Listen by Rene Gutteridge

"So the question is, do the conversations we have privately define who we are, or are we who we are despite our private conversations?"

Just one of the few thought-provoking statements made in the most recent Kindle book I read. Someone has started a blog that posts the towns most intimate, private conversations that are not meant to be heard by anyone else and especially not the person they are talking about. So what happens when a town becomes obsessed with this site and begins to piece together who is saying what about whom? People begin to fight with one another and even get to the point of killing eachother. Friendships are forever ruined and married couples are afraid to communicate with one another in fear that their conversation will show up on this site. So how would you change if you knew your private conversations/gossip would show up the next day for all to see. It is an intrigueing book and honestly had a ton of quotes that I would love to put together at some point to really contemplate on. The story itself is not too bad either and it is interesting to see who the person is that is behind this website and what motivated this person to start it. I think this is an excelent read for all, and especially should be integrated into high school classes since a part of the story deals with bullying and gossip.

Gables Against the Sky by Anita Stansfield

I have never been a huge fan of Anita Stansfield. I read a few of her books when I was in high school and they were ok, but nothing great. Obviously, I haven't read any of her books since even though she has quite a few. My younger two sister-in-laws love this story and insisted that I give it a try. I've had the book for a few weeks and this week finally started to read it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it a decent book. This is a sequel and I really don't think I would enjoy reading the first book based off of the story line told in this book, but who knows.

This started out as a typical story of growing up in Australia at a boys home and one of the troubled boys falling in love with the owners daughter, but running off when she does not agree to go riding with him one afternoon. To get revenge later on he kidnaps her and of course she falls in love with him. Her brother falls in love with their 'adopted' sister and wants to get married, but she wants to stay in Australia while he wants to travel the world. He leaves and she has his son 9 months later. He doesn't come back home until 4 years later. I was surprised to find the main story line of the kidnapping and leaving home done by the middle of the book.

Unfortunately, after this point, the book gets a little annoying since we spend the rest of the story dealing with Lacey's crazy madness at Tyson for leaving her with a kid and unable to forgive him and incredibly mad at Michael for kidnaping her and Emma. She thinks Emma is insane for wanting to marry this criminal. Of course his past comes back to haunt them and they all have to overcome murder charges and learn to deal with their past skeletons in order to live happily ever after. Like I said, the beginning of the book was good, but then the second half just got annoying with all the irrational fighting and drama. Still a decent book.

Borrowed Light by Carla Kelly

I enjoyed reading this LDS book. It is not incredibly spiritual or filled with LDS scriptures and principles, but it does mention it tastefully in a way that does not take away from the main story. Julia is engaged to the 'perfect' guy and realizes on her sisters weddind day that she does not want to marry him and in a moment of frustration she applies for a cooking job on a ranch in Wyoming. A couple weeks later she still has not told anyone that she plans on canceling her engagement but is forced to when she gets a reply back saying she is to report to Wyoming within the week. She shows up at a secluded ranch full of men who have been eating out of cans and really have never cleaned the place up. Rats are everywhere and it takes her a week to get the oven cleaned. If you've seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers you can pretty much get the idea of Julia's experience at the beginning.

Of course she falls in love with the young owner who has been in charge of the ranch since he was 15. Julia struggles at first with her own testimony of her religion when faced with questions about it and the closest branch is a days train ride away so she is only able to go every couple of weeks and must rely on her own strength to uphold her values and defend her religion. In the end, Mr. Otto, the ranch owner, joins the church and Julia finds herself living her life in Wyoming. Don't let the churchy-type book scare you because the story is good and the book very enjoyable to read.

Do the Work by Steven Pressfield

Do the Work is the second free kindle book sent out by BzzAgent on behalf of the Domino Project. The first book was Poke the Box which I did not really have an interest in or enjoy reading, but Do the Work was substantially better. I was a little hesistant about reading it due to Poke the Box, but was happy to find this book much better than planned. This book especially appealed to me since my husband is writing a book and is an English teacher. This book is great for those writing, making movies, or pretty much starting any project. The first section is not the greatest since it is all about defining resistance and learning to recognize and handle it. It is a very important thing to understand so I understand the need for it, but it did not really motivate or inspire me.

The rest of it was great. It gives you guidelines for starting and carrying out your project. It doesn't necessarily give you step-by-step advice, but it does help you weed out things that prevent you from successfully completing your project. Some things that stood out to me included starting you project by taking a piece of paper and in three bullets, outline your story. (I'm going to use writing as the example) He also talked about writing the ending and working backwards. You fill in the gaps as you. Also, interestingly, he says to only research 3 books before starting your project. If you research more you run into more resistance. Go into your project stupid and work the rest out as you go.

I could go on and on with the advice Steven gives, but honestly it would be better to read it. Don't get put off by having to read a 'know how to' type book. This kindle book is very easy to read, to the point, and quick. It also helps a ton since it is written with some points in normal font and others in very large, bold font. It definately helped me to read it knowing I'm not reading a full page of fine print. Don't hesitate to download this book, especially since it is free right now and saves you $12.99.

My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

Flutter and Wisdom are the 3rd and 4th books of the My Blood Approves series by Amanda Hocking. An enjoyable series and I'm not sure if there are more books that will be coming out or not. It definately has the potential to continue on. Alice is still struggling with her feelings for Peter and Jack, but is trying very hard to be faithful to Jack. She spends most of these books learning to control her bloodlust and abilities as a vampire and to also figure out how she really feels about becoming a vampire and what her purpose in life is now. At first she just figured she would be a trophy wife and do nothing for eternity but be with Jack and be happy. Unfortunately, that isn't exactly what happens. She starts to resent being a 'monster' and not having anything that is 'hers.' Everything belongs to her new vampire family.

Her life also isn't very easy-going and happy like she planned. Flutter starts with Peter trying to get himself killed by wild vampires and he unfortunately drags in Alice and his family. They save him at a great price and head back home to find Jane a bloodwhore and pretty close to death. She doesn't want help, but Alice refuses to let her go. Of course, the wild vampires track them home and try to get revenge on Peter by baiting and hurting Jane and Alice. Mae spends this whole book fighting with her husband because she wants to turn her 5-year-old great-granddaughter into a vampire because she is terminally ill. In the end all works out and Mae turns Daisy. They have to go to Australia since Daisy has absolutely no control over herself.

Wisdom finds Jane murdured and a seriel killer branding and killing human girls by Club V and Mae, Daisy, and Peter in Australia trying to control Daisy. Daisy gets out of control and attacks a bunch of people and so they are forced to run back home until they can find a place to stay. Alice is determined to find the seriel killer and in the process gets tagged by vampire hunters as being involved with the killing and they track and attack her and her vampire family. This book actually made me cry at the end since Mae is finally forced to kill Daisy because she is in so much pain from needing to drink blood so often and is uncontrollable. She keeps attacking those in the family and Mae is finally forced to make the decision to end her life.

A fun series to read, especially if you are really into vampire novels. If you have a kindle you can get all 4 books for only $10 which is great. My only complaint with the last book were the amount of grammar issues. The other three books were good, but the fourth seriously needed some more editing time.