Megan Hart's new book giveaway!

I found this contest through Leotine's site. :) Megan Hart is having a contest to celebrate her new book coming out: Pleasure and Purpose. To win a free copy of her new book go to her website and post this trailer on your blog. (Instructions on how to do it are there as well.) Good luck! (All I know that is after watching the trailer, I really want to read the book!) Question: Does the trailer overlap my other stuff for anyone else?

What are you reading Monday?

It's Monday! JKaye has created a weekly meme that asks: What are you reading this week? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week. Feel free to pile on a little extra.

Last week I didn't get a single book read. The horror!! Every time I attempted to read something I fell asleep. The books I wanted to read were:

Dead Until Dark, What Would Jane Austen Do? and How to Knit a Wild Bikini. It's been so long since I've attempted to read Sookie Stackhouse #1, that I'm going to have to read it from the beginning when I finally do get to it. I decided to wait to read What Would Jane Austen Do? until I finished re-reading Pride and Prejudice. How to Knit a Wild Bikini was really disappointing. It looked like so a feel-good chick lit romance type of book. The female lead was so unlikable that I started skimming the book around page 40-and I don't believe in skimming! Around page 120 I finally gave up. I just couldn't force myself to read any more.

Hopefully I'll have better luck with reading then I have the last two weeks!

Books I plan on reading are:

Pride and Prejudice (I'm already 160 pages in. It is such a delight to re-read this again after the Bikini nightmare-which oddly enough, referenced Jane Austen in a line. (I'm finding references to her everywhere these days!)

The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter (Lords of the Underworld #1) This is a re-read. I just received The Darkest Kiss and The Darkest Whisper from Amazon and want to brush up on the original book before I delve into these two books. I hope I enjoy the book as much I did the first time I read it.

I do have one question for everyone: How do you keep track of where you found what book? Do you keep them in a word file, or just hope you remember them? I never thought I would discover so many great books, and I feel bad not crediting people for opening my eyes to the fact that the book they reviewed existed. :)

You might have noticed I changed my background again. I'm one of those people who is never quite satisfied with their look for very long. I really need to learn how to do html! I loved my last look, but found unless you had a flatscreen monitor, you couldn't see the entire design. I have one at work, and not at home so that was driving me crazy! Edit: I've noticed that the current design doesn't view well on a flat screen monitor-so I'm still working on this. :)

Zombie week: John Carpenter'sThe Fog

The Fog (1980) Starring:
Adrienne Barbeau as Stevie Wayne
Jamie Lee Curtis as Elizabeth Solley (A very young Jamie Lee Curtis)
Janet Leigh as Kathy Williams
Tom Atkins as Nick Castle
Hal Holbrook as Father Robert Malone


I watched this movie in honor of the Zombie Challenge hosted by VVB32 Reads for Zombie Appreciation week. I wasn't sure if this really qualified as a zombie movie, but according to a website I found: A Guide to Zombie Movies, it's considered one.

What I loved about the movie was how it showed stuff that is considered politically incorrect today. People were drinking and driving and smoking! The horror!! Children called their mom, ma'am out of respect when in trouble. People still hitch hiked.

What I really loved was the ominous music that played when something was about to happen or secrets revealed...and Jamie Lee's feathered hair.

Great Quotes:

Elizabeth: "Are you normal?
Nick: "No, I'm weird."
Elizabeth: "Good!"
Kathy Williams: You're the only person I know who can make yes ma'am sound like screw you."
Nick Castle:
"I don't believe in luck. Good or bad."
"If anything happens just block the door." (yes, like that ever helped anyone!)
Dan: "It's Fog. You've seen it once, you've seen them all."
Stevie Wayne: "Stay away from the door!"
Father Malone: "No matter where we go it will find us." (cue incoming fog)



The movie begins with a storyteller dressed in a sailors uniform announcing to a group of children that it's 5 till midnight on the 20th of April. (You just know something is going to happen with an opening line like that!) He proceeds to tell one last story for the night:

It is said that on a night like this, 100 years ago on the 21st of April a ship was at sea when a fog rolled in. It was unlike any fog anyone had seen before or since. The sailors saw a campfire burning and tried to make their way to it. The thick fog enveloped them, and all were lost at sea. It is told by fathers, their fathers and grandfathers that when the fog returns the men who were lost at sea will come back, looking for the campfire....

When the story ends, it's midnight on the 21st of April. A lone radio is playing in the church as someone cleans it, and we're told it's the anniversary of Antonio Bay's founding. Weird things start happening...the foundations of the church begin to shake and a journal is found. When the priest opens a page it says "The hour between midnight and 1:00am belongs to the dead." We then hear pay phones ringing by themselves...in a convenience store, items begin to shake. An old sign is dislodged from the ceiling.

Other things start to happen...and you just know that the fog is going to roll in!! Which is does...and a ghost ship appears and attacks a ship at sea. People on the mainland are still clueless though. They start to get clued in that something's up when the ship that was attacked at sea, the SeaGrass doesn't show up the next morning-but excuses are made.

Then people start talking to each other about all the weird stuff that happened the night before....the plot really starts rolling, as does the fog.

Final Thoughts:
This is a classic horror movie, and a must see if you like this type of movie. :) It's also proof that you don't a whole lot of killing and mayhem to have a good scary movie! I just wish they had showed the zombies more-they were creepy.

Verdict: Two thumbs up!


Lessons learned:

• Never open the door when someone's knocking with a hook!
  
• When the wind blows in from the east either Mary Poppins or evil fog with zombies will blow in.
  
• When hitch hiking, only get into cars when guys say they are weird. (That Nick was cute!)
  
• When someone tells you to get out or not to answer the door, listen to them!!!
• cars never start when zombies are after you!!

Tea With Jane Austen & Becoming Jane

While I was searching for Jane Austen related books for the EverythingAusten hosted by the wonderful Stephanie at Stephanie's Written word, on Amazon.com I stumbled upon this book:


Loving tea, I thought what a fun book! I'd love learning about the different types of tea and social etiquette of the time period. I was surprised to find though, it was more of a social commentary kind of book, and not a serious history of tea book like I thought it would be. This book did have wonderful snippets of how tea would have been served during Austen's time, and had great quotes from her books and letters to her sister Cassandra. This book did have recipes, and the best part about it was when that the author included the original recipe from Jane Austen's time with the modern day recipe.

I tried two recipes from the book: Pound Cake and Bath Cakes. The latter because I've read too many regency romances in my day. The former because it sounded like fun. The pound cake was actually the harder of the two to make. The instructions were kind of vague for a beginning baker like I am. I found much easier ones on the internet. The most fun part about making the Bath Cakes was making my own dough for the bread. There was just something satisfying about having the dough rise and turn out as it should! Bath Cakes were the bigger hit of the two, but the pound cake impressed everyone more. Here are some pictures:

The pound cake



Unfortunately the pictures of the bath cakes may be lost...I took them with my cell phone, and somehow managed to dislodge the memory card, and can't get them to download. I'll post them as soon as I can. Here are some images I found on the web, but mine weren't nearly as beautiful:


They are a cross between a rye roll and a sweet roll. They were delicious!

This isn't the dough I made for them, but it's darn close!

BECOMING JANE
Starring Anne Hathawayand James McAvoy

I have wanted to see this movie ever since I read an interview with Anne Hathaway in Marie Claire about how the only reason she got the role is because she was up all night with her sick dog and wasn't her usual perky self.

Confession: I hated this movie. I had to do something I hate doing- I turned it off halfway through the movie. I had an hour left and couldn't take it any more!

I think the main problem was that I couldn't see or feel any chemistry between Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy for most of the movie. By the time it happened it was too late-my attention was gone.

Then there were the cheesy lines like this one when Jane was kissing Tom LeFoy: Jane: "Did I do that right?" Tom: "perfectly." That totally took away from one of the rare moments that I thought I could like the movie.

I could see however, the different books intertwined in the movie and it was nice to be able to recognize them.

While I would recommend reading Tea with Jane Austen, I would not recommend watching Becoming Jane.

Thank You

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to give me an award. I can't tell you how much it means to me that you thought of me. They say it's better to give then receive, and it's true. With my birthday coming up this weekend I thought what a great time to give out some awards?

Over the last month or so I've been lucky enough to be awarded the following awards:

Beautiful Bingo Award

Thank you to Patti from A Book Addict. :) This award was started by Bookin With BINGO and here are the rules: This "B-I-N-G-O" BEAUTIFUL BLOG AWARD means that this blog is...
B: Beautiful - J Kaye from J. Kaye's Book Blog
I: Informative- Donna at FantasyDreamer
N: Neighborly - Heather at Gofita's Pages
G: Gorgeous - Kals from At Pemberly
O: Outstanding - Jenn from Jenn's Bookshelf-I found the Everything Austen Challenge through her and found a lot of great bloggers through that challenge. :)

Your Blog Rocks


This rockin award was given to me by Michelle at Gofita's pages
Velvet at VVB32 Reads I am loving the Zombie Challenge-and this is another blogger I found through the Everything Austen Challenge. :)
Jenners from Find Your Next Book Here-I am having so much fun with the Take A Chance Challenge!
Leontine from Leontine's Book Realm

The Zombie Chicken Award

This was given to me by Deb at Bookmagic and Michelle at Gofita's Pages. Don't you just love the name of this award? The Details: The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all.

Bookpushers Anyonymous (esp Has who I've gotten to known through twitter)
Angel from Panhandle Porters (A fellow Everything Austen Challenger!)
AC from Talk About Books-A fellow blogger I found through twitter, and I blame her for me recent sweet binge.
Erin from Nuggets of Truth-This is a non book blog, but she posts the most amazing reciepes and always has a positive message to share.
Tasha from Heidenkind's Hideaway

The Lemonade Award


Thank you to Jessica from A BookLovers Diary for this award! The Lemonade Award is a feel good award that shows great attitude or gratitude. Here are the rules for accepting this award: - Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post. -Link your nominees within your post. -Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog. -Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.

Deb from Bookmagic-We have the same great taste in books and she always leaves the nicest comments!

EH from Erotic Horizon
Jenn from Sapphire Romance


Super Comments Award



I got this from Deb at BookMagic. Thank you! :) I have some wonderful commenters, and would like to give this award to: These three individuals are truly some of the best commenters around! I don't know what I'd do without them. :)

Heather at Gofita's Pages
Tasha at Heidenkinds Hideaway
Jessica at A BookLover's Diary






Thank you to Tasha at Heidenkinds Hideaway and Velvet at VVB32reads for this award! This award is to honor certain bloggers that are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn't for them, my site would just be an ordinary book review blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendship through the blog world. Rule: Nominate 10 bloggers you feel deserve the Humane Award.

Allison from Well-Read Reviews
Andrea from The Little Bookworm
Mandi at SmexyBooks
Danni at Romantic Harbor
Nicole from Books and Bards
Patti from A Book Addict
Jamie from Tea On Tap and Variety Pages
Heather at Gofita's Pages
Deb from Bookmagic
Jessica at A BookLover's Diary

BBAW Meme

I haven't been apart of the Book Blogging Community for that long, and want to thank all of you who have stumbled upon my blog. :) I haven't participated in the Book Blogger Appreciation week before and am excited to do so! Now for the meme...

1) What has been one of the highlights of blogging for you? Meeting so many great people! I've also discovered so many new authors and expanded my reading horizon because of the different reviews people have written.

2) What blogger has helped you out with your blog by answering questions, linking to you, or inspiring you? So many people have helped me out that I don't want to leave anyone out. Heidenkind was the first person to follow me and linked to me a lot in the beginning-thanks!

3) What one question do you have about BBAW that someone who participated last year could answer?

What is the best way to be actively involved in BBAW and what did you like most about being involved in it?

What are you reading Monday

It's Monday! JKaye has created a weekly meme that asks: What are you reading this week? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week. Feel free to pile on a little extra.


Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. For some reason I haven't been able to pick up again. I was really enjoying it, so I'm not sure why the book hasn't pulled me back in yet.

Books I plan to read:

What would Jane Austen do? By Laurie Brown This is for the Everything Jane Austen book challenge. From goodreads.com:
Surely Jane Austen would know how to handle such a rake...
From the author of Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake, a new time travel romance featuring a modern day career woman swept back in time to Regency England, where she thwarts a Napoleonic spy, chats with Jane Austen, and falls in love with a notorious rake.
Eleanor is a costume designer in England for the Jane Austen festival, where her room at the inn is haunted. In the middle of the night she encounters two ghost sisters whose brother was killed in a duel over 200 years ago. They persuade her to travel back in time with them to prevent the duel. Eleanor is swept into a country house party, presided over by the charming Lord Shermont, where she encounters and befriends Jane Austen. But there's much more to Lord Shermont than the ghosts knew, and as Eleanor dances and flirts with him, she begins to lose her heart.

I can't wait to start this one :) I hope it goes better then the other Jane Austen themed books I read...

How to knit a Wild Bikini by Christie Ridgeway. This is a book that I picked up in the library. It looked like a cute, fun read. The description from goodreads.com:

The beachside knitting shop Malibu & Ewe is the perfect place for L.A.’'s hip young crowd to enjoy colorful yarn and intimate conversation. For personal chef Nikki Carmichael, it could be the softest place to land if her new job falls through. Working for magazine writer Jay Buchanan has come with some strange conditions—like pretending to be his girlfriend. As for Jay, he finds himself drawn to the kitchen, where he’s intrigued by his sexy cook'’s ability to withstand the heat between them. And now he thinks it’s time to turn up the flames.


Last week reads:

I didn't get as many books read as I thought I would...(isn't that always the case??)

At Wicks End by Tim Myers-This was a cute mystery and an author I found through the Take A Chance Challenge. This was super short-175 pages, but the characters were adorable and I'm glad there are more books in this series. The plot: Harrison Black is left his Great-Aunts Candle shop when she dies. The catch? His aunt, knowing his job hopping ways, made it so that he has to work there five years before he can officially own the store or get the rest of his inheritance. However there are a series of strange events happening in the small town of Timber Ridge, and only Harrison thinks they are connected...he soon suspects that his aunt didn't really die from a fall from a ladder, but was murdered-now he just has to prove it.

Good Things by Mia King-From Goodreads: A charming debut novel about a lifestyle maven who learns that living simply isn't simple. Deidre McIntosh became famous teaching women "to live simply, and simply live"-ironic for a woman who thrives on the chaos of a television career, and shares a home with her best friend, the one man she can count on-who happens to be gay. But when her Seattle cooking-and-lifestyle show gets bumped off the air, and her best guy moves in with his boyfriend, she's left trying to figure out the next segment. Seizing on a chance encounter with an attractive stranger, Deidre accepts his offer to use his country home. She hopes to get away for a while and learn to practice what she preaches. To appreciate life without voice mail. To gain the courage to start again, and take the first slow, cautious steps toward a new kind of success-and maybe even love. It seems like a simple task. But it may be the hardest thing she's ever done.

I loved this book!! A review will be up shortly....

I have high hopes that I will get more then two books read this week-but I've learned that nothing ever goes as planned when it comes to reading. :)

What are you reading this week? :)

My Favorite book this week :)

My favorite book this week is Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. It's the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series. I don't know why it sometimes takes me so long to find great books like this. I didn't start reading Sherrilyn Kenyon until I stumbled on Dream Warrior-and that was the last book out by her at the time.

The best part about coming into a series late is that I now have a ton of great books to read :) I'm only about half way through this book, and already I can tell it's a keeper! I still have a hard time picturing Anna Paquin as Sookie though-mainly because I keep picturing Anna her from the X Men movies.

My newest all time favorite book is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shafer and Annie Barrows. This is a book that will make you laugh, cry, then laugh and cry some more.

Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis

I found this book through Deb at Book Magic. I was looking at her recent reads, and the title made me laugh and I had to find out more about right away!

Plot: Sophie Katz is a mystery writer who has just finished her most recent murder mystery book and is ready to celebrate. However strange things keep happening to prevent it. First there are the murders...then her car is vandalized and some one keeps breaking into her home. Is it her best friend Dena's boyfriend Jason, who wants to be a vampire, or the guy she herself has been dating, Anatoly who just happens to have a mysterious past?

What I liked: I thought this was a cute light-hearted read. Her best friends Mary Ann and Dena were likable and believable. I also loved her hairstylist Marcus. There were many laugh out loud moments, and I actually didn't see who the killer was until I was right there in the moment. (I should have though.)

What I didn't like: The main problem I had with the book was I started noticing little grammatical errors. This bothered me because I am not really known for spotting stuff like this. When I first discovered that one period didn't have two spaces behind it, I thought it was just one mistake. However, it kept re-occurring throughout the book. Then it started happening with commas. Instead of one space behind them, there weren't any spaces behind them. It was so distracting that I almost couldn't finish the book.

I almost forgot: While there were a lot of double lattes and murders don't expect a lot of sex in the book because you'll be disappointed. I also made the mistake of noticing the authors picture in the back, and it was exactly how I pictured the main character in the book to look like, and it bothered me for some reason.

I'm not sure why but having a cat named Mr. Katz-the last name of the character really annoyed me. I mean who names their cat that? But then, I'm probably being overly picky with that annoyance.

All in all, I give this book a 3/5 stars because it really was a fun read. I've just been way too picky with little details in the books I've been reading lately.

What are you reading Monday?

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? Is hosted by J. Kayes Book Blog and is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week. Feel free to pile on a little extra.If you'd like to join in this weekly event, please include a link to this post. That way others can find it and join in.

Books Read Last week:

Dance Upon Air, Nora Roberts
A Slice of Murder, Chris Cavander
Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis

I normally only get in one book a week, but this week was an exception..mainly because all three were quick reads and I was without internet access at my sisters apartment while I did some cat sitting for her...

Currently Reading:

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (I really don't know what took me so long to get into the Sookie Stackhouse books!)

Other books I'd like to read this week:


At Wicks End by Tim Myers
The Sum Of All Fears by Tom Clancy
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen-Something tells me I won't get to this one...

Dance Upon The Air by Nora Roberts (Take A Chance Challenge)

This is another book I read for the Take A Chance Challenge. This was for the public spying part of the challenge. I spotted someone reading this in the hospital waiting room while my mom was undergoing a total hip replacement surgery. (She's healing remarkably fast and feeling so much better now, and it's only been 2 weeks!)

Dance Upon the Air is the first book in Three Sisters Trilogy. It tells the story of Nell Channing, and her escape from an abusive husband. She is drawn to the island, and quickly finds a job at a bookstore cafe where she meets Mia Devlin. The two become best friends. While working at the cafe, she meets the island's Sheriff Zach Todd and his sister Ripley.

The two develop a friendship and of course a romance. Nora Roberts does an excellent job of weaving the story of the Island and the original Three Sisters into the plot, but I just couldn't get into the story. I think the main problem was I knew what the climax would be before it happened: Abusive husband would come back and Nell, Mia, Ripley and Zach would have to save Nell from him. By the time that part finally came in the book it was so predictable that I just shook my head. (I think maybe I've read too many formulatic romances...)

Despite my almost intense dislike and my inability to feel sorry for Nell, I'm almost tempted to read the other two books in this series because I liked Mia and Ripley much better then Nell. The islanders in this book were charming-and likable. It would be fun to see them in the other books. I gave this book 2/5 stars on goodreads. There were parts of the book I enjoyed-but more that I didn't. If you are a fan of Nora Roberts, you'll probaby like this book.

Night of the Living Dead: Zombie Challenge

I'm taking part in the Zombie Challenge hosted by Velvet at vvvb32 reads. The challenge is apart of September Zombies Week Aug 29 to Sept. 5, 2009.

I decided to watch the Night of the Living Dead, because in the words of my Brother in Law G: "How could I have not watched this movie before now?"

As as I started watching this movie I thought: "No, don't say a prayer for the murderer after someone spit on him!" and "Don't say they are coming to get you" while you are in a graveyard during a thunderstorm. Also, when a radio station is about to you why they've been off the air, do not turn it off before you hear why! It could keep you from turning into a zombie!!

Random thoughts/questions I had during the movie:

• How could the Zombies break into cars, but not houses? Or rather, how did it take them 80 minutes to break into the house, and only five to get into the cars?
• Why were they afraid of fire?
• Did they really think that putting a table in front of the door and boarding up the windows would keep the zombies out?
• How did the zombies multiply so fast?
• Why didn't they realize that the fire combined with gas would lead to an explosion? -If your jacket gets caught in a burning truck, let it go. Just get out!
• I think I know how Pride & Prejudice Zombies was created: I think that Seth Grahame-Smith was watching a zombie movie while his wife/girlfriend read the Jane Austen Classic.
• The zombie walk was pretty cool.
• I loved the jargon of the day like: "no sweat!"
• What was the point of the blonde girl again?
• Why did the zombie eat bugs?
  

Favorite line of the movie:
Reporter to police chief: "Are they slow?" The Police Chief to the reporter: "They're dead. Of course they move pretty slow!"

A Slice of Murder

I read A Slice of Murder for the Take A Chance Challenge. This one was for my Random Book Selection. Picking a random book in a library you know by heart is hard to do. :) I chose New Fiction books because this selection is always changing-walked around the end cap a few times and grabbed a book. I was to walk around it 4 times and grab the third book I saw from the second shelf. It was A Slice of Murder by Christ Cavender which is an Alias for Tim Myers.

I love mysteries, but have to admit they get the back burner after romances, which means I don't read as many mysteries as I should or could. A Slice of Murder takes place in the small town of Timber Ridge, North Carolina. Eleanor Swift is picking up the pieces of her life after her husband Joe was suddenly killed in a car accident. She's doing this by running A Slice of Delight-a pizza parlor that she owned with her husband. She works there along with her sister Maddy and a few part time workers. One of Eleanor's high school workers calls off sick, and she's forced to make a late night pizza delivery to Richard Olson. She never gets to deliver the pizza because it turns out that someone killed him before the pizza could make it to him.

The question becomes who could have killed him? It turns out just about everyone in town. Eleanor become the prime suspect in the case, and it doesn't help that the Police of Chief used to be an old boyfriend or that his son works at her pizza parlor against his wishes. Eleanor along with her sister Maddy try clear her name, only they come up with a long list of suspects..is it the bitter ex wife? The mayors wife with whom he was having an affair with, upset because he broke off the affair? Or was it the mayor himself b/c he found out about the affair? Or maybe it's the victims sister, who stands to inherit $100,000? The list is long, and it's up to Eleanor and Maddy to find out who had the biggest motive to kill Richard Olson.

This was a cute story, and my murder solving skills are rusty because I didn't figure out who did until almost the very end! Warning: this book will make you very, very, very hungry for pizza while you read it. After reading about making pizza dough and sauce throughout the book, I was glad to see that the author included a recipe for both at the end of the book! I can't wait to try the recipes and can't believe I stumbled on a debut book in a series. I almost always start at the end of the series and work my way back..

Take A Chance Challenge

One of the challenges I'm in is the Take A Chance Challenge hosted by Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here. Out of the 10 parts of the challenge, I've only managed to do one of them. Here are two more that I'm on my way to finishing:

Public Spying Book

I really didn't know how I'd manage to find someone reading in public. I lucked out when my mom had her hip replacement surgery last week. There was a whole waiting room full of women reading! I think I freaked one women out trying to catch a glimpse of the title of her book. I didn't realize how many people cover up the title while holding up a book to read.

I was thrilled when the few titles I did catch were all romance books. Who knew romance books were so popular to read while a loved one was in surgery? I think it's because you don't have to really concentrate while reading them. I had almost given up hope on getting a full title of what someone was reading (I could've asked, but it somehow didn't seem right to do in a hospital waiting room.) and thought I'd be stuck with the science fiction book my dad was reading by Orson Scott Card. Fortunately for me, a women sat down across from me and was reading a Nora Roberts book-Dance Upon Air. I can't wait to read this book!

As much as I love romance books, I've stayed away from Nora Roberts. I'm not sure why-except that her books are all contemporary and I usually stick to reading historical romances.

Random Book Selection. Go to the library. Position yourself in a section such as Fiction, Non-Fiction, Mystery, Children (whatever section you want). Then write down random directions for yourself (for example, third row, second shelf, fifth book from right). Follow your directions and see what book you find. Check that book out of the library, read it and then write about it. (If you prefer, you can do the same at a bookstore and buy the book!)

This was harder then I thought it would be. I've been going to my local library since I was five, and know all the stacks by heart. It would have been easy for me to cheat and choose something I knew I would like. I gave myself the following instructions: Go to the part of the new fiction section that always changes so I wouldn't know what book would be where. (The new fiction section is pretty much just a circular end cap with about 30 books on it.) I was to walk around it 4 times and grab the third book I saw from the second shelf. I did this and ended up with A Slice of Murder by Chris Cavander. (Alias of Tim Myers, Elizabeth Bright and Melissa Glazer.) I'm about half way through it. It's a slow read, but I'm enjoying it.

A list of books...

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. After reading the books on the list, if it's true-people are missing out on some great novels!

I stole this from Jessica at A BookLoversDiary. :) Go and say hi!

What to do: Copy the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses! (I'm not big on tagging, so if you don't do this it's ok. :) )

It turns out that I've read 27 of the 100! There were a few I could've sworn I read in high school or college, but since my memory has faded I left them off-because if I couldn't remember reading them, I probably didn't...


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (X)

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien ()

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (x)

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (x)

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee ( )

6 The Bible ( )

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (X)

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ( )

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ()

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ()

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (x)

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ()

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ()

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier()

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien )

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ()

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (x)

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (x)

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ()

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ()

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (X)

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ()

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ()

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ( )

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ()

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ()

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck ()

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll )

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ()

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (x)

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (x)

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ( )

34 Emma-Jane Austen () (I thought I had read this, but started reading a copy of this from the library, and discovered that I hadn't..)

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (X)

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis ()

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein (X)

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ()

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (x)

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne ()

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ( )

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (x)

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving ()

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ()

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ()

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (x)

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding ( )

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ()

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ()

52 Dune - Frank Herbert ()

53 Cold Comfort Farm ()

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ()

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ()

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ()

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ()

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon ( )

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (X)

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ()

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ()

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (x)

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (x)

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ()

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ()

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding ()

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ()

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville ()

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ()

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker ( )

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (x)

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ()

75 Ulysses - James Joyce ()

76 The Inferno – Dante (X)

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ()

78 Germinal - Emile Zola ()

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ()

80 Possession - AS Byatt ()

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ()

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ()

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker ()

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ()

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ()

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ()

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (X)

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom )

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( )

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ()

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ()

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (x)

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ()

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams ()

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ()

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ()

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (x)

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl ()

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (x)

Zombies Rule!

I think I'm getting a little carried away with these challenges, but in the midst of so much Jane Austen, I decided I needed a change of pace. I discovered that Velvet at VVB32Reads is holding a Zombie challenge, and it sounded just what I was looking for...Here is what she wrote for the challenge:

I'm throwing the gauntlet down...

To tie in with September Zombies week (Aug 29 to Sep 5, 2009) and the release of Never Slow Dance With A Zombie by E. Van Lowe which was bumped to August 18 from September 1:

I challenge you to show some zombie love.

Entries: open to all countries

Deadline: Saturday, September 5, 2009, 8pm PST

Prize: Zombie Bag o'Goodies

(includes Never Slow Dance With A Zombie by E. Van Lowe)

Details:

To accept this challenge you must:

1. Grab the zombie challenge picture above and create an acceptance post of this challenge on your site with a link back to this challenge. FYI: your acceptance post counts as an entry.

2. Post 2 zombie related posts during zombie week (Aug 29 to Sep 5, 2009).

Some ideas for your zombie posts:

-book review

-movie review

-list of links to your previous zombie-related posts (dated before Aug 1, 2009)

-pictures of zombies

-your thoughts on zombies

-interview a friend on their thoughts on zombies

-etc.


I am thinking of using this challenge as an excuse to have a zombie movie night!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the Thirteenth Tale

This is one of the most charming and delightful books that I have read in a long time. I must admit though that I had my doubts. I had read so many bad books before this that I didn't hold out much hope for it-especially when I saw the one quote of praise was from Elizabeth Gilbert of the Eat, Pray Love book that I hated with a passion. (In all fairness I wasn't able to finish the book-so maybe I should give it another shot.)

This wonderful book can be read in one sitting-and unless you want to be up all night reading, I wouldn't start this one before going to bed! I can't remember the last time I laughed and cried so many times in one book.

The story is told through a series of letters, and when I began I had no idea how I would come to know or like any of the characters through this means..but it was heartwarming!

The book is set as World War II ends, and everyone is in the process of rebuilding their lives. It's set in London and the British Channel Islands. (The latter of which I admit to knowing next to nothing about until this book. ) Juliet is an author who just complied a book of a series of articles she wrote during the war.

The book is comprised of letters to her friends and the people on Guernsey. Dawsy Adams (who I just love!) finds her name in a book by Charles Lamb (who I now want to read) and writes to Juliet asking if she can find him another book by the author. What ensues is a delightful (I'm using words like this a lot to describe this book, but it's the only word besides charming that fits it! It's so unlike me I know...) correspondence between Juliet and the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I'm not sure how to describe this book further without spoiling it. I got this book at the library and it took all my willpower to return it. I'm seriously going to have to buy this book!
_______________________________________________________________
I don't say this about too many books, but I hated this book. Detested it with a passion. I don't think there are enough adjectives to describe what an over-hyped book this was. Honestly, I don't know how it got so many glowing reviews. This book seemed right up my alley-I love Gothic romances, and it lured me in with tales of half truths, a mystery to be solved and a ghost. (I love a good ghost story!) The plot intertwines the stories of Vida Winter-one of Englands greatest authors who is close to dying. She wants the truth of her life to be told instead of the fantastic stories she's told to members of the press. Enter Margaret Lea. Margaret is the daughter of a bookseller, and has her own mystery to solve. She has written a few biographies, but nothing great and is shocked to be chosen to tell Vidas story. Vidas story is an unbelievable one...it's a tale of incest, murder, abuse and mysterious births. The problem I had with this book is that it took forever to get to the main plot of the story..by the time it did I had stopped caring about any of the characters or about finding out what the truth was. People have compared this book to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but it didn't come close to those books...as one reviewer put it: "this book is closer to Flowers In the Attic then Wurthering Heights." Most of the people who reviewed this book read it one night. I only finished it because I was hosting it for an online bookclub.

Lets Be Friends Award

I received this awesome award from Deb at Bookmagic. :) Thank you so much! She is one of my favorite reviewers and twitterers! Please go and say hello to her. :) The award is for:

"Blogs that receive the Let’s Be Friends Award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers."


The bloggers I've nominated for this award are:

Velvet at VVB32 Reads She gave me my first ever award, and I've been enjoying getting to know her! She writes great YA reviews and is a fellow Everything Austen challenger!

MJMBecky at One Literature Nut I discovered her blog through twitter, and am glad I did. :) She not only writes wonderful reviews but lives in Hawaii and lets us all learn about island life there!

Kals at And Thus speaketh a Bookworm -I met her through the Everything Austen challenge, and writes great Austen reviews!

Tasha at Heidenkind's Hideaway-Because she always comments on my posts, no matter how boring or lame they are!! (Yes, I still use the word lame-I'm old, ok??!)

Donna at Fantasy Dreamer's Ramblings -Another blogger I met through Twitter. :) I've been enjoying reading her reviews because I never knew there were so many different Paranorma/Fantasy books out there!