It's been a while...

I haven't blogged in a while. A looong while. Stuff happens, life takes over and BAM! time has literally flown by. I was just reading this post from September of 2010. It's from when my daughter and I decided to go pescatarian. Here I am almost 11 yers later and I've stuck to my guns. My daughter, however, had to give it up when she decided to major in Culinary in High School school. She obviously had to be able to taste her food so it didn't make sense for her to limit her diet. She did it for about 4 years though and that's a big ask for a 12 year old. She's still an amazing kid. Since then, she's graduated from Johnson And Wales University with an AA in Baking and Pastry and a BS in Food Service Management. She's starting her own bankery business called Whisk It All Bakeshop. How cute is that? She has so much talent and is so creative she blows me away sometimes.

In the meantime, I'm back on my on-again, off-again (over so many years) weightloss journey. I'm back at the on-again phase and doing pretty well. I'm just tired of being the biggest person in the room and being so self-conscious about how I look all the time. The problem this time around is, of course, I'm so much older that I was when it was quick and easy to decide to lose weight. I'm peri-menupausal and in my 50's. But there's also no better time to decide to treat yourself right than right now. Am I right? So here we are again. Water has become my new best friend (it's amazing how a lime wedge and a slice of ginger can transform your attitude about something that is otherwise so bland) and sugar is my mortal enemy.🚫 With a family histroy of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, I need to take this seriously. So, intertwined with my book journey, my (post-covid) travel adventures, and my daughter's baking busiess, I'm going to try documenting as much about my weightloss progress as possible. I'm hoping that writing about it, even if no one reads it, will help me stay on track and keep me honest. Here we go...

Parker & Knight by Remington Kane
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Awful. Sexist, horribly written, awful grammatical mistakes (so many sentences ended with a comma!). Who does that? Who edited that? I am just grateful I got through it and it is finally over. Moving on....

View all my reviews

The Unspoken by Ian K. Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story was pretty engaging. There were a lot of twists that kept me interested. I didn't love the main character so much. I felt like his off the cuff Shakespeare quotes and encyclopedia facts randomly tossed in to general conversation were unnecessarily condescending and felt forced and unnatural. The story about the priest, which had nothing to do with the main story, made an otherwise good guy come off as kind of a psycho, even though they tried to explain his past exeriences with bullies. And so many meals! I get that the guy's gotta eat but EVERY meal is described from appetizer to dessert. It's too much! If you can get past those little annoyances, the story itself was pretty good.

View all my reviews

Review: The Lying Game

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On every soap opera, two or three characters share a secret. They have constant conversations about said secret, repeating it over and over until just the wrong person is lurking around the corner to overhear it and use it for leverage or blackmail within the next two or three episodes. This book is NOTHING like that. These four ladies REALLY know how to keep a secret. Even when they are discussing the past, we never really know what happened until it slowly unfolds throughout the story. The characters are distinctive and likable and we are able to see how their relationships developed and grew, and what time and this secret have done to make them who they are as adults. Its a great story that dispels bits of information at a great pace. I really enjoyed this one.

View all my reviews

Review: Origin

Origin by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the book. The action leading up to the suspense was obvious but the "big revelation" was not... until it happened. Good story that kept my attention but I'm not sure it's for everyone. Especially if those that are super-religious or kind of closed-minded. (Typical Dan Brown stuff.) If nothing else, you will undoubtedly learn something about art, an author, a famous piece of writing, or some form of architecture that you didn't know about before.


View all my reviews

Review: American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked it, it was very visual and definitely kept my interest. But I've read reviews of people reading this over and over again and I can't see myself doing that. At least I know enough to start watching the series.

View all my reviews

Review: Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Same type of suspense as the first story (which I enjoyed). No one develps characters as well as Stephen King (except maybe Harlan Coben). Definitely moving on to Book #3.

View all my reviews

Sailing on LightSail

We are sending our selfies to space on LightSail: A Revolutionary Solar Sailing Spacecraft. The first successful sail concluded in May . If you's like to back the next mission, you can do so on Kickstarter here: LightSail on Kickstarter

A Visit to the Red Planet

My name will be on a microchip that will fly aboard NASA's Mars mission, InSight, scheduled for launch March 2016! The InSight lander will listen to the heartbeat of Mars to find out how the rocky planets formed. How cool!

Guns With History

Please take a moment to view this and please, please share it.  It may actually save a life.

Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book! It was educational, enlightening and entertaining. Passing on to my kids. I hope Bill Nye can keep them as engaged as he kept me.

View all my reviews

Six Years by Harlan Coben

Six Years by Harlan Coben
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. It caught my attention from the first chapter and was twisty from beginning to end. I found myself gasping in surprise at the end of so many chapters. It is a true non-stop thriller with lots of laugh-out-loud moments and a lot of shocking revelations. If you liked Gone Girl, you will LOVE Six Years.  Read it. You will not regret it!!!

This is teen-friendly.  Okay for 13+ only because of the violence. No sex or excessively bad language.

View all my reviews

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow! This was a great read. The story was non-stop action with a great writing style - both main characters are telling you their story from their perspective. It was a true page-turner and I couldn't wait for the ending which was... meh! The book was so good, though, so twisty and smart and unexpected that I would still recommend it to others. But only 4 stars because of the weak ending.
(NOT kid-friendly.  Adults only!)

View all my reviews

I finally got my BC stickers!

The package from Book Crossing came today with my ID labels and the "I'm not lost" stickers.  Yay!!!  I'm trying to decide now where to leave my first book.  I have chosen The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  It got rave reviews after its release as it was a great reader but I had a lot of trouble with it (on an emotional level).  I prefer books that have action and magic and fantasy and murder and mayhem.  This book was expertly written but was more emotional than was comfortable for me.  (I usually max out at about the Nicholas Sparks level!)  And it's definitely NOT for kids. I'm hoping someone that loves this type of story will pick it up, read it and love it.

Since the day is a bit overcast, I'm hesitant to leave it outside on a park bench.  And I've already been to the grocery store today (and dance class and GameStop and even our township rec center) so they are all out!  Maybe I'll take a quick trip to the mall and leave it on one of the benches.  In fact, maybe I'll do a few more and leave them on several benches.  I'd be so thrilled if someone picked one up and logged it in within the next couple of days.  Ok, here goes...

Ready to start Book Crossing

Ok... I'm all ready to begin.  I've ordered my bookplates (I created some original ones --->) and I've gone through our overcrowded bookshelves and picked out the first 25 books that I'd like to share.  They are all great books, mostly hardcovers, by great authors (and I didn't skimp on the quality!): Anne Rice, John Grisham, James Patterson, Terry MacMillan, Stephen L. Carter, Colleen McCullough, Mary Higgins Clark, Jeffrey Deaver, Dan Brown, Danielle Steele, Michael Baisden, etc.  I want to share books that I think others will read and really enjoy as much as I did.

So I'm excited to receive my labels.  As soon as they come, I'll start my journal entries and then happily release my books into the wild.  I hope this works and that folks pick up the books, log them in, read them and pass them on.  I really do!  I'm trying to come up with a bunch of good, populated locations where I can drop off my labeled books: a bench at the mall, maybe a special trip to a Starbucks, a bench at the park (weather-permitting, of course!), my kids' dance school, my hairdresser... And as I mentioned before, I also plan to send a few with my parents on their cruise next month.  I'm especially excited to see where those books end up!

We'll see how this experiment continues.  Stay tuned for more...

I just joined BookCrossing.com (again!)

I joined this website a few years ago upon recommendation of a friend.  However, I never became an active participant, probably because I didn't really understand the process or the purpose, and the site left my memory completely.  I recently came across it again during a boring Sunday afternoon while clicking on that wonderfully addictive StumbleUpon button. 

The idea of BookCrossing immediately caught my interest but when I went to register for an account, it told me that my email address was already registered.  Lo and behold... it was!  And now I'm ready to get started.

What is BookCrossing?  It's a wonderful way to share alllllll of those books that are taking up room on the shelves of your home (or office or storage space or wherever) and are not being enjoyed (at the moment) by anyone.  (Honestly, I have some books lying sideways on the shelf.  It's time to let them go!) 

The basic premise is that you label your book with a unique ID number, register it on the book crossing website and then leave it in a conspicuous place so that someone else will take it, log the location, read it, and then continue to pass it on.  If readers are (hopefully) willing to log the book in before passing it on to someone else, you will be able to see the journey of your book.  I love that idea!

So I'm just getting started.  I'm ordering pre-numbered labels and "I'm Free" stickers and have a list of great books in mind that I plan to pass on.  I just need a few locations.  Work comes to mind, of course, since I work in the home office of a large bank.  I don't go to Starbucks or fast food restaurants very often but they seem to be ideal locations as well.  I also plan to send a couple books with my parents on their cruise next month; who knows where those books could end up.  I'll try to chronicle my books' journeys here.  I'm hoping that this turns out to be a fun and interesting experience!

Melissa Harris-Perry: The Politics of Black Hair

Melissa Harris-Perry is joined by notable Black women to discuss politics, perception and appreciation of Black hair. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Check out the websites and products related to the show:

http://melissaharrisperry.com/ - Melissa V. Harris-Perry is host of MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry." The show airs on Saturdays and Sundays from 10AM to noon ET.

http://www.curlynikki.com/ - A website that discusses and embraces natural Black hair and haircare products

http://saveyourdo.com/ - The fashionable way to save your hairstyle while living an active lifestyle.

The Blood

The Blood by D.J. MacHale
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love the way D.J. MacHale writes. He sucks you in, grabs hold of your emotions and doesn't let go until you finally see the words "The End."  As a huge fan of his Pendragon series (I even read the three prequels which were not written by MacHale) I picked up Morpheus Road: The Light when it was first released, but kept pushing it back on my TBR list. Now I'm glad I did because I didn't have to wait for the sequels to be released to continue the story; I read all three books back-to-back. Great series and, although much shorter than Pendragon's ten book series, I found it to be just as action-filled and exciting.  It's a little dark but very kid-friendly and the way The Light and The Black interlock is pure genius. If you're going to start reading Morpheus Road, you may as well pick up all three at once. I guarantee you won't want to stop after the first one!!

Morpheus Road:
The Light
The Black
The Blood

View all my reviews

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ok, first off, you can't take this book too seriously. Becky is admittedly annoying and careless. But the book is hilarious, easy reading, mindless fun. And sometimes it's nice to escape to someone else's problems every once in a while, even if her problems are self-inflicted. I laughed a lot throughout this book. And quite frankly, I liked Becky even though she doesn't make the best choices. I have the next Confessions book in the queue for the next time I need a quick, light-hearted read. And with the way things are going in the world these days, that time may be coming soon. :)

View all my reviews

7 Circle Management Tips That Will Increase Your Google+ Experience

For those of you that use Google+ (which is awesome, by the way, especially on the iPhone) here are some great tips as suggested by photographer and fellow G+er +Billy Wilson.

Many people complain that they won't circle someone who posts something in the neighborhood of 20 times a day, the good news is that with circles you can have someone circled and never see their posts. Here are some of the ways I keep my circles organized. Doing this as early on in your G+ experience as possible is recommended, since putting together and organizing a lot of people takes a lot of time.

1. Create Circles for Content You Want to Consume: Not everyone I circle I want to see posts from, I have +Britney Spears and +Paris Hilton in my circles (see tip 7 why) but I never see a single thing they post because they aren't in my circles of content I want to consume. You also have a volume control on your circles if you like looking at your main stream. 

2. Divide the Content You Want to Consume Into Smaller Priority Based Circles: There are many people on Google+ I wouldn't mind seeing posts from, but some people I like to see more often than others. So I have a series of circles dividing people who I want to see content from starting with people who I don't want to miss and ending with a series of circles containing people I'm not too connected with yet but still want to keep up with and interact with on occasion. 

3. Divide the People Who Produce Content You Don't Want to Consume Into Circles: Doing this helps me remember why I circled someone, for instance I might love hanging out with a person but I find the content they post utterly annoying, so I put them into my "People To Hangout With" circle which is the circle I tend to select when doing a limited hangout. +Britney Spears and+Paris Hilton are in my "Celebrities Who Don't Interact" circle and I mainly just have people like them circled to keep track of big names and when they are hanging out on G+ (see tip 7).

4. You Can Limit Which Circles Are Publicly Displayed on Your Profile: I don't really want to boast that I have a lot of mainstream celebrities on G+ circled so most of them are in circles that aren't publicly displayed. I find this to be a good measure to limit who's displayed since it will affect the "IN COMMON WITH YOU" box you find on people's profiles (found only on profiles with less than 14,000 followers). I don't want to look like I'm following and supporting people I only circled just to organize and see if they might be hanging out (see tip 7). I'll give an example as to how "IN COMMON WITH YOU" works, on G+ I have +Summer Holmquist circled publicly, so if you have me in your circles and go to her profile page, on the right above where it tells you who she has in her circles it will say "IN COMMON WITH YOU" if you hover over that box and click "View All" and type "Billy Wilson" into the filter box I will come up as one of the people who you have in common with her. You can select which circles you have displayed publicly by clicking "Edit Profile" at the top of your profile page, then click the box that displays who you have in circles and you can select who can view this (your circles or public) and which circles will be shown. People will never know which circle you have them in of course, just that you have someone circled or not if you chose to show a particular circle.

5. Create More Circles to Organize People: Even when I have someone circled I like to add them to more circles. For instance I have circles for people I enjoyed hanging out with, people who are artists, Canadians, scientists, musicians, photographers, Googlers; into technology, news; I know from Flickr or Youtube; people who have been on my show, and so on.... This way I'm not just pigeonholing someone based on only one thing.

6. Create Hangout Invite Circles: When you start a hangout that is public or a limited one to more than 25 people, they won't get a notification in the top bar or in chat. So it's a good idea to make a handful of circles with 25 people each that you really want to hangout with so they will be better notified that you want to hangout. It's best to mention you are hanging out in advance in a limited post so people are ready when you invite. 

7. Get +Mohamed Mansour's "My Hangouts" Extension and Make a Notification Circle: I want to know if people I enjoy interacting with are hanging out, and I also want to know if people like +Britney Spears ever actually do take the plunge into hangouts. By using +Mohamed Mansour's extension and connecting it with one of your circles you can be assured that if there's someone you want to hangout with hanging out, you will be notified.