Ever wonder what a "do over" button would do for humanity?

     I think inherently we have all thought about a do over button from time to time, or even wished for one when we have done something stupid. Nevertheless, Steven King has put to rest the idea of my ever wanting one for myself. It seems like it would be too much responsibility after reading his latest novel "11/22/63" by Stephen King. This book takes you back to the "good old days" of innocence before the world got ugly and yes before the Kennedy assassination. How would life be for us if Kennedy had lived? Would the civil rights movement have gone forward sooner with less bloodshed? Would Martin Luther King JR still be alive and teaching us how to live a better life through non violence? Alternatively, would things go terribly wrong? No spoiler alerts here as this book was so amazing everyone should read it, especially other authors or aspiring authors like myself. Let's just say that everything we do from breath to swatting flies has a butterfly effect on the future and the thread of time we travel is affected, be it good or bad. 

     I am left in a reflective state about a time that happened before my birth of August 26, 1969 (the time I lovingly call the best time in history), but it is a time none the less that has had an effect on my life. The effect on my life has been deep, not just because I am a mixed-race person (too many to count) but also because I believe our world is much more cynical and less trusting than it was in the 1950s and 1960's. I do not believe we have less crime, rather I believe that we hear more about it and the age of innocence died the day Camelot crumbled. 

     To Stephen King if you ever read this BRAVO!!! I agree with your waiting to write this book from the 1970s until 2011. Who knows what the butterfly effect would have been back in the 1970s had you released the book back then. We may never know. What I do know is that I would have never read it. I have never been a fan of your writing, more because my mother read "Stephen King" novels not me. They were for old hippies in my mind. Until that is, I found this latest book on Audible and the synopsis peaked my interest. I have to say I have read "The Green Mile" and "Shawshank Redemption" and loved them but forgot that You Mr. King wrote them. I always thought of you as the writer of "Pet Cemetery" and that book and movie Horrified me, so I steered clear of my fellow New Englander, who wrote creepy stuff in my mind. I probably will stay away from your darker and sinister novels, but now that I know there is more to Stephen King than Horror. I am HOOKED! 

     To The reader of this blog and possibly a new reader to Stephen King, give this new book a try, you will NOT be disappointed. I was ultimately so glued to it that despite the fact that the book in Audible form is over 30 hours long, I had it on every waking hour completing it in just over two days. Jake Epping tells a tale in this book that is as the synopsis says, " Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying." The synopsis puts it as terrifying but for a Stephen King novel I would call it plausibly possible. This book could be called a time-travel book, but I have to say it made me think more about my choices for the future than what has happened in the past. I can see how our world could end up the way it turns in what I'll call World 2.0 because there is a world 3.0 that tie the whole book together. 

     Enough about the book, just read it for yourself, it is a can't miss, and I would like to see it as a movie, but I know just as with Shawshank and Green Mile, the book can never be translated into a movie and keep its character, the book is always better than the movie. 

So my Book recommendation for December is 11/22/63 by Stephen King It is a book that will definitely cause you to forget how cold and dreary it is outside :)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

AUDIOBOOK
The Help
UNABRIDGED

By Kathryn Stockett
Narrated by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer, Cassandra Campbell
Length:18 hrs and 19 mins
Release Date:01-28-09




Many books take on the days of the civil rights movement in the south, but none quite like The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This book is written from not only the perspective of the people who had help, but from the perspective of the help themselves. While I was not born nor raised in this day and age, but a whole generation later, this era has always held my imagination hostage as it is truly a world of black and white, north and south.

I always grew up believing that this was a simpler time, that I would have loved to have grown up in, because I grew up in the north and the amount of separation leveled in the south during the civil rights days had been changed many years before during the civil war according to our history books as well as the culture. The Help shows how the south was very different from the north by allowing the reader to become engrossed in the story from the southern black perspective while having a northern character from New York City in the publisher who states that she would be willing to look over the manuscript put together by the brave women who told their stories.

even though this book is fiction, it could as easily be non fiction and depict any city in any southern state below the Mason Dixon Line. In studying the Jim Crowe South, this would be a great book of reference to give children the feeling of that era.

The Help is on its way to theater's this August (I for one cannot wait). This is the book that introduced me to Jenna Lamia a wonderful Narrator who has also Narrated Saving Ceecee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman as well as The secret Life of bee's , Velva Jean Learns to Drive By Jennifer Niven, The Kitchen House By Kathleen Grissom, and Firefly Cloak By Sheri Reynolds.

If you plan on visiting the theatre to see The Help I recomend reading the book first, thought I have heard that many of the audible narrators will be within the cast of the movie, I know that the book is always better than the movie, considering the book was 10 hours long and there is much cut out to fit into movie format.

You cannot go wrong with any of the books I have mentioned in this post, but my two top favorites are The Help and Saving Ceecee Honeycutt.

I also recommend trying the audible versions as they sweep you away into the time the stories are written about, nearly so much that you can smell the honeysuckle and magnolia blooms.

~Happy Reading Folks!

Audible App Badges

Many people have asked me if I could put together a list of the 15 Audible.com badges and what they mean, so here goes. These are the badges I have, and could document for you all.



Audible App Badges

1. Stenographer
a. (Silver) 10 Bookmarks with a comment.
b. (Gold) 40 Bookmarks with a comment.
c. (Diamond) 125 Bookmarks with a comment.

2. Social Butterfly
a. (Silver) shared 5x
b. (Gold) shared 25x
c. (Diamond) shared 100x

3. Flash 80
a. (Silver) look at your stats 50x
b. (Gold) look at your stats 200x
c. (Diamond) look at your stats 500x

4. Audible Obsessed
a. (Silver) Listening every day for 7 days
b. (Gold) Listening every day for 30 days
c. (Diamond) Listening every day for ? days

5. Weekend Warrior
a. (Silver) 5 hours in one weekend
b. (Gold) 10 hours in one weekend
c. (Diamond) 24 hours in one weekend

6. Repeat Listener
a. (Silver) same audio book 3x.
b. (Gold) same audio book 10x.
c. ( Diamond) same audio book 20x.

7. All Nighter
a. (Silver) listen to 4 hrs at night.
b. (Gold) listen to 6 hrs at night.
c. (Diamond) listen to 8 hrs at night.

8. Marathoner
a. (Silver) listening 16 hours straight.
b. (Gold) listening 18 hours straight.
c. (Diamond) listening 24 hours straight.

9. Undecided
a. (Silver) listening to parts of 3 different titles in one day.
b. (Gold) listening to parts of 15 different titles in one day.
c. (Diamond) listening to parts of 40 different titles in one day.

10. High Noon
a. (Silver) 2 hrs during lunchtime
b. (Gold) 3 hrs during lunchtime
c. (Diamond) 4 hrs during lunchtime

11. The Stack
a. (Silver) – having 50 books in your library.
b. (Gold) – having 200 books in your library.
c. (Diamond) – having 500 books in your library.

12. Mount Everest
a. (Silver) complete a book that is 30 + hours in length
b. (Gold) ?
c. (Diamond) ?

13. 7 day stretch
a. (Silver) Completed 7 books in a single week
b. (Gold) Completed 15 books in a single week
c. (Diamond) Completed 50 books in a single week

14. Binge Listener
a. (Silver) 2 complete books start to finish
b. (Gold) 5 complete books start to finish
c. (Diamond) 10 books start to finish

15. Procrasinator
a. (Silver) ?
b. (Gold) ?
c. (Diamond) ?





-Happy Reading Folks!

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman Narrated by Jenna Lamia

This book had me captivated for all 10 hrs and 4 minutes of the audio version. Since I have trouble reading with my eyes, I usually do not want to go through the book myself without it being audio, but this book was so good I have downloaded the digital copy for my Ipad (because the print can be blown up) so I can listen to the Narrator and read along.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a book about a young girl from Ohio who is born into a blended Yankee and southern family in the 1950's. CeeCee's mother is from Georgia, an ex pageant queen who on the surface seems like she has lost her nut, her father who is from Ohio is distant and travels so much his character is portrayed very little in the development of the story but has a large impact on the main character.

When we begin this book, Ceecee is a loner who's only friend is an elderly neighbor (Mrs Odell) who has been her sitter since she was an infant. Ceecee has a lack of friends but plenty of onlookers to her life within her small town in Ohio, because of her mothers "eccentricities". But what we find out throughout the development of this plot is that maybe her mom isn't so crazy after all, maybe it is just a true case of being homesick for the south. There is an old saying, you can take the girl out of the south but you cant take the south out of the girl. In this book this saying is screamed from all the pages. It speaks of the southern culture and how the northern people are lacking in the community area of southern culture.

Being a Yankee from birth myself, who moved to the South in my teens like Ceecee did I fully understand this sentiment. I remember my youth in the north, but my southern youth is what warms my heart. Strong women, warm hearts and the power of community togetherness is powerfully prevalent in this book. I loved every word, nuance and chapter.

This book has captured a culture better than any other "southern" genre that I have read thus far ever could.

If you have yet to read, or listen to this book it is a must have. Check it out on Audible.com by clicking the ad.



Jenna Lamia has captured the characters in this book in such an amazing way, she is quickly becoming my favorite Narrator for books with southern charm.

This book is great for anyone looking for a light read that has laughter, tears, warm fuzziness, and a lesson in how it really does take a village to raise a child, as well as community is priceless.

Happy reading folks!