The Reading Rush Readathon + TBR

The Reading Rush, formerly known as BOOKTUBEATHON, is being hosted by Ariel and Raeleen. This year they created a website, where you can have your own profile, keeping up with how many pages you’re reading a day and earn badges. It’s starting from July 22TH to 28TH 2019.

Challenges and My TBR

1/ Read a book with purple on the cover

For this one, I’m going with Jacky Ha-Ha: My Life is a Joke (Jacky Ha-Ha #2) by James Patterson.

Jacky Ha-Ha: My Life is a Joke (Jacky Ha-Ha, #2)

2/ Read a book in the same spot the entire time

The book I’m choosing for this challenge is The Beach House by James Patterson, Peter de Jonge.

The Beach House

3/ Read a book you meant to read last year

For this one, I’m going with An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen.

An Anonymous Girl

4/ Read an author’s first book

Picking up The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen.

The Wife Between Us

5/ Read a book with a non-human main character

For this challenge, I’m reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

6/ Pick a book that has five or more words in the title

For this one I’ll go with, We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels.

We Hope for Better Things

7/ Read and watch a book to movie adaptation

For this challenge I’m reading the book, The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle.

The Good Liar Image result for The Good Liar

Bonus/ Read 7 books!

Very happy that I could come up with this list without adding to my to be read list.

Sources:

My Reading Rush Profile

TheReadingRush Twitter

The Reading Rush YouTube

The Reading Rush

Alex

Life Goals Of Strangers!

This time I went on Omegle and asked people I don’t know one question. What’s one life goal you have? And are the answers I’ve got back.

To be happy.

To travel.

To fall in love with an mtf (trans female) and treat her amazingly.

To be a Product Designer and be financially stable and one day owns a neat house.

To give back to my family.

To make the world a happier place.

Become a successful engineer.

To get married.

To never be short of money.

To graduate college and get into medical school.

To work for the BBC, either full time or freelance.

Finding my soulmate.

Whenever I plan this kind of posts, I try to learn nothing about the stranger I’m talking to for two reasons; the first reason is for my own safety. I try to be as safe as possible online. The other part of it is that I don’t want the stranger to base their answer on who I am. It’s interesting to see that all or most people I chatted with goals were either about finding love in one way or another or a dream job. I don’t know any of the people I spoke to, but I did ask for permission to put their answers in this post.

Image result for life goals

Alex

A Life Changing Friendship

When I saw this story, I’m about to share with you guys. I saw how the power friendship could turn your life around for the better and forever. Former Neo-Nazi Michael Kent decided to get a swastika after he made friends with an unlikely human.

Michael went to Fallen Heroes tattoo shop to get his tattoo cover and his first professional tattoo. What surprised me was when he said that all his tattoos were made in prison. The interviewer asked, Michael what’s the story behind the ink on his chest. He said that he was a part of a skinhead group. He then opened up about his first racist tattoo, his white pride tattoo, which Michael had to “earn” each letter of his tattoo by committing a violent act. He had the swastika tattoo for over 20 years, and you could see the relief in his eyes while he was getting it covered.

His transition story is an odd one when he got out of jail; his caseload got transferred to a black woman. When she saw the German war flag, she told him to put it down and hang something positive that you will want to smile when you see it. To help you see positive instead of the hate. Before he turned the page of his life, Michael wouldn’t work for or with anyone who wasn’t white, now not only that did change; he’s the only white person at his job.

Image result for Former neo-Nazi removes swastika tattoos after unlikely friendship

Alex

Firsts Lines Fridays

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book

Lines

Stepney, London, 1939

‘’Ere, Poll! Your bleedin’ ‘Elayna’s broke the bog seat again,’ Edna shouted indignantly from the bottom of the stairs. ‘She might have a name like an effing duchess, but she don’t sit on the khazi like one.’

Polly Forester paused in searching her daughter’s long, dark brown hair for nits, and half smiled.

No one ever called Ellie by her real name, ‘Helena’ – which was intended to be pronounced in the Greek way, with an ‘a’ sound – not unless they wanted to tease or ridicule her. Edna Ross, their garrulous and often fearsome neighbour, loved to bawl it out as the ultimate, affectionate insult, always adding an extra ‘a’ or two for special effect.

‘’Ow can you be sure it weren’t Wilf?’ Polly shouted back good-naturedly. ‘’E’s got an arse like a rhinoceros!’

‘’Cos ’e’s bin down the pub all bleedin’ day,’ Edna shot back. ‘An’ I ’opes ’e stays there all bleedin’ night too.’

‘I’m sorry, Ed,’ Polly called back, spluttering with laughter. ‘I’ll fix it later.’

‘Don’t matter.’ Edna’s indignation was gone now, replaced by wheezy laughter.

Image result for historical fiction books gif

And The Book Is..

Ellie (Ellie, #1) — Ellie
(Ellie #1)
by Lesley Pearse

Goodreads

Alex

Kingman’s Grandfather

Homelessness is something that we choose not to see especial here in Malta but just because we don’t face doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. However, the town of Kingman, Arizona, went the extra mile. James Zyla, aka Santa James, managed to bring the village of Kingman back together after an ugly incident that slit the town in half.

James, a former real-estate salesman, fell on hard times and ended up homeless, and this is when the goodness in this world made an appearance. The residents of Kingman decided to adopt James as the town’s grandfather.

“After an ugly incident split this town, the citizens found common ground when they anointed a homeless poet their “adopted grandfather.”

When interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, he said “It’s not just the young or the old. It permeates the generations.” This statement shows James’s singular spirit and kind heart. After discovering his musical gift and the beautiful ability with words.

The residents made it their mission to give him a place where he can stay, gigs to play and socialise and giving him a helping hand whenever he needs it in exchange for a hug or a smile. The mayor gave him the key to the city. His story became the symbol of hope for this little town.