Rainy Days With Amanda

SANTA CLAUS BANK ROBBERY A True-Crime Saga in Texas by TUI SNIDER    Genre: Nonfiction / Texana / Texas History Publisher: Castle Azle Press Date of Publication: December 8, 2019 Number of Pages: 146 pages + black & white photos Scroll down for Giveaway! When Marshall Ratliff dressed like Santa Claus to pull a Christmas-time heist, he thought it would be easy. Unfortunately for him, when the citizens of Cisco heard Santa was robbing a bank, they came running - with loaded guns in hand! But can you blame them? In 1927, the only way to earn the $5000 Dead Bank Robber Reward was to kill a bandit while the crime was in progress. This bungled bank robbery led to a wild shootout and a getaway with two little girls as hostages. And that is only the beginning! Tui Snider’s true-crime tale reads like a comedy of errors as the consequences of the Santa Claus Bank Robber’s actions escalate to include a botched car-jacking, one of

WHY STUFF MATTERS by JEN WALDO   Sub-genre: Literary Fiction / Humor Publisher: Arcadia Books Date of Publication: June 4, 2019 (US) Number of Pages: 212 When Jessica, a grieving widow, inherits an antique mall from her mother she also inherits the stallholders, an elderly, amoral, acquisitive, and paranoid collection.  When one of the vendors, a wily ex-con named Roxy, shoots her ex-husband, she calls on Jessica to help bury the body and soon Jessica is embroiled in cover-ups, lies, and misdirection. Into this mix comes Lizzie, Jessica’s late husband’s twelve-year-old daughter by his first marriage, who’s been dumped on Jessica’s doorstep by the child’s self-absorbed mother and it soon becomes apparent that Lizzie is as obsessed with material possessions as Jessica’s elderly tenants.  Why Stuff Matters is a compelling ode to possession, why people like things and the curious lengths they will go to keep them. Returning to

It feels like a hot minute since I wrote a rainy thought. I've just been busy and nothing significant has crossed my mind, at least none that would be worth writing about. Anyways, I participated in Nanowrimo this year again. For those of you who may not know, Nanowrimo stands for National Writing Month. The goal of Nanowrimo is to complete a standard 50,000 word book in just one month. Just the writing portion, not the whole editing part (that would be madness!). I did this back in 2017 and completed the challenge which led to The Inevitables . I tried it again in 2018, but I quickly fell off and didn't even go past a week. I decided to take it more seriously like I did for this year and this is what happened...Drum roll.... I didn't finish. I don't like admitting it, but I didn't make it to 50,000 words. BUT I still see it as a win. A couple of months ago, I got a huge dose of inspiration and I wanted to share it with the world. I used that inspiration to sta

One of my   favorite   movies of all time is Howl's   Moving   Castle. It is definitely my top   favorite   Studio Ghibli film tying in with Spirited Away. I always knew Howl's Moving Castle was a book before it was a movie, but I never got around to reading mainly because I knew that it was going to be different from the movie. With my last coupon for Half Price Books, I decided why not? I read the Phantom of the Opera book, how much different could that be? Here is my full book review of Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. A Little Bit About the Author Diana Wynne Jones was known throughout her career as a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic and short story writer. She focused more on fantasy and speculative fiction for children and young adults throughout her writing career. Jones started her writing career in the mid-60's to, as she puts it, "mostly keep my sanity." (isn't that why we all write?) Her first book was an adul