Author Archives: Pam

Mommy Couldn’t Find Her Eyelashes Book Spotlight & Giveaway

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Image from Pump Up Your Book

Image from Pump Up Your Book

 

Title: Mommy Couldn’t Find Her Eyelashes
Author: Mary Jane Fizer
Publisher: iUniverse
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Pages: 110

Purchase at iUniverse

No one knows how unpredictable first graders can be better than a first-grade teacher. In Mommy Couldn’t Find Her Eyelashes, retired elementary educator Mary Jane Fizer shares excerpts from written papers and some of her favorite amusing and poignant conversations with her first-grade students, providing an unforgettable glimpse into the innocent, often uncensored minds and imaginations of children.

Fizer relies on more than forty years of experience in a classroom environment to offer a diverse compilation of funny sayings and heartfelt moments she experienced with her students. From the student who said he wanted to be both the President of the United States and a forklift operator to the boy who announced that he needed to see the nurse because he thought he had head lights, Fizer recalls the unpredictable moments of every day she spent in front of a classroom serving not only as a teacher, but also as a role model, stand-in mother, and a source of information who had to somehow find a creative answer to every creative question.

Mommy Couldn’t Find Her Eyelashes is a delightful collection of quotes from children that encourages all of us to find the pure happiness in every day—even when we are all grown up.

Pump Up Your Book and Mary Jane Fizer are teaming up to give you a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Terms & Conditions:

  • By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
  • Two winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 Amazon Gift Certificate or Paypal Cash.
  • This giveaway begins November 11 and ends November 22.
  • Winners will be contacted via email on Monday, November 25, 2013.
  • Winner has 48 hours to reply.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

MCFHE Blog Tour

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Feature & Follow Friday #14 – Movie Better than Book?

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Feature & Follow

 

This is a blog hop, a way to find and follow new blogs,

hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

You can follow me by using any one of the options over on the left sidebar.

This weeks question:  Are there any book to movie adaptations where you think the movie is better than the book?

Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Yes, The Help!  For me, I didn’t get what the hype was behind the book; I just thought it was okay.  In fact, I only gave it 2 out of 5 stars.  I decided to see the movie anyways, and I thought it was awesome.  The friend who saw the movie with me liked the book, but also thought that the movie was better.  Anyone else have the same thoughts on The Help?  

Becoming Alice Book Spotlight & $25 Giveaway

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Image from Pump Up Your Book

Image from Pump Up Your Book

Title:  Becoming Alice

Author: Alice Rene

Publisher: iUniverse

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 284

Click here to purchase at iUniverse

 

“Strongly recommended a deftly written memoir that will hold the reader’s rapt attention from beginning to end.”
-Midwest Book Review

“Her ability to authentically capture the bewilderment and pain of dislocation through a child’s eyes – including the disharmony in her immediate family – makes for engaging reading that will resonate with young adults everywhere.”
-Beth B. Cohen, Ph.D., author of Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors in America, 1946-1954

Six-year-old Ilse watches Nazi soldiers march down her street in Vienna, Austria. It is the beginning of an odyssey that will take her to Riga, Latvia, and finally to Portland, Oregon. Becoming Alice chronicles her Jewish family’s harrowing escape and struggle as immigrants to fit into the American landscape. The added problems of growing up within a troubled family cloud her childhood and adolescence.

Ilse changes her name to Alice. Not until she moves into a boarding house in Berkeley, surrounded by girls from a patchwork of cultures, does she make peace with her true identity. Becoming Alice brilliantly showcases Rene’s triumph over adversity, identity crisis, and the sometimes debilitating power of family ties.

 

Enter for your chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.

Two winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 Amazon Gift Certificate or Paypal Cash.

This giveaway begins November 11 and ends November 29.

Winners will be contacted via email on Monday, December 2, 2013.

Winner has 48 hours to reply.

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Image from Pump Up Your Book

Image from Pump Up Your Book

Feature & Follow Friday #13

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Feature and Follow

This is a blog hop, a way to find and follow new blogs,

hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

You can follow me by using any one of the options over on the left sidebar.

This weeks question:  Vlog Feature: Tell us why you would be the best feature ever in a vlog. The best two will get picked for next week’s feature. If you do not want to participate, just tell us why you can’t be caught on video.

http://youtu.be/XMewf_usHbw

P.S. While you’re here check out my GIVEAWAY!  Have a great weekend guys!

Hope Rises from the Ashes Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Hope Rises from the Ashes

Author:  L. F. Falconer

Published:  2013 by Outskirts Press

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Feels like a Historical Romance, Hard to categorize 🙂

Click here to buy Hope Rises from the Ashes from Amazon.com

 

 

 

****This is the second book in a series, so if you like to be totally surprised you might not want to read this review.  ****

 

The story starts out with Collie and a young boy hiding under a wagon while the boy’s father is being devoured by a huge lion with wings.  Collie and the boy, Natt, manage to escape alive.  They soon meet up with two Tillaman warriors who give them a ride to their town.  Since her money is lost in the wagon that the lion attacked, Collie ends up agreeing to allow one of the warriors to pay for her food and her place at the inn as long as she’ll be his mistress.  This goes against Collie’s morals, but she doesn’t want to be put out on the street, and her heart is already broken thinking her first love is dead.  The situation goes from bad to worse though, as the man who is supposed to be protecting her, turns out to be a monster himself.

I should have read the first book, but even though I didn’t I was able to follow the story.  And wow, what a story!  It had me hooked from the first page.  The story is a little dark, so if you only like to read about flowers, unicorns, and rainbows, this probably isn’t the book for you.  Seriously though, this book deals with not only heartache, but physical abuse.  However, Collie is a strong woman and pulls through.

The point of view changes back and forth from Collie to one other.  I’m usually not a fan of the point of view switch-a-roo, but it was done from chapter to chapter and done for a reason which I don’t want to give away if you’ve read the first book.

Also, the genre is a little hard to categorize.  It feels mostly like a historical romance, but there is a little fantasy in there; a dragon, a flying lion.  But even with those aspects of fantasy, the story feels closer to reality than fantasy.  The author even states in the beginning, “Thus, I deliver Hope Rises from the Ashes (again, a story that rides the cusp of genre.  Purists beware.)”

Although this story is pretty dark, it is really good.  I didn’t want to stop reading; I had to find out what happened next.  Pick up a copy and get lost in Collie’s world for a while.  In the end, you’ll be glad you did.

 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

*****I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.*****