Day 18 in  #BookSpine365 . Visit a title a day from my bookshelf. If You Want Me is written by Kayla Perrin. She has many titles besides this one under her belt, but I purchased this one for the classic romance story. Girl was a ugly duckling growing up. Had a crush. Crush breaks her heart. Sees guy years later after she is now a hot shot movie star, with a new name. He still looks great, they rejuvenate their relationship, only with a few sprinklings of drama thrown in throughout the plot. Simply put, this is a overused concept thoughout many books. I own a few, then got quite bored with the entire novelty: memories past are someone's "true" love, so enter the happy ending or I need something more exciting to challenge my brain. It's a fast read at 359 pages, but it had me personally desiring something more. Sure, you can see the author can clearly put a book together-but romance fiction leaves a lot to be desired if it's disappointing. The condition of my...

Day 17  in  #BookSpine365 . Visit a title a day from my bookshelf. So it's ebook Friday on my shelf, and my Kindle has another title which I read, courtesy of the author: The Marriage Pact . Released in summer of 2011, I loaded it up on my device and dived in. The title lured me. A marriage pact you say? Hopefully not a prearranged marriage fairytale that couldn't challenge my thoughts, or something similar. Summarized, the main character of this book-Marci, is a mess-complete and total mess. She's involved in an affair. She's stuck in a dead end job. Her life seems to have no mojo, and her address as Lourde would say, has no "post code envy." But then she remembers a familiar napkin with a pact that can change her life forever.  All the makings of a great book, considering tragedy is the muse to artful storytelling. Then there's always a little hope to grab onto, mix in a few gossipy women, jealousy...you get the point. Personally, I felt the bo...

Day 16 i n  #BookSpine365 . Visit a title a day from my bookshelf. Some titles are much more smaller on my shelf, and this is one of them. Standing at a mere pocket sized slim piece of written work, it can easily get lost among the others. The reasoning is simple: it's a sampler. Samplers are often given complimentary, from author to reader to give a taste of what is to come for an upcoming book, or existing title. While it's a great marketing tactic to create buzz around the book, it can also let the reader view a few chapters to see the authors style and perhaps create create a fan base so the reader can purchase past or upcoming titles.  Samplers are pertinent to books. While many ebook titles have made this extremely streamlined and easier, it's the equivalent to perusing your favorite bookstore-you can take in a few sentences or a few chapters---just enough to raise your interests. This copy here has two titles in this sampler: No Second Chance and Just On...

Day 15  in  #BookSpine365 . Visit a title a day from my bookshelf. Part wolf. Part dog. All his life, this canine had to fight-becoming an orphan cub, scrambling for food, and enduring the elements. His most seemingly dangerous task of all: man. The abuse and capitalization men have  placed on him is beyond cruel, until one day White Fang meets a man to challenge himself and show him what true loyalty means. Written in 1906 by Jack London and adapted by Malvina G. Vogel, White Fang has become a literary classic and is in the public domain. This copy here I have yet to read. I remember White Fang  being required reading when I was in school, ages ago. Didn't need to be on a book list as homework for me; I always enjoyed a good book. I remember the grittiness, the rawness of the tale, and the sadness of the human condition. Then the climax and ending develops, and you understand that this story must be told.  This copy is hardcover, illustrated, with large...

Day 12 in  #BookSpine365 . R.L. Stine steeps into my memories like a good tea begging to be sipped or devoured, depending on your thirst. My childhood consisted of reading in general-me, hunched over by the nightlight past my bedtime scrolling text. My mother, walking past my room ushering me back to sleep. The Stine series were responsible for many a kid staying up past their bedtime, I'm sure. Quite frankly, I don't even remember how I still held on to this copy. This title I purchased in the early 90's, the era of Borders book stores, way past the nightlight phase-but I always will love Young Adult (YA) fiction. Still purchase to this day, and always will. I lost many childhood books and YA titles that were donated, lost, or given to others. I look at this book and ask myself-who doesn't like a little nostalgia?  The paperback smells lovely. It's "pocketbook" sized, or mass market paper back. Well, I wafted it a few times before my allergies des...

Day 11 of  #BookSpine365 . Don't let the Oprah's Book Club seal of approval be the hipster like dismay which you judge a book a by a cover. Wally Lamb's second novel, I Know This Much Is True is absolutely as riveting and poignant as reviewers described. It's a little dusty and smells beautiful cracked open within those 894 pages. The spine is cracked, pages are thin, and wrinkled from moisture somewhere unexplained. So my copy is a little beat up. This is what happens to mass market paperback books-many just don't stand the test of time. Paperback Books Get Love Too. The words inside don't seem to mind. They lay dormant waiting to tell the tale again. The words tell of twins-one definitely not like the other as told through a series of flashbacks in heartache and pain. One regarded normal, one cutting off his hand claiming it was for God; schizophrenia and paranoia seems only secondary to the abuse and dysfunction within the household they grew up in. ...

Day 10 of  # BookSpine365 So today I want to do something a little different: an ebook. Sitting on my third shelf from the top in a crochet sleeve lays an Amazon Kindle 3G keyboard. Beautiful e-ink . Easy on the eyes. I can do so many neat tricks with it, I even wrote a post a while ago on Google+, although there is probably much more to be added to that list now. If you want to have the battle against e-ink and real, tangible book as your medium-go ahead. I won't waste my time with all that nonsense. I adore all mediums: books, audiobooks, and ebooks. As long as I'm reading (or listening) to a good novel or other genre, I'm in Heaven. The visualization...the smell, the grip of the page. Spine titling poetry. Sneaking in another title on a buckling shelf to tuck somewhere that the book should or shouldn't fit. I love and adore all those things from a book. That's why I will always collect books. The transportation from reality to imagination is what made me a b...

Day 9  # BookSpine365 . There are some books that fall flat for me, and this is one of them. While I initially began reading this and thought, "hey...this seems like a good premise and plot," the story became weaker and weaker. Unbeknownst to me, this was a trilogy series, (but the author's first novel) and continues in this fashion for a while. Simply summarized, you have two twin sisters that have just become orphans. They have never really gotten along, but after their parents uncanny death, they become enemies. They soon discover the reasoning for this: they both play a part in an ancient prophecy of good versus evil and the end of the world. The whole problem I had with the book was the characters were a bit too gullible and sometimes mundane. Insert romance for spitefulness, because all books need a token love story or heartache, correct? You have several scenes where there are characters in the same room with imperative things to do or say but the author doesn...

Day 8 in # BookSpine365 . I own a few series books, and this is one of them. Unfortunately I have never read the previous books before, so will the characters be unfamiliar, disjointed and hard to follow? Hard to tell in many series. This title is relatively new on my shelf, I barely cracked it open. I brought it on a whim at a bargain bin somewhere for $1.00 just in case if I ever needed a mystery novel with quirky characters to delve into. A celebrity chef enters a competition and loses his head-literally. Meanwhile, the chef's sponsors offer a million dollar reward for info on the killers. Enter a bounty hunter and bails bond office worker-the latter who is witness to the crime to collect the cash, and supposedly a little hot romance and traitor is added in the mix. Sounds like a lot going on. Hopefully it will be a fast paced read, not too confusing with the multiple characters and plots.  Book Details: Title: Finger Lickin'Fifteen by Evanovich, J. Forma...

Day 5 of #BookSpine365 . This book here is so crisp I can't stand it. Hardcover, dust jacket and if you can believe it, a beautiful shade of pink hugs its pages while black and its stitching wifts throughout. I know what they say: don't judge a book by its cover, but come on: The Death of Bunny Munro is absolutely gorgeous. Quite a few are in this gorgeous category which I own, but we'll indulge into those as the series continues. So the jacket and illustration design were created by Charlotte Strick, and after a little googling I see that this isn't her first ride on the merry-go-round: she's been creating exquisite designs for quite a while now. So here's the shortened summary, or insider flap jacket spiel: a guy named bunny has a wife. His wife dies-rather yet, commits suicide. So Bunny then takes his young son on the road while he sells wares around the south in England. Seems that Bunny is haunted by his wife's ghost and then he begins qu...

Day three of #BookSpine365 .  Here we go again. A book that has the motion picture still as its cover. I know, I know. Not appealing at all. Well, to me. Too bad this was in the bargain bin somewhere that day and I just happened to grab it. By the way: always  read the book first. Don't judge the book by its movie, because...then you got this weird comparison thing going on and then it's messed up. I will always prefer the book over the movie that's just the way I am. So the book itself got many reviews; some good and some bad, but I think it was okay overall. Worth reading, for sure. Did it seem quite cold just do the recipes of Julia Child's without any emotion just to get a blog post and increase readership views? In the end it was a journey, and her journey was filled with a lot of excitement and laughs. I would call this book a great light read. The book also includes a reading group guide. Questions and topics for discussions near the end of the book. ...