Like And Likeability Thursday: A Bookish Facebook Page Hop (2)

Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook is pleased to welcome you to a congenial social networking soiree.

No pride or prejudice here.

 At Like And Likeabilty Thursday, experience a delightful time spent in the company of agreeable people of the bookish persuasion.

To attend this event: Please link up your bookish Facebook page. (pages do not have to be one hundred percent book related) 

To participate:  Mingle. Like others' Facebook pages. Return likes to your Facebook page. 

Remember:  Please like pages with your personal profile. Otherwise the 'like' doesn't count.

To make it easier for people to return 'likes': Say hello on their page walls. Let them know you found them via 'Like and Likeability' and leave a link to your page.

Appreciated but not required:

Like and Likeability is very casual. You are not required to post about it on your blog or promote it in any manner.  

 Of course, the more people who link up..  the more  'likes' for everyone.  And more 'likes' mean increased blog traffic which ultimately provides an opportunity to make new bloggy friends. 

So if you would like to spread the word via your Facebook page, Twitter or blog, that would be lovely.  

And, friends,  posting a button in your sidebar would be most agreeable.

<div align="center"><a href="http://baja-greenawalts-cozybooknook.blogspot.com/" title="Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook"><img src="http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i338/okietexslp/LL13.jpg" alt="Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Lagniappe:  Each week a blogger from the previous week's linky list will be randomly selected to be featured in the current week's Like And Likeability Hop. The featured  blogger's Facebook page will receive spot number two in the current linky list.   

This week's featured blogger:

Katherine of Katherines Corner!

 Visit Katherine Corner for recipes, crafts, photographs, giveaways, stories and more.  And guess what? Katherine just started a bookclub on her blog! The first month of the bookclub ends on August 15-- so you have plenty of  time to read the first month's selection, Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. Head over and sign up.  

And please don't forget to 'like' Katherine's Facebook page, Go Ask Katie.

A Bookish Lagniappe: Party Favors

Books as party favors!



image by wedding.theknot.com via Pinterest



Don't you love this idea?  

And the old fashioned borrower cards are so cute and nostalgic. I miss those cards and I really miss the due date cards.  Remember how they stayed put in the little pockets. I'm forever losing the modern paper due date receipts -- even when I use them as bookmarks. How about you?

I suppose non-bookworms might groan at receiving a book as a party favor but who cares about them... besides the possibilities are endless.

Wouldn't it be fun to match books to the party theme... books about tea for tea parties... wine books for wine tasting parties... board books for toddler birthday parties. 

What sort of book might you use as favors at your next shindig?

Great Tweetpectations: A Bookish Twitter Hop (1)

Welcome to our cozy little bookish tweet and meet!

Looking for more bookish tweeps to follow and vice versa?  If the answer is yes, Great Tweetpectations is the Twitter hop for you!

If you tweet about books or book related topics all or part of the time, link up! You don't have to have a bookblog or writer/author blog to participate.

How to join in:

1. Add your bookish Twitter profile url to the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of this post. Example: https://twitter.com/#!/yourname  

(if your link doesn't work try using 'http' instead of 'https'-- my link glitched and wouldn't work until I did that)

2. Type your Twitter profile name in the name box. Example: @yourname

3.  Type in your email then click submit.

4. Follow as many bookloving tweeps as you wish. Send them an @mention so they know you are following via Great Tweetpectations.

5. Be a good twitter sport. Return follows.

Much appreciated but not required:  

1. You are not required to follow me, @BloggyLesa, but I will return all follows. 

2.. You are not required to promote Great Tweetpectations but please consider a tweet or two to spread the word. More participants will mean more Twitter following fun for all-- and a potential increase in blog traffic.

3.  Again not required, but if you would like to post about Great Tweetpectations or display the button in your blog's sidebar, here is the grab code:

 

<div align="center"><a href="http://baja-greenawalts-cozybooknook.blogspot.com/" title="Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook"><img src="http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i338/okietexslp/gtbuttton8.jpg" alt="Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Thank you for joining Great Tweetpectations: A Bookish Twitter Hop! Have fun!

Bargain Book Bonanza (18): Good Will Again!

 Welcome to Bargain Book Bonanza!

A book haul linky party for bargain loving bookworms!

BBB is the place to showcase all the great books (new, used, vintage, electronic, audio) that you have scored on sale.

Each Monday through Thursday, all book lovers are invited to carouse, make merry and revel with bargain book abandon!

Want to join the party? Just visit the Bargain Book Bonanza page for the particulars.


Lesa is hosting this week!

Another Good Will  BBB spectacular! I just love shopping for books at this particular store. After getting lucky here the first time, I checked Good Wills in other towns/states but to no avail.  This store is just BBB nirvana.

And the books are a steal-- prices are either:  twenty cents, fifty cents or one dollar!

This trip, I bought fourteen books and paid $5.70--Yippee!!

All these picture books are hardback and in excellent condition.

The Walrus And The Carpenter And Other Remarkable Rhymes by Lewis Carroll

Little Bear's Visit by Else Holmelund Minarik

Tembo Takes Charge by Animal Planet

Three Help Me Be Good books by Joy Berry

 In between moaning and groaning over the length of the book hunt, Hub entertained the Wee One with silly Lewis Carroll poems.  This book is a big hit, by the way.   


Next, four books to add to my Newbery collection!  

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (Honor)

Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White (Honor)

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Winner)

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Honor)

Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary

gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

I didn't plan to read the sequels to The Giver since it isn't a favorite of mine but I couldn't pass this up for fifty cents.

The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction by Kate Chopin
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (DiscWorld)

I'm not familiar with Kate Chopin but the first three sentences on the back sold me:

'When it first appeared in 1899, The Awakening was greeted with cries of outrage. The novel's frank portrayal of a woman's emotional, intellectual, and sexual awakening shocked the sensibilities of the time and destroyed the author's reputation and career. Many years passed before this short pioneering work was recognized as a major achievement in American literature.'

People are so funny-- I can't wait to see what had readers of that time in a tizzy.

And Terry Pratchett. I've been wanting to read him since I read Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett.

The author's note (that I read after buying) states that most Discword novels can stand alone-- except this one. Ha, just my luck!

Apparently, there are tons of books in the series but according to Pratchett only three are essential to read before this one. That isn't so bad... but I'll have to read the whole series in order now.

Have you read any of these books/authors? 

 If you have a bargain book, please share. We love to brag on bargains!

Like and Likeability: A Bookish Facebook Hop (1)

Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook is pleased to welcome you to a congenial social networking soiree.

No pride or prejudice here.

 At Like And Likeabilty Thursday, experience a delightful time spent in the company of agreeable people of the bookish persuasion.

To attend this event: Please link up your bookish Facebook page. (pages do not have to be one hundred percent book related) 

To participate:  Mingle. Like others' Facebook pages. Return likes to your Facebook page. 

Remember:  Please like pages with your personal profile. Otherwise the 'like' doesn't count.

To make it easier for people to return 'likes': Say hello on their page walls. Let them know you found them via 'Like and Likeability' and leave a link to your page.

Like and Likeability is very casual. You are not required to post about it on your blog or promote it in any manner. 

 Of course, the more people who link up..  the more  'likes' for everyone.  And more 'likes' mean increased blog traffic which ultimately provides an opportunity to make new bloggy friends. 

So if you would like to spread the word via your Facebook page, Twitter or blog, that would be lovely.  

And, friends,  posting a button in your sidebar would be most agreeable.

<div align="center"><a href="http://baja-greenawalts-cozybooknook.blogspot.com/" title="Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook"><img src="http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i338/okietexslp/LL13.jpg" alt="Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Have fun! I know it is late in the day to start a hop but maybe a little evening hopping will draw a crowd for next Thursday. (and this linky will be open tomorrow too)

And please come back Tuesday. Why? Because you are invited to attend:

Yes, we have turned into social networking button making fools! Or at least I (Lesa) have but the other ladies of Mrs. BG are right behind me... I think.

Bargain Book Bonanza (17): Yard Sale Yarns

 Welcome to Bargain Book Bonanza!

A book haul linky party for bargain loving bookworms!

BBB is the place to showcase all the great books (new, used, vintage, electronic, audio) that you have scored on sale.

Each Monday through Thursday, all book lovers are invited to carouse, make merry and revel with bargain book abandon!

Want to join the party? Just visit the Bargain Book Bonanza page for the particulars.


Lesa is hosting this week!

BBB is back after a three week  hiatus! 

Did you wonder if we had run out of bargain book finds?  Ah no, surely y'all know better than to think that!  Between us five amigas, I daresay we could BBB ourselves into infinity!

So why no BBB posts for three weeks?  Just lots of laziness and craziness going on this summer-- and lots of recuperating. 

Since my eye surgery, I have lucked into three super cool bargain book hauls that I will show you soon but today's BBB is a yard sale haul from early June.

Yard sales are great for children's books.

These were twenty-five cents each so $2.25 for nine books!

A Weekend With Windell by Kevin Henke Bear

Bear's Christmas Surprise by ElizabethWinthrop

Do I Have To Take Violet? By Sucie Stevenson

"Uh-Oh!" Said the Crow by Joanne Oppenheim

Goliath and the Burglar by Terrance Dicks

Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parrish

Two Samantha books from The American Girls Collection 

 Hotel For Dogs by Lois Duncan

Such a great little haul! The picture books have the cutest illustrations and maybe some will feature in a future Storytime post.  

I'm very pleased to find the two American Girl books.  Enbrethiliel posted about using the series as teaching materials in one of her BBB posts. Since I never have enough 'girl' books for my female students to read aloud during carry-over articulation therapy, I nabbed these quick. (Not that there was a rush or anything-- I'm always the only one at yard sales pawing through the books)

And Hotel For Dogs-- I didn't even realise it was a book! That happens to me all the time and as a bookworm I always think: Duh, where have I been?  Does that ever happen to you?

If you have a bargain book, please share. We love to brag on bargains! The linky will be open through Friday this week.

Jane Eyre: Book or Film?

I would like to say that as an advanced reader for my age, I challenge myself in the books that I read. However, I have found myself lacking in the challenging-book department.

I have been reading what I like to consider brain-mushing books full of nasty girls with lots of money, extensive wardrobes, perfect boyfriends and their preppy school peers at their fingertips. Not that I don't love reading them (they are to me as Mills & Boon are to a middle-aged woman) but sometimes I think I do need that informative literature to enrich the mind.

After discussing Jane Eyre with fellow blogger Maria, I have had the urge to pick up the book, as it seems an interesting story. Though, I have been what most refer to as a "wimp" for my whole life. That, combined with the challenge of trying to translate such old language such as "thou", the dark plot and unspoken feminist controversy behind the book, it might be a little... heavy. As I rarely take the easy way out of these kind of situations, I think I owe it to myself to shortcut my longing to engage in the story a bit.


As the star in one of the book/movie duos that changed my life, Alice in Wonderland actress Mia Wasikowska is, in my opinion, very talented. She plays Jane Eyre in the new movie (I have included the trailer) that I think I will go and see as a sort of alternative to the book. Or is it a must-read, book-lovers?

X.

www.viewsofnow.blogspot.com

Tale Of The Creepy Eye! (As Told By An Intrepid Reader)

Howdy, friends! 



 In the recovery room with Little Minion Dear Son. I'm still loopy here from happy juice and let me just say:  Conscious sedation is ahh-maaazing! So much more pleasant to  'come to'  from than general anesthesia, that's for sure.



I'm back-- sort of-- I'm twelve days post-op and my vision is way wacky (one blurry eye and one clear eye) so looking at anything is weird but looking at a computer screen makes me feel especially nutty and slightly queasy. 

 Thankfully, big minion Dear Hub fixed me up with a pair of safety glasses in which he occluded the blurry eye side with black construction paper. Does the trick even though blogging with one eye is a bit tiring BUT an intrepid reader/blogger must blog on... for your amusement, of course.

See, even suffering from visual vertigo, I'm thinking of your amusement. I'm a saint, I tell you, a saint!!

So on with the tale...

Eye surgery (express shunt for glaucoma) was a breeze and rather fascinating-- kind of like starring in my own episode of a medical drama. And I was a model patient this time-- no arguing that my eye wasn't open during the procedure and no dancing legs. Actually, there was no music playing this time. Is it possible that the staff remembered my antics?

Ah, the intrepid reader! This was a staged shot for entertainment purposes only but, of course,  I became engrossed in an interesting article.. and recipes... and...

The bandage was removed one day post-op. Are you ready to see the creepy eye?  Not quite? Okay, later then. 

For now, I will tell you that the shunt implant surgery was a bit too successful. The eye pressure is now too low-- which exacerbates the normal post-op blurry vision. If the pressure doesn't increase to a non-blurry level, another surgery to add a suture to tighten up the shunt will be required.  WAAAH!! 

Ready for the creepy eye? 

Not yet? O-kaay... eyes closed but y'all sure are squeamish. 

Anyhoo, remember my dread of the post-op instructions? Now you will see why...

• Steroid eyedrop every two hours while awake
• Antibiotic eyedrop every four hours while awake
• Ointment in eye at bedtime
• Plastic shield taped over eye for sleeping (two weeks)
• No water in eye for two weeks
• No lifting more than eight pounds for six weeks
• No bending below waist for six weeks

Right now my whole life revolves around this dang ol' creepy eye. Bye-bye fun summer.

But, looking on the sunny side,  I'm going to have some killer legs from all the squatting!

Ready to see you know what? Eyes opening now...

Wait? What do you mean wait? I can only drag this tale out so long, you know. Plus, I'm blogging with one tired eye!  Give a girl a break!

Okay, one last reprieve but that is it-- you will just have to hide your eyes. And it isn't like some of you don't read/watch paranormal and horror. Geez!

So how about a bit of drama before the horror? After the three hour drive home following bandage removal, I lost vision in my surgery eye. Now that is scary! All I could see was white-- like looking at a film screen. I panicked!! 

We hightailed it three exhausting hours back to the doctor for an emergency after hours exam.  Apparently, the low pressure was keeping the eye too shallow to reform properly. The doctor added dilation drops to my post-op regimen and vision returned. Whew!

Okay, folks, the time is now. What time? Creepy eye time, of course.   You have been warned so click away if you are truly squeamish. Mwahahaha!

 Boo! 

Ooo, I look like a monster.

In case you are wondering, there is not one speck of white on my eyeball. And it gets worse before it gets better-- the main swelling and bruising shows up on the second post-op day. And it all lasts forever! (the droopy eyelid hangs around for six months)


I debated whether to call it zombie eye or creepy eye.

 What do you think? Both fit.

Now I'm as vain as the average girl but am I bothered by the creepy zombie eye? No.

See. I'm happy as a clam. 

Why, you ask?

Because I get to frighten little children, that's why!

Kidding! (but that is kinda fun)

Actually, I am beyond thrilled over hiding the creepy zombie eye behind these absolutely...

fabulous post-op sunglasses!

Too stylin' for words.

I should start a fashion trend...

 

(Looking forward to getting back into the swing of the blogosphere-- I've sure missed reading and commenting on all of your blogs)

(and in case you are wondering why in the world I'm going on about my ailment and sharing the grossness-- Well, my experience, even told in a non-technical silly way, may be helpful to others in the same boat.  Plus, I'm planning future glaucoma awareness posts. Vision is precious, book peeps!)