Jaime Loves Stuff : July 2009


In My Mailbox 39

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. Go ahead and join in on the fun. I know I love to see what arrives in everybody's mailboxes, don't you?

Click on any one of the images to read more about each books! The one that has no book cover available is "Willoughby's Return", a Jane Austen Sequel to Sense and Sensibility! (I don't remember if I posted Half Moon or An Artist of Treason last week but can't hurt to post it twice. I have decided I really, really like using Goodreads to post these images!)

I received "The Diary of Cozette" and "Dust to Dust" from Eharlequin. Yup. I bought em :) "Dead Until Dark", I bought when I was at the store. Tired of all the hype and need to read them for myself. Besides, I love True Blodd. Seems like it's been awhile since I purchased a book. I am loaded with ARCs so I haven't had a chance to go buy a new book. Next ones will be "Sacred Hearts" by Sarah Dunant and the paperback release of "The Heretic Queen" by Michelle Moran. Here I come Amazon.com!

The rest of these books are all ARCs. You got it! Lots of reading to do! I am not so sure about the last one, Luv Ya Bunches. It's not really my cup of tea, but I will peak through a few chapters and if I find I don't like it, I will post it as a giveaway. I won't review a book that I wouldn't normally read on a given day and it's not fair to the author, I would rather pass it on and ask somebody to review it! Sounds fair, doesn't it?



The Diary Of CozetteDust to DustHush, HushUndiscovered Gyrl (Vintage Contemporaries Orig)Willoughby's Return: A tale of almost irresistible temptationWild Blue UnderLove You to DeathChosen by Desire (The Guardians of Destiny)The Maze RunnerHalf Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage that Redrew the Map of the New WorldAn Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James WilkinsonAfterLuv Ya Bunches: Book OneDead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1)

Random Reading Challenge



Hosted by www.caribousmom.com
August 1, 2009 – July 31, 2010

Are you stuck in a rut? Do you always find yourself reading from set lists or feeling committed to reading one book while another book screams at you from your TBR mountain? Has your reading become completely scheduled? If so, the Random Reading Challenge may be just the thing to put the spontaneity back into your reading.

For this challenge, readers will be choosing books randomly from their TBR stacks. You may select one of three levels of participation:

Level I

You are just a tad compulsive about your reading – you love your lists and schedules. Being spontaneous is not something that comes naturally to you. To complete the challenge, force yourself out of your rut and read just six books

Level II:

You really want to break away from all those lists, but you do still have a responsibility to your reading groups, other challenges and all those review books. Six books is too little, but twelve is too much. Stretch a little and read nine books for the challenge.

Level III:

Throw away the lists, don’t look at your schedule, bring on the joy that comes with the freedom to chose books randomly. Read twelve books for the challenge.

Rules (come on, you didn’t think I would be THAT random did you?!?!?):NO lists allowed.
Books for the challenge are chosen one at a time when the mood strikes.
  • Sign up at any time during the challenge period using Mr. Linky below. Please give me a direct link to your blog post about the challenge. If you do not have a blog, no worries. Simply enter your name and leave the URL box on Mr. Linky blank.
  • Book reviews are not required, but if you want to write a review I will be providing a review Mr. Linky after August 1st.
  • Books are selected one at a time using the following procedure:
    • Randomly select any number of books from either your physical OR your virtual TBR pile (I don’t care how you do this, but it must be random…no “cherry picking” allowed)
    • Assign a number to each book based on how many books you selected (ie: if you selected 14 books, assign each book a number from 1 through 14; if you selected 28 books, assign each book a number from 1 through 28…you get the idea)
    • Go to www.random.org and use the TRUE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR located in the upper right hand corner of the page to randomly select the book you will read. NO CHEATING – whatever the random number generator generates is the book you must read!
    • Each time you select a book for the challenge, you will use this procedure. You many select different books each time, choose a different amount of books each time, etc…have fun, mix it up, keep it random.


    Ready to get random!??!? Challenge begins August 1st!


    Progress:


    1. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. Finished August 9, 2009 *Review Pending*

    2. Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah finished 8/22/09 *review pending*

    3. Jake the Snake and the Stupid Time Out Chair by Shelly Faith Nicholson finished 8/22/09*review pending*

    Have you read more then 6 of these books?


    Have you read more than 6 of these books?

    The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

    Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so i can see your responses!

    1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (X)


    2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X)

    3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (X)

    4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling ()

    5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee(x)

    6 The Bible () does reading bits and pieces count?

    7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (X)

    8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell(x)

    9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman () - It's on my shelf though

    10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (x)

    11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)

    12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ()

    13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ()

    14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ()

    15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier()

    16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X)

    17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ()

    18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger(x)

    19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger () It's on my shelf though!

    20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ()

    21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ()

    22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald()

    23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ()

    24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (X)

    25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ()

    27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X)

    28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck(x)

    29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (X)

    30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame(x)

    31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (X)

    32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ()

    33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis(x)

    34 Emma-Jane Austen (X)- This is where I found my daughter's name

    35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (X)

    36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X)

    37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein (X)

    38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

    39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (X)

    40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne()

    41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ()

    42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (X)

    43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()

    44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving ()

    45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ()

    46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)

    47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ()

    48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood ()

    49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (X)

    50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (X)

    51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ()

    52 Dune - Frank Herbert()

    53 Cold Comfort Farm ()

    54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (X)

    55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

    56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

    57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens()

    58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

    59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon

    60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (X)

    61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (X)

    62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

    63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

    64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (X)

    65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

    66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac()

    67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

    68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

    69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

    70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville(x)

    71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens(x)

    72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (X)

    73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)

    74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

    75 Ulysses - James Joyce

    76 The Inferno – Dante ()

    77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

    78 Germinal - Emile Zola

    79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (X)

    80 Possession - AS Byatt

    81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (X)

    82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

    83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (X)

    84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

    85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

    86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

    87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (X)

    88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (X)

    89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(x)

    90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

    91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ()

    92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery(x)

    93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

    94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

    95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

    96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

    97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (X)

    98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare ()

    99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X)

    100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo()

    Teaser Tuesday!



    Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading Anyone can play along! Just do the following:


    This week, my teaser is from ..... Yep, you guessed it- Field of Blood by Eric Wilson


    From Page 16, here is my teaser:

    "Man. Woman. Beast... Any host with a beating heart would do.
    Or, in the case of the Akeldama, any skeleton sprinkled in blood"

    Yeah.. ponder that. This is a fantastic book.


    So your turn.. what's YOUR tease today?

    The Fictionistas: who wants a copy of BITE ME! (and other stuff?)

    The Fictionistas: who wants a copy of BITE ME! (and other stuff?)

    What are YOU reading Mondays


    Vist J-Kaye's blog for more information on the What Are You Reading Mondays and to join. What did you finish last week? What are you reading now and what will you finish? Great fun and great reading!

    Last week I finished Sacred Night, Dark Destiny, and Taken. I am too lazy to post the links but go see my reviews!

    This week I am reading:

    Field of Blood (Jerusalem's Undead Trilogy, Book 1)
    "This Present Darkness meets historical legends in this Biblically grounded series.

    The suicide of Judas Iscariot in 30 A.D. left his blood seeping into the soil of the Field of Blood, in Aramaic the Akeldama. When this same field is disturbed by work crews outside Jerusalem in 1989, a clan of supernatural Collectors is released from the ancient burial chambers. Infused with Judas's enmity, they seek to corrupt and destroy.

    Gina Lazarescu has always felt like she didn't quite belong. But a bizarre accident with a delivery van leaves her questioning if the differences aren't more significant than she realized. When a man she met as a young girl in Romania reappears with a fantastic tale of immortality, Gina must decide whether to believe or to ignore what she's seeing.

    Regardless of what she decides, she's headed for an unavoidable collision with the Akeldama. "

    Let me also preface this by saying, I generally don't read religious books due to my personal belief system but I couldn't pass this one up. I was too intrigued- Vampires and Christian Fiction? Oh yeah, let's get it on! I am definitely open minded! Seriously, doesn't this sound awesome? I am on Chapter 4 and WOW!! Can Eric Wilson write. I am so intrigued I can't handle it! I also have the second book (well, it's a galley) of the Jerusalem's Undead Trilogy and can't wait!


    Under This Unbroken Sky
    "Spring 1938. After nearly two years in prison for the crime of stealing his own grain, Ukrainian immigrant Theo Mykolayenko is a free man. While he was gone, his wife, Maria, their five children, and his sister, Anna, struggled to survive on the harsh northern Canadian prairie, but now Theo-a man who has overcome drought, starvation, and Stalin's purges--is determined to make a better life for them. As he tirelessly clears this untamed land, Theo begins to heal himself and his children. But the family's hopes and newfound happiness are short-lived. Anna's rogue

    husband, the arrogant and scheming Stefan, unexpectedly returns, stirring up rancor and discord that will end in violence and tragedy.



    Under this Unbroken Sky is a mesmerizing tale of love and greed, pride and desperation, that will resonate long after the last page is turned. Shandi Mitchell has woven an unbearably suspenseful story, written in a language of luminous beauty and clarity. Rich with fiery conflict and culminating in a gut-wrenching climax, this is an unforgettably powerful novel from a passionate new voice in contemporary literature.





    Shandi Mitchell is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter. Her short films have screened at numerous international festivals, and she is a recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts endowment. Mitchell spent her childhood on a military base on the prairies and now makes her home in Nova Scotia, on the east coast of Canada, with her husband, Alan, and their dog, Annie. Under This Unbroken Sky is her first novel."

    This I am reading for the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club! I haven't started it as of this second but will soon!

    In My Mailbox 38


    In My Mailbox was started at The Story Siren  (Now defunct) Go sign up!


    All of these are for review, except Enchanted and the duplicate of The Brutal Telling which is up for giveaway (don't forget to enter!!!). They also came in while my daughter was in the hospital

    Needless to say, I can't say no to a book! I love them way too much. However, I do have to say no until December. Sigh. Don't know if I can. These are my crack! At least it's a good crack to be addicted to books! Maintains healthy brain function and keeps Alzheimer's at bay (hey! I have a paranoia over Alzheimer's, my grandma died from it! Also, cancer. I worked in Oncology for awhile and lost my mom and aunt to cancer.. ok enough of my paranoia!). I really have to say no and catch up on all my reads and get my reviews done! I am excited because my piles are full of some excellent sounding books! Hooray!

    This is the pile I am reading through! Photobucket

    So what's in YOUR mailbox this week?

    Don't forget to vote for your favorite blogs!

    It's that time, Blogger Appreciation Week. Go ahead nominate those blogs you feel go above and beyond or just plain and simply have the wow factor. There are so many great blogs out there!

    Shameless promoting for freebies!!

    Have you been to Swagbucks yet? If not, GET OVER THERE!!! I love this site! Just do what you normally do, search the web for information and earn swag bucks! Swagbucks rock, they are redeemable for music, books, gift certificates and more!! Check out what the buzz is all about!!!

    Just click on the box and head on over! I <3 Swagbucks!

    Search & Win

    HideMyPants

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    Review of "Taken" By Norah McClintock

    Taken Taken by Norah McClintock


    My rating: 4 of 5 stars
    Stephanie is your typical teenager. Full of angst, especially after her father passes away unexpectedly in a car accident and her mother begins dating Gregg, who Stephanie can't stand and feels is substandard compared to her father. Stephanie and her mother have arguments that seem to further aggravate the tension at home. In a small, rural community, they town is rocked with the disappearance of two young girls. One which was found "not alive". Of course, our protagonist doesn't think it could happen to her!

    From very early on, Stephanie was kidnapped and her survival skills kick in thanks to her grandfather teaching her all there is to know about surviving in the wilderness. The biggest chunk of the book is about her breaking free, surviving in the wilderness, and thinking about all the things that have happened. Her father's death. Her mother moving on. Maybe Gregg isn't as bad as she thought. Regret. Sadness. Worry. Overcoming panic.

    I thought this book was well written for the targeted audience (12 and up). It was simple, yet, gripping. This wasn't very action packed but more focused on her psyche and survival instincts.


    View all my reviews >>

    Zombie Chicken Award! You gotta love this one!




    There's nothing I love more then a good zombie, but a zombie chicken, now that's awesome!!! This lovely award was passed on to me by Jezebelsk at Walking on Sunshine. Don't forget to swing on by her blog and take a peak.

    The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all...

    I will do my nominations later. I have some serious catching up to do (hence the mass book reviews I am posting and the insane pile of books.) and have another award to nominate also! So hang in there everybody!

    August 3, 2009- Can you believe I am FINALLY getting to the nominations? Boy, once you get behind does it take moving mountains to catch up!!!

    Now on to the Zombie Chicken Award Nominations:

    Rachel at The Book Wars

    Lady Lazarus at Lady Lazarus, not in the pink :)

    Kristin at Bookworming in the 21st Century

    Zombie Girrl at Crackin Spines and Takin Names

    Seductive Musings at Seductive Musings

    Thanks again for all of you being so awesome!

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    Review of "Purpilicious"

    Purplicious Purplicious by Victoria Kann


    My rating: 5 of 5 stars
    My daughter, Emma, suffers from a traumatic brain injury due to being a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome. She is going on 6 but is cognitively 3 and she also suffers physical disabilities from the brain injury.

    I found Purplicious one day while searching for books for Emma. Emma is a huge lover of books (just like her mother) and when I found Purpilicious the first thing I thought was it will be visually stimulating. And right I was. The bright colors (yes, my Emma loves the colors purple and pink!) captured her interest. Even better? The story of Purpilicious.

    Pinkalicious loves the color pink until some of the other children started laughing at her and telling her that pink is for babies. Pinkalicious tries to defend her color choice and becomes very sad at the other girls' judgment of the color pink. She wouldn't even eat PINK ice cream!

    Then one day, Pinkalicious makes a new friend- Purpilicious who loves the color purple and doesn't care what anybody thinks of it! They become friends united by "Baby Colors"

    I love this book because my daughter is "different". with this book, I know she can learn that it's ok to be who she is regardless of whether it's popular.

    Cute book!

    View all my reviews >>

    Review: "Dark Destiny, the Sleeping Beauty Story Your Mother Never Told You"

    Dark Destiny: The Sleeping Beauty Story Your Mother Never Told You Dark Destiny: The Sleeping Beauty Story Your Mother Never Told You by Melody Lowe


    My rating: 3 of 5 stars
    Have you ever wondered how the Evil Queen, Evil King, Wicked Stepmother, etc become evil or what they were like when they were young? That's the road “Dark Destiny” takes in the story about the Queen of Darkness in Sleeping Beauty.



    Princess Elspeth of Rookskrieg, is betrothed to Prince Malcolm of Talonsbay. However, Malcolm wants nothing to do with Elspeth. He finds her ugly and sullen. She wants nothing to do with Malcolm either. She would rather join her sister, Lillith, training in magic with the fairies in Elfhame. However, her “destiny” is to marry Malcolm and join the realms of Rookskrieg and Talonsbay.



    On the night of Elspeth's sister Isabelle's wedding to Byron, Malcolm humiliates Elspeth in front of the kingdom and she is rescued by a stranger, Jethart, who is actually the Dark King.



    Jethart visits Elspeth nightly and they fall in love, however she is betrothed. On the day of her wedding Jethart rescues her from being united with Malcolm and finds happiness with Jethart at Dubh Rathgart, or the Black Fortress. He teaches her the magic she has longed for and become powerful together. Meanwhile, Malcolm is growing in his hatred and ends up battling Jethart and kills him. Leaving Elspeth to brew her anger as she is alone with their son, Ossian.



    Basically, the anger at having all her happiness being taken away from her grows Elspeth into the infamous Dark Queen. Who wants to destroy Malcolm and his happiness.



    I thought the story was ok. I felt it was hurried and many other areas could be built upon. I feel that the author touched on the aspects of magic, darkness, battle, love and beauty. All things important to fairy tales, fantasy and the like. I was hoping for a little more dialogue, character building, and more action. However, with this being a short read, it was written well enough to get the point of the story across and created enough of a visual to make this an enjoyable. I certainly felt Elspeth's anger and pain from losing her love and enjoyed watching Ossian grow into a powerful magician. Also Prince Roderick's (King Malcom's son) also is a character to watch out for is the author decides to continue this story. I imagine him growing into a wonderful king, unlike his evil father. I am saddened by Ossian.



    I definitely recommend this book to preteens and teens. This was my first experience with reading a retelling of a fairy tale and definitely won't be my last!

    View all my reviews >>

    Support Award winning Dark Regions Press

    Support Award winning Dark Regions Press

    Shared via AddThis

    Once again, reminiscing



    Photobucket
    (6 months old, before injury)


    Looks like you have to click on the photos if you want to see them, they are too big for the blog :(
    I am. See, I never wanted kids. So when I found out I was pregnant with Emma (despite all the precautions I took), I had planned to give her up for adoption. I was spoiled rotten, I was flighty, irresponsible, not the most patient and loved kids, but for a little while (liked to send them home after I spoiled them). However, when I had her, I fell in love with her and made her a promise. If I felt I couldn't handle her at any moment and couldn't find it in myself to give her what she needed, then I would go back to the adoption agency and give her what I physically and emotionally can't. Obviously, we know what happened :) I have to say, I am proud of myself. I fell head over heels in love with this little girl and am impressed with the direction my life went since I had her.

    I am just reminiscing about what she has gone through over the last 5 years and am in jaw dropping awe and the resiliency she has endured. At 11 months of age, she suffered a brutal act of child abuse, Shaken Baby Syndrome with Impact, and had part of her skull and brain removed to save her life. She had to undergo several procedures. She suffered serious brain damage and a stroke and nobody knew if she would ever be anything more then a vegetable. She ended up spending a total of 4 weeks in Pediatric Intensive Care and another 4 weeks in neurological rehab, spending most of her days in therapy. She had to have a feeding tube, wear a helmet, leg and arm braces. She had to learn to sit up, eat, use her arms, hands and legs again. Even smiling. She had to learn to smile again. I lived with her in the hospital. Read to her while she was in a coma. Read to her while she was so exhausted from therapy. I like to think that reading to her is part of what saved her :)
    Photobucket
    3 days after injury and surgery

    Photobucket
    (about 15 days after injury)

    I had a hard time accepting what happened to her, I went through a huge state of denial believing the person's story that it was an accident. See, believing it was an accident made it easier to deal with my child. I didn't want to think that somebody really picked up my child, shook her and slammed. However, the truth came around. And the anger and sadness helped me heal which in turn helped Emma.
    Photobucket
    (7 months old, before injury)

    Now, that the person has been convicted of Child Abuse and Emma had her skull finally repaired, on July 16th of this year, we have closure. Literally and figuratively. Emma each and every day has shocked me. She is such a smart, loving, incredible, albeit FEISTY child.
    PhotobucketPhotobucket



    Have you ever been so ridiculously proud of somebody? *graphic photos*



    Photobucket (6 months old, before injury)

    Looks like you have to click on the photos if you want to see them, they are too big for the blog :(
    I am. See, I never wanted kids. So when I found out I was pregnant with Emma (despite all the precautions I took), I had planned to give her up for adoption. I was spoiled rotten, I was flighty, irresponsible, not the most patient and loved kids, but for a little while (liked to send them home after I spoiled them). However, when I had her, I fell in love with her and made her a promise. If I felt I couldn't handle her at any moment and couldn't find it in myself to give her what she needed, then I would go back to the adoption agency and give her what I physically and emotionally can't. Obviously, we know what happened :) I have to say, I am proud of myself. I fell head over heels in love with this little girl and am impressed with the direction my life went since I had her.

    I am just reminiscing about what she has gone through over the last 5 years and am in jaw dropping awe and the resiliency she has endured. At 11 months of age, she suffered a brutal act of child abuse, Shaken Baby Syndrome with Impact, and had part of her skull and brain removed to save her life. She had to undergo several procedures. She suffered serious brain damage and a stroke and nobody knew if she would ever be anything more then a vegetable. She ended up spending a total of 4 weeks in Pediatric Intensive Care and another 4 weeks in neurological rehab, spending most of her days in therapy. She had to have a feeding tube, wear a helmet, leg and arm braces. She had to learn to sit up, eat, use her arms, hands and legs again. Even smiling. She had to learn to smile again. I lived with her in the hospital. Read to her while she was in a coma. Read to her while she was so exhausted from therapy. I like to think that reading to her is part of what saved her :)
    Photobucket 3 days after injury and surgery
    Photobucket (about 15 days after injury)
    I had a hard time accepting what happened to her, I went through a huge state of denial believing the person's story that it was an accident. See, believing it was an accident made it easier to deal with my child. I didn't want to think that somebody really picked up my child, shook her and slammed. However, the truth came around. And the anger and sadness helped me heal which in turn helped Emma.
    Photobucket (7 months old, before injury)

    Now, that the person has been convicted of Child Abuse and Emma had her skull finally repaired, on July 16th of this year, we have closure. Literally and figuratively. Emma each and every day has shocked me. She is such a smart, loving, incredible, albeit FEISTY child.
    Photobucket


    What does this have to do with my book blog? You all have sent so many well wishes regarding her surgery and I wanted to share this little bit of us. And she loves books. She is her mother's daughter.

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    Friday Fill- Ins #134




    Weekly Friday Meme hosted by:

    Friday Fill-Ins

    And...here we go!

    1. __Being Single___ is not the end of the world.

    2. Sitting here, listening to the sound of rain falling, I _feel relaxed____.

    3. _Fresh fruit____ tastes so good!

    4. Sometimes, putting others first is _necessary____.

    5. _Arizona____ is breathtaking, really.

    6. Well, maybe there is a chance to get through my tbr pile!_____.

    7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _rearranging my bedroom____, tomorrow my plans include _sleeping in late____ and Sunday, I want to _finish my second book this week____!

    Head on over to Friday Fill ins and join in on the fun!
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