Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week. Currently on tour, it is hosted by a different blog each month.
The December host is Rose City Reader.
Despite spending too much time with service calls for my flaky internet, running to the library to finish posts and cleaning up way too much snow for this early in winter, I did get a few things done. My bookclub had their Holiday meeting and cookie exchange last Tuesday, and Saturday I spent the day hiking in the snow counting birds for the annual Audubon count. I’m still recovering from the hike!
My mailbox wasn’t too busy. I received one print book and a few more audio downloads last week.
Print Books
Cartwheel by Jennifer Dubois, a win from The Scarlet Letter.
When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colorful buildings, the street food, the handsome, elusive man next door. Her studious roommate Katy is a bit of a bore, but Lily didn’t come to Argentina to hang out with other Americans. Five weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect.
Audiobooks
From Random House:
The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
The one and only Fannie Flagg, beloved author of “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven,” and “I Still Dream About You,” is at her hilarious and superb best in this new comic mystery novel about two women who are forced to reimagine who they are.
From Penguin:
The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles by Katherine Pancol
When her chronically unemployed husband runs off to start a crocodile farm in Kenya with his mistress, Joséphine Cortès is left in an unhappy state of affairs.
From Random House:
Second Son (Jack Reacher 0.1) by Lee Child
A young Jack Reacher knows how to finish a fight so it stays finished. He knows how to get the job done so it stays done. And, in one of his earliest challenges, he knows that his analytical brain is just as important as his impressive brawn.
What are you reading?
——————————–
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Exasperating Internet
Remember dial-up speed? No? You’re lucky, because I do. I’m having a trip down memory lane with erratic and intermittent internet service at my house. One minute I’m blazing along only to crash, time-out and then service disappears for a few hours.
I barely have enough up-time to get posts scheduled, mail answered and important things like banking taken care of before – poof – it’s gone again. I tried to write this post this morning but internet vanished before I could get it finished.
If I appeared to be AWOL the past week or so, I was! I still am. I am hoping that this problem will be resolved soon and I can get back to normal but after nine days I’m not optimistic.
On the positive side, I called my cable company and asked for a better rate for my patience and loyalty. The price is going up on January 1st. It worked, I got a credit for this week and I’m locked in at lower monthly rate for another year. Unless I finally lose patience and switch to a different service provider, that is.
Hiking in Eight Inches of Snow
[For the international folks I’ll save you the conversion, that’s 20cm of snow.] I didn’t think it would be a big deal, but no amount of hiking on dry trails prepares you for a day of sliding around in snow on non-existent paths.
Why was I out in the snow? Saturday was the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, an event I participate in every year. From December 14 through January 5, tens of thousands of volunteers count birds. The data collected allows researchers to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America.
My team was scheduled to count yesterday. A snow storm moved in the night before and it continued snowing all day. We searched long and hard for birds that were a little smarter than we were and mostly stayed hidden. Every year we seem to pick a day where we have to brave snow, wind, sub-freezing temperatures or rain, but it’s always a fun time.
Book Givers Needed
Applications are open until January 5th for World Book Night givers. There are so many good book choices this year that I haven’t decided which one to sign up for yet.
Calling all science fiction fans
The 2014 Sci-Fi Experience hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings is already underway. It started a month earlier this year and will run from December through January 31, 2014. I’m getting a late start but intend to read a couple of sci-fi books in January.
The month of January is also Vintage Science Fiction Month and is hosted by the Little Red Reviewer. I have plenty of vintage stuff on my shelves just waiting for me to choose from.
How was your week?
——————————–
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Virtual Advent is a blog tour that runs from December 1st through 24th. On each of these days one or more blogs will post about a Christmas tradition, memory, or anything Christmas that they want to share.
For My Feathered Friends
An annual tradition at my house, along with baking Spumoni Cookies for Christmas Day, is making peanut butter suet, a tasty treat for the birds that visit my backyard.
In colder weather birds need to burn more energy to stay warm during the night and this year is already harsher than usual. This means birds need to eat more food to replenish their fat supply. Suet is a high energy food and a favorite meal for many birds, especially the woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees.
Sure, you can buy suet in the store, but I’m sure this tastes better and it’s my Christmas gift to my feathered friends who bring me joy all year.
Peanut Butter Suet Recipe
The recipe is simple and only takes a few minutes to make. I’d like to take credit for it, but years ago I found the basic recipe in Bird Watcher’s Digest. I made a few changes by substituting vegetable shortening when I don’t have lard and adding some seeds and nuts.
Ingredients
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup lard or vegetable shortening
• 2 cups plain yellow corn meal
• 2 cups quick oats
• 1 cup flour
• ⅓ cup sugar
• raisins (optional)
• chopped nuts
• sunflower seeds(optional)
Preparation
Melt peanut putter and shortening or lard in large pan on low heat. Add remainder of ingredients and mix well. Pour into a pan and allow to harden at room temperature. Instead of a pan, I re-use the plastic molds that the store bought suet comes in. This recipe will make four or five suet cakes.
After cooling the suet can be chopped into chunks or squares or served crumbled in a shallow dish. Another option is to press chunks into holes drilled in a piece of dead branch and hung in a tree. Warning: Squirrels also like suet.
Store in refrigerator or at room temperature.
A Happy Visitor
A Hairy Woodpecker enjoys a snack in my yard.
——————————–
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Last year I bought a Google Nexus 7 Tablet to use as an eReader and to access the web. I knew it would need protection as it would get a lot of travel time in my bag. I quickly bought an inexpensive, boring black clip-on cover, but what I really wanted was something more attractive and still functional.
When The Snugg offered me a chance to review one of their cases, I quickly agreed. I was already familiar with Snugg and their large product line of high quality cases customized for many brands of tablets, smartphones, iPads and eReaders.
I browsed their website to see what was available for my Nexus tablet and found a variety of colors and several styles. The red one jumped out at me – a perfect color choice – attractive and stylish.
Great Look and Fit
When my cover arrived I put it to use immediately. My tablet slid right into the case, a perfect, snugg, fit. I secured it with the velcro fastener and it remained firmly in place.
I checked the cutout openings for access to the speakers, volume control, headphones, camera, on/off switch and usb port. All are in the right places and line up correctly.
If you use a stylus, there is a loop to hold it in place at the bottom of the cover. It’s in front the usb port opening and easily folds down for access to the port. When not in use it tucks up over the usb opening, protecting it from dust.
Closing the case will put the tablet into sleep mode, conserving battery life. Opening the cover automatically wakes up the tablet. And it works! My old cover was supposed to have this feature but unfortunately it never worked.
Versatile and Attractive
A feature I find very useful is the built-in stand. The cover folds back to create a dual position stand. It can be propped straight up for sitting on a table to watch videos or at a slightly lower angle for reading notes or webpages or – my favorite – recipes. And it looks so nice on my counter top.
When using the tablet as an eReader the cover folds over and there is an elastic hand strap inside. This makes it easy for me to hold the reader comfortably in the palm of my hand.
I’m thrilled with the look, feel and function of my new cover and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. A Snugg makes a great Holiday gift and there are a few people on my list that may be receiving one from Santa this year.
Why Choose Snugg?
You can’t always tell how good a product is when ordering online but there is no need to hesitate in choosing to purchase a Snugg. The people at Snugg understand this too, which is why they provide a promise of quality, a lifetime guarantee, and no fuss returns. Plus, the Snugg is available worldwide.
Even Charlie, my lovebird, approves of my new Snugg tablet cover.
I doubt you could find a nicer, better designed cover at such a reasonable price.
——————————–
Snugg Nexus 7 Case Cover provided by The Snugg in exchange for my honest opinion.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
by Hwang Sun-mi
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publish Date: November 26, 2013
Format: Paperback | 144 pages
Rating: 4½ of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
This is the story of a hen named Sprout. No longer content to lay eggs on command, only to have them carted off to the market, she glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild—and to hatch an egg of her own.
My Thoughts:
Sprout wants more out of life than being a coop hen and laying eggs for the farmer. She dreams of being a barnyard hen and raising a family of chicks of her own. When Spout manages to escape from the chicken coop she finds the barnyard animals less than welcoming. The barnyard has a hierarchy of its own and laying hens are not a part of it. They tell her she has to leave.
Sprout is a determined hen. She perseveres and survives with the help of Straggler, a wild mallard duck, who is also an outsider to the barnyard. When Sprout finds an abandoned egg in a brier patch, she adopts it and broods it, raising the chick as her own with a mother’s love.
The story is a modern fable translated from Korean. It was a fast, easy read with simple, stark prose. I’m not sure if the simple prose is deliberate or if something was lost in the translation from the original version. It was filled with metaphors and rich in meaning, but had simple, straightforward phrasing. The story is appropriate for readers of all ages, however it might not be a good choice to read to very young children who might be sensitive to the reality of prey animals and life in the wild.
Although this is a small book it has a lot of substance. When you dig beneath the fairy tale surface there are lessons on what makes a family, life and death, sacrifice, and ultimately that we should never lose sight of our dreams.
——————————–
Source: eGalley provided for review by Penguin Books.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Any ads appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Almost wordless: The little Dark-eyed Juncos visit my yard every winter when they migrate south from Canada. They actually look happy hopping around in the snow. Me, if I had wings, I’d keep flying right on down to Florida!
——————————–
More Wordless Wednesday. © 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
From now through Christmas JKS Communications is hosting a Holiday Hop of blogs featuring giveaways and book spotlights to help you with your holiday gift selections – or maybe find something for yourself. Check out the tour stops or follow along on twitter at #JKSHolidays.
And – beginning December 21st I will be hosting a giveaway for a copy of Nu Logic, a scifi thriller by Bill Gourgey, plus a copy of the first book in the series, Glide.
Below are a few of the featured titles that caught my eye.
8-Bit Christmas by Kevin Jakubowski
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: DB Press
Publish Date: November 1, 2013
Format: Paperback | 288 pages
About the Book
For more information visit:
A Measure of Blood by Kathleen George
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Mysterious Press / Open Road
Publish Date: January 14, 2014
Format: Paperback | 400 pages
About the Book
Christie is the man you call when there’s trouble in the Steel City. But when a crazed man savagely destroys a family in an instant, it will take everything Christie has to hunt down the killer, and protect a now motherless child.
For more information visit:
Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Tilia Klebenov Jacobs
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Linden Tree Press
Publish Date: June 1, 2013
Format: Paperback | 397 pages
About the Book
For more information visit:
Nu Logic by Bill Gourgey
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Jacked Arts
Publish Date: April 26, 2013
Format: Paperback | 530 pages
About the Book
Nu Logic is the sequel to Glide and is Book 2 in the Glide Trilogy.
For more information visit:
——————————–
Spotlight materials provided by JKS Communications.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Any ads appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Under My Apple Tree 