MK French's Year End Round-up #MondayBlogs

by MK French

I have always been a voracious reader, and the sheer quantity of reviews here definitely speaks to that! This has been a great opportunity to read wonderful books and let you know about them, so collecting a few highlights for the year might also help you pick out some books to give as gifts to someone else or yourself. Books always make great gifts, right? Right.

Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs by Kelly Klober ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

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It's Monday! What are you reading? You probably didn't know I was a pig person. I'm reading Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs by Kelly Klober. #bookstagram #pigs #farming #Reading

A post shared by Donna (@girl_who_reads) on Dec 3, 2018 at 5:23pm PST

This is not a book we normally review on Girl Who Reads, but what you may not know is that I was once a hog farmer. It was my 4-H/FFA project starting when I was 13 (my parents had farmed when I was really little but we weren't currently farming). By the time I graduated high school I had a herd of 18 hogs though through the years I had many more between the show markets that I bought and the feeder pigs bred and I sold to consumers. Earlier this year I joined a local chapter of the National Ladies Homestead Gathering. So when I saw Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs on Netgalley I thought it would be interesting to see what was currently going on in the swine world.

What Can You Do to Help Your Favorite Authors?

by Susan Roberts

Did you know that most authors are NOT rich?  In fact, most make less than $10,000 a year.  We hear a lot about the rich authors - 

• JK Rowling made $95 million dollars last year
• Stephen King averages $40 million a year
• Nora Roberts made $23 million last year
• James Patterson is worth $310 million

But other than a small percentage of rich authors, most authors treat their writing like a small business and many of them work full-time jobs and write when they can find the time.

Scath Oran by Stacy Overby ~ a Review

by MK French

This is a poetry collection inspired by faeries and oral traditions within mythology. The book blurb says that the poems are taken from the halls of Tír na nÓg; this lets you know right off the bat that the mythology is heavily Celtic inspired. A few mention Norse creatures, but there's enough historical and geographical overlap that it makes sense there's a little influence. It might help to know the different kinds of fae mentioned in the poems, but it's hardly necessary. There is enough emotion and imagery that the reader will know the intent of the pieces.

For Better and Worse by Margot Hunt ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

"Till Death do Us Part"

'I doubt it would be easy to take a life.  But I think if you had to - I mean if we had to - We could absolutely get away with it.'

This is an addictive page-turner that will have you clearing your calendar and staying home to read. It presents a clear dilemma - how far would a parent go to punish someone who has hurt their child? Would a parent plan to murder the person that abused their child? Would they????? Would you???

Tomorrow, When the War Began: Review #Survival #Australia #TeenLit

by Alison DeLuca

I stumbled across Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden on Twitter. One of the reading blogs I follow suggested it as a great read. Since I never have enough teen lit in my life, I picked up the book and was instantly fascinated.