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Monthly Archives: October 2017

Audiobook Review – Tell Me Where It Hurts – Nick Trout

Tell Me Where It Hurts
Author: Nick Trout
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Narrator: Simon Vance
Run Time: 9hrs 12min
Narration Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Description:
Dr. Trout takes the listener on a vicarious journey through 24 intimate, heartrending hours in his life. His wry, companionable voice offers enlightening and engaging anecdotes about cuddly (or not-so-cuddly) pets and their variously zany, desperate, and demanding owners. If you’ve ever had a pet or special place in your heart for furry friends, Dr. Trout’s inspiring account of loving and healing animals is for you.

Review:
This was the second book by Dr Trout that I’ve listened to in the last month (although the first one he wrote) – both of which are about his experiences as a surgeon at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston (where he still works). I’ll admit I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I started it – the other book by him that I read was an alternating story of 2 different dogs that Dr Trout had treated over several months. This one was arranging to tell a story over a 24hr period – each chapter a different animal that Dr Trout treated over the course of a day – at the same time, each chapter allowed him to think about other animals and cases that had influenced his career as a vet over the years – his first experience with working with animals that made him head down that road to a career; to his experiences with euthanasia and pet owner’s wishes. There was one animal over the course of the 24 hours that made several appearances (but if you think i’m going to tell you more, then you apparently don’t know me very well).

Simon Vance has long been a favorite narrator of mine – so having the pleasure of listening to him narrate both of Dr Trout’s books. It worked even better for me, since Dr Trout is originally from England – so having a slight accent worked well. Honestly, its hard to find anything to really critique about Vance’s narration – so i’ll just stop gushing here 🙂

A solid listen (and i’m hoping probably read) – I gave it 3.5 stars overally, and 4 stars for the narration – recommended if you enjoy animal stories and personal introspection.

First Line Friday’s – 27 October 2017

27 Oct

First Line Friday’s is a weekly feature, hosted by Hoarding Books – so grab a book off your pile and share the first line

“Christmas was the most special time of the year.”

From:
Christmas at the Candied Apple Café – Katherine Garbera

Yeah, I know, Christmas is still like 8 weeks away – but I was recently asked to review Katherine Garbera’s new book – so its kind of like, I guess its time to read a Christmas book (although I have a couple of other Christmas books on my pile). I remember reading Ms Garbera’s books when I used to devour books in the Harlequin Silhouette Desire imprint – but honestly haven’t read anything by her recently. Although looking at her recent backlist, there are definitely a few books I would like to add to Mt TBR.

When I was considering the request to participate in her book tour, I’ll admit that both the cover (since its kind of whimsical) caught my eye as well as the description. I’m only a chapter in so far, but its cute and will hopefully hit my happy button.

3 Comments

Posted by Dee on October 27, 2017 in First Line Fridays

Tags: Christmas, contemporary romance, Katherine Garbera, romance

Review – Pupcakes – Annie England Noblin

24 Oct

Pupcakes
Author: Annie England Noblin
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

Description:
All she wants is a settled-down life.

What she gets is a dog—and a whole new normal . . .

There he stood in the doorway: overweight, depressed and nearly homeless—a pug named Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was Brydie Benson’s latest problem, arriving on top of her messy divorce and sudden move. Brydie needed a place to start over, so this rent-free home seemed a great idea. She just never counted on Teddy, or his owner, the Germantown Retirement Village’s toughest customer, Pauline Neumann.

And because rent-free doesn’t mean bills-free, Brydie gets a night-shift job at a big-box grocery. Whoever guessed there were so many people who wanted baked goods after midnight?

Then, she gets an idea—why not combine her baking skills with her new-found dog knowledge? And so her store Pupcakes is born. Along with a new start comes a possible new love, in the form of Nathan Reid, a local doctor with a sassy Irish Wolfhound named Sasha. And as fall turns to winter, and then to Christmas, Brydie begins to realize that life is a little bit like learning a new recipe for puff pastry—it takes a few tries to get it just right!

Review:
I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for a bookcovers that have dogs on them – my eye catches on them in bookstores and at the library. So when I was asked if I would be interested in reviewing Pupcakes by Annie England Noblin, it was like yes please (although, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of pugs, there is just something about them…) Ms. Noblin is a new author to me, but after reading Pupcakes, I can say that it won’t be the last time I read something by her. There was nothing really unique about her writing style, but it just drew me in. After suffering a bit of a reading slump the last few weeks (on top of being busy at work), I needed a book that engaged me that I wanted to keep reading.

Using Theodore Roosevelt (yes, that was the dogs name) as a vehicle to tell the story was something that make it engaging. The dog wasn’t just an accessory to a character, but was primary to moving the story from beginning to end. But it wasn’t just a story of a woman and dog – it was about finding yourself about life changing events, about rediscovering who you are and finding love again. I felt that while I hadn’t experienced any of what Brydie had gone through that she was still relatable. Then there was Nathan – ahhh, I love a good doctor 🙂 (I don’t think I need to say much more than that right?) In general the cast of characters (Joe, Rosa, Lillian from the overnight bakery) and Pauline (without who there wouldn’t have been a Teddy Roosevelt to fall in love with).

An ultimately satisfying story that made me want to keep reading, as well as try my hand at making homemade dog cookies (i’m sure my two would love me even more if I did that)…I think one thing that would have made the book great, would have been some of the different recipes that Brydie created. A solid 3.5 stars and another added to Mt. I-want-to-read-more-of! 😉

It’s Monday – What Are You Reading? (23 October)

23 Oct

its-monday-what-are-you-reading

It’s Monday – What are you reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

So i’m currently alternating laying in bed with my feet up and on the couch catching up with some TV viewing (yeah, I’m like uber far behind and just now finishing up Season 2 of Outlander) – recovering from running (and some walking) of the Marine Corps Marathon yesterday. Overall, I was happy with how I did – it was a 35min-ish improvement over last year – but I still missed my goal time of 5:30 by 30minutes (but since I walked the Blue Mile and had a couple of epic potty breaks), I’m happy with h untilow I did. But i’ll be back next year – 2 years down and 3 to go until I hit the MCM runner’s club (meaning I won’t have to go through the lottery to register each year). If you have ever even thought about running a marathon, I HIGHLY recommend the Marine Corps Marathon in DC – you start at the Pentagon, hit many of the tourist attractions (you run by the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and through different parts of the city) – it might not be the easiest course (hello, uphills and mile 3 kind of suck) – but there is a reason why its called the People’s Marathon.

I was kind of bummed that I didn’t get to fully participate in Dewey’s Read-a-thon this year – but resting and relaxing pre-marathon was more important. Although I did get a little bit of reading done – just not up to my normal read-a-thon goals. This week was a pretty slow reading week in general – I actually only finished up 3 books – I blame it on a busy week at work and just being in a bit of a reading funk.

Here’s hoping that this week will be more productive – although since I have my first weekend class for my Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) this weekend – I’m pretty sure that will cut into my reading time (oh the things that I do to try and advance my career 🙂 ) Or rather – lots of reading to do from various journals and textbooks, but not fun stuff that I would normally chose to read. But at least I’ll have the drive to Quantico on both Saturday and Sunday to get some audiobook time in. On the pile this week, finishing up my current audiobook (A Stranger in the House – Shari Lapena), although it feels kind of like cheating to list it, since I only have like 20 minutes left. Once I finish that up, my next listen is Murder by Mocha – Cleo Coyle – I know that I’m picking up a series 10 books in but yeah, I can be a rebel at times 🙂 On the reading pile are a couple of ARCs – Running With A Sweet Talker – Jami Albright and Secret Heir – Victoria Pinder. I also have the most recent Katie Maguire series (Dead Girls Dancing and the newest Rizzoli and Isles (I Know A Secret

What about you – what are you reading this slightly overcast Monday? (and seriously Mother Nature, why couldn’t you give us this weather yesterday!)

1 Comment

Posted by Dee on October 23, 2017 in It's Monday! What are you reading?

Tags: Cleo Coyle, Graham Masterton, Jami Albright, Shari Lapena, Tess Gerriston, Victoria Pinder

First Lines Friday – 20 October 2017

20 Oct

First Line Friday’s is a weekly feature, hosted by Hoarding Books – so grab a book off your pile and share the first line

Jack Avery stared at the scene before him while sucking on a cherry lollipop his godson Aiden had given him.

From:
Running With a Sweet Talker – Jami Albright

A few months ago, I borrowed a book from Amazon Kindle Unlimited called Running from the Rock Star. What I didn’t know at the time was a) how much I was going to enjoy it and b) that the author would end up on my auto-buy list PDQ (pretty darn quick). There was something fresh about her writing, which was very needed as a run of a few less than stellar reads. So when I got an email from her a couple weeks ago, asking if I wanted to review the next book in the series – i’m pretty sure my response was something that went, not only yes, but heck yeah (or maybe gimme gimme gimme). With Dewey Read-a-thon this week (although I’m not fully participating), Running with a Sweet Talker is on the top of my to-read pile.

12 Comments

Posted by Dee on October 20, 2017 in First Line Fridays, Uncategorized

Tags: Jami Albright

Countdown to Dewey!

20 Oct

Its Thursday evening, which means that its not only Friday eve, but that its officially less than 48 hours until the October edition of Dewey’s 24 Read-a-thon. Unfortunately, this is the first time in a couple of years that I won’t be fully participating as a reader. But I swear I have a good reason – Sunday is my last race of the season – the Marine Corps Marathon, so it seems like a potentially bad idea to stay up all night reading and then trying to run 26.2 miles…don’t get me wrong – I would try it if I legitimately thought I could, but not likely. That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to read at all – it will be a good excuse (like I ever actually need one) to sit around with my feet up, resting and relaxing.

This year I’m going to read by the proverbial seat of my pants – I don’t have a formal pile of books that I am considering – although I do have my current stack of books from the library – while I’m going to give you titles right now – choices include a police procedural, a book of essays, a YA sci-fi dystopia and a contemporary romance.

2 Comments

Posted by Dee on October 20, 2017 in Read-A-Thon

First Line Fridays – 13 October 2017

13 Oct

First Line Friday’s is a weekly feature, hosted by Hoarding Books – so grab a book off your pile and share the first line

Caroline’s wrist turned an flicked as the steel tongue of her crochet hook dipped in and ut, mirroring the movement of the fiddle’s bow.

From:
Caroline: Little House, Revisited – Sarah Miller

When I saw a preview of this book show up in my email, I KNEW that I had to read it. As an 7(ish) year old, I devoured the Little House on the Prairie books as well as watching reruns of the TV (running home from school to watch it at 3pm with a snack was like a daily routine). I’ve really enjoyed some of the other retellings of classic books that I’ve read recently (and equally excited about some of the other upcoming ones I’ve seen authors I follow talk about…like Marilla from Anne of Green Gables).

I’m only a chapter into Caroline so far – but I have a feeling that its going to be a great read!

13 Comments

Posted by Dee on October 13, 2017 in First Line Fridays

Tags: Little House on the Prairie, Sarah Miller

It’s Monday – What Are You Reading? (9 Oct)

09 Oct

its-monday-what-are-you-reading

So obviously from my lack of blog posts in the last two months, I’ve been busy as all get out – its been peak triathlon training season and in my ultimate wisdom, I also signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon (2 weeks to go – yikes – what the heck was I thinking!!!) On top of all my training shenanigans, work in general has been busy – so in the ultimate sacrifice, reading (or at least a reduction in reading) and blogging had to be sacrificed! But never you fear – I’m getting back into the swing of things and hope to have more frequent posting in the next couple of weeks 🙂

Now on to the fun stuff! I have the day off work today (thank you DoD) which could be a good thing – between my last longish training on Friday (15 miles at an 11:40 page) and then volunteering at Ironman Maryland (if you ever want to see insane athletes – these guys – yes i’m one of them – cover 140.6 miles in no more than 17hrs – 2.4mile swim, 112 miles on the bike and then a marathon), I am rather stiff and sore (for lack of a better word) – so curling up in bed today sounds like a great idea (but its wet and drizzly out which helps the desire to be a sloth).

My reading this past week can be described as sexy electrician, quilting friends, matchmaking moose and irish police procedural binge read. For the most part it was a fairly successful reading week, although, i’ll admit, while I have enjoyed other books in the Elm Creek Quilts series – the characters have been noticeably more annoying to me in recent reads/listens.

Currently Reading:
So I discovered Irish author Graham Masterton a few months ago when I picked up #7 in his Katie Maguire series from my local library. It hit the spot in the dark and torturous column (something I see a lot of in the Nordic Noir mysteries) and so have proceeded to binge read the first 4 books in the series – and getting ready to start book 5. I also have no doubt, if I finish up Blood Sisters this week, that I will roll into book 6 (Buried).

Along with Blood Sisters, I also have a couple of ARC’s from authors to read and review – Freeing the Beast (Tina Donahue) and Pupcakes (Annie England Noblin). I’ve read stuff by Tina Donahue before and found myself needing to fan my face because of the steaminess of the writing. This is a re-release of a book published a few years ago by Samhain (speaking of, I used to read tons of their books, how did I not discover her before this year!!!). Annie England Noblin is a new author to me, but i’ll admit to being a sucker for the dog on the cover (even if i’m not a huge pug fan in general…). Here’s hoping I enjoy Pupcakes and find a new author to add to my repitoire.