March ARC book

For March's ARC book I read "Shoulda Been There"by Jude Southerland Kessler The link is to the e-book. Trust me you want to get the e-book, as this book is 795 pages. The link below is for the hard copy of the book.

This is historical fiction book of John Lennon. Its one of 9 books Jude is writing about John Lennon. "should of been there is from his birth to Dec. 1961 when the Beatles signed with Brian Epstein to be their manager. Jude but years of research into not only this book but the other 2 that are out. "Shoulda Been There" came out in 2008 but she started interviewing and research in 1993. The book is not in chapters, but is broken up with dates and places. and at the end of each scene, she gives a foot note of what happen and what parts of the conversation was made up. It was so well written. I can not wait to get the other(the other 2 books that are out are "Shivering Inside" Dec.1961- Mid. April 1963 and "She Loves You"  May 1963-late 1963 just before they go to the USA). Though I will want to get them as ebooks. The book was kinda too big to hold (but it did make a good book to flatten out papers. lol)

I originally started the book a couple years ago when I took it with me on long trips on Mega Bus(I didn't have an e-reader.back then.) Then I put it down for a while, waiting for the next long road trip. When it came time to pick the next set of books to read for this year, I decided to pick this one, because I knew we would be moving(if we EVER get this house sold!) and I didn't want to take this big book with me, so I read it. I knew it would take me a while to do it, but I wanted to finish it. I started the book right after I read "The Bite Before Christmas" (or not long after.) around late December/early January.  Then Darcy challenged us to pick a book re read before and loved to reread it for February. So I set the book aside and read "A Pedigree To Die For" for the February challenge. Then I read "Gone with the Woof" the latest book in the series. Then I picked it back up later in January and finished it on Feb. 8. so It took me 2 months to read the book. Which I kinda expected it too.

The page I did for this book was another matte medium transfer. I wasn't planning on it. I found the picture of the cover (which was taken by Astrid Kirchherr) and printed it. I originally wanted to trace to picture of a young John Lennon and color it and then put it on the page. but then I was like maybe I should do a transfer. So that's what I did. And it came out pretty good. He didn't loose an eye or nose or ear in the process. After it was dried, I took some of the water down craft paints and just put some on the page and with my fingers rubbed it on the page. I then took a stencil and white craft paint and sponged the paint on the stencil. It needed something! LOLI then wrote the title of the book on top and doodled a put. That I didn't like. Looks like an eyesore. I did add a thick black line around the picture to frame it in.

The book I will be reading in April is The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.