“Why would anyone say this stuff about themselves on the Internet? It's crazy!”

Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler have teamed up and written a wonderful teen novel called "The Future of Us."  Here's what it's about:

"It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present"

Such a clever concept and one that is so prevalent in today's day and age!  Asher and Mackler's writing styles flow nicely together and they have created characters that you are interested in and rooting for in Emma and Josh.  I read this in a day and really enjoyed it.  While I would say this is a fairly light read, there are some profound moments in the novel.  One of my favourite scenes happens between Emma and her best girl friend Kellan when they are talking about boys.


“Emma:“He broke your heart! How can you call it love when he hurt you so badly?”
Kellan:“It was love because it was worth it.”

That sums it up nicely I say.

“I guess it goes to show that you just never know where life will take you. You search for answers. You wonder what it all means. You stumble, and you soar. And, if you’re lucky, you make it to Paris for a while.”

Ever since I returned from a vacation in Paris, I have been consumed by a desire to read books about the city of lights.  I recently came across a biography by Amy Thomas, "Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Lights (and Dark Chocolate)" and immediately grabbed it.  A very sweet (pun intended!) story about Thomas and her move from New York to Paris for work.  She gets a dream job working as a writer for a fashion house in Paris and decides this is a sign that she is meant to see how living in her favourite city is.  What makes Thomas' story even more enticing is that she is a dessert junkie and this memoir not only chronicles her life in Paris but the many many wonderful sweets that she eats while she is there.  She does a compare and contrast of the desserts she fines in Paris with the ones from New York, ranging from chocolate chip cookies, to macarons, to cakes, and to hot chocolate.  I was pretty much drooling the entire time I was reading this yummy memoir!  An added bonus is that she lists her favourite spots in both cities so if you are going to visit either then you know just where to go to get your favourite sweet treats! Another thing that was really great about this memoir was that it often talks about how Thomas is taking a chance making this move and how sometimes we have to take the leap to find what it is we really want and need in life.  She quotes Joseph Campbell at the beginning and I want to share the quotation she uses because I just think it is fantastic:

"And I have the firm belief in this now, not only in terms of my own experience but in knowing about the experience of others, that when you follow your bliss, door will open where you would not have thought there were going to be doors and where there wouldn't be a door for anybody else. If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living"

 A fun and light summer read and definitely one that will make you hungry!

Archie Andrews is all Grown Up!

A couple Christmas' ago, I got a great collection of Archie comics called The Married Life.  It told two parallel stories of what happens to the town of Riverdale and all the gang if Archie married Betty vs. if Archie married Veronica.  It was a really cool idea and for a Archie fan such as myself (I had stacks of these comics when I was younger!) it was very nostalgic.  I recently found out that they have created more comics following the married life of Archie and his two best gals and I got the opportunity to read two volumes which goes into more detail about what happens to the two very different Andrews families from the time they get married.  This critically acclaimed series (called by some the best comic writing in years) is fantastic and so much fun to read!  Whose team will you be on? Team Veronica or Team Betty?  I've personally always been a fan of Betty (her being a blond like me!) but I had someone recently lay this tidbit on me that has gotten me thinking: Betty is too good for Archie; Archie and Veronica deserve each other.  What do you think?  Whatever team you are rooting for, this is definitely a series to check out, especially if you want to revisit Riverdale!

Recent Reads

I haven't posted in awhile! Life has been to busy apparently! However, no matter how busy I am, I always have time to read a good book and I have read some excellent books lately!  Here's are several that I have read in the last month that I think you should know about:

Daring to Dream by Nora Roberts
The first book in her Dream Trilogy, it tells the story of Margo, the wild child who left home at a young age and now returns to the small town she grew up in to try to get her life back together.  Being a Nora Roberts novel, there is naturally a romantic element.  A definite beach read.

Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster
Love Love Love Jen Lancaster! Her most recent memoir chronicles, as she eloquently puts it, how "one reluctant adult attempts to unarrest her arrested development; or, why it's never to late for her dumb ass to learn why Froot Loops are not for dinner."  Not my favourite of her's (that would be "Bright Lights, Big Ass") but still a very fun read.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
The hot memoir of the summer (so far), this is a very very funny, and at times horrific, read.  I enjoyed the first half the most where Lawson shared stories of growing up with a taxidermist for a dad.  A few of her stories had me howling with laughter and causing my husband concern about my sanity.  Loved it.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Such a beautifully written and incredibly moving novel.  This tells the story of 5 incredible  women in 70 CE.  During this time, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on a mountain in the Judean desert, Masada.  According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived.  This is Hoffman's telling of this story and it is just fabulous.  A great read for the summer.

A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker
I really liked this book because I a) Love Venice, and b) love art history, especially the Renaissance period.  If you are thinking, :hmm that sounds like me!" then you should pick this one up! 

Goddess of Legend
Warrior Rising
Both by P.C. Cast
These are two books in Cast's Goddess Summoning Series.  One of my favourite fun, fast, and sexy series! Cast puts a really fun spin on ancient myths and the Greek gods, these two dealing with the Trojan War and the legend of King Arthur and Camelot.  Other books in the series include:

Goddess of the Sea
Goddess of Spring
Goddess of Light
Goddess of the Rose
Goddess of Love

The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer
Reading Georgette Heyer is always a delight.  This one was lots of fun!  This tells the story of Sir Richard Wyndham who finds himself running away from a potential marriage with a beautiful young fugitive, who he finds climbing from her window by knotted sheets, who is also looking to escape a marriage of her own.

The Council of Mirrors (Sisters Grimm #9) by Micheal Buckly
The final book in the amazing young reader series, The Sisters Grimm.  I love this series and always recommend it to younger readers.  Lots of fun, great characters, well written, and full of fun illustrations.  This was a great finish to a great series.

Upcoming Summer and Fall Releases

Lots of great stuff is coming out in the remainder of 2012! Here are just a few titles I'm looking
forward to!  All the blurbs telling you briefly what each book is about are courtesy of Goodreads.  Also, I have not included a blurb if it gives to much of the series away, if you haven't checked out one of these series then you definitely don't want spoilers!


Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) By Deborah Harkness
Coming July 10th 2012 
"Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel, A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy and an international publishing phenomenon. The novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782.
Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens."

City of Swords (Stravaganza # 6) By Mary Hoffman
Coming Augusts 21st 2012
I have been a fan of this series for years and these are some of my favourite books from my childhood.  I still love reading about the Stravaganza's and their adventures and love when a new book and characters arrives! (Though I must say that the new covers are not nearly as cool as the original ones, they had sparkles!)

"Desperately unhappy, Laura has resorted to secretly self-harming. But Laura is a Stravagante, somebody who can travel in time and space. When she finds her talisman, a small silver dagger, she stravagates with it to sixteenth-century Fortezza, a town similar to Lucca in Italy, where she meets her Stravagante, who is a swordsmith. But Laura also meets the charming and attractive Ludo, and falls for him. Their love for each other is tested when Ludo lays claim to the crown of Fortezza, and Laura finds herself fighting on the side of the Stravaganti opposing him"

Delusions in Death (In Death #35) By J.D. Robb
Coming September 11th 2012
It's always good news when a new Eve and Roarke book is coming out!

"It was just another after-work happy-hour bar downtown, where business professionals unwound with a few drinks . . .until something went terribly wrong. And after twelve minutes of chaos and violence, eighty people lay dead.
Lieutenant Eve Dallas is trying to sort out the inexplicable events. Surviving witnesses talk about seeing things—monsters and swarms of bees. They describe sudden, overwhelming feelings of fear and rage and paranoia. When forensics gives its report, the mass delusions make more sense: It appears the bar patrons were exposed to a cocktail of chemicals and illegal drugs that could drive anyone to temporary insanity—if not kill them outright.
But that doesn’t explain who would unleash such horror—or why. And if Eve can’t figure it out fast, it could happen again, anytime, anywhere. Because it’s airborne. . . . "


The Diviners (The Diviners #1) By Libba Bray
Coming September 18th 2012
I have loved every book by Libba Bray so I'm pretty pumped that she is starting up a new series! Hurray!

"Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult--also known as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies."
When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he doesn't catch her first"

Rebel Heart (Dust Lands #2) By Moira Young
Coming October 30th 2012
Her debut novel, Blood Red Road, was fantastic and in fact just won the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize!  Part western, part romance, part futuristic, I just loved it!  The sequel will hopefully be just as good!



Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2) By Laini Taylor
Coming November 6th 2012
Daughter of Smoke and Bone was one of my favorite books from last year so I'm really looking forward to continuing this story!

The Perfect Hope (Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy #3) By Nora Roberts
Coming November 6th 2012
Like her Brides Quartet, Roberts' Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy is just lovely.  With strong female, romantic and manly men, and a charming town full of delightful characters, this is a great 'comfort read' series.

"The Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother are breathing new life into the town of Boonsboro, Maryland, by restoring its historic hotel. And they’re finding their own lives revamped by love. This is Ryder’s story... Ryder is the hardest Montgomery brother to figure out — with a tough-as-nails outside and possibly nothing too soft underneath. He’s surly and unsociable, but when he straps on a tool belt, no woman can resist his sexy swagger. Except apparently Hope Beaumont, the innkeeper of his own Inn BoonsBoro. And though the Inn is running smoothly, thanks to Hope’s experience and unerring instincts, her big-city past is about to make an unwelcome — and embarrassing — appearance. Seeing Hope vulnerable stirs up Ryder’s emotions and makes him realize that while Hope may not be perfect, she just might be perfect for him..."

Reached (Matched #3) By Ally Condie
Coming November 13th 2012
I loved the first one in the series and found the second one so-so so this means that I'm really interested to see how she wraps up this series.

“Like a wild animal, the truth is too powerful to remain caged.”

Having loved Veronica Roth's debut novel Divergent, I was super psyched to get my hands on the sequel Insurgent.  One of the things that I really love about this series is that it's not afraid to 'go there' (I can't think of a better way to describe it!)  This series deals with a lot of violence and Roth explores these themes in a realistic yet not to graphic manner, which is really important in capturing the essence of the characters in the Dauntless Faction as well as the other Factions and how they interact together.

It took me longer to get into Insurgent then Divergent.  With the first book, I dived right in and didn't come up for air until I was done reading.  With the sequel, I found that there were ups and down.  By the time I had finished I was demanding the next book (oh cliffhanger endings, how I love / hate you!) but alas, I, like the rest of the world, will have to wait.  You might be asking, why such issues with this book? Why couldn't you get as excited right away like you did with Divergent?  And the answer is this: things were getting a bit too teen melodramatic for me...By this I mean I was actually mentally preparing myself for scenes right out of the Twilight series (minus the vampires), complete with googly eyes and longing looks.  But oh happy day, I worried over nothing!  Things righted themselves just when they needed to and I wasn't left with a sad face, shaking my head.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this series wraps up!  It's been a good one!

“To take my work seriously would be the height of folly.” - Edward Gorey

Looking for something quirky to read?  I just read Edward Gorey's Amphigorey Again and it definitely fits that criteria.  This is his fourth collection in his Amphigorey series (Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too, and Amphigorey Also)  and is full of 29 stories.  You may be asking, who exactly is Edward Gorey?  He was an author and artist who is specifically known for his delightful macabre picture books.  If you are looking for a good introduction to his work then I recommend this collection since it includes an excellent assortment of his stories and drawings.  While his stories aren't for everyone (be warned when I say quirky, I mean it! They often don't make a lot of sense and keep you puzzled after you have finished.  If you are a Lewis Carroll fan then you will LOVE Edward Gorey!) his pictures are absolutely amazing.  Here are a few drawings from my favourite story 'Neglected Murderesses":

 

"Miss Q.P. Urkheimer brained her fiance after failing to pick up an easy spare at Glover's Lanes, Poxville, Kansa, 1936."

"Nurse J. Rosebeetle tilted her employer out of a Bath chair and over a cliff at Sludgemouth in 1898."

Aren't his illustrations amazing?? These examples aren't the best quality but if you google Edward Gorey then you will find a great assortment of pictures.  Check him out!

Good News Everyone!

More exciting news to share with regards to that well know author J.K. Rowling!
First of all, she has a new book coming out this fall.....now before you ask:

No, it is not a Harry Potter Book.
No, it does not contain magic.
No, it is not written for children.

Yes Rowling is taking a leap into the world of adult fiction and is trying her hand at writing a book aimed at an older audience.  The Casual Vacancy will be available on Thursday September 27th 2012.  Here's the blurb that has been released:

"When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults. " (http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/TheCasualVacancy)

So what do we think? I will read it because I simply can't not read it but a party of me does ache at the thought of reading a book by her that does not follow the adventures of Harry and friends....

Speaking of them....Here is the second piece of Rowling news!

This was recently published on her website in the FAQ section:

Question: What about the Harry Potter Encyclopedia? (side note: Rowling had mentioned at some point that she hoped to one day write and publish this)

"For a long time I have been promising an encyclopaedia of Harry’s world, and I have started work on this – some of it forms the new content in Pottermore. It is likely to be a time-consuming job, but when finished I shall donate all royalties to charity." (http://www.jkrowling.com/en_US/#/about-jk-rowling/faqs-and-rumours)

Let the excited squealing begin!

"Ellen was asked to record the new steamy novel "50 Shades of Grey" for the audio book. Things didn't go according to plan."

"Proof that 'I was here, and I made my mark' "

"In 1855, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote to his publisher, complaining about the irritating fad of “scribbling women.” Whether they were written by professionals, by women who simply wanted to connect with others, or by those who wanted to leave a record of their lives, those “scribbles” are fascinating, informative, and instructive." (Goodreads page for Scribbling Women)


I loved Scribbling Women by Marthe Jocelyn.  I have always been interested in looking at different historical events and periods of time through the perspective of women so when I first found out about this book I was immediately interested.  This book was fantastic!  One of my favourite things about it was that I had never heard of any of the eleven women whose stories were told and yet as I learned about each of them, I found myself wondering why on earth hadn't I heard of them??  Each have such amazing stories to tell and have had some sort of historical impact on the world we live in today.  Take Nellie Bly for instance; she was the first female undercover reporter! The things she did to get her story are incredible, especially when you consider that she was the first one to do it!  And Daisy Ashford; she was an author who stopped writing at the age of 14 and whose novel The Young Visiters is still in print and popular today! After reading this book, I have found myself with a large list of books that I now want to read so I can found out more about these 'scribbling women'.


Here are the women whose stories are told in Jocelyn's book:
Sei Shonagon
Margaret Catchpole
Mary Hayden Russell
Harriet Ann Jacobs
Isabella Beeton
Mary Kingsley
Nellie Bly
Daisy Ashford
Ada Blackjack
Dang Thuy Tram
Doris Pilkington Garimara

Books on Film

There are lots of great videos on YouTube that involve books and the literary world.  Here are a few recent favourites that make me smile :)

Many beloved literary characters (Pinocchio, Captain Ahab, Little Miss Chatterbox, Black Beauty, and Raggedy Ann and Andy, just to name a few!) get together to "rally people behind the Book People Unite movement and help get books in the hands of kids who need them the most" (YouTube blur).  Features a lovely song produced by The Roots and features the vocal talents of Jack Black, Chris Martin, John Legend, Regina Spektor, and more!
For more info on the movement, visit the website: Book People Unite

If you have 15 minutes to spare then I really recommend that you watch this!  The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 2011 and it was a well deserved win! Such a charming story, I laughed and cried while watching this visually delightful film.