Audiobook Review: The Magnolia Story

Read by Chip and Joanna Gaines
Length: 5 hours

Are you ready to see your fixer upper?

These famous words are now synonymous with the dynamic husband-and-wife team Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of HGTV’s Fixer Upper. As this question fills the airwaves with anticipation, their legions of fans continue to multiply and ask a different series of questions, like—Who are these people?What’s the secret to their success? And is Chip actually that funny in real life? By renovating homes in Waco, Texas, and changing lives in such a winsome and engaging way, Chip and Joanna have become more than just the stars of Fixer Upper, they have become America’s new best friends.

The Magnolia Story is the first book from Chip and Joanna, offering their fans a detailed look at their life together. From the very first renovation project they ever tackled together, to the project that nearly cost them everything; from the childhood memories that shaped them, to the twists and turns that led them to the life they share on the farm today.
They both attended Baylor University in Waco. However, their paths did not cross until Chip checked his car into the local Firestone tire shop where Joanna worked behind the counter. Even back then Chip was a serial entrepreneur who, among other things, ran a lawn care company, sold fireworks, and flipped houses. Soon they were married and living in their first fixer upper. Four children and countless renovations later, Joanna garners the attention of a television producer who notices her work on a blog one day.

In The Magnolia Story fans will finally get to join the Gaines behind the scenes and discover:

-The time Chip ran to the grocery store and forgot to take their new, sleeping baby -Joanna’s agonizing decision to close her dream business to focus on raising their children -When Chip buys a houseboat, sight-unseen, and it turns out to be a leaky wreck -Joanna’s breakthrough moment of discovering the secret to creating a beautiful home -Harrowing stories of the financial ups and downs as an entrepreneurial couple -Memories and photos from Chip and Jo’s wedding -The significance of the word magnolia and why it permeates everything they do -The way the couple pays the popularity of Fixer Upper forward, sharing the success with others, and bolstering the city of Waco along the way

And yet there is still one lingering question for fans of the show: Is Chip really that funny? “Oh yeah,” says Joanna. “He was, and still is, my first fixer upper.”

Goodreads

Bout of Books #26

Yay! It's that time and I really need to do this. It is pathetic how little have read this year, let alone how little I have written reviews. My goal for this read-a-thon is not only read, but to write my reviews as well. Wish me good luck!

Here's a blurb about the read-a-thon:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 26 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Want to join, click here.

Can't wait to see what everyone else reading this week!

HAPPY READING!!!  

Surviving (Literally)

Hello Readers,

I know, I know...I sound like a broken record when I say that I was busy and that I'm going to start blogging again. But I promise...So much has happened since my last post. 

First off, I got married. :)
I had a Literature themed wedding so I'll be creating a  separate post showing all the wonderful book themed items in my wedding. 

Review: Lincoln in the Bardo

Very slow start but I at least finished one book this year!

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy’s body.

From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory, where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.

Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices—living and dead, historical and invented—to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?

Goodreads

Little Free Library Adventures #7

Hello, everyone!
I'm here to share with you a recent Little Free Library adventure that I had while taking a stroll nearby. The first one was in La Habra.

This was a simple library in a corner near an elementary school. It was filled with both adult books and a few children's books. 

New Year, New...

Hello friends!

It has been a very, very long time since I've blogged. Please forgive me.
So much has happened in my personal life that prevented me from blogging and simply reading. 
And I mean so much!

First off...

Review: Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

Charged with sensuality and passion, Pablo Neruda's love poems are the most celebrated of the Nobel Prize winner's oeuvre, captivating readers with earthbound images and reveling in a fiery re-imagining of the world. Mostly written on the island paradise of Capri (the idyllic setting of the Oscar-winning movie Il Postino), Love Poems embraces the seascapes surrounding the poet and his love Matilde Urrutia, their waves and shores saturated with a new, yearning eroticism.

And when you appear

all the rivers sound

in my body, bells

shake the sky,

and a hymn fills the world.
Goodreads