Secret Sister March Unwrapped April 9, 2015

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Last Monday, I received a glorious package from my Secret Sister, James Bond. The awesomeness and gratitude could NOT be fully shown in 140 characters on Twitter, so I decided to do a full unwrap on the blog. This will focus on my goodies. An in depth unwrap on the kiddos’ goodies can be found on Backyard Explorers.

When I opened the front door to see if the mail had gone by, Punk spotted our giant box first.

Bug was still napping, so we just opened the top to peek in.

Once Bug woke up, we dug in! I was SO overwhelmed by my Sister’s generosity. She is the sweetest for including the kiddos!

Now! To show off my goodies!

Isn’t she the BEST?! I am still so overwhelmed. Punk has tried to claim my hot chocolate, but I say it’s ALL MINE!

I’m on a huge Tudors kick right now. My Sis and I read Gilt by Katherine Longshore together and discussed it via letters. So much fun! Well, after finishing Gilt, I continued on to Tarnish and Brazen. While on this binge, I posted my Tudors era collection (Including the Cousins’ War series)

Tudor collection consists of:
The Other Boleyn GirlThe Secret Diary of Anne BoleynQueen Jezebel: A Catherine de’ Medici NovelThe Tudors: Season 1Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, England, 1544 (The Royal Diaries)Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country, France 1553 (The Royal Diaries)Mary, Bloody MaryDoomed Queen Anne: A Young Royals BookBeware, Princess ElizabethAnne of the Thousand Days / Mary, Queen of ScotsGiltElizabeth: The Struggle for the ThroneElizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, QueensElizabeth ILady JaneThe Other Boleyn GirlThe Boleyn InheritanceI did forget my DVD of Elizabeth (Spotlight Series)OOPS! I also have a few Philippa Gregory books on my kindle, but until they’re also in my physical collection, they don’t count (;

My sister very generously passed on some of her Philippa Gregory goodies to help flesh out my collection a bit more

The Other Queen
The Red Queen (The Cousin’s War)
The Lady of the Rivers: A Novel (The Cousins’ War)
The White Queen (The Cousins’ War)

Don’t worry about The White Queen not being the show cover! I don’t mind having multiple copies of favourites! (: I haven’t gotten to The Other Queen yet in my reading, so I’m pretty excited for it while I’m on my Tudor binge! (:

I was SO excited to see This Shattered World: A Starbound Novel in this month’s box! (: I have been dying to get my hands on this December 2014 release! It is definitely a top priority after my Tudor binge!

I am a huge hoarder – I mean collector of bookmarks. When I saw this adorable yarn ball and crochet hook bookmark by Craft’ed, I wanted it hardcore! I was so happy to see it! Aren’t the owls adorable? Can’t wait to use them!

In her letter, my Sis said she planned this month’s box as a royal theme and every queen needs to be pampered! The soap and bath salts smell awesome and I can’t wait to try the face mask. (: And chapstick. Oh. Man. It’s awesome and Bug keeps trying to pilfer it.

I am a HUGE Nashville Predators fan and have been wanting some regular post earrings to compliment my dangly ones. So happy to have these in my life for some post season play! Woohoo Preds clenching a playoffs spot.

My Sis is SO talented! She knit me a washcloth and some mug mats. The mats have hearts in them! LOVE! And I’ve already used one. (: Mug mat in use with my White Queen mug! (:

I am including the big bear with mine, because he was sent for me, but Bug has confiscated him for her own. He’s so soft! I can’t really blame her for stealing him!

I am so excited for my new reads! Thank you so much my dear Sister! I love and appreciate all of the goodies you shared with us! ❤

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Top Ten Tuesday #33: Gateway Books/Authors in My Reading Journey April 1, 2014

Each week, the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish think up a fun theme for the week and participating bloggers around the net join in. The theme for this week is:

Top Ten Gateway Books/Authors in My Reading Journey

JK Rowling– JKR is one of the authors responsible for making me fall in love with reading on my own. As a kid, I loved being read to, but HATED reading on my own. JKR changed all of that with a little boy named Harry. (: 

Rachel Harris – Rachel has gotten me to venture into the world of New Adult. I loved Seven Day Fiance. New Adult is on my genre list of venturing into more. 

Lois Lowry – Opening my reading up to dystopian societies. It’s kinda funny, really. Tea Time talked about this on 26 March when discussing The Giver trailer. I already had this list sketched out on paper and had her down for dystopian. I love her other works too, but she really got me into dystopian before it was cool to be dystopian. 

The Royal Diaries series – This middle grade series is what got me hooked on history. I devoured these books like they were going out of style! I still need to finish the series and I hope my kiddos love them as much as I did/do!

Philippa Gregory – It started with Royal Diaries and matured when I discovered Philippa Gregory’s Tudor era writings. She only increased my obsession with mid15th-early17th century England! 

Carolyn Meyer – Another middle grade obsession. I love her Tudor era books!

Stephenie Meyer – Yes, she’s on my list. I will admit, Twilight launched me back into reading YA in college. I haven’t looked back on reading since then! 

Ann Rinaldi – There’s a real middle grade theme going on today! Rinaldi is another middle grade author who flamed my obsession with history.

Anne Frank – Dear Anne really sparked the flame on my love of reading about World War II. It was really a combination of her writing and wanting to know what my Grandaddy went through. 

American Girl series– This is THE series that really was the bridge between picture books and middle grade for me. I loved having people read these to me and I would occasionally sit and read them myself. I have four of the dolls that will be passed down to Bug and I have a bunch of the books! 

That’s it for Top Ten Tuesday today! What are your gateway books/authors? Feel free to comment and leave your link! (: