ANNOUNCING NEW BOOK SELECTION FOR TUESBOOKTALK BOOK GROUP

TuesBookTalk on Twitter, every Tuesday @ 10:30 pm ET/9:30 pm CT. This Tuesday, August 10th we will start our discussion of The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. Read Chapters 1-7 for this week's chat (about 50 pages). Hashtag to follow is #TuesBookTalk

About the book: Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations. Now the disappearance of two women is bringing Towner back home to Salem--and is bringing to light the shocking truth about the death of her twin sister.

Hope you will join us!

READ YOUR OWN BOOKS READ-A-THON

Okay...proceed with the rolling of the eyes! Yes, I'm doing another read-a-thon.  This one is being hosted by Monica at The Bibliophilic Book Blog.  The beauty of this read-a-thon is that you must read books you have bought yourself or that you already own.  This is going to do wonders for my reading challenges, as most of the books I'm reading for them are books I already own! And, no offense to anyone, but this will be a nice break from reading review books.  When the read-a-thon is over, I will return to my review books fully refreshed!

I'm not foreseeing any obstacles in the way of my reading other than Saturday I will go out for a few hours with my Mom to our monthly library sale and out to eat.  Maybe I can get Mom to participate too! If you would like to join in on the fun, just click the button above or in my left sidebar to go sign up. 

The read-a-thon starts at 9am Friday, August 13th and will go until 9am Monday, August 16th.

I will be posting my list later on in the week...stay tuned!

REVIEW--ECLIPSE...BOOK AND MOVIE

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
finished reading on July 9, 2010

My thoughts on the book:

Eclipse is my favorite book so far in the Twilight series.  Although the first one will always hold a special place in my heart (and New Moon is my least favorite because Edward is hardly in it), in my opinion, Eclipse really deals with raw emotion in a very tangible way.  Have you ever been involved in a love triangle?  I have (years ago...when I was a young chick) and it can get pretty intense.  Although mine was not nearly as intense as the one between Bella, Edward and Jacob! I read a review of the movie on another blog and she expressed the feeling that Jacob was a whiner.  I tend to agree with her...and in the book too.  Which makes things even more difficult for Bella.  Sorry Team Jacob! Anyway, why I think Eclipse is so great is that I felt the raw emotion viscerally.  Almost like I was Bella herself.  It was very real and made me think constantly, "How can you choose between your heart and your head?"  Because, ultimately, Edward has Bella's heart...he IS her heart...but she knows in her head that Jacob would probably be better for her.  The choice to me is simple.  When someone you love hurts you, you don't really feel it in your head, you feel it in your heart.  So what would be your choice?

Side note:  I am a great lover of all things historical so I loved the background stories of Jasper and Rosalee.  This was another reason why I loved this book so well!

My thoughts on the movie:

I liked the movie for pretty much the same reasons that I liked the book.  I enjoyed seeing the awkwardness of the love triangle on the big screen.  I think Kristen Stewart is the perfect Bella.  Pattinson and Lautner are great too ( I <3 Edward/Rob), but Stewart is just in her element in the films, especially this one.  I also really liked the other characters brought to the fore.  Jasper figures in a lot in this installment and, as a big fan of Jackson Rathbone too, I was thrilled.  I also enjoyed the action sequences.  I really thought Eclipse was well made and I can't wait for the two part movie of Breaking Dawn!

This book qualifies for the following challenges (be sure to visit my challenge blog for more specific updates):

Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge
Hogwart's Reading Challenge
100+ Reading Challenge
New Author Challenge
2010 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge
Pages Read Challenge
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele
Countdown Challenge 2010
101 Fantasy Reading Challenge

ONE YEAR BLOGOVERSARY...OR IS IT BLOGIVERSARY? OH WELL...!!!

I'm late for everything else so why not my own blogoversary!

It was one year ago today that I started this blog! I met Ryan (Wordsmithonia) on Twitter and thanks to him (thank you Ryan!), I was introduced to the wonderful world of book blogging.  I had been unofficially blogging about books over on MySpace, but I had no idea that there existed this awesome community.  So glad I found out!

Some notable events in my first year of book blogging:

• My first book review:  The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy--Maya Slater
• The first of a week long event of posts for Banned Books Week started here
• Participated in my first read-a-thon:  Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon
• Hosted my first reading challenge, the Christmas Reading challenge
• Introduced my reading challenge, The Michener Challenge
• Created a challenge blog to keep track of all my reading challenges.
• Introduced my year-round Christmas blog, The Christmas Spirit.
• My first author interview with Frank Beddor, author of the Looking Glass Wars trilogy.
• My first participation in Ryan's (Wordsmithonia) Favorite Fictional Character meme--Jo March from Little Women (I have not done this one in awhile, but will be picking back up soon).
• My top ten of books read in 2009.
• Introduced my new feature, Addicted to the Past, with a post about Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (Another feature I've neglected which I will pick back up with soon).
• Took over the 101 Fantasy Reading Challenge from Bella at A Bibliophile's Bookshelf (who is now A Girl Reads a Book)
• Started a new weekly meme, Cat Thursday.
• Participated in Armchair BEA--here is my post about being true to myself in blogging.
• Put in my nominations for my blog in the Best Eclectic and Best Written blog for BBAW this year.  I did not make the long list, but it was an interesting experience and I look forward to this year's festivities.
• Introduced a new historical fiction blog, a joint venture with Marie from The Burton Review, the Historical Fiction Connection.

This has been such a wonderful first year of blogging! I love the book blogging community.  My fellow bloggers are some of the best people I have ever met! I also appreciate my followers so much (I passed 200 recently by the way...thank you!) for taking the time to stop by and for leaving such awesome comments.  A book blog is not only a deeply personal experience, but a huge social one as well.  I hope to be blogging for many years to come. =O)

And now, in honor of my blogoversary and my 200+ followers, I am hosting a giveaway!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

• Giveaway is open to USA only (I'm so sorry International followers, but my family is still in a bad financial rut!)
• This is a 6 book giveaway of gently used books and/or ARCs I have read and reviewed on this blog. 
• There will be 3 winners--1st place winner will win their choice of 3 books, 2nd place winner will win their choice of  2 books from the remaining three and 3rd place winner will win the 1 remaining book.
• You must leave a comment with your email address.
• You do not have to be a follower, but followers will get +1 bonus entry.
• Get another +1 bonus entry if you share on Twitter, Facebook OR your blog (sidebar is fine).  (Only one bonus entry will be given)
• This giveaway will end on August 31, 2010 @ 11:59 pm.  I will draw the 1st place winner on September 1st and notify the winner so they can make their choices.  Then I will go on to the 2nd place winner and third place winners in the same manner.  I will announce the winners here on September 1st.

THE GOODIES:

(Click the book title to read my review)

ARC of Winter's End by Jean-Claude Mourlevat

ARC of 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs

Fragile by Chris Katsaropoulos

ARC of The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen

Cardboard by Fiona Place

Hush by Kate White

Good luck! I would like to thank you again for being my followers (or if you're just stopping by for the first time) and celebrating my blog's 1st birthday!

Cat Thursday

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (Join us...share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

This week I'm sharing another beautiful painting by artist Lesley Anne Ivory.  Gorgeous!

So...what do you think?

Yes, I realize that I STILL have three reviews to write, but I am in a major writing rut! I am procrastinating, which is often my want...so I decided to make myself a new header.  Now I realize that many people do not like a very large header (I'm not one of them), but when I made it smaller, it looked ridiculous.  So I got rid of the page buttons to reduce the clutter--because I did not want to get rid of my slideshow that everyone loves--and went back to just using the words.  Personally, I'm pleased with the header.  It still has my signature pic in the middle, albeit a little cropped, plus some favorite historical figures, some favorite art and some cats, of course! Look who is at the top...my favorite, Queen Elizabeth I, with her parents. =O)

I promise that I will have the following reviews written by Thursday, at the latest:

"Read the book, see the movie" review of Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Angel Star by Jennifer Murgia
Virgin and the Crab by Robert Parry (and I have a wonderful guest post from Mr. Parry as well!)

Let me know what you think of the redesign!

48 Hour Read-a-Thon--Wrap Up Post

Well, I didn't read as much as I had planned, but I did finish Virgin and the Crab by Robert Parry.  Wow, what a book! I loved it...which is why I didn't give up on it, but it was a pretty difficult read.  Look for my review in the next couple of days.  After finishing the Robert Parry book, I started Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney.  I got to page 100.  I'm really enjoying this one and I can tell it's going to be a fast read for me. 

So...I'm pleased with myself.  Although I didn't read as much as I had planned, I do feel a certain sense of accomplishment.  I would like to thank Wallace at Unputdownables again for hosting such an awesome read-a-thon. 

Next up is the Read Your Own Books Read-a-Thon hosted by Monica at The Bibliophilic Book Blog from August 13-16.  Will you be joining me on this one?  I hope so!