Novelas Romanticas Gratis

Well. August 2020 certainly is a month I will never forget. My city of Cedar Rapids and the surrounding communities are still digging out from the derecho that hit on August 10th. The National Weather Service categorized it as a level 3 hurricane. It struck fast, lasted for a little over an hour, and unleashed destruction everywhere you look.  In the past few weeks, I've been busy in a few different places: work and home. Work (the Marion Public Library) is keeping me feeling just a bit off-kilter. Our library sustained extensive water damage, and we have had to move the entire collection out of the building and into a facility where I'll be working for the next 14 or so months while our new library is being built. Our staff is scattered across Marion in a few different spots. The good news is that we have a rock star director and deputy director, and they have been working very hard to secure a temporary library location, which will open in a few weeks. It's small, and wil...

I've got a few moments this morning so I thought I'd update everyone on what's been happening here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa since I last posted.  We continue to clean up. The National Weather Service has determined that we had a category 3 hurricane blow through Iowa. Cedar Rapids was the hardest hit area, along with Marion, which is a small city that borders Cedar Rapids. It's part of our Metro area, and where I work at the Marion Public Library as the Collection Development Manager.  Tree debris is everywhere. The National Guard arrived in town about a week ago and has been working to clean up the debris. It's hard to imagine, but literally every block of Cedar Rapids and Marion (and all the surrounding small towns) have damage and trees down. Every. single. home. No one escaped without some kind of damage to their property. The City of CR is working block by block to pick up tree debris, and plans on making three trips around the city to collect it all....

I don't even know where to begin this post. Some of you may be aware of the bizarre and destructive weather we had in Iowa on Monday, August 11th. Known as a derecho , it was an inland hurricane. Iowa is a landlocked state, and we've always been super sure a hurricane would never touch us. Well, Monday that all changed. What we all thought was going to be a severe thunderstorm turned out to be straight-line winds clocked at 100-115 MPH for 45 minutes straight. Add in some rain, thunder and lightning. The aftermath is appalling and so heartbreaking I think my whole city of Cedar Rapids and surrounding communities are still in shock. When I called my insurance agent, I cried on the phone. She was the first person I'd talked to outside of this area since the storm.  There is not one block, one house, one business, one apartment building, one park or street that is not damaged in some way in Cedar Rapids, which is 75 square miles. A population of approximately 130,0...

I finally got off my duff and concentrated on a book long enough to finish it. I've been bouncing between 3-4 books since August 1st and not making headway in any of them. However, Home Before Dark  took over and the more I read, the more invested I got in the story and couldn't put it down. And since today is National Book Lover's Day, I thought it was appropriate to have a relaxing Sunday and read all morning.  Home Before Dark is the first book I've read by author Riley Sager, and I'm happy to say I'll definitely be reading more. This was a blend of thriller, ghost story, and mystery all rolled into one. I honestly didn't know where the story was taking me until the very end.  Maggie Holt's life has been ruled by her father's infamous haunted house memoir, published when Maggie was around six years old. In it, her father tells the story of their experience living for just a few short weeks in Baneberry Hall, an old estate in the Vermont woods. Hi...

It's so darn hard to narrow down what I want to read every month. Too many choices; and yes, I'm the "squirrel!" kind of person when it comes to new books.  However, I've got an interesting mix this month, and I noticed that they're genre heavy this time around. I'm really happy that I am the type of reader who enjoys a wide variety of books both non-fiction and fiction. There are definitely times when I want something light and happy (romance) and other times when I want to dig into a thick historical fiction novel. I've also noticed there seems to be more novels that most would consider in the horror genre popping up every month. Maybe it's making a comeback.  This list isn't everything I'm reading; I'm still working on Action Park and The Cooking Gene from last month. Some non-fiction takes me a bit longer to finish, but I'm enjoying both of them very much. I've also got a few books on my Nook that I'm reading, too.  Here...

I haven't read a YA novel for a very long time. Quite honestly, I'm afraid if I start diving into YA, I'll go down a rabbit hole and never come out again! Same goes for children's fiction, too. Sometimes thinking about everything I want to read overwhelms me and I panic and hyperventilate. I kid you not.  Sometimes, however, the book universe magic happens, and I'm given the opportunity to read a novel that ends up being so utterly charming and lovable it actually changes the course of my reading plans for the rest of the year. In a bizarre, whirly-gig 2020, what's another shift in my universe? So yes, I'll be incorporating YA into the remainder of my 2020 reading choices.  Dating Makes Perfect had me from the first few pages. I can't say that about a lot of books. Most of the time I have to read about 50 or so pages before I get invested in a story-but Winnie and her family are so engaging I was sucked in immediately. Winnie's older twin sisters are...