So, not only did I get in 1 10K in for April...I did 5 this past week...I just decided that I would do one every day and you know what, I felt great doing them, plus I was able to finish 2 audio books this week because of the extended walking time!!!
On the food side, I didn't have that great a week...I ate horribly on Wednesday due to running around and meetings running late and then ended up with a killer headache all day Thursday, plus just felt like crap! On top of that, my one dog had to have surgery to remove a cyst on her eyelid, so I was a bit stressed - not a good combo. But it definitely tells me that I really do need to pay attention to what I eat and make sure I drink enough water - if not, I definitely feel it.
Here's how my week went:
Apr 23: 7,688 steps
Apr 24: 10,372 steps
Apr 25: 19,057 steps (10K - 6.5 Charity miles for Girls on the Run; 30 min yoga at home)
Apr 26: 17,483 steps (10K -6.5 Charity miles for Girls on the Run; 15 min yoga at home)
Apr 27: 20,112 steps (10K - 6.51 Charity miles for Girls on the Run)
Apr 28: 20,960 steps (10K - 6.51 Charity miles for Girls on the Run)
Apr 29: 21,294 steps (10K - 6.48 Charity miles for Girls on the Run)
Total Steps: 116,966 steps
Audiobooks listened to this week:
- Finished The Obsession by Nora Roberts, narrated by Shannon McManus
- Started & Finished Hide Away by Iris Johansen, narrated by Elizabeth Rodgers
How did your week go? You can find this week's link-up here.
Virtual 5K /10K Tally:
January:
5K - 3
10K - 0
February:
5K - 4
10K - 1
March:
5K - 4
10K - 1
April:
5K - 4
10K - 5
A few weeks ago, the gals at She Reads announced the three 'Books of Spring'
selections. I'm sorry for my delay in posting this, life has just gotten in the way, but better late than never, right?
So without further ado...here are the Books of Spring:
Title: No One Knows
Author: J.T. Ellison
Published: March 2016, Gallery Books
In an obsessive mystery as thrilling as The Girl on the Train and The Husband’s Secret, New York Times
bestselling author J.T. Ellison will make you question every twist in
her page-turning novel—and wonder which of her vividly drawn characters
you should trust.
The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared
dead by the state of Tennessee should bring closure so she can move on
with her life. But Aubrey doesn’t want to move on; she wants Josh back.
It’s been five years since he disappeared, since their blissfully happy
marriage—they were happy, weren’t they?—screeched to a halt and Aubrey
became the prime suspect in his disappearance. Five years of emptiness,
solitude, loneliness, questions. Why didn’t Josh show up at his friend’s
bachelor party? Was he murdered? Did he run away? And now, all this
time later, who is the mysterious yet strangely familiar figure suddenly
haunting her new life?
In No One Knows, the New York Times
bestselling coauthor of the Nicholas Drummond series expertly peels
back the layers of a complex woman who is hiding dark secrets beneath
her unassuming exterior. This masterful thriller for fans of Gillian
Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Paula Hawkins will pull readers into a
you’ll-never-guess merry-go-round of danger and deception. Round and
round and round it goes, where it stops…no one knows.
Title: All of Us and Everything
Author: Bridget Asher
Published: November 2015, Bantam
For fans of the
quirky, heartfelt fiction of Nick Hornby and Eleanor Brown comes a
smart, wry, and poignant novel about reconciliation between fathers and
daughters, between spouses; the deep ties between sisters; and the kind
of forgiveness that can change a person’s life in unexpected and
extraordinary ways.
The Rockwell women are nothing if
not . . . Well, it’s complicated. When the sisters—Esme, Liv, and
Ru—were young, their eccentric mother, Augusta, silenced all talk of
their absent father with the wild story that he was an international
spy, always away on top-secret missions. But the consequences of such an
unconventional upbringing are neither small nor subtle: Esme is
navigating a failing marriage while trying to keep her precocious
fifteen-year-old daughter from live-tweeting every detail. Liv finds
herself in between relationships and rehabs, and Ru has run away from
enough people and problems to earn her frequent flier miles. So when a
hurricane hits the family home on the Jersey Shore, the Rockwells
reunite to assess the damage—only to discover that the storm has
unearthed a long-buried box. In a candid moment, Augusta reveals a
startling secret that will blow the sisters’ concept of family to
smithereens—and send them on an adventure to reconnect with a lost past .
. . and one another.
Title: Who Do You Love?
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Published: August 2015, Atria Books
Rachel Blum and Andy
Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER
waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran
of hospitals, and she's intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with
a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After
Andy's taken back to the emergency room and Rachel's sent back to her
bed, they think they'll never see each other again.
Rachel, the
beloved, popular, and protected daughter of two doting parents, grows up
wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb. Andy grows up poor in
Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him
become one of the best runners of his generation.
Over the course
of three decades, through high school and college, marriages and
divorces, from the pinnacles of victory and the heartbreak of defeat,
Andy and Rachel will find each other again and again, until they are
finally given a chance to decide whether love can surmount difference
and distance and if they've been running toward each other all along.
With
honesty, wit, and clear-eyed observations about men and women, love and
fate, and the truth about happy endings, Jennifer Weiner delivers two
of her most memorable characters, and a love story you'll never forget.
Be sure to check out the She Reads website
for reviews, guest posts, author interviews and more. And if
you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @SheReadsBookCLB and the hashtag
#srblog for author twitter chats.
Title: Career of Evil
Author: Robert Galbraith
Series: Cormoran Strike, #3
Narrator: Robert Glenister
Published: October 2015, Hachette Audio
Length: 17 hours 58 minutes
Source: Personal copy via Audible
Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.
When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.
Her
boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less
alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be
responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of
sustained and unspeakable brutality.
With the police focusing on
the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he
and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and
twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts
occur, time is running out for the two of them…
Career of Evil is
the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and
his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a
woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.
***Short & Sweet Reviews are
short, quick reviews. These will mainly be used for series books where I
have already done full reviews on some of the earlier books or for
books that I feel will suffice with a quick review. These will not be
used for review requests or blog tours.
My thoughts: I actually think this third book was better than the previous two books in this series...though the case itself was a bit more gruesome, I will say. But, it did provide a bit more background on Robin as well as Strike and I loved that. There's also more development in the whole Robin/Strike chemistry department and I'm still on the fence about this...I really don't know if I went them to end up together in the end. I love how they work together, but do I want to together as a couple? And that ending??? Oh my gosh...I need the next book in this series to come out now...
Though these books are long, I find that I am completely hooked from beginning to end. Between the details of the case and the character development of our two main characters, the story just flies by and I am left waiting for the next book. I do think, though, that the audio also has something to do with making the book go by quickly...the narrator is just fantastic...see my thoughts below!
Audio thoughts: Again, I am loving Robert Glenister as the narrator for this series...he does such a great job with the voices, especially the female ones. And I just love the tones and humor he infuses into his voice when the scene calls for it. For a long book, you really have to enjoy listening to a person's voice, and I think Robert Glenister has a calm, enjoyable voice and it makes this a pleasant, fun listening experience. I really do hope he continues to narrate this series for however long it ends up being!
Books in this series:
- The Cuckoo's Calling
- The Silkworm
- Career of Evil
Title: The Goodbye Year
Author: Kaira Rouda
Published: May 2016, Sparkpress
Format: Paperback, 312 pages
Melanie, a perfectionist
mom who views the approaching end of parenting as a type of death, can t
believe she has only one more year to live vicariously through her
slacker senior son, Dane. Gorgeous mom Sarah has just begun to realize
that her only daughter, Ashley, has been serving as a stand-in for her
traveling husband, and the thought of her daughter leaving for college
is cracking the carefully cultivated facade of her life. Will and his
wife are fine as long as he follows the instructions on the family
calendar and is sure to keep secret his whole other life with Lauren,
the woman he turns to for fun (and who also happens to have a daughter
in the senior class).
Told from the points of view of both the
parents and the kids, The Goodbye Year explores high school peer
pressure, what it s like for young people to face the unknown of life
after high school, and how a transition that should be the beginning of a
couple s second act together empty nesting is often actually the end.
What readers are saying...
“The Goodbye Year is an often hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking,
always engaging look at the last year before high school seniors leave
their families for good. I devoured it!” --Meg Mitchell Moore, author of The Admissions, So Far Away, and The Arrivals
"The family dramas and dynamics are things that we can all relate to..." --Redbook magazine, "20 Best Books to Read Come Spring"
"Kaira Rouda channels Peyton Place meets The Real Housewives of Orange County with her newest book, The Goodbye Year.” --Working Mother magazine
“Kaira
Rouda provides a delicious glimpse into an affluent, dysfunctional
community that feels so real it borders on voyeurism. Light-hearted and
ultimately optimistic, The Goodbye Year also tackles weighty
issues, including infidelity, homosexuality, and alcoholism, creating a
compelling and highly entertaining novel. If you’re a fan of reality
television, you’ll love The Goodbye Year.” --Lori Nelson Spielman, author of The Life List
“Who knew that Peyton Place is in Orange County? Kaira Rouda proves that money can’t buy you love in The Goodbye Year.” --Leslie Lehr, screenwriter, novel consultant, and award-winning author of 66 Laps, Wife Goes On, and What a Mother Knows
“The Goodbye Year is a perfect blend of Desperate Housewives and Beverly Hills 90210. If you enjoy a fast-paced story with twists that will both surprise and delight you―this is the one!" --Kellie Coates Gilbert, author of the Texas Gold novels
“Kaira
Rouda's latest romp through the world of the Orange County elite
follows five seemingly perfect families through their children's senior
year―a pressure-cooker of college applications, drugs, infidelities, and
keeping up appearances. Will anyone survive? Funny, insightful and
sometimes downright shocking, The Goodbye Year is ultimately an uplifting tale examining the fears and challenges that come with letting go.” --Colleen Oakley, author of Before I Go
“Five
families, seven kids, and one small town seething with gossip and
intrigue. With skill, sensitivity and grace, Kaira Rouda charts the
lives and loves of her mismatched characters, laying bare their deepest
secrets―the ones they pray will never be revealed. Yet truth has a way
of coming out, and when it does, the consequences are shattering in ways
none of them could have ever expected.” --Yona Zeldis McDonough, author of The House on Primrose Pond
“The Goodbye Year
is a book about the profound transition that takes place in families as
children prepare to graduate from high school and begin independent
lives. Told from varying perspectives ―husbands, wives, sons, and
daughters―The Goodbye Year offers a fascinating glimpse behind
the façade of perfection in small, well-heeled community where image is
everything. As college acceptances roll in, or don’t, and marriages
evolve, or don’t, parents and children alike struggle to write a future
for themselves that may not be the one they planned. A compassionate,
wise, and suspenseful tale about the end of one life stage and the
beginning of another.” --Kate Hilton, international best-selling author of The Hole in the Middle
"In The Goodbye Year,
Kaira Rouda takes us behind the gates of the Orange County elite as
they attempt to navigate their children's senior year and
fast-approaching empty nest. Trust is broken, secrets are revealed. It's
delicious fun! The Goodbye Year will have you wishing you never had to say farewell." --Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, authors of The Status of All Things
The Goodbye Year by Kaira Rouda is one of BookSparks "It's Raining Books" reading selection picks.
Follow the #itsrainingbooks hashtag on twitter to read reviews on this book as well as reviews on the other 4 books!
Title: The Silkworm
Author: Robert Galbraith
Series: Cormoran Strike, #2
Narrator: Robert Glenister
Published: June 2014, Hachette Audio
Length: 17 hours 22 minutes
Source: Personal copy via Audible
Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.
When
novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective
Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone
off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike
to find him and bring him home.
But as Strike investigates, it
becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife
realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring
poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were
to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of
people who might want him silenced.
When Quine is found brutally
murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to
understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any
Strike has encountered before...
***Short & Sweet Reviews are
short, quick reviews. These will mainly be used for series books where I
have already done full reviews on some of the earlier books or for
books that I feel will suffice with a quick review. These will not be
used for review requests or blog tours.
My thoughts: This is the second book in Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike series and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. The mystery itself was an interesting one, but even more than that, I loved the on-going character development. To me, that's always what keeps me hooked in a series and this one has it and more.
One thing I did notice is that these books do tend to start off a bit slow - it happened in the previous book as well - but once all the background information about the case itself is revealed, the pace really picks up and then you almost don't want to put the book/audio down. I also love when Strike starts in with his random line of questioning - but I get so anxious to find out where he is going with it and sometimes it isn't always revealed right away.
Strike and Robin just work well together...they are an unlikely due, yet they seem to balance each other and I love it. But, will there ever be more than just a working partnership between them? Even though Robin is engaged, I'm not sure that relationship is all that solid or even healthy for her - I really don't like the guy. But do I want something to happen between Strike and Robin? I don't know - that would definitely alter their working relationship and I kinda like the way things are now. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what Robert Galbraith has in store for these two!
Audio thoughts: I really am loving Robert Glenister as the narrator of this series...he just seems perfect for both Strike and even Robin's characters and does a good job with the other voices as well. I really do hope he continues to narrate the rest of this series - he just does such a great job with the story, especially with it being so long, it's such a pleasure to listen to his voice!
Books in this series:
- The Cuckoo's Calling
- The Silkworm
- Career of Evil
Title: Meternity
Author: Meghann Foye
Published: April 2016, MIRA
Format: Paperback, 368 pages
Not quite knocked up…
Like
everyone in New York media, editor Liz Buckley runs on cupcakes,
caffeine and cocktails. But at thirty-one, she's plateaued at Paddy Cakes, a glossy baby magazine that flogs thousand-dollar strollers to entitled, hypercompetitive spawn-havers.
Liz
has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack
for coworkers with kids, and she's tired of it. So one day when her
stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her
bosses—boom! Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with
it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life: work,
love and otherwise. It'll be her "meternity" leave.
By day, Liz
rocks a foam-rubber belly under fab maternity outfits. By night, she
dumps the bump for karaoke nights and boozy dinners out. But how long
can she keep up her charade…and hide it from the guy who might just be
The One?
As her "due date" approaches, Liz is exhausted—and
exhilarated—by the ruse, the guilt and the feelings brought on by a
totally fictional belly-tenant…about happiness, success, family and the
nature of love.
What readers are saying...
"A fresh, contemporary take on love and work, marriage and motherhood,
Meternity is guaranteed to surprise and delight!" --Emily Giffin, #1 New
York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed and First Comes Love
"A
character so lovable, a predicament so fantastic, I could not wait to
find out what happens next!" --Nicola Kraus, #1 New York Times
bestselling coauthor of The Nanny Diaries
"Funny,
real and painfully true at times, Meternity tackles the bumpy road from
singledom to modern motherhood with clever crafting and plenty of
heart." --Jane Green, New York Times bestselling author of Summer Secrets
and The Beach House
"A witty and wonderful look at the
challenges of being a woman today. Foye's mixture of humor mixed with
honesty and satire will have you laughing out loud one minute and
seriously pondering the state of the modern world the next." --Lucy Sykes
and Jo Piazza, authors of The Knockoff
"If Bridget
Jones had a modern-day BFF who worked at a New York magazine, was faking
a pregnancy, and was struggling with post-30 singledom, this
laugh-out-loud debut would be her book!" --Kristin Harmel, international
bestselling author of The Life Intended and The Sweetness of Forgetting
Meternity by Meghann Foye is one of BookSparks "It's Raining Books" reading selection picks.
Follow the #itsrainingbooks hashtag on twitter to read reviews on this book as well as reviews on the other 4 books!
Title: Rare Objects
Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Published: April 2016; Harper
Format: ARC Paperback; 400 pages
Source: Publisher via TLC Book Tours
Maeve Fanning is a
first generation Irish immigrant, born and raised among the poor,
industrious Italian families of Boston’s North End by her widowed
mother. Clever, capable, and as headstrong as her red hair suggests,
she’s determined to better herself despite the overwhelming hardships of
the Great Depression.
However, Maeve also has a dangerous
fondness for strange men and bootleg gin—a rebellious appetite that soon
finds her spiraling downward, leading a double life. When the strain
proves too much, Maeve becomes an unwilling patient in a psychiatric
hospital, where she strikes up a friendship with an enigmatic young
woman, who, like Maeve, is unable or unwilling to control her
un-lady-like desire for freedom.
Once out, Maeve faces starting
over again. Armed with a bottle of bleach and a few white lies, she
lands a job at an eccentric antiques shop catering to Boston’s
wealthiest and most peculiar collectors. Run by an elusive English
archeologist, the shop is a haven of the obscure and incredible,
providing rare artifacts as well as unique access to the world of
America’s social elite. While delivering a purchase to the wealthy Van
der Laar family, Maeve is introduced to beautiful socialite Diana Van
der Laar—only to discover she’s the young woman from the hospital.
Reunited
with the charming but increasingly unstable Diana and pursued by her
attractive brother James, Mae becomes more and more entwined with the
Van der Laar family—a connection that pulls her into a world of moral
ambiguity and deceit, and ultimately betrayal. Bewitched by their wealth
and desperate to leave her past behind, Maeve is forced to unearth her
true values and discover how far she’ll to go to reinvent herself.
My thoughts: I first heard of Kathleen Tessaro when I read her book, The Perfume Collector, a few years ago. I really enjoyed that book, so when I saw she had a new book coming out, I couldn't wait to read it...another historical fiction book, this time set in Boston seemed like just the book I would enjoy.
I really liked Maeve/May...she's a character that is so richly drawn, you can't help but fall in love with her. You'll empathize with her, get frustrated with her, find her exasperating and yet love her moxie all in the same breath. And then there's Diana...she got on my nerves more than once, yet there's something about her that I just can't put my finger on...these are both memorable characters, that's for sure!
Maeve is unlike the girls her age. She wants a life of her own and quickly realizes that money doesn't necessarily equate to happiness. While she enjoys her friendship with Diana she also realizes it comes at a great cost. Maeve struggled with who she was/who she wanted to be throughout the book. I loved how her mom was constantly there to keep on top of her, wanting to see her do better than she did. This was one area I would have loved to see developed more, as there were some hints that all was not as true as it was led to be believed.
This was a good book with great characters, and set in an interesting time period. This is now the second book I've read by Kathleen Tessaro and I can't wait to pick up her other books.
About the author: Kathleen Tessaro is the author of Elegance, Innocence, The Flirt, and The Debutante. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband and son.
Authors Links:
Website | Twitter | Facebook
To see who else is participating in Kathleen Tessaro's Rare Object's tour, click here.
