Published June 22, 2011 | 
Summertime is a great time for parents and kids to keep up their reading skills. Without the pressures of school kids should continue to read books, magazines, newspapers and even ebook versions of all of these. I keep several websites bookmarked for my children and grandchildren that have age-appropriate lists of books to read such as Scholastic.com – http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=608. Their website has a pdf version of the lists by age group for your children to read this summer. You can open up the documents and print them out to take them to your local library. The library is a great place to take the kids several times during the summer. Most all public libraries have some kind of programs available during the summer and the librarians will be happy to help your and your kids (Grandkids) to find the books on your lists.
There are lots of programs out there that even offer prizes for summer reading. One such program I found on a search on Amazon called Journey Forth’s Summer Reading “Read in the Deep End” program on the BJU Press website: Click here for more details and you might win a Amazon Kindle Ebook reading device. They have age-appropriate reading lists, reading logs to print out and accepts several forms such as print books, electronic books etc and you have until August 31st to turn in your completed logs for each of your children!
Barnes and Noble also has a Summer Reading Challenge for you and your kids (Grandkids) with a Reading Journal to download and print out. You just have to read through the rules, read the books, complete the journal entries and turn them into your local Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/index.asp Give a try and see how you do!
Don’t forget your local library and your local school systems has information about summer reading programs on their websites. Most kids are given a summer reading list by the end of school as well as a couple of pages of reading logs or journals to fill out. Please remember that your child needs to see you reading as well as encouraging them to read. And reading to them during the day or at bedtime shows them that reading is important to you and is a great time for bonding. If you cannot afford to buy books for your kids the library is always a great resource for books. Perhaps at the end of summer you can reward your child or grandchild with a brand new or used book that they can keep from your local bookstore.
Published April 10, 2011 | Have You Read A Good Magazine Lately? You know you pick up magazines and browse through them when you are in a long check-out line at the store. And you pick up a magazine at the doctor’s office waiting for your turn to be seen. Our parents used to put magazines on tables in the “formal living room” and many people still do. I am no exception. I have to have something to read when I am waiting on my car to be serviced, when seeing any doctor and when I have to stand around in line at any kind of store. I have even given magazine subscriptions to my loved ones who have a special interest such as Cooking with Paula Deen or Sports Illustrated for my kids who loved sports. I know whenever I find a Reader’s Digest lying around I have to pick it up and at least read the “Humor in Uniform” and “Laughter is the Best Medicine” sections.
Now-a-days we are getting our magazine fix electronically. The I-Pad, I-Pods, Kindles, Nooks and more are offering monthly electronic versions of our favorite magazines on our electronic reading devices. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, it is better to have electronic versions of magazines because it is the “GREEN THING” to do. And it is convenient to have all of your magazines stored on your little reading device. The really neat thing is they haven’t figured out how to put those perfume smells on electronic versions yet. I have allergies to strong perfumes and when picking up a women’s magazine I have to be leary of those samples they put in the middle of them. The “No” part of the answer comes in with not being able to cut our coupons, cut the pictures and articles or donate our used magazines to nursing homes, hospitals and homeless shelters as a way to recycle. I always recycle my magazines after I read them. The problem comes when I don’t have time to read them and they pile up. But that is another story.
Remember in order to encourage our kids to be readers they have to see us reading and we have to give them gifts centered around reading. You may not want to pay for an electronic reading device for your kids yet but an age-appropriate magazine subscription may be a good way to get them in the habit of reading. And you can save them for their school projects. My children and grandchildren are forever having to cut out pictures in magazines for some project or another. So spend the $10 or $20 a year for a magazine subscription before they go the way of the cassette tapes and become extinct!
Published May 1, 2010 | It is no secret that I love to read. As a matter of fact my favorite form of relaxation is reading a good mystery. And I admit that I will read a trashy romance novel on occasion as well. While looking for material for my next article I came across a couple of websites that had quotes about reading. Some of my favorites are from http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/readamillion/readingquotes.htm Here are a couple of examples:
“Beware of the man of one book.” Thomas Aquinas
“Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful
and entertaining authors.” Joseph Addison
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Joseph Addison
“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” Mortimer J. Adler
“A library is a hospital for the mind.” Anonymous
“If you can read this, thank a teacher.” Anonymous Teacher
“Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?” Henry Ward Beecher
“Books are not men and yet they stay alive.” Stephen Vincent Benet
Here are a few more from the Reading Rockets website: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/fun/quotable
“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Frederick Douglass
“The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I [haven't] read.” Abraham Lincoln
“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” Emilie Buchwald
Now what are your favorite quotes about reading?
Published April 8, 2010 | One of my favorite magazines to read is the Readers Digest. I love to read on the jokes and humorous stories at the bottom of the pages first and then Laughter is the Best Medicine and Humor in Uniform stuff next. Finally, I will read the articles. Whenever I am in a waiting room that is the first magazine I look for. It has always been a great resource of information and humor. I can read it in a few minutes or take my time and read the whole thing. I haven’t had a subscription to the magazine in a long while as it was costing too much but now they have an online version that is just about as much fun to read at: http://www.rd.com/. I know that all magazines depend on advertising and paid subscriptions to stay alive and I wish them well in that pursuit. So if you can afford the price of a subscription please get one.
The Readers Digest magazine will keep over time better than just about any other magazine you can get. I have kept all of the ones that I have collected over the years and enjoy re-reading them whenever I run out of books to read. They are compact enough to put in your purse or maybe in your back pocket (if your pockets are big enough). The company also still pays for stories contributed by everyday people as well. I have never done this but if you have and were paid we would like to hear from you about your experience. Encouraging people is write is always good thing and even young people can get their start by writing for the magazine you can go here: http://www.rd.com/submitJokePage.do
Published March 25, 2010 | My next favorite author is JA Jance. She has three characters that she normally writes about and one of those is Ali Reynolds. Ms. Reynolds is a former TV News Anchor who lost her job and her husband (her philandering husband is the one who fired her) and decided to move back home to Arizona for a while to get her barrings. Her grown son encourages her to start her own blog and her adventures start there. Her latest book is “Trial By Fire”. Ms. Reynolds volunteers to be a Media Consultant for one of the local sheriff’s offices that is having a little trouble. She gets mixed up in a murder (of course), has no authority to investigate but gets pulled in nonetheless.
The Reynolds character speaks to me as she is about my age, has to look for another career, has a grown child and starts her own blog. I would like to become an investigator as well but, sadly, don’t have the time or the resources and quite frankly glad that I haven’t been thrown into any murder investigations. Ms Jance’s books are always entertaining as well as suspenseful, lots of action, and have a well thought-out plot. She is very descriptive about her surroundings and allows the reader to feel like they are there.
Posted in Favorite Authors, Reading for Fun, Review of Books | 
Ali Reynolds, female detectives, JA JancePublished February 18, 2010 | Hey Gang, I couldn’t wait to post this one. One of my daughter’s teachers sent this video from Ocoee Middle School in Ocoee, Florida. Great video and fun too. Check it out on you-tube at:
Ocoee, Florida is a little town just west of Orlando, Florida which use to be nothing but orange groves and farmers. It is still a kind of small town but the Middle School has created a really first rate project. Congratulations Ocoee Middle School and keep up the good work!.
After seeing this video I have hope that there are children out there who want to read and whatever we can do as parents, relatives or friends of kids to encourage our children to read is worth trying. Once a child or adult, for that matter, learns to read it opens up all kinds of possibilities for that person to pursue knowledge in its many forms.
Published October 15, 2009 | I found some more websites that has cute helpers for your little readers to try for FREE. That’s right a reading helper for you and your little ones to go to.
The Lil-fingers website features online books and applications to review words and letters. It also has some free coloring pages, games to play and stories to read. It is called http://www.lil-fingers.com/index.html Check out their site. There are not too many advertisements that get in the way of clicking in the right areas. Which is important because I have found that most sites that offer things for free has too many advertisers and they are right in the middle of what you are really trying to access.
To encourage the “poet” in your little ones try out this Rhyming site at:
Seventy-One Other Take Home Rhymes They have a listing by the first line in the nursery rhyme and you click on it and it opens up an Acrobat Reader file with the rest of the poem.
PBS Kids is also a great FREE Resource for online learning. They have books that are read aloud, music videos, activities and games online to play and printable pages to print out and color. There is even a “Tips for Parents or CareGivers” section. This is a fun website that you and your children can enjoy.
Published September 15, 2009 | JA Jance is a great writer of fiction and has several recurring figures that I enjoy reading about. Joanna Brady is a small town sheriff in Arizona. Ms. Jance’s other great character is JP Beaumont. She wrote a book several years ago where these two characters meet called “Partner in Crime”. That story left us readers wondering, “what if”. “Fire and Ice” follows these two characters through a series of murders that are connected. JP is following on the trail of a serial killer. Joanna is having problems with a murder as well. She also has an officer who is missing a sister. Yes, you guessed it, the sister is one of JP’s victims.
It is amazing how the author can keep the two areas separate in their series. You go from the desert area of Bisbee, Arizona to the rain-soaked area of Seattle, Washington. I think that is where the title comes from fire-hot Arizona to ice-cold Washington. It is a yin-and-yang kind of thing. And it makes for a “keep you on your toes” mystery!
Even though the Joanna character and the JP character do not meet up until the end of the book it is still a great story and has a very believable if maybe a somewhat disappointing ending. But it does end none-the-less. Pick up your copy today and give it a read. This story may inspire you to read the entire series of Joanna Brady and JP Beaumont books. You can find a listing of them on the author’s website:
http://www.jajance.com/jajance.com/Books_In_Order_List.html
You can pick up a copy of “Fire and Ice” from our ebookstore page as well as all the other great books by JA Jance. You pick up a paper copy of these books or if you own a KINDLE machine you can order the electronic book.
Cheers!
jolenemacinjax
Admin
“KEEP ON READING”
Published August 15, 2009 | As I have said in previous entries one of my current favorite authors is Nora Roberts. Whether she is writing as herself or her alter-ego J.D. Robb. I have read practically everything she has written. Yes, she is probably one of the hottest writers today. And yes, her works older works are still being reprinted in various forms and combinations. I hope everyone will give her work a try at least once. I would not recommend her new Bride Quartet series as I really didn’t like the first book “Vision in White“. Her fans will have to judge for themselves. I would, however, highly recommend her book, “Black Hills”. You can get this and other great books by this author in our Ebookstore page!
You can read an excerpt on her site at: www.noraroberts.com . This story has everything, love, conflict, mystery and a chase through the Black Hills. This story follows the lives of two people from widely different backgrounds who first meet when they are pre-teens and become fast friends. Through trials and tribulations of life they are separated and lead different lives until a sudden illness brings them back together. The book is divided into three parts and will take some time to read but I found it very enjoyable and was unable to put it down. Nora Roberts knows how to keep her readers interested and come away from a book wanting more of her characters. This is the kind of book that I will read over and over again. She has often written trilogies and released them over time. And that can be fun but it is also very frustrating for those who like to sit down and read the whole story right through.
However she does write, we, her fans, will be waiting for her new releases.
Cheers!
jolenemacinjax
admin
“KEEP ON READING!”
Published June 15, 2009 | I hope everyone has their reading list ready for the summer. Children as well as adults should take a little time during the summer to read a good book. Relaxation comes in all forms and for me reading a good mystery is just as relaxing as sitting by the pool under an umbrella drinking a mai tai. Actually, there are a great number of easy going past-times that lend themselves to reading a good book as well as the activity itself.
For instance, how about fishing? Nothing better than sitting on the bank or shade-covered dock with a fishing pole in one hand and a book in the other. It gets you outside and hopefully, in the fresh air while trying to catching lunch or supper. Between naps and laps around a pool, lake or beach why not grab a book and read a few chapters. I have found that reading takes your mind off a lot of your troubles and is a great way to relax. If you would like to start on a new series that is funny, has suspense, and always a surprise ending — Give the books that Janet Evanovich writes a try. The very first one I read was laugh-out-loud funny. Even teenagers will like the characters in these books! The Stephanie Plum character will keep you guessing!
One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1)
Your children from elementary to college will more than likely have a summer time reading list with at least one book as a requirement for the upcoming year. If you can’t find what you need at the local library you might want to try a used bookstore or two. I love going into an established used bookstore. You can find the most amazing things as well as bargains galore. Of course, I have been in one bookstore that was so huge it had boxes of books stacked everywhere with little rooms leading into other little rooms. I don’t think I found my way out for over 2 hours.
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