King Arthur Movie Tristan

It's Sunday and Hurricane Irene has passed us by last night and early this morning. Thankfully she left us unhurt.

We spent the night huddled in our living room with our candles and flashlights ready. We pulled out our air mattress and sleeping bags, made popcorn and watched a movie to try and keep the kids from worrying much. Thankfully, we didn't lose power. We had was lots of rain and strong winds. The storm has passed, now the worry is the flooding.





I did stay up till the wee hours of the morning reading, since I was too nervous about the storm to get much sleep.

The storm scared me, but scary stories don't. I was reading IT as part of Serena and Anna's Stephen King’s IT Read-a-Long. The heavy rains and wind last night made for the perfect setting as I cuddled up and read. Tomorrow I'm posting part one of the read-a-long discussion.

















On a sad note, Weekly Geeks is coming to an end. I will miss it, I did enjoy participating over the years.

This will be the final Weekly Geeks "assignment"...share one of the following on your blog:



* If you knew Dewey - a favorite memory of her, or one of your favorite "events" which was Dewey-inspired.

My favorite Dewey Inspired events were her Read-A-Thon and her Knit-A-Long. She had a knack from creating events that drew bloggers in and created a feeling of community.



When I started this blog in 2007, Dewey was one of the first people to stop by and comment.
It's sad to see her Weekly Geeks come to an end, but nothing lasts forever.











That's all for now, enjoy your Sunday and happy reading.

Hello everyone. I'm baaaaack ;)



I've got tons of catching up to do as far as blogging and reviewing goes, so you'll see me around the blog-o-sphere.
Tomorrow my review of Sons and Princes by James Lepore will be up. I finished reading this one while on vacation.







My week away with my family was fantastic. We spent the week at beautiful Lake George in Upstate NY and have completely fallen in love with the place. We hope to make it our yearly summer vacation spot. It was the perfect family vacation and we got to spend lots of quality time together. The photo above was our view every morning from the cabin on the lake. (click on the photo to get a better view, the picture really doesn't do it justice) I took nearly 300 photos. I hope to feature some on my Wordless Wednesday posts.


I hope everyone is well and enjoying their summer and their reading.

Happy Father's Day to the dads and Happy Sunday to everyone. First I have to apologize for being MIA since last week.

I've been very busy this past week and have barely had a minute to get online and blog. I feel like the minute I get to sit and relax, I find something else I need to do. Hopefully I'll be able to play catch up and see what everyone has been up to lately.





I have managed to get some reading in and will be reviewing both Trace of Fever and Losing Beauty this week. Author Johanna Garth will be here for an interview soon as well.





On a non-bookish note, the photo above is of my Tiger Lillies which are in full bloom. I'll leave you with a few more photos of my garden. I took these with my iTouch this weekend.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Good morning everyone. I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday.

Yesterday my son celebrated his 15th birthday. I know I always say it, but where does the time go? Luckily we had nice weather yesterday for his birthday bbq here at home with friends and family. He's at the age where he doesn't want presents for his birthday, he wants money because he's saving up for his car. When my son starts driving, I think I might need to be sedated. Just at first maybe it might help me to relax...lol. I just can't get over the fact that he's a 'guy'. Know what I mean? And he does everyday guy things like ride his bike to the park to play basketball, and hang out with his guy friends.

My son's a young man now, no longer a baby :(
Okay, I'll stop now so I don't start to cry.





On a bookish note, I've had a busy reading week, coming soon in reviews:

My review for When You Dare by Lori Foster will be up this Tuesday. It was a romantic suspense book whose hero was pure Alpha male with a softer side.



My review of Queen By Right by Anne Easter Smith will be up on May 26th. Talk about fantastic historical fiction!




I recently read the story story The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen and will be posting about it this week as well.



In the mail this week I received a copy of Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workbook which I'll be reviewing soon as part of a blog tour. I've already started making a few of the squares.



I'd also like to mention that author and fellow blogger Johanna Garth's book is now available in eformat. Congratulations to Johanna! You can purchase your copy of Losing Beauty at amazon and barnes and nobles.




Child abuse, cross-dressing, theft, adultery—people in Persey Campbell’s town have terrible secrets and she is the unfortunate repository for all of them. What she can’t figure out is why everyone is so desperate to tell her their worst secrets.

Daniel Hartnett is a lawyer who has it all. People think he’s lucky. What they don’t understand is Daniel has a crap-o-meter that lets him hear the meanings behind other people’s words. He used to think his crap-o-meter was a gift from God. It made him successful with his career and women. Except now he’d like to meet someone and settle down and he can’t turn his crap-o-meter off. As long as it’s on, there are no surprises, no rush of anticipation and no falling in love.

When Daniel meets Persey he discovers the first girl he’s ever met who is immune to his special talent. The only problem is someone else discovered Persey first and is hell-bent on claiming her as his own. Haden is the king of the Underworld with a plan to make Persey his immortal queen. What Haden doesn’t plan on is Persey’s unique ability to compel secrets and how far the people who love Persey will go to protect her from the inner darkness that threatens to destroy her soul.

That's all for now, enjoy your Sunday :) What are you up to?

Hello everyone, I'm back from hiatus :)

I enjoyed my time off and caught up on some reading and reviews during this very rainy week. I have three book reviews ready to post in the next few days. I'll keep the book titles a surprise. What I will say is that they are all different genres, from literary fiction to a zombie spoof, to dystopian fiction, and I hope you will enjoy my reviews.



I missed you all, and though I will be catching up on my blog visits, I won't be able to view every single post. That being said, if you guys have posts that you don't want me to miss out on (i.e. you are pregnant or have been abducted by an alien, or have met Gerard Butler), please let me know in my comment section and I'll make sure to get to those posts asap.



I'll leave you with a bit of what I've been up to this past week.



Playing on my ITouch. Although I'm still addicted to AngryBirds, I found this cool free app called ToonPaint where you can take a photo and give it a comic style look.







Eating molten chocolate lava cake from Chili's. This is quite possibly on my top five favorite deserts. The chocolate cake is warm, and filled with melted fudge. Then it's topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and covered in caramel and a chocolate shell. Droolworthy.







Going out to dinner at a Puerto Rican restaurant/lounge with my sister in NYC for one of her friends birthdays. It was really nice, the food and the sangria were yummy. This is the Spanish soup I ordered for an appetizer, called sancocho, which is a mix of beef and root vegetables.





Is this not the biggest slab of pork you have ever seen? I was in shock when it arrived at my table, of course I took most of it home. The meat I ordered is called pernil, and it's usually shredded pork served with rice and beans, not an entire slab of meat like this...lol.



I didn't know the size of that thing when I ordered it, you'd think the waitress would warn me. I love how they randomly stuck a sprig on top of the pork....lol.
If you visit the restaurant's website, you'll hear exactly how it sounds to be inside that place. ;P





Well, those are my random updates on the past ten days. Enjoy your Sunday. What are you up to?

It's Sunday, the weather is beautiful and I've been reading alot this past week.
Coming up this week is my long due review of Denise K. Rago's paranormal romance called Immortal Obsession, which I really enjoyed and am eager to share my thoughts on it with all of you.




I've been recently invited to join Amazon Vine, which is a cool program where you chose 2 products a month for free as long as you review them on Amazon afterwards. Kind of like Librarything, only Amazon's program includes non bookish products as well. Of course, this past month I couldn't resist the books, so I requested America Pacifica (dystopian/science fiction) and Those That Wake (science fiction/horror). Both arrived already and are ARC's which I'm very eager to delve into.








I'm off now to catch up on reviews and do some blog hopping.

What are you all up to? Enjoy your Sunday :)


I'll leave you all with a little Ray Lamontagne today. I just love him.

Happy Sunday everyone.


First off, I'd like to say I have to peel myself away from watching CNN and MSNBC news on the disaster in Japan. How very awful and completely terrifying. My heart goes out to them.



I've spent most of the weekend relaxing. Luckily the weather here has been very mild so I was able to take Diego out for a walk and some fresh air without bundling him up in his sweater and coat.

We lost an hour here due to Daylight Savings Time so I'll be kind of cranky in the mornings for a few weeks because losing that hour always throws me off.



I've been reading Gideon’s Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.



I have to say, the book is moving along quickly, it's a suspense thriller. My review should be up this week.



I made a trip to Border's with my daughter yesterday, I'll showcase our new books tomorrow on my Mailbox Monday post.



Other than that, nothing else is new. How's your Sunday going?

Good morning Sunday Saloners. I've been reading a lot of short stories online lately.
Maybe it's because I have a short attention span, but I've always enjoyed a good short story. It's like a quick dose of fiction I can savor, and have a small sense of accomplishment after I'm done reading. Some of my favorite short stories are actually Edgar Allan Poe's work, he always sets the mood perfectly and his stories give a good dose of the macabre. I've also been reading some of Kate Chopin's work, I've been a fan of hers since reading The Awakening.






What about you? Do you enjoy reading short stories? What are some of your favorites?
I will leave you with a review of a short story I recently read called
The Storm by Kate Chopin.



Enjoy your Sunday :)





title: The Storm


author: Kate Chopin


genre: short story/fiction


written: 1898


source: http://www.americanliterature.com/


first line: The leaves were so still that even Bibi thought it was going to rain.





Set in Louisiana, The Storm
opens with young Bibi and his father Bobinôt, at the general store.


Clouds and thunder start to form announcing an upcoming rain storm. Bibi worries over his mother who is home alone, but his father assures him she will be safe inside the house, while they wait out the storm at the store.




Calixta is home alone when the storm starts to develop. She puts her sewing down and goes outside to gather the laundry from the line so it won't get rained on when she sees her old flame Alcée Laballière ride in. Calixta allows him inside her home to wait out the downpour.




Once he is inside the storm really starts to get bad and Calixta begins to worry for her son. Laballière tries to assure her that her son will be just fine and tries to calm her down, grabbing her by the shoulders at one point.

The contact of her warm, palpitating body when he had unthinkingly drawn her into his arms, had aroused all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh.

In the middle of this torrential downpour, the two old flames reignite and they have a passionate encounter. After they are done, the storm passes and Laballière rides off to his home. He writes a letter to his own wife, who is away on a trip with their children telling her he misses her but is doing fine himself and she needn't rush home.



Calixtas husband and son arrive soon after, worried that she will be upset at them for being out in the storm and worrying her. Instead Calixta is happy to see them and has started dinner already. She covers her son and husband with kisses.








Funny thing about The Storm is that I read it many years ago and didn't realize until now it was Kate Chopin who wrote it. The story intrigued me then and it still does.




I can see why The Storm would be considered scandalous in Chopin's day. She wrote it in 1898 but it was not published until 1969, sixty-five years after her death.
Nowadays we are used to romance novels and this type of passionate writing is common.

The generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his own sensuous nature that had never yet been reached.

These two people are overtaken by their passion, the storm itself is metaphor for that intensity.

She went and stood at the window with a greatly disturbed look on her face. She wiped the frame that was clouded with moisture. It was stiflingly hot. Alcée got up and joined her at the window, looking over her shoulder. The rain was coming down in sheets obscuring the view of far-off cabins and enveloping the distant wood in a gray mist. The playing of the lightning was incessant.

The Storm
is passionate and intense. Kate Chopin was not afraid to write about a woman who had a whirlwind affair and enjoyed it. Calixta suffered no guilt, neither did Laballière. As the storm built so did their desire. I wonder if there were no storm, would the affair have occurred?



They both enjoyed their tumultuous sexual encounter, neither judging the other for it. Chopin wrote this at a time when women weren't even supposed to have sexual desires, let alone act upon them. Chopin was way ahead of her time.

Hello blogging friends, I hope those of you who celebrate had a wonderful Christmas.
I love this time of year, spent with family and friends, but I am glad when it's finally over. It's so hectic at times with all the hustle and bustle.



We had a very nice Christmas here. Christmas eve I was very busy cooking and baking up a storm here at home. My sister came to visit and the two of us wound up having a glass of wine after dinner and watching Love Actually while the children played. Christmas Day we all gathered at my mom's house and had a really nice time with good food and family.



Santa was indeed very good to me, he got me the Canon Powershot camera, which I love. I was in need of a new camera badly. Hubby went a picked out a great one.





My son gave me a barnes and nobles gift card and a book light. His gift made me tear up of course.

The children were so excited on Christmas morning, they woke hubby and myself up at around 7am. Santa was good to them too. My daughter requested all things Justin Bieber. I'm sooooo waiting for her to get over the whole J.B. thing. I don't tell her but I think Justin Bieber is one of the most annoying people on the planet at the moment...lol.





Here are a few photos I took with my new camera :) The one above is of Diego yesterday while I was walking him.



This is Diego mid-yawn on Christmas morning as the children were opening their gifts. He looks like he's laughing.






These are my fruit tarts. I make these every Christmas. If anyone is interested, the recipe is no-bake and really simple.

All you need are the prepared graham cracker crusts. The little ones that come in tin foil cups. You can find them in the baking section at the supermarket.
You take one can of sweetened condensed milk and one bar of Philadelphia cream cheese.

In a bowl, blend the condensed milk and cream cheese with an electric mixer. Keep blending it well until it's smooth and creamy. I like to break up the cream cheese first with a spoon for easier blending. Once it's nice and smooth, add in a tablespoon of lemon juice, to offset the sweetness a bit. Blend it some more.
Then spoon the filling into the cups and refrigerate at least three hours or until the filling is somewhat firm. I prefer to leave them overnight to set. Right before serving, top with a bit of fruit. I like to use raspberries. Viola :)





Here is Diego sitting on my sons lap. He's wearing his Christmas tee shirt that says 'sweet' on the back.





This is my sisters Morkie (maltese yorkie) named Archie. He refuses to stay still for a second for a photo. But I did manage to snap a pic, though blurry because he was shaking his head. Archie and Diego are BFF.






Hubby and I :)










And now that Christmas is over, we are awaiting the first snow storm of the season.
The white stuff started falling already and is supposed to continue throughout tomorrow morning (just in time for my Monday morning commute). I'll be sure to take some pics with my new camera and post them in the upcoming week. Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

Happy Sunday everyone. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. The cool Fall weather is here and it's such a nice change from the sweltering heat of these past summer months. There's something comforting about cool Fall days and I always enjoy sitting home with my cup of tea wrapped up in a blanket with my current read.





However, it seems I've hit a minor reading slump these few weeks. The last book I read and reviewed was The Life O'Reilly over two weeks ago, which I really loved. I've been stuck on Dean Koontz' Relentless since then, and am really struggling to finish it. I've got around 50 pages left. I'm sad to say I'm not enjoying it as much as I'd like to, but I don't want to make it a DNF.
I've also been reading and reviewing short stories by Poe and King, which I've enjoyed.
Once I'm finished with Relentless I can't wait to start Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine. I think it will be refreshing to get into a different genre.





On another note, Oprah has announced her new book club pick, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.



I will be getting a copy. The books I have read from Oprah's book club picks, I've enjoyed alot and some have even become favorites, like The Poisonwood Bible, She's Come Undone and A New Earth.





Coming up this week: My review of Relentless and a guest post by author Simon Wood.



I hope you enjoy your Sunday. What are you up to today?