My 1st Blog Award

Thanks to Lit and Life I have received my first ever blog award - thank you so much Lit and Life !!! I received the Proximity Award which apparently means that my blog "invests and believes in Proximity - nearness in space, time and relationships." It also means that my blog is "exceedling charming, and aims to find and be friends" and is not "interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement!" Talk about an awesome award!! I was really surprised and excited to find out that I was awarded this blog award because I have to be honest and admit that I am a bit self-conscious about my blog because I feel as if I am still trying to figure out my voice with regards to reviewing books. But, it looks like I am doing a pretty good job and that makes me happy. I'm glad to know that some people do enjoy my blog and that they are out there reading it. I know that I enjoy reading other people's blogs and sharing thoughts on books and everyday life events. I feel as if I have definitely met some great people on these blogs. I would love to recommend that my readers check out the blogs listed under my favorite blogs because they are all wonderful and unique in their own ways. Three cheers for the blogosphere!! Okay, enough sappiness for now. I need to get to reading if I want to complete any of the challenges that I have joined this year. Right now I am in the middle of The Housekeeper and The Professor and I am loving it!! Plus, I am about to start reading Twenties Girl - I know, I am really behind on goodreads. Well, ta for now! Happy Reading!!!

Lost In Austen

This month I watched Lost in Austen on dvd for the Everything Austen Challenge. What a fabulous mini-series!!! I absolutely loved this show so much - it was just a great mix of contemporary life and Austenish drama. Basically, we have the character of Amanda Price, a modern day gal who absolutely loves everything Austen. Fed up with her love life and career going nowhere, Amanda finds Elizabeth Bennet in her bathroom. Wanting an escape from the real world, Amanda switches places with Elizabeth and soon finds herself living and breathing the pages of Pride and Prejudice. We meet the Bennet family, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley and his disagreeable sister, Caroline Bingley and the rest of the cast that make up Austen's wonderful novel, P&P. We see the dances, the courtship, the etiquette and dresses from Austen's pages come to life and find that Amanda's presence tends to alter the story a bit. We have Mr. Collins marrying Jane and Mr. Wickham being the innocent with regards to his relationship with Darcy's sister and of course we have Darcy falling in love with Amanda - not at all following the storyline Austen created. There are some great moments, like when Caroline Bingley hits on Amanda and tells her that she will marry Darcy because society deems that the right thing to do, however her passionate feelings for women will require a bit of secrecy. And we have Elizabeth enjoying her time in the real world - she is working as a nanny and is now acquainted with the Jane Austen novel , P&P. Its wonderful to watch Amanda attempt to fit into a world that she thought she loved when she was reading about it at home, but is quite unsure about once she is living it. And it is quite lovely to see the characters of Amanda and Darcy falling in love and fighting against it. The ending is superb! A must watch for any Austen fanatic!!

My First R.I.P Challenge!!

Hello fellow readers! It is time for the annual R.I.P. Challenge hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. You can find all the details regarding the challenge at Stainless Steel Droppings, however I will provide a quick rundown of the gameplan. First off the name of the challenge, R.I.P., stands for R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril - what a cool name for a challenge! Typically the challenge begins on September 1st, however this year, the challenge is beginning now! The Challenge runs from Now until Halloween - How witchy! What is the challenge exactly - well it is quite simple, select books that fall under the following categories: mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, and supernatural. Then choose which peril you wish to participate at: Peril The First - read 4 books of any length; Peril The Second - read 2 books of any length; Peril The Third - read 1 book of any length; and Short Story Peril - read short stories. Basically, read scary stories that help conjure up the images of things going bump in the night and have fun posting about your reads and discovering new books. Doesn't that sound like fun?! What a perfect way to start the new fall season (okay, so fall doesn't technically begin until next month, but we are getting there and besides I prefer fall to summer). So, now I have to figure out if I want to read one spooky book or a couple. I think that for now I will participate at Peril The Second level. As for my two book choices, here they are: Tana French's In The Woods and Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. Talk about some spooky choices! Actually now that I am thinking about this challenge another book just popped into my head, The Little Strange by Sarah Waters - that would be a great Peril reader. Hmmm. Maybe that should be on my list. Who knows, by the end of this challenge perhaps I will have completed Peril The First. Either way, I am quite positive that this will be a fun challenge and am looking forward to starting it this weekend. I'm in the mood for a little mystery and horror and R.I.P. fits right in. Hope you all check out the challenge details at Stainless Steel Droppings and join in the fun! Happy reading all!!

Sookie Stackhouse rocks!

I bought this book on a whim and brought it on vacation and actually read it whilst on vacation. I tend to take books with me when I go away, but never actually read them ( I always seem to be too busy to read). And I must say that I was really happy I read this book, it was just so much fun to read. It is what I would call a fluff book - an extremely easy to read book that has a good plot. Dead Until Dark is the first book in the 9 book series by Charlaine Harris which centers on vampires living in the mainstream society of Bon Temps, Louisiana. We are introduced to Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress at Merlotte's who can read minds and Bill Compton, a vampire trying to remodel his home and maintain a sense of normalcy. Sookie and Bill begin to date in this first book and soon, Sam (a shapeshifter and Sookie's boss), is trying to make his feelings for her known by asking her out on a date. Then there is Jason, Sookie's brother who is constantly in trouble with the law based on his sexual escapades with a few of the local women, who seem to turn up murdered. And there are so many other characters introduced in this first book, all of them interesting and unique. We have murder, sex, love and the supernatural spread throughout the storylines. We have a world where vampires have come out of their coffins and are now mainstreaming (living with the living) and relying on synthetic blood for their feeding habit. We have violence and crazy dripping off the pages in certain sections and a sense of hope emanating on other pages. All in all, a very good read. I have purchased the dvd set of season one of True Blood (which is based on the Sookie Stackhouse books) and will be watching that soon enough (tried to watch the first episode and the lights went out). And I have purchased a few of the other books in the series to get me along and will be posting about them when I finish reading a few of them. For now though, I am off to read my Oprah magazine. Cheers and Happy reading!!!

Vacation, Books, Emails

Just got back from vacation. I went to Tennessee, specifically Knoxville. I really enjoyed my trip there. It was a great city with plenty to offer and I soaked it all up. Well, I rested and walked around and did a little shopping and just basically relaxed. I found a lovely book shop on Kingston Pike (the main road) called Carpe Librum (love that name!) and bought a couple of books there. Of course nothing beat the $3 bookshop I found off the interstate just before you leave Georgia. Yes, I stopped and yes I bought many books there. How could I not? Of course I am starting to gather several piles of books that need to be read, so perhaps I should take a break from book buying for a bit. Hmmm. As for the trip itself, it was a long drive, but most definitely worth it. I'll definitely be visiting Knox again. And now I am back at work and waiting for my next vacation, which I am debating taking during December. By the by, I packed a few books to read on vacation and do you know how many I actually read - 1! Just one! I wound up reading the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series ( I bought it on a whim). That book was just such fun to read and completely light and fluffy that I ended up buying a couple of more books in the series (for a quarter a piece at a church yard sale). I even got the t. v. series, True Blood, on dvd and started watching it last night. Unfortunately, due to bad weather conditions, I lost power and couldn't finish watching the first episode (the little bit I did watch had me wondering what had taken me so long to jump on the True Blood bandwagon - it is just that good!). I have the second book in the series in my purse and am hoping to start it this week. I also have Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella on my night stand waiting to be read. Oh and I started to read Dirty Girls on Top by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez last night (by flashlight) and so far I like it. Its kind of nice to read a book sprinkled with a little bit of Spanish in the text ( I haven't read any Spanish since I was writing my thesis). As far as Team Ulysses goes, well I sort of let that fall behind a bit, but I will be picking up the behemoth of a book and diving back in. I watched Lost in Austen for the Everything Austen challenge (will be blogging about it soon), so I am caught up in that challenge, of course I need to start Sense and Sensibility since that was on my list to read for the challenge. I have yet to read anything for the Japanese Literature Challenge 3, but I do now have the books I want to read in my possession, so that makes it easier to get started. And I have a huge stack of mags that I bought to read on vacation that I never got around to - so I have brought a few to read during lunch at work. Oh and I just found out I won a copy of The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer from S. Krishna's Books and that totally made my morning! And I read this fab email from a dear friend of mine that really made me smile. I had written to her whinging about a friend of mine who has really started to make me feel badly and how that negativity has been affecting me to the point where I no longer even want to chat with said friend anymore, and well, lets just say that my dear friend put it all in perspective for me and cheered me up a bit. What else, hmmm, I am feeling a bit healthier. I got up early and walked on the treadmill and felt really good about it. I just need to keep it up. I'm only 31 and already I feel as if I have the body of a 90 year old. I need to get in shape and start feeling healthy. My AIH is under control and everything seems to be fine, so I figure now is the time to go for it! Its crazy to me that I allowed myself to get so unhappy based on a disease that is completely under control now. UGH! I think I need to check myself because I was beginning to wreck myself (love that quote from Bethenny of Real Housewives NYC!). Anyhow, all is good in my bookish life. Hope everyone is having a fab week. Happy Reading!!!