Literary Junkies Link Party + Book Reviews

It’s the third Tuesday of the month again which means it’s time for the Literary Junkies link-up brought to you by Taylor from Pink Heels Pink Truck and Lesley from By the Porchlight!  This month we have Megan from Semi-Charmed Kind of Life co-hosting with us.

Here are this month’s questions:
1. What are you currently reading? Tell us about it.
2. Autumn is coming! What’s your go-to drink when curling up with a book at night?
3. Printed books vs. e-books: What are the pros and cons of each?
4. Buying books vs. library books: Which do you prefer and why?

Here are my answers:
1. What are you currently reading? Tell us about it.
I just finished Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
Goodreads.com Synopsis:
Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:
Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon.
Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.

My Review: 5 out of 5. I really enjoyed the historical-ness behind this entire book. I love reading about history in a story-telling kind of way. Learning about Seasbiscuit and the men in his life: his trainer, his owner and his main jockey. A great book about a time in US History that gives you a glimpse into the Great Depression and Horse Racing.

Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Goodreads.com Synopsis:
R.S.V.P. to the most riotous wedding of the year . . .
Lucy Jorik is the daughter of a former president of the United States.
Meg Koranda is the offspring of legends.
One of them is about to marry Mr. Irresistible—Ted Beaudine—the favorite son of Wynette, Texas. The other is not happy about it and is determined to save her friend from a mess of heartache.
But even though Meg knows that breaking up her best friend’s wedding is the right thing to do, no one else seems to agree. Faster than Lucy can say “I don’t,” Meg becomes the most hated woman in town—a town she’s stuck in with a dead car, an empty wallet, and a very angry bridegroom. Broke, stranded, and without her famous parents at her back, Meg is sure she can survive on her own wits. What’s the worst that can happen? Lose her heart to the one and only Mr. Irresistible? Not likely. Not likely at all.

My Review: 5 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed this book, too. It’s the 2nd book that I’ve read by this author. I enjoyed the first book, too. You can read the review of it here. I loved the storyline. I loved that it was set in a small Texas town. And I thoroughly loved Meg Koranda, the lead character. She was spunky and fierce.

I’m currently reading:
U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
Goodreads.com Synopsis:
It’s April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone’s thirty-eighth birthday, and she’s alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he’d be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout. Twenty-one years earlier, a four-year-old girl disappeared. A recent reference to her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial when he was six years old. He wants Kinsey’s help in locating the child’s remains and finding the men who killed her. It’s a long shot but he’s willing to pay cash up front, and Kinsey agrees to give him one day. As her investigation unfolds, she discovers Michael Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he’s the boy who cried wolf. Is his current story true or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?
Grafton moves the narrative between the eighties and the sixties, changing points of view, building multiple subplots, and creating memorable characters. Gradually, we see how they all connect. But at the beating center of the novel is Kinsey Millhone, sharp- tongued, observant, a loner—“a heroine,” said The New York Times Book Review, “with foibles you can laugh at and faults you can forgive.”

This is the 21st book that I’ve read by Grafton. I’ve read all of her Alphabet Series up until this one. She is one of my favorite authors!

2. Autumn is coming! What’s your go-to drink when curling up with a book at night?
Either a Chai Tea Latte or a Hot Chocolate.

3. Printed books vs. e-books: What are the pros and cons of each?
I love both! I am still very much old school and love a good book in my hands. I enjoy being able to track my progress through a book by how many pages I have left. This past April, my dad bought me a Kindle Paperwhite. And I love it too. When I travel, it makes lugging my books around so much easier. I just load it up with books from my library’s e-book system or cheap books from Amazon or books I’m reviewing for authors/publishers, etc. I enjoy having both options. I can go anywhere and always have a book to read. Even when I forget my Kindle or a book at home, I have the Kindle app on my iPhone which syncs. 🙂

4. Buying books vs. library books: Which do you prefer and why?
I rarely buy books at full price. I like to shop for books at Half Price Books or Goodwill or Thrift Stores. My library is small and when I go in there, I very rarely find something in stock to read. But what I love about my library is that they are connected to an online ebook/audiobook system site where I can check out ebooks and audiobooks just like I was going into my actual library.

Okay, so those are my answers. Now it’s your turn to link up! 🙂