Recently an article in Don’s World magazine caught my attention that I thought was going to be a summer book reading list. I always like to read about new books. Instead it was the results of a contest they had on the “best last lines” of books. Intriguing! Several categories were listed like fiction, non-fiction, classics, bible book endings. In no particular order I’m listing a few last lines that I really liked, or maybe more than a few! A lot of these are from books I’ve never read so something to add to my list that never seems to dwindle.

George Eliot, Middlemarch
“For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
“He turned out the light, and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”

Ralph Moody, Little Britches
“Father had always said grace before meals; always the same twenty-five words, and the ritual was always the same. Mother would look around the table to see that everything was in readiness; then she would nod to Father. Then she nodded to me, and I became a man.”

Maurice Sendak, 
Where the Wild Things Are
“Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him—and it was still hot.”

Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days
“What had he brought back from this long and weary journey? Nothing, say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men! Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?”

C.S. Forester, 
The African Queen
“Whether or not they lived happily ever after is not easily decided.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

Leif Enger, 
Peace Like a River
“Is there a single person on whom I can press belief? No sir. All I can do is say, Here’s how it went. Here’s what I saw. I’ve been there and am going back. Make of it what you will.”

Stephen E. Ambrose, 
D-Day June 6, 1944
“To think of the lives that were given for that principle . . . paying a terrible price on this beach alone, on that one day, 2,000 casualties. But they did it that the world could be free. It just shows what free men will do rather than be slaves.”

Judges 21:25
“In those days there was no King in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes

And the two most popular ones they received entries for:

Charles Dickens, 
A Tale of Two Cities
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
“All their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Maybe I should pay more attention to the endings and come up with a list of my own!
So how about you, got any good last lines of books you like?

“just when I thought our chance had passed, you go and save the best for last”

The spring reading challenge hosted by Katrina officially ended yesterday. It feels like summer started a few weeks ago for us, it’s extremely hot here in the deep south!
I was able to finish all the books I had on my list; not too difficult for me because I wimped out and didn’t include any non-fiction books this go round.
This is what was on my list:
Word Gets Around by Lisa Wingate
Mozart’s Sister by Nancy Moser
The Way We Were by Judy Baer
Sweetgrass by Mary Alice Monroe
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
My least favorite of these was The Pact. I didn’t particularly enjoy the subject matter; the stuff about teen suicide and teen relationships was just a little depressing to me at times. Picoult is a good author; I’ve read a few other books by her that I enjoyed more.

Two books that I especially loved were The Help and Redeeming Love, both very different books. The Help takes place in my home state of Mississippi so that interested me right off. I enjoyed the characters and thought the southern dialect was just perfect. I’m probably the last person to have read Redeeming Love but it was oh so good! I was familiar with the basic story from the bible but loved that it was retold with the setting in California during the 1800’s and the Gold Rush days. I wanted to savor it as I read while also wanting to hurry up and finish it! Very emotional story I thought.

I always enjoy doing Katrina’s reading challenges. She’ll host another in the fall so think about joining up then!

Since I just had a few names, it was easy to put them in a hat and draw one out. It was harder to take a picture of it! Here’s Lauren’s name I drew out……..I’ll try to email you and you can let me know your address. I’ll be glad for the postman to bring it to your house!

I’m off to my last day at bible school, thank goodness because I’m a bit tired!

A month or so ago I finished a book I really enjoyed called The Help. The author is from Mississippi and she’s written a novel about life in Jackson, MS during the civil unrest of the 1960’s. A young white woman just out of college wants to become a writer and becomes interested in the plight of the black women who work for white families in the city. I thought the dialect was dead on, not fake as we sometimes read and hear. The characters were well developed and I sort of hated to see the story come to an end.
If you’d like to read this one (the few of you that read here!) leave me a comment and I’ll be glad to pass it along. If there’s more than one person interested then I’ll put your names in a hat and draw one at the end of the week, so leave me a comment by Thursday and we’ll see if there are any takers!

Today is the start of the Spring Reading Challenge hosted by Katrina. It will run until June 20 and it’s a good way to read any books you’ve been putting off! I believe she will have some prizes/giveaways along the way so be sure to check in with her every week or so. There’s no pressure to finish everything you pick and it’s ok to change your list if your little heart so desires! That’s a good thing for me because I can be a very moody reader at times. I usually try to include one non-fiction book when I do these because I just don’t read it otherwise but right now I’m picking all fiction. Unless you know, the mood strikes me to change later!
Here’s a few I’m hoping to get read over the next couple of months:
Mozart’s Sister by Nancy Moser
The Way We Were> by Judy Baer
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Sweetgrass by Mary Alice Monroe………all four of these books belong to my sister who loans lots of books to me with no time limit on returning them! But I’ve had these for many months now and just haven’t been motivated to read them so I’m hoping this will get me going.
Word Gets Around by Lisa Wingate
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers; I actually just bought that book this week on a whim. I’ve always heard what a good book it is so I’m looking forward to it.

Not pictures is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer; my library doesn’t have it but I hope to get my hands on it sometime in the next few months.

Happy spring reading!

I used the random number site to get a number for the books to send out and this is what it shot out:

Random Integer Generator

Timestamp: 2009-03-06 13:51:46 UTC

Number 5 comment was made by Sandra……..I’ll get the Heather Creek books out to you in a few days!

And Sweet September are the first two books in a new series by Guideposts called Home to Heather Creek. In Before the Dawn we meet Charlotte Stevenson; her daughter Denise ran away from home at eighteen and is the mom to three children. After she dies in an automobile accident, Charlotte brings the teen age children home to their farm in Nebraska. The kids are virtually strangers to Charlotte and her husband Bob and are not thrilled to leave behind their life in California for a very different life on the farm. Sweet September picks up the story as harvest is beginning. The kids and grandparents are becoming a bit more comfortable with each other but are still learning to deal with their grief and how to become a family while trusting in God to help them through.
Lauren was sweet enough to pass these along to me a few months ago to read and my sister Stacy read them when I was through. I’d like to pass along both of these books so if you’re interested in them let me know in the comments. I’ll leave this up and open all week.

It’s been a while since I participated in this monthly meme……my laptop crashed before Christmas, my blog was down for a while and then our internet service was out! I hope that will be it for the computer problems until much later.
5 Minutes for Books is a great site for book reviews, recommendations and other book related things. So check it out to see who else is sharing their books today. These are a few of my books for the month:

Not pictured but something I just finished were the Sunrise series of books by Karen Kingsbury; the last of the books about the Baxter family. I enjoyed them all and was sad to see them come to an end! At times they might be predictable but I’m ok with that and like to read something clean.
Multiple Blessings by Kate Gosselin is on the bottom and I actually just finished it as well. You might know it from the tv show about their life with 2 sets of multiples and if you like the show you’ll probably enjoy the book. I thought it gave some interesting info about their early days and struggles.
Size 12 is Not Fat……I know nothing about this one and haven’t even read the blurb on the back! It’s one of the many fiction books loaned to me by my sister Stacy.
Hot Tropics and Cold Feet…..I’ve not read anything by Diann Hunt yet; this is another borrowed book.
The Price of Fame….a Guideposts book from the Tales of Grace Chapel Inn series and the one I’m currently reading. Surprise, it came from Stacy…..she’s better than the library! Not sure what will be up next for me after I finish these but the sack of books she sent with me is big enough to have plenty of choices.

I always love recommendations so tell me what you’ve been reading lately!

It’s the fourth Tuesday of the month and 5 Minutes for Books is hosting their monthly What’s on Your Nightstand? carnival. Click over there to see what others are reading right now and maybe to participate yourself!
My nightstand this month….

WHAT, you don’t think I’m reading all those books? HA! Actually most of those books on top have already been read. Along with all the others you see they’ve been littering lining the wall in my room. So this month I moved another nightstand into my room. My daughter brought one home to repaint; the project hasn’t been started yet and this nightstand was sitting in the laundry room unused. For now it’s getting the stacks of books up off my floor. It will get moved soon and I’ll need to come up with a new plan!

Books I might actually read this upcoming month………Rematch by Erynn Mangum, 2nd book in the Lauren Holbrook series; Marley and Me by John Grogan, this is the last one I need to read for the Fall into Reading Challenge. I’d also like to find a Christmas book or two at the library because I enjoy something seasonal during December; I’m not sure what I’ll get because I don’t have time to make it to the library before Thanksgiving! What’s on your nightstand right now?

I couldn’t decide about doing the nightstand carnival over at 5 minutes for books this month. Since I just posted about the fall reading challenge yesterday I thought I might should skip this month but have decided to play along anyway. This is what my nightstand looks like this morning……

So the quick and easy answer to that question is, junk, too much junk is on my nightstand! Oh, but you meant books and what I’m reading? Besides the magazines, papers, eye medicine, sudoku books and water bottle I do have books….I actually finished several in the last few weeks but just haven’t bothered to move yet. Talk of the Town and Her Daddy’s Eyes need to be returned to my church library, thank goodness they don’t fine me or come looking for me if I’ve kept them too long. There’s always at least one sudoku book by my bed and no exception to that this month. The book on top is We Have This Moment by Diann Hunt and I just started it last night. It’s one I’m reading for the fall reading challenge and I did my list/post on it yesterday. The book in the middle is one I borrowed from sis Stacy, ditto on the great return policy! Good thing since I probably have at least 12 of her books right now. I finished that book over the weekend, On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah. It is probably a typical women’s fiction book and not christian at all. I do think I can do without the language that goes with these at times so that’s why I don’t read them as frequently as I might have in the past. I sort of enjoyed the book but am left sad or melancholy I think at the world view that can be in them. I’m pretty conservative about lots of things, that’s just me! I think mostly it left me feeling flat because of some other things that have happened, I can be a moody reader at times depending on what’s going on around me!
Now I need to get some of these returned so I can work on my stack a little bit…..well, I really need to work on that junk first!

It’s time for Katrina’s Fall into Reading challenge again which is always fun to do! I love to visit around and see what other people are reading and finding good ideas for future reads for me. I can usually find a book or 10 that catches my attention, and many times it’s something I might not have run across otherwise. The last couple of times I’ve done the challenge I’ve kept my list relatively simple so I don’t get overwhelmed during the fall with holidays fast approaching. Here’s what I think I’ll read this fall:
1. Miss Match by Erynn Mangum
2. The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society by Beth Pattillo
3. We Have This Moment by Diann Hunt
4. Murder Carries a Torch by Anne George
5. Murder Boogies With Elvis by Anne George
6. Love Starts With Elle by Rachel Hauck
7. Marley and Me by John Grogan

The first 5 I have are books I borrowed from my sis Stacy, along with maybe a dozen more! I keep them for too long sometimes so maybe this will help me work through my stack and return them to her; she has the best return policy of any library I know! The last 2 are from my church library and town library. I think I saw that Marley and Me is a movie coming out this year and I usually like to read any book first before seeing the movie. I’ve heard it’s a pretty good book! If all goes well, I might even get a few more read along the way.
Be sure to go visit Katrina to find out more about the challenge and to see a list of who’s participating….you’re sure to find some good books and blogs to read! Let me know if you join in….what are you reading this fall?

There is a series of books written by Anne George called the Southern Sisters…..maybe 8 different books about 2 sixty something year old sisters that live in Birmingham and just happen upon murders from time to time! They are light and funny and very southern for the most part. I’ve been lucky enough to borrow them from my sis Stacy so I can keep them for a while and not have to read them all back to back. One I read a few weeks ago (Murder Makes Waves I think it was) had a small paragraph in it I really liked and was sort of struck by:

“We Southerners do this, try to make connections. It’s as inborn as the color of our eyes or our hair. Introduce two Southerners and they never lack for something to talk about. And it’s not the weather. It’s the search for connections. We do love to connect the dots.”

Oh that’s so true, we SO do this! I’ve lived in Mississippi all my life so I don’t know how to be anything but a southern girl. But I find myself doing this when meeting someone or talking to a friend……try to find out who they are related to or who they might know in the town they live in, because if we find some common acquaintance we are connected somehow! I’ve seen friends, relatives, even my kids do this also so I don’t think it’s just me.
Have you ever done the same? Do you try to connect the dots, find some common thread to other people and see how far apart you’re separated? Or is it truly just a Southern thing!

Time to share what’s on your nightstand, hosted by 5 minutes for books. I finished all but one of my books from last month; I thought about adding it again but I just don’t think I’m in the mood to read it right now! I might get around to it again in the next few months.
Here’s what I have in my stack currently.

The Measure of a Lady by Deeanne Gist
Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck
Sweetgrass by Mary Alice Monroe, borrowed from my sister Stacy. The first two came from my church library. The book on top is Uncharted by Angela Hunt. I just finished it a couple of nights ago at midnight……..and I’m still sort of reeling from it! It is quite possibly one of the best books I’ve read in a while! Very thought provoking and I think I’m still trying to digest it all. I waited a long time to read it from when I first heard people talking about it; couldn’t find it at my town library or at church and I hesitated about buying it. I might buy it after all and re-read it each year. I’m really itching for someone I know to read it so I can talk about it!
I should be able to get these books finished up this time and maybe even another one added to the mix as well.
Hop on over to 5 minutes for books to see what’s on other nightstands. What are you reading right now?

Be sure to check out 5 minutes for books for some good book reviews and today they are starting a new monthly carnival, What’s on your nightstand? My nightstand usually does have books on it because I tend to read at night a lot, a very guilty pleasure for me! Just this weekend I finished a book that I’ve already returned so I don’t have it for my picture……..Mistaken Identity. It’s a true story about the 2 college girls that were in a horrible van accident, one was killed and the other lived but their identity was switched at the accident site. Five weeks later as a survivor was coming out of a coma the Van Ryn family realized that it wasn’t their daughter after all, which I can’t imagine going through. I knew some of the story from when it happened a couple of years ago but was fascinated to read about it from the perspective of both families and to see what a strong christian faith each of them have. I really enjoyed it and it might be a good one to check out sometime.

Right now I’m reading that book on top, I Heart Bloomberg by Melody Carlson. I picked it up at the church library and it seems to be a light fun read. I got Milk Glass Moon from the town library so I could continue to read about Ave Maria in the Big Stone Gap books! The other 3 books came from my sister Stacy, who is the next best thing to a library! She loans me so many books and I don’t ever have as many to swap with her but it’s nice to borrow back and forth. The Pact by Jodi Picoult, Light on Snow by Anita Shreve….I’ve not read anything by her so I don’t know much about it. I finished Plain Truth by Picoult recently and loved it, hope this book will be as good. The small one is one of the Southern Sisters series of books by Anne George, Murder Gets a Life. The main characters are 60 something year old sisters living in Birmingham who happen to stumble upon murders; they are light and usually quite funny.
That’s what I have on my nightstand for now, what about you? If you post at your blog let me know so I can come see, or tell me what you’re enjoying at the moment!

It has felt like summer for several weeks now here where I live but it officially starts tomorrow! Which means today marks the end of Katrina’s Spring Reading challenge, and time for a wrap up post. One thing I was not very good about doing this time were reviews; I love to read and peruse others for ideas but I don’t seem to be good at posting them myself. Here was my list this time:

Summer of the Midnight Sun
Under the Northern Lights
Whispers of Winter all by Tracie Peterson & part of the Alaskan Quest series
The Secret Life of Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck
Hidden History and
Ready to Wed both by Melody Carlson
With This Ring I’m Confused by Kristin Billerbeck
The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene (almost finished!)

*The Best Life book is one I bought and have started reading several times but just can’t get into; I did do a little better this time with it! But I’m not quite through….about halfway through the book with the remainder being recipes and I’ve skimmed through all the recipes at least once. I think I’ll finish going through the other few chapters I have left, maybe hitting the high parts but it’s just not something I’m totally into right now. Even though I should be!
*The Secret Life of Becky Miller was a new to me author; it was a little different in that each chapter started off with one of the character’s daydreams. She has some highly imaginative fantasies and is a supermom trying to juggle her day to day life….it was a pretty enjoyable read.
*Hidden History and Ready to Wed are books from the Grace Chapel Inn series. They are easy, comfy type reads about sisters who’ve turned the family home into a bed and breakfast.
* The Tracie Peterson books were a really enjoyable read for me. I like historical type fiction, they’re also christian fiction and reading about Alaska interested me at the moment. I’ve never been there but would like to, plus my youngest son moved to Alaska this summer to work so it was fun for me to read about places there!
*With This Ring I’m Confused is actually the 3rd book in the Ashley Stockingdale series of books by Billerbeck. I didn’t realize 2 others came first but several people kindly told me so I wouldn’t read them out of order, which I hate to do! So I also read, What a Girls Wants and She’s Out of Control by Billerbeck first. I absolutely loved these books! I thought they were smart, witty and fun; they reminded me a bit of the Shopaholic books but with chrisitan characters and plot. These were the ones I liked the best out of what I read on my list. They are the first I’ve read by this author but I think I’ll find others by her as well later on!

The books by Kristin Billerbeck were my favorite reads from this list! The non-fiction Best Life book being my least favorite…I just don’t seem to love non-fiction at all but having it on the list at least made me attempt to get through the majority of the book.
Katrina also asks if we’d be interested in a Fall Reading challenge, absolutely! I enjoy doing these and would love to join in again.
To check out other wrap up posts and thoughts click here. You might find something interesting to add to your list!