I recently found this wonderful and delightful blog, “Mandy’s Escape” that I have been following for a few weeks.  So this morning, with coffee mug in hand and scrolling through my google reader of “Blogs I Follow”, I saw that she had posted that she has just received her first award.  You could feel her excitement in what she wrote.  I remember how I felt when I received my first award, so I clicked on her site with the intentions of congratulating her.  It was the first time seeing this particular award, so I read everything she had written due to the criteria.  And then…..WHAM…was I seeing things…I knew it was only my 1st cup of coffee so had to reread it again!!!  She was passing it on to me!!!  What a total surprise!!!  I felt the excitement as I did the first time I received an award and have felt with every single one since.  If you haven’t visited Mandy at Mandy’s Escape, I am sure that if you do, you will be following her too.  So stop by, say hi and see why I now follow her.  Mandy…thank you so very much!!!!!!  This is the award that she has presented me with:

1. If you blog anonymously are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?

When I stumbled upon a book blog back in Sept/Oct, I created my blog to be a private personal journal of books I had read.  But the more I visited different blogs, I wanted to join in on the fun.  So went public in December. And glad I did!!!  I enjoy every minute of it and have met the nicest people. 
2.Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side.
Not sure if this constitutes my “inner stubborn side” but when I decided to enter this blogging/reviewing community, I pledged to myself to be honest and credible even if it meant not agreeing with the majority of reviews.  But then, I think that is one of the great thing about this neighborhood, is that we can disagree.
3.What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?
A 20, 40, #year old who is now an empty nester, proud of the way my boys turned out but wonder where the years went.  And hopefully a kind, caring, honest person.
4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?
A Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee
5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?
Read!!! or blog.
6.Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?
To be a grandmother and spoil the grandchildren rotten, then send them home with my boys.  LOL Payback is a B____!  Travel with hubby.
7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever , the shy person, or always ditching?
I was just your above average everyday student.  I do remember from elementary school through high school, that along with my text books I always had my personal current read with me at all times.  However, in college, reading for pleasure took a back seat.
8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment of your life what would you see? The birth of my first child.
The birth of our 2 sons.  Seems like yesterday!
9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?
I feel that my personality comes through in the way I blog.  I am willing to share some personal information but not all.
10. If you had the choice to sit down and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?
It would depend on my mood.  I can be a chatterbox at times and other times, just want to get lost in a book.
Now I will pass this award on.  Because I could sense out excited Mandy was when she received this award, I have decided to pass this on to new bloggers and they are (in no particular order)

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Published by Doubleday
ISBN 978-0-385-50112-5
At the request of Doubleday, a HC was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from book’s jacket): On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games, and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift, she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice.
  She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother-her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother-tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose. Anything can be revealed at any meal. She can’t eat her brother Joseph’s toast, a cookie tat the local bakery is laced with rage, grape jelly is packed with acidic resentment.
  Rose’s gift forces her to confront the secret knowledge all families keep hidden-truths about her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s strange detachment, Joseph’s clash with the world.
  Yet as Rose grows up she realizes there are some secrets that even her taste buds cannot discern.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Before I started reading this book, I had read reviews from one end of the spectrum to the other. I went into it with an open mind and high hopes that I would enjoy it. Instead, I found myself not wanting to pick it up and continue reading. I thought it was me and I was experiencing a reading slump. But I forced myself to continue reading and it wasn’t a slump, it was the book. The following is my opinion and my opinion only. Others may disagree. I had read 100+ pages and can honestly say, I did not like anything about the book, the premise of the story line, the author’s writing style nor the characters. In all my years of reading, I have never seen this type of writing, there was not one quotation mark in the 100+ pages I read and it was elementary at best. Unfortunately, I had to put this book aside and move on.
  My Rating: 1

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Published by Doubleday
ISBN 978-0-385-50112-5
At the request of Doubleday, a HC was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from book’s jacket): On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games, and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift, she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice.
  She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother-her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother-tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose. Anything can be revealed at any meal. She can’t eat her brother Joseph’s toast, a cookie tat the local bakery is laced with rage, grape jelly is packed with acidic resentment.
  Rose’s gift forces her to confront the secret knowledge all families keep hidden-truths about her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s strange detachment, Joseph’s clash with the world.
  Yet as Rose grows up she realizes there are some secrets that even her taste buds cannot discern.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Before I started reading this book, I had read reviews from one end of the spectrum to the other. I went into it with an open mind and high hopes that I would enjoy it. Instead, I found myself not wanting to pick it up and continue reading. I thought it was me and I was experiencing a reading slump. But I forced myself to continue reading and it wasn’t a slump, it was the book. The following is my opinion and my opinion only. Others may disagree. I had read 100+ pages and can honestly say, I did not like anything about the book, the premise of the story line, the author’s writing style nor the characters. In all my years of reading, I have never seen this type of writing, there was not one quotation mark in the 100+ pages I read and it was elementary at best. Unfortunately, I had to put this book aside and move on.
  My Rating: 1

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
*Grab your current read
*Open to a random page
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
*Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

“That was you? You could have been arrested for calling in a bomb threat. That’s a federal offense.”