What I'm Reading - August 22. 2016

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This weekly reading list meme is hosted at Book Date. Join in to see what others are reading and maybe get some ideas of what to read next! I also link up with Tales of a Pee Dee Mama for D.E.A.R. Monday (Drop Everything And Read).

I finished reading . . . I didn't do much reading last week, but I'm on vacation this week, so maybe I'll get a little extra time for reading. Then again, with all we have planned . . . maybe not!

I'm currently reading . . .

The Winter Crown: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Elizabeth Chadwick -  I'm hoping to have enough reading time to finish this one during the week ahead.




A Tapestry of Secrets by Sarah Loudin Thomas - I love this series, so once I get some time to do some reading, I'll be working on this one!



The Circle of Ceridwen: Book One, by Octavia Randolph - just started on this, and I'm not sure yet. It received a great recommendation from a trusted friend, but so far I am finding the writing style a little stilted.

Next on the stack... for when I get home. 

Charity's Cross (Charles Towne Belles) (Volume 4) by MaryLu Tyndall

The Reckoning (Legacy of the King's Pirates) (Volume 5) by MaryLu Tyndall

    

What are you reading?

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Scripture and a Snapshot - Be Content

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we can confidently say,

"The Lord is my helper; I will not fear;

what can man do to me?"

~Hebrews 13:5-6~

Scripture & a Snapshot is hosted by A Glimpse of Our Life.

Glimpses is hosted by Embracing Every Day, a lifestyle blog by Barbie Swihart.

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Book Blogger Hop - August 19, 2016

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Welcome to another Book Blogger Hop question. Visit Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer to see the responses from other book bloggers.

Do you read via eBook and if so which one/ones and why? 

Yes I have a Kindle Fire and do a lot of my reading on it. I also have a "plain Jane" Kindle e-reader but don't use it much. The Kindles are the only e-readers I have experience with, but it seems to me that it's the most versatile of the different devices available and there is a huge amount of material in that format! I'll never completely give up my "real" books but you can't argue with the convenience of carrying a huge library in a lightweight device that fits inside my purse!

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday - Grad Photo Album

So my son graduated earlier this year, and I did post some of my pictures of the great occasion, but I haven't yet posted the "official" pictures from the ceremony. I didn't really take pictures at the ceremony because we had a photographer looking after that for us. She is a member of our homeschool group, and she had a lot going on this summer, so it was a little later than usual when we got access to all the photos she had taken, and consequently it's taken me longer to do this.

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Portraits of the grads outside - she was a good sport and let Landon leave his new tie hanging outside of his gown for one picture! He was pretty proud of that Jerry Garcia tie, let me tell you.

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Okay, but seriously:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Ready for the grads to walk in:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Here comes my grad:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

It was a challenge for anyone to get a picture of Landon at the drum kit, so this turned out pretty good.

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

For each student, she got this series of pictures - mom presenting the diploma and receiving a gift and a hug from the student; dad turning the tassel and congratulating the student; and then all three together.

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Presenting the FAITH Class of 2016:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

And a family photo afterwards:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

You can see more about the ceremony and some grad traditions in my post From the High School Lesson Book: Graduation, but here are just a few more photo highlights of the occasion.

I was outside for some of the photo session, and took these pictures:

Making sure everyone sees the ties.

Setting up a group shot

I zoomed in during a group pose to get this one

And these are the senior portraits done by our friend and student ministries director, who also happens to be a talented and generous photographer.

This one is my favorite, and the one we used on Landon's grad announcements.

This post is linked at Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Life at Rossmont, and at Sometimes Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Tots and Me . . . Growing Up Together!

 

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - The Circle of Ceridwen

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn at Books and Beat. To play along, just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title and author, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers! 

Just a day or two after a friend recommended this book series to me, she found the first one offered free so I grabbed it. I'm hoping to start reading soon!

I did not know if she would weep or fume, but her anger won, and she cried out, "Never did I expect so great a slight! No one to greet me, and then I am cast aside into this monk's cell of a room to await him. I bring him a dowry that many a King's daughter might envy, and am thus welcomed!"
~The Circle of Ceridwen: Book One, by Octavia Randolph, at 11% on my Kindle

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is a weekly link-up hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or two) of a book you're reading, or thinking about reading.

   I was daughter to two men, but no woman claimed me as hers. My dead sire was an ealdorman, the chief of our shire. He had long fallen in a skirmish with the wild Welsh beyond our river Dee, and his stony lands taken by the same. I was thus alone when I was wee, and Cedd, brother of my father Cerd, took me. Cedd became ealdorman, for my father had no son, and his ceorls, his armed men, came and pledged to him, and he gave them rings and bracelets to seal their love. Cedd had also freeborn cottars and slaves to farm his land, as an ealdorman should. Cedd's wife had died in childbed with her firstborn, and he had not taken another wife. So he took me as his daughter to the hall of upright timber he had built as a young man, and I lived with him until my ninth Summer.

Here's the blurb:

It is the year 871, when England was Angle-Land. Of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, five have fallen to the invading Vikings. No trait is more valued than loyalty, and no possession more precious than one's steel. Across this war-torn landscape travels fifteen year old Ceridwen, now thrust into the lives of the conquerors.

Lost in the frozen woods, Ceridwen is discovered by the warriors accompanying young Aelfwyn, daughter of a Saxon lord, sold against her will in marriage as part of a peace treaty with a marauding Viking war chief. Their destination is the captured fortress of Four Stones, a ruin holding glittering treasure. There Aelfwyn must keep her vow an wed Yrling - and Ceridwen must do all she can to support her new friend in the rebuilding of the ravaged village and great hall.

But living with the enemy affords Ceridwen unusual freedoms - and unlooked-for conflicts. Amongst them she explores again her own heathen past, and learns to judge each man on his own merits. Yrling's nephews Sidroc and Toki, both formidable warriors yet as different as night and day, compete to win Ceridwen for their own.

Through both guile and goodness Ceridwen and Aelfwyn begin transforming the world of Four Stones. But the threat of full-scale war escalates, and a midnight party of furtive Danes delivers someone to Four Stones who destroys the girls' hopes of peace and contentment. Now Ceridwen must summon all her courage - a courage which will be sorely tested as she defies both Saxon and Dane and undertakes an extraordinary adventure to save a man she has never met.

The first book of The Circle of Ceridwen Saga, the historical adventure saga enjoyed by thousands of readers in over 125 nations.

What do you think? Would you continue reading?

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/