Reading....do you?? What do you??

Recently I have re-discovered my LOVE for reading. At first it was just a way to busy my mind to keep me from thinking about all of the troubles that were at hand and also to help me from being sad.  It worked, VERY WELL in fact.  I started first by reading and re-reading books by my favorite authors.  Then some of those authors were releasing new books. And they referred some of their favorites on their social media sites (or even mentioned what they were currently reading).  So I ventured and started branching out for more authors.  

Then I started getting GREAT book recommendations from my friends of books that I had not already read.  Before when I would get a recommendation I had already read it, but now I was hearing of new books and authors I was not familiar with.  YAY!!   

I started a list of some of my favorite authors, please keep in mind this is no where near a complete list a all of what I'm reading.  Recently on of my good friends I'll just call her "E" she invited me to a group on Facebook and we affectionately call ourselves "book junkies".  I personally only know a few people in this group but it is like we are all best friends and we are a chattering, giggling book club.  Minus the physical presence.  It's an amazing group of people.  I'm so blessed to be a part of them and they have helped me in more ways than I can possibly express. I owe them so much.

Now, I used to only read journal like and auto biographical books or even branch out to Harry Potter books.  Well I've since branched out too all TYPES of books. Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Romance, Non-Fiction, (not a fan of horror; so I'm staying away from that) Sci-Fi.  

My favorite I've found are the one written realistically.  Even fantasy (but only if it's realistic), does that make sense?  Also I prefer the current time period or around the current time period to see how accurate the author is or if he/she takes artistic license with the period.  However I love a very accurate and detailed period book.  If want to feel as if I'm there. I get that so well with some of the new authors I have been referred to by my friends and now I'm anxiously awaiting sooooo many sequels that I'm going CRAZY.

I'm currently re-reading a few books I've already read as I'm awaiting sequels so I want the stories to stay fresh in my mind, but like I just said this makes me all the more anxious about the next part of the story and my imagination going wild with what I would do and how I might write the story if I was the author.

Do you like reading??  Even if you don't like it as much as I do that is totally cool....what do you like to read??  Tell me I would love to know.  

Wanna be a Whale or a Mermaid???

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:

"Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.
They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia.
They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.

Mermaids do not exist.

But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?
They would have no sex life and could not bear children.
Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.
And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?

Without a doubt, I'd rather be a whale.

At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn't enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.
We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.
Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: "How amazing am I ?! "

(The girl on the picture is French model Tara Lynn)

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huge THANKS to Andrea Neuman who posted this for me to see and share with you all.