15-Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 1

April at Good Books and Wine is hosting a 15-Day Book Blogger Challenge which can be completed at any time in the next 5 1/2 months or so.  How cool is that.  So I figured since I was in a blogging slump, this may pick-me-up and I'm going to participate starting today.  Here are the prompts and you can go here at Good Books and Wine to link up your posts if you decide to participate.

So for Day 1: Make 15 book-related confessions

1. I often pick a book just from the cover.  Yes I'll be searching the internet, amazon, other blogs and if the cover catches my eye, I pretty much have to have it.
2. I love my library and my library is like Cheers, everybody knows my name and if a new person becomes employed the wonderful staff makes sure they know me.  Okay I'm just in there that much and they love that I love to read.  I even saw the group of them at The Hunger Games when it came out and we all talked.  Did I mention I love my library?
3. I read my first Stephen King when I was 13.  I read It.  I am now terrified of towns in Maine, sewer grates and clowns.  Okay not towns in Maine because I really want to visit, but the rest is true.  I will go way around to avoid a sewer grate.
4. After the reading of It, I embarked on the reading of John Saul and Dean Koontz back when his books were scary. 
5. My favorite Dean Koontz book is Twilight Eyes, I really want to re-read it.
6. I also read the Flowers in the Attic series around 12.  I started reading the book while waiting on my Mom to shop at Roses where my Dad was manager.  I probably read 50 pages in 30 minutes and was captivated. 
7. I've also re-read that series and It and I don't re-read many books.
8. I did not read The Great Gatsby or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in high school, I read the Cliff's Notes (that dates me, doesn't it).
9. I did read and enjoy Anthem by Ayn Rand and 1984 by George Orwell.  I guess this is telling of my love of dystopian now.
10. I have a desire to read The Great Gatsby now.
11. I did a Senior English term paper about the differences & similarities between the male characters in Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace.  I loved both books, I received a D on my first pass on said term paper, but ended up with an A.
12. My last English term paper my freshman year of college was on Lady Chatterly's Lover.  That book was much more my speed than a lot of high school reading.  My english professor also had a thing with phallic symbols in books and literature that I still remember to this day.
13. I use a book mark religiously even if it's an old grocery receipt.
14. My favorite series at the moment is the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.  I think I have one book left to read and I'm just waiting for the right time.
15. I suck at reading this year.  I usually make close to 200 books a year and so far I have read 84 books this year.  Time to get cracking!

Any confessions you would like to make?  Join in the challenge or just confess to me :)

Cover Reveal: The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

I read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd shortly before my youngest son was born and I read The Mermaid Chair right after I had him.  Both books have made Sue Monk Kidd an author high on my to-read list.and it's always been a book high on my list of favorites.  So I'm excited to share today the cover reveal for her newest novel, out January 7, 2014 (can I wait that long??)

I love the look of this cover, simple, the colors are stunning and I'm already intrigued and that was before I read the blurb:

From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women

Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world.

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.
This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

I'll be eagerly awaiting January 7th, how about you?  Have you read any of Sue Monk Kidd's novels and what did you think?  Have you seen The Secret Life of Bees movie?  I haven't but it is going on my must-see list.

***I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***

Booking Through Thursday: 8/8/13

All other things being equal (good writing, enthralling story, etc), which would you rather read—something serious, angsty, and tragic? Or something light, fluffy, and fun? Or a blend of both? (Since, really, isn’t that how real life works?)

This is tough, but I'm going to be a wimp and say both.  Sometimes the serious and angsty suits me and sometimes with life going crazy I need the light and fluffy. 

And when I want to mix them I read Harry Potter like I am right now.  They can be serious, they can be fun, but when it's all done, they are great books.  And as I am divng into book 4 (Goblet of Fire) I know the darkness will continue to be in more of the books, but I'm okay with that. They are still an easy fun read that suits me at this moment.  Now next week I will probably be back to Being Me by Lisa Marie Rice which is more serious and angsty (and hot!)