Friday, July 3, 2015

Book Blogger Hop: July 3rd - 9th

Book Blogger Hop

Welcome to the new Book Blogger Hop!

If you want schedule next week's post, click here to find the next prompt question. To submit a question, fill out this form.

What to do:

1. Post on your blog answering this question:

  This week's question is submitted by Elizabeth!

Do you lend your books out to friends and family?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
  

My Answer: 


   I use to let an elderly friend borrow books, but her eyes are failing her, so she's no longer interested in reading.
Linky List:

Blu-ray Review: Maggie


 

Maggie
Director: Henry Hobson
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson
Studio: LionsGate Home Entertainment
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Retail: $12.99
ASIN: B00XI057UM
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Buy Link: Amazon

Arriving on Blu-ray this coming Tuesday, July 7, 2015 is the post-apocalyptic drama film Maggie. Directed by Henry Hobson, the film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator Genysis), Abigail Breslin (Zombieland) and Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck). Special Features include: Director's Commentary, "Making Maggie" Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Cast/Crew Interviews and a Trailer Gallery.

In a role that is a complete opposite of his action-flicks, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Wade, a father who retrieves his daughter Maggie (played by Abigail Breslin) from a hospital in the city. Maggie has been infected with the Necroambulist virus that slowly turns people into flesh-eating zombies. Against the doctor's orders, Wade takes Maggie back home to their farmhouse. Fearing they'll be infected too, he sends Maggie's step-siblings, Bobby and Molly (played by Aidan and Carsen Flowers) to live with their aunt while Maggie spends her last days at home with him and her stepmother Caroline (played by Joely Richardson).

Abigail Breslin ("Maggie") and Arnold Schwarzenegger ("Wade") star in Lionsgate Home Entertainment's MAGGIE.

While Maggie tries to live a normal life by reconnecting with her friends, the virus is slowly getting stronger and she knows eventually it'll take over her. Wade loves his daughter, but he doesn't want her to suffer. He has two choices - let her take the government cocktail, which is a painful death or take matters into his own hands and help end her suffering.


Thursday, July 2, 2015

Maximum Power Review



If you're a male and over 30, like me, you might have a hard time gaining muscle and losing body fat as most likely your testosterone has started to decrease. While you can go to a doctor and get a prescription, it can be a bit costly and you're taking a risk of exposing yourself to unwanted side effects. Luckily for us there are many dietary supplements that work as a testosterone booster.

For the past few weeks, I've been taking two capsules of Maximum Power by Core Vitality daily. The supplement is manufactured in a  state-of-the-art GMP and FDA approved facility.

It has a mixture of Tongkat Ali, Maca (0.6% extract) L-Arginne and Ginseng Blend as well as 745mg of Core Vitality's proprietary blend. 

The Proprietary Blend contains Sarsparilla, Pumpkin Seed Powder, Muira Puama Powder, Oat Straw, Nettle, Caynne Pepper, Astragalus, Catuaba Bark Powder, Licorice, Tribulus Terrestris, Orchid, Oyster Extract and Boron.


Blu-ray Review: Fire Birds


Fire Birds
Director: David Green
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones, Sean Young
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Retail: $14.98
ASIN: B00WV7TN80
Running Time: 91 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on Blu-ray for the first time is the 1990 action-film Fire Birds. Directed by David Green, the film stars Nicholas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones and Sean Young. There are no extras or special features on the single-disc.

Originally released under Disney's Touchstone Pictures label in 1990, the film received negative reviews from critics, all of which compared the storyline to 1985's Top Gun. It didn't do very well with moviegoers at the time, grossing under $15-million before being pulled from theaters after only three weeks.

The film centers on U.S. Army and the Drug Enforcement Administration putting together a task force to stop the drug cartels in South America. Nicholas Cage plays a hotshot pilot Jake Preston
who enlists into the Apache air-to-air combat training program, which one of the trainees happens be his ex-girlfriend Billie Lee Guthrie (played by Sean Young). Running the training program is flight instructor Brad Little (played by Tommy Lee Jones), whom for some reason sees past Preston's cockiness and pushes him to become a great pilot.

Of course Preston tries to romance Billie Lee before they are sent on a deadly mission to take out the cartel leader, Eric Stoller (played by Bert Rhine).

Review - Ever After: A Nantucket Brides Novel


Ever After: A Nantucket Brides Novel
Nantucket Brides Trilogy, book three
by Jude Deveraux
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pub. Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0345541857
Pages: 358
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Now available to purchase in bookstores is the third installment in the Nantucket Brides Trilogy - Ever After by bestselling author Jude Deveraux. It might seem a bit odd to find a male reader writing a review for a contemporary romance, but the fact is that I grew up reading any book that I could grab my hands on, which included the Jude Deveraux romances that my mother owned.

Typically, the author uses characters that are related to the Montgomery and Taggert family that first appeared in the 1980 novel, The Black Lyon, which was published a year before I was born. The characters that appear in the Nantucket Brides series are in related to the same family line.

Ever After centers on Hallie Hartley, a young woman who just got her physical therapist license. Life hasn't been too easy for her. Her mother died when she was young and her father and stepmother died when she was a teenager, leaving her alone to raise her stepsister Shelly, who’s a spoiled brat.

Just as she's about ready to start a new job, she finds a huge surprise in her living room - Jared Montgomery. It seems Hallie had inherited an old house in Nantucket from a distant relative and Shelly had been posing as her, so she can steal the house. Shelly had also agreed to let to Jared's cousin, James Taggert, stay on the first floor, so she could help him recover from his knee injury, which is really weird as Shelly knows nothing about physical therapy. Once Hallie and Jared figured out what was going on, she quickly agrees to travel to Nantucket and help his cousin as it's the only way to get away from her stepsister.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

3 Free Courses that Will Help You Become a Better Writer


Everyone wants to learn how to be a better writer. Even if you don't want to write books one day, we all have to write in everyday life with e-mails, business letters, legal issues, and more. Knowing how to write is an invaluable skill. 

If you don't have a lot of money to invest in writing training, you may feel like you have no options to become a better writer. 

Luckily, these three online writing courses are completely free and can help you learn to write better today!

Technical Writing from Open Courseware

Technical writing is something everyone has to do no matter whether you sell houses, fight fires, or are an author. This specific course outlines helpful tips through video lessons on content creation, resume building, e-mails, concise copy, and more.


Introduction to Writing for Children from Falmouth University

This course is completed with two video courses outlining tips for writing for children. Writing for children is a little different than writing for adults, and any writer interested in writing for children should check out this free online writing course.

Take the course:

Write What You Know from the Writing University

The Writing University offers practical and helpful podcasts on a variety of writing techniques. All lessons are useful, but this lesson talking about how you can “write what you know” without limiting yourself is particularly helpful to new and old writers alike.

With a little practice and training, both the most novice of writers and the most veteran writer can improve their skills. Writing, just like many skills, is just something that improves with practice and time!

Where do you go to become a better writer? What are your favorite courses? 

Find 10 more resources for free online writing courses here!

Brenda is a fellow book-lover and coffee-addict. She is a freelance writer, punctuation nerd, and grammar enthusiast. Her favorite book genres are Science Fiction, Fantasy with a Twist, and Dystopian. Brenda blogs about books, writing and more at Daily Mayo. Find her here on CaW for Writing Tips Wednesdays the first Wednesday of every month.

Follow Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to updates from Daily Mayo to keep up with all the exciting things in her life; ranging from drinking coffee to get through the day to drinking coffee just for fun.

Monday, June 29, 2015

MCF Muscle Protein Review



While changing your eating habits and adding a bit of exercise into your daily routine might seem easy to most people, the one think that we sometimes over look is our protein intake.

Protein is the key ingredient in building muscles and burning body fat. You don't have to be lifting heavy weights to gain muscles as you can be using light weights or doing any intense workout program.

Your muscle fibers become torn during exercise and it takes time for them to recover. Ingesting extra protein before and/or after an workout can prevent muscle soreness and help your body recover from your workout faster.

I was recently sent a bottle of MCF (Mike Change Fitness) Muscle Protein to test out and review. Each 990 grams container has 30 servings (one scoop). Each serving has 120 calories, 22 grams of protein and 4.5 grams of carbs.


The ingredients include:

Muscle Protein Blend: Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Peptides & Whe Protein Isolate

Digestive Enzyme Complex: Protease, Lactase, Bromelain, Asperigillus Niger & Aspergillus Oryzae

Other ingredients include: Cocoa Poweder, Natural & Arifical Flavors, Fibersol-2 (Maltodextrin), Sucrose, Sodium Chloride and Sucralose.