King Arthur Movie Tristan

Happy Sunday everyone. I hope you are enjoying your weekend.
It's been a busy week here for me, but I did manage to get some reading in. I read and reviewed A World I Never Made , which I really enjoyed. Click here to see my review as well as guest post by author James Lepore.


I am currently reading Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict and really enjoying it!





Besides reading, i've been crocheting as well. I finished up this amigurumi this past week. The pattern is called 'Oui Petite' and is from Roxy Craft.











Enjoy your Sunday everyone :O)

While visiting Serena's blog, I stumbled upon the Everything Austen Challenge. Of course I had to join this one.


Info:

The Everything Austen Challenge will run for six months (July 1, 2009 – January 1, 2010)! All you need to do is pick out what six Austen-themed things you want to finish to complete the challenge.

If you're a follower of my blog, you might know that I am a fan of Jane Austen and kind of have a 'thing' for Pride & Prejudice.





Anyway, i'll be reading Austen related books as well as reviewing some of my fav film adaptations. Stay tuned :O)


Reviews so far:


1. Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict


2. Emma (movie)


3. Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

Cover Attraction: I’m a very visual person and love beautiful cover art. It doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll read the book but at least I might stop and take a peek instead of walking right on by.

This week’s Cover Attraction is:

Divisadero by
Michael Ondaatje

When I saw the cover for this book, I automatically thought 'sisters'. It looks like they are leaning against each other for support. I wonder why.

From the celebrated author of The English Patient and Anil's Ghost comes a remarkable, intimate novel of intersecting lives that ranges across continents and time.


In the 1970s in Northern California a father and his teenage daughters, Anna and Claire, work their farm with the help of Coop, an enigmatic young man who makes his home with them. Theirs is a makeshift family, until it is shattered by an incident of violence that sets fire to the rest of their lives. Divisadero takes us from San Francisco to the raucous backrooms of Nevada's casinos and eventually to the landscape of southern France. As the narrative moves back and forth through time and place, we find each of the characters trying to find some foothold in a present shadowed by the past.

title: A World I Never Made

author: James Lepore

pages: 262

genre: mystery, suspense

published: 2009

first line: Dad, I don't owe you or anybody an explanation, but I think you'll appreciate the irony of a suicide note coming from a person who has abhorred tradition all of her life.


rated: 4 out of 5





In A World I Never Made, American Pat Nolan is called to Paris to claim the body of his daughter Megan. Apparently Megan was suffering from cancer and commited suicide.
Megan had been traveling the world working as a freelance journalist for many years and Pat went for long stretches of time without seeing her. Pat raised Megan alone because her mother died during childbirth.
However, when Pat sees the body, he knows right away it is not his daughter. For some reason Megan faked her death and Pat is trying to find out why she did it and where she is now.

Pat looked into Annabella Jeritza's eyes and then down at his hands. He had used these hands to do and fix many things. Move the earth with a giant machine, tear apart and rebuild a car engine, make a soda box wagon for Megan. He sometimes thought that whatever he was good for in life was contained in his hands. But now he had entered the territory of the broken heart, which hands could not repair.

With the help of a beautiful Parisian detective Catherine Laurence, Pat goes on a hunt to find his daughter. Slowly but surely, startling secrets are revealed about Megans life.


As the book goes on you get glimpses into Megans life. She met a Saudi businessman named Abdel Lahani and began to have an affair with him. What Megan doesn't realize is the danger she has put herself into because of her connection to Abdel.




I really enjoyed A World I Never Made. There were alot of plot twists and turns. I liked Pat's chracter and I was quickly drawn into the story.

If you're in the mood for a suspenseful story with interesting characters, pick this one up.


Special thanks to Lisa at TLC Booktours




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Now onto author James Lepore's guest post.




Naida,


You have kindly said I could feel free to post whatever I like, so here goes.

“When women stop reading, the novel well be dead.” Ian McEwan, novelist.

I have been thinking lately about the fact that women make up 70% of the fiction readers in the world and wondering what effect this will have on me and the career I would like to have as a novelist. Reasons for the women-read-more-fiction phenomenon abound: women have more advanced mirror neurons (some kind of nerve endings behind the eyes), which make them more empathetic; women are genetically engineered to be more in touch with their own emotions and therefore are more willing to make the emotional commitment required to engage with other people, in the real as well as the fictional world; girls do better at reading/writing assignments in school because they are more patient and this carries over into adulthood. Whatever the reason, it’s a hard fact that women read much more fiction than men.


What does this mean for me, a male novelist? Can I compete with the many extremely popular female writers out there? I don’t know. I take heart from the fact that of the twenty or so good reviews of A World I Never Made, ninety percent are by women. One or two have commented on the well-drawn female characters in the novel. (There are two, Megan Nolan, the beautiful, cynical young woman who fakes her suicide because she is on the run from some very bad people; and Catherine Laurence, a French detective who shakes off her sadness to help Megan’s father, Pat, track her down). We all have traits or “sides,” as they say, that are thought more traditionally to belong to the opposite sex. Maybe I have a feminine side that gives me insight into women, or at least helps me describe the workings of their hearts with some credibility. Or maybe it’s because there came a point in my life when, after much resistance— dumb guy that I was—I finally began to grapple with, rather than avoid, my own feelings.


I don’t know the answer. I do know that, as a man, I like action as a means of resolving problems. I do not see the point of dithering when a decision has to be made. However, I understand that it is the heart that has to be looked to—and listened to—when deciding what action to take. Megan Nolan had a huge heart-driven reason for doing what she did, as did Pat and Catherine. To me, listening to the heart is a human thing, not a gender thing. It is the first thing we have to learn how to do in order to grow as human beings. And I hope this idea—how crucial it is that we listen to our hearts—is what people—men and women—take away from A World I Never Made, and anything else I am fortunate enough to get into print in the future.




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Thank you Mr. Lepore for stopping by my blog today!
I totally agree when you say: 'listening to the heart is a human thing, not a gender thing'




About the author:


Jim Lepore practiced law (civil trial work) in New Jersey for over twenty years and then sold the practice so he could write and take pictures full time. Some of his photography can be seen at nakedeyeimages.com.

photo above is courtesy of stager57



Mailbox Mondays


A wonderful book arrived at my doorstep this week. I look forward to reading it!





Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

This is an ARC, the book will be released on August 25, 2009.

The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways–and with unexpected consequences–in acclaimed author Dan Chaon’s gripping, brilliantly written new novel.


Longing to get on with his life, Miles Cheshire nevertheless can’t stop searching for his troubled twin brother, Hayden, who has been missing for ten years. Hayden has covered his tracks skillfully, moving stealthily from place to place, managing along the way to hold down various jobs and seem, to the people he meets, entirely normal. But some version of the truth is always concealed.


A few days after graduating from high school, Lucy Lattimore sneaks away from the small town of Pompey, Ohio, with her charismatic former history teacher. They arrive in Nebraska, in the middle of nowhere, at a long-deserted motel next to a dried-up reservoir, to figure out the next move on their path to a new life. But soon Lucy begins to feel quietly uneasy.


My whole life is a lie, thinks Ryan Schuyler, who has recently learned some shocking news. In response, he walks off the Northwestern University campus, hops on a bus, and breaks loose from his existence, which suddenly seems abstract and tenuous. Presumed dead, Ryan decides to remake himself–through unconventional and precarious means.


Await Your Reply is a literary masterwork with the momentum of a thriller, an unforgettable novel in which pasts are invented and reinvented and the future is both seductively uncharted and perilously unmoored.

Happy Sunday everyone. And Happy Father's Day to add the dads out there! We took hubby out to his favorite restaurant today for some Spanish cuisine. Then after filling our bellies we went for a nice walk.




I can't believe it's already June 20th. I feel like the summer is flying by. Sadly, we haven't had that much warm weather here, I haven't even taken the kids to the beach yet, it's been too cold and rainy. We even had hail last week.

Hopefully we'll get some warmer weather soon and it will start feeling like summer.



As far as reading goes, this past week I read and reviewed:

The Convenient Marriage, which I enjoyed very much.







I'm currently reading:


Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict









A World I Never Made









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








And having been inspired by ScrapGirl who posts pictures of her beautiful garden, here are a few photos of my garden so far.


When we bought our house nearly 5 years ago, there was no garden in the backyard and I wanted one badly. So I went out a bought a few plants and started digging. I enjoy digging in the dirt, I find it relaxing for some reason..lol. And it's great to see the results. Each year I add a new plant to my garden. I like the perennials that come back year after year.
I fell in love with these Asiatic Lilies and hubby bought me 4 plants, all different colors.
As the years passed, the orange ones took over. Each year they blossom in June and are very pretty.












A few weeks ago I bought this little tree, it's a tropical plant and it's supposed to blossom with bright yellow flowers. I planted it in a container because it began to die in my garden. It's doing better now. The kids named it 'Tropicana'...lol.
We almost lost Tropicana during the hail storm last week. I had to bring her inside to wait it out.




You can see the hail in this photo, all the icy looking balls:









This is my little rosebush, it gives bright pink flowers.










As you can see by this photo, Diego is perfectly content romping thru the yard. I caught him here sneaking around.





Enjoy your Sunday everyone.