Concert Katie

the same song over and over again

Book Review

Book Review: Song of My Heart

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Song of My Heart by  Kim Vogel Sawyer is about Sadie Wagner.  When her (step)Papa is injured and unable to work, Sadie must help out the family.  Sadie’s cousin Sid says that if she moves from Indiana to Kansas he can get her a job as a store clerk and also possibly singing at the opera house.  Sadie’s parents agree to let her move to Kansas to work and be able to help take care of the family.

When she arrives, it seems like almost immediately there is a bit of a love triangle going on.   The sheriff, Thad, is into Sadie and it turns out the her cousin Sid, would also like to be her beau. (Sid is related through Sadie’s step father, so they are not cousins by blood.)  Sadie of course wants to be with Thad and not her cousin, but the two keep trying to get her to fall for him.

Meanwhile, Asa, the boss at the opera house (which is actually just a basement) wants Sadie to sing Tuesdays in addition to the Friday and Saturday she’s already been singing.  This is supposed to be on the hush-hush and only certain men from the town will be allowed.  This is because Asa has a bootleg operation going making alcohol and running a gambling operation while Sadie performs.  Sid is also involved as he is delivering alcohol for Asa, but since it is in bottles that say it is other kind of merchandise, he has no clue.

The story gets really good more towards the end with the love triangle, bootlegging and all that coming to a head and Thad catching Sadie and Sid transporting what they thought to be molasses but is actually alcohol.

You’ll have to check out the book for yourself to find out how it all turns out!

I received a free copy of this book from BethanyHouse in order to write this review.

About the Book

Sadie Wagner has always been devoted to her family. So when her stepfather is injured and can’t work, she decides to leave home and accept a position as a clerk at the mercantile in Goldtree, Kansas. Goldtree also offers the opportunity to use her God-given singing talen – though the promised opera house is far different from what she imagined. With her family needing every cent she can provide, Sadie will do anything to keep her job.

Thad McKane comes to Goldtree to investigate reports of a bootlegging operation. Once he earns enough money from the sheriff work, he plans to use it to pay for his training to become a minister.

Thad is immediately drawn to the lovely young singer who performs in Asa Baxter’s unusual opera house. But when he hears her practicing bawdy tunes, he wonders if she’s far less innnocent than she seems. And when Sadie appears to be part of the very crimes That has come to investigate, is there any hope the love blossoming between them will survive?

Book Review

Book Review: Give Death a Chance

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I have to say that this is one of the strangest books I have EVER read.  It’s also a sequel, but I don’t think that not having read the first book was the reason that made it so strange.  This book is about the Beatles.  3 of them are Zombies (Paul, John and George) and 1 of them in a Ninja (Ringo).  They are on tour with a writer and he is the author of the book.

It is a short book coming in at only 78 pages, but I think that was 78 pages too long.  I was also confused as to why Paul was also a Zombie, when he is not one of the dead members of the band.  BUt perhaps that is explained in the first book – which is called Paul is Undead.

At one point my mom even asked me what I was reading. When I explained that it was a strange Zombie book and that the Beatles were trying to kill Justin Timberlake… she asked me “well then why are you still reading it?” and I really don’t know why I continued through it.  I try to finish all my review books though, on the off chance that after a couple chapters it will somehow redeem itself.  This one never did.

I guess if you are into the whole Zombie trend that seems to be going on, you may be more interested in it than I was.  It was humorous, but just incredibly strange.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review.

 

About the Book

It’s 2009, and Zombie John, Zombie Paul, Zombie George, and Ninja Ringo are poised to show the United States the true meaning of Beatlemania. During their first American tour since 1966, they throw down with supergenius supervillian Justin Timberlake, get abused by scantily-clad chanteuse Madonna, do some dreadful things to wannabe Zombies Noel and Liam Gallagher, possibly behead Eminem, and take on Lady Gaga’s “Little Monsters”, all in the name of climbing to the Toppermost of the Poppermost. In the hilarious, gory sequel to the critically acclaimed mashup, Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion, author Alan Goldsher is the road manager and appointed scribe for the Poppermost Over America Tour, insanely crisscrossing America in a foul-smelling van packed with three short-tempered, power-mad English Zombies and one frustrated Ninja drummer. Throughout the mayhem of the brains-fueled tour, Goldsher finds out what it really means to Meet the Beatles, and answers the oft-asked question on the lips of every Fab Four fan, “What does Liverpudlian Zombie breath smell like from two inches away?”

American Idol Television

Idol Top 5!

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This week we have 2 themes – 60s and Brit Pop! Could turn out to be a pretty exciting week.  The mentor this week was Little Steven.

Hollie – River Deep Mountain High – A great performance from Hollie to start the night off!

Phillip – The Letter – I really didnt like this version at all. Once again he’s too Dave Matthews which is what is really turning me off to him.

Skylar – Fortunate Son – I wasn’t really into this performance either. Great energy, but I dont know, it seemed to be missing something,

Joshua & Phillip – You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling – Weird combo for a duet, but somehow it actually kind of worked.

Jessica – Proud Mary – Still not a fan of Jessica. Decent performance but im not sure why she had to wear shoes that she could barely walk in.

Joshua – Ain’t Too Proud to Beg – Still completely in love with Joshua. (PS Ryan its a daffodil not a tulip)

Hollie – Bleeding Love – Another great performance from Hollie. Good for her because I thought she might be in danger of going home before the show started.

Phillip – Time Of The Season – Decent performance but I feel like he is on his decline. Which is a shame because I thought he could have won it.

Jessica, Hollie & Skylar – Higher & Higher – Cute performance.

Skylar – You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me – Way better than her first performance. Great!  But I agree with Randy that the people on the bench were weird.

Jessica – You Are So Beautiful – We had 2 didn’t likes and 1 like in the living room  on this one.  I was in the dislike group and I am hoping Jessica is the one to go home…

Joshua – To Love Somebody – SO. AWE. SOME. Can we crown him the winner right now? I mean, really. He’s fantastic.

—

Bottom 3: Im not picking because I stink at this…

Going Home: Jessica

—

Well, Jessica sneaks by again… with Hollie and Skylar in the bottom 2.

And SKYLAR goes home. W. T. F.

American Idol Book Review

Book Review: By Faith, Not By Sight

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I was first introduced to Scott MacIntyre when he auditioned for American Idol back in 2009.  (He was a finalist the year Kris Allen won the title.)  When I heard that he was releasing a book, I knew that I had to check it out.

The book talks about his life and doesn’t really focus all that much on his Idol journey.  As a child, he was a bit of a musical prodigy, with perfect pitch he would listen to songs and memorize them in order to play them. Being blind, he couldn’t read sheet music so he of course had to find a different way.

At age 6 and 7, he was playing piano and performing at weddings! He was homeschooled and ended up graduating from college at age 19.  When he was getting ready to get his Masters at Cambridge in London, everything seemed to be going wrong in his life.  Told he was in at school, he received a rejection letter instead and on his graduation day he found out that he was in stage 4 kidney failure.

But he didn’t let that stop him! He worked out a new plan to go to London for school and got the OK from his doctors to go out there despite the kidney issues.

But his condition got worse and worse even though they had hoped it would just go away (no one could figure out the cause of it) and he needed to undergo emergency dialysis surgery and then needed to get a kidney transplant.  Since he could be on the transplant list for years, doctors suggested he find a live donor.  Many volunteered and he ultimately got a transplant.

Then he and his siblings decided to audition for Idol.  First they auditioned in San Francisco, with none of them making it through.  Even though they were rejected the first time, they decided to try again in Arizona.  This time all 3 of them made it through, but ultimately only Scott made it through later rounds to make it in front of the judges.

While Scott was having the experience of a lifetime participating on Idol – as the first disabled contestant – his younger sister Katelyn was sick.  It turned out that her kidney was also failing and she would need a transplant.  The family hoped that they could find a live donor and not have Katelyn need to go on dialysis like Scott had.

Throughout the book Scott mentions that his dream was always to go on tour and perform in arenas.  American Idol made  that dream come true for him, against the odds.

This was a great book and I really didn’t know the details of his life beyond what we were showed on Idol.  It was a quick read too – I had no problem reading it in about half a day! I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a great Faith based book or anyone who is an Idol fan!

Book Description

A moving story of hope, faith, persistence and the power of dreams.

A piano prodigy, a nineteen-year-old college grad, a Marshall scholar, and an American Idol finalist. This guy had it made. He could sing.

He could ski blind. What couldn’t he do?

Even if you saw him in concert, you might not believe that Scott MacIntyre is blind, and you’d never guess that at nineteen, he faced a diagnosis that rocked his family and nearly took his life.

So how did he do it? How did he overcome the odds?

This is Scott’s story, but he’d be the first to tell you that it’s not really about him. This is the story of how God used a dedicated family, a selfless acquaintance, hardship, and a host of characters to give him life, faith, determination, and experiences most can only imagine.

Peek behind the scenes to see how he learned to overcome his disability, how he made it in the music industry, how he found the love of his life, and how God taught him that in all things, we can truly achieve our dreams By Faith, Not by Sight.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Television

The Voice Semi-Finals

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We are down to the top 8! I can’t believe that the show is going to be over so soon – especially when earlier rounds were dragging and I thought the show would never end! After Tuesday night each team will have just ONE member left!

Tony (Team Adam) – How You Like Me Now – I looove this song. And I obviously love Tony and want him to win.

Erin (Team Blake)- Without You – Definitely an interesting take on this song but I really liked it.

Chris (Team Christina) – Ave Maria – Perfect song choice for him. Glad he is being true to himself and not conforming to popular stuff.

Jamar (Team CeeLo)-If You Dont Know Me By Now  – Not sure I liked the arrangement of this song

Jermaine (Team Blake) – Open Arms – Wasn’t totally into his performance, but it was good except for a few spots.

Katrina (Team Adam) – Killing Me Softly – Great performance (though her wardrobe choices are questionable. Not so much on this performance but on the group number…)

Lindsay (Team Christina) – Skinny Love –  I couldn’t really get into this at all…

Juliet – (Team CeeLo) – Its a Mans World – Juliet is good. This is probably one of the harder choices for who will go through on a team!

Who I think will make it to the finals:

Team Adam: Tony
Team Blake: Jermaine
Team Christina: Chris
Team CeeLo: Juliet

—

Finalists advancing:

Team Christina – 104 to 96 – Chris

Team Adam – 108 to 92 – Tony

Team Blake – 123 to 77 – Jermaine

Team CeeLo – 121 to 79 Juliet

 

And yes… I will be gifting 9 copies of Tony’s song next week so be sure to keep an eye on my twitter and facebook accounts on Monday night where I’ll let you know where to send the email and what the subject should be to get gifted a copy!

American Idol Photos

Casey James at the Cadillac Ranch

Katie 6 Comments

Sunday afternoon, the Cadillac Ranch in Southington, CT celebrated their 20th anniversary with Casey James as the headliner.  Since the country genre generally isn’t “my thing”, this was certainly one of the more interesting shows I have been to in a while.  Doors opened at 3pm (where we had to pay $10 instead of the advertised $5!!) and from 3-4:30 everyone danced. Line danced and couple danced and whatever else it might be called.  I was beginning to think that the show wasn’t going to end up being as early as I had thought, but at 4:30 the first band Little House, took the stage.  But then they played one of their songs over the PA and everyone danced while the band stood on stage and watched!

After Little House was Kiley Evans.  I always know when I am super excited for the headliner when the opening acts set feels like it goes on for 100 years.  This was one of those times. Kiely was good, but I really wanted to see Casey.  Kiley is from Massachusetts and is currently supporting her latest single “One More Spin Around” which will be availble on iTunes in early May.  You can find out more about her at her official website: http://kileyevans.com/

Then it was finally time for Casey!  He had a full band with him this time and was just freaking AWESOME.  At times I was unable to see because of the positioning of my chair – but it didn’t even matter because he sounded great.  However his stage banter kind of made it seem he wasn’t all that sure of himself and he kept making jabs at himself.  At one point he said that our listening faces looked like this – and then made a kind of mean face and he was wondering if it was maybe something he did or if he should sing on key. Another comment he made was that he sounded much better after people had been drinking.  Casey – I didn’t have anything to drink and you sounded wonderful to me so don’t sell yourself short!

His set was 13 songs – made up mostly of songs from his current album which came out last month.  He also did some covers as well – Tab Benoit’s So High, Long Tall Texan and Polk Salad Annie.  The last cover was also his last song and for 5 minutes (or more, maybe, I didn’t exactly time it) him and the band just jammed. It was incredible!

He talked a bit  about his life – he is almost 30 and for a long time was playing bars in Texas and a lot of times everyone had their backs to him so it was nice that now people were facing forward.  He talked a bit about how he went on a TV show and didn’t even have a TV and he didn’t think he would make it this far but he did and now has a record deal.  He also joked about how if you follow him you know he only has about 7 shirts (the guys next to me thought that this was a terrible idea for a pick up line) and how they had shrunk in the wash so he had his sleeves rolled up because they didn’t come down as far as they had used to and he is very particular about what he wears.

Casey is really just a phenomenal talent – both with singing and guitar playing and he was saying how he was about done with his first single and it was quite possible we’d never hear from him again!  I certainly hope that is not the case because he is definitely one of my favorite Idol contestants and I would love to see him do really, really well and I think he deserves that.

I didn’t hang around to see if he came out to meet anyone after the show as by the time his set was over it was 7pm and I wanted to get home.

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Book Review

Book Review: Is This The One?

Katie 0 Comments

It has been roughly 10 years since I’ve been on a date.  I’ve always been too focused on my school work to bother with dating and then once I started working I was too busy with everything else to find time for it.  Maybe, it’s time to get back to looking for someone to date. (Although part of me is saying “nahhh”.)

Is This The One? is “insightful dates for finding the love of your life.” The book is by Steve Arterburn and includes some tips that I think might be helpful and others I am not sure if I am going to use (but who knows).  For instance – he suggest that when you think you are dating someone that you really like – take a break and date 10 other people to make sure that they really are the one.  This seems a bit ridiculous to me – and he also said that he dated TWENTY people. I’ve always been told “when you know, you know” so I’m not sure why I would need to go and find 10 other guys to prove this to me.

Also included in the book are “themes” for dates.  Different things you can do together to learn more about each other and dates for pretty much every holiday. Some of them seemed like they could work. Others, not so much. (A camping date? I don’t think so!)  As well as some “red flags” on what type of people you might want to avoid because they might not be the best relationship material. (I am pretty sure I could read advice like this until the cows come home and I will still pick the worst guys ever to date.  Maybe this is MORE of the reason why I haven’t been on a date in 10 years)

But if you are looking for ways to make your dating life a bit more interesting and also knowing things you should think about before you make the commitment to someone else to marry them until death do you part… you might want to check out Is This The One?

I received a free review e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

In Is This the One?, Steve Arterburn-an award-winning author and the founder and chairman of New Life Ministries, the largest faith-based broadcast counseling and treatment ministry-has created a “how to” plan for happier, stronger marriages. He contends that living in a “no regrets” relationship can be as simple following this spiritually solid and personally drawn plan before the first “I do” is even spoken. Host of the number one Christian radio broadcast, “New Life Live!,” Arterburn draws a painfully personal portrait of the devastation divorce has on a family. Rather than aiming at marriages already in jeopardy, Arterburn focuses attention on the beginning of relationships-before the commitment, before the emotional investment, before the children. He prescribes three sets of ten carefully devised dates designed to help couples reveal their true colors and clarify whether or not they are a compatible match. This practical, personal, and positive plan can impact marriages-and ground the skyrocketing divorce rate-as no other book has. Is This the One? is a must read for engaged or dating couples, happy singles, concerned parents, and anyone who wants to make better decisions about who to marry and who to leave behind.

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