June Wrap Up

We are halfway through 2017 and I have read a total of 65 books this year. My Goodreads goal is 100 and I am doing great. The past few months I have been averaging about 11-13 books read a month. This month, I read a total of 6 books and I am in the middle of 2. I knew my reading was going to be low because I planned to read a hefty book, that I still haven't started. I decided to start a bigger book before the one I had planned to start and I am just getting back around to reading it after I put it down. I will talk more about that in my July TBR post coming tomorrow. So let's see what books I read this month.

1. In The Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken

2. Summer According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
3. The Bar Code Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn

4. The Bar Code Prophecy by Suzanne Weyn

5. Through The Dark by Alexandra Bracken

6. Woman No.17 by Edan Lepucki

I am thinking next month's reading will be much much shorter than this. I am going to be reading a few books with the girls this month. I am also going to be reading these two big chunky books and that will be taking up most of my time.

Freebie Haul 6/19- 6/24

I had a chill weekend and I just could not be bothered to schedule this post on Saturday after I got my mail for the day. We got a lot of good items this week, so let's see what they are shall we.

Monday: We didn't get any mail today which is a good and bad thing. No bills but no goodies, so Cayce went by the store and redeemed two more V8 coupons.

Tuesday: We didn't get any goodies in the mail, but Cayce did go by Books A Million and turned in the girls Summer Reading Journals and these were their prizes.

The Maze Runner waterbottles

Wednesday: Finally some mail goodies.

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Suncare sample

July 2017 issue of Better Homes and Gardens

Thursday: A lonely magazine today

June 26, 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated

Friday: Cayce redeemed out last V8 coupon on his way home from work and we got another pack of Starbucks K-Cups in the mail

Sumatra, Caffe Verona, and French Roast Starbucks K-Cups

Saturday: Magazine day!!

July 2017 issue of Marie Claire

July/ August 2017 issue of Fast Company

July/ August 2017 issue of Redbook

July/ August 2017 issue of Men's Health

June 29, 2017 issue of Rolling Stone

Review: Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki

About the Book: High in the Hollywood Hills, writer Lady Daniels has decided to take a break from her husband. Left alone with her children, she’s going to need a hand taking care of her young son if she’s ever going to finish her memoir. In response to a Craigslist ad, S arrives, a magnetic young artist who will live in the secluded guest house out back, care for Lady’s toddler, Devin, and keep a watchful eye on her older, teenage son, Seth. S performs her day job beautifully, quickly drawing the entire family into her orbit, and becoming a confidante for Lady.

My Thoughts: This book was not what I was expecting at all. I thought it would be more drama filled but instead it was based on two women trying to figure out what the hell they are doing with their lives and work through their mommy issues. I related to this book in that way because growing up, I was emotionally and some times verbally abused by my mother.

We follow two women named Lady and Esther aka S. S is a college student trying to find her place in the art world and she decides to pretend to be her mother by acting and dressing up like her. Lady is a rich woman who has separated from her husband. She has a teenage son from a previous relationship and he is a selective mute. All throughout this book, we see Lady smothering him and complaining that she should only know her and her son's special signs and she doesn't want anyone getting close to him.

S got on my nerves. She was a character who had so much potential and the author turned her characters into an unlikable alcoholic. I hate alcoholics with a passion. My mother drinks heavily and Lady and S' behavior made me truly uncomfortable.

About the Author: EDAN LEPUCKI is the New York Times bestselling author of the novel California as well as the novella If You’re Not Yet Like Me. A contributing editor and staff writer at the Millions, she has also published fiction and nonfiction in McSweeney’s, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Cut, and elsewhere. She is the founder of Writing Workshops Los Angeles.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Through The Dark by Alexandra Bracken

When I started reading this novella bind-up, I had no idea how fast I could fall in love with more characters in this universe. I loved how Alexandra Bracken added way more to the world and ultimately left it open ended so you could come up with your own conclusions. A fan fiction writer's dream!!! I haven't found any sadly.

The first novella was about a guy named Gabe who hated life and this world and blamed it all on the freaks. He is the one who captures our sweet Zu, but Zu tames him and he protects her until he dies. I cried and laughed. Let me say that this novella was perfect and I am not a big novella fan.

The second novella goes to the character Sam who was close to Ruby at Thurmond. She is constantly thinking about Ruby and wondering why she is remembering all these thoughts when she has lost them thanks to Ruby. She notices the group of Reds that have been placed in Thurmond and she recognizes one as her long lost neighbor who she was best friends with. I loved Lucas' character. He was loyal, defiant, and a smart ass when he could be. I was instantly smitten with this character because he was looking for his little sister and instead found Sam and he tried to do everything he could to save her when Sam only wanted him to get out of Thurmond before the PSFs found out he wasn't being compliant and wasn't broken. He eventually gets caught and the second time, he breaks.

The third and final novella is from Mia and Sam pov's. Mia is Lucas' little sister. She wa taken before she even got her abilities and was taken all the way to South Dakota. We meet her when the camps are being invaded and she is rescued and then Sam comes and saves her from being re-homed. We find out that there are people who are illegally kidnapping the kids and selling them on the black market to other countries for research. We find out that the bounty on Ruby has grown tremendously into the hundreds of millions of dollars and she has to be constantly guarded and she can't leave her safe zone. They save Lucas and they get his brain back to the right mind set.

We get more of Liam, Vi, Chubbs. I laughed so hard during this story with the back and forth between Liam and Chubbs when they were talking about Zu. Zu is sassy angel who was "found" at the end of a rainbow according to Liam and that is just weird to Chubbs.

I love this Black Betty Crew and the Greenwood Kingdom. I want more in this universe and hopefully one day, Alexandra Bracken will start writing with these characters again!!!

Freebie Haul 6/12- 6/17

Another freebie haul time. I will be taking a break from posting freebies when the school year starts back. Since it is so close to July, I have to hunker down and getting everything prepped for Addy to start and then Sammy and Airy. I have to get my posts that I want up done and already scheduled so I don't have to worry about this. I will be doing a big haul of everything I receive during my hiatus.

Monday: I got a book from a giveaway win and a magazine. Also the first book is from the week before and I just forgot to haul it.

Woman No.17 from Blogging For Books

Read it Forward Giveaway Win: White Fur

June 15, 2017 issue of Rolling Stone

Tuesday: The girls got their first summer reading prizes for the year. They have two more levels to complete for summer reading, so they will have more prizes coming.

Free Ice Dream from Chic-Fil-A

Big cookies from Hardee's

Wednesday: No Mail

Thursday: I got the magazine in my mail and the Starbucks k-cups came from my mom because she doesn't have a Keurig. Thanks Mom

Starbucks breakfast blend, Pike Place roast, and house blend

June 19, 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated

Friday: I got some more little items for Cayce for his Father's Day gift, and another magazine. The two Father's Day items were the Nautica Blue cologne samples. The day before these arrived, he opened and started using the big bottle that I got him for his birthday and he loves it!!

July/August 2017 issue of Seventeen magazine

Nautica Blue

Nautica Blue

Saturday: Got a very much needed item and then I had some coupons I needed to redeem before they expired at the end of the month.

U by Kotex fitness pads and liners

V8 V-fusion strawberry banana and V8 v-fusion Pomegranate Blueberry

My Top 10 Favorite Movies

I haven't done a post all about me in a while, so I figured I would do a favorites post. Cayce has been building an entertainment center in the living room and it got me thinking about my favorite movies. I have a lot but these will always be my top dogs no matter what because they each have a special memory attached to them.

1. Forrest Gump

I have been watching this movie since I was 4 years old. This has always been a comfort movie for me. This also started my love for Tom Hanks before I learned that he was the voice of Woody in Toy Story.

2. Fried Green Tomatoes

This movie will always have a special place in my hear. Every time I would spend the night at my grandma's house, which was almost every weekend, we would watch this movie and it hasn't gotten old yet. When I found it on DVD, I snatched it up and that night when I got home, I made Cayce sit down and watch it and he absolutely LOVED it. It also started my love for Kathy Bates and my love for her grew in Titanic which is also a favorite on this list.

3. Titanic

This is another movie that I watched with my grandma and was instantly hooked. I was in second grade when this movie came out and my group of friends and I were in LOVE with Leonardo DiCaprio.

4. Fast Times at Ridgemont High

I first saw this movie when I was in high school and instantly loved it. It was so hilarious. Sean Penn was the funniest thing and at the time when my mom watched this with me one afternoon, I recognized Sean Penn because he was on an episode of Viva La Bam. Also Phoebe Cates was in Shag, which is my mom's favorite movie.

5. Dangerous Minds

I was really young when I watched this and my parents let me. I think this is what got me really into pop culture and to keep up with all the trends and how people are very different.

6. The Hunger Games Series

Like really, does this need an explanation.... NOPE!!

7. Bringing Down the House

Steve Martin and Queen Latifah are the perfect comedic pairing in my book. This movie was just so funny. Queen Latifah has always been a favorite of mine since I watched her in Set It Off when I was young. I realized I watched a lot of violent adult movies in my childhood. Steve Martin is just the man when it comes to laughing and when I need to watch a funny movie and just laugh and laugh, this is my go to.

8. The Last Holiday

Another Queen Latifah movie. I first watched this in high school and it helped my travel bug take root. She thought she only had a couple more weeks to live and she wanted to live out the rest of the weeks to the fullest. This movie helped inspire me to want to travel the world and go after what I want, which didn't happen.

9. A League of Their Own

This was the first baseball movie I watched after I started watching the Atlanta Braves when I was about 7 or 8. This is one of my parent's favorite movies. It so hilarious. Tom Hanks is the perfect sarcastic coach. Also Madonna and Rosie O' Donnell.

10. Never Been Kissed

I used to watch this movie constantly while I was in 4th grade. This movie helped grow my love for writing. I started writing stories in 4th grade and Josie made me want to be a journalist! Also Teacher Sam... goodness gracious.

So there are my top 10 favorite movies that have special meaning to me or my comfort movies.

The Bar Code Tattoo Series by Suzanne Weyn

I am going to be reviewing a series today. It is a middle grade series and I first found out about it through Kellogg's Family Rewards. I wanted to read the series to start narrowing down my TBR shelf. I got the first book from the library. I will go in order of course. I gave the first two books 2 out of 5 stars each and I gave the last one 3 out of 5 stars.

1. The Bar Code Tattoo

I didn't really enjoy this book. I knew it was a middle grade before I started, but the writing style was really cringy. This book is set in the distant future of 2025. There is a company called Global-1 taking over the world basically and there is a tattoo that supposedly the best thing. It has everything on there. Paper money and coins don't exist. You scan your bar code for everything. Kayla is about to turn seventeen and that is when she is able to get her bar code. Her best friend Amber is such a shallow character and I thought about putting this book down several times because I disliked these characters within the first few pages. There are two cases of instant love and it was so unbelievable. Two days after getting together with a guy, I love you. Realize a couple more days later, that dude is lying to you and trying to trap you and you run away with another guy and spend a week with him, I love you. Let's never part....ugh.... GAG ME!

That's basically what happened throughout most of the pages. At the very end, we find out that everyone's genetics are also being encoded into the bar code and that it is keeping people from getting jobs, losing jobs, keeping them from getting insurance because insurance companies aren't wanting to pay for sick people.

I think this would have been a great story if the author wasn't stuck in a teenager mind set when she wrote this.

2. The Bar Code Rebellion

We pick up where we left off with Kayla and her "boyfriend" Mfumbe. She is still in hiding in the mountains with the other bar code resisters who are working on their telepathy and trying to contact aliens. They go to the rally in Washington D.C. and the rally gets pummeled and many of the rally goers are resisters who get arrested because in the first book, the Bar Code Tattoo is now law for those 17 and under. Kayla gets saved by a truck driver that she met in the first book and gets taken to the desert in Arizona and leaves Mfumbe and their friend August behind. They then find out that when the bar code is given, that nanobots are injected into the blood stream and it can cause a variety of health issues. It can makes people sick, depressed and suicidal.

When Kayla gets to the caves she is instantly attracted to a guy there names Jack who is from Ireland and she constantly has to stop herself from getting intimate with him because she wants to be loyal to Mfumbe. This is another case of bad insta love because Kayla's thoughts go straight to sex and she's glad that someone's always with them to keep them from doing it. They eventually get Global 1 to admit all their wrong doings and the resisters figure they have finally won against the government.. or so they thought. We also find out that Kayla is a clone... a sextuplet clone.

The writing style improved a little from the first book, but I was still annoyed with the character Kayla. Her character did have some growth to her obviously with the telepathy, but not much personality wise.

3. The Bar Code Prophecy

This one had to be my favorite. It is set 6 months after the second one and we follow a girl named Grace. She works as a receptionist in the Global 1 headquarters that was attacked by the Bar Code resisters. She is about to turn 17 and she is excited to get her tattoo. That tattoo is still the law but they are still adding genetic information to the code for hospital personnel only. The one thing that they added after everything was a tracking device. On the day of her birthday, after she gets her tattoo, she gets told by her boss to leave work and to go straight home.

She is immediately wanted by the Global 1 police because when she was born, she was given up for adoption. She is the daughter of a very powerful man and Global 1 wants to hold her as a ransom to get this very powerful man's new project. The group from the first two books and also a guy who she is in love with who works secretly as a postman comes to save her and she has to stay hidden from the tracking satellite who has her pegged every time she makes a move.

We learn of prophecies and a meteor heading towards Earth. The writing style got much better in this story and this one was much more believable that the first two. I liked this one more because it included events like the BP oil spill in 2010 and the company Global 1 was finally destroyed by the meteor, along with the rest of the Earth. Grace and Eric were likable characters.

Freebie Haul 5/29- 6/10

This is going to be two weeks of freebies combined into another post. I am slacking tremendously on the requesting freebies front and then companies are also reneging on their promised freebies.

Monday 5/29: No Mail. MEMORIAL DAY!

Tuesday: 5/30: No Freebies

Wednesday 5/31: No Freebies

Thursday 6/1: Magazine day

May/ June 2017 issue of WeightWatchers

June 5, 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated

June 2017 issue of Southern Living

Friday 6/2: No Freebies

Saturday 6/3: No Freebies

Monday 6/5: Today was a good freebie day to start off the week. Got some yummy pop tarts and treats for Brownie.

Cherry Jolly Rancher Pop Tarts

Chicken and Duck Jerky dog treats

July 2017 issue of Cosmopolitan

Tuesday 6/6: Got a big mathematical poster.

Maplesoft poster

Wednesday 6/7: No Freebies

Thursday 6/8: No Freebies

Friday 6/9: Received 2 dollars from Nielsen Research and another magazine

July 2017 issue of Glamour

2 dollars from Nielsen Surveys

Saturday 6/10: My biggest freebie day of these two weeks.

Team Marlboro Undivided work gloves

I-Say Product review for Dove Cucumber and Green Tea Body Wash

July/ August 2017 issue of weightwatchers

Luvsome cat food coupon redemption

Nestea Green Tea free coupon redemption