Sunday morning, news and more

The holiday spirit has officially landed in Omaha. My family put up the tree this week, my son finished his shopping yesterday and my husband has already wrapped gifts. How did this happen, I need to get started!

I have a trip to my local bookstore planned for today, I need to order two books. I can’t wait to scan the shelves for new books that peak my interest, adding to my already long wish list.

I have thirty pages left in April and Oliver.  I can't begin to tell you how much I am enjoying this book.  I feel connected to the characters and am rooting for a specific end to the book.  If you haven't read it yet, read it!

Book Giveaway: The Handy Answer Book for Kids,  Click here for details



Clear Off Your Shelves Challenge: Simply put… I when I started blogging a year ago I accepted too many books. Some bloggers talk about having hundreds of books to read so I should be thankful to have only 48 left after this challenge.

I am happy to say that I read 9 books during this challenge – I’m pleased with this since I was so busy this fall.

Books Read: Belong to Me, Receive me Falling, Once in a Blue Moon, The Insuffiency of Maps, Have a Little Faith, Off Season, The Girl who Stopped Swimming, Oxygen, Rooftops of Tehran

Now I need to get the reviews posted – this could be my next challenge!

What I'm Reading this week: The Day the Falls Stood Still (written by Cathy Marie Buchanan) is the Omaha Bookworm’s February selection. This book was just selected as a Best Book Club Selection – I can’t wait to get started.

Synopsis: Steeped in the intriguing history of Niagara Falls, this epic love story is as rich, spellbinding, and majestic as the falls themselves.

1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating-and harboring a secret.

The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him-against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future.

Links worth Clicking:
- The Best Book Club Selections of 2009 (as chosen by Book Bloggers)
- The Kindle may be going great guns at the tills, but with no Dan Brown, no Philip Roth and – gasp! – no Sarah Palin available from its store, what are people reading on it?
- Cause of Jane Austen's death not universally acknowledged
- More Magazine has a great post this month, listing their November favorites