Elizabeth of York has always been a fascinating historical figure to me. I've read about her before, but mainly in books where she's a minor character. It was great to read a book that focused on her and the time she lived through, and I always enjoy Weir's books, having read most of them, her books being very readable and enjoyable for historical fans like me.

This book has a LOT of fact contained within its pages. I downloaded it about 2 months ago, and it's taken me that long to complete reading it - not because I didn't enjoy it, but because most of the time I read it, I had to have a copy of the family tree sitting in front of me. Keeping all of the persons involved straight was a nightmare (for someone like me who can barely remember her husband's name most nights!) and having a 'cheat sheet' handy was very helpful.

There were sections that I skimmed through, simply because there was so much detail involved.

There are some new theories being floated in this book, some of which I agreed with and some of which I did not.

I've been wanting to read this for quite a while, and was finally able to sit down and spend the time to read.

Mary Boleyn has always fascinated me, mostly because she is usually portrayed so badly - as a whore, or as someone a little slow-witted and unwilling to stand up for herself.

Weir's book is I believe, the first full length biography on Mary. I especially enjoyed reading about Mary's early years at French court, something I don't know a whole heck of a lot about, but certainly reads like a soap opera! There's a lot of background information about the era Mary lives in as well (most of which I already was familiar with).

Because there is not a lot of factual information about Mary Boleyn, there is a certain amount of text devoted to her family, other families who lived near them, etc., but I feel it does serve to help balance out what otherwise might be too short of a book.

I did have to rate the book 4 stars because there is a lot of repetition in the book, especially on issues (to me) that are minor - for example, a good 20 pages on whether Anne or Mary is the elder - does this really matter at all?

All in all, this book is good, just not a great read.

Al Worden writes a candid book about his life, becoming an astronaut, flying to the moon and back, the scandal that ended his career, and his life afterwards.

I'm a space geek - I'm the first to admit I don't understand most of the science, but being born in '76 and being a kid growing up with the Teacher in Space program - and the horrifying Challenger disaster, which is the Kennedy moment of my generation - I'm fascinated with the space program. I've read probably a dozen books by other astronauts and knew about the scandal with the postal books.

The book is interesting - growing up and working on a farm, his early career days, and how suddenly he ended up an astronaut. The reason I give this book 4 stars is because Worden makes excuses an awful lot for alot of things he does, rationalizing everything from being a bad father (well you know, I'm in training to fly to the moon) and being a bad husband (well, you know, I'm in training to fly to the moon) and rationalizes his way through the fact that he got paid money to bring souvenirs to the moon, something that naturally leaves a bad taste in this tax payer's mouth. He naturally was proved innocent in the end and his career was redeemed, along with his reputation, but the rationalizing still bothered me enough to rate this one 4 stars.

I picked this book on amazon when it was first published. I'm a fan of the author's blog, though I don't always have time to read it. I knew some of the information would be repetitive, but I was expecting some new information as well.

I wasn't expecting that within the book itself, there was a lot of repeat information. I got the impression she just gathered up all the articles on her blog with the same tag & put them together as a book, instead of actually editing the articles by hand to make sure they didn't mention the same info over & over again. A few beta readers probably would have helped, too.

That being said - I do enjoy Ridgway's blog & I am a big Tudor buff - both the fiction stuff & the real actual historical facts & I do think this book is a great place to start, especially if you are new to her blog.

I was very excited to have the opportunity to read & review this book. Being a knitter & crocheter, I often make blankets for charity - usually for people in nursing homes, or pets in animal shelters. Last fall I made about 30 hats & a few scarves for a group collecting woolies for homeless vets. Ever since then, I've been thinking about doing more for the homeless. Sure, I have made hats in the past for them, but certainly not like I do the lapghans. I wasn't really sure what to expect about this book, but I was definitely interested from the get go.

This book was not one of those books where you sit down & devour over the course of one long afternoon. I read the book daily, usually a few minutes here & there and longer periods maybe once a week. I read it in small portions, so that I could really think about what Yankoski was writing about. The faster I read a book, the less I actually "think" about it, and I knew that I wanted to get "something" out of Under The Overpass.

Was I moved reading this book? Definitely. This is an experience few would volunteer to undertake, and I think Mike & his friend Sam were lucky to survive as well as they did. Sure, they met interesting characters, and this experience changed their life forever. Did it change my life? Well... for the moment, anyway. One of my New Year's goals was to make 24 hats for the homeless. Sure, that's not a lot... but that's 24 warmer bodies if I succeed. If I had more money, more time, would I want to do more? Sure, you bet. Will I end up volunteering at a homeless shelter, or a food kitchen? I'd love to say yes, because the book did move me that much, and I did learn a lot, but no, I probably won't end up doing those things.

This is not an easy book to read, but it is a book you should read.

I read this book back in Oct 2013, but as always, I needed a little bit of time to think about the book before I wrote my review. I also youtubed Jenna Hill and got more of a personal insight by watching her on video (and I admit, I liked her less after watching her in person then after reading her book. On TV, she comes across as looking for her five minutes of fame; in the book, she seems more "real").

Jenna grows up in a scientology family - something I only had the vaguest ideas about before reading this book. After she becomes an adult, she marries and becomes a scientologist in her own right.

Her childhood is filled with a variety of abuses and things most people don't have to deal with in their every day lives: from chanting and lack of privacy, to controlled public punishment for imagined wrongdoings, to a uniform dress code, isolation from the rest of the world (and told that the rest of the world is "bad"), to doctrines that are never quite explained, to out and out abuse like slave labor, mental and physical abuse, public humiliation, and let's not forget brainwashing.

Jenna's writing throughout is a bit childish, as is her story, but as she was a child during most of the book, that makes sense & isn't necessarily a negative, as you really do feel for her. I do feel like she enjoyed throwing herself a pity party - not saying she didn't deserve our pity, mind you. My biggest point for mentioning this is that Jenna, sadly, does not seem to grow at all as a person within the pages of this book.

I read Irene's book after reading her sister-wives book. Irene's story is heart breaking in her own right, but because she was older than Susan and an earlier wife, poor Irene has to live through so much more.

I enjoyed Irene's writing style, which was down to earth and straight forward. The book does seem to drag a bit, only because so much is similar - "Hey, I want to marry another wife" "No, I don't want you to marry again" "Tough luck", oh look another wife. Over and over again.

OK let's move to another dirt poor area and live where there's no heat... "NO, I don't want to" "Tough luck" oh look, another move.

Poor Irene, Through it all you really do feel bad for her. Irene really struggles with jealously throughout the book, natural enough, and by then end you are really rooting for her. You do have to question why she stays with her husband so long. But how she manages to survive is why this book is worth reading.

I love my slow cooker - I love my slow cooker so much, I have four of them, from a tiny, personal sized one to a huge one big enough to fit a turkey in. I have a lot of cook books from the 50's on to current, so I have a lot of recipes for it (though I tend to always make the same sorts of thing in my slow cooker, despite my recipes).

The book has lots of great, beautiful, well photographed recipes, divided up by the season so you can use local produce - more and more important these days, and something I'm good at only in the summer & fall, when my own garden is in full swing. There's an interesting, eclectic range of recipes here - unfortunately a lot of them I can't eat because of food allergies/issues, and a lot more include ingredients I've never heard of before. I live on a tight, tight budget - I can't afford to buy ingredients I've never heard of before, that I may or may not like, on a recipe I may or may not like. There's a few recipes that are left, however, that I will probably try to make.

Cheney also includes great how-tos and hints and tricks for those new to using their slow cooker. Unfortunately nothing new for me here, but like I said, I use my slow cooker all the time.

The other major draw back for me is rather short cooking times - I'm gone for a good 9.5 hours a day, I need to leave my slow cooker unattended for ten hours at a stretch. Her times are really short, and she does explain her reasoning, but that doesn't help me any.

I had way too many issues with this book. there were way too many things you had to just take for granted, with no explanations or reasons. Therewere a lot of open plot holes big enough to drive a bus through and I just could not like the characters. so disappointed with this one.