Luz Sees the Light [Book Review and Giveaway]

There are BIG Happenings in this post!!


It's my first giveaway of the year!

It's also my first video post of the year!

If you are interested in a fun graphic novel with a positive message associated with it, then you simply must check out Luz Sees the Lightby Claudia Dávila. This is a fantastic book for upper elementary and middle grade kids, but this post isn't about me writing about a book. Let me just tell you about it:



So what do you think? Sounds awesome, no?

Here's the link to the guest post I wrote in December for Brenna over at the super awesome green living blog Almost All the Truth: Comic Books for Your Green Family.

There are five different ways you can enter the giveaway. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to join in the giveaway madness!

I Think I Have a Resolution Solution

When I first starting blogging regularly it was at my blog Searching for Sustenance where I blogged all about food. It was a passion, obsession and I felt I was on a mission. I needed a bit of a break, but when the new year rolled around and the news, the Internet and the world seemed to be obsessed about all of the weight-loss tricks that could be offered, the foodie in me starting clawing at me to be heard again. So, today, I posted to Searching for Sustenance and want to share the post with you if you feel so inclined.

New Year, New Body, New Technique

I know what's going on this week.

It's weight loss time!

The gyms are packed (my brother, a gym rat by nature, hates this time of year).
The diets are started.
The promises made.
Everyone is being so good.... Everyone is being so healthy...

Please try something new!

Or are they?

What's your plan? Is it the same as last year? Is it your "faithful routine" you fall back on whenever you need to shed some pounds that "works for you every time"?

I have a suggestion. In fact, it is a plea.
I want you to try something new this year.
I want you to truly look out for your health.
I want you to break this cycle, I want you to feel better and I want you to start off 2013 thinking about SOMETHING ELSE!!

This is no quick fix, but I believe it is worth the investment of your time.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

The following post is taken directly from my hand-printed Reader's Journal. I will be sharing these reflections each week on the Rivera Runs Through It blog. The date at the end of each post is the date of the original writing, which is typically the date I completed the book. The reflections are short, but represent my initial reactions to a book, a brief summary of the book or the questions it raised for me at the time. I hope you enjoy this segment in my blog and feel free to comment on what you read here.

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
I had no idea that Winnie-the-Pooh was such an idiot! I never was a big fan of th cartoons, but after reading this book I truly fail to see any allure this character has. Yes, he is cute in a dopey way, but I don't think a child can follow the confusing merry-go-round dialogue that takes place between the often befuddled characters. Maybe I'm being too harsh, maybe I'll give it another try some day... who knows?

Dated: 08/19/02

As I was reading this entry before typing it up here all I keep thinking was, "Whoa! Why are you being so harsh, Nicole? You NEED to give this book another try!" I was so happy to find that final line thrown in there.


Have you ever reread a book after not liking it? If so, what was the outcome? If not, what stayed your hand?

What If #20 [Writing Prompt]

What if #20:

What if you could speak to your pets for one full day?

Buffy, please get off the computer. We need to talk.

I spend a lot of time with my pets. Today my husband will go back to work and it will be me, the dogs and the gecko again. I talk to them all of the time, but they really don't understand me (most of the time). I'd love to have one full day- 24 hours - of conversations with my pets. This is not because I'm bored it is, instead, because they need to know some really important things. I'd also love to know what's on their mind.

So, in response to this prompt this week I am going to write a post about what I would say given the opportunity to finally communicate.

What about you? What would you say to your pets given the opportunity? What would you hope to hear from them?

Write up your own blog post and link it up below. I can't wait to read your responses!!

Each week the Rivera Runs Through It blog presents a different "What If...?" question for you to explore.
Link up your own post about this week's question. If you have arrived at this post and the inlinkz tool is closed, or you don't have a blog, then please leave your response (or link) in the comment section below using DISQUS.

For a list of all of the What if questions asked so far, 

see The What If Prompts

What Was Your First Book Love?

Book Love

Book love is something like romantic love. When we are reading a really good book, burdens seem lighter, cares seem smaller, and commonplaces are suddenly delightful. You become your best optimistic self. Like romantic love, book love fills you with a certain warmth and completeness. The world holds promise. The atmosphere is clearer and brighter, a beckoning wind blows your hair.

But while romantic love can be fleeting, book love can last. (page 7,The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life)

You've had this feeling, all readers have. It's that book you can't put down, the story that swallows your consciousness whole and sweeps you out of your reality. It doesn't have to be a work of fiction that takes you there and it happens (hopefully) multiple times in a reader's life. There's nothing quite like being in book love... when you have it and reach the end of the tale, you long for more, ever on a quest for the next great love of your reader's soul.

How It Can Happen
 
It is our first true book love that made us readers. For some lucky people they experienced their first book love in their childhood - perhaps being read aloud to or through the pages of one of their very own first picture books. The scholarly books introduced in school helped some students feel book love for the first time, while other students, perhaps in the very same classrooms, first fell for the comic book they hid in between their schoolbook pages. And, of course, large groups of people didn't find their first book love until their formal education was far behind them.

How DID It Happen?
 
Which one are you?

Which book first captured you so completely that you longed to search for more?

I have discovered mine and that has caused me to become increasingly curious about everyone else's! I would like to do a recurring segment on Rivera Runs Through It about first book loves and I'm inviting you to participate. If you remember your first love and want to share your story, please e-mail me at blogwithnv@gmail.com so I can set up an interview with you!

Some Questions to Ponder

Here are just some of my curiosities about your first book love:

• How did you find the book? 
• When/where did you read it? 
• Have you ever re-read it? 
• What do you think first drew you in - the genre? the writing? the art? something else?
• How did you feel about reading before reading this book?
• Do you recommend the book to others?
• How easy/difficult has it been for you to fall in "book love" again since that book?

...other book-related and reading related questions.

I hope to hear from you. I also hope you are having a wonderful New Year so far and that you are in book love right now. If not, put down whatever you are reading, and go find something that wakes your soul.