King Arthur Movie Tristan

Mailbox Mondays

The amazing photo above is copyright iammikeb, I found it over @ http://www.flickr.com/

I love the way the sky looks in the background.




It's Monday already....it always sneaks up on me. I wanted to thank everyone who sent my daughter happy birthday wishes :) She had a great day, and had fun with friends and family. I can't believe she is 9 already. Time does fly.



Well, this past week I treated myself to 2 great books:


This Austen book completes my collection of her work. I have the other 5 novels, some of which I have double copies of.





Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

A wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen’s “Gothic parody.” Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.


The story’s unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

I've heard so many good things about The Bell Jar, and I'd been wanting to get a copy for a while.






The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity.

Enjoy your Monday, what books arrived at your place this week?

J.Kaye hosts a weekly meme called What Are you Reading Mondays?

a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week

Last week I read and reviewed: The Secret Keeper


I am currently reading these three books. I am about halfway done with each. Hopefully I can dive in and finish them up by next week or so.





A World I Never Made





The Convenient Marriage






Dear Jane Austen: A Heroine's Guide to Life and Love


Up next:







Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

Hello blogfriends. I won't be online this weekend, it's my daughters birthday on Saturday and I will be busy here with her party. Hopefully Sunday I'll be able to read and relax. Enjoy your weekend everyone, see you on Monday :O) I received some great books in the mail so i'll be posting Mailbox Monday for sure.

Booking Through Thursday:

There are certain types of books that I more or less assume all readers read. (Novels, for example.)

But then there are books that only YOU read. Instructional manuals for fly-fishing. How-to books for spinning yarn. How to cook the perfect souffle. Rebuilding car engines in three easy steps. Dog training for dummies. Rewiring your house without electrocuting yourself. Tips on how to build a NASCAR course in your backyard. Stuff like that.


What niche books do YOU read?

Some of my readers now that I crochet. It's my other obsession besides reading.
I do collect crochet pattern books. Here are a few of my favorites:



Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker





Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet






Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More!






Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute








Gourmet Crochet



What about you? What niche books do YOU read?

Masque of Love by http://www.josephinewall.co.uk/

Teaser Tuesdays asks:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

Dear Jane Austen,

I think I will lose my mind if you can't help me. I am a very shy, nervous girl. I have so many phobias-fear of driving, of public speaking, of men. Even my shyness is a pathological fear; it is called 'social phobia.' Your heroines are all so outgoing-so witty and fearless. No wonder men love them! What hope is there for a wallflower like me?

-Timid and Trembling

title: Dear Jane Austen: A Heroine's Guide to Life and Love

title: The Secret Keeper

author: Paul Harris

published: 2009

genre: Mystery/Thriller


pages: 318

first line: He ran his tongue over his swollen gums and tasted blood.

courtesy of: TLC Booktours

rated: 4 out of 5







In The Secret Keeper, British journalist, Danny Kellerman gets an assignment in war torn Sierra Leone, West Africa. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. While there, Danny meets a woman named Maria Tirado. In Sierra Leone, the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) has taken over and rules with brutality, senselessly murdering and torturing. Maria operates an orphanage for child soldiers. She helps children who where made to join the RUF were turned into murderers and had no way to get back home.





Now, four years later, Danny has left war torn Sierra Leone and lives in London with his girlfriend Rachel. One day Danny receives an urgent letter from his long ago love, Maria. She is pleading for his help. After some investigating, Danny finds out that Maria was murdered.
Danny decides he needs to uncover the truth about her death, so he goes back to Sierra Leone. Once there he meets up with an old aquantaince, a man named Kam, and begins trying to find out the truth about Maria's murder. It turns out, her death is being covered up and passed on as a robbery.

Back at his desk, Danny, for the first time, allowed himself to remember Maria. Her long, dark hair, the birthmark on her right shoulder, the way she narrowed her eyes when she thought he was getting out of line. Her touch. How could comeone like her die? It felt as if the universe was out of sync. He had to get over there. Had to see where it had happened, to see that something so wrong could be real.

The Secret Keeper is well written, interesting and sucked me in from page one. The story takes off and doesn't stop, I didn't find a dull moment.
The plot was great, and the characters are well written. I liked Danny, and even though I didn't really think he should have gone off to Africa and endanger his own life in order to find out the truth about Maria, I wanted him to make it home safely. Paul Harris' writing is memorable, he has a way with words. Several passages stood out.

It was a tap on the shoulder that had sent him to Sierra Leone for the first time. He liked to imagine, sitting later in a Freetown bar or, afterward, alone and drunk in a London pub, that it was like a finger from God coming out of the sky to change his life. But it was a tap on the shoulder. That had been all. That had been enough.

He did not turn around and he kept his eyes focused on the doorway at the end of the corridor. It was open and he could see daylight outside. His heart was beating so loud he felt the man behind must hear it, must sense his terror. Finally he was there, emerging into the light. Kam sat in his car and started the engine. Danny walked hestitantly forward, swaying slightly, the sunshine on his skin feeling like a rebirth.

Special thanks to Lisa at TLC Booktours


click here to see the other blogs participating in this book tour

related link: http://www.thesecretkeeper.us/