricks.”

The Ladies poured out of the tent and watched Emma ride around on her bike.  First, she stood up on the seat and glided around the garden.  Next, she did a handstand on the handlebars.  The Ladies all clapped, they were so impressed.  For her final trick, Emma declared that she needed the largest tree in the garden and led the Ladies across the lawn.  She was going to bike all the way up the tall tree.  Whoa.

This was just the break that Lucas needed.  He quickly dismantled the tent and moved it to below the window of the tall tower.  He climbed a nearby tree and jumped from the tree onto the top of the tent, using it like a trampoline.  Next thing he knew, he was flying through the air, bouncing up to the little girl’s window.  On his next jump, he popped right inside.  There was a little baby girl sitting on the floor.  She stopped crying when Lucas popped in through the window.

“Hi, little girl.  What is your name?” Lucas asked.

“Laney,” the little girl said.

“Well Laney, this is your lucky day.  I’m going to get you out of here and bring you to Emma.  How does that sound?”

Laney was so excited, she was on her feet and ready to go.  Lucas grabbed her tightly and jumped out of the window, landing on the tent. Laney laughed and laughed.  Next thing Lucas saw, Emma was jumping right beside him.  The three of them had the greatest fun on that tent.  

The sun was starting to go down so the three of them had to get down from the tent.  Lucas returned the tent to The Ladies so they would be able to use it for their tea tomorrow.  Emma thanked Lucas for helping to get Laney out of the tall tower.  The girls waved to Lucas and started on their way home.

Lucas smiled.  He was happy that he could help somebody today.  He wondered what adventure he was going to have tomorrow.

Healing Angels

So today is Day 2 of nanowrimo (only 28 more to go if you're getting sick of hearing about it) and I had an epiphany of sorts.  A dear friend sent me an email asking if I would agree to accept three healing angels from her.  They will stay 5 days with me and will help with 3 wishes.  Then I must choose another 3 people, and the angels will be off to visit those people.

source

This triggered a much more exciting story than the one I had been struggling to get into.  So I'm all atwitter now, ready to go, animated.  Woohoo.  :)  Big hugs and lots of love to my dear friend.

So tell me what would be your 3 wishes?

Nanowrimo

And so it begins.  Today is the start of National Novel Writing Month.  So here I go.  Wish me luck, will ya? 

Where's The Plot?

So, if you're afraid that this blog might be all nano all of the time until December 1st, you are probably right.  Then it will be all puppy (we get Libby on December 1st), all of the time.

So, feel free to pop back in with me in the new year where I can only hope I have a little more depth in my conversation.  In the meantime, I am having trouble plotting.

I keep doing a Homer Simpson.  You know how his mind wanders into far off places, sometimes frozen ones?  Yeah, that's what I'm doing.  How about a puppy pic to break up all of the writing?

So now I'm looking for suggestions.  With one week left before the actual writing starts, what would you like to see in my story?  There will be a quest to figure out who the main character's real father is, and a race to find a missing gem.  That's all I've got so far but I am interested in hearing any ideas.  :)

Seriously, lay 'em on me.  And another gratuitous puppy pic.

Do You Nano?

It's October 23rd and I am starting to get downright itchy about starting Nanowrimo next week.  Not familiar? It is short for National Novel Writing Month, and it is both a thrilling and frightening month-long quest for 50,000 words.

Have you ever wanted to write a novel but just didn't get around to doing it?  This might be the perfect blend of competition and comraderie that you need to give it a go.

If you do decide to sign up for nanowrimo (it's free), do let me know so I can get out my pompoms and cheer you on.  I'll post a widget up in the corner so you can watch my progress throughout November.

Lucas, The Stinkbugs, and Carter

Lucas wasn't really sure what to do about these stinkbugs that were now falling back to earth and his back yard.  Suddenly he had a great thought:  “I know, I just need to find out what likes to eat stink bugs and then I'll be all set.”  He ran into the house to check out Google.

While he waited for Google to answer his question, he heard a big commotion in the back yard.  It sounded like ducks quacking.  “How weird was that,” thought Lucas?

He ran to the basement window to see what he could see.  Well, what he DID NOT see were any stinkbugs.  What he DID see, was a 6-year-old boy, surrounded by 3 ducks that were wearing tiny little green and yellow shirts.  Hmmm,...thought Lucas, I guess I better head out there and see what this is all about.

When Lucas got outside, he noticed that the boy had on a green and yellow shirt too and it said “Go Ducks” on it. 

“Hi,” said Lucas, “What’s your name?”

“I’m Carter,” said the boy, “And these are my ducks, Marcus, De’Anthony, and Dion.”

Lucas shook Carter’s hand and nodded his head toward each of the ducks.  They all quacked a hello his way. 

“Did your ducks eat all of the stinkbugs?” asked Lucas.

“You bet,” said Carter.  “They love stinkbugs.  I also noticed some pickles laying around so we each had a few of those.”

They boys both laughed at that.  Lucas was really liking Carter. 


“Hey, I was just about to make some Green Soup for lunch.  Do you want to stay and join me?" Lucas asked

Carter's face lit up.  "Green Soup is my favourite.  That would be great."

The boys left the ducks to swim in the pool while they got started on the Green Soup.  They got the split peas down from the cupboard and were starting to gather the rest of the ingredients when suddenly they heard a huge collision out front.  Lucas and Carter looked at each other with wide eyes, then ran out to see what had happened.

When they got out front, they were shocked at what they saw. 

In the middle of the road was a gigantic spider.  It’s legs were at least 6 feet long and of course it had 8 of them and they were all very hairy.  No really, I mean very hairy.  The big black hairy spider was right in the middle of a big car accident.  There were two smaller cars and three trucks all wrapped around each other, with that big hairy spider in the middle of all of them.  As Lucas and Carter watched, the spider picked up one of the trucks and crunched it with its powerful fangs. 

“Whoa,” they both said. 

The spider seemed to hear them and turned its attention toward the boys.  “Uh-oh,” Lucas said, “I think we better get outta here.”

“Yeah,” agreed Carter.  They ran back into the house and watched as the spider slowly crawled to the front window.  As the boys stood on the couch and looked out of the window, the spider creeped up and peered inside - all 8 of its creepy eyes staring at them.  It was enough to give the boys the willies.

“We ned a plan,” Lucas whispered to Carter.

“I know what we need,” said Carter.  “We need some big flies.”

Lucas smiled, “Absolutely!”

The boys sped into the back yard to catch some flies.  And what’s the best way to attract flies?  With poo!

Lucas and Carter gathered up a bunch of dog poo and made a fly trap.  When it was all set, they hid behind the shed and waited.  It felt like they had waited forever, but finally they heard, Bzzzzzzz, bzzzzzzzz, bzzzzzzz.  The boys were so excited.  They both peeked around the side of the shed and sure enough, there was a fly, caught in their trap.  His spindly legs were flailing and he was struggling, but the trap held fast.

Both boys grabbed their dog leashes (which they both always carried at the ready for just such occasions) and lassoed the fly.  The fly barely even struggled at this point, it was just too tired.  With a bit of finesse, the boys were able to get the leashes around the fly and lead it around to the front of the house.

They shouted for the spider, and saw it turn toward them.  The spider was starving and quickly gulped down the fly.  The boys ran into the backyard and snagged a few more flies to feed to the spider.  One after another.  But now it seemed like the spider was not getting full and they didn’t have any more flies.  They had to do something about this spider, and fast!

Lucas winked at Carter, closed his eyes and then started to chant.  The earth began to rumble and quake.  Lucas’ eyes whipped open and he and Carter stood together.  Before they even knew what happened, The Sandman erupted from the earth, grabbed the spider, gave the boys a salute and dropped back into the earth.  Whew.

He was gone and the spider was gone.  Woohoo.  Lucas and Carter dragged themselves back into the house and finished making their Green Soup.

Lucas and the Ladybugs

Here is the next chapter of the kids' silly stories.  Enjoy (as requested, Carter).

Lucas was happy that he was able to help Alexa with her clown, lizard, and talking car problem.  The last time he saw her, she seemed so much more relaxed.

To celebrate, Lucas poured himself a glass of chocolate milk and went into the back yard to relax for a bit.  As he was enjoying the drink, Lucas noticed that there was a huge red cloud of something heading his way.  He could hardly believe his eyes.  He sat up straighter so he could get a better look.  As it got closer, he could see that the swarm was actually a big blanket of ladybugs, and from where he stood, they looked like the biting kind.  Yikes.

But that wasn't the strangest part about this bunch of ladybugs.  The strangest part about this group of ladybugs was that they were all eating pickles. Uh-huh.  Pickles.  You know those huge deli-style dill pickles that are so sour that when you take a bite your eyes go kind of cross-eyed?  Yes, those pickles.  The ladybugs were eating those pickles.

Lucas couldn't believe his eyes.  He had heard that beetles were big fans of artichokes (you know the kind that you marinate in a vinaigrette, not those regular canned ones or even the fresh ones), but he had never heard about ladybugs and pickles.  Definitely news to him, Lucas thought.

Well, I have to stop these ladybugs, thought Lucas, before they come down here and bite me.  What can I do to stop them? Hmmmmmm?

I know, he said, jumping out of the lawn chair, “ I just need to find the one thing that will get rid of the biting ladybugs.”

Lucas ran into the house and searched all over.  First he tried in the basement, but nope, he didn’t find what he was looking for.

Then he ran into the kitchen,…nope, not there.

Next he sped into the living room,…um,….under the couch? Behind the TV?,….nope, not there either.

He was starting to get discouraged, but he decided to try one more place.  His bedroom.  He tore apart his dirty clothes hamper, he whipped open his matchbox car carrying case, he looked behind the snow globes, and peeked next to the goldfish, Nemo.  But he found nothing.  Where was it? 

He looked around the room.  Hmmmmm. 

Aha, he yelled.  Here it is, under the bed.  Lucas grabbed the secret weapon and tore off outside.  By now the ladybugs had gotten so close that they were almost in the backyard.  Quickly, Lucas aimed carefully and then threw,…..threw what?

He threw a grenade.  What?  Ha ha ha.  Of course he didn’t have a grenade hiding under his bed.  That would be silly.

He threw,…..a pumpkin.  What?  Ha ha ha.  Of course he didn’t have a pumpkin hiding under his bed.  That would also be silly.

Oh no,……what he had was,….what he threw was,…. an fist full of stinkbugs.  These were the stinkiest stinkbugs in the whole land.  As the smelly stinkbugs flew through the air, they gobbled up all of those biting ladybugs before they could get into Lucas’ yard. 

Phew.  Lucas was so relieved that his ladybug problem was over.  Plus, he noticed that the ladybugs had dropped all of those pickles and now those pickles were floating down toward him. Mmmmm,..he licked his lips and felt his mouth start to water.  Oh how he loved pickles. 

As those pickles started getting closer, he had the great idea to run into the house and grab a plate.  Now, Lucas was sitting in the back yard, enjoying some gorgeous sunshine and chomping on some pickles.  He opened his eyes, feeling all relaxed, and looked up to the skies.

Oh no, he yelled.  Suddenly he realized that there was a huge group of stinkbugs with full bellies heading his way.  What was Lucas going to do? 

Stay tuned for next time to see what happens with Lucas and the stinkbugs.

Book Review - Memoirs of a Geisha

And so another month has gone by and it's time for Kadie and Jenny's readalong linky party.  This month I read a bunch of great books that I enjoyed and ditched a bunch of books that I couldn't get into.  It was a real mixed month.


One of the great books, was Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.  I had seen the movie a long time ago, but didn't really remember much of it, so it didn't spoil anything for me.

Chapters Link

This was a longer read than I normally undertake, but totally worth the extra time to get through it.

The book starts off in a small fishing village with young Chiyo living her simple life. Her mother is dying, her father is old and there is noone to take care of her and her sister. When her mother finally dies, the girls are sold to the big city of Gion with big hopes for their futures. 

Initally, Chiyo is a maid at an okiya (Geisha home) but is still hopeful that she will become a Geisha.  There comes a day when she loses hope that this will happen and sits to weep beside a river.  A man (The Chairman) stops to ask after her and comfort her.  She falls in love with him after this exchange and believes that she is destined to be with him. 

 Chiyo wants to be a Geisha. Her life takes many twists and turns, even after she becomes a Geisha but she does not get close enough to what she believes is her destiny - life with The Chairman. The end takes a somewhat surprising turn based on some crazy behaviour by Chiyo (who is now called Suriya) but wraps up nicely.

I absolutely loved this peek into the world of the Geisha and Japanese culture. The tea houses and ceremonies are captivating. Suriya feels a little selfish to me but that doesn't take away from this story. A great read. I was captivated until close to the end, when I felt that the book started (oddly) to drag a bit. Definitely recommend.

Silly Stories for Kids

This is a heap of silliness that I wrote for my nephew, Lucas.  Every week or so I plan on writing up a silly scene (pure free writing - nothing literary here) and mailing it to him.

I'll keep the collection in a tab at the top of the blog in case you want to share some of this frivolous fun with a kiddo in your life.

Be warned that there may be references to puke, farts, burps, gooey things, snakes, lizards, poop, etc.  My main goal is to entertain a 5-year-old boy and maybe, just maybe, help him develop an interest in reading.  So now you're warned.  :)

Here's the first one:

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

Lucas, Alexa and the Lizards

Lucas Cohoe is a 5-year-old boy when our story begins.  He has blond hair and blue eyes and a clever little grin.  Most of the time he is a happy little boy, but he craves adventure.  Just like his hero, Batman, he wants to beat up the bad guys and save the good guys.  The only problem is that he isn’t sure where he can find this type of excitement.

“I know,” Lucas said.  I can call up my good friend, Alexa, and see if she has any excitement going on at her house.

Alexa picked up the phone on the fifth ring and sounded like she was out of breath.  “Hello,” she said.

“Hey Alexa, It’s Lucas.  What’s going on? Why did it take you so long to answer the phone?” he asked.

“Oh Lucas.  I’m so glad it’s you.  You’re not going to believe what is going on over here.  When I woke up this morning, I thought I would go outside and have a swim.  I got on my bathing suit and put on some sunscreen and out I went.  Well, guess what I found in the swimming pool?” Alexa asked him.

“I have no idea,” said Lucas.

“The swimming pool was filled with lizards!  There were green ones and blue ones and even orange ones,” Alexa said, “I think I even screamed when I saw them.  I was so surprised.”

“I would be surprised too,” agreed Lucas, “So what did you do about those lizards, Alexa?”

“Well, I thought they might be hungry after swimming all morning, so I went inside to get them some cereal.  I grabbed the cereal box and a couple of bowls and spoons.  Then I went into the fridge to get the milk and guess what I found in the fridge?” Alexa asked him.

“I have no idea,” said Lucas.

“I found a clown.  I don’t know how he got in there.  He was kind of big to be fitting into the fridge, but he sort of curled up so that his nose was on his knees and then he just wiggled right in there between the tomatoes and the bologna.  It was so weird.”

“Holy crow, Alexa.  What did you do about the clown in your fridge?” Lucas asked her.

“Well I forgot about getting cereal for the lizards, I was just so surprised,” she said.  “I thought the clown was probably getting a little cold from being in the fridge all morning, so I helped him get out of the fridge and gave him a chair to sit on.  Then I thought I would go downstairs to get him a blanket so that he could start to warm up.  I got all the way downstairs and opened the laundry room door, and guess what I found in the laundry room?” Alexa asked.

“I have no idea,” said Lucas.

“I found a racing car in the laundry room.  It was bright red and it could talk.  Wow, that was a real shocker I’ll tell you.  When I opened the door, the racing car said to me, ‘hey, this is my room’ and he was kind of grumpy about it.” Alexa said.

“Holy crow, Alexa.  What did you do about the grumpy red racing car in your laundry room?” Lucas asked her.

“Well I was a little grumpy myself because this is my house and the red racing car has no business being in the laundry room but he was looking super crabby so I thought maybe he just needed some cheering up.  I decided that I was going to go get my little guitar and sing him a song to cheer him up.  So I went back upstairs, into my room and started searching for my little guitar.  It was hard to find.  I looked in the closet but it wasn’t there.  I looked on my shelf, but it wasn’t there.  Then I looked under the bed, and guess what I found under my bed?” Alexa asked.

“I have no idea,” said Lucas.

“A jar of buttons,” she said.

“Buttons?  Why in the world do you have a jar of buttons under your bed?  That’s just kind of weird,” Lucas said.

Alexa started to laugh and laugh.  “I know,” she said, “it’s so creepy weird.  I have no idea where those buttons came from, Lucas.”

Lucas thought that Alexa was starting to sound a little crazy.  This spooky day was getting to be a bit much and Lucas thought, he should help Alexa get rid of all of these strange house guests.

“Here’s what you need to do, Alexa,” Lucas said.  “Get the jar of buttons and go talk to the clown.  Tell him that if he wants the buttons, and he will because of course clowns love buttons, he needs to gather up all of the lizards and get them into the talking red car.  Then, shake the jar of buttons over the car so that the clown jumps in too.  Give that red car a push, sending everyone off down the street.

Alexa hung up with Lucas and did just that.  The clown ran to gather up all of the lizards and then hopped into the car himself to get to the buttons.  One good push and Alexa was free of them all.  She was so happy that she finally hopped into the pool for a swim.

Lucas saved the day.

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

I'll try to have some pictures in future, but if any creative peoples want to contribute a little lizard, clown or car pic,.......  lol

Dryer Sheet Mixed Media

This was inspired by a fabulous tutorial by Denice Brown of Art Play Today.  I love the idea of recycling dryer sheets and using something that would have gone into the garbage frees me of any perfectionistic expectations.  I mean really, whatever I do has to be a step up from garbage, right?  :)

Denice suggests using freezer paper and glue to secure the dryer sheets. I looked high and low for freezer paper, only to discover that it isn't a Canadian thing.  Who knew.  So I decided to use painter's tape to attach the dryer sheets to some cardboard.

Here is the tissue paper step.

Then scrapbook paper.

And some paint, stamps, and weird 'found' items dragged around the surface.

Getting the pieces off of the cardboard was tricky and involved a lot more cutting than peeling, lol.  Ah well, got them all off eventually, mostly in tact.  Then I glued them into my art journal.

Now I could create fabulously poetic phrases of profound insight (or maybe just a list of goals for the month).

If you notice that some of my August goals look remarkably like my July goals, please try to keep that to yourself, lol.

Next time I'll try waxed paper or parchment paper to see if they work in the same way as the freezer paper.  We're planning a trip to Washington in the fall.  Forget the booze and smokes, my luggage will be full of freezer paper on the way home.  :)

Book Review(s)

I can't believe it's already been a month since Kadie and Jenny's last readalong linky party.  Time flies faster in the summer, don't you think?



I wanted to read Game of Thrones but couldn't find it available at the library so I switched gears and decided to try out a Kelley Armstrong series that I just heard about (where have I been?).


I started with The Gathering.

Amazon link

This is a young adult book.  Our heroine is Maya.  She was adopted as a baby, has a birthmark that looks exactly like a paw print, and believes she has native blood. She lives in a very small medical research town with less than 200 people and lots of security and protocols.

The book starts with Maya's best friend (who is the captain of the swim team) drowning right beside Maya in a perfectly calm lake.  Weird things continue to happen as Maya starts to notice the animals in her sanctuary are healing extraordinarily quickly under her care, mountain lions seem to be appearing more often around her, and her friends are developing interesting skills and behaviours.

It seems that instead of answers about these strange events, Maya only ends up with more questions.  This novel ends with the group being caught in a huge forest fire and trying to escape.

This book was great.  It was fast-paced and believable with lots of action.  The characters were developed well so that they appeared fleshed out and real, and I cared about what happened to all of them.

This book took me two days to read.  I couldn't put it down without wondering what was going to happen next.  I immediately picked up the second book in the series.

The Calling.  

Amazon link

SPOILER ALERT - I can't figure out how to review this without revealing from the previous book.  :)

The book starts where The Gathering left off, with the teens trying to escape the forest fire.  They are whisked away on a helicopter only to find themselves kidnapped.  By whom? They're not sure.

They escape their would-be captors but have to use their knowledge of the forest landscape and their recently discovered skills to further evade capture.

As the group works together to avoid being caught, they learn more about themselves including that they all seem to have some sort of powers or skills.  Maya learns that she is a skin-walker and will one day shift into a mountain lion.

Again this is an action-packed thrill ride.  I found myself feeling genuine pangs of despair, fear and joy while reading.  This book I finished in one sitting.  I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning because, again, I couldn't stop thinking about what was going to happen next - what will they do now? how will they get out of this predicament? etc.

The next morning, I went back ran to the library to get the third book only to find out that it is not being released until 2013.  What? I couldn't believe it.  Really? 2013?

So, while I would DEFINITELY recommend these books, it is nearly going to kill me to have to wait until the third book comes out so I might suggest waiting until then before you start the series.  And when you do, block out 3 days with no plans but reading.  :)

For this month, I am tackling:

Chapters link

What are you reading right now?

GoodReads

Have you heard of Goodreads?  It is "a free website for book lovers".

I have 4 bookshelves:  currently reading, read, ditching (for those books I start and can't bring myself to finish), and books to-read.  You can see what I'm reading right now (usually 3 or 4 books), what I've read with ratings and reviews, and what I want to read.

I set myself a goal to read 52 books this year.  Goodreads keeps track of my progress for me, letting me know if I am ahead, behind, or right on track.

You can check out other people's bookshelves and reviews.  Once you get to a certain number of books read (20 I believe), it will also suggest books that you might like.  Love this feature.

If you are already signed up, please 'friend me'. My name is 'tcohoe'.  If you need to register, here is the link to sign up:  Goodreads

Terry's bookshelf: read

Terry Cohoe's favorite books »